On a cultural high.

I went to Yamaguchi this afternoon to get my cultural fix. First we hit the Yamaguchi Art and Media Culture Center to check out the Syn Cron exhibit. It's this huge, hollow geometrical blob completely wired with lights that flashes/pulses in sync with the electronic sound waves, hence the name.

Every patron was given a cushion, so Hiromi and I just got comfortable and spread out in the center of the floor and laid there for an hour. Gah. It was too much visual stimulation; I'm still recovering from my headache. Maybe next time I'll just stick to paintings.

Next stop: the Five Story Pagoda. What made the trip extra special was the wooden buddha they had on display. The buddha was revealed to the public this week for the first time in [puts on best enthusiastic voice] 500 years!

Honestly, it was too cold for me to care.

Even though this is my 6th month in Japan, this was my first time to visit the pagoda. I think I'm cramming too much Japanese architecture into such a short amount of time -- everything is slowly beginning to lose its "oooooh ahhh" appeal. After spending three days in Kyoto last November, I'm still all temple/pagoda/shrine'd out. It's fun to take cheesy tourist shots though (and I also happen to be Asian. We're all camera whores. It's in our blood, like, yenno, kung-fu.)

One place I haven't been to enough times since I've been here are onsens! I would love to go to make a trip to Beppu and just soak in all their hyped up hot springs until I turn into a wrinkled-up raisin.

I would also like to try skinny dipping in the ocean while I'm here. Hm. Maybe I'll give it more thought once it gets warmer.

I used to be one of the shy girls in the girl's locker room at high school. Now I think I've gotten way to comfortable with getting naked since I've been here in Japan. :)