観覧車

With a limited amount of network space at school, and no computer of my own as of yet, I need to start clearing out some old pictures to make room for newer ones - specifically to make room for the ones from Nara two weekends ago (which, I swear, are coming soon) and from the 時代祭り jidai matsuri Festival of Ages coming up this weekend in Kyoto. This will be my third Foray into Kyoto, but the first time I'll be there for two simultaneous festivals.

At least I'm told there will be two festivals, but my sources, fellow exchange students, are none too reliable.

The Jidai Matsuri celebrates the legacy of Japanese history, from Yayoi times (ie BCE) through Heijo, Heian, Kamakura, Tokugawa and right on up to the present day. It's about 10 000 years packed into one day.

Anyway, as part of my attempt to clear space on my camera I need to delete some old pictures from my school account. These are from like a month ago.

It was I think the second or third weekend since our arrival, and we all went in to Osaka for some drunken revelry. And oh was it revelrous, but before we hit the 居酒屋 izakaya sake joints we went to this sort of amusement park at the top of a shopping centre. It was I think spread across the seventh and eighth floors, and at the very top, stretched out across the Osaka sky, was one of the biggest ferris wheels I have ever seen.



It was actually fairly small for Japan, where the 観覧車 kanransha ferris wheels. While everybody else sat through some stupid horror story about a doll (alright, I admit it, I was too scared to sit through it myself) Ida and Pat and I hitched a ride on this red monstrosity. It took like fifteen minutes, cost around five hundred yen (that's basically five bucks) and was one of the most stunning experiences I have had in Japan.








Afterwards we stuck together, and while the remaining group of twenty tried to find a diner they could cram into, Ida, Pat, and I, and Ida's old friend from mother-Finland whose name I have been told four times but cannot seem to absorb, went off to some high-falutin place and I ordered plain tofu by accident. It was not delicious.