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.
In the arch, this fearsome figure stands guard.
The temple building is huge. You can see the ancient Buddhist icon which is a mirror image of a swastika.
There was much beauty at the temple. The inside of the shrines were impressively fancy too. But it all appeared to me as lifeless, static decorations.
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.
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 many invited friends.
His was the central kinetic sculpture. It was a balanced pendulum that swings in the wind.
Seeing the work in person and in motion was so much more impacting than a flat picture. A sweep one direction takes 2 seconds. We "helped" it swing wider.
Another work.
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.
Next stop was Starbucks. Everything is very much the same as North America except they did not have the gigantic "Venti" size.
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.
The area inside was huge. Sometimes the whole thing is turned into a public ice skating area.
The building also had an Olympic museum. We entertained ourselves at the exhibits.
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).
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.
