day 11...

...was the so-called big day for me in kyoto...we finally get to see kinkakuji!

after a quick breakfast, we made a beeline for the kinkakuji complex by bus...after a 30 minute bus ride (courtesy of numerous stops), we eventually got there and true to expectations, the golden pavilion was an utterly gorgeous sight...it's almost impossible to take a lousy shot of it, such was its brilliance...the grounds themselves were full of other sights but they paled in comparison...i was literally transfixed...

after a stop for lunch at tempura restaurant just off gion (which by the way, featured some great food), we then went to kiyomizu-dera...only the biggest and most visited temple complex in kyoto...this one was totally crowded as we reached there pretty much in the middle of the day when the crush of tourists was at its peak...nevertheless, really enjoyed visiting this place...

the rest of the late evening and night was spent mucking around in gion AGAIN...shopping lah (including the window kind)...

we'd walked so much this day that i couldn't feel my toes at the end of the night

1. lil @ breakie
2. at the entrance to the kinkakuji grounds
3. on the way in to kinkakuji
4. finally! the golden pavilion
5. up close and personal
6. little waterfall on the grounds
7. stone sentinel
8. brilliant fall colour
9. on the way out of kinkakuji
10. lunchtime - another look at the yasaka-jinja
11. these 2 kids were so obliging...but stupid me forgot to change my camera settings back to colour...d'oh! missed out the colours of their outfits...
12. serenity...cliched for sure, but oh sooooo zen
13. negotiating the hordes of kiyo visitors
14. leonine guardians
15. attracts all kinds...even the young and hip
16. overhanging eaves
17. kiyo board perspective
    
18. adorable little tot
19. taken thru 2 stone lanterns
20. garden and pond within kiyo...so still...
21. kiyo background
22. ladies in gion...such nice kimonos...

in the spirit of the upcoming christmas hols...

.....herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeee's achmed!!!

carolling, no less

achmed says...

....i keeeeeeeeeel you!

jeff dunham, you're a right riot!!!

read more about jeff HERE.

i'm listening to...

...Radiohead's HIGH AND DRY...their best song ever IMHO...poignant song full of longing...simply fabulous!




Radiohead Lyrics
High And Dry Lyrics

oh really? was that why he was...

...such a bastard? then again, this report is off THE SUN UK...and they're not exactly well-known for their journalistic integrity...

Hitler 'really did have one ball'

A German army medic reportedly confirmed the truth to the British war time song - Hitler did have only one ball.

War veteran Johan Jambor made the revelation to a priest in the 1960s, who wrote it down, according to The Sun. He tells how he saved a wounded Hitler during the First World War - and says he had lost a testicle. The priest's document has now come to light - 23 years after Johan's death.

The tyrant was mocked for years in a British song which claimed: "Hitler has only got one ball, the other is in the Albert Hall. His mother, the dirty bugger, cut it off when he was small."

Jambor died aged 94 in 1985, but had told his secret to priest Franciszek Pawlar, who kept a note of their conversation. Johan's friend Blassius Hanczuch confirmed the priest's account of how the medic saved Hitler's life. He said: "In 1916 they had their hardest fight in the Battle of the Somme.

"For several hours, Johan and his friends picked up injured soldiers. He remembers Hitler. They called him the 'Screamer'. He was very noisy. Hitler was screaming 'help, help'. His abdomen and legs were all in blood. Hitler was injured in the abdomen and lost one testicle. His first question to the doctor was: 'Will I be able to have children?'."

Blassius said that when the Nazis swept to power Johan began to suffer nightmares and blame himself for saving Hitler.

david tay, please take note!!!

you could end up like him, okay!

Boy rushed to hospital with Playstation addiction

Italian medics diagnosed a 13-year-old boy with Playstation addiction after his desperate father rushed him to hospital.

At first doctors at southern Italy's Lecce hospital thought Lorenzo Amato was suffering from a stroke or a severe brain disorder. The teenager couldn't speak and didn't seem to understand anything going on around him. Then doctors discovered he'd just finished a marathon session on his new Playstation.

Local politician Antonio Buccoliero, who spoke to the doctors, said: "They eventually managed to take care of him once they understood that this was a strange kind of mental detachment connected to his Playstation."

The youngster later ordered his dad to throw away the computer games system. "If I even think about it I want to throw up," he said.

but why???

this is just too damn strange...he can't even give a reason why he's doing that...go figger...

is he a crazy tom hanks fan???

Man makes airport terminal his home

A Japanese tourist liked Mexico City airport so much when he arrived that he's still there - after three months. Hiroshi Nohara decided to make Terminal 1 of the Benito Juarez International Airport his new home, reports the Daily Mail.

He has been surviving off donations from fast-food restaurants and passengers and leading a life similar to the Tom Hanks character in 2004 film The Terminal. And he has become something of a celebrity, with nearly daily television news reports on life at the food court. Tourists stop to pose with him for photographs or get an autograph.

Mr Nohara, from Tokyo, flew into Mexico with a tourist visa and a return ticket home, but he never left the airport. He said he had no motive for his extended stay and doesn't know how much longer he'll remain. "I don't understand why I'm here," he said through a visiting interpreter originally hired by a television station. "I don't have a reason. My life is The Terminal 2."

During his stay, Mr Nohara's wiry goatee has grown into a scraggly mass. His red-tinted hair is speckled with dust and dandruff, and his cream-colored jacket and fleece blanket are dingy with overuse.

"He's a calm person, a nice man," said Silvia Navarrete del Toro, an airport janitor. "He just sits here and eats all day."

Authorities say there is nothing they can do to force Mr Nohara to leave before his tourist visa runs out in March.

perishable art, i s'pose...

all the same, it's pretty cool, i must say...

Veggie masterpieces

A Chinese artist is making her own versions of some of the world's greatest paintings - out of vegetables. Ju Duoqi, 35, is currently showing an exhibition of her "Vegetable Museum" paintings in Beijing.

They include a version of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa composed of tofu and sea kelp, reports the People's Daily. Other famous works given the veggie treatment include da Vinci's The Last Supper, Picasso’s The Dream, and Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe.

Ju said her aim was to encourage people to see everyday objects in a different way. "I want to give new life to these unnoticeable vegetables, and let them not be bound by what they are anymore," she said. "Ordinary things can be classic and outstanding. People often overlook them because of their cheapness, unimportance, and temporary nature."

they better have a defibrillator ready...

...when they consummate their marriage

Britain's oldest newly-weds

A Devon couple with a combined age of 179 have become Britain's oldest newlyweds. John Dawkins, 89, and his bride Penny Cooper, 90, wed nine months after she took advantage of a Leap Year and proposed to him, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The wartime navy veterans have become the most senior sweethearts in the country to exchange vows, according to Statistics Authority records.

Mr Dawkins, of Exmouth, said: "It is a wonderful thing to love. It gives me a great amount of pleasure to be with her. Without a shadow of a doubt, I would have been a very grumpy old man if I had not met Penny."

The couple, who fell in love after meeting nine years ago, are now settling into happily married life. Mr and Mrs Dawkins were married at Honiton Register Office, Devon, and the service was attended by their family of four children, five grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. It was their joint navy background which finally brought them together at a charity social event in Exeter in 1999.

Mr Dawkins was urged by his friends to strike up a friendship with his new wife but says he didn't need much encouragement. He said: "She was the most beautiful young lady in the room."

day 10

...was the day when we hit the road from Tokyo to Kyoto.

caught the Hikari Super Express at 10.40am from Shinagawa station...the train arrived on the dot and likewise departed just as on time...it was the first time that i'd been on the Shinkansen bullet train and i was agog with anticipation and excitement. the train took a little over 2 hours 20 mins to cover the 600 some kilometers to kyoto with several short shorts in between...it was soooo fast and comfy!

we spent the rest of the day mucking around the absolutely humoungous Kyoto station and walking around in Gion...

1. waiting for the Hikari
2. 7 minutes from Tokyo station to Shinagawa station...right on the dot!
3. on the shinkansen
4. lunch at Ten-ichi (tempura restaurant)
5. kyoto-style ten-don...a bit different to the usual...still fab!
6. us @ lunch
7. the bowels of the cavernous kyoto station (something like a total of 20 stories in height with loads of department stores, eateries, shops blah blah)...HUGE!
   
8. from the top of the 15th floor atrium
9. motion and stillness
10. setting sun
11. kyoto tower at dusk
12. yasaka-jinja shinto shrine...it guards the gion end of karasuma-dori
13. slow exposure
14. nicely-lit...some kind of association/clan building
15. the lights of gion by the river

today is...

...World AIDS Day...spare a thought...

more than 25 million dead, another 33 million or so living with HIV...and moreover the numbers are getting ever larger...in spite of the advances in the medical field, we are no closer to wiping out this pandemic...

the official site HERE.