Ronin Livin': Kyoto and F1

Sorry for the long breaks between posts. Last Thursday I had a final, then a four day weekend (which I'll talk about later), then two more finals this week. Above are pics from this weekend. Later, I'll link you to pics from the previous weekend.

So Friday night I got on an overnight bus. It was a double decker. Right off the bat I knew it was a bad idea, but I had no choice. 7 or 8 hours later, I got off the bus and barely had gotten any sleep on the ride down. By the way, I took the bus to Kyoto, the former capital of Japan. Is was capital for almost 1000 years, until the late 19th century when they switched to Tokyo officially. Anyway, it's like the traditional culture capital of Japan, full of an endless array of temples, shrines and other buildings and artifacts left over from the past. It also helps that Kyoto was spared Allied bombing during World War II, unlike most big cities.

I'm not all to sure what the names of the places that we went to are, but that's irrelevant anyway. The first place was the giant garden/temple complex. Honestly, I've seen so many temples, shrines, etc. that they are starting to look the same. This one was really big though. I found out later that most things in Kyoto are really big since it was the old capital. The highlight was this famous rock garden. It's, um, a bunch of boulders interspersed in a combed gravel bed. It's a little under 500 years old I think. I took a few pics.

Next stop was this place called the Golden Pavilion. Oh, let me remind you that I got pics of all these places for you to look at if you care. Anyway, the Golden Pavilion is just that, a giant pavilion painted gold. Is was actually pretty impressive, very pretty as it was facing a large pond. There was also a lot of tourists. The place doubled as a Buddhist Temple too and was apparently a favorite spot of a few past Emperors. Oh, I guess I should mention that every temple, shrine, palace, etc. charges admission, which is annoying.

Next stop was a Shinto Shrine, I think. It can sometimes be difficult tell Shinto Shrines and Buddhist Temples apart superficially, but I'm getting better. It's strange how Japan was really into both Buddhism and Shintoism, and now no one is religious. Anyway. It was on a giant hillside over looking, well everything. I got some good pictures from the shrine. Someone here calls them God pictures. You'll see what I mean.

After that, I meandered with a few people through the streets of Kyoto. After being in 'modern' Tokyo all this time, it's a real change of pace to be surrounded by all these traditional buildings. But eventually, all the shrines and things lose there touch because there are just so many here. Highlights of my walk were 2 geisha that I saw (very elusive people, but I get so excited when I see them! And no, they are not prostitutes) and a gigantic Buddha that appeared out of nowhere on my walk. But nothing beats the Country Western concert I bumped into. I saw a few Japanese people sporting 10 gallon hats and there was a big 'ol American flag waving amongest all the festivities. God Bless America.

That night, I met up with some people and had Thai food. I have never eaten Thai food before, so I ordered something random. Those who know me well will be happy to know that I accidentally ordered this giant fish. I have no idea what it was. It was pretty much a large, flat fish that they through on a grill. It was covered in this spicy chili stuff. I was so bewildered when it came out. If you know me, you'll know that I'm a land dweller. I do not touch seafood. I can count the number of times I've attempted to eat fish on one hand. But this was my dinner that night and I needed something to eat, so I bit the bullet and dug in. It actually wasn't that bad. It wasn't as spicy as I wanted it to be, but I tolerated the fish for the most part.

Ok, I'm going to talk about F1 now. If you don't care about for it or motorsports, you should probably skip this part and go to where the paragraphs get smaller.

I am a fan of Formula 1, as some of you may know. I knew the Japanese Grand Prix was coming up, but I had made no plans to go because I had gone on this Kyoto Trip. Well, our guide told us that Sunday we had the option to do as we pleased. So when I woke up Sunday morning, I had this strange premonition to go and seek out the F1 race. So I walked down to the train station and got directions on how to get to the race. Mind you, I didn't really know where the race was in relation to where I was. So it was a hard choice to actually go when the first step of the directions said Shinkansen (bullet train). I really wanted to see the race for a few reasons (which I'll explain later), so I decided to do it. I hopped on the next bullet train and went to a city called Nagoya, 38 minutes away. The Shinkansen is an amazing thing. I was brought up surrounded by toy trains, so I've always had a fascination and respect for trains. The Shinkansen is the king of all trains. It's by far the fastest, the most state of the art and the busiest. You would think that it's a luxury to travel by bullet train. But when I stepped out on the train platform, my train was arriving in 5 minutes, another was coming 3 minutes after that and another a few minutes after that. These things are everywhere and it became apparent to me that they are an essential part of the functioning of Japan, as people are constantly taking these trains everywhere.

I got to Nagoya and had to transfer to a normal train. It was by far the most crowded train I've ever been on. It was absolute ridiculous. If it had derailed...I don't know what would've happened. Anyway, I got to the track fine. I got a ticket and walked around the track a bit, taking it all in. It's pretty exciting being at a race in person when all you do is watch it on TV. The atmosphere is something I can't describe, but it makes the drivers and the cars on the track seem other worldly, like they are some kind of divine beings. And the cars...they do more than just pull drivers around the track. They are works of art. The way the look and move on the track is so elegant and graceful, yet muscular and powerful. And the near deafening whine of the engines takes all these things and turns it into a sound. But like I said, it's something I can't describe, it's something you have to experience yourself. Or maybe it's just me and because I like F1, I create all this excitement in my head. Nevertheless I enjoyed myself and the more that 100,000 Japanese fans enjoyed themselves as well. The Japanese take F1 very seriously and are one of the biggest fans of F1. The Japanese teams of Honda and Toyota invest an amazing amount of money into F1 and are sometimes reputed as having the largest budgets. Toyota is reputed to spend 300 million dollars a year or more and has the largest budget. Honda has 2 teams (2 cars each), out of 11 teams that race. Toyota will have two teams next year as well. Unfortunately, both teams are mediocre, despite throwing unlimited amounts of cash into the sport. The technology of F1 is mind blowing to develop and it's cost is equally amazing, contributing to many of the problems the sport is encountering today...I'll end my F1 rant here, but if anyone wants to know more, I'm always up to talk about it, since virtually no Americans like F1, even though it's one of the world's most popular sports (kind of like soccer and America).

As far as why I went to the race, besides being a fan, my reasons are as follows: this was the second to last race of the year. The race for the championship was tied between two drivers, one who is my favorite. So this could have been (and turned out to be) the deciding race. Plus, the race track here is one of the best and most respected in Asia and has a good reputation throughout the rest of the world (it's one of the few tracks that has a figure 8 layout; don't worry the eight crosses over itself, lol). F1 is happy to come here because it is a very technical track, and the engineers and drivers love that fact. But this year's race will be the last at this track. Alas, Honda owns this track. Toyota owns a big track in Japan as well and paid more money to have the F1 race there until 2011. The Toyota track is good, but can't be compared to this one. Just like actual Japanese politics, money politics rules F1 as well. And lastly, one of the greatest F1 drivers will be retiring this year, Micheal Schumacher. He holds a good majority of F1 records, including most Championships (7). He was tied for the lead in the Championship coming into this race. But, a little over halfway through the race, his engine blew up (don't worry, it happens all the time in F1, almost every race). So he dropped out and his rival, my favorite, won the race and pretty much clinched the championship. I never really liked Micheal anyway. He's too good.

I think I should add that I do not like NASCAR, because I get that question every time I mention I like F1. And no, F1 is nothing like NASCAR. F1 is road racing and the cars are way faster. NASCAR looks fast because they go in circles and never have to brake that much. In reality the cars are tanks (just like real American cars. If F1 drivers behaved like NASCAR drivers on the track (all the bumping and crashing, all though it does happen from time to time...), they'd all be dead, because the cars are so delicate.

Anyway, I went home Monday by Shinkansen. This time I rode at night and just talked with people about our different experiences on the trip. Most people went to a place called Nara on Sunday, a smaller city near Kyoto that also has many historical sites. It also has an incredible herd of tame deer that roam the streets in packs. And if you don't feed them, they tackle and nibble you. Seriously, lol. Some people had some funny pictures.

Tuesday I slept. I was a little sick from the weekend and tired as well. Wednesday I had a Midterm. Thursday I went to class and then had lunch at a place called Freshness Burger, a Korean burger shack. Go figure. Anyway, the burgers were mediocre in quality (we can all thank the Japanese Government and Press for freaking out over big bad disease infested American beef), but everything else they make is, well, fresh. They make all kinds of juices, smoothies, sandwiches, etc. and a lot of their ingredients are super fresh. I watched a lady hand squeeze every drink in the restaurant. And even though the meat in my burger was just ok, the vegetables are super crisp. So it wasn't bad I suppose for a fast food place.

Oh, I forgot to mention I went to Outback Steakhouse the night before and it was amazing. Now they got some high quality beef.

Friday I had another midterm. This weekend I'll play by ear, but I have some plans on what to do here in Tokyo.

Sorry, I've returned to my long posts. But it has been awhile, hasn't it?

Here are my Hakone pictures. It's mostly from the open air museum and then the cable car ride to up a mountain to the hot springs and sulfur spewing vents. Then the camera died.

Ok, video time.

This first one is from a Buddhist Temple in Kyoto: