Autumn Visitations

   This past Saturday I visited Kinkak-Ji—the Golden Pavilion for the first time.  I had wanted to visit Kinkaku-Ji since the beginning of the semester, but waited for this time of year so as to see the koyo—autumn leaves change colors.  The Kyoto area has numerous famous sites in which to see the koyo and because of its immense popularity, there are many resources to help visitors choose where to visit based upon the best possible time and color change of the leaves.  At the train station there were posters that indicated the sites that were almost ready, actively viewable, and no longer viewable—in terms of the autumn colors.  Luckily enough, the trees surrounding Kinkaku-Ji were at the peak of their transformation and provided a complimentary beauty to the temple.  Having never been to Kinkaku-Ji prior to Saturday’s excursion, I had only briefly studied and read a bit of literature about the temple.  Seeing it first hand was a great experience because it helped me to piece together the information I had previously learned with the visual aspect of visiting the temple.

   We arrived at the temple at what seemed to be the prime time for visitors during the day.  There was such a large number of people that there was a guard stationed at the entrance to facilitate the flow of people that were passing by for a view of the temple from across the water.  The weather was perfect and the sun was shining enough to make you squint when gazing at the Golden Temple itself.  I wanted to get a few good photos of the temple, but had to jockey my way through the masses of other people who likewise wanted to take pictures.  It was really amusing to me that nearly everyone young and old had some type of camera, whether an actual camera or mobile phone camera.  The availability of technology such as cameras is so widely spread that anyone can now use visual media as a means to catalogue their lives.  While taking photos more often then not, I found that in trying to simply take a photo of the temple or trees, I inadvertently took a photos of other people taking photos. 

   As we walked away from the lake and the area surrounding the temple, we came to a small pavilion that had coins of all sorts stuck on its thatched roof and the in the small stream that passed beneath it.  The purpose of the pavilion is to throw a coin onto the roof and if it does not fall off, it entails that you will have good luck.  Being in the spirit of the moment I threw several coins of various value onto the roof before finally succeeding in lodging one on top.  There were several of these types of things there, but the pavilion was the first and only one I tried.  As we neared the exit to return to the main entrance, I noticed the food and gift venders; one in particular caught my eye—sake with gold flakes. 

   I have had the opportunity many times to witness the leaves change color in the fall season before coming to Japan, but it was refreshing to see the degree of acknowledgement and the festive attitude that people in Japan give the koyo.  

The Art Around Us

   This past week was Kansai Gaidai University’s annual cultural festival “Gaidai-sai” in which the students participated in various fundraising campaigns for their respective clubs and had the opportunity to showcase their talents through a wide variety of activities.  While the Japanese students got the majority of the week off, the international students only got Wednesday as a holiday.  Nevertheless I was appreciative and decided to venture into Shinsaibashi with some friends on our day off.  

While there, I enjoyed simply walking around and looking at the variety of visual stimuli that can at times be overwhelming.  In such a dense area, it is easy to overlook many interesting things, but as I was walking down one of countless small side roads, I glanced across the street and saw a rather large piece of art on the wall next to a small café—it was an enlarged stylized image of a man’s face that stared back at me. 

Upon further investigation I noticed that on the left cheek was a series of sign language characters.  This greatly intrigued me and I decided to take a few photos.  I was interested to know what the characters were, but was disappointed when I could not find a sign language alphabet that had all of the present characters. 

   The image itself is in appearance simple and looks cool, but because the only description present is in a form of sign language I am not able to fully understand the reason or meaning behind the image itself.  For all I know it could be simply an advertisement for something or have a more significant meaning. This made me feel in a small way slightly illiterate; having no prior experience in sign language, I felt that in only being able view the image I was missing something.  The image itself had served its purpose in drawing my attention, but without being able to comprehend the message, it left me feeling slightly puzzled.  After seeing this image it made me realize that in this case, the description (sign language) is just as important as the image itself—in order to take any meaning from it, one must both view the image as well as the description.

   On Saturday I went to the Gaidai-sai festivities and had a fun time just wondering through eating the student-made food and watching the various performances, but the most interesting exhibition was the graffiti murals across from the shokudo. 

I enjoyed watching the student artists progressively work piece by piece to finish their murals.  While at the festival, I made it a point to periodically return to the area to check on the progress—each time I did so, the art took on a more defined shape.  It was a good idea not only to showcase the artwork, but also to have the artists actively work on their pieces for the benefit of the viewing audience.  By doing so the art becomes more tangible in that the viewer is able to witness the process and the intricate steps it takes to develop the finished product.  Because I have an interest in that particular genre of art, I really appreciated being able to watch the artist’s methods and techniques as they worked.