One of my ambitions in life is to design and build my own house. I am not strictly a designer or builder but I do have a very clear vision in mind of what I would like to create eventually. I think the first step towards this would be to start with something a little more manageable in scale and while researching the possibilities, a number of projects which make very clever use of small spaces caught my attention…
Samuel Cockedey, a French photographer and video artist based in Japan, has put together another ethereal time-lapse film of the Shinjuku area in Tokyo set to the soundtrack of Blade Runner in tribute to Ridley Scott and Vangelis.
It’s been a while since we last visited the more unusual side of Japan but today I thought I might share with you a few more unique, or shall we say alternative, artists who roam its shores providing us with some refreshingly different distractions (see Parts 1, 2, & 3). Presented in order of high to low artistic integrity!
Last Sunday I attended what I thought was going to be a vigil to remember the victims of the tsunami in Japan organised by Greenpeace in Hong Kong which was held at Central Statue Square. What I hadn’t bargained on was that it would be hijacked by them as an anti-nuclear demonstration instead.
Without wanting to rehash everything which has already been said the world is clearly in shock at the events which have occurred and are still unfolding in Japan. For most people we can only look on at the vivid pictures being beamed into our homes with a mix of emotions and an overriding feeling of helplessness in the face of mother natures wrath.
After walking along the Path of Philosophy in the morning I took a bus to what turned out to be my favourite part of Kyoto that I visited during my trip. Daitoku-ji (大徳寺) is a temple complex which contains more than twenty sub-temples and some of the finest examples of Zen architecture and design in Japan, including gardens and tea ceremony rooms.
In the morning of my final day in Kyoto I headed back to Northern Higashiyama to follow the
I’ve been lucky enough to stay at some very nice hotels over the past couple of years but in Japan I was on a tight budget and determined to try something a little different. Originally created for businessmen who worked too late to catch the last train home, capsule hotels (カプセルホテル) have developed as an economical alternative to normal hotels in a country where space comes at a premium.
After visiting Arashiyama and Fushimi Inari Taisha earlier in the day my next stop in Kyoto was Northern Higashiyama (東山区) for an afternoon stroll through some of the idyllic gardens and temples there. Without wanting to repeat myself too much I’ll leave you to marvel at some of the well-preserved heritage and natural beauty on show here…
In the early afternoon of my second day in Kyoto I visited one of the most impressive shrines in Kyoto; Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) which is characterised by thousands of vermilion torii gates that cover the slopes of the mountain creating long tunnels through which visitors can amble.