This weekend (despite being really sick) Maiko and I went back to her home town in Shiga prefecture. The goal was to just visit her parents, but because I always complain that we never do any touristy stuff, her mom decided to take us to a “Temple Night View“.
Basically, a Temple Night View is where you walk through a temple at night and look at some very interesting and artistic lighting designs. Apparently, this is a very popular activity to do in Japan during the fall and winter months. So, on Saturday evening we went to a temple in Kyoto named Kodai-ji.
At first, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. However, while on the bus to the temple Maiko noticed that the brochure for this temple stated that the night view had been produced through some kind of special collaboration with Google. Needless to say, that bit of information made me a little curious as to how or what Google could be doing at a very old temple. :>)
Anyhow, when we got there, I was both a bit surprised and a little aw struck. Temples in Kyoto are absolutely gorgeous during the day. But, when you see the same temple at night through the lens of a specifically crafted lighting design it can be transformed into a very magical place. In many respects, it was almost surreal. If it wasn’t for the crowds of people trumping around and the subversive Google Ad (shown in one of my pictures) then you might walk away thinking you had just seen an interactive computer generated three dimensional painting.
Anyhow, as for how Google was involved, it seems that they helped produce a very interesting shadow and light display which was shown in the main rock garden of the temple. It was very pretty, but almost ruined by the ad that I mentioned…
On a side note, it seems that unlike the states where Google does almost no advertising, they are actually trying to market themselves in Japan. In fact, about two weeks ago, I stepped onto my morning train only to be greeted by an entire train (inside and out) that was just covered in nothing but Google advertisements. I believe the campaign was 101 things you can do with Google or something like.
Pictures from the temple are as follows:
