January 05. 2004 22:51

A little more sightseeing

My heater is dying. And that, I tell you, is not a good thing. Today was damn cold (my hand were freezing all day!) and the heater is the only thing that keeps my room temperature over 15 degrees... Well, besides the kotatsu, but you need to be under the blanket to get any warmth out of the kotatsu ^_^;; But my heater, it's been making weird noises for a while now. It first blows normally, then after a while it stops, then it makes the kind of noise like someone would be dragging a huge, heavy box on the street outside, and then it stops again and in a while starts to blow normally again. Just now, when I tried to put it on, it made a couple of coughing noises and then nothing happened. I tried pressing some other buttons and switching it off and on again and now, after I waited a while, it agreed to blow some air out of itself. But if it decides to stop for good before I leave, it's gonna be a problem...

Things I forgot to write yesterday: I took a new fortune cookie from my Inu-Yasha jar for the new year and it said "Move for people's sake and your reputation will become good" (badly translated, but understandable). And, I haven't sent a single package of my stuff home yet, and they will have to wait until I get that money transfer from home, because right now I don't have the money to send anything. But, to tell you the truth, it doesn't matter, I don't really care, because everything that I really need when I get home I can carry in my suitcase. I can wait for a month for the other stuff to arrive.

Today there was a festival thing at Kamigamo shrine, part of the final festivities of the new year's holidays. Yeah, the Japanese new year lasts for 5 days. During the first three almost everything is closed, from banks to convenience stores to any other store that might want to have a break. The 24 hours convenience stores like Circle K and Lawson are still open, all the time, and the subway and other transportation run (though some of them on holiday schedule). And some places where you an relax or spend time during the holiday (like hotels and some restaurants and places like that) are open, too, but of that I can't say anything too definite because I didn't "research" any places like that. On the 4th and 5th most places open again, but some keep even those days as a holiday.

Among the places that were still closed was our school, so I couldn't go have lunch there like I planned. I had also planned to go to the library to do some work there before the Kamigamo shrine festival, but since I couldn't do that, I had 3 hours extra to waste. I had taken some paper with me so I could write that letter I mentioned yesterday and I also had the Harry Potter doujinshi with me so I could translate it if I got bored, so I thought I'd find some cafe and do those while I waited. I started riding my bike towards Kamigamo and stopped to get some food at a Circle K on the way. (Where, again, people looked at me like I was mad when I ate it outside in front of the store.) When I got back on the road again I noticed a road sign showing the way to Kinkakuji, so on a whim I decided to go see that in the meantime, since that was one of the places that were on my "do before leaving" list ^_^

Kinkakuji was, like the name Golden Pavillion says, very golden. Looked pretty nice, but that was kinda all there was to it ^_^;; The place was pretty small so there was not much garden or grounds to stroll in, so I got through it in something like half an hour. Then I window-shopped the souvenir stores, trying to find more things I could take to my friends and family back home, but there was nothing good there. After that I followed the original plan, found a cafe to sit in and translated a few lines more of the doujinshi. Or it was actually a restaurant, but I only had a cake and a soda. The place was pretty nice, by the way, it had good-looking italian food and drink re-fills were free. I hoped I had not eaten before because this seemed like a good place to eat ^_^ Maybe I'll get to go there again later on, before I leave.

Then I got going again and went to Kamigamo shrine. That shrine is so pretty, I must say ^_^ The festival turned out to be something that was held for a group of rich/famous people more than the "common" folk and tourists, who were grouped in a corner behind a rope, where we couldn't see half of what was going on. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have a festival meant for the rich and the famous, it's all right and just for them to have some parties of their own, but I was again a bit surprised because the Visitor's Guide didn't mention anything about the nature of the festival. Well, I was not disappointed, I was glad to see the shrine again and the music at the festival was very pleasant. (In fact, I've been wondering where I could find a CD with ancient Japanese music. I'd love one.) And there was a big fire outside the front torii gate, so after the festival ended I (and several other people) stood there and warmed up for some time ^_^ I love open fire, it's beautiful and warm. I love bonfires and I want to have a fireplace in my house ^_^ (Well, I can do without, but it would be very nice.) Then I got home.

I was here thinking, by the way, that I really need a rich old man to be my patron, someone who would have a big, nice house where he'd like to invite me in and who'd love to dress me up in fancy clothes :D Hehe, that'd fulfill all my dreams of a romantic environment to live in. An old-fashioned mansion with a big garden and a lake, and a lot of pretty gosurori clothes and large dresses, and fancy restaurant dinners and balls and parties ;P I'm so spoiled, haha. But that's one big dream I have ^_^ (I need to make a dream world of my own where I can write stories that have all the things I love... I've started on it already ^_^)

And on a completely different matter, but on the other hand the exact same, I really want to decorate a house traditional Japanese style. Bamboo curtains like in a shrine and calligraphy scrolls and water. But for it to look good, it'd have to be a wooden house, preferably a summer cabin or something like that... Or maybe I could do a decent job on an attic room. Waah, if I want to realize all the decorating ideas I have, it's gonna take a while to find a perfect house :( (I hope I'll just get very lucky! Maybe I should've bought one of those wish dolls for that.)

...

I just had a revelation: since my hair is short and doesn't need much drying, a small towel is perfect for carrying around, for eg. swimming trips! Why have I never thought of this before? The Japanese are smarter than me. Why should a carry a big towel in a heavy bag for all day, all I have to take with me is a small hand towel and I'll be okay! Small and light, easy to carry around, takes away much of the inconvenience of carrying all the stuff I need when I go swimming after school ^___^ Wow, the smallest things make such a great difference. Of course there are other uses for a big towel, like warming up and wearing it as "temporary clothing", but just for a swimming hobby I don't really need that. Yay, my life just got a bit easier :D