Day 9: Sunday, 25 October 2009
Oct. 18th, 2010 05:52 pm(Let's see if I can finish this travelogue before it passes the one-year mark, eh?)
At around 5:53 a.m. local time, I awoke in my room at the Palace Side Hotel to a rumbling vibration and realized I was feeling an earthquake for the first time in my life. I'll admit, it was a little thrilling. It was certainly not a major earthquake; it was on the level of mentioning to other group members at breakfast, "Hey, did you feel that earlier this morning?" In other words, no damage, and probably unremarkable for your average Kyoto citizen. I'm curious to know what it rated on the Richter scale; do any of you know how to look up historical seismic information that would answer that question?
After breakfast we all headed to the monthly Tenjin-san 天神さん Market at Kitano Tenman-gū Shrine 北野天満宮. The last time I'd visited Kyoto, this market had been rained out, so it was largely new to me.
Since my collection of obijime (the colorful rope-like belt that goes over an obi) was sorely lacking in the flat type of obijime that are appropriate for chado, I picked up a handful of used ones that are inexpensive but will require tassel restoration to get them in shape to be worn. That'll be a good winter project. Of course, I probably said that last autumn, too. :)
I also bought the intriguing used kyō-yaki tea bowl pictured at left despite not knowing what the design on it means. I threw a few dollars at Mechanical Turk (love the motto: "Artificial Artificial Intelligence") to get some Arabic readers' takes. I got readings including ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hasufin's reading of it as a stylized form of the Arabic word 'شاي', which means 'tea'. As he says, that would fit both epigraphically and make sense in context.
Tenjin-san isn't as large as Kōbō-san, and it didn't seem to have the variety of vendors either, including original craftsmen and artists and food. It seemed more heavily antiques-oriented. When I finally found the food vendors, who seemed to be segregated from the rest of the market in their own aisle, I ate some sweet potato fries before leaving with some other group members to move our luggage from the hotel to the Rikiya ryokan. It was a nontrivial physical effort, between all the treasures I'd accumulated so far, the ban on cars (including taxis) along Rikiya's street that day, for what reason I don't recall, and the lack of an elevator at the ryokan. Once we got our luggage moved, I laid out my futon and took a nap. But when I awoke I had a headache and nausea, so I sadly skipped the group dinner outing. Not my favorite day in Kyoto. :/
At around 5:53 a.m. local time, I awoke in my room at the Palace Side Hotel to a rumbling vibration and realized I was feeling an earthquake for the first time in my life. I'll admit, it was a little thrilling. It was certainly not a major earthquake; it was on the level of mentioning to other group members at breakfast, "Hey, did you feel that earlier this morning?" In other words, no damage, and probably unremarkable for your average Kyoto citizen. I'm curious to know what it rated on the Richter scale; do any of you know how to look up historical seismic information that would answer that question?
After breakfast we all headed to the monthly Tenjin-san 天神さん Market at Kitano Tenman-gū Shrine 北野天満宮. The last time I'd visited Kyoto, this market had been rained out, so it was largely new to me. Since my collection of obijime (the colorful rope-like belt that goes over an obi) was sorely lacking in the flat type of obijime that are appropriate for chado, I picked up a handful of used ones that are inexpensive but will require tassel restoration to get them in shape to be worn. That'll be a good winter project. Of course, I probably said that last autumn, too. :)
I also bought the intriguing used kyō-yaki tea bowl pictured at left despite not knowing what the design on it means. I threw a few dollars at Mechanical Turk (love the motto: "Artificial Artificial Intelligence") to get some Arabic readers' takes. I got readings including - ش
- ع
- ثا
- شا
hasufin's reading of it as a stylized form of the Arabic word 'شاي', which means 'tea'. As he says, that would fit both epigraphically and make sense in context.Tenjin-san isn't as large as Kōbō-san, and it didn't seem to have the variety of vendors either, including original craftsmen and artists and food. It seemed more heavily antiques-oriented. When I finally found the food vendors, who seemed to be segregated from the rest of the market in their own aisle, I ate some sweet potato fries before leaving with some other group members to move our luggage from the hotel to the Rikiya ryokan. It was a nontrivial physical effort, between all the treasures I'd accumulated so far, the ban on cars (including taxis) along Rikiya's street that day, for what reason I don't recall, and the lack of an elevator at the ryokan. Once we got our luggage moved, I laid out my futon and took a nap. But when I awoke I had a headache and nausea, so I sadly skipped the group dinner outing. Not my favorite day in Kyoto. :/
