i am looking in to places to stay in kyoto whilst in japan next month.
we were super lucky last time and stayed in my friend akiko's wonderful old wooden house
in the mountains near the path of philosophy. beautiful:)

this time i hope to rent an apartment of our own for the short time we will be there.
iori machiya stay i have mentioned before, but it is sadly outside the range i would like to pay for accommodation. (i am yet to properly grow up in that respect:)
and the cheap machiya guest houses i posted seem great, but i am looking for a private place. so...

monthly kyoto is a key site for this kind of search.
one room apartments in modern blocks for about $30AUD a night for the whole apartment
(that is $15 each! small places, and they add a surcharge for each person, but man,
that's cheap private accommodation when you compare what a dorm bed in a hostel costs).
shortest stay is 7 days. then goes up in weekly/monthly increments.

but what i have my keenest eye on are the machiya they list.
here are some photos to show what they offer.
you can rent these machiya for around $90AUD and up per night -for the whole house.

i think having your very own machiya to call home whilst staying in kyoto
beats a hotel, guesthouse, even a ryokan any day...
but then, i am super biased, loving machiya so.
as time passes i realise more and more how lucky i was to live in a machiya when i lived in kyoto.


this site may be of help to anyone planning a stay in kyoto sometime?
it's in japanese, so you might need a japanese speaker to help navigate it.

monthly-kyoto
in english:
sakura house does similar apartment rent facilitation in tokyo (but has more guest houses)
this site lists some private machiya for rent in english

my love of topiary continues.

i saw eugene atget on a show on modern photography on aunty abc last night.

eugene atget

saint-cloud 1921-22

images via 

estetica-fotografica

artnet

george eastman house
ngv

his pictures of paris remind me of another book i recently read;

down and out in paris and london by george orwell.

(i should probably start reading lighter reading matter some time soon...)

i just finished a biography on dylan thomas by constantine fitzgibbon.

it prompted me to look for recordings of dylan thomas reading his own poetry.

i found some youtube (at end) and here is a reading from the bbc archives.
it is quite something to hear; those rolling, lilting, bass notes. elocution.

"Dylan Thomas's voice has added a new dimension to literary history. He will surely be remembered as the first in modern literature to be both a maker and speaker of poetry..."

The New York Times on Thomas at the time of his American tours

it was a joy to also find these photos of his boathouse studio on a cliff's edge in south wales.

dylan thomas died in new york in november 1953 at the age of 39.

(ps - as far as i can see you need to have a skinny view on your screen to have these in linear order, it seems. a wide view and they go all over the shop...)

reading do not go gentle into that good night (written when his father was dying)

reading in my craft or sullen art

reading fern hill










reading love in the asylum (a girl mad as birds)

did you see this on mila's loveology?

what a nice floaty room.  it is just the ticket for my harried brain being kept so busy at work.

it is the room of a japanese designer living in london.

ps - 

on the right there i have changed what's on my record player. 

it's the pixies 'where is my mind'. i think perhaps one of my favourite songs ever.

since i was 17 or so. it's a laster. 

god bless my small town rural newsagent for airmailing the nme in, so a little girl 

with her eyes on the sky and her ears to the ground could get ahold of this.

also see gigantic. from what appears to be the same 1988 concert.

moody flowers and popcorn clouds.
by cottingley fairies and april cakes respectively.

(it's a nice day in melbourne today. nature at its best.)

i think this might be the perfect wedding present for a special friend.

these beautiful hand-carved wooden vessels are like a salve for a sore soul.

(sore soul? i am refusing the hammering insistence of the nicotine at work. but is hard, very hard.)

from herriott grace big cartel.

forty sixth at grace blog,

i first saw this via see hear say blog.

three nice things via designboom. there was another one, a wonderful house built

around existing tin shed buildings on a small urban block in japan. but i lost the link. 

if anyone remembers that and knows the link, please tell me!

a collaboration by ruth gurvich called light scape.

osaka renovation by katsuhiro miyamoto architects.

hill hut deisgned for japanese clients by visiondivision.

and ps - if you like, do send me your onigiri photos and experiments, 

i am keen to see the onigiri of yours and do the post if i can. 

i saw a nice recipe for vinegared onigiri in the most recent kunel...

my email is via here.

inspiration 01

i am not sure if i will ever be getting to live this dream i dream.
but in the meantime, here are some images of inspiration for it.
(i don't mean to be all mysterious, i just don't want to jinx it.)

1. via ensuite
2. via windy days
3. i'm sorry, i forget

4. via carson fisk-vittori

5. via huukeinoato

6. via dell on earth

ps - i lost my phone this week. i have survived 4 days without it. but it is weird, like living underwater. i am teetering on the brink of iphone. what do you think? do you love iphone like it seems everyone else does? maybe i should get it.