Sadly (for me) I’m back from the holidays. For those of you who wondered why the updates on Japan stopped: when I got back to Tokyo I didn’t have an Internet connection, so I had no means to update. The whole holiday was a blast, though, and we’re considering getting back in two years.
Aside from that, work has picked up a really fast pace immediately (why on Earth journals don’t accept LaTeX-produced PDFs?) and I expect a round of meetings and planning to start soon to plan the next three months. I had a poster accepted at the ECCB 2008 conference, but the steep fees (1200 euro for flight, registration and lodging) made me reconsider. Better luck next time, I guess.
On other fronts, I read that FFXI can run on WINE now. I’ll be sure to try it once I finish preparing my new PC (I’ll write about it soon).
That’s all for now.
Today we went to Nar, site of the first capital of Japan, especially to see the Todaiji Temple, designated as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. We used an express train to get to Nara and then a bus to get to the Todaiji itself (actually it’s a quick walk, I just didn’t know the distance was so short). The temple lies inside the Nara-koen, or Nara park, which is famous for its 1200 tame sacred deers.
There are lots of them. Everywhere. Literally. As they’re tame, they approach people and aren’t really scared (save for the younger ones). You’ll see some photos of them in the gallery. After that, I got to see the Daibutsu (BIG BUDDHA, for NRK). It’s a huge statue of the Buddha, in bronze and gold. Along with that, we paid a visit to the Nara Museum (1200 yen - ick) to see an exhibition on the thirty-three shrine pilgrimage in Japan. Nice exhibits, just a little short for the price.
The afternoon was spent looking for electronics at the BIC CAMERA store near the Kyoto station. Tomorrow we’re back to Tokyo - last two days of shopping before going back to Italy. The gallery has been updated, as usual.
It’s been a hot day here in Kyoto. And I don’t mean lame second meanings, just that the temperature was really over the top. As a consequence, we changed our plans: we were supposed to visit the so-called “path of the philosophy” but instead we set for Nijo Castle. Nijo Castle was the Kyoto residence of Ieyasu Tokugawa (I suspect to tell the emperor who was the real person in power) and it can be visited. The palace and its surroundings are truly magnificient.
After that we stopped for lunch in the Kyoto Station, a rather controversial piece of architecture built in the ninieties of the last century. I can say it’s huge, and filled with stores and even a hotel(!).
In the afternoon, we went gain for shopping, targeting the local Animate, Gamers, and Melon Books stores. My brother snatched up a non-H, FFXI-related dojinshi from Melonbooks, and I grabbed a limited edition of Aquaplus’s latest PS3 title, Tears to Tiara (photos coming up tomorrow). Tomorrow, we’ll be (weather permitting) heading for Nara to view the Todaiji Temple. That will be our last day in the Kansai region, as the day after that we’ll return to Tokyo via shinkansen. New photos have been uploaded to the gallery, of course.
By the way, I managed to view Slayers Revolution last night on TV Tokyo, and here is the obligatory photo:
I was too tired to write an entry yesterday, so I’ll just sum things up here. Yesterday we went to Nikko, home of the Rinnoji Temple, the Toshogu Shrine and the Futarasan Shrine. We decided to visit it to see the tomb of Ieyasu Tokugawa. We took the Tobu Railways SPACIA train to Nikko then used a special pass I had bought beforehand online (the World Heritage Pass) to see the places. Nice nature and architecture, and I saw three large statues of Buddha (three BIG BUDDHA, right NRK?) in the Rinnoji temple. The Toshogu shrine was also magnificient, although the famous Nemuri-neko (sleeping cat) was extremely small, almost unnoticeable. Rain caught us in the afternoon so we went back to Tokyo.
Today instead we transferred by Shinkansen to Kyoto (very fast trip) and settled in the new hotel here (definitely larger, although I have to access the net from a lobby). Tomorrow we’ll go for some sightseeing in the morning and shopping in the afternoon (Gamers and Melon Books have branches here, near the hotel even).
New photos have been put up in the gallery.
