Thursday, March 25. 2010Kyoto Is Even More Beautiful Than I Remember.John Linton We spent the day in Kyoto yesterday or at least a fair chunk of it. We left the hotel at 7.30 to catch the 8.15 Shinkansen to Kyoto which even at Shinkansen speeds is two and a half hours away. The station, like all Japanese stations was immaculately clean and our carriage was, if possible, even cleaner. Like an aircraft, the carriage was carpeted and the carpet looked like it was brand new without a single 'pulled' thread or the slightest mark. When the train 'took off' there was no sensation of speed and no discernible movements that you associate with Australian trains - it had as little movement as an aircraft. The trip was uneventful and when we arrived at Kyoto station our 'tour guide' was standing outside the carriage door we disembarked from with a sign with my daughters name on it (she had organised the trip). The train trip and that level of efficiency and courtesy pretty much defines Japan in relation to Australia in many ways. We journeyed around Kyoto for the next 6 hours in a type of mini-van I don't remember seeing before that was as clean as if it were on a show room floor. Our guide, as would be expected, was very experienced and knowledgeable and treated us as courteously and deferentially as I have ever been treated in my life - but also adding much humour and many anecdotes about the more scurrilous side of the history of the shrines and temples we visited. Being a professional guide he knew which places to take us and exactly what to show in the places we were taken. Among the high lights for me were the oldest and best known stone garden and the pre tenth century great hall (100 meters long) containing 1,000 beautifully symmetrically arranged life sized wooden statues together with some two dozen or so other statues each 'block' relating to some version of events, gods and people and their stories. The pagoda architecture and general workmanship quality dating back to the 11th century and before was a constant reminder of the beauty of the country generally in terms of the longevity of its culture and engineering achievements. The stone garden which I had visited when I first came to Japan in the late 1970s was where I learned my basic lesson that has helped me ever since then live a more contented and fulfilled life. I visited there with only a Japanese 'host' from the company who employed me and an Australian colleague. Our Japanese host explained that if we sat quietly on the steps facing the garden and contemplated any problem that was concerning us we would eventually see find a complete answer. All we had to do was contemplate the garden and think about why the designer had placed the fifteen stones in the groupings and location he had. It worked for me then and it has continued to work for me ever since (obviously minus the garden which is simply a Zen device to clear your mind. It is true that any issue, no matter how complex, can be solved completely by only the thoughts, knowledge and reasoning processes available to you within your own mind. Doubtless a zillion self awareness books teach the same thing but on that wintry and rainy day more than three decades ago I learned that simple technique and have always benefited from it. We had a simple lunch in one of the many hundreds (at least) of such establishments in Kyoto and, yet We returned to Tokyo and walked back to the hotel in the rain and very low temperatures (almost certainly much lower than 10 degrees) and, in contrast to our country lunch had dinner in the hotels one Michelin star Chinese restaurant where the food and service was at a standard I have never before experienced but, in all the basic ways required of really good food, didn't really leave a better taste or satisfaction feeling than that served in the tiny 12 seat 'restaurant' in Kyoto although it cost 25 times more. Today is my birthday and I will leave it at that - rather than continuing on sounding that Australia is not much of a country - it isn't at all - it's just that Japan is just so superior in so many ways. Trackbacks
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Happy birthday John, nice way to be celebrating the occasion, have a great day
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Happy Birthday John. Kyoto is arguably the most beautiful city in the world IMO. What a great idea to celebrate a birthday!
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Happy Birthday, John. Pity we can't give you something back for all these blog posts you've given us the pleasure of reading as a small thanks/birthday gift.
Despite my family all being with Exetel, when your blog is made pay to use or for Exetel customers only I'll be first in to pay for my access. While I'm sure you'd likely want to donate the funds to charitable enterprises I'd almost rather give you something directly as a thanks. So I'm leaving this comment as it's all I can do right now. Have a good holiday, and thanks. Comment (1)
Happy Birthday ForumAdmin (I know you more from the forums...!)
Comment (1)
It would be useful for me.
(1) I work at a Telecommunications solutions provider and I work on corporate Telephony and data networks, the handwidth available is JUST enough for what business do today, there is no headroom for future innovation and bearly any upload speed, if I need to download a 100mbit upgrade from our office server I have to wait 1 hour whereby if I have 100mbit upload it would take under 1 min. Many companies we work with have 2 or 3 DSL connections for different purposes just to get enough speed for their applications (VoIP/VPN/Remoteusers, etc) (2) I produce a television program for community TV and to submit my program to the station I have to buy tapes, copy the video onto the tape and post it to the station. It would be great if I could just send it via the internet, but with the current upload speeds this is impossible. (3) Faster internet would allow us to do standard or high definition outside broadcasts, interstate "crosses" and accept media via the internet... again this is impossible. SO many people are struggling on current speeds and we will not see much more innovation in Australia until we provide everyone with 100mbit upload speeds. Wireless might be enough for you but when I tried to run a PABX IP phone and use the internet on exetel wireless it just didn't work. Just face it, we need fibre... people thought we didn't need the M7 or the lane cove tunnel, but it makes our telecommunications business run SO much more effiently as we can service MANY MORE customers all over Sydney in one day improving customer satisfaction and profit for our business... Comment (1)
Everything you say may be true.
1,000 mbps services are available today. My point is simply that my taxes shouldn't be used to support your life style. Fibre has been available for at least ten years. Having another Federal Government monopoly providing telecommunications services is ignoring 100 years of experiencing the problems of doing that. People who want to save political careers shouldn't interfere with free markets. Comments (6)
Cross City Tunnel = Disaster...... they built it anyway
Comments (2)
John, thanks for your blog. I will be visiting Japan on business in about two weeks and am intending to visit Kyoto on the weekend. I will be looking for some of the places you mentioned as they sound interesting.
Oh, and happy birthday. Comment (1)
Happy Bday and maybe catch a football match if time permits.
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