Struttin`...

For thats what we were doing. All over the three day weekend like a rash. Thanks to `Culture Day` being observed yesterday we decided to take advantage of it all and head down to Kyoto and indeed absorb some culture. Friday saw us in an almost record breaking trip down to Archs place and out for tasty, tasty Indian din-dins. Arch has struck up somewhat of a rapport with the Indian chap who owns the place and on a frighteningly regular basis receives gifts of Indian "Old Calcutta Fire" Rum....which burns the throat AND the eyes and removes tar from clothing and animal fur in no time flat.
Alas, he was not present on Friday, tending his new restaurant down the line somewhere, so, no free stuff aside, it was still rather good. Off home for some natters and beer and then a relatively early nap time for Saturday was reserved for.....

Uji.

Uji is a place about 35 minutes out of Kyoto by expressway which, as far as Japanese history and culture and the like goes, is just plain right up there. For those of you familier with the Japanese currency system, the temple at Uji (Byodo-In) is the one on the back of the 10 yen coin. And right nice it is too.

One of the really fun things that one can do in Japan is stroll along to a building like this one, all wooden, not a nail used in the whole damn thing and read signs that start of something like this "When this temple was built in 983 it was blah, blah, blah, blah".
Your eyes scan in vain for a fourth number on the date, but all to often to no avail. Then, you look over again at the temple, and see the roof, the walls, the steps, the huuuuuge Budda guy inside that have been standing, in the same spot, unchanged, for a 1000 years. And then you whig out. It`s quite, quite neat.

In addition to that, the gardens and surrounds of the temple have been suggested and studied as probable sites of scenes from the worlds first novel, The Tale of Genji...more about that later.
Must dash.
Toodle pip.
b