Bjork song "Moon"

It has been quite a long time since I posted anything at all...
Today, it was impossible not to share this song and video despite me being terribly busy...
I heard this song and saw the video for the first time today morning and have been playing it all day long. The beauty of the upcoming new Bjork album "Biophilia"'s songs which I already heard is just indescribable...It's immense...It's staggeringly intimate. It's magnificent. Each song touches me so deeply and profoundly.
This woman has such incredibly talent. I admire her greatly.
I don't know if I would like her as a person, but her work is incredibly inspiring to me. Each day.
I cannot wait to hear the whole album.
It obviously is going to become one of the albums of Bjork that I will be constantly playing. (i.e. most of them) For months and years...

-------
Meanwhile I went back home to Europe in August for a little more than a month.
On the last day, just as I was packing my suitcase, a 10 year sort of a "ritual" which my mom always joins and we think about what can be taken and what left behind (it is incredibly hard to pack for a year and take all the things that seem important...) and I always listen to music, and as it happens it is always an album of Bjork that plays when I pack...This time, my mom observed " I wonder if this woman (i.e.meaning Bjork) knows how much you play her music and how much you like it, all those years"...
Indeed, that's true.

But I listen to Bjork all the time, not just when I'm packing for a year-long journey, actually...
It has been true for more than a decade. Almost 15 years perhaps.
Her songs are so close, so intimate to what I feel...Some of them speak of experiences and emotions that are so familiar, as if the same...As if she describes what I feel, how I feel...
And even when it doesn't, it is still familiar, as if another me, has experienced or will experience it...

And this new album "Biophilia" (i.e."Love of Nature"). It already promises so much...
It goes out in a couple of weeks.

Here is the song, called "Moon":




...Best way to start-a-new
Is to fail miserably
Fail at loving
And fail at giving...

Second Summer in Kyoto (photo album)

The newest and most recent of my photos taken in June...

Direct link to the photo album:

Second Summer in Kyoto

https://picasaweb.google.com/d.salamandrina/SecondSummerInKyoto?authkey=Gv1sRgCIeTgeCs4_TbSA&feat=directlink

By the way. It's my birthday today...

Second Spring in Kyoto TWO

And finally, the second part of the Spring photos selection...

Direct linkto the whole Picassa Album Web:

Second Spring in Kyoto TWO
https://picasaweb.google.com/d.salamandrina/SecondSpringInKyotoTWO?authkey=Gv1sRgCKfIiuWO3NXAzgE&feat=directlink

The Sakura Path (Photo Album)

This album mainly contains photos I took on a beautiful Spring afternoon in April (April 14th) walking the Path of Philosophy at the time when sakura (cherry blossoms) were at their peak...

I was just back from Europe and the sakura (cherry blossoms) were already at their peak, but I was too busy and had too many worries on my mind to be able to steal more time than this afternoon.

And as cherry blossoms are so famous for being short-lived, very soon they were gone...

The Path of Philosophy is one of the famous spots for viewing sakura, and of course as I expected therewere many people, but not as many as to make it altogether unpleasant and in the soft afternoon light I felt joy and happiness in my solitary enjoyment of the sakura's shortlived beauty...

Link to the Picassa album:

The Sakura Path

https://picasaweb.google.com/d.salamandrina/TheSakuraPath?authkey=Gv1sRgCPjy1oui04v5IQ&feat=directlink

Second Spring in Kyoto ONE (photo album)

These photos are the taken just on the brink of Winter and Spring...The branches of the trees are still bare and leafless, the sakura (cherry blossoms have not yet bloomed), only the plum blossoms have bloomed, the first sign of Spring and Nature waking up from the Winter slumber for life again...There is a warmth in the air and the sunrays are different...A new Spring is coming. My second in Kyoto...

link to the album on Picassa:
Second Spring in Kyoto ONE
https://picasaweb.google.com/d.salamandrina/SecondSpringInKyotoONE?authkey=Gv1sRgCNSxv4fhuYf94AE&feat=directlink

Slideshow of some of my selected photos from Kyoto

Direct link to the Picassa Album:
Selectedhttps://picasaweb.google.com/d.salamandrina/SELECTED?authkey=Gv1sRgCN_dtuKBqqTk3QE&feat=directlink

P.S. This album is going to be updated.

A Song: The Garden

One of the songs I love the most...And a song that especially resonates with my live here in Kyoto, where the only really meaningfully positive things that are happening and are precious and valuable, and give me joy, are my visits to some of the many gardens of Buddhist temples.
I visit some of them very often, and have seen them in every season.
In solitude.
Waiting.

The lyrics of the song (and the video) appear simple and very austere, but I think that this song is immense in meaning, deep, powerful and while using so few words, in fact the things it says are so many...
Like a Japanese Zen garden.

"The Garden" video




"The Garden" lyrics:

You will find me if you want me in the garden
unless it's pouring down with rain
You will find me if you want me in the garden
unless it's pouring down with rain
You will find me if you want me in the garden
unless it's pouring down with rain
You will find me if you want me in the garden
unless it's pouring down with rain

You will find me waiting through spring and summer
You will find me waiting waiting for the fall
You will find me waiting for the apples to riped
You will find me waiting for them to fall
You will find me by the banks of all four rivers
You will find me at the spring of consciousness

You will find me if you want me in the garden
unless it's pouring down with rain
You will find me if you want me in the garden
unless it's pouring down with rain
You will find me if you want me in the garden
unless it's pouring down with rain
You will find me if you want me in the garden
unless it's pouring down with rain

Einstürzende Neubauten

A Song : Blume (Japanese version)

Recently I made a channel on Youtube - The Salamandrina's channel, where I put the videos and songs I like...
go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSalamandrina

One might think I have too much time on my hands if I'm starting a new blog or making a channel. In fact I have no time at all. It is just a way to keep myself sane and satisfy (or rather cheat myself that it works) a need to share...This is not of course satisfying at all, as there is usually zero feedback, and it is not really alleviating my solitude even by little, but the need to speak, ah, the need to say, to share is too big...
But, I'm afraid, it's either this, or I start talking to trees soon...

Anyway, here is a song featured there on my Youtube channel, by Einsturzende Neubauten, called "Blume" (i.e. flower)...
Needless to say, the song is amazing, beautiful and I like the Japanese version perhaps the most...
So here it is.




Blume (English version) lyrics:

Chrysantemum For you I am a chrysantemum
Supernova, urgent star

Astera Compositae For you I'll be a dandelion
a thousand flowerettes in the sky
Or just a drop in the ocean

If you know my name
don't speak it out
it holds a power - as before

Liliacea A lily of the valley
a flower of saron

Helianthus annus For you I even be a sunflower
Do you hear my enlightening laughter?
another reason to cut off an ear

You know my name, do you not?
don't say it
For it's a sacred, immovable - frozen

Rosa, Anemone et
Nymphea alba I'll even be a waterlily,
a marygold, a rose
or a little thistle

Euphorbiaa blue dahlia, a black tulip
that's where opinions differ
the scholars disagree

My name, should you know it
remains unspeakable
and it's spoken - malediction

Shisendo

Without doubt, Shisendo Temple is my most favourite place in Kyoto. A small tranquil, rustic temple dedicated to Classical Chinese poetry with Zen gardens.
Below link (and video) consist of photos I have taken in different seasons and on different visits to Shisendo. I often joke (not actually joking) saying that this is the place I wish to retire later in my life and live a modest, secluded and simple life as a garden sweeper, doing some ticket selling and dead leaves gathering...And watch the garden just at sunset, when the tourists have just left it peaceful and tranquil...

Link to photo Web album on Picassa:
Shisendo
http://picasaweb.google.com/d.salamandrina/Shisendo?authkey=Gv1sRgCOC0_8Tv6ZmMfg&feat=directlink

This is my first attempt at making a video, quite far from perfect, but still hopefully not too bad.
The video is a selection of my Summer, Autumn and Winter photos taken at Shisendo fitted to a koto and flute tune called "沙羅の花"("Camellia flower") from CD 池上眞吾.

Go to see the video on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca0imnT2eG0

Shisen-do (The House of the Immortal Poets) temple, is a former hermitage of a man of taste and ex-samurai Ishikawa Jozan (1583-1672). It belongs to the Soto Zen Buddhist sect.
In the year 1641 Jozan built a cottage named Ohtotsu-ka (uneven nest) to spend a secluded life. He displayed poems and portraits of 36 Chinese ancient poets in one of the temples rooms, that is called Shisen-no-ma (The Room of the Immortal Poets) . This is the reason why this temple is called Shisen-do.
Among them are my favourite Chinese poets, as among them Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian) is the one I admire and like the most.

For those of you who know me, it is quite obvious why I like this place so much...

Ohara in Winter

Ohara is without doubt one of the places which (while still not exactly in Kyoto) I like very much here and I have visited already half a dozen times already. Half an hour with a bus from Demachiyanagi, taking the road along Takano river, going north in the mountains, and passing the skirts of Mount Hiei (the famous and important Buddhist mountain) after some winding turns on a mountain road, one arrives at the rural town of Ohara.

Just when I thought that the winter is gone and there is no more chance of any snow, on March 2nd and 3rd, in the northern parts of Kyoto it snowed, and while the snow didn't last and melted the same day it was still substantial enough to enjoy for a few hours...

Most of the time I was completely alone in the temples and had a chance to look at the gardens in solitude and take many photos of course...
I felt pure joy as the winter scenery (which I have become to know very well, as I have visited the temples of Ohara quite many times), is very charming and as there were practically no other visitors, I had this otherwise popular place just to myself... I practically had a big grin on my face the whole day I spend there. Taking photos, enjoying the solitude, the snow and the quiet contemplation of the scenery...

Ohara in Winter
Link to the photo album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/d.salamandrina/OharaInWinter?authkey=Gv1sRgCJvVmqX3zIWFdA&feat=directlink

P.S. I have become a bit sloppy at the selection and arrangement of the last photo albums...No time and no motivation being the cause of my lack of diligence...

Kyoto in Winter TWO

Winter photos without snow are to be sure not very great, and I think this second winter album will appear not so interesting, but still, an unexpected surprise of snow fell in March and I hurried to catch it in the northern mountainous Ohara before it melts...(See post Ohara in Winter)

Here are images from my second winter in Kyoto.

Link to photo album:
Kyoto in Winter TWO
https://picasaweb.google.com/d.salamandrina/KyotoInWinterTWO?authkey=Gv1sRgCLTX8_Pr8cmjYQ&feat=directlink

 Photos: 1st: Takano river (2 minutes away from my apartment and my favourite place for taking a walk.

2nd: A cabbage-like plant that was everywhere around new year's.

3rd: The "borrowed scenery" Entsuji 円通寺 temple's garden...
It is best known for its use of shakkei, the Japanese landscape design technique of "borrowing" and incorporating a view into the garden you are creating. In the case of Entsuji, the borrowed view is that of Mt. Hiei, which looms in the distance and is perfectly positioned in the view from the temple veranda.
Unfortunately the day was not so clear, so the "borrowed" view of mount Hiei is not very visible here...

Kyoto in Winter

Kyoto in Winter
link to a Web photo album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/d.karmapolice/KyotoInWinter?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ-v5u7dxJaaKQ&feat=directlink

Otherwise grey and gloomy, covered with snow, Kyoto in Winter is beautiful, magical, mysterious!

Photos from this album were taken on 31st of December 2010 and on 1st of January 2011.

Second Autumn in Kyoto TWO

Second Autumn in Kyoto (second album)
link to a Web photo album :
http://picasaweb.google.com/d.karmapolice/SecondAutumnInKyotoTWO?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ6b4ZyT__enKg&feat=directlink

I was too busy in November and December (the best time for autumn leaves in Kyoto) to go to as many places as I wished and take pictures...It's a great pity, but I was really busy with preparing and submitting graduate applications for PhD programs at US universities...Still, I managed to steal a few hours and take some photos (not as many as I wished and I couldn't even come close to fulfilling my large list of temples to visit during autumn foliage season)...This is the second album of my Second Autumn in Kyoto...

Kyoto in Summer

With very much delay and two seasons later here is a link to an album with pictures from the 2010 Summer in Kyoto
link to the Web album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/d.karmapolice/SummerInKyoto02?authkey=Gv1sRgCNzO1srkwNOe2wE&feat=directlink

Second Autumn in Kyoto

There is a season missing actually, as I still haven't uploaded the Summer in Kyoto album, but first this one as it's ready...

Second Autumn in Kyoto
http://picasaweb.google.com/d.karmapolice/SecondAutumnInKyoto?authkey=Gv1sRgCN-e-PLCs7TERQ&feat=directlink

Photo Album: Takano River in Autumn

Takano river is just 2 minutes frommy apartment, and is my favourite place for a walk...With my terribly busy schedule lately I'm missing the Autumn season here, this time because despite my plan to visit many places and see them in their Autumn look, I'm afraid I cannot spare much time as I'm busy sending applications for PhD programs in USA (and UK actually, though the chances are that evenif I'm accepted there they have no sufficient funding)...
Actually I have absolutely no time to post...
Here are my photos...

Takano River in Autumn
http://picasaweb.google.com/d.karmapolice/TakanoRiverInAutumn?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrbvZHE55LwTQ&feat=directlink

Kyoto in Spring 2

It has again been months since my last post. A season has changed actually and it is Summer now. I've been meaning to post and give a link to a second Spring in Kyoto album with photos, but I have failed to do so until now. I am meanwhile compiling and uploading a Summer in Kyoto album which hopefully I will post not after months but sooner, although frankly I haven't done much visiting of temples and taking pictures for the past 3 or so months...I had plans to visit (and re-visit) gardens and temples but I didn't make it happen...The weather has been horrid actually, first a rainy season in July, followed by stiffling heat in August...I completely failed to see the gardens with the July blooming hydrangea, wisteria and irises. I meant to, even planned it, but for many reasons failed to make it happen...So unfortunatelly part of the seasonal beauty of Kyoto in Summer has not been "documented" in pictures... 

So until I compile the album of the current season (i.e. Summer), meanwhile here is a link to a somewhat belated Spring in Kyoto continued web album...
Again the photos are taken with my mobile phone's camera (I'm doing more or less the same pictures with my film camera of course, and one day they may also see the light in a future photo exhibition perhaps...), so the image quality is not good and the limitations of the very simple camera of the phone (no zoom or anything actually...) are not giving much more than an idea...
But that's what these photos are meant as really, ideas, feelings, angles as I see them...
Hopefully they can still carry a bit of the feeling I have of Kyoto.

So here is the link:
Spring in Kyoto 2

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/d.karmapolice/SpringInKyoto2?authkey=Gv1sRgCOru1aT4iu3xlQE&feat=directlink#

As always comments and feedback are most welcome...

Kyoto in Spring

It has been almost 5 months since my last post here...
I have been really discouraged to post which is the main reason for not maintaining this blog and for personal reasons I was unable to write or share in this rather anonymous way that in effect lacks any feedback...The lack of feedback in my life lately has been too much anyway to add the additional lack of feedback here, hence my long silence...

I made a web album with some spring scenery here in Kyoto, that hopefully is a good opportunity to break the silence...

(As with the previous Kyoto in Autumn web album, the photos in this one are made with my mobile phone camera, hence quality of images is poor, but hopefully my "angle" of seeing of things can still be felt even despite image quality deficiencies...)



Here is the link:
Spring in Kyoto
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/d.karmapolice/SpringInKyoto?authkey=Gv1sRgCMbh3ezJkorBtAE#

At the end of March I moved-in into a new place, a one-room apartment, very close to Demachiyanagi station 9i.e. very conveniently close to Kyoto University where my classes are...) which I picked, apart from it being convenient, for its great location and beautiful view...
It took me the whole of January of apartment seeking and incredible nervous exhaustion to find this place and the moving itself was incredibly exhausting experience, but a full month into this new place I must say it was worth it...

Here is the link to a web album with photos of my room and the view and the nearby area...
A Room With a Viewhttp://picasaweb.google.co.uk/d.karmapolice/ARoomWithAView?authkey=Gv1sRgCOHi6avD1vnQlAE#



Hm, hopefully someone will leave a comment...some sort of feedback...

Autumn in Kyoto - photos

I selected some photos which I took for the past month (i.e. November) in Kyoto, and also in the nearby Ohara and Nara during a few one day excursions. They are mostly of Buddhist temples and temple gardens, but there are also some of Shinto shrines, or of some places or images in Kyoto that impressed me.

Here is the link to the web album with the photos I selected.

Even though the quality of those photos is really not good (they were taken with my mobile phone), it is the only way I can share with you digital images of what I'm seeing...Meanwhile I'm of course also taking photos with my camera, but since I use film, it will take a while before I develop the films and make prints and can be able to show you some "real" pictures...Meanwhile this is, in the present circumstances, what I can show you...although with no great image quality (in fact it is really not good), I hope some of the feeling and some of my way of seeing things can be felt even through these images...

the album link again, just in case...
http://picasaweb.google.com/d.karmapolice/KyotoInAutumn?authkey=Gv1sRgCP6hhu7S1eOdZA#

P.S. I'm getting really very discouraged by the lack of feedback...it is pointless to share without any reaction...