new obi

I bought new kimono belt, obi and bow, obijime. so exciting!

The belt is made using the fabric which is used for western clothes. The outside is black and feels like velvet, and inside is small blue flower pattern. Bow is checkered in orange and green, my favorite color mix.

There've been more and more stores which sell new style kimono these days.

When am I going to wear this? can't wait!!!

palace lunch

I went to one of the best bakery in Kyoto, Le Petit Mec to get Sunday branch. The store was full of customers. Since they're too busy, they open the store only on weekend now.

head to palace with the bread. Trees were changing their colors to red and yellow, so beautiful.

I remembered once my friend took me to the part of the palace where we could see bunch of ginko trees and carpet of yellow leaves, then went to look for it. Was I dreaming? Where was it?? couldn't find it..

out of kyoto

This is taken in Kanazawa a 4 hour drive north from Kyoto. It looks like its in Gion, Kyoto but its not. The houses are larger and have a different style than Kyoto.

Kanazawa is called as "small Kyoto" It does look alike. you can still see those old neighborhood and they have rivers just like Kamo river. but if you see them carefully, they have their own style and different.

kimono

November. It's fall now, but feels like winter is coming already. I always think Kyoto is the worst place to live in. Summer is damn hot and humid, however it gets incredibly cold in winter. Spring and fall are so short. But that makes us appreciate those nice seasons more.

Anyways, I dressed in kimono since summer is gone. It had been about 4 months since I wore last time, then turned out I kinda forgot how to wear kimono.

When you wear kimono, the left skirt always comes outer like men's jacket. But when I was done wearing, my friend started laughing at me. Yes, I made my right skirt out, in which way we dress dead people.

great season for kimono now. I should wear more often!

corona

Those sandwiches are from the tiny restaurant called "Corona" run by an old man in the heart of Kyoto.

I had been wanting to go here since I knew about these sandwiches from a magazine more than 10 years ago. However the reason why it took me so long to get there is that it's on a narrow back street and hard to find, closed on Mon and Tue and open from 5 to 9pm only.

They tasted great and enjoyed the atmosphere and watching the old man cooking. I'll come back again. Gochiso-sama!

Nara

I went to Nara today. It takes 52 min from Kyoto to get there.

Nara is famous as one of the oldest city in Japan, and also deer capitol. They are everywhere around Nara park.

In the picture on the left, you see the sign "deer snack 150yen" and the deer next to the stand waiting for the food.

The picture on the right is the wooden deer holding the written oracle in his mouth. Cute, huh?

hot pot restaurant

Isn't this shop curtain cute!!??

This is the entrance of the restaurant that I went to last night, to eat innards hot pot. gross??

It wasn't that common to eat innards in Japan, however it once became very hot to have innards hot pot "motsu-nabe" about 15 years ago because of the healthiness. Since then some people eat those.

I love them. It has less calorie and cholesterol and more vitamine compared to meat, I believe. There're so many kinds, like large intestine, small intestine, stomach, heart, tongue, liber and so forth. Some is chewy and other is sweet.

Anyways, the food here was good and I fell in love with this curtain.

Sep 29th 18:10

When I got out of the building after work at 18:10, the sun was already gone under the ground. I love the gradation color of the sky around the sunset.

It seems like a little while ago when the sun had been up till 8. Daytime gets shorter and shorter and winter comes soon..

In Kyoto, the greatest time of the year, spring and autumn don't stay long and the hell of summer and winter comes all of a sudden before we fully enjoy the nice seasons.

I better go BBQ picnic now before it gets cold.

panty hose

I started a new job from today, working in office, so called as OL "office lady" in Japan.

This is my first time to be OL, then I don't know what to wear. The boss told me "business casual would be good" so, what is business casual, boss??

I was observing how the ladies are dressed in the office today. They wear in OL style.. dark color plain skirt, nice pants, nice shirts, nice sweater, nice plain shoes. No jeans, no T-shirt, no sandals, which I usually wear. I'm in trouble.

Also you're not supposed to wear shoes without socks. so what do you wear? That's it. I'm wearing panty hose, which is the best I can do so far to be OL now.

Is this OL dress code only in Japan??

autumn is here

The 23rd of Sep is Autumn Day in Japan, which means it is officially autumn now. The picture is taken from the top roof observatory of Umeda sky building in Osaka.

I had a Dutch family use Sputnik Kyoto's service this week.

They told me they enjoyed their stay and the hosts also told me that they enjoyed having the family, which made me sure that my idea was right. I learned a lot from them this time.

However, there're still lots of things I have to clear up. The biggest issue so far is to find hosts in Kyoto. Generally Kyoto people are very closed and not opened to strangers. I have to work on this harder...

fusuma2

I finally finished my fusuma!!

I always don't like what I make, and same for this.. anyways looks better than what it was. cleaner at least.

fusuma1

I'm redecorating fusuma, Japanese sliding paper door.

It had been very dirty with lots of stains. It's time to put a new paper on.

I had been looking for cool fusuma paper for the doors by visiting stores and checking on internet, however it turned out so hard to find one I like.

Karacho, which is a famous workshop of wood-block printed paper had such a gracious collection, but it was out of my budget. Now I decided to make my own.

I put brown craft paper on first. This paper is not the special for fusuma, so it made lots of wrinkles after I pasted, which makes it look kinda cool.

This is still the basis. I'm gonna keep working on it tomorrow.

finally the autumn is here..?

it's been so long since we had this great weather in kyoto last time. sun shining in the clear blue sky and cool breeze.. what a beautiful day.

I wish the summer is over now and this weather goes on..

election

Japanese held its election yesterday with a big win for Prime Minister Koizumi. His victory for the Liberal Democratic Party means that his proposal to privatize the Post Office System will probably continue without disruption. On a postive note, voter turn-out was higher than ever (67%) which inidicates that the Japanese are showing a growing interest in their civic electoral system. good job.

mixi everywhere

I've been hearing about "mixi" now so often.

it's called as "japanese community entertainment social networking site"... it's like a blog, but you gotta have a mempership even to take a look at the site, moreover you have to have an invitation to get the membership by somebody who already has one.

sounds like a bit of kyoto's famous system "ichigensan okotowari" at teahouse, meaning "first timer not accepted" you could not hope to gain admission until accompanied by a frequent visitor.

anyways, I was invited by one of my friends to mixi 6 months ago, however I had been not writing in it since I'm not good at writing. Now I hear people talking about mixi so often.

and I haven't realized that people like to write and express themselves that much. or maybe from other reasons?

blog from today

first blog.

I went to have yakitori, chicken BBQ last night near Kyoto university at "Saezuri" juicy chicken and more plus great service!! what a great staff. thank you, maa-san. I'll come back.

still hot in afternoon, but nice at night.