I'm not talkin pyrite.

(<--this photo was taken the last day in Kyoto, for more keep reading, slacker)

I know it's been a while. I've been swamped with work at school and after school. Who knew that actually caring about these lesson plans, english clubs and english camps would make my life so busy. I wish I was one of those people who could whip something brilliant up in a matter of minutes, but unfortunately I am anal and spend a long time trying to organize it just right (for my own sake as much as the students) and end up being too busy to notice if I'm actually pulling it off. Most of the time, I don't think I'm cut out for this. Or at least too undereducated to be writing a curriculum. Anyway...it's been a while since I posted and I thought I might as well write a post about Golden Week while I had the time.

Why is the week between April 29 and May 5th called Golden Week? Showa Day, Constitution Day, Green Day and Children's Day are all National Holidays and happen within that week. Do they sound made up? Yes. On Green Day I had a strong urge to listen to "Basket Case" all frekkin day.

Let's begin with the accidental crashing of a Japanese motorcycle rally. Hogs-a-blazing, leather-wearing, and music blaring. It was a great time. Leif played his guitar tenderly to a crowd of some of the nicest motorcycle fanatics I have ever met. We weren't supposed to be there the first night, but they fed us with meat and beer, and awed us with stories of the generosity of biker gangs in the states. We even met some manic Americans with Vietnam War stories and two beautiful Harley Davidson bikes. Sometimes the world can seem like an awful but fascinating and gentle place all at the same time.

Driving to and from Mt. Sanbe to this rally was really pretty. It was just before "Children's Day" a holiday to praise (or I suppose, encourage) the children of Japan. To celebrate, Japanese hang long koi (Japanese carp) kites over rivers and streams. Koi swim upstream and are considered brave and hardworking. They put koi over water for Children's Day because they want their children to be strong and hardworking like the carp. I think that's amazing. Driving around the rural area where Lena and Leif live, we passed so many carp and newly sprouting rice fields that looked like large panes of layered glass. (for good photos of the rice fields, check out Ken's blog)

So that was the first half of my Golden Week. There were two days between the first long weekend and the second long weekend that I went to work. Do I remember those two days of work? Not really. I'm pretty sure I taught some classes and corrected a few journals, I taught "I doubt it" (aka "bullshit") to my ESS members with a crispy new deck of cards and took a fun walk down by Gotsu's harbor.

The second half of Golden Week I spent with Marie, Laura and Marie, all ALTs in Matsue and from the direction of the UK and Ireland (Northern Ireland's politics are lost to me so I'll keep it vague). We headed to Kyoto from Matsue more or less together- we celebrated Marie's Birthday the night before and the morning we left she woke up and got ready for school rather than to catch a train...she caught up with us later- stayed in a very comfortable hostel and spent a lot of time around the train station. Kyoto train station is just plain sexy. That's the only way I can describe the architecture and girth of it all.

We didn't spend ALL our time at the train station, we saw many temples and shrines. We saw a gorgeous zen garden, with well-labelled "Very Important Moss" and people mooing in crowds trying to catch a peek. We hiked to a few scenic and very surprising views of Kyoto. Who knew it was THAT big? We spent the last day in the pouring rain climbing steep steps to see a very large pagoda at Kiyomizu dera. Before that we saw over 1,000 statues of Buddha in the Rengeoin temple alongside several stone likenesses of Hindu/Buddhist gods, the line between those two religions is still hazy to me, as well as Shintoism, maybe one of these days I'll look it up or ask someone smarter than me. (Those of you who once worked for Ken Wilbur: wanna help me out on that one?) We were told that there were 1001 statues of Buddha in the temple, Marie said she counted only 999. However, it was a stunning and quieting place to be.

Gion did not disappoint either. The matchstick blinds were rolled down on the second floor windows of tea houses, bamboo vases held single flowers on the sliding doors of restaurants, and vacant alleyways were lit as if by old lanterns. The image that I had remembered like a fairy tale after reading Memoirs of a Geisha was better in its reality. Alongside the ethereal shrines and cozy nooks of Gion there stood the red light district of Kyoto: Awkward English names for strip clubs and strange drunk men telling me I couldn't take photos of a hallway.
The most notable attraction was the four gaijin girls dressed as Maiko. After a 3 hour dress, make-up and photo shoot they walked for about 20 minutes through crowds of tourists squealing and taking photos with their phones. Hilarious. Yes, that was us. Hard to imagine eh?Our evenings were spent out of doors, singing karaoke, bar hopping or card playing. It was loads of fun and I took way too many photos that are all available for viewing on my flickr page.

Tomorrow I head to Kobe. I am going there for a conference Mon-Wed, but getting an early start for a little R&R and a baseball game.
Should be swell. More later. Love to all. Short sentence.