Kalafina and daimonji

I seem to run good as far as luck with my favourite band goes. Every time I have come to Japan they perform! First time concert, second time concert and mini live. This time alas just mini live but since it was only an hour or so away from Kyoto where I was needless to say I headed there.

It was hot, hot day when I left off. Going there wasn't problematic except for transfer in Osaka where I missed first train as the station was so crowded I could not walk fast enough by far! Obon is ending today so guess people are heading for home or something already?

Mini live would be held in Nishinomiya gardens which is basically huge collection of stores. Mostly clothing stores. Clothes as far as eye can see. Clothes for men, clothes for women, clothes for kids, sport clothes, casual clothes, business clothes. If you need clothes this is place to go it seems. Also food stores, home stuff, cd store, book store(tried to find the map again but still no luck it seems). Also Buddhist related stuff. Since I have passing interest on that due to the pilgrimage plans I looked what kind of stuff Buddhist store DOES sell. Nearly fainted when I saw prices on couple statues though. Way beyond my budget. Also seemed to have official letters etc.

And there was also this store :D Was bit surprised to see what looks like Finnish menu allright. Considered going in but in the end decided what's the point of eating Finnish stuff here when that's all I can really eat in bit over a week.

 This name doesn't quite match with stuff they sell. Kitchen? Clothes? Bzzz! Still 2 finnish related stuff at once. Spooky.

As it turns out my fear was confirmed. The stage WAS outside just as I expected. In this heat this could take a while. I also realized I had made major screwup. The ticket I got after all that effort was just for signed poster. Okay so I can watch here(it's free) but the prefered arena I had seen mention would be where I would have really liked to be. For one that's where singers would likely be looking at! You could get ticket to there by buying cd HERE from 11:00. I did consider buying second copy but in the end decided I'm not THAT nuts.

Around the stage was this area where was basically small fountains. And kids were loving it. Kids varying in age probably from 3 to 5 years old or so were having so much fun playing around in the water. Well in this heat I can't blame them! Wouldn't have minded mixing in but seeing it was 3-5 year old kids only there guess it wouldn't be appropriate ;) I seem to be "bit" out of age-range of that amusement. But it was fun to watch kids enjoy themselves. Fountain changed in strength from zero(leaving kids looking puzzled where the water went. Those faces were funny!) to midlevel(plenty of cheering and playing) and then max at which point water went twice the height of kids and boy did the voice level raise up every time that happened. Kids just loved it.

And meanwhile I was boiling. With prefered seat(where you wouldn't have even have gained anything by waiting in line in advance since you are called in numbers and number you are given in random. Ie I'm as likely to be 1st to be called as I would be last to be called. This WOULD have been great in this heat!) out I wanted to at least get close by so with only few nuts enough to wait already I got myself good spot in center with only two very short females front of me. So basically apart from prefered seat I had as good spot as I could hope for(never seen them this close before) I wasn't going to give up this seat. So I waited. In the blazing heat. Despite just sitting(and reading) this was actually very hard physically. Good thing I had plenty to drink and fan to give me some coolness but I have to admit I was feeling quite ripe when the girls came to tune equipment and practice bit. And talk this and that.

As I was affraid they did look toward preferred seat area though at least at times they looked toward us as well. But I was more than miffed at my mistake(just me not reading text completely. Wasn't too difficult text. I was just lazy) since it meant most of the live I was looking at their backs. Bummer. Well at least I still got to hear the live music which is different from what computer can produce(at least with my equipment. maybe some pro-rate equipment could generate equilavent though neighbours might not appreciate the noise :D)

That gives some idea of clothes they had. Since it was promo event of the single surprise surprise they had clothes used in the promotion video :D Piece of which they have on their youtube page:

Second song was the coupling song which I can't find on youtube. Very unusual song for Kalafina. Very slow, quiet song with piano soundtrack that's only barely there.

After this long time spent talking. Funny moment when some sort of insect(think they mentioned semi so maybe that was the cicada. Not sure. I was so boiled I had trouble concentrating on listening) came in. Seems Hikaru is bit of "eek" toward insects :D

After talkings were done one more song. Their older song Symphony. Again can't find one on youtube :-/

After that it was just time to collect that poster(not sure how to get that home and how to use it. Learned recently hardway blutack is not good idea to put posters on wall) but what the hell. I'll worry of that later.

Around this time I saw proof of just how tough this heat is when one women was carried inside and looked almost certainly to be case of heat stroke. Wasn't feeling super myself either. Without drinks I would have suffered likely one as well.

Kyoto is HOT!

After that trip back to Kyoto. I left some stuff(poster and empty drink bottles mainly) to hotel and headed out. I had time to kill before Daimonji. I had noticed Kiyomizudera is straight east of my hotel and since that's fairly famous and since I hadn't seen it before good time as any to go see. Well except it was slightly raining but who cares.

Temple was set up over thousand years ago and even current building is hundreds of years old. And not a single nail used in the construction. Whee.

First climpse of where I was heading.

When I was crossed street I thought I was supposed to go bit forward and then left since there had been temple-looking building. But right front of me was signpost saying straight to left and since bazillion Japanese went there seemed safe bet to not trust my instinct. Alas this meant going up VERY narrow path when somebody coming down was bad news for getting up.

Street was lined up with stores. Curiously most sold tea cups. Tea cups as far as eye can see! Probably saw thousands of them. At least there was few fans available and food stands. Then I saw above signpost. "Hill of tea cups". I wonder if this has been traditional tea cup sell are for hundreds of years? Wouldn't surprise me.

Climbing toward the temple.

Temple was fairly typical temple. I'm not well informed enough to tell much about differences. But interesting building.

And boy was it on beautiful location. Probably is spectacular on fall colour period.

That's the main building. Interesting support block system it has.

After this it was getting dark soon so not much time to do sightseeing so I instead decided to head toward Gion and toward the Kamo river where was supposedly good place to look at the Daimonji(though you wouldn't see others but those are hard to see I hear without going to some restaurant in tall building. And those are booked up well in advance).

This is btw one reason I prefer Kyoto over Tokyo. Looks more more comfortable. Less skyscrapers!

Here's stairs to Yasaka shrine(I think). Went there on first trip to Kyoto. Considered going again but getting dark soon  + entrace fee+seen it before=skip it.

Look toward Gion. The one area in Kyoto where you could still see honest Maiko(apprentice Geisha. Geisha being even more rarer sight).

Saw this statue on first trip as well. Creator of Kabuki theater.

I had read banks of Kamo river was good place to watch Daimonji but had little idea WHERE but following mantra "if you are going to famous thing/event and there's tons of Japanese going to same direction you are probably wise to follow them" I moved toward north. And walked. And walked. And walked. Usually Japanese seem to go as near as possible with train/bus so I hadn't counted for this long walk but seems it's about 3 kilometers. I was actually starting to wonder if my mantra was incorrect here and these were just for leisure evening walk...

Well eventually I did find where I wanted to be. And found out I was bloody late. Best places were filled to max and I was starting to fear I wouldn't be able to see the Daimonji! But luckily it wasn't THAT bad. It was hard to take pictures but hopefully you get some idea.

That thing is pretty big. Lines composed of it vary from 80 meters to over 100 meters in sight. No wonder it was so well visible despite being so close.

Fire is part of the Obon festivals and is to guide spirits of your ancestors(who revisit the world during the Obon) back to the heaven. There's 5 of those big bonfires and this is the most well known.

Climbed to the place where that is when I first time came to Kyoto. That's when I decided I would like to climb Mount Fuji and that's why I wanted to see the thing lighted up.

After this I started walk back to hotel. Straight back the 3km or so I had just walked and then some more. On route stopped by some souvenir buying(have now pretty much all except own bag filling) and eat.

Tomorrow not sure what I'll be doing yet. Few ideas but going to look some more now. One thing sure though. Want to return to hotel sooner than last few days. I'm extremely exhausted after 2 days in a row with some 12h+ on the move and tons of walking in this heat.