Kyoto to Nara
Tue 6 Sep 2011 by mskala Tags used: travelI'm writing this from the 12th Meeting on Mathematics of Language, on the morning of September 7. Wireless bandwidth is poor here, and there are only 8 IP addresses shared between me and all other delegates, so I am writing offline and then uploading so as to tie up one of those addresses for as short a time as possible.
Last entry ended a bit suddenly because I hadn't been paying close attention to the time, and so I was surprised by the shinkansen's arrival in Kyoto. I thought I made the connection to the train from there to Nara pretty well, but it turned out that the train I was on, although it was the Nara line, did not actually go as far as Nara. It went out of service at Jouyou. So I had to wait there for the next train, which would take me the rest of the way. At least waiting at the station gave me the chance to take a few more photos of infrastructure.
At Nara station, I was greeting by this improbable figure.
At a glance, it seems to be a Buddhist/Wiccan syncretic deity, the Horned Buddha.
As I've subsequently found out, it is actually an "official mascot character" for the 1300th anniversary of Nara, named Sento-kun. Sento-kun is supposed to be a personification of the nature energy of Nara and its famous Buddhist temple. So, in other words, he actually is pretty much a Buddhist/Wiccan syncretic deity.
There are just a few remaining photos in the September 5 gallery, and they were taken at the Hotel Sunroute Nara, where I'm staying. It was easy to find from the railway station - I had no trouble following the route I'd planned in Google Street View. This hotel is much as I expected of a Japanese hotel, complete with the very small room and the "hand in your room key at the front desk when you go out" procedure. That last is a little worrying because they don't seem to do anything to verify my identity when I come back and ask for the key in the evening. Asking for my ID would be rude, I think is the theory... but it means any white man could wander into my room just by knowing its number.
The hotel toilet has a bidet attachment like the one in Shinjuku, but with much less interesting icons on the control buttons. Last photo from Monday is of a grape beverage purchased in the Jouyou station. It has blobs in it.
hotel religious literature, just like in Hawaii
View outside Sunroute Nara window, note photovoltaics
half of room at Hotel Sunroute Nara
other half of room
grape glob beverage
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