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Next morning Mom had business to do in Nagano, so we toured in the city. This was the entrance arch to Zenkoji Hondo, a large Buddhist temple complex that is one of the oldest in Japan.
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In the arch, this fearsome figure stands guard.
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The temple building is huge. Notice the ancient Buddhist icon that is the mirror image of a swastika.
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There was much beauty at the temple. The inside of the shrines were impressively fancy too. But they looked like lifeless, static decorations.
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To me, it felt very dead - just ritual. The bib and bonnet idol treatment is common and can also be seen on many road-side idols.
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Next stop was the plaza in front of studios of the national radio station. Art's son-in-law Uichi Yonebayashi is a respected modern art sculptor. He had designed the plaza as a display of public art. The art works in it were done by him and invited friends.
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His was the central kinetic sculpture. It was a balanced pendulum that swings in the wind.
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Seeing the work in person and in motion was so much more impacting than a flat picture.
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A sweep one direction takes 2 seconds. We "helped" it swing wider.
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Another work.
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This other kinetic sculpture was also very impressive. It looked like a gigantic bird in flight. It flapped and turned in the wind. It took about three seconds to sweep one direction.
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Next stop was Starbucks. Everything is very much the same as North America except they did not have the gigantic "Venti" size.
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The final stop in Nagano was the M-Wave building that housed the winter Olympics speed skating. It is like two gigantic vertical triangular prisms with the roof draped between them.
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The area inside was huge. Sometimes the whole thing is turned into a public ice skating area.
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The building had an Olympic museum. The first thing to see was a 3D video of highlights of the Nagano Winter Olympics.
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The museum had a lot of interesting displays.
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It had a "virtual bobsled" that rumbled and vibrated during its run.
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We even got Art and Mom in on the experience. Since the sled was sized for children, Art's experience was a tight fit. It was hard to get out afterward!
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We also had some Olympic winners!
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That evening, we had to try the Japanese McDonald's experience. Japanese has a vowel between every consonant, so it is pronounced more like "MacuDonaludus". They call the "Meal Deal" a "Setu" (set).
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The price was similar to North America. The burgers and frys tasted pretty much the same as American fare. However, the ketchup tasted less sweet and more tomatoey.
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