Caroline Fraser - an ordinary life: tradition

Monday, 9 December 2019

Sunday afternoon selfies in Kyoto - on ancient and modern traditions

Late November is autumn in Japan

Japanese acer

OH ( my other half) and I didn't realise what a big thing the atumn leaves are to the Japanese until we arrived at our first world heritage temple in Kyoto.

It is BIG.

Four star big....

On a par with cherry blossom season.

autumn colour forecast

Time for dressing up and taking selfies under the acers.

Kimono hire and selfies is the way to go. Mixing the traditions of the past with those of the present.

But you will have to wait your tun for the best tree.

While you are waiting for the best branch, you can practice your selfie pose.

And then compare notes with your friends

kimono selfies

Watching these antics lead me to a degree of hair envy.

I realised that I just couldn't compete with the young Japanese.

Jeans and hiking shoes don't cut the mustard.

Grey hairs and an absence of adornment shows a lack of self respect.

I needed a make over.

But didn't get one.

I could not compete with these beauties.

traditional hair style for kimono

Elegant and poised.


kimono and parasol

traditions, old and new

No way was OH going to look on adoringly as I posed in the autumn sun.

He would probably adopt an expression a bit more like this guy (below), who seems less impressed with the game.

No leaf selfies for us. For we had work to do.

Temples to visit. Trains and buses to catch.

Crowds to negotiate.

Sites to see.

Sunday afternoon in Kyoto

And I mean real crowds.

There are a lot of people in Japan. Especially on a Sunday afternoon in Kyoto.

Arashiyama bridge, Kyoto

No time to sit and ponder.

This is a land of wonder. Crowds or not.

And we were here to see it all....( well most of it, anyway) .

The fancy clothes and hair would have to wait.

paying respect at Kiyumizodera temple, Kyoto, Japan

Lady with chrysanthemum

The trees were a riot of colour for the whole of our trip, and my camera/phone was mostly pointed skywards.

Japanese acers

As usual, my holiday snaps don't give a really good impression of where I have been.

These trees could be almost anywhere.....

Japanese maple in autumn

OH has promised to buy me a selfie stick for Christmas. He can see that I have stick and hair envy....

Who knows what might transpire.

I might get some images of myself that are better than the one that he took of me, posing in front of the Pacific Ocean, wearing impossibly dull clothing....

I jest.....

but you already know that.

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

Scotch pies, caramel cakes, haggis and chips; it must be the Nairn Highland Games

I have been up in Scotland, eating for England; at a wedding and the Nairn Highland Games.

My diet for three days consisted of cake, pies and haggis, followed by macaroni pie, cake and then more cake and some Scottish tablet.

It was good, but I have come home with a renewed love of all things green on the food front.

The Nairn games are special for me, as they are set in my ancestral home, and because I can't resist a piper, preferably in a massed pipe band.

Marching to the highland games in Nairn

If you want to make me cry, just make me listen to the Scots Dragoon Guards playing Amazing Grace. It works every time.

The games are traditional; you know exactly what will happen as every year it is the same. Steeped in tradition. Tossing the caber, highland dancing, tug of war, pipers, and plenty tartan and kilts.

In full regalia before the procession commences

technology and tartan

Nairn Games 2014

Nairn Games 2014 at the Links

Right next to the show ground are the 'showies' - a funfair for those less attracted to traditional pursuits. The contrast within a hundred yards is quite surreal. Blaring music and people having fun spending money on the penny falls and dodgems. All you need to do is walk past the toilets and you enter a completely different world. Not everyone seems that happy to be there.