#eikan-do
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Japan day 4! More Kyoto!
Started with a photo op of the yasaka pagado part of the hokan-ji temple. And then we were off to the kiyomizu-dear temple known for its city views. It was a little cloudy but we still got some great views!
From there went the silver pagado temple and then down the philosophers path. It was raining but the path was very peaceful as we walked along the river. It ended at the Eikan-do temple. Eiakan-do had a really cool art exhibit inside and then the gardens were full of fall colors.
We then went to our tea ceremony experience. It was very curated for tourists but felt very respectful and informative. It took a lot more whisking to get the tea right than I thought, but it was all very delicious. And I got to wear a purple kimono so I obviously had a good time.
Overly long travel diary
Anthony 400 yen first temple kitomizu dera
Emma 500 yen each second temple, silver temple
Anthony 1000 yen each eikan do
We start the day at kiyomizu temple, stopping on the way to take pictures of a pagado. The view from the temple is really nice even if it is a bit cloudy. The temple itself is also a really pretty red.
We then walk for a bit and find a dog park to have breakfast in.
We take a bus over to the philosophers path. The bus is super crowded buy we survived.
We then decide to walk up to the silver pavilion the counter part to the gold pavilion we saw yesterday. Because sulver tarnishes more quickly it’s not as shiny but the grounds are still lovely. Sadly they don’t have a silver temple key chain to match my one from yesterday.
After we head back down to the philosophers path which runs along the river. Some of the leaves are really pretty colors but a lot have fallen already. The philosophers path was so full of cute bridges. It was pretty rainy but it kind of added to it in a way. There are also people with signs at various crossroads of the philosophers path to help direct tourists. There are also various public maps with the major tourist sites on them.
The philosophers path ends very near to our next temple so we head in. The ticket is more than a lot of them but we quickly see that it’s because they also have an art exhibit in the temple. They give you a little plastic bag to carry your shoes in while you walk through the temple and see the art. It’s pretty cold today so my feet are cold and the wooden floor feels extra cold.
Eikan do had lots of art and explanations about the pure land where you go when you reach enlightenment. The monk who more or less founded the temple thinks that anyone can reach enlightenment and you don’t have to spend endless hours in mediation. The temple also is one of the few or maybe only places where the two competing art schools of the day would have their art side by side.
The fall foliage around the temple is really gorgeous and their are some adorable bridges. I try to get a picture with a bridge from on another bridge but didn’t get the angles right so you can’t really see the bridge. But there’s still pretty colors and a pond. We also walk up to the pagado at the top and take in the views of the cities. I love how all the temples are nestled into the mountains/hillsides so you can get pretty views from them.
There are other temples nearby but we’re feeling pretty templed out and will see more temples tomorrow so decide to just head back to the area out hotel is in and get lunch.
Twntenyu for lunch ramen. Anthony paid 2180 for both. They had up little dividers between all the seats. It was in a big building full of mostly offices with stores on the bottom floor. Most of the other people seemed to be business people on their lunch break. I got ramen and gyoza and it was delicious but the gyoza burned the roof of my mouth a little. The warm ramen tho really hit the spot on a cold and dreary day.
We head back to the hotel to regroup. We end up taking a nap (and having some quality time)due to not finding anything else to see that we are willing to walk to. And I’m tired.
After we head out to go to a tea ceremony I booked online previously. We start with getting dressed in kimonos. They braid my hair and pin it up into a bun. I am allowed to picked my own kimono and I find a dark purple one with pink flowers. Putting it on is an experience. There are two ladies working together wrapping you all up and tying you in. There are a lot more little skinny ties than I would’ve expected. And then there’s a hard thing for your middle for the shape and then finally the big sash that goes around the middle and ties into a bow. It’s a little constricting but not too bad. I wouldn’t want to have run or need to do any deep breathing in it but fine for standing around and sitting.
They give you a pretty bag so you can take your phone and whatever with you (they know people want to take pictures in the kimonos)and then a big numbered bag to leave the rest of your stuff in. They also give you little toe socks to wear with the shoes.
We head back to the waiting room and take a couple pictures. My boyfriend tolerates the pictures. There’s a lovely women from Portugal on her honeymoon who takes a couple for us and gets one of my hair and the bow in the back
We head into the room where they show us how we can sit and how to arrange the kimono. She tells us to stay comfortable. I do not succeed in the little sweeping motion she showed to get the kimono to look pretty while sitting and it keeps gaping funny at the bottom but it’s fine.
She starts with a detailed explanation of what tea ceremony is. It’s all about the one moment and one time we have here together. And being full of respect harmony tranquilly and balance(?). She then shows us how to make the tea. There’s a lot of cleaning and the tools and doing everything deliberately and respectfully.
We start by eating the little sweets. One is hard like a smartie and has a swan on it and the other is rice paper wrapped around red bean paste. She has cut the pastry in half with a toothpick and it’s surprisingly difficult. She then shows us how we are supposed to whisk the tea.
I thought i whisked mine enough but when she comes around she says I need to do it a lot more.
The tea ceremony involves a lot more whisking than I tried to do at first, but it’s fun. The sweets before it our lovely.
We take a couple more pictures after in the pretty tea room. There’s art in the panels. The lighting isn’t great for my face (I think my head blocked a can light or something but otherwise the pictures are great.
It’s very much an experience curated for tourists and a bit of a sampler or intro to traditional Japanese cultur but it felt respectful and not gimmicky. Our tea group was all couples from different countries and about half were on their honeymoon.
We then walk through nishiki market and buy chopsticks. I buy some pretty purple ones. 6100 yen. I get three, two lavender and one sparkly. I realize too late that I probably could’ve gotten another of the sparkly and gotten a set of four but it’s fine. I also get three chopstick rests that are some sort of adorable sea slugs (I get three, one purple, but there was a fourth design but it was orange and I didn’t love it. The other two were blue and polka dot.
Apparently the yen hit its lowest in 30 years relative to the dollar.
Dinner is at a sort of americaish small plate place after we can’t get into the restaurant my uncle recommended. I try brown sugar shochu it is good but not as sweet as I wanted. We get garlic bread (with pesto), gapao rice, pork loin, and fried chicken. We then get a Dutch baby with gelato for dessert that they unexpectedly add fruit to. I hate when desserts do that because I don’t like fruits and then it can kind of ruin the taste of whatever it’s on with its sauce or whatever. And with dessert if it’s not delicious I don’t really want it. I eat the edges of my half of the pancake and then have my boyfriend finish the parts that got soaked with fruit juice
#travel diary#yes I am posting these back to back#and yes my trip was in early to mid November#I don’t very quickly but it’s fine#also too lazy to pull out my haphazard cash tracking from the diary#japan#japan day 4#day 4#japan travel diary#overly long travel diary
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The Line of Seriel - House of Naradrilen
The Ahn’né people came to Enschka on the dawn of the first age. In what are now called the Lost Tribes lived Seriel. Little is known about her outside of the House of Naradrilen. It is said that Seriel was a leader in her community, although what her accurate title or responsibilities were has been lost to time. The reasons that pushed her to leave the Lost Tribes behind are mostly unknown, and what little is taught about it often conflicts with itself.
Some believe her community was persecuted, others say that a great evil was rising amongst the Tribes and Seriel protected her people by fleeing the growing threat. Others still say that what Seriel fled was an illness, a disease so swift and so deadly that her people were the only left to survive it, only because they left in time.
Whatever the truth may be, Seriel gathered her people, her family, and together the few hundreds of them began the Exodus. After crossing the Farewell Pass, the exiled people founded the Dreaming Woods in the Septentrion-most part of the continent of Enschka.
Seriel's family and closest friends she brought with her were instituted as the House of Naradrilen (ahnol for Children of the Trees) and Seriel was crowned first Queen of the Ahn’né on the 1st of Pyredays of 98 1AA.
Seriel was a brave and just queen. Her prowess in the use of irha made her integral to the early survival of the Ahn’né when they settled in the Dreaming Woods. She's remembered for her quick tongue and biting sense of humor. Seriel is often represented laughing and this is how her people still see her to this day; a fair ruler who always had laughter on her lips.
On the 23rd of Rainsbloom 201, Queen Seriel of House Naradrilen, First Queen of the Ahn’né, was assassinated. Even now, it is still unclear who was behind the murder, or what their motives were. Some people over the years have begun to believe that Queen Seriel was assassinated by the J'kaï and that it is the reason behind the Tribute War. Proponents of this theory say that it would echo the name given to the war, as well as conveniently explain the long-forgotten origin of the thousand-year war that has caused such tragedy for the Ahn’né.
Whatever the reason, after a brief period during which Consort Eikane of House Orane became Regent to help stabilise the Queendom, Seriel's heir and firstborn child, Maÿ, came to the throne. On the 18th of Firstsnow 202, Maÿ was crowned second Queen of the Ahn’né.
Queen Maÿ the Kind remains to this day the most beloved queen after Seriel. Maÿ was just good, purely and completely good. Under her rein, the Dreaming Woods flourished, growing rapidly in size and population while its culture and customs began spreading far and wide throughout Enschka. She nurtured most of the diplomatic relations with the Fées and the Ondines and brokered the longest period of peace during the entire Tribute War.
But above all, Maÿ the Kind's greatest gift to her people came after she met who would become Consort Itril Silnalui. Their love was the matter of legends, and it is legend that says that the ahns, upon seeing this love, moulded the irha of the Dreaming Woods and gave to Maÿ a secret knowledge. A knowledge with which the Queen created the Bonding, and made Itril and her the first ever Companions.
From their Bond came Merathÿ, Maÿ's heir, on the 4th of Awakening 910. And on the 4th of Awakening 910, Queen Maÿ the Kind passed away in childbirth.
Because Merathÿ was just born when she needed to take the throne, she was replaced by Relei, Seriel's second child, who acted as Regent starting on the 3rd of Harvest 1 1AF, and for the decades before Merathÿ was of age to inherit her duties.
On the 41st of Firstsnow 87, Merathÿ was crowned third Queen of the Ahn’né.
We do not talk about Traitor Merathÿ.
On the 6th of Slowdays 106, Nanse, Queen Seriel's third child, was crowned fourth Queen of the Ahn’né.
Queen Nanse the Great was a genius tactician, and in any other life, she would have been one of the greatest ahn’né warrior-queen. But barely fifty turns after Nanse's coronation, Enschka crumbled under the disastrous consequences of the Great Cataclysm. Nanse's entire rein after that was solely focused on rebuilding the queendom from the sheer destruction caused by the cataclysmic event.
Those who knew her said that Queen Nanse was always calm and gracious, that she would always take the time to listen no matter who talked to her, from commoners to her personal advisers. That she rarely smiled, but not for lack of wanting; because Queen Nanse the Great had lived through the death of her sister-queen, the betrayal of her niece, a war that had ran through generations, and without question the single most devastating and catastrophic event Enschka had ever known.
It is said that Nanse had a beautiful smile that pulled you in, and a laugh that invited you to join. It is also said that Nanse rarely had a reason to smile, and never had a reason to laugh. There was a melancholy that dragged her down like a dark miasma, a despair that dogged her every step no matter how much effort she put into dragging her country out of the rubble and ruins.
Already weary when she took the throne, a hundred times more weary the more she reigned, Queen Nanse the Great passed away peacefully in her sleep on the 39th of Warmer 567, having lived a long and heavy life.
Right after, Nanse's heir and second child, Erethil, was crowned fifth Queen of the Ahn’né.
Erethil was one of the youngest queens to come into power and it was immediately obvious to her Court and her people that she did not want to be there. Nanse, to date, remains the queen who lived the oldest and reigned the longest, and many believe of Erethil that she had taken her mother's long reign and even longer life for immortality.
In a way, she might not be completely wrong. Scholars in the study of irha believe that if Nanse didn't have to spend so much of her power during her reign to compensate for the Great Cataclysm, and if she didn't decide to have both of her children very late in life, she most likely would have lived eternally. But a child is a costly thing ever since Maÿ's death in childbirth outlawed the Old Way, and Nanse exhausting herself to create two lives in such close proximity expanded so much of her irha at once that her following death was to be expected.
Consequentially, Erethil lived in the belief that she would not access the throne for a very long time, if at all, and it showed during her reign. She was never cruel or unjust, but there was a distinct lack of care in her actions. She was clearly very unhappy, miserable in a role she despised. Erethil did the bare minimum and delegated everything she could to her Council and her elder brother.
Roughly 250 turns of the wheels into Erethil's reign (dates are fuzzy because of how private House of Naradrilen is and how little of this process was done publicly), Erethil's brother changed.
The specifics are, again, unclear, for this kind of procedure is normally undertaken so much younger in life. Some Scholars believed that surviving this was a miracle for Nanse's firstborn. Others say that the survival rate is always the same, but what mattered here was that Nanse's first child most likely believed it a course of action impossible specifically for her..
Roughly 250 turns of the wheels into Erethil's reign, the Queen got everything she wished for. Her older sibling was now a woman, and as firstborn of the line of Seriel, she was now entitled to the throne upon Erethil's death. Erethil did not see it that way. Her sister's transition was a gift from the White, in her own words, and she would not pass the opportunity this presented.
On the 13th of Blizzard 854, Queen Erethil abdicated the throne of Ahn-Seriel and stayed just long enough to see her sister to the throne in her stead. Right after, Erethil marched to the banks of the Maÿ that cut through Ahn-Seriel, embarked on one of the ondine barges that had apparently come only for her, and vanished into the night. No word has come from Queen Erethil ever since, no news recorded; although it is believed she is still alive.
Despite now being eligible to the throne, Antahnaril had never been raised as a queen. She named a Regent in her stead while she was taught all that she needed. In the first of many controversial decisions Ant would take in her life, she named Lieutenant-General Sileo of House Haravel as Regent.
The controversy didn't came from Sileo's aptitudes, as he was arguably one of the most competent people in the whole queendom. But despite his many qualities, Sileo was not of House Naradrilen, making him the first person to take the throne of Ahn-Seriel who wasn't a direct descendant of the Line of Seriel.
Ant managed to placate most complaints by simply pointing that Sileo was an incredibly competent man and that, given her unique position as the only queen-to-be to be of age while a regency was in place, she had still authority to veto a decision made by Sileo even while she was in learning. Sileo's regency was more of a joined affair between him and Ant while she learned the ins and outs of the Naradrilen monarchy.
With Erethil's abdication, her education now complete, Antahnaril was crowned sixth Queen of the Ahn’né on the 9th of Pyredays 916.
Warrior-Queen Ant was a brutal tactician, a deadly fighter and a prodigy Master of Arms. Her reign marked the most aggressive campaign of conquest and battle against the J'kaï army. Ant is seen as a savage warrior, a ruthless decision-maker, and a mostly absent queen. Her time was almost exclusively spent on the battlefield while she left the bulk of the government work to her Council and Consort. Oh, what a scandal her Consort was.
Ant met President Kela when he came to congratulate her. The Fée president had taken an entourage with him, and amongst them was his younger brother, Yosaël. Everyone present in the room, even those who grumble at the eventual conclusion, agrees that it was love at first sight. Less than a cycle later, the Warrior-Queen and Yosaël had begun the Bonding process, and the Ceremony happened not long after.
To date, Consort Yosaël is the only consort to a Naradrilen queen who isn't ahn’né. There might have been more pushback against his inclusion in the House of Naradrilen if Consort Yosaël wasn't as good as he is.
The Fée has managed, despite everything going against him, to garner from the people of Ahn-Seriel the same reputation as Maÿ the Kind. Yosaël is deeply beloved by the people he effectively rules over while his Companion fights the Tribute War personally (again, something the Warrior-Queen is the first to do). Yosaël also raised Ant's heir from birth and for most of her life while her mother was in campaign.
Despite her ruthlessness, it has always been evident how fiercely Queen Ant cares. Her people come before everything, even her own safety, her time with her family and at home in Ahn-Seriel. She hones in on any threat made against who she considers hers and, despite her many oddities, this has granted Queen Ant a high popularity amongst her people.
But after a lifetime of controversies and debatable decisions, Ant did the one thing that no one was able to let go of. During the customary visit to the Sanctuary made once every turn of the wheel, the Children of the Calling gave Ant and Yosaël a prediction. Although not frequent, the Sanctuary does, at times, contact the various leaders of the continent with any information they gleaned from the future and deem necessary to pass onto them.
The last queen to receive a prediction had been the Traitor, making it almost an Age since then and surprising everyone with it, Ant and Yosaël most of all. The predictions are kept secret between the Sanctuary and whatever leader received it, to ensure that, given the state of Enschka and its thousand-year war, nothing foreseen by the Seers amongst the Children of the Calling would fall into the hands of an opposing nation. Therefore, no one knows what words were gifted to the Warrior-Queen one that fateful encounter.
The sweet child of Ant, Heir Anathÿ, was believed to be blessed by the Gods because of her uncanny resemblance to Seriel, down to her frequent smiles and loud laughter. Much too young for the throne yet but the people were looking forward to her reign; it was public opinion that she would herald a prosperous time, perhaps even broker a continued peace with the J'kaï.
But when the royal family came back from the Sanctuary, sweet Heir Anathÿ had stopped smiling. There, on the Sanctuary island, hidden away from her own people, Anathÿ had her very last laugh. When the Ahn’né next saw Heir Anathÿ, they were shocked and horrified to see the small child with metallic wire sewing her mouth completely shut.
Aside from the obvious, something had irrevocably changed in the family. Yosaël was aggressively kind, as if to compensate for what he let others do to his child, no matter her blood. There was now a distance between Yosaël and the queen, despite their clear love for each other. Ant, on the other hand, became ever more absent.
Her campaigns went on for longer and longer, until Yosaël effectively became the ruler in her stead. A period of despair followed, as the people of the Dreaming Woods watched in horror their hope and dream of Heir Anathÿ becoming the next Seriel be destroyed by a prediction they knew nothing about.
What was supposed to be a prosperous time for the ahn’né people turned into tragedy, and disappointment. During one of her seemingly ever-lasting campaigns, the Warrior-Queen was taken down by a squad of J'kaï assassins. She died on the 29th of Slowdays 356 2AF, not having come home to Ahn-Seriel, her Consort and her daughter for over a decade.
Anathÿ wasn't of age when Ant died, so Consort Yosaël became regent for a short period of time. Finally, on the 5th of Harvest 359, Anathÿ was crowned seventh Queen of the Ahn’né.
(shown above, Anathÿ -right- and her son Eobel -left-)
Last in a long line with a heavy history, Anathÿ-Battlescar is a grave, serious ruler. Long gone are the smiles and laughter of her childhood, Anathÿ took the best of both worlds from her parents. Her queen-mother passed down to her a ruthlessness that shows in much of her decision-making, and terrifying skill in combat. From her father, blood relations or not, she got her unparalleled skill in the use of irha.
Anathÿ sees the world in black and white. There is only the war, and the continued survival of her people. Nothing else matters. These two sides of her rarely conflict, but the citizens of Ahn-Seriel, who most often interact with her, tell tales of a queen who spends half of every day in a public hall, where she meets anyone of her subjects who wants to speak with her, one by one and in private. No matter that she was back from the battlefield, injured and exhausted, you would always find her in the morning, in that great hall where her people gather.
The rest of her time, she mostly spends with her war council, planning the next attack, coordinating the next defence. Queen Anathÿ never Bonded, despite having two children. Heir Orril was born of General Alaric, while her son Eobel was created with Alinael-irhashal. Anathÿ has one of the longest reigns of the line of Seriel, with Heir Orril having come of age for a number of turns now. She's a popular queen, if not the closest to her people, a skilled ruler and deadly warrior.
#totl#lore#the shadowwalkers#the oath of the landwalker#interactive fiction#seriel#maÿ#merathÿ#nanse#erethil#ant#relei#sileo#yosaël#anathÿ#orril#eobel#totl art
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Eikan-Do Temple in Kyoto
A little stream at Eikan-do cho temple complex in Kyoto with little bridges connecting the buildings.
Eikan-do pronounced EEK-AN-DOUGH and not as we tried to explain when asking for directions – with blank looks from a taxi driver wondering where we wanted to go. Therefore always handy to write down the name in English and Japanese, for which the Drafts app for Mac and iPhone is perfect because…
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京都の日本庭園 💚✨
#moodboard#japan#kyoto#temple#garden#nature#aesthetic#green#architecture#choraku-ji#sumiya#jisho-in#eikan-do#nanzen-ji#calm#naturecore#inspiration#dream#travel#edit#˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗
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Autumn in Kyoto: Eikan-do
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Eikan-do 永観堂 by Patrick Vierthaler on Flickr
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A Walk Between 5 Temples in Kyoto, Japan
2020 and 2021 (most likely) will probably be the only time to see a lot of Kyoto’s temples and shrines without the throngs of tourists. We are trying to take this opportunity to visit ALL THE SHRINES! We won’t. There are over 1600 temples in Kyoto (17 of them are UNESCO World Heritage sites).
Here are 5 that we walked between in a one day itinerary. As with all temples in Kyoto (and perhaps…
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#Eikan-do Zenrin-ji#Ginkakuji#Higashiyama Jisho-ji#japan#Kiyomizu-dera#Kōdaiji Temple#kyoto temple tour#Tenju-an Temple#walking#天授庵#東山慈照寺#永観堂#清水寺#禅林寺#高台寺
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Koyo (red leaves) at Eikan-do Temple 2018 via /r/natureporn https://ift.tt/31DXuF7
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♡ vermelho como as folhas de eikan-do.
dia 20 04 20, pedido pessoal.
#nct#nct 127#nct yuta#nakamoto yuta#yuta#loona#yeojin#loona yeojin#capa de fanfic#capa para fanfic#capa de fic#capa para spirit#capa de spirit#capa romântica#banner de fanfic#banner de capítulo
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Japan Day 2!
Today was traveling to Kyoto and exploring temples in their northern mountain region
We got to do a lot of hiking in gorgeous fall weather and I loved seeing all of the temples and shrines just fully mixed in with the woods around them.
We got to through a famous maple tunnel on our way there and back and see gorgeous fall colors. The rural streets were also full of beautiful colors and we go to walk along side a pretty river. The river had eating spots in, and in the summer there’s way more including a restaurant that puts up long plans spanning the river so you have dinner above it like a bridge, in addition to the little picnic tables we saw still up.
After we got back to Kyoto and our hotel we got drinks at a craft brewery and udon for dinner
The craft brewery had no face from ghiblis spirited away as their tip jar and I loved it.
Travel diary
Day 2 11/11
Day 2 11/11
Train to Kyoto then mountains. The train we get on is the panoramic train with extra big windows to see all the pretty leaves. On the way there we pass thru the maple tunnel. It’s really pretty even if only some of the leaves have turned yet. I try but am mostly unsuccessful at taking good pictures of it.
We get to the end of the line and walk to the kibune temple. All the shrines in the woods and many many stairs. Anthony paid the temple entrance fee of. We take another trains and a cable car to rope way to the next temple.
At the top of the ropeway we can see over outskirts of Kyoto and the mountains in the distance. We go through a hike in the woods and see more good views. I talk my boyfriend into a selfie in the view. The trees are starting to change color and we enjoy how pretty it is. We walk probably a mile until we hit the entrance to eikan-todo the main temple on the mountain. The ticket gate is closed so we’ll have to find another. The temples are red and brightly painted and there’s a fair number of people around. It’s a weird balance at the temples between tourists and people actually come to use them. I want to get a good look at all of them but also want to be respectful to the people praying and not intrude or gawk at them. Most of the signage is in Japanese with only a couple critical designations in English. We have to look at the map like three times but finally find the entrance with a manned ticket agent to pay our tickets. I pay in cash for mine 1000 yen. We continue to explore the temple and try to find a soba restaurant for lunch that is supposedly up here. We can’t find it and settle for some mochi dumplings as a snack. It’s not very filling but we’ll get more snacks. This proves to be a mistake. After we explore this temple complex we start the hike back to the cable car where we will stop at another site eikan-saito on the way back.
eikan-saito is even more remote and very peaceful. The first building we come to has a beautiful rock garden where the pebbles have been raked in a beautiful pattern. As we continue on the path through the different temples we see a monk sweeping all the little leaves off of the rock path.
We decide to do the big loop through the temples which includes a path along the side of the road. It’s wild to me how many of the places you have to walk are just narrow shoulders along side narrow roads. At least all of the leaves are pretty. We then hike back up to the ropeway and cable car. Somehow in the course of coming down the rope way and cable car I loose my ICCOA card. I had put it in my pocket when I got out my cable car ticket and then it must’ve fallen out. I’m so confused because they were such tight leggings pockets and I’ve never had things fall out of them before. It’s annoying because I had like 2700 yen left and now I’ll have to get a new one and now the bus back ticket will be annoying, but luckily my bf has coins that he lends me for the fare.
The bus ride back is pretty miserable. I really should’ve insisted on more snacks and taken more ibuprofen before we left, but the bus only comes every 30 minutes so we had wanted to catch that one. The bus takes like an hour and a half and I’m cramping and hungry and nauseous the whole time and the bus is crowded we are standing like squished sardines the whole time. And I’m still annoyed at myself for loosing my ic card.
Eventually we make it to the station I want to get food at the first convience store we see but my by wants to go to one lower that will be less crowded and I almost start to cry. But then we go down there and I get a sandwich and pocky. I stray in on the pocky and immediately start to feel better. I get a new ic card putting 5000 yen on it (500 of which is a deposit). We retrieve our luggage and go to our hotel where we eat our sandwiches.
We then grab a drink at a nearby bar called gion that has an Instagram with singing birds. The bar is playing Christmas music already. I get a fun peach ale for 1200 yen. I also tip in the ghibli tip toy which is very fun. Mr no face has teeth which he shows off when his whole head opens up to eat your tip. On the way out a take a video of the singing birds.
We then head out for dinner and get udon. The place has no English and no one there speaks English but between google translate, pointing and my bfs limited Japanese we make through and get delicious udon with pork and green onions. We’re at the bar top so we can watch him cook and the green onions are so massive it’s pretty cool.
After dinner I want to go straight to bed but my boyfriend convinced me to walk around a bit and see the streets. I do love seeing all the narrow streets and all their different store fronts and lanterns about. It is very crowded but fun to way to see the city. And I’m still sound alseep by 9.
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Autumn at the Eikan-do Temple pond in Kyoto, Japan
Photo: calvario.paseo on Flickr
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Eikan-Do (Quioto)
Trata-se de um dos lugares mais bonitos dessa importante cidade japonesa, especialmente no período da primavera, quando as copas das árvores ganham cores que variam em tons do vermelho ao amarelo.
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News Roundup for the Second Half of 2019
Come and join me for a blow-by-blow of the major 2D femdom events that've happened since my last post in July. Pretend you've time traveled back to the summer to watch it all rapidly unfold...
July: The Big Scare Before Comiket
On the 25th, tremors ran through the hearts of 2D femdom fetishists around the world as Exhentai shut down for a few days. I won't revisit the details of the drama, but it was even covered by some well-known media outlets. During the outage, one user put up a torrent of femdom works on Nyaa.
August: A New Msize Game, and the Return of doskoinpo
August means Comiket, but not just any Comiket--it was the first four-day Comiket in history. To kick it off, Msize's newest game Akujo no Eikan was released on the 9th. My impression is that people liked it, but it wasn't exactly what anyone hoped for. I personally love that Riumu went in a new direction with this one.
Meanwhile, doskoinpo's Atelier Maso hadn't released a new work since April, and on his blog, he'd delivered an autobiographical love story told across multiple posts that ended in heartbreak. Given the silly way doskoinpo writes, you can never tell exactly how serious he is, or how much of his story is truth and how much is fiction. Certainly, the commenters were all very supportive of him. But at the end of the month, he appeared to have bounced back when he released the manga Kuso Maso, Rakusen on the 29th. Since then he's more or less returned to a regular schedule of Atelier Maso works.
September: Prison Queendom, and Competition for Girls forM?
Appetite's newest femdom game Onii-chan no Seiheki, Watashi ga Mitsukete Ageru♪ came out on the 6th. Low price imoutodom nukige never go out of style, do they?
A new digital magazine for femdom fans called Masochistic Situation Magazine Vol. 1 Fall 2019 was put up for sale on DLsite on the 12th. It featured 5 artists which include former G4M artist Gin and the well-known Miss Black. However, unlike G4M, it doesn't seem to operate on a schedule of any sort. It's a self-published collaboration between artists, like many other doujinshi.
Finally, on the 27th of the month Prison Queendom was released. As the most ambitious femdom game in years, and the focus of a collaboration with the magazine Girls forM, countless fans had their eyes on this. Sure enough, the amount of content didn't disappoint. Anyone remotely curious should check out mortalvyses's comprehensive review.
October: Steady State
On the 4th, mortalvyses put out the sixth patch for D s na Onee-san. It's possible there will be only 1 more patch left after this. The biggest femdom game TL ever is almost complete, huh?
A tankoubon of Ichiko's G4M chapters came out on the 7th. Its name is Dog Breeders. There's a two-page extra focused on Kikyou at the end.
excess m's latest anticipated game Yume kara Sameta Mouja (Yume-Same) came out on the 19th. This time the focus was on monster girls. The fetishes are still heavily biased toward sumata and the like, though. The reception wasn't especially positive, but people have high expectations of excess m.
Dieselmine, a company that has often tried to grasp and take advantage of trends, made a bold move by launching what could probably be called the first ever femdom (18+) gacha game. It's called Midnight Girls and it's hosted on DMM, which means you need a Japanese IP to play it. The theme is monster girls, and a lot of the art assets are recycled from their previous games. I've always hoped to see a truly high quality femdom gacha game, but it's probably still a ways away, especially after what happened in November...
November: The Fall of Herencia
...The month started out on a positive note. 100KCAL, a doujin group that specializes in lolidom and whose titles include the translated Chindere, rebranded itself as 1micron earlier this year and started up a Ci-en page. (For those not aware, Ci-en is one of several Japanese Patreon-like sites.) It put out its first new doujin game in 4 years, S Mei, on the 16th. The quality is consistent with their older stuff, with that same one seiyuu.
Over the past several months, the femdom CG set series Sakusei Byoutou exploded in popularity and even made it into Japan's Twitter trends, while selling extremely well on DLsite. Its background is a topic for another post, though. On the 19th, the doujin circle who made it, Sakusei Kenkyuujo, suddenly announced that due to personal circumstances the circle would be shut down... Shortly after that, the circle and its works were taken down off the web. It's still unknown what exactly happened, but this is certainly a loss to the world. Edit: My info was out of date. The creator posted an explanation in late November. Furthermore, on December 13 he relaunched his Ci-en and announced that he'd teamed up with Peniken to recreate the series as a manga.
When it rains, it pours. On the 20th of November, it was announced on Twitter (with an English TL) that Herencia's director, main scenario writer, and high profile femdom fan Ryousei Rui had resigned from Herencia, and that Herencia would be "frozen".
What does this mean for Herencia? Well, Herencia is just a brand that is owned by Nexton, so aside from Ryousei Rui, the rest of Herencia's employees could just stay with Nexton and work at their other brands like Azarashi Soft or BaseSon. Herencia being "frozen" means that Nexton will still facilitate sales of Herencia's already published games, but they are no longer financing new games under the brand Herencia. So this effectively means that Herencia is dead unless Nexton decides to revive it, and even if they do, it won't have the same feel unless they re-hire Ryousei. Meanwhile, Ryousei says he may participate in some doujin works, but he has no concrete plans on what to do next.
Why did this happen? Here's my view. Anyone with a bit of knowledge of the eroge industry can tell you that femdom games don't sell well. Herencia was probably never very profitable for Nexton, but it at least had Ryousei Rui, someone with passion, to drive it forward. In the past year, under his leadership Herencia created Prison Queendom, a femdom game with a vast amount of content that even incorporated a collaboration with Girls forM. That kind of game isn't cheap to develop, and I imagine that the Nexton executives who funded Herencia were aware that there was a high chance Queendom wouldn't lead to a return on investment. Still, Herencia was allowed to create it. And two months after it went on sale, Ryousei Rui alone resigned. And yes, he confirmed that he wasn't fired (he confirmed this explicitly). ...While I can't clairvoyantly know what Nexton told him, and it's entirely possible that from a certain perspective he's the one who "chose" to resign, the bottom line is that the circumstances must have put him in a difficult position. And I think we can all agree that his resignation is a strong indicator that Nexton no longer cares for games with scenarios like Prison Queendom's. In any case, Herencia's brand of unapologetically hard femdom will be sorely missed.
December: Girls forM's Swan Song
For many years now, to femdom fans, December has meant both Comiket (from the 28th to the 31st this year)... and a new issue of Girls forM. (Although the digital version most of us read would usually come out a month later, in January.) It didn't seem like this year would be any different, when the artist list and cover were released on Twitter and included some of my favorites like Yamahata Rian, Ichiko, and Piririnegi. There are only 11 chapters this time, making it a short issue. The cover girl is the same one from volume 7's cover.
But on the 17th, Girls forM made an announcement: volume 20, set for release on December 27, will be the last one. As for the reasons, there's no public comment, but I believe it's safe to say that an inability to attract popular artists should be the major one. It's been a while since I checked the 5ch thread because they've now blocked my country (ugh) but there's been substantial talk of this for a while, with cynical netizens wondering how many more issues G4M could hold on for, as big names like Akazawa Red, Mame, and clover ceased participation in the magazine. Despite shifts in the lineup and direction, I think most of us still found artists we love and chapters we enjoyed in every new issue of the magazine. Even a slacker like me who lately takes 6+ months to finish Msize games managed to quickly eat up each new G4M. So let's try to savor this one last issue, and hope that one day, someone is able to carry on G4M's legacy.
Trends and Anticipation
This past half year especially, we've seen the rise of a notable player in the doujin femdom manga scene: Blitzkrieg. This circle used to focus more on voice works, but last year they hired doskoinpo to draw the first two chapters of the schoolgirl findom series Hajimete no Mitsugi Maso-ka Choukyou. Around the same time, they hired Denchi, who was somehow an unknown before that, to draw a ruthless NTR femdom series called Hajimete no Netorare Maso-ka Choukyou that has 5 chapters so far. Denchi is probably the only artist I see praised on sadpanda anywhere near as much as doskoinpo. To be clear, because some people don't quite understand how this works: the person behind Blitzkrieg isn't an artist, it's a writer; the scripts for these manga are written by Blitzkrieg and the artists drew to their requirements. In any case, after doskoinpo and Denchi, Blitzkrieg has hired several awesome femdom artists: Himino (to continue the series that doskoinpo drew initially), Moscow, Toppogi, and Niwatori Gunsou. I've loved every single chapter I've read from Blitzkrieg, and they're continuing to come out at a rapid pace on DLsite. It's also let me discover talented artists I wasn't aware of before.
On a side note, Dokutoku no M is like a mini-Blitzkrieg; they hired Denchi too, and the plots of both of Denchi's chapters feel similar to what Blitzkrieg puts out.
My biggest source of hype right now is NM's S na Kanojo simulation game. I talked about NM in detail in an earlier post, but to sum it up, this a 3D animated visual novel based on a very popular image series about the perfect femdom girlfriend. NM said it would probably come out this fall, which was obviously wrong, but his latest blog posts have made it sound like we're increasingly close to the final stages of development. He's in the process of recruiting a seiyuu for the game, and my hope is that with the budget his Ci-en followers afforded him (there's a paid tier specifically to fund the seiyuu costs) he'll pick a very skilled one. I personally expect it around spring or summer of 2020.
Last year, I praised Bullet Girl Phantasia for its reverse interrogation mini-game. This niche lewd game is unexpectedly being localized for Steam in early 2020. This was fairly unexpected, because it's a console game in Japan.
And I know that this blog is focused more on East Asian "2D" femdom than Western 2D femdom, but I feel the need to mention that the Western indie femdom game scene has blown up in the past year or two. I think it's largely due to the inspiration of two deeply infuential games, Perverted Education and Tower of Trample, panning out, along with the overall rise of the indie adult game scene. I won't talk about that here, but let me at least share a list of my personal favorites. I've actually been spending a lot more time on these games than Japanese ones, in large part because they have deeper gameplay components and more complex plots.
Side Talk
I hope you found this overview of the final 6 months of the decade interesting. Those last 2 VR posts kind of burned me out, so I continually put off blogging. But with the year almost over, I feel like it's time to put everything in order. I have a lot to potential blog post ideas, though most of them are on weird subjects that won't interest most people, but I'll have to evaluate my priorities as I enter the coming year.
Later this month I'll update my G4M artist chart and update my links. Lately it seems like the main link for Mazochina is always down, but there's an alternate link that seems to work for me, it's just I can't log in.
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