by audrey -

Peru – Cuzco

We went to Cuzco to acclimate to the altitude before taking on Macchu Picchu.  The Sacred Valley has lots of ruins reflective of different construction styles and religious phases. Cuzco’s at 11600 feet of altitude, so to help ourselves adjust, we were welcomed to our hostel with coca tea. Coca leaf tea is rather flavorless, and really felt kinda like a few random leaves.

Wandering around Cuzco, we saw the Cathedral, and Qoricancha, the sun temple. The temple construction is notable for the smoothly surfaced, tightly interlocking bricks. One of our guides pointed out the difference between the temple’s bricks, and the more roughly hewn slabs at other, less formal locations.

Incidentally, the temple was taken over by a church when the Spanish came along. The church is still attached to the building, and you can pay to tour it too…but most people don’t seem to bother.

Really though, it was great just walking around the area. The streets are still cobblestone rock, and the layout of the city seems frozen in the narrow pathways evolved in Incan times. Not only were many of the paths one-way, but they were so narrow that they only supported a single file walkway along with the narrow car path.

by Audrey -

Low key Halloween

From an all-English expat magazine I snagged at Homeworks “the best burgers and sandwiches in town,” I discovered that Halloween coincided with Meiji Shrine’s 50th anniversary.  To celebrate, the shrine was having a light-up on Halloween, and the day after.   A light-up is exacty what you’d think – while the shrine would normally be closed in the evening, they instead…turn on the lights, add some lanterns and candles, and poof – instant magic atmosphere. They even had a fog machine going behind some rocks, and little raised firepits being guarded by boy and girl scouts.

I skedaddled over there right after work, because it was only running from 5:30-8:30 or something, and I was anxious to get back to my apartment to sign for a package (more on that later).

Some cool pictures…but it’s tough figuring apertures and stuff when you’re clueless.  Trial, error and volume really does gets you a long way. At least I learned some things. (Like…forget about autofocus in the dark :P)

The Tokyo office at work got into the ghosts and goblins only marginally – but they did have a pumpkin carving competition.  I’m rather proud of our result, but alas, apparently we failed to scrape out his innards sufficiently, and he got a little moldy (which I’m pretty sure affected his popularity.)  Parasite-kun was a great collaborative effort, though. I think every one of the four members of team mux mux contributed something to his design (fingernails, spidery grin, extended arms…)

Today I’m off to check out Tokyo Design Week, and get some archery in. Maybe after another cup of tea. Ah, Sunday…

by Audrey -

Dust and arrows

Sadly, I think this is the most interesting picture I took all weekend. 

This, despite watching the national long-distance archery tournament, walking my heels off, and cleaning my two-week-old-room.  So many photo worthy events, and yet, this is all we get. 

I have an excuse though! My camera seemed to have acquired a nasty bit of dust on its sensor, so all my pictures have been having big grey blotches on them. .

Never fear though, some photoshop and an air blower, and all is put to rights.  Thank goodness I brought my camera manual with me. One non-useless item!

The archery tournament itself was a bit nostalgic.  It was held at the Meiji Shrine archery dojo, which, as you might guess, is sort of the “national dojo,” solidly inside the Meiji Shrine park.  Walking to the tournament from the train station is a huge experience in transitions. The most extreme would be to approach from Harajuku, and move from teenagers and bright toe sock stores to blander but busy streets, only to be dropped into a wide, tree-lined gravel paths, surrounded by buzzing insects, chirping birds, and the occasional family picnic.  The whole walk probably takes 15 minutes, but once on park grounds, the abundance of tall tall trees, serious green foliage, and the smell of actual soil really makes you forget you’re smack in central Tokyo.  

I digress – the tournament was a bit nostalgic because I tested there during the international seminar where I got my shodan rank (shodan = newbie), two years ago.  I expected these national competitors to have mastered their archery skillz a bit more than me, though, so I was surprised to find a range of smooth, calm, confident shooters and nervous, shaky, sloppy folks.  Maybe it was nerves, but some of those archers didn’t quite look like they had the basics down. 

The score keeping was pretty simple – hit gets an O, miss gets an X. They had a crew of volunteers, 8th rank (remember, I’m rank 1) teachers, close to the targets, who would raise an x or O after each shot, to tell the scorekeepers how to update the boards. 
  

One group was especially impressive. (archers shot in rotating groups of four, with two arrows each), nailed all of their shots.  I was surprised at how many people weren’t hitting the target, so when one group of four hit all of their first arrows, it was pretty impressive.  As they continued to hit their second arrows, one after the other, more and more people stopped chatting, and started paying attention.  As the fourth archer was taking aim, you could feel the audience hoping she’d hit, and willing her on.  Not one to disappoint, the arrow hit with a solid thwack (as opposed to a grassy “swish”), and a burst of applause.

See, they all got circles! Pretty cool.  It was purely chance, since the shooting order is randomized (so they don’t necessarily know each other), but a lot of people were just plain missing the target. 

 

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