Kevin in Shanghai

The Still Point of the Turning World

2011-11-21T15:08:00.000+02:00

The title of this blog comes from T.S. Eliot. He was talking about books and I think he was right. In this busy world books are something very static or at least they used to be. The idea of the book is now changing. What exactly constitutes a book? “Books” now can have many added features such as 3-D clips, embedded digi-vids, and recordable devices so a narrator can tell the story (presumably for parents and children). The format of what constitutes a book is changing.
Last fall I received a Kindle as a present from Aya. I love to read. I read in the bathroom, in planes/trains/automobiles, before bed time, etc. I usually am reading 2-3 books at a time and in an average year I get through about 50 books of varying size. So naturally the idea of the Kindle intrigued me. The main draw for me was that it could hold a lot of media in a relatively small device. I am often traveling and so this would be a great thing to have. Last summer I seriously considered buying one as I was going to be taking graduate classes and traveling at the same time. I certainly didn’t want to lug my textbooks around with me and the Kindle would have been perfect except that those particular titles weren’t in the Kindle selection yet. Therein lies one of the drawbacks. Despite the vast amount of titles available on the Kindle it is merely a drop in the literary bucket. So I didn’t buy it because of that, the price of most books on the unit, and the price of the Kindle itself. At the time it was around 200 dollars to buy a Kindle and some of the titles can only be bought for 9.99 and above via amazon while their paper editions can be found for 1 cent plus shipping.
By the time Aya got me my Kindle things had changed a bit. The price fell to around 175 dollars, many more titles were added to the selections, and they now carried MG3 which is basically the ability to access the internet anywhere. Part of the reason for the evolution of the Kindle has been the rise of other similar things such as the release of the iPad2 in 2011 and now more recently other book tableture devices like the Nook from Barnes and Noble . In many ways the Nook is comparable to the Kindle while the Ipad can function like a Kindle, but then it also has so much more. It has more connection to all the applications that you would normally use on your laptop plus the usual gadgetry of the iTouch.
Now Amazon has responded with the Kindle Fire which can be comparable in many ways with the ipad. However, the speed and dexterity of using the internet on a Kindle is not very good. You would not use your Kindle if a normal desktop was within any reasonable walking distance of where you stood. Nor would you want to type a long winded blog (such as this one) since the key pad is small. I would rather use my cell-phone than Kindle to type something. For using the internet my Kindle has come in handy on only a few occasions looking for directions and such.

That really made me start to think, what exactly is this Kindle for? Is it a book or is it something else? I guess it is no longer a book because it has internet access, but then again it is made to look and feel a bit like a book. It seems that the main intent of the Kindle is for it to be used for reading.
At first I was discontent with the slow and clumsy internet and keypad use on my Kindle but after considering it I think I am happy about that. In that way it remains more of a book because it discourages me from doing anything with it but reading. There are enough things in life to distract me; I don’t need the thought of being able to easily access the internet while reading to be one of them.

Considering my Kindle brought up two questions for me. First, will the book remain as it basically has been for a millennium? I would say no, but yes. Despite the fact that paper book sales are down 9% this past year I think yes, books on paper will continue.There are some things that electronic books just can’t do and do we really expect everyone in the world to buy an electronic device to read? I think not. You could also look at it from the angle of a connoisseur. Just because most people use CD's or electronic files these days that doesn’t mean that there aren’t those who buy vinyl. I had a great conversation with my boss the other day about how things have changed. She thinks books are on the way out, completely, and that they are likely to go the way of vinyl. That is collectors items, but not much else.(she was also, btw, the first class in her elementary school to use ball point pens instead of ink, think about that) She cited the fact that for our students books are not what they were to us. Every kid now has grown up from birth touching an interactive screen. Very soon we will have kids entering our high schools and then become young professionals, who have very little contact with a physical book.
Then again, books will change. With all the capabilities of what “books” could be there will inevitably be some tinkering. I think the change is good. Imagine a text book in which the diagram of a rain cycle that actually moves.That would be pretty neat. Maybe a novel in which Alice shrinks and grows as you tilt the book (already exist actually)

Second, how will this change our society? The French writer Jean-Phillipe De Tonnac says "the true function of books is to safeguard the things that forgetfulness constantly threatens to destroy." That is a very interesting quote, but historically i think books have allowed us to actually lose memory among individuals at the gain of society. If you think about the vast change that the printing press and hence the start of the mass distribution of books caused, well, that is massive. Information preservation was placed on a higher shelf (ba-dam-ba-ching!)and societies could more easily access the collective knowledge of people past and present.
However, something was lost with the invention of the book and that was part of an oral tradition based on memory so that quote by Tonnac could be turned on itself. People used to tell each other tales that were very long. Take for instance the Iliad and the Odyssey. Those were poems or hymns and so were told from memory. With the advent of books those were written down. I doubt anyone could tell the tale from memory today, though there are some who are able to do similar things. The memory that was used for those tales was then allocated to something else. A similar example could be told with the advent of the cell-phone. I don’t know anyone’s phone number anymore except that of my mother and grandparents and that is because I remembered those numbers pre-cell-phone. That’s what you did with important numbers before cell-phones, you remembered them. Does that mean my memory is any worse for it? I would say not actually since the memorization of phone numbers is pretty trivial and it opened up my mind to remember something else that could be more important, like remembering my passport number or the password to my blogger account which are more important to me than knowing David Jinkins's phone number.
As I sat with my boss and talked about the changes over her lifetime I hearkened an even older person, my grandfather, who just turned 90 years old. He saw the automobile become popular, flight(almost the beginning of), travel to outer space (!), antibiotics(!), traffic lights, frozen food, the jet engine, television, the power of the atom, video film, cell phones, personal computers and the internet just to name the big ones. Life as he knew it when he was a boy could barely compare to our present. It makes me wonder as well, as I was looking at Kristin Frea-Davis's baby's picture the other day, will she read books? Is it really the end of books? If she reaches 90, what will the world contain then? That will be 22nd century.

Welcome Home

2011-10-30T15:34:00.001+02:00

Today is the day of the estimated birth of the 7 billionth person. I have much to say on the subject, but the bottom line is that so many people so ait so much better, so here is my favorite with some links to some cool sites. Welcome to the world # 7,000,000,000. I especially liked the feature on theBBC site, the NY times debate was intellectually interesting, but I think the National Geographic feature gives the best overall picture. By JOEL E. COHENONE week from today, the United Nations estimates, the world’s population will reach seven billion. Because censuses are infrequent and incomplete, no one knows the precise date — the Census Bureau puts it somewhere next March — but there can be no doubt that humanity is approaching a milestone.The first billion people accumulated over a leisurely interval, from the origins of humans hundreds of thousands of years ago to the early 1800s. Adding the second took another 120 or so years. Then, in the last 50 years, humanity more than doubled, surging from three billion in 1959 to four billion in 1974, five billion in 1987 and six billion in 1998. This rate of population increase has no historical precedent.Can the earth support seven billion now, and the three billion people who are expected to be added by the end of this century? Are the enormous increases in households, cities, material consumption and waste compatible with dignity, health, environmental quality and freedom from poverty?For some in the West, the greatest challenge — because it is the least visible — is to shake off, at last, the view that large and growing numbers of people represent power and prosperity.This view was fostered over millenniums, by the pronatalism of the Hebrew Bible, the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church and Arab thinkers like Ibn Khaldun. Mercantilists of the 16th through the 18th centuries saw a growing population as increasing national wealth: more workers, more consumers, more soldiers. Enlarging the workforce depressed wages, increasing the economic surplus available to the king. “The number of the people makes the wealth of states,” said Frederick the Great.In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pronatalism acquired a specious scientific aura from social Darwinism and eugenics. Even today, some economists argue, incorrectly, that population growth is required for economic growth and that Africa is underpopulated.This view made some sense for societies subject to catastrophic mortality from famines, plagues and wars. But it has outlived its usefulness now that human consumption, and pollution, loom large across the earth.Today, while many people reject the equation of human numbers with power, it remains unpalatable, if not suicidal, for political leaders to admit that the United States and Europe do not need growing populations to prosper and be influential and that rich countries should reduce their rates of unintended pregnancy and help poor countries do likewise. With the globalization of work, the incentive for owners of capital today to ignore or not address rapid growth in the numbers of poor people remains as it was for the kings of yore: lower wages for workers at any level of skill offer a bigger economic surplus to be captured.But just as pronatalism is unjustified, so are the dire — and discredited — prophecies of Thomas Malthus and his followers, who believed that soaring populations must lead to mass starvation.In fact, the world is physically capable of feeding, sheltering and enriching many more people in the short term. Between 1820, at the dawn of the industrial age, and 2008, when the world economy entered recession, economic output per person increased elevenfold.Life expectancy tripled in the last few thousand years, to a global average of nearly 70 years. The average number of children per woman fell worldwide to about 2.5 now from 5 in 1950. The world’s population is growing at 1.1 percent per year, half the peak rate in the 1960s. The slowing growth rate enables families and societies to focus on the well-being of their children rather than the quantity.Nearly two-thirds of women under 50 who are married or in a union use some form of contraception, which saves the lives of mothers who would otherwise die in childbirth and avoids millions of abortions each year — an achievement that people who oppose and people who support the availability of legal abortions can both celebrate.But there is plenty of bad news, too. Nearly half the world lives on $2 a day, or less. In China, the figure is 36 percent; in India, 76 percent. More than 800 million people live in slums. A similar number, mostly women, are illiterate.Some 850 million to 925 million people experience food insecurity or chronic undernourishment. In much of Africa and South Asia, more than half the children are stunted (of low height for their age) as a result of chronic hunger. While the world produced 2.3 billion metric tons of cereal grains in 2009-10 — enough calories to sustain 9 to 11 billion people — only 46 percent of the grain went into human mouths. Domestic animals got 34 percent of the crop, and 19 percent went to industrial uses like biofuels, starches and plastics.Of the 208 million pregnancies in 2008, about 86 million were unintended, and they resulted in 33 million unplanned births. And unintended births are not the whole problem. Contraceptives have been free since 2002 in Niger, where the total fertility rate — more than seven children per woman in mid-2010 — was the world’s highest. Women in Niger marry at a median age of 15.5, and married women and men reported in 2006 that they wanted an average of 8.8 and 12.6 children, respectively.Human demands on the earth have grown enormously, though the atmosphere, the oceans and the continents are no bigger now than they were when humans evolved. Already, more than a billion people live without an adequate, renewable supply of fresh water.About two-thirds of fresh water is used for agriculture. Over the coming half century, as incomes rise, people will try to buy agricultural products that require more water. Cities and industries will demand more than three times as much water in developing countries. Watershed managers will increasingly want to limit water diversion from rivers to maintain flood plains, permit fish to migrate, recycle organic matter and maintain water quality.Water shortages are projected to be significant in northern Africa, India, China, parts of Europe, eastern Australia, the western United States and elsewhere. Climate changes will increase the water available for agriculture in North America and Asia but decrease it in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Similar stories could be told about land, overfishing and carbon and nitrogen emissions to the atmosphere.Where is this taking us? The coming half century will see huge shifts in the geopolitical balance of numbers, further declines in the number of children per woman, smaller but more numerous households, an increasingly elderly population, and growing and more numerous cities.The United Nations Population Division anticipates 8 billion people by 2025, 9 billion by 2043 and 10 billion by 2083. India will have more people than China shortly after 2020, and sub-Saharan Africa will have more people than India before 2040.In 1950, there were nearly three times as many Europeans as sub-Saharan Africans. By 2010, there were 16 percent more sub-Saharan Africans than Europeans. By 2100, according to the Population Division, there will be nearly five sub-Saharan Africans for every European.In some ways, the growth in the numbers of people matters less than the growth in the numbers of households. If each household has its own refrigerator, air-conditioner, TV and car, the average energy demand for a given number of people goes up as the average number of people in a household goes down.The urban population of developing countries is expected to grow by a million people every five days through at least 2030, while the rural population falls. Many cities will eat into prime agricultural land unless they grow in density, not extent. And nearly half of urban population growth by 2015 will occur in cities of fewer than half a million people.The coming revolution in aging is well under way in the more developed countries. It will go global in the next half century. In 1950, for each person 65 and older, there were more than six children under 15. By 2070, elderly people will outnumber children under 15, and there will be only three people of working age (15 to 64) for every two people under 15 or 65 and older. Pressures to extend the “working age” beyond 65 will grow more intense.Is economic development the best contraception? Or is voluntary contraception the best form of development? Does the world need a bigger pie (more productive technologies) or fewer forks (slower population growth through voluntary contraception) or better manners (fewer inequities, less violence and corruption, freer trade and mobility, more rule of law, less material-intensive consumption)? Or is education of better quality and greater availability a key ingredient of all other strategies?All these approaches have value. However much we would like one, there is no panacea, though some priorities are clear: voluntary contraception and support services, universal primary and secondary education, and food for pregnant and lactating mothers and children under 5.These priorities are mutually reinforcing, and they are affordable. Providing modern family planning methods to all people with unmet needs would cost about $6.7 billion a year, slightly less than the $6.9 billion Americans are expected to spend for Halloween this year. By one estimate, achieving universal primary and secondary education by 2015 would cost anywhere from $35 billion to $70 billion in additional spending per year.IF we spend our wealth — our material, environmental, human and financial capital — faster than we increase it by savings and investment, we will shift the costs of the prosperity that some enjoy today onto future generations. The mismatch between the short-term incentives that guide our political and economic institutions and even our families, on one hand, and our long-term aspirations, on the other, is severe.We must increase the probability that every child born will be wanted and well cared for and have decent prospects for a good life. We must conserve more, and more wisely use, the energy, water, land, materials and biological diversity with which we are blessed.Henceforth we need to measure our growth in prosperity: not by the sheer number of people who inhabit the earth, and not by flawed measurements like G.D.P., but by how well we satisfy basic human needs; by how well we foster dignity, creativity, community and cooperation; by how well we care for our biological and physical environment, our only home.

Malthusian Nightmare

2011-10-23T08:53:00.000+02:00

"This natural inequality of the two powers, of population, and of production of the earth, and that great law of our nature which must constantly keep their effects equal, form the great difficulty that appears to me insurmountable in the way to the perfectibility of society."Thomas Malthus wrote those words hundreds of years ago and if he were alive today, standing on Nanjing rd. in Shanghai, during the peak of the October holiday, we would be shocked at the very least. China is a nation of people, that is China’s strength. The flood of cheap labor pouring into the cities from the country side powers the supply of goods that enter the global market at a fraction of the cost of other country’s production. It is that mass of people that most people think of when they think of China and I am sure now that my mother has been here and literally pressed the flesh, she would agree. I think more than the great wall at Mutianyu, more than the Forbidden City, more than being at the top of the Shanghai Financial Center, my mother will remember the massive amount of people she encountered in China. People, people, everywhere. Of course it was holiday break and we were going to some of the most popular tourist sites, popular for foreign and domestic tourists alike. She had come to spend some time seeing where I was living and working, but also to meet up with my wife’s parents. It was great for killing two birds with one stone, or really three in this case. We got to see our parents, have them see each other, and do some sight seeing around Shanghai that we probably wouldn’t have done on our own. My mother came about a week before Aya’s parents so we spent some time here in Shanghai getting her adjusted to the time difference, which I don’t think ever really took. Then we spent a few days in Beijing. Beijing, as usual, was crowded and dirty. Going to see the sights felt mostly like an exercise of pushing and shoving Chinese people, but we did get to a few places. One day we even hired a driver, who was polite, but oddly uncooperative at times. We had booked him to take us to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, then back to Beijing and to a kung fu show later in the day. As it turned out my mother got sick on the ride back. Luckily she had a plastic bag from a "I climbed the great wall" t-shirt. Later, she jokingly said it might have been more fitting had it said, "I puked on the great wall". She went to go rest in the hotel when we returned to Beijing. Faced with 2.5 hours until the show I asked the driver to take me to lunch near the Lama Temple. He said I should take the subway and then asked if I was sure I had enough time. Well, I certainly would have if he would have just driven me there. I did end up having enough time, but just barely, to go have lunch and then make it back to collect my mother and go to the show, but as it turned out she was still ill. I ended up canceling the show and returning to spend the night in the hotel room. I was actually kind of relieved to be sharing a 15X10 ft space with less than 15X10 people. The next day we got up bright and early to make our way back to Shanghai, but because of my negligence we went to the wrong terminal and missed our flight. This is the first time, out of 80 or so flights I have taken, that this has happened. At least now I can say that I don’t spend too much time in airports . We got another flight and made our way back to Shanghai where Aya’s parents were soon to be arriving. Unfortunately my mom was exhausted from being sick and traveling and so missed out on the “cannonball” taxi ride from the airport that I took with Aya’s parents. Apparently there are some rules involving the distance of a fare and your place in the queue when you return to the airport. Our driver was a bit reluctant to take our fare, but determined to get rid of us as fast as possible and so drove at 150 on the highway back to our apartment (that is about 93 miles an hour, for you km to miles folks).The next few days were a blur of breakfasts at our apartment followed by trips around the city and to nearby cities, dinners, river cruise, and other sight seeing. It seemed to go by very fast and as we sat at home Sunday night, having delivered both sets of parents to the airport, we reflected on the past week of activity. It’s always nice to have family, but also nice to see them go. My mother, despite getting very sick, held up pretty well. Aya and I started talking about the future and taking care of our parents in their old age, the conclusion of which was this; I hope my mother can be resilient enough spend her old age in a new location.

Reflecting on 9/11

2011-09-11T06:37:00.001+02:00

When I transferred planes in Zurich I had my first encounter with Egyptian culture. I got bumped up to business class and was seated next to a middle aged Egyptian business man. It made me a little bit nervous. Middle Eastern guy + plane = explosion. I wanted to switch seats, but I was the only white guy on the plane, no matter where I went the equation would be the same. I kind of felt like I was playing a game entitled, One Of These Things Is Not Like the Other. I tried to quiet my mind by telling it that my rational was idiotic and that I would have to get used to this ratio. I had to stay where I was and deal with it.
The business man and I had some good conversation and then he fell asleep. I guess for him the conversation wasn’t that engaging. I had a few whiskey sours to calm myself and was getting drowsy, but before I passed out I started to think. In the years since the September attacks I had tried to figure out why exactly Bin Laden had attacked the U.S. I mean, I knew that as a country we could be arrogant and selfish, focused mainly on exploiting other peoples and countries for our own materialistic and political gain, but what was so bad about that? Isn’t that what all countries did? I peacefully drifted into my alcohol induced sleep as the plane hummed along.
A few hours later I was awakened by the snoring of the Egyptian business man. I could hear by the back thrust of the engines that we were pulling out of the clouds and descending upon Cairo. I rubbed my eyes, yawned, and stretched. Then I looked over the sleeping business man and out the window. I was kind of groggy and not expecting much beyond a stretching horizon of vapid terrain. Those whiskeys quickly went to the pit of my stomach and formed a brick. My God, Cairo was huge. I had seen large cities from the sky before and I had read that Cairo was a very large city, but I was not prepared for the sight. An immense city of sand colored buildings with a muddy serpent weaving through it lay before me. For miles and miles were apartment buildings and paved roads. We were high enough so that the apartment buildings weren’t much bigger than the tip of a marker. I could barely make out cars moving on the streets and yet I couldn’t locate the end of the city. I unbuckled and went to a window on the other side of the plane only to be met with the same vision, an endless metropolis in the desert. How strange. I wasn’t even sure what would happen next. Was I still dreaming?

I was so warm and sticky that morning under the damned blanket, but my girlfriend insisted that we have it. Women often require more heat at night than men. Hence, for men, the traditional act of throwing out one leg. On this particular morning my roommate, with whom I shared a bedroom, had gotten up early to have tea and watch the news. It must have been about 6 am. His bumbling from the kitchen woke me up initially, but during the next hour or so I drifted back in and out of sleep peacefully. I could tell that the sun was rising steadily because the beams coming through the window were becoming stronger and more persistent. I could faintly hear the television and was waking up, but still resistant to getting out of bed.
I heard a faint knocking on the bedroom door and it opened a few inches. Buhk’s exuberant face appeared above a steaming cup of tea.
“Dude, a plane just flew into the World Trade Tower.” He said.
“mmmmm… yeah, so?” I grumbled.
“Ok” he said, and softly closed the door.
What a jerk, I was trying to sleep. Why should I care about the news at this hour? I reburied my face into the sheets and my girlfriend’s back. Just a little bit longer here and then I would get up to face the day. It was so soft and dark; I didn’t want to start yet. I drifted back into a light sleep until again a soft knock came from the bedroom door.
“Dude?” Buhk said.
“WWWHAT?” I said in irritation.
“ Uh… maybe you should come see this.” He said.
I sighed to no one and slipped out of my part of the blanket.
“MMMMmmmm… ” Kristin said rolling to her back and putting her hands to her face.
“I’m going to go watch the news, Buhk said some plane flew into the World Trade Tower.” I said. As I said this I realized that I wasn’t even sure where the Trade Tower was, but Kristin and Buhk did since they had taken a trip with our high school brass band that past year which had brought them to New York.
She removed her hands, squinted at me, and reluctantly got out of bed. As she walked into the living room I trailed her slowly in my boxers and a t-shirt. We crashed onto the couch and into each other. The morning was a little cool and the chill was brushing away the heat of the bed. As I held onto her and rubbed her arms another plane hit the second tower. I stopped rubbing and she straightened up. Buhk was still blowing on his tea and put his tea cup down on his saucer with a decisive clink. It was a moment of incomprehension. None of us understood the scene. None of us knew what to say. We just looked at each other with mouths agape. Finally Buhk whispered, “What the hell was that?”

The three of us sat there watching the news for a few hours. On the television were pictures of both towers billowing thick black smoke. Smoke and debris was spewing out like it might never end. I had never been to New York and didn’t really know how big the towers were. I didn’t even really know what they were or what they represented. News reports were still sketchy at the time. People still weren’t certain if this was some kind of accident or not. Some people were still speculating about the size of the planes. As I watched flashing images of the burning tower mixed with intermittent clips of reporters giving what information they knew something triggered in my brain. I knew in that instant that this was different from anything I had seen before. A part of history was happening here and in a sickening way I was sure the United States was under attack.
I had a class at 10:30 that day, so I got ready and headed off to school. By this time the Pentagon was also confirmed as being attacked and there was a notion of a plane crashing in Pennsylvania. I had also heard that a few car bombs had gone off in front of the capitol. At this point there was a lot of information going around, and much of it was speculation. Like most people that day, I was confused.
Upon reaching the student union I found groups of people bunched around the few televisions that were on the main floor. I stopped for a while to watch with them to see if anything new had happened since I had left home. It didn’t seem like there was any new information so I proceeded to my first class. As I crossed the union square I remember the whole city had an eerie quiet to it. In a square that was usually packed I was one of the only people. One the bus that morning I was one of the only people riding the #22. When I had entered the union it didn’t have the same din that it usually did. Looking at the clear blue sky I imagined a plane crashing into the tallest building on campus, the dormitory where I had lived the previous year.
As I reached my classroom I saw a note attached to the door. It read, “All classes are cancelled for today.” As I doubled back across the square I again looked at the blue sky. It was a day to feel alive. The world was moving. My new vitality christened by the deaths of thousands.
I walked away happy to have the day off, but with a new questions in my mind. Are we really under attack? Are we going to war? Will I be drafted? Who did this? A new fear, the fear of going to war, crept into my soul. Entering maturity in the U.S. during the nineties I had little reason to think I would ever be involved in a war. For me war was over, forever. After the USSR fell I thought eternal peace would ensue for the United States. I was just a kid.
It was scary to think about. I thought of the service of my grandfathers and father and knew that should the time arise for me to take arms it would be my civic duty just as it had been theirs. I was galvanized.
In the ensuing months I watched my country respond to these attacks. I watched George Bush visit ground zero and listened to reports about troops being sent into Afghanistan to go after the Taliban. I was proud and happy. My country was defending itself and coming together as a nation to fight a common threat. Both parties, for a time, dropped their bickering and united towards that common goal. There was a huge surge of pride in the nation at that time which was positive, but also negative. I was already starting to see the underside of that pride. American people gathered hatred towards all those of Middle Eastern or Muslim descent. Flags hung in every car window and store front. People talked openly about those “rag heads” and “sand niggers”. Some of the people that I knew had gone into the military and I heard gossip around my home town about the boys who were shipped to Afghanistan. Although the patriotism in the U.S. was extreme and a little uncomforting I was content in the knowledge that we were going after the people who had done this. Things would pan out with America as the victor and the country would return to normalcy.
In the winter of 2003 I started to hear conjecture on the evening news about Saddam Hussein and Iraq. The United States was claiming that he was hiding weapons of mass destruction. For months the news covered the U.S. claims that this was a real threat while the rest of the world was asking for more time and investigation. In my mind it was hard to justify. Why were we the only ones who saw this? Why didn’t Hans Blix, who was the U.N. weapons inspector, see these things in Iraq or know anything about them? It seemed to me that pieces of the puzzle were missing. I remember in the hours leading up to the invasion George Bush gave Saddam an ultimatum, give up the weapons now or we are coming in.
I laughed when I first heard this. I was in a restaurant with a friend and I heard it on the news. I nearly choked because I was laughing so hard. It was one of those times in my life when I laughed at the wrong moment for reasons only apparent to myself. Everyone in the place turned to look at the crazy guy choking on his noodles. In my mind I imagined Saddam sitting in his palace with his advisors around him watching the news. A special bulletin interrupts Iraqi news and George Bush appears on screen demanding that Saddam give up his weapons. Grimacing and wringing his hands Saddam says,
“Oh shit, what are we going to do now? How can we give up weapons that we don’t have? Isn’t this a catch-22? Oh shit, well, that’s it for me. Get the Republican Guard ready I’ll uh… meet you out front in a few.”

One evening my mother and I went to dinner and debated the merits of invasion. After eating we were sitting there talking about family and such things. On the television came news of our impending invasion of Iraq. Colin Powell was making a very passionate speech, to the U.N. I think, about the need for invasion. My mother and me did not agree on the need for invasion.
I have a feeling that thousands of conversations like that one were happening in the nation at that time. By the summer of 2004 the 9/11 commission had released its report on Iraq and it became clear that Saddam had not collaborated with Bin Laden or Al-Qaeda, there were no WMD’s, and our presence in Iraq was likely not stopping terrorism, but encouraging it. We were less safe than we were in 2000. I was feeling quite egotistical about this information and was sure Bush would not be re-elected in 2004. People started to turn against the president and the democrats in the U.S. tried to ride the wave of anti-war resentment in the presidential election of 2004, but the tide wasn’t high enough yet. I remember the despair I felt the following day knowing that Bush, despite his follies, would carry a second term. I made a promise to myself that I was leaving the country. I felt that my country had become intractable. A lot of acrimony was built up against Muslims and the Middle East so in February when I was offered a job teaching in Egypt I jumped at the chance.

Immediately when I got off the plane there was a man with a placard that had my name on it. He spoke no English, I just pointed, he nodded, and then I followed. He led me to a woman who did speak English and circumvented me around all of customs. The woman asked where I was going, was I with EALS? I had to buy a visa for 15 dollars and then have one guy look at my passport. It was really amusing because there was a huge shuffling mass of foreigners trying to get through one gate and my escort just walked me around it. No one checked to see what I had in the bags. I could have had severed limbs in there for all they knew. Two more men awaited me to help me with my luggage. I then met four more people from the school who were waiting for me. It was pretty awkward. I shook a few hands and then a man grabbed my bags as I was escorted out the sliding glass doors. I remember stepping aback as the heat hit me. It was August and I was expecting heat, but this heat was different. It was dirty heat. It made me feel like taking a shower every hour after that. My guides took me in to Cairo proper in a fairly new Fiat. As we weaved in and out of traffic at break neck speed one of my guides tried talking to me. I don’t remember what we talked about mainly because I was afraid for my life and sweating buckets in Cairo’s heat. There were no lanes, no stop signs, apparently no rules at all. On the six lane highway I saw one guy back up about fifty feet because he had missed his exit. He barely missed hitting a guy on a donkey. Every sign was in Arabic so I had not even the faintest idea where we were going. Something I noticed right away was that everybody was enamored with their horns. It seemed like the entire way there we were being honked at or honking ourselves. I was later to learn this was pretty much the only traffic rule in Egypt. If you are passing, honk. Want to merge with traffic? Honk. Unsure of who goes first at an intersection? Honk. Getting bored because you are driving alone in the middle of the desert? Honk.

After that quick and dangerous ride we finally pulled up to an old hotel. The outside looked horrible. It hadn’t been painted in many years and bits and pieces were starting to fall off here and there. It was also filthy, covered in dust. It somewhat resembled the sand castles I used to build as a kid, the kind that shortly crumbled as they dried in the wind. My confidence in my guides was waning and my sense of flight was increasing. The outside of the hotel might have been in poor shape but the lobby was well polished marble with very nice looking furniture. The employees all had nice trim uniforms and the women all wore headscarves. After a brief conversation with the receptionist my guide turned to me, gave me the key to my room, and told me she would be in contact. Then she turned on her heel and walked out.
I trudged my way up five flights of stairs with all my bags and into my room. I had trouble with the key, a great sign of things to come, but finally the door opened. The bathroom was directly in front of the main door and I hadn’t peed since Rome. That was 6 hours and 3 whiskey sours ago. I immediately stepped in and flicked on the lights. The first thing I noticed was the bade’ and the small amount of toilet paper. Oh God, I thought, how does that work? As I peed and stared off into space I noticed something moving. All along the cracks in the tiles were bugs, lots of little bugs. I grabbed my bags outside of the bathroom door, threw them onto my bed, and got my camera out. As I stepped onto the balcony I examined my surroundings. As far as I could see were sand colored buildings tinted with the setting sun. I snapped a few pictures and then contemplated where I was. I was in Egypt, in a hotel. I was thousands of miles from home in a country whose alphabet wasn’t even remotely like mine. I didn’t even know when I would see my guide next. I was completely alone. I was very scared.
Because of the time difference I didn’t sleep at all that first night. I unpacked some stuff, wrote some impressions on my computer, and chain smoked cigarettes. Around three in the morning the sky began to lighten. Around 4am I began to explore other floors of the hotel. On the top floor of the hotel I discovered a giant banquet hall with bay windows on two sides. Absolutely no one was around and by the layer of dust on things it appeared no one had for some time. I pulled a chair up to the window and grabbed an ashtray. As I looked out at the sun beginning to illuminate Cairo, smoking cigarette after cigarette, my thoughts kept floating back to the same place. Where did it all begin and end?

Food Diversity

2011-08-13T02:52:00.003+02:00

Last month’s issue of National Geographic carried yet another story of the approach of the 7th billionth person, this one having to do with food production. Most people would automatically think that the food problem of a burgeoning society would be production of enough food and it is. As a planet we will have to double our food production to account for the new people and shifts in diet that are estimated to occur by 2050. However, there is another problem with the way we are going about doing this. Food crops are grown for various reasons such as color, durability, taste, productivity. Not too many are grown for safety anymore, but maybe they should be.

In the arctic there is an ark of sorts, an ark of seeds. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, set inside the permafrost of a sandstone mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen just 700 miles from the North Pole. Here many of world’s seed banks send their seeds as a kind of back up to the back up. It is a safe place because it is in a point of high elevation free from climate swings and disaster as well as being naturally chilled. Food varieties extinction is happening all over the world, fast. Of course this saving of seeds is not for taste, it’s for safety. As variety of food becomes smaller so does the genetic variations available to those breeds.

In the United States an estimated 90 percent of our historic fruit and vegetable varieties have vanished. Of the 7,000 apple varieties that were grown in the 1800s, fewer than a hundred remain. Here, in China, 90 percent of the wheat varieties cultivated just a century ago have disappeared. Experts estimate that we have lost more than half of the world's food varieties over the past century. As for the 8,000 known livestock breeds, 1,600 are endangered or already extinct. People are choosing to produce fewer varieties because they are able to produce more, better, with those varieties and so do so looking at the short term goal of volume of food production. So there is a push away from variety. Focusing too narrowly on producing more can, oxymoronically, lead to famine. The Irish potato famine is a great example of how relying on a narrow variety of food crops produced a large human population whose staple crop were they hit by a disease which lead to a steep decline in the human population. There are plenty of examples in the modern day as well and I am sure that there will be more as climate change continues to occur.
Diversity is important because when crop fails because of a change in climate, pests or disease, people suffer. In the past if there was a problem with popular crops humans could always go back to the wild varieties to find traits to interbreed that would overcome that problem. The problem now is that wild varieties are also becoming much scarcer as people are expanding further and further into every corner of fertile land with genetically narrow crops.
Both goals make sense, produce more to feed more and produce more variety to ensure safety. The challenge in the future will be to do both at the same time.

Fireflies in Ofunato

2011-07-24T05:08:00.010+02:00

Four months to the day after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami I arrived in the disaster area to volunteer with relief work. After climbing Dewa Sanzan with my friends on the weekend I drove to Sendai Sunday night, then onwards to Ofunato on Monday. As I drove through the Japanese countryside it was a very pleasant summer day and I passed a few towns along the coastline where I did not see damage. As I approached the coast further on I saw two badly damaged cars in a roadside parking lot then just a bit on a guard rail that had been crumpled. I thought to myself, wow, that must have been a bad accident and at that moment I crested a hill and Kessenuma (picture 1) was revealed to me or what was left of it.
I quickly realized those cars were not damage from a traffic accident. For some reason it had not been on my mind that I would soon be entering the area and it really a shock. I had seen many images in the news and watched hours of footage of the tsunami, but nothing prepares you for the real thing. For the first 15 minutes all I saw of Kessenuma was a tangle of debris and piles being built by Caterpillar equipment. Soon I mounted another hill and there were houses and businesses standing intact. This pattern came again and again as I made my way north along the coast going to Ofunato. The most dramatic of all being Rikuzentakata where more than 80% of structures were destroyed, essentially it was been “wiped from the map”(picture 2).
After arriving in Ofunato (picture 3) and finding the All Hands base

Project Tohoku from All Hands Volunteers on Vimeo.

I got settled in and to work. Over the next week I helped various crews with digging ditches in rice fields, clearing water drainage tunnels, scrubbing tubs and stoking fires and an evacuation center, cleaning and restoring damaged photographs, and translating between crew leaders and Japanese volunteers. Each of these had their own rewards.
Each night at dinner a meeting would take place in which new people introduced themselves, leaving people said their goodbyes, and workers would sign up for crews for the next days work. On that first night a woman who had been there for some time got up to say her goodbyes. It was a tearful speech in part because she had come to love the work she was doing, but also because of the connection she felt with the people of Ofunato. She said that of all the things she wanted to emphasize it was making a connection to the people of Ofunato that was most important. In her speech she mentioned how someone had explained to her that fireflies are believed to carry the spirits of the dead and that one of her most emotional moments was seeing some at night by the river. After the meeting ended I went to the local convenience store to get some snacks, but noticed that the sunset was particularly beautiful. I got my snacks and a beer and sat by the river banks watching the sun go down. As dark came on fireflies began to float about and I couldn’t help but recall that each of them would be carrying a spirit.

My first day in the field I dug ditches in Rikuzentakata and it was hard dirty work. Digging through 3 ft deep mud and debris we would often hit objects with our shovel and each time I had to wonder what we would be digging up. We found cassettes, cuff links, clothing, tires, rice cookers, sign posts, and a host of other things. Each time I found a new object I wondered who it belonged to.
Another day I worked at cleaning photographs and each one I cleaned I looked at the smiling faces and wondered. Wedding albums, school trips, family portraits, who was still among us? Will these photos ever be claimed?
One day I worked at the evacuation center scrubbing tubs and stoking a fire that would heat the water. It was an all day job and very hot having to be near the fire. In some ways I felt like the job was not as interesting as the other jobs I had done, but it was rewarding. As we were preparing to leave for the day a single old woman came from the shelter and said something like, “It’s so hot today! Thank you for heating the water”, as she made her way to the bath, the first person to use it that day. That was enough to make it worth it, but many other people came forward to thank us for our work. Old women brought snacks and tea, people thanked us and waved from passing cars, many other Japanese volunteers shook our hands and I even got one hug which is fairly unusual for a Japanese person.
On my final day I worked with a road crew cleaning out water tunnels and clearing debris from roads and sidewalks. Shortly after arriving a bus load of Japanese volunteers pulled up and started doing the same work a little further on up the street. My crew leader then told me to go work with them since I could speak Japanese. Most of the rest of the day I spent with them and it was nice to make that connection, to tell them who we were and why we were there, but also to be able to serve as a bridge between my team leader and their team leader so they could share ideas and work together. At the end of the day as the Japanese group was leaving they started to call my name and we came together for a group photo (4). It was intensely satisfying.
The reason that my team leader knew I spoke Japanese was because the night before there had been a festival on the street where our base was located. As the night wore on some of the volunteers made our way to a local person’s house who had invited us in for more food and drink. I talked to a number of Japanese people and at one point made my way into a conversation that was happening between a Japanese woman and the team leader. Again, it was intensely satisfying as I got to tell him that she was expressing how touched she was by our hard work and he returning thanks for having us over. It’s those connections, as the woman said, that matter most. I believe it’s those connects which brought many people like myself to aid Japan in the first place.
My experience with All Hands was a positive one and I owe a debt of thanks to them for helping me to get in there and get my hands dirty while making the process of actually doing it as painless as possible.
In the early evening on Friday I started to drive out of Ofunato to meet my father in law in Minami-soma. There I would spend one more day volunteering with him cleaning and drying photographs. As I drove out of town I spotted a sign on a building (photo 5). It reads, “Disaster comes when you forget.” Then there is a line marking the height of the wave from an earthquake that occurred in Chile, but sent waves to Ofunato. If you take a look at the building you can see that the damage from this most recent tsunami is more than twice that height.
You see, this is not the first time that Ofunato has been hit by a tsunami in recent history, not even the second if you go back a bit further. This is the third time that the town has been hit and destroyed. Yet the people pick up and start over again.

The Geography of Bliss

2011-07-24T03:41:00.008+02:00

During this past trip to Japan I had my Kindle with me. This is the first trip where I have used it since Aya got it for me last November. It was quite handy as I could “pack” four books along with me into a device the size of a thin paperback. One of those books was called, ‘The Geography of Bliss’. It was about one man’s realization that he wasn’t all that happy and his idea to explore the places of the world the normally rank high on happiness scales to see what they had in common if anything and if he could learn from them. I really liked the book and would recommend it if that idea appeals to you. The author was insightful and funny. He went to many countries that rank high like the Netherlands, Iceland, Thailand, Bhutan, and Switzerland as well as some that should rank high like Qatar (having a very high gdp per head) and went to some other places that perhaps don’t rank high like Moldova, finally ending up in India which I believe ranks somewhere in the middle of the scale. In the end he comes to a few conclusions. To simplify, people in countries that have money, but aren’t too rich are happy. Those in countries that discourage envy are happy. Those with a sense of community and trust are happy. Spirituality can make you happy, but maybe not. Opportunity is surely in the mix.

If you take a look at the website for the happiness index you can get an idea of the things that make people happy, generally. Of course there are all sorts of different things that can make us happy in our lives like career fulfillment, family relations, connection with ecology, diet/exercise, etc. It also really depends on the person as one person’s hell is another’s heaven.
Going back to Japan this past time I realized just how much I missed living in Japan and why. Standing on a crowded, yet almost silent, Tokyo subway platform one night, making the connection between the book and the travel I was taking wasn’t hard to do. In Japan I felt safe, I could trust people. I was connected to nature just about everywhere I went. The standard of living and care for all people is pretty high and the society discourages envy. Japan is a rich nation and I fear in some ways perhaps they are too rich, to the point where they have more money than they know what to constructively do with. People’s diet and exercise routines are some of the best in the world and Japan boasts the longest life spans. However on the overall scale of things Japan ranks somewhere below where you might expect as does the U.S. and Germany despite having some of the largest economies in the world. Most of the highest ranking countries are Nordic, though Norway might move down a couple notches after the recent attacks. Though maybe it will raise it.
While in Japan I watched the news often and something I saw more than once was a happy couple getting married. The story was that after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami this couple had put things into perspective and decided there was no reason to wait. Similarly polls throughout the country ranked overall happiness, or satisfaction with life, as rising after the disaster. Perhaps a little of “this is what could happen” puts things into perspective. People stop being unsatisfied with what they don’t have and start being satisfied with what they do have. I think the poor of most 1st world nations like the U.S. could take a lesson away from that, but really that is a good lesson for anyone.
On the author’s trip around the world he encountered expatriates in each nation who had made their place in their new country and now called it home. They claimed to be happy and that makes sense as happiness is in the eyes of the beholder. I know that feeling as I was pretty happy living in Japan. Having lived in four countries now I think that Japan is my favorite, it fits me. People are quiet and polite. Streets are clean and things run on time. People concentrate more on “we” than “me”. Religion is not at the forefront of most people’s decision making and does not influence politics. While most Japanese people say they don’t trust the government there actually is a level of trust which is why Japan has such a high level of public debt but is still not considered a risk. Crime is fairly low and people generally trust each other and feel a sense of responsibility for their actions and the well being of others. Diets are good and people value the environment and exercise. Though the country can get crowded in places there are natural expanses and many sights of historical and/or cultural heritage. Unlike the U.S. people who are smart and value learning are themselves valued, no child in school has to hide the fact that they study hard or like learning from their peers. There is also a sense for me of adventure and learning. As an outsider there are constantly new things to learn and that is stimulating.
Of course there are things I didn’t like about Japan, but there will always be things that frustrate one no matter where you live. In hindsight those things didn’t really matter much when weighed against the things I did enjoy. The only thing that sticks out for me was my job, teaching English. I enjoyed it to a degree, but it was not satisfying. Here in China I am satisfied with my job, but not with where I live. I think I have found the geographical location of my happiness, now if I can only get a job there.

Saikan

2011-07-21T11:40:00.001+02:00

Dewa-Sanzan

2011-07-21T11:28:00.000+02:00

This summer I went back to Japan and as such one of my main goals was to do some hiking. The boots I had been wearing for the past 4 years were certainly worn out so while in Tokyo I got a new pair from L-Breath near Shinjuku station. They turned out to work pretty well.
I had scheduled to hike with a few friends on Dewa Sanzan, the three holy mountains located in Yamagata prefecture. As such I knew I should try to get in some training before hand since I hadn’t done any hiking while in China. I run often and work out, but hiking for two solid days would strain my body in ways it was no longer used to. I also wanted to break in the boots and find any problems so I hiked Ono-Dake just south of my in laws home in Aizu, Fukushima prefecture. Ono-Dake is 1383m high and from the starting point it took me only about 2 hours up and 2 down. On the way up on more than one occasion I stopped and thought, ‘wow I am not in shape for this’.
I am very glad I took that hike because over the next 5 days I worked through the soreness of having shocked my body and so was ready to go for Dewa Sanzan.
With the weather looking fine, two friends, Jon and Danny, met up with me in Kitakata city. On a nice Saturday morning we drove north into Yamagata ken. I parked my car in Yamagata city and jumped in Danny’s car for the rest of the trip there. Danny had plans to snowboard on Mt. Gassan and so he let Jon and I off at the station in Tsuruouka to wait for a bus that would bring us to the bottom of Mt. Haguro. He would easily join us later in the evening as Haguro is only 414m high and can be climbed quickly.
Jon and I caught our bus and started our hike up Haguro happy to be out of the sun and under the cover of the forests leaves. It wasn’t long before we passed over a beautiful red bridge spanning a crystal clear river. On the other side the path went through trees over 500 years old and soon thereafter we saw Goju-no-to, the five storied wooden pagoda built more than 600 years ago. We carried on the trail and were passed by a yamabushi, a pilgrim blowing into a conch shell. He was leading a group of about 10 other men and women, pilgrims, up the mountain. We would see them again and again on our journey to the three peaks.
After a short break at a tea house we resumed climbing up the stairs (all 2446 of them!) and eventually came to a fork in the path. There was a sign, which was too difficult to read, but we assumed we had lots of time and so took the detour. We shortly arrived at a small pavilion surrounded by three stinking ponds of scum water. After deciding there was nothing to see we turned back to the main trail. We later learned that Basho, the famous haiku poet, had composed a famous poem at those three pools. I don’t know what he saw in them.

In the summer heat/ three pools turn to stinking mud/ not what Basho saw

A little later on and we were at the top of Haguro. We could see the tori gate to the shrine and knew there was more a bit beyond, but our ryokan for the night, Saikan, was just before this so we decided to get our room and strip off our packs before exploring the top. Before I go on I must say that staying at Saikan was on of the neatest parts of the trip. A traditional ryokan, it offers a small ofuro (indoor bath), traditional dining, and a large quiet place to stay. I would recommend it.
After leaving our bags inside we made it to the top were there were many sights to see. Especially intriguing was the Sanzan Gosaiden temple at the top. It is unique in many ways, but I was especially drawn to the 2 meter (6ft!) thick thatch roofing made from kaya trees. I don’t remember where, but I had read it is the thickest thatch roofing in Japan. There were many other smaller shrines at the top along with a smattering of tourist shops and a bus parking lot. After walking around for a bit we headed back for dinner and a bath. Danny showed up later and back in our room, feeling very relaxed, we cracked celebratory beers (not sure what we were celebrating as we were only 1/3 done with our hike)
The next morning we were up early to catch a bus that would take us from the top of Haguro to the bottom of Mt. Gassan, the largest of the three peaks at 1984m. On the bus with us was the same group of pilgrims from the day before and throughout the day we would pass them and they us along the trail. After Danny bought a hat and walking stick we were on our way. It was pleasant down below but after a certain altitude the clouds were clinging too closely to the peak for us to have any pleasant views. Then the rain started. We all had some rain gear, but still got pinned under a very small tree for 20 minutes waiting for the worst of the rain to stop. Reaching the top the winds picked up noticeably and the rain continued to drizzle, but it never got terribly cold. After spending a few minutes in a hut near the top shrine we began our decent on a trail that would bring us to Mt.Yudono, the last of the three holy peaks and the middle sized one. Going down got tough as the rocks were slick with rain and in some parts we were either going through snow or snow runoff/trails. About half way to Yudono Jon slipped and hurt his ankle. Some very helpful Japanese people nearby gave him some cold spray and he carried on, but would fall an additional 5 or 6 times no doubt because of his weakened ankle. I myself didn’t fall until near the end of the trail. As the trail reaches Yudono it forks going into a steep valley. The peak is not accessible. The steep trail into the valley gets so much so at times that chains and ladders are in place to assists decent. Even so the trail was a stream and going was not easy. Finally we arrived at the tori gate of the Yudono shrine entrance and the end of our hike. Overall a success and much fun. I would highly recommend this to anyone in the area as it has lots of interesting views and is a moderate but challenging hike. Oh, and did I mentioned the mummified monks in the area? Yes, it’s true

Real Wedding, Fake Church

2011-06-21T14:59:00.005+02:00

This past Friday evening I took off from Shanghai to go to my brother in law’s wedding in Nasu, Japan. I wasn’t particularly happy to be going as it would be a very short trip (I’m back in Shanghai writing this Sunday night), but it certainly did have an interesting aspect to it and one that I have been waiting to write about ever since I took a road trip with the family to scout wedding venues more than a year ago. I found out then that the happy couple wanted to have their wedding in a church. I found, and still find, this odd since neither of them are Christian nor have any inkling of Christianity, but there is an increasing number of couples in Japan seeking this style wedding.
I had heard of this before, namely because when I first moved to Aizu I saw a church, remarked on it, and then was told it wasn’t a real church. Not a real church? Why would anyone build a fake church? Well, because western weddings held in churches are atheistically pleasing to Japanese eyes. Every Japanese girl wants to wear a white dress and to marry in a church. They get the idea from movies and t.v. shows made in America, that these western weddings are much more appealing than their domestic weddings involving being married at a shrine wearing a kimono. While I understand the desire to have the type of wedding you want, I somehow find it shameful to be the main characters in a religious ceremony that you don’t believe in nor really have any idea of the cultural significance involved.
So last year I found myself standing in what really did appear to be a church and asking Aya all sorts of questions like, is there a real priest? Is this legal? What about all the church relics around the building? The answers are sometimes, yes, and they are mostly real.
The ceremony also included some Christian songs, like ‘I’ve got a friend in Jesus’, and a whole lot of amens along with a collared priest. I did not have a chance to ask the priest if he was real or not. However I can guarantee that the name of the place, St. Marries, is not.
I imagine that a lot of the rest of the ceremony was made up. There were parts that I recognized as part of a western style wedding. The father gave the bride away, rings were exchanged, there was a kiss, flowers and rice were also thrown. Everything was out of order though and very staged.
I am not a devout Christian, but it does bother me to see people disrespecting religion. Many of the objects I saw in the “church” were obviously objects which had been blessed. Transferring stain glass to your fake church is one thing, but chalices are another, I thought. Wondering on the state of this I emailed my mother to ask her about it and she confirmed for me that yes, in fact, these objects should not be sold to someone who will not use them in a religious way. She said, “…an object blessed for sacred use should not be used for other common use unless it is disassembled or such that it does not resemble the original use.” One particular item I noticed was a monstrance that was on the altar during the ceremony (pictured) which is used to hold a host, or blessed wafer. It does not appear, however, that they completed the farce by putting a fake host inside.
I have talked to a few people about this whole scenario trying to make sense, to come to a point of why I was so fascinated with this. Sure, it was a bit amusing, but why did this stick with me? I finally found the answer today while talking to another teacher. Why does a thing like this exist in Japan and not in America? Well, because we are a diverse society and in order not to disrespect our fellow citizens we wouldn’t go so far as to fake a religious ceremony. Japan, on the other hand, is not a diverse society. The Japanese wouldn’t begin to think of this as a heavy offense because in their society there is no one to offend.

1000 Paper Cranes

2011-05-04T15:03:00.007+02:00

千羽鶴, or senbadsuru, is a group of one thousand origami paper cranes held together by strings. An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury.
This past March I was beginning a unit on Japan in my World Geography and Cultures class and had decided to do a project wherein small groups of student taught the rest of the class how to do a Japanese art. One of those arts was origami. As Aya and I searched around Shanghai to get enough origami papers for each student to have a few sheets to fold we started talking about how long it would take someone to fold 1000 cranes. I had heard about this before and seen the strings of thousands of cranes for Sadako Sasaki in Hiroshima.

Somehow the obvious then dawned on me for I had been looking for a fundraising project for the students to do. Since the earthquake on March 11th Japan had been on my mind a lot and now I had the perfect opportunity to bring my students, teaching Japan arts, and helping Japan together. Should we fold 1000 cranes it would be our collective wish for Japan to heal from the events of March 11th. As a school and community we could show our support.

By April 7th I had ordered 2000 sheets of origami paper, I assumed some would be lost or discarded in the process of folding (378 were by final count). I then informed my students of the task ahead of them; to sell paper cranes to friends and family. The friends and family could then write a personal message along with their names on the origami paper. The cranes would then be folded and everyones wishes put together. The catch, the students would have to fold all 1000 cranes. I was not going to fold one and they couldn't get help from other grade level students or their parents. Of course I helped out by holding folding sessions and providing snacks while playing Japanese anime everyday during the lunch period for 2 weeks, but I never folded a crane.

As our two week deadline for completing 1000 cranes approached I was beginning to realize that there were much more than that flooding boxes in my classroom. After spending another week of lunch periods stringing them together it became easier to count all the cranes and we came out with 1622. I was amazed and really all those cranes together are very beautiful.

For a week they are hanging in the foyer of our school and then they are being boxed and shipped to Oregon where they will be matched by a 2 dollar donation per crane by the Bezos Foundation. Then I am told they will travel again to Denver to become part of a giant art installation that will hold 500,000 paper cranes.

At the end of the day I am happy that I got to share such a wonderful thing with my students and to help Japan by raising not only about 5,000 dollars but a connection to japan as well.

Fun Facts about Shanghai

2011-04-12T14:11:00.003+02:00

Some days I hate living here, some days I love it. Most days Shanghai is out of my mind, I just go to work, come home, and have a normal day. Other days I get pushed on the subway, listen to people hawking and spitting, and breathe the heavy air. Yet other days I think, wow, what a hungry and amazing people I live with. What a city!
Shanghai, and China generally, is terribly crowded. It is something that I don’t really like, but I can see how it has contributed to China’s strength. Shanghai is a symbol of that progression. A jewel at the turn of the century, marred in the communist revolution, aim of ambition when China started to welcome capitalism, today, Shanghai is the largest city in the most populated country on Earth. The sheer size and speed at which the city has expanded is amazing. It’s location in the delta of the Yangtze and on the Yellow River helped the city flourish into a major center of commerce between the east and the west, and in 2005, Shanghai became the world’s largest cargo port. Shanghai has the world's most extensive bus system, but honestly I only take the subway because the buses are too complicated for me.
Shanghai is one of the most populated cities in China. it has a permanent resident population of over 14 million, of which 12 million live in the urban areas. Shanghai population accounts for 1.1% of the Chinese population which in the most populous country on earth is really saying something. The average density of 2059 inhabitants per square kilometers (3854 in the urban areas) is phenomenal. Add on to that a huge population of itinerant workers, probably numbering two million and you have human soup. I feel like I never have a moment alone in this city and when I read numbers like that I can be pretty sure that it’s more than a feeling. (Boston anyone?)
The tallest skyscraper in Shanghai, the Shanghai World Financial Center, is now the third tallest in the world. The second tallest building in the world, which is now under construction, will be the Shanghai Tower. It will come in at a height of 2,073 feet when it’s completed.
I often hear that China aims to make Shanghai a “world city”. The way things are going, I think it already is.

7 Billion

2011-04-02T05:05:00.009+02:00

I had seen the January issue of National Geographic for sale a few times around town, but there is a little second hand book store that I go to every month where I can buy the previous month’s issue for a deeply discounted price. However, this time they did not have it available and so I finally relented and bought a copy online to be delivered.
I especially wanted this issue because I knew that they were running a story on the world’s population, something that I am very interested in. To my happiness I found out that this article was just part of a series that the magazine will do this year as the world approaches the birth of the 7 billionth person sometime late this year.
The story itself was interesting, but mainly just confirmed a lot of things that I had already learned from other sources. What it really did was open up a discussion between Aya and I about children. We have talked about having children and we plan to soon, but the issue is really how many and whose? Of course, they will be our children, but there is a question of if we want that to be biologically so or not.
As the world’s population swells it brings a number of environmental questions forward which is really why I am interested in population issues. Obviously more people equals more consumption of goods and more consumption of goods mean more of the planet’s resources must be used to make those goods and more waste is produced as a result.

Food and the resources used to produce it will sky rocket in use. Not only this, but as people become more wealthy their diet often turns to more meat consumption and that means much more water and grains used to produce that meat. Every pound of meat requires many pounds of grain and 600 gallons of water must be used (an average, beef is more, goat is less). Common sense will tell you that grain takes much less. Think of how many more people could be fed off of the grain and water than could be fed with the pound of meat. Now multiply that by a few hundred million.

Thomas Malthus predicted that population growth would vastly outpace food production and at the root he was right, but thanks to the efforts of the Green Revolution and Norman Borlaug the impending train wreck between population and food was averted for a time. However, we are facing it again. Norman’s goal was to produce crops that yielded more food per acre/plant in order to eliminate starvation. It pretty much worked, but could not continue to work. The simple reason is that the world’s population did not stand still. People did not think to reduce growth rates to coincide with food production. When less people starved more people had babies. Somehow the connection gets lost. This means that while crop yields grew so did numbers of people. All this wouldn’t matter too much except for the one factor we can’t improve on greatly. That is our planet, its arable land, its clean water, its natural resources and ecosystems.
As medicine and nutrition have improved life spans have increased dramatically, basically doubling in developed countries within the past few hundred years so that the traditional population pyramid became more top heavy. In developed countries, the number of centenarians is increasing at approximately 7% per year, which means doubling the centenarian population every decade, pushing it from some 455,000 in 2009 to 4.1 million in 2050. Japan is a great example of this.
The neat thing is that once countries became developed their growth rates declined. Most of the countries you can think of as developed nations have a negative growth rate. However, most of the countries you think of as developing nations are not necessarily the environmental plagues of the world. Although human numbers do add strains to environments it is also the habits of those people. Those in the developed world consume far more per capita in terms of goods than those in a developing country. So that begs the question, who is more environmentally irresponsible? Is it the person in the developed nation with 2 kids or the person in the developing country with 5?
These things all lead me to the question of, should I have children? How many? Whose should they be? Now before I pose the next batch of questions lets assume that I desire to have children, which I do, and that I want to be as good to the planet and everyone on it now and in the future, which I do.
The questions tumble out; if I wanted to be environmentally friendly I would have no children? The world will go on after I am gone, why should I add to its problems by having another mouth to feed, cloth, educate, and comfort? Would not my energies be better spent helping the people who are alive now? Would not I be better off helping a child who has already been born, but is not wanted? Should I adopt a child? If I adopt a child thinking environmentally I should adopt one from an area of the world with a similar consumption habit to the one I live in right? Otherwise I will be raising a child who would have consumed less in a lifetime I a developing society to a society in which they would consume more, correct?
However, they would not be my biological child and I have to assume that part of my desire to have children is to have one of my own. Yes, there is a degree of selfishness in all of this. Despite all my concerns for the future of our species as a whole I also have a bit of concern for myself. The fountain of youth is not in the Florida everglades, it is in the genes you pass on to your kids. I should have just as much right as anyone else to do so, but I can’t get past the idea that on an intellectual level I am betraying my principles to quench my emotional desires.
However, I have my other half and it takes two to tango so I am pretty sure that we will have at least one biological child of our own. Not to mention that Japan, a country with a rapidly shrinking population, offers a hefty monetary incentive to have a child. I can’t be certain, but it looks to be in the neighborhood of 8,000 dollars in payments and benefits. Many other countries are doing the same thing in an effort to create a boon of young workers to support their aging society.
As most people in the developing world I think we will stop with one child to ensure that we can devote as much time and money to the upbringing of that child as we can. However, the question of adoption then is still on the table. If we were to adopt a child from a similarly well off country would we be tipping the scales any more than had already occurred? I think the answer is no. I can assume a certain degree of consumption and actually the child might consume less in a household with environmentally conservative parents.
Once the world population creeps past the 7.25 billion mark my child should be entering the population pool. I guess the only real question is, will they be using the buddy system.

India Impressions

2011-03-27T03:03:00.002+02:00

What can I say now that I am back from India and Nepal? Many people knew I was going so upon returning I was asked the question many times, “What did you think?”, some curious because they had been there and wanted to know my perspective, some because they were planning to go someday.
I never really wanted to go to India. I always had the impression that it was a crowded, dirty place and that I would not be comfortable. However, Aya wanted to go for our honeymoon and since she deferred to me and let me take us to Australia for our honeymoon I owed her the next trip. So we went to India.
Over the past year I had grown on the idea and actually became somewhat anxious to go. I read a lot about the various places in India and it just so happened that my 6th grade classes studied the area and made history projects about India right before I went. I watched a number of movies as well and finally decided that it might actually be interesting to go. India does in fact have a long history, full of interesting adventures, and really is currently in the midst of another adventure as its population begins to surpass that of China and becomes the highest in the world as well as having one of the fastest growing economies.
When we arrived my first impression was, “dirty”. We arrived at night and the haze was like a blanket. I thought living in Shanghai was bad for air pollution, and if you look at a map of air quality you will see that it is, but its nothing compared to New Delhi. My second impression was, “cheats”. Within the first hour of landing someone had ripped me off. We paid 400 rupees for a driver to get us from the airport (it should have been 250 or so) and when we arrived at the hotel he asked for a tip (he shouldn’t have) and when I gave him a 100 and asked for change he claimed he didn’t have any (I saw later that he did). We were also cheated again right after that by our hotel, but that is another story. My third impression of India was, “damn crowded”. The next day as we began to walk around it became clear just how crowded India is. There are people everywhere.
It was for those reasons that I really didn’t like India. I felt like I was constantly on guard, I could not relax. I had to always watch my bag, be skeptical of anyone who approached me (because people would appear to be helping you when in fact they were trying to cheat you), and always bargain bargain bargain. I hate bargaining. I always lose. Even if I get “a good deal” its not a good deal because the vendor would certainly take less if my skin was a different color. Everyday was more about planning how to see what sites we were interested in while minimizing getting cheated than they were about relaxing and having a good time. There were people everywhere which made it very difficult to enjoy any peace or any moment alone with my wife. It is also the crowded condition that leads to the filth that permeated India. Trash was everywhere, just about everything had a layer of dust on it, and people pissed and shat everywhere along with all manner of beasts on the street. Pollution choked the air and garbage choked the rivers. One thing pictures and movies never convey is the smell which was generally acrid with a tinge something smelted.
This is also why it was a relief to get to Nepal. Nepal shared a lot of those characteristics. It was dirty, touts everywhere, very crowded, but there was something a bit more relaxed about Nepal. When you said no to touts the people backed off. In Indian people grabbed you. People bargained, but there were not as many people trying to cheat us and there were places were you could buy as a local buys. It wasn’t hard to pick out people who were genuinely trying to help us from those who were just out to get us. There was a lot of filth in Kathmandu, but not as much in the countryside and that was also different.
I also don’t mean to say that we never met people we liked. We met a lot of people we liked. Our tour guide in Nepal was especially nice and the man whose family we had a homestay with was really sweet. We met nice travelers and store owners along the way, had some great conversations on the trains, and some of the best food I ever ate (besides the food that made me ill for a week). There were enjoyable things, but if I were to answer, “What did you think” I would say, “Dirty, crowded, full of cheats. Don’t go there. Your money is better spent seeing somewhere else in the world.”

Agra

2011-03-16T11:14:00.003+02:00

Back in India we raced against the clock. Because our flight had been delayed 4 hours catching our train was going to be cutting it close. When we finally landed we literally ran through the terminals to customs, ran to the money changer and ran out the door to the taxi stand. We had about one hour to get across town in rush hour traffic. Keep in mind this was New Delhi we had to cross, not Sturgeon Bay. A few times I have been in these situations and each time I have kept a positive attitude. Like much of life, there is no use fretting, set aside the fretting and get moving to make things better, right?

About half way across town I started to fret as we hit the Delhi wall of traffic. Our driver was quite aggressive; we had explained to him our situation so perhaps he was trying to help us. Then again he could just be another crazy Delhi driver. He was cutting in and out of traffic and making not a few enemies along the way. Our train left the station at 4pm and as we pulled up to the station at 3:56 it was almost certain we would make it as long as we could find what platform our train was on. We jumped out of the taxi, swept through security, and ran to our train, jogging alongside it to find our carriage. Mere moments after we boarded the train began to pull away. We just made it.

Arriving in Agra after dark was not pleasant and we were not happy to have to trust a rickshaw driver to get us there, rightly so. We paid for a pre-paid taxi which as it turned out was two guys who were trying to run a tourist operation doing tours around the area. We listened to 20 minutes of touting and finally got dropped off at the Hotel Clark, this was not our hotel. Our homestay family had told us that they were just behind the Hotel Clark, but left no further instructions. Unfortunately the Hotel Clark was really big, it was dark, and we weren’t sure what direction “behind” referred to. We marched off into the darkness, a rickshaw driver following us asking if we needed a ride. After a few minutes we saw what we thought might be the place and stopped to check. Another rickshaw driver pulled up and asked if we needed a ride. We figured out that it was the wrong building and started off in another direction and were approached by another driver. By this point I was furious with drivers and I yelled at him to get away from us. This upset him, he pointed to a wall nearby with some writing on it, then drove away. Turns out this guy was pointing to our home stay. We felt frustrated.

Arriving at the home stay was a little awkward at first. There was another couple seated at the dinner table when we arrived. We were led to our room then sat down for dinner. We made some quick introductions and then chatted about our India experiences. Nice to know that we weren’t the only ones. We registered with the master of the house, a very nice older Indian man (with a beautiful beard!), and arranged for a driver to come pick us up the next morning early to take us to the Taj Mahal. We woke up early and took the rickshaw that was waiting for us. We arrived at the Taj around 645, which as it turns out was a bit later than we wanted because the sun was already breaking the horizon. As we stood in line the couple from the previous night showed up, a bit upset, apparently we had taken their cab and so they were not able to get to the Taj as early as they wished. We bought tickets for them, so in the grand scheme they did not actually lose any time, but I don’t think they forgave us because they were a bit less than friendly the rest of the time we saw them.

The Taj, even early in the morning, was pretty crowded with people, or so I thought. Later that day we would see the Taj from the other bank of the river and the amount of people there was like ants swarming over a dropped popsicle in the summertime. The Taj itself was beautiful and although it cost 700 rupees each to get in I believe it was worth it. Despite how many times I had seen the structure in photographs seeing the real thing was not diminished in its capacity to awe. As the morning sun began its climb the white marble shone softly at the end of a long pool. There were many people milling about and taking photographs and even a few people who had already made their way to the structure itself, but because of the sheer splendor of the site none of those things could take away from the beauty and power the building exuded.
In order to walk around the Taj itself we had to either removed our shoes or wear protective booties. We opted for the booties, which were free and a lovely bright red. We spent about an hour at the sight and then decided there were only so many times we could look around. Before leaving we went to the bathroom which had a suggested donation to enter. I donated 10 rupees for the both of us and the guy gave me a dirty look. Why suggest a donation when you actually want a payment of more than 10 rupees? I hate it when people pretend to be philanthropists, but are really gold diggers.

We went back to our home stay for some breakfast and then were out again to the red fort. The red fort was nice, but this was getting towards the end of our trip and we had gotten up around 530 to make it to the Taj early so we were dragging our way through the fort. I don’t know how many times we sat down to rest. We decided it would be best to take a rest and went back to the home stay for a nap.Our driver seemed to be hurt that we preferred sleeping to seeing the city he lived in, but willing to take us back all the same. A few hours later we were back up again, this time to get some eats and then to go to the baby taj. The baby taj was beautiful and it was especially nice because we got there right at closing time so not many people were there. However, there was a man handing out "shoe baggies" to wear over your shoes as you walked around the building. We gave him 10 rupees and he scoffed. I hate when people do nothing and expect something.
We snapped a few pictures and then were taken to a place to view the “big” Taj for sunset. It was then that we saw how many people could crowd around it. After we went back to the homestay for a great dinner and conversation with the house master and an early night to bed. The next day we were off at 6 in the morning, heading back for our last night in Delhi and our flight out. We didn’t do much in Delhi besides going to the National Museum, which was pretty good. We were really exhausted and decided to get to the airport early for our flight. We took the subway for as far as we could and then a rickshaw to a bus stand. At the subway station we ran into a German man who shared the rickshaw and bus with us. As we started to get off the free bus the ticket boy demanded 25 rupees each. When I said no he said, ok, 20 each. I still refused. The German guy paid and left and we did not pay and left a minute later. I hate it when people try to cheat you because they assume you won't confront them.

A few hours waiting and we were streaming back to Shanghai, glad to be going "home".

Home

2011-03-14T15:09:00.004+02:00

As the world now knows last week at 2:46 on Friday in Japan an earthquake of magnitude 8.9 struck off the coast of Miyagi ken. Though the earthquake was the strongest since records had begun being kept 140 years ago Japan was in better shape than ever to meet such an instance of the earth’s power. In the nations of the world Japan is likely the most quake prepared. From birth Japanese people enter a land of quakes and are drilled and reminded often on what to do in case of a major quake. Building codes ensure that most structures are on the cutting edge of quake resistance technology. On top of that the Japanese people’s strict adherence to rules and deep community concern ensures that when disaster hits order, not chaos, ensues.
When the quake hit I was in Beijing on the subway returning to my hotel. I had taken a group of students to Beijing to participate in the Model United Nations there, BEIMUN. I received a text from my wife, who was in Shanghai, that Japan had been hit by a “big earthquake”. While I knew that it must be quite a powerful quake for my Japanese wife to refer to it as “big” I was not terribly concerned because of the afore mentioned reasons. Certainly things would be shaken up, but Japan was a nation fit to stand such shake ups. Naturally when I got back to my hotel room about 45 minutes later I switched on the TV to see if any of the networks were carrying the story.
They were, all 10 news channels had images of Japan across the screen and I was shocked to learn that the quake was indeed big. That shock soon turned to horror as images of reporters in studios turned to waves of sea, debris, houses, cars, and fire rolled across what was clearly Japanese countryside, eating everything in its path. No doubt people were in that wave and cars attempting to race away from the destruction could clearly be seen in the footage. They likely never got away. I soon learned that a tsunami had followed the quake and the eastern coast of Japan was being hit by a wave that in some places was 10 meters tall (30 feet!) and traveling around 500 mph. I called my wife, to learn that she could not contact her parents in Japan, and the next few hours were spent using whatever means I could to try to contact her parents. A few hours later I received word that she had contacted them and they were ok. Slowly other reports started to trickle in from friends that they too were ok, but as I watched the images on the television the rest of the night I realized that Japan would not be able to stand up from this blow anytime soon.
That’s part of the story that I have to tell and it is probably the one that most of you know about and can see in the news. As I sit here in Shanghai, in my comfortable apartment I don’t have any elaborate story about how this led me to some pearl of wisdom, or how I found something new and interesting, or how the world is a better place. Nor do I really have advice on what to do. I can’t really do anything. You can’t really do anything. We can sit here and feel bad and we can try to donate some money for relief, which is about it, but I can’t help feeling awful all the same.
However, I do have another part of the story to tell. Japan and specifically Fukushima ken is a second home for me. When I think of the happiest moments of my life many of them occurred there. When I moved to Japan 4 years ago I know that my mother was a bit worried about me and to be honest I was a bit worried myself. Traveling in a foreign country can be a bit nerve racking let alone moving to one, but I soon found that I was not only ok, I was coddled. Over a few years I came to really love where I was living.

While my mom worried and wondered I was secure in my community. I know also that when she visited me a few years later she was relieved to see that I was in a country that was safe and filled with friendly and polite people. In a recent email about Japan she said,

“The reporter (on TV) said she knew something was wrong when she heard screaming, because Japanese people are very polite and self controlled. It reminded me of the subways when I was there too. No pushing and shoving; even though tons of people and of course I had to hang on to your sleeve!”

So our cup runneth over; I married a Japanese girl, learned Japanese, and became engrained in “Japan”. I am forever connected. When I think about the disaster all I get are alternate images of matchstick houses and Japanese smiles. I see my in laws laughing and buildings on fire. I see a roomful of teachers and students bowing to each other in unison and then see a 30 foot wall of water. I see my home and then I see… my home, but I know that everything will be ok. Besides being very polite and friendly the Japanese are incredibly hard working and resilient. When I first heard the news that the quake happened I was sure Japan could weather the storm, looking at Japan now amid the rubble I am sure that Japan will recover and eventually thrive again.

Kathmandu in the Daylight

2011-03-08T14:39:00.005+02:00

As we entered Kathmandu we hit the rush hour wall of traffic and it took a very long time for us to get to a point where we could be dropped off. When we finally did get off there was a swarm of taxi drivers waiting. We quickly got our bags and started walking south with no real idea of where we were, just that Thamel was south of where we were and that it must be somewhat close. Needless to say we had to ask about 5 different people to get where we were going, but we finally arrived at the Kathmandu Guest House. Ariel and Johnny had recommended the place so we thought we could give it a try. When we arrived we were quite impressed with the outside and lobby of the building. The front gate was large and guarded (though we walked right in) and outside the front door was a very nice café and bar. Inside there was marble and dark wood. It seemed promising. I asked about a room and was shown a list of options and prices, about 10 in all. I chose the cheapest room with a television and made sure that the room did indeed have a television as it had been a week or so since I watched and in China the TV shows are terrible so I like watching TV when I am abroad. Content with the knowledge that I would have a TV, and heater, we proceeded to our room. This was around 6pm. The room was nice enough; a bit disappointing for what we paid, but not so much that we were mad about it. I turned on the TV to make sure it worked and then we headed out for dinner.
About an hour later we returned, me with beer in hand, for a quiet evening watching news shows and movies on the television. Some of you may empathize with my disappointment when I realized that the power in Kathmandu had gone out, as it does every 6 hours or so, and neither the TV nor the heater was able to be turned on. I went to the front desk to inquire as to when the power would be back on. After consulting a schedule the desk man, the same who checked me in, told me 1am. Crestfallen I asked when I might expect it to go off again and he informed me sometime around 7am. I was upset that basically the only time the power would be on, and hence I could watch TV, would be when I and any normal person would be sleeping. When I explained that to him he was unmoved. I asked to then change rooms, since I had no use for a room with a TV and heater that would not function. He was unmoved. In fact he said, “You asked for a room with a television, it has a television.” Which didn’t work! He could have easily told me that when I checked in, but failed to do so. I felt cheated.

The next day we got up late, enjoyed a very warm shower and headed back to our original hotel, the Shangri-La, where we had stayed earlier. After staying at the Guest House we figure Shangri-La was reasonably priced for what we got. We checked in and then headed over to Pilgrims Bookstore/café for breakfast. While there I noticed that the bar had a locally brewed traditional beer. I was looking forward to coming back that night to try it, but unfortunately it was out of stock. Afterwards we moved around to a few bookstores, lazed around at the hotel and then went to the Swayambhunath Temple (monkey temple). It has a magnificent stupa crowning the hill. There were quite a few monkeys and I must admit that the temples were beautiful. It was a very unique place despite the hordes of people that were there and the touts. Afterwards we thought we would use the fact that we were away from Thamel to go to Durbar Square. When we arrived we tried to walk into Durbar Square only to be stopped by a guard. He wanted 300 rupees each for us to enter. We decided it was too expensive. In retrospect maybe it wasn’t since that is about 4 US dollars each, but we were pretty sick of being jerked around and decided that rather than pay to go in we would go to the rooftop restaurant nearby and get a good view of the square while having lunch, no charge for entry. It was pretty nice. By this point we thought we were pretty far from Thamel. On the map it seemed awfully far so we flagged down a bicycle taxi to bring us back. As I was flagging down one guy a really scrawny looking guy cut in front of him and swooped over to us. We figured, why not and away we went. Turns out we grossly overpaid because it took our driver about 10 minutes to get back to Thamel and we easily could have walked, but there you have it. We felt so bad for our driver that we gave him an apple and a bag of chips along with our fee and then I took a picture of his feet. I wanted a keepsake of the scrawniest man who carried us in his rickshaw. By this time it was getting a bit late so we decided to have some dinner at a local Italian place and then pack it in for the night in order to enjoy the electricity that on until 9pm.

Our last full day in Kathmandu we woke late and went to find a laundry service. We were at the end of our fresh undies and I hadn’t washed my pants in about 10 days so I was ready to get those cleaned. Unfortunately I only had shorts and long underwear as an alternative so while our clothes were being laundered I wore those around town. After we had gotten our laundry we set off to the National Museum. Since yesterday’s rickshaw ride proved much shorter than we expected we took a glance at the map and decided the museum was close enough to walk to. After about 1 ½ hours we arrived at the museum.
It was interesting to say the least. The grounds and buildings were fairly well dilapidated. We entered the main building of historical items containing mounted animals, coins, panoramas, paintings, and memorabilia. Some items were quite interesting, but the general feeling of the museum was that Nepal did not have enough items to fill a museum and any thing was put in a display case to fill up the building. It was funny, but also sad and really I felt bad for the Nepalese people who certainly had an interesting and rich history, but could not afford to upkeep a museum of national quality. We visited a few more buildings on the grounds and then began our walk back. Eventually we flagged down a taxi and got back into Thamel around evening. We had dinner at a lovely little place that served Nepalese cuisine and went back early to pack and get ready for an early flight the next day.
We got up at the crack of dawn and took a taxi to the airport where we again waited for hours as our flight was delayed due to haze. After a security guard made sure I wasn’t able to stab anyone with my nail clippers by taking it away we were off into the blue skies and back to India. While I was disappointed to be leaving Nepal I was very excited to finally be seeing the Himalayas albeit from an airplane window.

Chitwan National Park

2011-02-26T12:54:00.004+02:00

Arriving at the hotel, Jungle Lodge, was great. We were seated in an outdoor area, given tea and coffee, and given a run down of what the next couple of days would entail. We could clearly see from an adjoining table that there was only one other couple at the hotel. Perfect after our time in India.
We were given a short time to get our bags in our rooms and rest and then we were off for a tour around a traditional village. The tour was very short really as we looked at one traditional house only although our guide was great. He was very relaxed and informative. He said we may have some time to walk by the river for sunset so we followed him. As we headed towards the river we passed an elephant breeding center. We stayed to check out the elephants and feed a few. It was pretty cool, but the smoke of elephant dung hung heavy in the air. All that shit has to go somewhere. We walked on towards the river and the fading light. After walking for a few minutes our guide told us to stop talking and move faster. We crested a small rise by the river and through the reeds could see a rhino drinking from a pool on the other side. It was not but 30 feet away from us, but we felt safe enough since the river separated us. After watching for a few minutes the rhino entered the river, took a quick pee, and then started to come over to our side. Of course we quickly moved away and the rhino kept coming slowly. After a few times playing this game we decided that was enough for the day and headed back towards the village, stopping off on the way at a riverside café to watch the sunset. It was beautiful. We enjoyed a beer with the other couple, Ariel and Johnny, and watched the sun go down into the jungle. After eating dinner at the hotel we were escorted to the Tharu Cultural center. Here we were to watch a traditional dance by the native people, the Tharu. I thought that this would be cheesy, but in fact it was quite good. The dancers had obviously worked really hard and their dances were interesting. So much in fact that the next night we asked if we could go again, but it was a sold out night. After the show we went out for more beers on a rooftop restaurant and then called it a night.

The next morning we were up just after sunrise and jumped into the back of an open jeep to get to the park for an elephant ride through the jungle. There were a few other people with us. The elephant ride was great. We shared an elephant with Ariel and Johnny and away we went. Although the elephant appeared to be going slow, as we looked around the jungle we could tell how fast we were really going. Its amazing how big elephants really are. As I dodged tree trunks and spider webs we went deeper and deeper into the jungle. In the silence of the early morning we saw lots of animals such as monkeys, deer, sleeping boars, and birds. It was great. We spent about 1 ½ hours in the jungle before coming back to the base. We waited for a bit, the rest of our group came back, and we loaded back up. Johnny and Ariel are both ethnic Chinese, but Johnny is English and Ariel is from Hong Kong. I never thought about it before moving to China, but you can certainly tell the difference between Chinese mainlanders and those from other parts, like Hong Kong and Taiwan. As the jeep pulled away one of the kids threw a piece of trash over the side of the jeep (in a national park!) and his parents jabbered away saying nothing to him. I kind of felt like throwing him over the side of the jeep.
After arriving back at our hotel Ariel said something like, you would never believe what they were talking about in the jeep. Apparently the Chinese group had said something to the affect of, “that was so fake, they must drive the animals out into the jungle in the morning so we could see them. Where do you think they keep them? If our nature hike today is the same thing lets not go.” Ungrateful! I couldn’t believe it, but wasn’t surprised. It has been my experience that mainland Chinese have some of the most ridiculous notions of what is real or reasonable. Why in the world would the Nepalese need to fake having a jungle full of wild animals and why would anyone suspect otherwise? Because in China, that’s what people would do. That is why Chinese people think that way.
We headed back to the hotel for lunch and a nap and in the afternoon went down to the river to get into a punt and head down the river. Our guide was very helpful identifying birds along the river, especially the bald headed northern European we saw bathing itself along the banks. Haha. It was a really nice ride down the river and in 45 minutes we were getting out on the banks a few kilometers south, but not before seeing an alligator basking itself on the bank, clearly placed there by park officials. We then took a hike around the grassland and up into the jungle towards the elephant breeding center. We didn’t see too much wildlife along the way, just some monkeys that must have been driven out of their cages for our benefit. We also saw some rhino tracks by a watering hole that were sooo fake. (Did you read my sarcasm?)

The elephant breeding center was cool. There was a small museum with good explanations of the center and an elephant skull which was roughly the size of an...elephant skull. It was big. Outside there were about 20 elephants on the grounds. There were lots of mommas and babies, but no males. When we asked about this our guide explained that wild elephants come by every so often to “have some fun”. Haha. We headed back to the river for sunset and then had a nice meal at our hotel. Because it had been a long day we packed it in early. At 9 the next morning we were on a bus back to Kathmandu sorry to be leaving Chitwan behind.

Chitwan National Park

2011-02-24T15:00:00.002+02:00

Kathmandu

2011-02-17T12:39:00.005+02:00

Landing in Kathmandu was an experience. On the flight in I was hoping to look out the windows and see the Himalayas, but there was too much cloud cover. From some of the readings that I did about Nepal I learned that this is a long standing condition and flights are never guaranteed to leave when they are supposed to, just as ours did from Delhi about 4 hours behind schedule.
However, within an hour of leaving Delhi we were breaking through the cloud cover and descending into the Kathmandu Valley. I must admit it was beautiful. Steep mountains and terraced farms surround the outer limits of the city and because of the availability of space the plane descends rapidly adding to the experience. Unlike many other flights I have taken I could not see the airport or the runways until we were almost on the ground. Very exciting.

Planes stop on the tarmac and then buses are sent to fetch passengers. The terminals themselves are very small and the airport in general seemed more fitting of a city of 100,000 rather than 1 million. Again, I imagine this is because of space considerations as the valley is slightly smaller than the country of Singapore. Thankfully we got through customs very quickly. Aya and I had both packed for our trip with bags just small enough to be considered carry on luggage. We never had to check our rucksacks and so never had to risk losing them or having to wait for them upon arriving and of course it was much easier to carry them around than large bulky luggage. Of course this means that what we had in our bags was limited, but we never wanted for anything and to keep our clothes clean we paid for laundry service every 5 days or so. It is one of those things that I have learned in traveling, pack light, move fast.
A man from our hotel and a driver were waiting for us and soon enough we were off into the city. We soon learned that our guide, Ram, was actually the tour operator for the hotel we were staying at and he had learned that we were interested in a trip to Chitwan National Park south west of Kathmandu. We were and within the hour we were checked in and at Ram’s office talking over details of the trip. Unlike a lot of the tour operators we met in India Ram and his associates seemed to run an honest business. We booked for a few days in Chitwan and then planned to return to Kathmandu for a few more to see the sights of the city.
By this time it was late in the afternoon and we decided to walk around a bit, get some dinner, then head back for showers before bed. We had to be up pretty early the next day to get our bus to Chitwan and we assumed the hotel’s solar heated showers would be best in the early evening after a day of charging. They were ok, but because of the night chill in Kathmandu it was still a bit of a dance to shower and get dressed as quickly as possible. We learned that night that Kathmandu has periodic power outages and so the main power would go off at different times of the day throughout all of Kathmandu with private businesses and households running small generators of their own to keep essentials going. Assuming that we would not have anything more than our flashlights and some candles to pack the next morning we made sure to pack before going to sleep.
Early the next morning we left our hotel in darkness and arrived at a nearby bus stop in the neighborhood of Thamel. We put our bags in the back of the bus, I stood outside until the bus was ready to go, and we were off to Chitwan.
The ride itself was long, grueling, beautiful, and scary all at the same time. The seats were not comfortable and for the first hour or so we stopped at places around the city picking up another person or two. Once we finally left the city we entered unto a narrow two lane highway that wound its way around steep precipices almost the entire time. This time around, driving in the left lane further away from the ledge was not as nerve racking, but we could see a few cars and trucks along the way that had tipped off the edge, I can’t imagine what happened to the people inside. Another hour into the trip and we had made our way out of the suburbs of Kathmandu and started following the Trisuli river, which was a beautiful shade of turquoise adding to the already beautiful landscape of the valley with its occasional narrow rope bridge crossing.
After a few stops along the way for food and bathroom breaks the mountains began to recede and we entered into a flat area, the Terai. It is here that Chitwan National Park was located and here that royalty and big game hunters used to come to bag tigers. The tigers are still there, but are no longer hunted. As the bus pulled into a parking lot outside of the town of Sauhara we were met by two gentlemen from our hotel and escorted to it nearby.

Through Delhi

2011-02-16T14:40:00.003+02:00

Leaving Jaipur in the late afternoon got us to Delhi around 1030pm. We had a flight to Kathmandu at 745 the next morning so we had arranged for a hotel very near to the New Delhi train station where we could sleep for a few hours before getting up to take a taxi to the airport, also arranged.
On the map the hotel appeared to be reasonably close by, less than a kilometer, and just down a street that ran straight away from the station. We decided we would walk. Of course coming out of the station there are hundreds of rickshaw and taxi drivers just waiting for customers and about 20 no thank you’s later we were out on the street. We found what appeared to be the correct street, but there are no street signs on many roads in India, so who could tell?
We walked for a couple hundred meters before deciding that it was too dark and the road did not appear like it did on the map, so we must be heading in the wrong direction. We made our way back to the prepaid taxi stand outside of the station to get a good rate. I shouldn’t fail to mention here that in the 30 minutes or so that we were walking around trying to find the correct road we were approached no less than 8 times by rickshaw drivers asking if we needed a ride somewhere, and every time we swapped 5 or 6 guys were standing around us in a matter of minutes, not comforting. A few times we said yes, and showed them on our map where we were going. None of the drivers knew where it was, but assured us they would get us there for 200 rupees. No thank you.
So we got back to the prepaid taxi stand where drivers were grouped like flies on …something flies really like. Even as we stood in line drivers would be asking us where we were going and quoting a price (still no one could tell us they knew the hotel, but that didn’t stop them). Since it was dark and there was only one street lamp near the taxi stand we would move a few feet away from the drivers surrounding us so that we could see our map. This would work for a minute until all the drivers re-swarmed asking for the 10th time where we were going. It was awful. Finally we got to the front of the line and got a prepaid taxi, 86 rupees thank you, and headed off to our hotel. Apparently it was on the opposite side of the station and if we had exited from the other side we may have walked to our hotel.
When we were dropped off by our driver he just made some faint motions and that was it, our hotel was not actually in sight, but we knew it was close from the map we had. We did find the hotel, but I must point out that the map was not correct (Rough Guide). The Kuldeep Guest house was not where it was supposed to be and there were a few roads which were missing too. So we arrived at the Kuldeep Guest House, now around 1130. We are immediately escorted next door to another hotel; I don’t remember the name, because Kuldeep was apparently full. This is a scam people pull and the second time we had encountered it in Delhi of the 2 nights we had spent in Delhi. It makes me wonder if anyone actually ever sleeps in the hotel they book or if there is a massive shuffle each night. You pay for one hotel; they put you up in the cheaper one next door, but charge you for the full price and keep another full priced room available at their hotel. However, it was 1130 and we were in a very dark neighborhood so the idea of searching for a new place was out. After seeing our room we agreed to spend the night there and started filling out forms. Meanwhile a girl was pounding on her room door and screaming for her roommate to open it. Apparently they had a 430am flight and her roommate had passed out with the door locked and was not responding. By the time we got back up to our own room she was still at it and it was after 12. We had about 5 hours to sleep, but I was really wary of the place we were in and vowed to stay awake. It just seemed shady.

5 hours later I awoke well rested, so much for staying awake, and headed to the front lobby where we met a man who was taking us to our airport taxi. We followed him out into the street and he approached a car where a man was sleeping, then he tapped on the glass and woke him. We threw our bags in the back, I waited for Aya to get in and kept an eye on our bags, and then the guy who brought us there asked for a tip. Aya laughed and said, “You didn’t do anything”. I said no and got in. I wonder if people actually tip him for walking 20ft.
We had a fairly quick ride to the airport, it was 530am, and the driver let us off with no fuss and didn’t ask for a tip, though he might have deserved it for getting up at 530 to drive us. There were only two times on the whole trip when we tipped someone, more on that later. So we arrived at around 6am and entered the airport. The Delhi airport is actually kind of nice, besides the smog you can see in the terminal building. There are plenty of restaurants and shops, free internet, reclined chairs to sleep in, and there is even a service located in the departure gates where you can rent a cube for 7 dollars an hour or less depending on the time of day. These cubes have a single bed, TV, table, a refrigerator and were extremely clean. I thought it might come in handy on the way out of Delhi next time, but that did not turn out to be true. We waited for our flight, which was delayed, then delayed again, finally getting off the ground at 1130.

Jaipur Tale

2011-02-12T13:44:00.004+02:00

Upon arriving in Jaipur we had some time before sunset. We had not arranged with our hotel for a driver to meet us so we waded into the sea of drivers in front of the station and picked a guy that we thought looked trustworthy. Usually we picked old dudes for two reasons. First, they have lost that fire of youth and have much less energy to argue about prices, so it seems. Second, old dudes don’t drive as fast or take as big of risks as the younger guys. So we picked an old dude and went with him. As we got into his rickshaw a young dude approached and they switched places. We briefly considered getting out, but hey, the price was agreed to and this guy said he knew our hotel so we went with it and he actually turned out to be pretty friendly. He asked us where we were from and then said, “you look, see, Indian, Japanese, American, we are like different vegetables, very good for you, vegetable curry” He then asked our names and told us his name was Ari, “aka Handsome Boy” Yes, he actually said that and when I called him “handsome man” he corrected me and said, “boy”. We warmed up to him a bit and when he dropped us off we arranged for him to come back in an hour and pick us up so that we could have some time to eat and take a shower before we tried to take in some sights before dark.

An hour later he was back and he had some grand ideas of going to about three different locations before bringing us back to our hotel, but it was already almost 5 and the sun would go down around 530. Despite telling him many times that we only wanted to go to one place and call it an early night he couldn’t get the idea out of his head that we would go to three places. We also said we wanted to go to a book store to buy a guide book for India, but he refused and told us, “No Lonely Planet book sold in Jaipur, you wait until you are in Delhi” Which struck us as rather odd considering that in Jaisalmer, a town hundreds of kilometers in the desert and with a fraction of the population of Jaipur, there were guide books being sold everywhere. Fishy. In addition every time we arrived somewhere and frequently while on the way to somewhere, our driver would stop the rickshaw, turn around, and give us a story or a warning about where we were. At first I thought, great, information from a local, this might be good. However, it soon became apparent that he was making stuff up, which is probably why he continued to refuse to take us to a book store or admit to the existence of guide books for sale in Jaipur.

First stop was Galwh Bagh, otherwise known as the monkey temple. Yes, there are lots of monkeys there, but also lots of goats. Why not call it the goat temple? I guess it doesn’t have the same ring to it. We ascended the stairs leading up to the temple where we sat watching the sunset and discussing our strange driver. There were a few other tourists straggling about as well. When we had entered the grounds right away three boys ran up to us and said something like, “Monkeys very angry, you need protection?” Of course we said no, little buggers, but it appears some people bought their story. Just a few minutes up the hill we saw a French couple (I know they were French because we had sat near them on the train) being “protected” by a small boy. While their backs were turned he approached a monkey sitting on a ledge and held out his thumb. When the monkey did nothing the boy bit his own finger, then yelled and ran back to the couple saying, “Look, the monkey bit me! I protect you.” The monkeys were everywhere, but they were not aggressive at all except to each other.
After satisfying ourselves that there was no more to be seen we headed back to our driver and insisted on going back to the hotel. Reluctantly he agreed and brought us back. Before we left though we asked again about a book store and got the same reply about no guide books in Jaipur. Weird guy. When we reached the hotel our driver gave us a speech about the next day, would we like a driver for a full day or half day? He could drive us around? So Aya and I had a quick conversation in Japanese about whether it was worth it and did we really want this guy driving us around. We decided he was weird, but harmless and he did actually listen to us even if it took a few times, so we agreed to meet him outside the hotel the next morning.
He was prim and ready, but when we said first we had to change money and then we wanted to go to a bookstore he became upset, I think because he had some grand plan in mind. He brought us to the shadiest looking money changer in the city, but despite that the guy spoke really good English and he and I were having a chat about India and America. Unknown to me Aya was having an argument with our driver in the corner. He continued to insist that there were no guide books and he didn’t know any book stores and she continued to insist there were and that he bring us there (we actually had photocopied some pages of a Lonely Planet guide beforehand and so she was pointing to the exact location of several bookstores on a map of Jaipur while he denied their existence). As we were leaving he appealed to me, I don’t know why, to get Aya to calm down and of course I told him to bring us straight to a bookstore. Finally he relented. Weird.
On the way he stopped at a gas station and gave us his final appeal to not go to the bookstore. He claimed he couldn’t drive in that area of the city because he had forgotten to bring his uniform and if the police saw him without it he would be fined. Now, I am not sure if this was true or not. I saw almost every driver wearing a blue short sleeved shirt, which our driver did have the day before, but claimed was being washed today. None the less, we told him to just drop us close and we would walk. He brought us there anyways and actually walked up to the bookstore with us, which had a full display in the front window with about 20 Lonely Planet guide books in it. We didn’t even buy a book, deciding it would be better to get one in Delhi (hahaha) and he mumbled something about buying it in Delhi on the way back to the rickshaw.
We were then off to the City Palace which had some cool objects, but overall wasn’t very exciting. There were some amazing gates in the complex, which we took pictures of, but most of the other rooms contained textiles and weapons the most of which we had see similar things before. However, there is on premises the two largest silver objects in the world, but they were much smaller than I thought they would be.
After this we crossed the street to the Jantar Mantar, an observatory build in the 1700’s. This complex is a huge outdoor area in which giant observation instrument were built. It was very interesting and the plaques that went with each object were more than adequate in explaining its meaning. It is amazing how much progress humans have made in just a few hundred years. From the grounds we could see the Hawa Mahal. This is a huge 5 story red stone structure that was built so that the royal ladies could view the goings on of the city without being seen. That wouldn’t be very lady like.
When we returned to our driver and told him we wanted to go there he seemed upset and at first tried to say somewhere else, but we insisted because, really it was right there(we said pointing to it) He relented and in 2 minutes we were standing in front of the building. Unfortunately it was closed so we only got to snap a few photos and then we were off again. As we bumped along our driver was explaining to us a market place in which we could see the traditional styles of weaving and some traditional wares. Would we like to go there? Sure, seems like a reasonable thing to do. Of course we were running out of time and this would be our last stop before having to head back to the hotel to gather our bags, but it seemed like it might be worth it. As we got out of the rickshaw we didn’t see any market, but instead a drab concrete building. There was a man waiting for us who showed us inside while our driver went off for prayers (He was Muslim, it was Friday, even though later her tried to get us to see his guru). We accompanied the man down a set of stairs and he showed us where the fabrics were made. I must admit it was interesting. There was a room with 6 or 7 very large pieces of cloth laid out on tables and various workers working on dying them, stamping patterns on them, and stitching on beads. The work was beautiful and obviously took a long time. After viewing the area he brought us upstairs to his shop and here we got wary. We were the only ones in the shop and the owner and his assistant went through a very long process of showing us various clothes and quoting prices all of which were way too high for us. Eventually we expressed interest in one piece and he quoted a price. It was much too high for me to even consider paying. I told him I was sorry, but we had to go. He said name a price, so I did, at half the price he quoted. He told me he would come down a little; I told him that I seriously could not pay more than that. He said he couldn’t do it. I thanked him and starting heading for the door when he angrily said, ok, I could have my price. We then looked at a couple of Punjabi for Aya’s mom and the whole situation started over again with pricing. This time he laughed and told us we should just go if we couldn’t pay that much. What an asshole. We didn’t ask to come to his shop; we told him we had no money. Our driver and this guy were obviously in some kind of cahoots and when our driver came back we insisted on going back to the hotel. When we finally arrived I gave our driver his money, slightly less than what we had agreed on, and he began to argue with us. Aya took most of the conversation; we had agreed she would do so on the drive back to the hotel. While it was infuriating at the same time it was comical. She told him we would not pay full price because he had wasted our time by bringing us to his friends shop, lying about places, not bringing us to a bookshop, arguing with us, etc. He then appealed to me and said something like, “what is she saying, I don’t understand her, I didn’t lie to you, she misunderstood because her English is bad”. I told him he was wrong, and then Aya told him her English was fine, it was his that was bad and we got out.
When we entered the hotel the manager, who had been watching the whole time, said, “That guy, there is always trouble” Which made me wonder, if there is always trouble why don’t you warn people?! But I didn’t say anything; I was too riled up already and just happy to be done with it all. We gathered our bags after a few minutes, headed to the train station, and said goodbye to Jaipur, but unfortunately not goodbye to bad service and scams.

Gates of the Jaipur City Palace

2011-02-12T08:34:00.002+02:00

Jodhpur

2011-02-10T12:47:00.004+02:00

After Jaisalmer we took a train to Jodhpur. We left Jaisalmer late in the afternoon and it took a few hours to get to Jodhpur so by the time we arrived it was after dark. Experience will tell you that it’s better to arrive in a new town during the day time. Night can be disorientating. We were supposed to be greeted by someone from the hotel, as Chimmy had done for us in Jaisalmer, but when we got off of the train there was no one there. As we made our way past the rickshaw drivers and said, “No, no thank you” about 20 times one driver asked, “where are you going?”. When we told him the Cosy Guests House he said, “Are you Kevin?” and when I answer yes he immediately called someone and said my name several times. I assume he called our hostel to tell them we arrived, so we found our driver. However, when he pointed to a rickshaw and we got in a different guy jumped in the driver seat and we immediately had to begin negotiations for price all over again. We then zoomed down dark alleys taking hairpin turns at great speed and with no concern for oncoming traffic. More than once we missed head on collision by just seconds. This is very much India.
Finally the driver stopped, pointed to a sign painted on the side of a building that had the name of our hostel and pointed up the road, which was too narrow for his rickshaw. We ambled out, wary as ever of our driver, but what could we do besides trust the dilapidated painted sign and go up the dark narrow alley in this unfamiliar city?
At the hostel we were greeted with what I can only describe as slight surprise and small embarrassment. It appears that the front desk person was not expecting us and had only one room available, not the one we reserved. I wonder who in the world the first driver was talking to if it wasn’t the front desk.
Again, what choice did we have? So we agreed to stay in that room until the next day and so spent the night at the Cosy Guest House. I will admit that it was actually pretty nice and cozy, especially for 6 dollars a night. From the rooftop restaurant we had an awesome view of the fort. As it turned out the next day we only did a couple of things like going to the local bazaar, which we saw a lot of as we circled in about a dozen times trying to find a bookstore that Lonely Planet Recommended, but that no one had heard of and which turned out to be closed for the day. It was interesting seeing the same people over and over again tempting us with the same lines, “bracelet, 10 for 100, now you buy” or “you come in my shop, come see my shop, you come in, come”. In a way it was like riding some sort of infuriating ride like ‘Its a Small World’ where the same characters sing the same thing over and over again until you feel like it really is a small world and maybe you really do want to buy 10 bracelets for 100 rupees and then you snap out of it and realize that you don’t even know 10 people, let alone 10 who would be willing to wear those bracelets.

Later in the afternoon we got going to the fort. Although going to the fort was really the only constructive thing we did it completely made the day.
After winding up hill for about 20 minutes we reached the front gates of the Mehrangarh fort. Built on a high rock outcrop with walls 40 meters high and 6 meters thick it looked very solid. Before entering the gate I got a guided tour headset, the kind you push numbers into as you see numbered displays marked along displays and then you hear an explanation of what the room or object is. Mine was grand; the guide’s voice was that of a man who was clearly Indian, but had an English accent much like I imagine the narrator of the Jungle Story would have. I felt like I was getting a history straight from a colonial subject. He was a man with a neat beard and a turban, a bit on in age, someone who was well educated and whimsical as well as fatherly in his guidance. As you can tell I immediately formulated an image in my mind of what this man looked like and the gestures he used. This pleased me greatly.
As we made our way into the fort we had to pass a number of gates, 7 in all, each becoming smaller and harder to get through than the last. The most interesting I thought was the last, the Loha Pol, which you get to by going up a long ramp which abruptly turns on a right angle just before the gate’s doors which are very heavy with large spikes on them. I thought surely that the spikes were unnecessary, but was quickly corrected by my guide as I punched in number 12. He told me that this was designed to detour elephants from ramming the gate first because it was difficult to get speed if you have to turn at a right angle like that right before the gate and second the long spikes coming from the door which even an elephant won’t do well with. Just by the gate are the red hand prints of widows whose husbands died in battle and who themselves committed suicide by immolating themselves on their husbands’ funeral pyres. Now that is dedication.
Inside are a number of more elaborate palace rooms which are now filled variously with things such as human carriers, elephant carrier baskets, an armory, clothing, and religious artifacts. Some of these were quite interesting and again my headset gave me the grand tour. I learned a lot about the kings who had resided there, the last of whom was still alive and living nearby. I also learned about princesses, wars, decadence, and religious practices. It was all very nice. At the end of my guided tour Aya and I went out onto the rampart and looked at the various cannons and the awesome view of the ‘Blue City’. It is named as such because the locals have painted many of their houses in the color of indigo which was readily available years ago and also works as an insect repellent as well as lending a cool air to the buildings in the heat of Rajasthan. (yes, from the headset)
The tour guide had told me that on the ramparts were the cannons of various countries as when the army had defeated an enemy they took a cannon as a prize of war. One of these cannons was supposedly from China when the local army joined the British in fighting in the Opium Wars. We looked and looked, but never found the cannon. We did see a few other countries, but no indication of a Chinese one.
Unfortunately we only had one full day in Jodhpur and the next day we were on our way early, moving on to Jaipur and a little bit closer to Delhi and a little bit closer to flying to Kathmandu. Most unfortunate of all was that I had to turn in my headset and say goodbye to my guide. I wish his voice would have accompanied me on my entire trip.

Jaisalmer

2011-02-08T05:56:00.004+02:00

After flying into Delhi on the night of the 21st and staying in one of the worst hotels I have ever been in, we got our train from Delhi to Jaisalmer. This however, was not without trouble as when approaching the New Delhi train station we were approached by what we thought was a rail worker and told a story that almost resulted in us being scammed. More on that later, I intend to do a whole post about the scams we encountered.
After finally finding our train at Old Delhi station we boarded and got ready for the overnight ride. We rode in AC two tier, which basically means the car is cooled and in each berth there are four beds which fold down. It was actually not too bad for sleeping and I was none the worse after 9 hours of overnight travel. As we approached Jaisalmer in the late morning I started to have a headache and to feel a bit like diarrhea was coming on. As we got off the train I knew I was in for something. Luckily we found our hotel manager Chimmy waiting for us at the station and within 20 minutes we were being shown our rooms at the Hotel Suraj. Just after settling in I headed for the bathroom which inaugurated a 12 hour session of losing fluids in all ways possible. Luckily Aya was still feeling ok and with the help of Chimmy was able to locate some medication, water, and soft foods. By late in the evening my stomach was starting to un-cramp and I could keep some fruit and water down, by which time Aya was also feeling ill. It was a terrible night, but by morning light we were both feeling a bit better and managed to get up the strength to go next door for breakfast at sunrise before going back to bed for another 4 hours or so. By noon we were feeling good enough to make a little circuit around the castle, but not much more that day, just a lot of resting and restocking fluids. It is amazing how frail the human body is.
On our final day in Jaisalmer we made it to Gadsisar Lake on the southern edge of town and to some other havelis outside of the fort. Unfortunately we didn't get to take the overnight camel ride into the desert that we were hoping for, but we were really glad to be back on our feet and had a good laugh about the quality time we spent together.

Jaisalmer's Hotel Suraj

2011-02-08T05:14:00.005+02:00

I'm sure this sounds a bit like a brochure, but I really wanted to describe this hotel because I found it so interesting.
This is a bit of the view of the Hotel Suraj, where we stayed in Jaisalmer. The hotel itself is in a very old Haveli(stone carved house)that has been owned by the same family for generations. To get to the hotel you have to enter the fort, past ramparts and gates, and then weave your way among narrow lanes, filled with merchants and the errant cow, to get to the hotel. On the first floor the owner's family lives. In the center of the building is an open courtyard that goes to the sky and lets in light during the day. To the south side of the building is a stairwell that leads to the roof on the 5th floor if I remember. We had a room on the 3rd floor which had open windows to the courtyard and to the west.
Going into the room are a pair of ancient, heavy wooden doors that can only be locked by chain at the foot of the door. The room has the air of a cave, but not too dark or dank, open and refreshingly cool in the heat of Jaisalmer. In the ceiling are a number of hooks that have been drilled into the rock, obviously long ago. These were used for oil lanterns to light the room. Colorful paintings adorned the walls. Being located in the fort itself made for a very convenient way to see Jaisalmer's main attraction. The family who owns the place is also friendly and the manager, Chimmy, was very helpful in getting us anything we needed, which turned out very well.

20/30

2011-02-07T16:34:00.007+02:00

Entering into my thirtieth year (note, I turned 29 years old on January 30th so I have 29 behind me, hence entering the 30th) I also entered into my 20th country outside the U.S., Nepal.No longer a teen. More on that later.
As I think back on the travels I have done and the cultures that I have seen I am happy with the choice I have made to forgo the alternatives. Travel can take up time and resources that could have been used for something else which of course then the question comes to mind, 'what could I have done with this time/money?'. This is especially true when you have a trip that was not entirely enjoyable. Even in these times there are lessons to be learned. I believe that learning those lessons are very valuable. I think given the alternative my time and money is well spent. I intend to continue my travels, which you will see here, and to continue exploring the world. I hope you all will stay here with me and enjoy the ride. Cheers.

Throw Away Society

2011-01-09T04:01:00.006+02:00

Last week in teaching economics I used a new article from the Washington Post about Amazon as an example of a company or individual patenting a new technology. If you didn’t hear about it, Amazon has come up with a way to return gifts you receive before you even receive them. If you are feeling cheated already, wait until you hear more.

With this new technology you can set up various filters which will essentially guarantee that you get gifts you want and don’t get gifts you don’t. For example; your mother sends you a CD for Kenny G for Christmas, via Amazon. You hate Kenny G, so months ago you set up your account to say, “any gift involving Kenny G convert to gift card” and BAM! You get a gift card instead of the Kenny G CD. Now the tricky part, does mom find out? Well, you have the option, you can send a card saying, “thanks for the Kenny G” or you can say, “Thanks for the Kenny G, but I converted it to a gift card, I don’t like Kenny G.” You can also set your account to convert all gifts from mom, no matter what. Or you could set it up to interact with a wish list so no matter what the gift or from whom you convert it.
The reason a retailer like Amazon would do this is to cut production costs. Every time someone doesn’t get the gift they want a package comes back to the warehouse and has to be repackaged and restocked, not to mention the initial un-stocking and shipping that was wasted to begin with. Amazon is cutting costs, raising profits. When 28 billion in goods was sold this holiday season and 30% of those returned I can hear the Amazon share holders clinking glasses now.

The reason I found out about this new technology was because of a discussion that was happening in my office near my desk. Where I work 4 teachers share a large room and so we chat often exchanging ideas. I got involved in a conversation about what a big waste Christmas gifts are. The idea that pretty much all of us were agreeing to was that Christmas has gotten too commercial. The massive amount of goods that people buy and the carelessness with which they do it is, well, not good.

Now some of you may remember 4 years ago when I wrote a post here called “Gift of the Magi” You may find it here

Mainly I lamented the waste of Americans and suggested that Christmas was about something deeper than gifts. I stand by that. I also said a few things about the amount of trash that Americans are expected to generate during their lifetimes. Combining waste on the consumer and well as producer end it would be about 1,000 tons of garbage. A very small percentage of that gets recycled, but a lot of it just goes to a landfill. In landfills many things can break down, or decompose. Unfortunately not everything can decompose. Most plastics do not decompose. Ever. They can get smaller and smaller, but they never break down. This is a problem considering the proliferation of plastics and the ever growing human population.

3 years ago I read a book called ‘The World Without Us’. While the first half was terribly interesting and detailed how everything we have built up as humans would just fall apart if we were to disappear, the second half of the book was almost exclusively about plastic. It was at this time that I first learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The patch is an area in the Pacific Ocean, floating thousands of miles from civilization, somewhere between the size of Texas and the continental United States. It is hard to say because no one can draw a distinct boundary around plastics floating in the oceans. The best you can do is to measure concentrations of plastic in the water. Estimates by the UN are that in the garbage patch there are 40,000 pieces of plastic per square mile. The Patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre, one of five such gyres in the world. The North Pacific Gyre works in the way a toilet would, swirling slowly and concentrating matter in the center. Because of this, much garbage in the ocean will find its way into the center of the gyre, though it may take years. During that time much of the plastic is broken into smaller bits and sinks below the surface, but is still in the water. Note though breaking into smaller bits doesn’t mean that it turns into its base elements. That will never happen. It is just that the plastic becomes smaller pieces of plastic.
Essentially people may think, this garbage patch is floating in the ocean, very far from land. That is gross, but it isn’t actually harming us and even if it were, it is a patch and we could just clean it up. Like most problems in the world people think that if it’s not in front of them they don’t care enough to do anything about it.

The problem actually is right in front of us. Plastic comes back to us in many ways. Animals living in the oceans, fish most obviously but also other organisms, eat those pieces of plastic because they resemble food. In some parts of the gyre concentrations of plastic are 10 times the amount of biomass. When creatures seek small organisms like plankton for food they are really getting a lot of plastic. While eating plastic is bad enough these pieces of plastic are extra toxic. Due to the nature of plastics they are a magnet for toxic materials and as this plastic floats through the ocean it accumulates toxins from the water around it. By the time an animal eats the plastic it can have up to a million times the toxicity of the water surrounding it. When you plug that into the equation you may want to think twice about eating marine life. As the plastic works its way up the food chain the toxicity becomes greater and greater, just like large fish like tuna and marlin are known to have high levels of mercury the larger a fish gets the higher the concentration of other things as well. The next time tuna or other ocean fish land on your plate remember that you are just another step up the food chain, accumulating what your food has accumulated.
So of course, we should clean it up, but the reality is that we can’t. The project is too huge. No government, let alone even a combination of governments, would be willing to spend the resources projected to clean up the ocean.
There is no easy solution to the garbage patch. What will likely happen is that human consumption of plastic will continue, the patch will grow, and marine life will increasingly suffer, meaning we will too. The best thing that we can do is to use our power as consumers of plastic to change the types of plastic we consume and the level at which we consume them. Before buying that Halloween mask you will use once, before taking that plastic bag at the grocery store, before buying a product from the shelf that has lots of unnecessary packaging, before choosing which kind of bottled drinks think for just a second about how you can make a better choice.
It has been more than a year now since I became vegetarian and I don’t regret it at all. In fact it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made, one that I am most proud of. Sure, I do occasionally think it would be nice to have a burger or maybe some cured ham, but now I know what my consumption habits result in and I can’t justify eating meat anymore. Faced with that choice, denial or changing my lifestyle, I changed my lifestyle. I saw something wrong with the world and instead of ignoring it because it seemingly wasn’t right in front of me; I took the time to understand it better and to take responsibility for my actions. I plan to do the same thing this year with plastic. Sure, it will be impossible to get away from plastic. It is everywhere. However, I can greatly reduce the amount and type that I use. Reducing the amount can be done in easy ways like bringing my own re-usable grocery bag to the store. Aya and I have done this for about 2 years now and it is working great. I estimate we use about 300 less plastic bags every year, but really that is a drop in the ocean, we can do much better.
Changing the type of plastic I use may be much harder, but I have some leads on how to do so. There are more than a handful of companies now that are investing in non-petroleum base, biodegradable plastics. Earth Soul and Plantic are two examples of companies making plastic from biodegradable materials and Sony has developed a plastic that it now uses in its product, which is biodegradable. In the United States Cargill has developed a plastic made from chicken feathers. Two birds with one stone there, taking a waste product and making into a new product.
It will take time and much more research to figure out exactly in what ways I can change my habits. We are all in different situations and one person’s abilities are not the same as another’s but we can all take a few minutes to consider the world around us. Now that you have read this you too can be faced with a decision, denial or change of lifestyle?

http://www.earthsoulindia.com/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050325184643.htm
http://www.plantic.com.au/docs/Plantic_Media_Release_Sainsbury.pdf
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/technology/theme/vegetableplastic_01.html

And 59 To Go

2010-12-04T03:55:00.005+02:00

Just over a month ago Aya arrived in Shanghai. I brought a photo with just to make sure it was her (pictured). As usual I was surprised by how small she is. More than that I was so accustomed to a silent house that having my little chatter box back has changed my world here. She has changed my world in many other ways too. It has been a year now since we were married in Hawaii and in some regards that seems like only yesterday. To celebrate one year together we took a trip to Hangzhou. It’s a scenic town not far from Shanghai. I expected a smaller town with nice scenery since it had been hyped up that way by people I had talked to and the research I had done. There were supposed to be some nice hiking and running trails surrounding that a scenic lake. I was very much looking forward to that as Shanghai is a busy place with lots of people, thick air, and few places that are quiet and people free.
We departed Shanghai on a bullet train which zipped through the country side at 350kmph. The train ride was nice enough, but as I looked out the window I kept thinking, “Ok, we are getting further into the country side, when are we going to get to a place where the smog parts and the blue sky shows itself?” I kept reassuring myself that Hangzhou and blue skies were just around the corner. I was sorely disappointed.

Hangzhou has some nice scenery, but like every other place I have been to in China it was packed with people and very polluted. As we arrived at the train station and hailed a taxi it was obvious that this place was not a smaller city. Sky scrapers could be seen nearby through a haze of smog. The train station was brimming with people coming and going from Hangzhou. I was immediately crestfallen as I realized this was not going to be a weekend where I got away from the city atmosphere.

Indeed, there were mountains and scenic pagodas. There were nice views and old structures. There were hiking trails and running trails that wound through nice patches of mountain side and scenic lakeside landscaping. It had all the potential for a nice place to be for a weekend. At one point after climbing a pagoda we spent some quiet time in a tea garden, the tea was really good, and for a moment we escaped the city. We walked about a lot and saw some sights, but the first feeling of being in a smoggy crowded place was prevalent. We made the best of it and enjoyed our time just being together and relaxing. At one point we had wandered down a side street and the strangest feeling fell over us. It took us a few minutes to realize what it was; we weren’t surrounded by people, traffic, smog, and noise. It felt great.

Since then I have had none of that silence, back here in Shanghai. There has been no silence outside and none inside either. Aya has been waiting for me when I come home each day as we continue our lives here. I enjoy my job immensely and she says she enjoys her life here too learning Chinese and tending house. There are certainly things that we don’t like, but it seems that we have found enough things we do like to keep us here a bit longer. I think part of that is just having each other. Three months without her was too much and I could tell that my stress level was higher before she was here. While I still value my private time I am growing more and more appreciative of having a partner to share my life with, someone to unburden my concerns to, share a laugh with, to be perfectly honest, to share in my triumphs and my defeats no matter how mundane. Our futures are now tied together and each step we take is together.
Recently one of my dear friends passed away. I have followed some of his widow’s thoughts as she tries to make sense of such a sudden change of her life and the impact it has had is one that is obvious. Once you have committed your life to one person and built towards the future together, what happens when one day they disappear? I try to never think about it, yet think of it all the time. I wonder what Aya would do if I suddenly died. While it pains me to picture her as a widow it pains me even more to know that I won’t be there anymore. In my own selfish way I think the worst part of my death won’t be that I can no longer experience the world, but that I will no longer have the company of my wife. On our trip I remarked to Aya that we had, “One year down...” To which she replied, “…and 59 to go". I hope that is true.
.

Expo

2010-10-10T15:27:00.003+02:00

369,300; that is how many people went to the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai on the same day I did which seems like a lot until compared to the Expo’s peak day, the 15th of June, which saw 518,000 people attend.
The exhibition, which opened on 1st May and runs until the end of October, has been seen as Shanghai's chance to showcase itself to the rest of the world. In spending a reported $46 billion spent on the Expo, China has invested more money in it than the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Official figures have predicted 70 million visitors will flock to the 240 pavilions and exhibitions staged by participating countries and organizations, spread out over 2.5 miles of Shanghai's Huangpu riverbank. So far 58,386,600 visitors have visited the Shanghai expo. While most come from China itself some, like me (technically), are overseas visitors.
I had gone to the expo briefly with Aya in June when we were here for a couple of days, but because of time constraints we only went in for a couple of hours and saw just two pavilions. I only remember one, Israel, which I thought was rather disappointing. The building itself looked very cool from the outside, but the main portion of the inside was dedicated to a movie showing the advancements in technology Israel has made and connections with China. In my eyes both subjects were forced and not very interesting.

This time around I went alone. I intended to spend a whole day, but arrived a bit late around 10am and then left a bit early at 4pm because me feet were starting to hurt and lines were getting monstrously long. This time around I went to 5 pavilions, the African Shared Pavilion, the South American shared Pavilion, the Cuban pavilion, the USA pavilion, and the New Zealand pavilion.
The Cuban pavilion was terribly depressing and the only thing I remember from it is that there was a man selling bottles of rum, or some kind of liquor. There wasn’t even a line, just two open doors leading in and out of the pavilion. I guess you can’t have a line if there is nothing to wait for. The African shared pavilion and the South American shared pavilion had some interesting points, but also some very shabbily put together areas. At some times I imagined that a class of 6th graders had been put to task setting up displays. The New Zealand pavilion was neat. There was a giant green stone in front for visitors to touch, nice displays of NZ life and overall a cool design. The USA pavilion was by far my favorite, which feels boastful for me to say because I took pride in what the USA pavilion focused on in contrast to what other pavilions focused on. In every other pavilion I saw the focus was on physical achievements like mining, exports, advancements in technology, or the unique regions of a country. All those are fine things to be proud of and showcase, but America’s pavilion focused on something intangible.

Yes, I can barely believe it myself, American’s did not focused on the goods they make, the land they have, or the advancements in technology. Rather they were focused on ideas. Yes, ideas. As the pavilion’s site says, “The Pavilion presents the U.S. as a place of opportunity and diversity where people come together to change their communities for the better.” There were three films in three different rooms of the pavilion as a group of a couple hundred people we were moved from room to room. The first film had an array of ordinary and not so ordinary Americans, including Kobe Bryant, Tony Hawk, and Michelle Kwan, attempting to speak to visitors in Chinese(for the record Kwan has no trouble speaking Chinese). The takes are not perfect and visitors get to see the many mistakes that people make trying to say something in Chinese. It was great. It set the audience in a playful mood and got everyone smiling. Next visitors are led to see a second film featuring the likes of U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Here they and a group of children talk about the innovative ideas that Americans will come up with in the future. Kind of a ‘Promise of Tomorrow’ type film. The third film features a story on urban landscapes with moving seats for thunder and a sprinkling of water for rain when those parts come up in the narrative.
At the end of the second film the audience cheered! Can you believe that? Cheered! I never saw anything like that at the other pavilions. No one cheered the guy selling rum in Cuba. The Green stone of New Zealand was cool, but no one laughed. Pointing out the connection between Israelis and Chinese was nice, but didn’t get any applause.

I could feel the emotion from the films and the emotion from the audience around me and I could see, for the first time here, the way that some Chinese people look at the United States. Outside waiting in line I met a young girl who I talked to for the 30 minutes or so it took for us to get through the line. She told me about her family, her upbringing and her desire to study in the U.S. Inside the pavilion I met two young men who were anxious to speak to me about what I thought of the US pavilion. Listening to them I was put into the perfect mindset for what I was about to see.

The Expo’s slogan is ‘Better City, Better Life’ and I have to imagine that if the estimated 70,000,000 visitors come to Shanghai in the course of 6 months that indeed the city will become better. The government will be forced to clean up, for at least 6 months, and the economic activity visitors bring with them will improve the city of Shanghai. No matter what happens, I can take away a little peace of mind. A reminder to myself that even with all the wealth of land and achievements that America has the potential of America's future might be more valuable than all of that.

The Red Button

2010-08-15T17:09:00.001+02:00

The red button is located just inside the door of my new apartment. The first time I saw it I was with the guy who was inspecting my apartment. He was running around, flipping switches and opening doors just to make sure everything was working ok. I saw the button as we entered the apartment and was waiting to see when he would flip it, but as it turns out he didn't. Later that day as I was moving in furniture I again paused to look at the red button. What could it possibly do? There was no clear indication and so I thought it best to just let it be. For the next couple of days I would look at that button on my way in and out of the apartment and wonder what it was for. Finally, one morning, I decided to push it. Bracing myself I gave it a quick sharp jab. I stood stock still for a moment listening to for any detectable sound and watching for movement, but nothing happened. The button stuck in and didn't come out so i gave it another jab to try to dislodge it, but it didn't move. As the anticipation I built up slowly deflated I sat back down on the couch to read. About 5 minutes later I heard some keys jangling at my front door. I was supposed to have some repairs done, the ones the initial inspection had uncovered, so I got up to let in the repairman. However, when I opened the door there was no repair man, but a security guard. I motioned for him to come in and then he showed me a key. For a split second I didn't know what he was doing there, and then it dawned on me. The red button had a small key hole, like shape of the key he was holding, below the button. The red button turned out to be a security button in case of trouble.
Moving to Shanghai has been an experience. This past week I have spent cobbling together what I could for my new apartment and basically keeping myself alive and well. These may seem like mundane tasks, but take that task and put it in a setting where you barely know where you are and don't speak the language and you might get a better sense of just how challenging it can be. Thankfully many people can speak some English, so many tasks are not terribly hard to complete, but it is hard to work up the motivation each day to go into a world where you don't fit in, but still find your way. I am naturally prone to try to work things out on my own before asking someone else. Some may even say I am reluctant to ask for help. This isn't so bad in a place where I can largely help myself, but here it is not the case. I have to ask for help. I have to make a fool of myself trying to explain what I need. I have to trust. I have to do things because they need to be done. I have to know, I can't wait to see what happens. I have to push the red button.

Body Worlds

2010-08-03T22:09:00.003+03:00

In July Aya and I went to an art show called Body Worlds in Niigata. I have known about Body Worlds for about 5 years, and have wanted to go for just as long, but was never able to be in the same city as one of the rotating exhibits. Luckily for me, Aya got some free tickets through work. I have always been interested in anatomy, my favorite part about creating art is exploring the human body. Seems only natural that as a human I am interested in what is inside of me. However, many people don't feel this way and would label that kind of curiousity as morbid or grotesque. I can see why people feel that way, but I don't share their opinion as art, and inherintly this exhibit, are not meant to disgust, but educate.
Most of the bodies in the exhibits are human, though animals do make an occasional appearance. The bodies in the exhibits are preserved by plastination. Plastination, in a nutshell, replaces the fats and water in tissue with polymers. The person to popularize the show and invent the technique of plastinization is Gunther Von Hagens. Currently there are 5 shows touring the world. All cadavers are donated and if you are interested in making a donatoin you can go here (http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/body_donation.html)
I expected this show to be breathtaking and I admit that it was very interesting, but there seemed to be something missing for me. Perhaps, life? But really I think what was missing was a true sense that these models were human. Even though the evidence was right before my eyes it was hard for me to believe that these were real human beings. I enjoyed looking at slices of people, a smokers vs. non-smokers lungs, women and men, brains with alzeimers, holding a brain in my hands, and seeing the blood vessels of the human body displayed independant of the torso in what looked like red hanging moss. I think its an important exhibit and I think most people, rather than leaving uneasy or deomoralized, leave feeling the real beauty and fragility of the human body.

Shanghai's Maglev

2010-06-17T15:08:00.003+03:00

Imagine if you will that you have put your ear to a seashell and are listening to the sounds it makes, that is kind of what the Maglev from Pudong airport to Shanghai proper sounds like at full speed. Maglev stands for Magnetic Levitation. Cars and tracks are designed to levitate the cars and for propulsion through magnitics. Some people refer to these trains as a linear motor car, but I don't think that is correct as linear motor car refers to the mode of propulsion (propulsion coils) rather than to the tracks and cars. Then again we call one train a steam engine and another a diesel even though they may run on the same track, so as you like.
The one in Shanghai is currently the most famous although there are other famous maglev trains such as those in Germany and Japan. The top speed ever recorded for a maglev train was in Japan at 581 kilometers per hour which in miles is something like 360.
This particular one transports people 30 km (18.6 miles) to the airport in just 7 minutes 20 seconds, achieving a top speed of 431 km/h (268 mph), averaging 250 km/h (160 mph). It is the fastest commercial train currently in use. I have to say that at the moments during which the train achieved top speed it didn't feel like it. It was suprisingly smooth.
We took the train both in and out of Shanghai, it was not so expensive, about 50 rmb which comes out to a little less than 10 dollars a ticket. I suppose if you had the time you would take a normal subway into the city, but we wanted to ride the special train. We thought it would be fun and it was.
The reason for being in Shanghai was to visit a school to see if I could get a job there and I did, so next year I can ride the maglev quite often if I like. I am sure with the number of people that said they would visit we will be riding it a few times at least. I am hoping the ride, in Shanghai next year, will be suprisingly smooth.

Kodo

2010-06-12T02:49:00.004+03:00

Last weekend before heading off for China Aya, her parents, and I went to a concert for a group called Kodo. This group is very interesting for a number of reasons. First is that the name Kodo can interestingly have two meanings that both fit the group very well. The first meaning is "heartbeat" which is easy enough to see fits a drumming group and the second means "children of the drum" which is even more obvious. Second, the group is based on an island in the Sea of Japan/East Sea called Sado. Sado is about a 1 hour ferry ride from the mainland and if you go back to a post I wrote in September you will see that I have visited Sado. It is interesting that the group is based there because there is not a whole lot of anything on Sado, which makes it easy for them to live a secluded and spartan lifestyle. Also very interesting is that apprentices who hope to be players spend two years living together communally in what was once an abandoned schoolhouse. After this period, apprentices who have been selected to become junior members spend one more year training and practicing in the hope that at the end of the year they will be chosen to become part of the Kodo organization. Members are very dedicated! The most visually interesting thing is the players endurance. Members will at times strip down to fundoshi, which is like underwear, and play. When this happens you can see the physical strength it takes in the contours of the players well muscled bodies.

The performance was beautiful and I was very glad to have seen it. There were songs that sounded like falling rain, traditional songs, and some that were very intense. The endurance of the players was quite impressive! It made me miss Japan even though I still have another 2 months here. If I ever get a chance to see Kodo again I will leap at the opportunity. If you would like to learn more about Kodo or hear some of their music you can visit their website here.

Bees

2010-05-29T13:19:00.002+03:00

Last weekend Aya and I went with her parents to local honey/bee farm to do some bee keeping. This place offered to show people the colonies and let them try honey, we were pretty sure it was meant for kids, but sounded so fun. So off we went.
When we arrived we had to don some funky net hats to make sure that we didn’t get stung on the face, but our hands were left exposed. As the woman guiding us got her smoker going she was telling us about the bees and that we shouldn’t stand in front of the openings of the hives because the bees would feel threatened. There were maybe a dozen boxes each containing its own colony with its own queen. She led us into the middle of the hives, or apiary, and I must admit that I was pretty nervous. There were bees landing all over me and the noise a bit unnerving. Plus, I thought, “Can bees smell fear? Didn’t I hear that once? Oh no, … don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, stay calm.” That isn’t exactly true. Bees can smell pheromones, but they can’t smell “fear”.
Anyways, as we stood there our guide pulled out a board from the hive and showed us some honey comb, pointed out the queen, then punctured a hole in the honey comb exposing some fresh honey and told us to put our fingers in to taste some. I was the last to put my finger in and I must admit it was awfully hard not to poke a bee as I was trying to get some honey, but it was really good. Our guide explained to us about workers and drones and told us that essentially males are used just for breeding and once their purpose has been served they get kicked out of the hive where they starve to death. In some ways I feel bad for them, but not really. There lives may be shorter than other bees, but all they do is eat and breed. Sorry guy, I don’t feel bad for you. So I was thinking about whether or not I would actually want to be a male honey bee when Aya got stung. The strap from her camera and squeezed a bee between it and her hand and it panicked and stung her. Of course then our guide got to tell us about how when a bee stings and they lose their stinger they also lose their lives.
Other than that though we had a good experience and after went into the honey shop to taste some different kinds of honey like mikan, caramel, shiroka, soba, etc. They were all pretty interesting. We also read about some of the other uses of honey such as for medicine, shampoo, and other things. So that is the buzz on my honey bee experience.

Stranger Danger

2010-05-06T14:43:00.003+03:00

That is a picture of what I call the "stranger danger pole". This name is the name used by the foreign teachers that I know here in Japan. The real name is sasumata, which translates as something like "pushing fork" As you can see it is a long pole with a semi-circular shape on one end. The user grasps the pole on the other end and uses the semi-circle to pin someone by the waist to a wall or basically to push them away, all the while the user can keep a safe distance from the person being pinned.
In Japanese schools, as in every school, there are school drills that are conducted at fairly random times to make sure that the students are prepared in the case of a real event.
Fire drills at my school are pretty cool actually. One of the staff sets off big smoke bombs in a certain part of the building, say the upper west hallway, and then the fire alarm is pulled. Teachers and students have to figure out how, based on the smoke, they should evacuate. I think this is brilliant, but there is one major flaw. At my school the gymnasium is the evacuation area. The gymnasium is attached to the rest of the school.
There is another drill where we practice what to do if an intruder comes into the building. In this scenario, again, no warning is given. Across the anouncements the principal announces that there is an intruder. Students then have to, again, figure out how to get to the gym and avoid the intruder. The kids get to the gym and then the intruder (a teacher wearing a partial face mask and hat) enters by a side door and proceeds to hurl insults at the students and teachers and basically to act mean and threatening. At this point the intruder is subdued. Teachers surround the intruder and try to talk them down, eventually someone physically subdues the intruder. The "stranger danger" poles are always on hand and occasionally used. I have never used one myself, never even been in the act of subdueing the intruder. The closest I got was running around the school with the secretary, each of us with various office equipment as weapons, try to flush out the intruder.
The funniest part about the intruder poles is that they sit in a closet except for the day that they are brought out to subdue the intruder. They are not even handy should someone come in. On top of that, there have been numerous times when I have seen people just wander into school. Its always some nice old guy selling flowers or something, but the point is that there is no barrier to them coming in nor is there much concern when a stranger is seen in the hallways. The doors are unlocked and really anyone could get in at anytime that school is in secession. I don't mean to belittle the Japanese school system for trying to protect the students, but perhaps more should be done to ensure the safety of schools.
I actually asked Aya if she had these in school when she was young and she said no. The reason being that they came about because of violence in schools here, especially the Osaka massacre in which 8 elementary children were stabbed to death. In America and some other parts of the world there has been similar desires to respond to school violence. While I agree that measures need to be taken in schools I think Japan's most appropriate response is to examine the country's social policies regarding the treatment of mental illness. Often I hear people say that times have changed and usually I think that times really haven't changed, just the amount of people and therefore the amount of exposure to atrocity. However, when I hear about things like the Osaka massacre I have to wonder if maybe they are right.

Hanami

2010-05-04T04:47:00.002+03:00

It is usually this time of year in Japan when most foreign people sigh and think; I really like Japan. It is also this time of year when most Japanese people think, I am Japanese.

The reason for this is hanami, or flower viewing, which really means the viewing of the cherry blossoms. From late March to May cherry trees in Japan begin to bloom. It is also this time of year that weather starts to become warmer. The sakura (cherry blossoms) because of the variations in latitudes and therefore climates, bloom first in the south of Japan and then creep northward ending in Hokkaido in May. Sometimes on the news you can even watch the “hanami front” as it creeps northward like some lovely pink army.
The flowers are very beautiful and many people like to picnic under them. At times the places with many cherry trees can look like a giant party as many groups will be picnicking at the same time. Unfortunately the flowers only last for about 2 weeks before they fall off. This also can be a beautiful time as flower petals falling resemble snow and hanafubuki, or flower blizzards, occur in high density areas.
I took the picture above in Ueno Park about one month ago. I had just arrived back from Australia and had time to kill before my bus. I thought the park would have some good flower viewing and I was right. There were lots of people there, everyone having a good time. I bought myself a beer and some yakisoba, a noodle dish, and sat under the trees enjoying my food and the view. As I sat beneath the trees I thought to myself that this might be the last time I see these trees for a while. If all goes to plan I will return to the US in August. So, with that in mind I sighed and thought; I really like Japan.

Slaked

2010-04-15T15:44:00.002+02:00

As usual reading has brought me a wealth of information. While in Tokyo the other weekend I picked up a couple of books, one was ‘Earth in Balance’ written by Al Gore back in 1991. At first, I didn’t know the publish date, I just picked a random passage, liked it, and bought the book. It wasn’t until later that I figured out how old it was, but I decided to give it a go anyways and I am now glad I did. It offered me many things to think about and explore. What really interested me was that, writing in 1991, Gore had many of the same concerns that the public at large today has about the environment. It made me laugh a little bit. I have great respect for Mr. Gore and I have always thought that he is miles ahead of anyone else when it comes to the environment. However, I am getting away from the point of what I wanted to write here. I wanted to write about water. All water really, but fresh water specifically.
In his book Mr. Gore identifies global warming, and specifically access to clean water, as being one of the major environmental changes happening on our planet, but of course the book is almost 20 years old. That got me to thinking about water and if the situation had changed since 1991. It also got me doing some research and I think what I found is pretty interesting.
Water obviously makes up a huge portion of our planet’s surface, roughly 2/3. It also makes up a large part of our body, roughly 2/3. Of the world’s fresh water roughly 2/3 is locked up in ice. Of the fresh water we use roughly 2/3 goes towards growing food. See a pattern here? I just thought that was interesting and would grab your curiosity. Now that I did (I did right?) let’s go a little deeper.
Of that 2/3 of the planet covered in water a meager 2.5% is fresh, and of that 2/3 is locked up in ice, leaving only 1% of Earth’s total water at our disposal. Of that 1% at our disposal we use 2/3 of it to grow food. Now when I say ‘grow food’ I bet you all got a picture of a plant in a field receiving water. Maybe you even got a picture of biting into a nice juicy tomato or something. I know I did when I first heard that statistic, but that isn’t exactly correct. Remember that after all the grain and veggies in the world are grown we still have billions of livestock to give water, and grain, to and there are far more livestock than there are human beings. So here comes the part where all the numbers start to paint a picture for change.
To make one pound of beef it takes about 1,857 gallons of water to grow and process it. To make one pound of beans it takes 43. Ok, yes, beef and beans are not exactly the same things, but I think you see where I am going with this. Pork is 756 and corn 109. Chicken is 469, potatoes are 31. Animal’s non-meat products like cheese and eggs fit more in the middle averaging 250-400 gallons per pound. I got all those numbers from National Geographic, which proved to be conservative in their estimates compared to other sources. I hope I am making the point that meat takes a lot more water to produce than veggies. To quote the most recent National Geographic, “A human diet that regularly includes meat requires 60% more water than a diet that’s predominantly vegetarian.”
I think that illustrates that point well enough, but I would also bet that most people reading this blog feel pretty secure in getting enough clean drinking water, along with all other water needs, to not be too concerned about how much water it takes to grow food. Most of my readers don’t live near the Yangtze, Ganges, Indus, Yellow, or Mekong rivers, but about 2 billion people do live close enough that they get their water from those rivers. Himalayan glaciers, which supply the bulk of those rivers, are melting faster than they can be replenished which soon will leave hordes of people without water, likely within the next 50 years. I will also assume that none of you have a relative among the 3.3 million people who died from water related diseases last year or that any of you have to walk the average 3.7 miles to fetch water that most women in developing nations do everyday. On average an American home used 100 gallons a day so you probably aren’t living on less than 10 gallons a day like billions or other people do.
However, I think I can assume that you live in Europe, Japan, or North America and therefore I have something for you to think about. It terms of virtual water, which is water used to produce and process products, Japan imports 15 times more water than it exports. North America is a net exporter of water while Europe is a net importer, like Japan but not nearly as much. That means, North Americans, that you have access to more water than you know what to do with. It also means, Europeans, that you don’t, and that of course also means in the near future that it could become a big problem considering some of the places where your virtual water comes from, like Africa and SE Asia. Not that North America is in the clear. California, which supports the U.S. by providing half of its nuts, fruits, and veggies, is facing a water crisis. I may also mention, while I am at it, that California has the world’s 10th largest economy, and therefore a large chunk of the overall U.S. economy as well as the world’s. That should be a concern given its recent and lasting drought. North Americans should also be concerned for other reasons having to do with fresh water. Of the animals on the threatened and endangered list in the U.S. most of them live in fresh water and those are going extinct at a rate 4-6 times faster than those who don’t. Species diversity is a key to most healthy environments and the loss of that diversity should be a big concern. The great Ogallala aquifer is the largest body of fresh water on Earth, and it lies underneath some of the richest farmland in the world, the American grain belt. But things are changing. The Ogallala is a fossil aquifer, which means the water in it is left from the melted glaciers of the last Ice Age. It's not like a reservoir or river, which is replenished regularly from rainfall. When the water in the aquifer is gone, it's gone.
So what can you and I do about it? Well it seems simple enough, but just think, the amount of moisture on the earth has not changed. The water that the dinosaurs drank falls as rain today. We aren’t likely to find new major sources of water anytime soon (although the moon has our hopes up), so we have to figure out how to live more efficiently with the water we have. Desalination plants process water consumed by 300 million people annually in 150 countries and that number is growing. That is one possible solution. Another solution is to repair aging infrastructure so that water that is piped for direct human or agricultural consumption use isn’t lost along the way to leaks and evaporation. The water piped into N.Y. City, for example, loses tens of millions of gallons a day to leaks. We can take many small personal measures as well. Everywhere you look today, particularly in the western United States, people are seeking to conserve water. You see people washing their cars less often. People are installing low-flow showerheads and sink fixtures and low-flow toilets. You see people using drought-resistant landscaping. The vigilant turn off the water at the sink when brushing their teeth, except to rinse the brush, and when shaving, except to rinse the blade. Perhaps they are even using grey water in their homes or cities.
These measures are prudent and helpful, but all of them combined don't save anywhere near the amount of water you would save by shifting toward a plant-based diet.
Of course not all livestock is raised off the Ogallala aquifer, and of course meat isn’t the only source of wasteful water practices, but it is a very powerful one and it is one that is easily within our own power to change and quickly. Remember what I had quoted from National Geographic? It said, “A human diet that regularly includes meat requires 60% more water than a diet that’s predominantly vegetarian.” The words used are regularly and predominantly. You don’t have to give up meat entirely, but eating a diet that is largely vegetarian is a huge step towards water conservation. So much in fact that it would save more water than if you never showered all year.
To quote what I am told is an old Chinese proverb, “Unless you change directions you’re apt to end up where you’re headed.” Well, it seems that I am getting more and more concerned about the direction we are headed so I wrote another post about the environment in the hopes that we can change directions. I say we because we are sharing the same boat. Many of the people that I end up talking to about environmental issues get defensive. I don’t really understand this. Isn’t this our environment? Shouldn’t we all be concerned? I never provoke a discussion and never make efforts to put people on the defensive. I am not pointing any fingers that I don’t readily point at myself. This is meant to be a discussion, not a debate. I would never say, you can do better, but we can do better. I think that is fair, but people still feel defensive. Maybe it is the idea of change more than anything else that puts people on the back foot. I think what people want to defend is nothing, or rather, doing nothing because that is more comfortable and less scary than confronting reality and making changes. I understand that feeling, but I just can’t do that any longer. When my kids or other future generations look back at me I want to be able to say, I did something. I was open to change and concerned about the future. So I will continue to explore how to make positive changes and to write about what I find in the hope that you, my dear readers, will read this and think to yourself, maybe I too can make some of these changes. For honestly, I have found that these changes are not as scary as they seem.
So here I am again, asking you all, please find ways to conserve and look out for the future. Don’t use as much and the water you do use, try to recycle before dumping it down the drain and please cut down on the amount of meat you eat. I have been eating vegetarian for 4 months now and I don’t regret it. I don’t think you would regret giving up meat a couple days a week to help conserve water, but maybe you, and certainly I, would regret you not showering all year.

Sydney

2010-04-11T04:19:00.006+02:00

What to say about Sydney? It seemed like a really nice city and Aya and I enjoyed our time there. Before coming to Australia I read a history of Sydney, which is really the history of the beginning of European settlement of Australia. It was quite interesting. I enjoyed much of the story, but was quick to note two pieces of trivia about the name Sydney. First, the city is named after a lord Sydney of England. This is funny to me for two reasons. First, he never saw Australia and second it wasn't even his real name. He had changed his name mid-life. The second bit of trivia is that the city was not intentioned to be called as such, it was supposed to be called Albion. Sydney was just the name of that particular cove, but the name caught on.

We decided to stay somewhere nicer than usual and booked into the Lord Nelson Hotel. Located in the neighborhood of the Rocks, in a building that was about 150 years old. Coincidentally it was really close to the original site of the first settlement.The hotel was nice. Our rooms were small, but comfortable and there was a bar on the first floor serving delicious beer and a barista on the second floor with some tasty food.
Since we only had 1 full day in Sydney, the first day we got there in the early afternoon, we decided to make the most of it. On the first day we just wandered around the Rocks neighborhood which had great views of the majestic Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. That night we caught a night cruise on board a Captain Cook dinner cruise. I was unsure if the cruise would be worth it since it was about 80 dollars each, but it turned out pretty good. We had a 3 course meal that was well made and we could drink as much as we wanted. We also had a nice view of Sydney Harbor as we made our way first to Darling Harbor and then out to Port Jackson. When we started it was dusk, but by the time we returned 2 hours later it was dark. Both evening and night views were great.

On the second day we walked around some parts of Sydney going to the Aquarium and China town in the morning. I had found a walking guide online and although we didn’t follow it to the letter we took some of the directions found therein to make our way around. In the afternoon we made our way the Australian National Museum. It was pretty cool. They had an exhibit where various animals were displayed as only a set of re-constructed bones. I think bones are fascinating. There was also a nice exhibit on Aborigine culture and displays of Australian mega fauna that I quite liked since mega fauna is really interesting to me. It was a good walk, but by the evening our feet were getting tired so we took a subway back to Circular Quay. We managed enough energy to walk midway across the Harbor Bridge, which had a great view. That night we ate at the bar in the hotel, having some pizza and olives that were delicious, along with some delicious beer made on property. Unfortunately we didn’t have much more time and the next morning I was off to New Zealand and Aya back to Cairns to catch her flight home.

A few of my friends, jokingly, have said that it’s a bit strange that I posted first on New Zealand and it has taken me so long to post this one. Perhaps that I didn’t say much about Aya is what they find strange. Aya is becoming like my right arm. It just seems normal to have her around and when I went to New Zealand I was a bit lonely. Traveling was still fun, but not having someone to share the views with didn’t feel quite right. Coming back to Japan and finally meeting up with Aya was a bit of a relief. As much as I grumble about not having enough alone time it seems that I have come to enjoy her company.

Reef

2010-04-01T12:21:00.003+02:00

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest reef system and is composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). If you are like me then when you see those numbers it is pretty hard to imagine the exact magnitude of that area, but gosh it seems big. To give you a little perspective to think about this my dear readers. The state I was born in, Wisconsin, which most of you know, has an area of approximately 169,639 km (65,498 sq mi)Meaning that the reef is more than twice the size of Wisconsin. Pretty darn big. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms.
This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. These polyps secrete calcium carbonate which becomes what we think of as coral, that skeletal type substance. Over time coral grows quite large and needless to say (yet I am saying it) the environment around them grows with them which also makes the reef one of the most active places for aqautic life.
The Great Barrier reef, being enormous, supports an enormous diversity of life, which is why every year hordes of people flock to the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia which is just near where we happened to land.
I guess "happened to land" isn't exactly accurate. It didn't just happen by accident, Jetstar chose it for us. You see Jetstar is a budget airline and hence they service places where lots of people go or places where they want lots of people to go like Cairns, former or latter if you like.
We flew into Cairns from Narita airport and spent 4 days in the region. Sometime was spent relaxing and some riding a train into the nearby village of Kuranda, but the main day was the one we spent on the reef, or rather on Franklin Island. We had booked into a tour that would take us to Franklin Island, just a bit off the coast. Here there would be lots of coral and beaches to be enjoyed. The island is actually part of many along the coast. Often, after long periods of time the coral grows, the sands shift and bang! In the blink of the Geological eye an island/cay is formed. The tour company did a good job in getting us there nicely and servicing us with lunch. They even provided a very good quiche for the vegetarians! They also provided guided snorkeling and a guided island walk. Both were good. The seed pod seen in Aya's hands above, for example, was pointed out by our guide. It's designed to float and thereby get to other island where the tree can sprout. Nature is so good at that! Our guide seemed very well versed in his job and he pointed out many things that I found intriguing.
The downside to this magical adventure is that at the time there was a cyclone south of our location in Queensland and so the water was not clear. Snorkeling was a bust, to see the reef at all you had to dive down about 2 meters. However, on the leeward side of the island we did see some sea turtles poking about among schools of fish, so that was cool and really we just had a good day swimming about and enjoying the pristine beach. At the end of the day we returned satisfied and I, because of my snow white skin, returned back to Cairns burned a shade more red.

Franz Josef Glacier

2010-03-31T14:40:00.003+02:00

The Franz Josef Glacier is big…and it is a glacier… and it is a World Heritage site. It is unique because it’s one of the only glaciers in the world to be located in a rainforest. It is also one of the only glaciers left in the world that is growing.
I went with a tour company because it promised to be the only ones allowed on the glacier. As we got to the glacier this seemed to be true as there were ropes where others had to stop, but our tour got to go on. We walked to the foot of the glacier and then put on crampons to walk on the ice. For the briefest of instances the sun came out, then it rained, then the sun came out, then it stopped, then it rained again.

New Zealand

2010-03-31T14:17:00.003+02:00

The Second part of my trip took me alone to New Zealand. I arrived in Christchurch on the afternoon of the 25th and picked up my campervan near the airport. It was a bit relaxed compared to places in the states. The van came with a sink, stove, cooler, table and bench/double bed. The front seat was also quite wide and could probably sit three people without too much hassle. But alas, I was alone!
So after getting some gas and eats, checking my maps, and making a couple wrong turns I was on my way out of Christchurch and into the mountains. The first day I just drove and drove as long as I could. The fact that the scenery was quite amazing, all highways were one lane affairs(2lanes, one each way), and I wasn’t yet comfortable driving the van meant that I was going a bit slower than I would end up doing on the way back. Also, bridges were one single lane! One! At first I was confused, but as it turns out many of the bridges in the region are like that. The reason I will explain later, but basically you come barreling up to this bridge at 100k and make a quick check to see if someone is coming the other way. If no one is coming you can go across, if someone is coming you have to wait on the other side of the bridge. This example should clearly illustrate just how few people there are in the country that one lane will suffice for a bridge.
I put the pedal down as much as I could and only stopped once for about 3 minutes that day. I made it through Arthur’s Pass and on to the west coast just as the sun was starting to get low. That wasn’t going to stop me however. I pushed on as far as I could and around 730 noticed with a bit of panic that my gas was very low. In New Zealand there aren’t that many people and hence not a whole lot of gas stations. As I made my way through a town called Hari Hari I spotted one and shot in determined to fill up and press on with the last precious few minutes of day light, Franz Josef was only about 50k away. The station was closed. So I turned back into town and went to the only place that I could make out as a business which turned out to be a bar/liquor store/ restaurant/ hotel/ camper park. So I paid for a parking spot and then went inside for a meal and a beer. No one was unfriendly to me, but there was a feeling that I was set apart. So I finished up quick and asked the bar tender what time the station opened before heading to my van, 8am. I thought, “No worries”. The station opens at 8, I have to be to Franz Josef at 845 and I was making an average of 90kph so I could make it.

The next morning I got up at 7, showered and waited for the gas station to open. The guy showed up at 805 and I was filled by 810. I jetted out of there and made it to Franz Josef at 850 being one of the last to show up for the scheduled tour. I got outfitted with boots, pants, and jacket and we were on our way to the glacier. The hike was quite beautiful as I will describe in another short post, but on the hike I felt like the smartest man alive, or at least the smartest one on the glacier. As we made our way up the glacier our guide would ask us various question like do you know why the ice is blue? (Compacted ice and light refraction) How far away is the glacier from where we are? (About 2k at the time) why are bridges in the region built with 1 lane? (Building costs, floods a lot which washes the bridges away) And the like and every question I answered I got right while no one else seemed to get one. After a quick tour of the glacier it was back down and I was back in the van all gassed up by 2pm, back on the road. This day I decided that I would try to make my way back to Arthur’s Pass where I had read about some decent half day hikes located near some camper parks. I arrived at my desired spot, Klondike, about 6pm and so had roughly 2 hours till sunset so I walked around the area and discovered two young guys camping a fair distance away, but by NZ terms pretty close. As dusk settled in I went back to my camper to get ready for bed. After hiking around I was feeling a little unsettled about the place so, when I heard a very strange noise very close to my camper while I was brushing my teeth, I decided to get the hell out of there. I zoomed up the road a bit and stopped where I saw a few other vans parked at a wayside. I thought, “ah, peace at last” but it was not so. I fell asleep just before 10, but at 130am was awoken. At first I didn’t know why I had woken up, but then I heard a sound; the sound of a plastic bag being moved. I suddenly realized that I had a plastic bag next to my feet in bed and something must have gotten in to get after it. As quickly as I could I sprang up and banged on the light to see who was there, but saw nothing. After staring for a few seconds I decided I was dreaming, but just in case grabbed my flashlight. Sure enough, a few minutes later I heard the noise again only a bit louder. I flashed on the light and caught what I thought was the tiniest bit of brown fur dipping off the edge of my bed before all was still again. This time I got up and put the food in the cooler in back of the van and searched the rest of the van to see if I could find the bugger. No luck. I thought perhaps now that the food was inaccessible the mouse would stop. I was wrong. He tried scratching into the cooler and failing that made his way to the front seat where I had a bag of garbage. I banged on the light again to see if I could catch him but this time he didn’t stop moving. He was IN the bag. So I just opened the door to the front, tied up the bag, walked about 50 paces from my van and tossed the bag into a trash bin. I thought that was that until 4am when the mouse returned! However, this time I was not quite as upset and just let him be. He woke me a few more times, but by the time I got up around 630 he was nowhere to be found. Little bugger ruined my sleep and left me a few little round presents on the front seat.

Morning in the mountains was great and by 730 I was on the Beally Spur trail. I hiked for about 5 hours then got back in the van and made for Christchurch. After returning my van I walked into town and booked into the Riccarton Inn and after talking to the desk clerk figured out that I had to leave pretty darn early to make my fight out. Since it took me about 1.5 hours to walk to the hotel from the rental place I figured it would take 2 to make it to the airport which meant if I walked I would have had to get up at 3am at the latest. Despite being low on cash I thought bollocks to that and paid for a cab at 4am, not like that was much better.
New Zealand was great! There are so few people there it is amazing. I can’t wait to go again, with Dan, and make it a real hiking trip.

Tuna

2010-03-17T15:13:00.002+02:00

Today at work I had a discussion with a co-worker about bluefin tuna. This was especially interesting because this is a hot issue in Japan. Friction has been created from the differing sides of the issue taken by Japan and China in opposition to many western nations, including the U.S. My co-worker asked me if I ate maguro sushi, which is tuna. I could easily answer no because I don’t eat any type of animal, but the brief discussion that ensued would be typical even if I had answered yes.
He asked why the U.S. would put a ban on bluefin tuna. I told him that scientists that have monitored bluefin tuna populations for decades have seen precipitous decline and are recommending a ban on Bluefin. He said that the U.S. didn’t eat much tuna and so shouldn’t have a say in the tuna population’s control. I told him that despite that the U.S. doesn’t eat a lot of tuna that doesn’t change that the population is going extinct. We went around in circles like this for a few minutes before he was called away, but it was an interesting conversation. Just about everyone I have talked to in Japan holds much of the same opinion: Don’t mess with my maguro sushi.

While I am sympathetic, maguro is a really popular and traditional food here; I don’t understand why Japan would fight so hard to oppose the ban. I started to think, is it true that the Bluefin population facing collapse? What does this ban entail? Perhaps there was something that I was missing because surely any reasonable adult would be willing to give up something in the short term in order to ensure having it available in the long term. Surely.

So the first question I asked myself was; what exactly is tuna? I had better define it before I figure out if it is endangered and worth protecting. I think most of us know that it is a very large fish that inhabits the oceans of the world. Beyond that most people are pressed for details other than it comes in a handy little can in most grocery stores. Tuna is found all over the world, but it is misleading to think that means they are plentiful because there are lots of different kinds of tuna like Yellowfin tuna, Albacore, Bigeye, Black fin, Skipjack, etc. These are all slight variations on “Tuna” and they all inhabit different regions of the oceans based on their bodies, diets, etc. and in turn inhabit unique niches in their eco-systems. Hence the loss of these unique tuna means a drastic and possibly unknown change in the eco-system. So, Bluefin tuna, the one in question where does it come from and what is it like? There are, according to Wikipedia, three groups of Bluefin. They reside in the North Atlantic (and Mediterranean), Southern Atlantic, and Pacific.
So with this information came my second big question; are these three populations all endangered and would they all be included in the ban? Yes and yes. Suffice it to say that all three stocks have suffered a decline in population of 75% or more since the early 1960’s and all are considered in danger of collapse.
So then I asked my next question; why are they endangered? It turns out that Bluefin is hugely sought after, especially in Japan which consumes about 80% of the harvested stock each year. In fact the record for the highest price paid for a single Bluefin tuna is here in Japan. On the average they can sell for the equivalent of 10,000 dollars, but this one in particular sold for over 175,000 dollars. One fish, dead, to be eaten, for over 175,000 dollars. To put that in perspective, Bluefin tuna are quite large. They can exceed 1000lbs in weight, though I think this one was a bit less than that, around 600lbs. Did that put it in prospective or are you still saying “That’s expensive!” like I am?
So that led me to my next huge important question; could the Bluefin tuna reasonably be replaced by another tuna stock, now to save the Bluefin population from collapse or in the future if it does collapse? The answer is yes. Although there are other populations of tuna that are listed as endangered such as Pacific Bigeye and Indian Ocean Yellowfin, there are still other populations that are not endangered. Skipjack, which supplies 60% of the worlds consumed tuna, is not endangered.
So finally this led me to my final and perhaps most important question surrounding this ban on Bluefin tuna; what will the ban do? It appears that the ban will NOT stop the fishing of Bluefin tuna. What it will do is stop the International trade of Bluefin tuna, which is where Japan gets a kink in the neck. Most of the Bluefin that Japan eats comes from somewhere else and hence if an international ban is set their supply will be drastically cut.
For now that ban is being discussed, now, at the CITES meeting in Qatar where 175 member nations will discuss this ban among other things. It needs a ¾ vote to carry and for now it seems that it might do so. The U.S. and the EU (largely) are behind the ban and Japan and China are opposed. Soon enough we will see what happens. Now, more than before, I am left thinking, “What exactly is Japan thinking by blocking the ban?”

Oceania

2010-03-15T14:28:00.002+02:00

In a few days I fly to Australia with Aya. This is to be our honeymoon. First we are going to Cairns on Australia's NE coast, then a few days in Sydney. After that she is coming back to Japan because she has to work early. I am going on to New Zealand for a few days more.
I was thinking about this trip and feeling that there was something special, like some kind of marker that I would be passing by going here. At first I thought that it was going to make my 19th and 20th countries that I have traveled to, breaking me out of the teens. So I got out a piece of scrap paper and jotted down what countries I have been to. That was not it, they will be 18th and 19th. That seems like a lot when I say it, but when you compare it to people like Charles Veley (http://www.mosttraveledpeople.com/) it's not that much.

Then I thought this will be my longest flight ever. It is quite a ways from Japan to Australia since unlike a lot of other flights the pilots don't have the "by the pole" option that has saved me so much time before. This flight will actually not even be close to the longest, that was Tokyo to Minneapolis at about 10,000 miles. So it's not the 20th country and it's not the longest flight, but I thought it might be since it's in the souther hemisphere and... oh yes, they are in the southern hemisphere!

This will be my first trip south of the Equator. First time, that sounds strange to me considering that, you know, there is this whole half of the planet that I have never set foot it. There are some reasons for that like the difference in landmass between the northern hemisphere and the southern, roughly 2/3 of the continents' landmass is in the north. When you consider that there are also population considerations. About 85% of the world's population lives in the northern hemisphere.That is quite a difference.

So there you have it. I am headed to the other half of the globe and a new continent! I remember that my grandfather said there was some ceremony that he did with his ship mates when they crossed the equator on their destroyer in WWII. Something about making a gift to Neptune. I wonder, if I am flying, if I should give a gift to Jupiter instead.

Νενικήκαμεν, We have won

2010-03-01T13:39:00.007+02:00

DNF. That is an acronym used in the world of foot races that I thought I may have to title this blog with. Even during the race I thought that perhaps this would brand my experience, but once I went past the 30k marker I knew that even if I walked I wouldn't have to use Did Not Finish as a description of this experience.
My Tokyo Marathon run ended Sunday at about 2pm, around 5 hours after I crossed the start line. I say about because I really don't know. There were so many people that, despite the start gun I didn't even get to the start until 10 minutes after the race had started, and the people were so thick for the first 10k that I didn't make good time (1hr 10min) and the lines for the bathrooms were so long that each of the two times I went cost me 10-15 minutes. So of my time for the marathon I can't say definitively. I don't know the official and I don't know what I really 'ran' but the time on my watch said 5hr 5min. In the end, I don't care. Sure, it would have been nice to run a faster time, like I expected, but I am really really happy just to have finished the race.

At 6am Sunday morning I woke up to take a shower and get my gear on. I was out the door to the train station, Aya guiding, by 730 and by 800 I was in the race area. Here I departed from Aya and awaited my start. By 850 I was in my 'block'(H) waiting to start the race. It was raining, windy and about 6C (43F ) which are not exactly ideal conditions for running, but at least I had 30,000 other people to share my discomfort with, which makes things a bit more bearable. At 9:12 I heard the official gun and the ensuing fireworks and everyone started to cheer. Slowly my group started to move. By the time we crossed the start 10 minutes had gone by and looking ahead and behind there was no end of runners. The first 10k seemed like a breeze. At this point the 10k runners split off (there was a 10k race attached to the first part) and the marathoners went on. It was also at this point that Aya and I had set up our first meet point, and there she was with her parents. Unfortunately because of the 10K runner's chute I could not go talk to them, but just wave, yell, and run on. Shortly after I took my first bathroom break and started to shiver as I cooled down in the line.
Starting off at 10.5k with my watch reading 1hr 20min was a little discouraging. I thought I would be making better time, but unlike in training I had to deal with people around me and could not just pee by the side of the path like usual. At about 13k I started to develop some trouble on my left ankle, it was sore and that had been a worry spot in training so I was careful to take it easy. Thankfully by 16k the pain was drifting into the background among a number of new pains. At 17k, as the course was doubling back on itself I got to see the back of the pack and realized that about 5k behind me the pack was thinning to almost no one. I was falling behind. It was here that I again took another bathroom break, the second and last of the race. At 20K I again saw Aya and her mother at our planned point, I am told her dad was somewhat beforehand yelling my name, but among the hundreds of people yelling from the sides I never heard him. At this point I thought, this race could go either way. I was feeling fairly good, but that ankle was hurting me and I was hoping that it and my finicky knee didn't decide to go foul.
Going into 21k I felt pretty good. I was into the race, my pace was evening out, and the race was evening out too. As I passed by the 26k marker and then again at 33k I noticed the back of the pack like I had at 17k, but this time it was a lot thicker, people were slowing down and dropping back. This was to be expected as this was the time for "the wall". I can't say exactly that I felt like I hit a wall, but at about 24k I started to get what I would like to dub the 'unending pain'. I never got really tired, but I did experience increasing pain in my knees. I had experienced this before in training, but only briefly. I was to know it on a new level this day. At 30k I marked my time at 3hr 20min which I thought was not so far behind my predicted goal of 3hrs, with the two bathroom breaks I took the extra 20min was to be expected. On pace and happy.
Going into 31k I was ecstatic. I knew I had already finished so to speak. I could technically walk the rest of the race and make it before the course closed, which if worse came to worse I would do. Things were getting rough and I took a couple brief walking/stretching breaks between here and 35k because my hams especially were getting tight and tired. There was also a building pain in my knees which I did my best to stretch out. By this point, among the runners I was among, about 1 out of 10 were dropping to walk. I was sympathetic, I too wanted to walk, but I was so afraid to walk for any amount of time that I kept going. At 35k, at the appointed spot, I found Aya and her parents. It was so good to see them. Dad gave me a tea and quick massage on the back while mom and I talked. 7k left to go, I couldn't fail.
Just as I was saying my goodbyes and turning to go I realized that my legs were no longer functioning. I tried to run, but hard as I might my legs would not rise properly. Slowly, like a train building steam, I went from a walk to a slow jog to a little faster to a little faster and finally a slow plod.
Going into the last 7k was such a strange experience. I was there, I could taste it, and yet the pain was so heavy I seriously considered stopping. As some cruel joke the planners of the race had set the course of the race to end with a series of hills. Many people, about 1/2 had started to merely walk up the hills, but at this point I recalled some advice given in an article I read. "keep running, if you stop to walk, you may never run again." After my little surprise at 35k I was apt to believe that and I only stopped to walk one time after I had mounted most of the hills and was going into a flat stretch. There is not much to say about that point on. I saw the family one more time at 41.5k, hit the finish, and then walked through the various check points as fast as I was able (really really slowly to be truthful). I met with the family and that is where one of the above pictures was taken as they helped me get my pants back on. I was freezing (calorie loss?) and my legs hurt so much I could not bend to put my pants on nor raise my legs to hand level. So, naturally I suppose, my parents helped me put my pants on and get me on the train to the hotel.
Everyone along the race was very helpful. People poured out in incredible numbers to cheer on the participants, there was hardly a bare spot along the entire 42k of the roadway's sidewalks and sometimes 5 thick. Some people had sugary treats for the runners, some tea, some miso soup, bananas, plums, coffee, beer (yes! one beer guy), rice balls, and more. There were many acts along the way from taiko drummers to dancers, hula girls, high school bands, musicians, cheerleaders and race groupies. There were lots of official tables for sports drinks, bananas, peanut butter sandwiches, and water. Besides all that, the racers that surrounded me were all polite. I was bumped quite a few times, but more often than not I received an apology and sometimes even encouragement. I have to thank all these people for making my race an enjoyable experience.
I have also have to thank especially Aya and her parents for coming all the way to Tokyo to see me run and cheer me on (not to mention massage me). I also want to thank Dan for trading running stories with me and encouraging me along the way. I did it. I did it Dan.
So, when is the next one and who is with me?

Changing Tastes

2010-02-04T14:21:00.007+02:00

This is a long one so you might want to grab a snack(hopefully vegetarian) and a drink and settle in.

Recently while doing some research I came across the word "flexitarian" which if you take a second to think about it you may be able to figure out what it means because it is very similar to a word we all know.

Got it yet? It means someone who is largely vegetarian but will occasionally eat meat, which is not to be confused with vegetarians, who never eat meat, or omnivores, who eat a regular diet of meat and veggies. Flexitarian falls somewhere in between those two, but more towards the vegetarian side. I have some friends who are flexitarian, as well as some who are vegetarian. For the longest time I could not understand why. Meat is delicious and yes, there are some cruel circumstances in which our meat is typically raised and yes the slaughter process is gory, but overall I never felt compelled to stop eating meat. The killing of animals and our eating them has a very long history, it is part of who we are. However my thoughts on that has recently changed.

Over the past couple of years I have seen a number of movies, read books and articles, listened to lectures, etc. all of which concentrated on the environment and food, or what we are putting into our bodies. Many books have been very interesting such as The World Without Us, Cod, Collapse, and Omnivores Dilemma. I have enjoyed podcasts such as those by this guy(http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html)and this one too(http://www.ted.com/talks/ann_cooper_talks_school_lunches.html) and most recently this one (http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100.html). You will probably notice that all these talks are on Ted.com, if you don't know about that site yet go check it out, it is excellent. There have been many movies that have interested me. Probably most famous of all is An Inconvenient Truth, but also the 11th hour, and Blue Planet which deal with the environment, but that ultimately is connected to food as well. Recently I have seen this movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1112115/) and this one (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765849/) and this one too (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286537/) all of which deal directly with food. I recommend these movies, they are interesting.

To get to my point, I have come to think that there may be something behind not eating meat, or at least not so much of it, or maybe just not eating meat made from the production methods we largely use now.
For the past 8 weeks or so I have been eating vegetarian, or trying to. Meat is very hard to get away from. It is in everything! I tried cutting out obvious meat, burgers, chicken breasts, sushi, etc. but to my chagrin found out that there is meat in a lot of soup stocks, potato chips, sauces, pudding, and other products that don't strike you as being "meat" like the "tofu" burgers and "veggie" burgers here in Japan. On top of that, choosing something without meat, from the selection at most grocery stores, convenience stores, and restaurants is not easy. At least not in Japan where I can only make a half assed attempt at reading the labels and just make best guesses at restaurant ingredients. All of that is also complicated by the fact that fish and meat are two different words in Japanese and if you ask for no meat you are likely to get something made with fish stock and a side of fish if you are lucky. My school lunch, which is delicious and nutritious, is unfortunately always made with meat in some form. If you are unlucky, which happens a lot, Japanese people don't even know what you are talking about and bring you a salad with ham chunks in it because you asked for no meat and as a friend of mine quoted a waiter telling him, "it doesn't have that much meat in it", but I am getting away from my original point, which is that I am not eating meat anymore, or almost.
You see it was this book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_animals) which was the straw that broke the camels back for me. The author, a vegetarian, does not insist that people stop eating meat, but rather that people consider the origin of the meat they eat and what it means in context to the animals and our world (ourselves and our children) and then with that knowledge to reduce consumption. I happened across this book by accident. The author Jonathan Safran Foer, wrote two other popular books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the former being made into a motion picture. I enjoyed both books and the film and thought the author was a great story teller, which proved to be true for this latest book too. Despite that upon cracking the book and learning that he was writing it in response to having a son and was interested in what to feed him I persisted in reading what turned out to be one of the best reads I have had in the past year ( I read about 50 books a year). The author talks about the current trend of factory farming in the USA and other countries and exams slaughter house practices and small farm operations. He talks about the change in genetics and feed, the changes in raising animals, and the changes in our health and the health of the animals over the past 50-100 years. At no point, or maybe just once or twice, does he fully advocate being vegetarian. Rather he presents a very convincing argument for more sustainable livestock farming and the better treatment of animals. That's it really and when you say it like that it seems very reasonable. Doesn't everyone want to do something that is sustainable in the long run and is kind to animals to boot?

In the past month or so of slowly revealing to my friends and family my choice to not eat meat I have seen some reactions and met with many questions about why I choose to do this. I will explain that briefly in a bit, but first I want to say this. Most people I encounter are aware that there is something dis-pleasurable in discussing where meat comes from, but would rather not know so that they can continue to eat meat guilt free. I can understand this as at one time I felt that way too, but ignoring the truth doesn't make it go away. I just think the reasons have become overwhelming at this point in time and we(I) can't ignore them much longer, in fact we(I) shouldn't have ignored them for so long. I will now outline the reasons why I have stopped eating meat and assign them a percentage to indicate how strongly I feel about each, but do remember that many and sometimes all of the reasons are interconnected and so overlap. The eating of meat is much more complicated than it may seem.

1. The Environment(55%); This is by far the largest reason for me and without it I might eat meat more regularly. When I say the environment I mean the whole world, not just that around the farms themselves.I am also mainly talking about factory farms, not as much about small family farms. Meat, or the production of it, is responsible for about 18% of greenhouse gas emissions. No, its not just cow farts, although that is part of it. Its mainly produced in the raising and eventual processing and transport of the animals we eat. You may be thinking, 18%, what does that really mean? Well, think about this. Greenhouse gases produced by all transportation put together, trucks, cars, boats, trains, planes, buses, etc., amount to 13.5% of green house gases. Essentially not eating meat is better than using not using a single for of transportation every year in environmental terms. Thinking about buying a hybrid car to save the environment? How about eating half as much meat?
Along with this we know that animals, per pound of protein, consume far more water and grain to produce than, well, grain or vegetables and hence take much more land to produce, something that the world is rapidly running out of. In fact fully 30% of the earth's land surface is devoted to livestock production. In America this is not such a big deal as almost no one is starving to death and there is still plenty of land and water to go around, but given the rapidly developing nations of the world like China and their rapidly growing demand for meat sources more and more water and land are being diverted to meat production which could be better used producing grains and veggies to feed more people for the resources used.
We also know that in the US, in the poultry business, factory farms account for over 90% of poultry production and over 50% of hog production, beef production is thankfully much less, but I will get to that. These huge farms produce massive amounts of waste which is stored in ponds near the facilities until they can be used on fields as fertilizer. Unfortunately things don't always go to plan and ponds leak destroying ground water or contain so much shit that there is not enough land to spread it on, which again results in contamination of air, soil, and water.
When we get to the topic of fish the situation seems even more dire. Japan is one of the leading consumers of fish so this haunts me everyday as I see people gobble up fish. There are lots of details that can be stated here, like to catch 1lb of shrimp most boats will catch about 10-25lbs of by product (other marine life) that will then be dumped back into the ocean dead. By product includes creatures that we like because they are cute like dolphins and turtles along with other edible but not targeted fish. Or you could look at the statistics like that for every 50 individuals of large predatory fish in the ocean like shark, tuna, or marlin, etc. 50 years ago, there is now only 1. Tuna actually is a good place to start researching, if you choose to look at all, since even Americans like tuna, but tuna populations, like many other popular fish, are facing collapse. This is all pertains to fishing for wild fish, but then there are farmed fish too, which carry with them most of the same cons as land farming like small pens, disease, unnatural lives and diets, environmental hazards etc. There is more, but I will stop here.

2. Ethics (30%); Ethics to the animals, to the people involved in raising them, to those who are facing starvation, to our community's sense of what farming is, and to the responsibility we have to feed our children and ourselves good food and keep ourselves healthy.
Animal slaughter, while gruesome, is a fact of life that has been occurring since man has left evidence of his being. While I don't think I can stop slaughter I may be able to help change the method. Methods used in making kosher or halal meat are preferable to me because generally more attention is paid to detail and therefore the animals well being. Slaughterhouses, when forced to run like a factory, get sloppy and end up putting animals through more suffering than needed. Often machinery or people don't do their job well enough and animals end up slowly being bled out or dismembered while still alive, not to mention the workers who have to watch this and those who abuse animals which bring me to my next step, the workers. Workers in the industry, factory farming and slaughterhouses, have an amazingly high turn over rate each year. To me this is no surprise. Who wants to kill things all day everyday? Many times factory farms and large scale slaughterhouses will hire unskilled immigrants because they are less likely to complain about working conditions, factory procedures, and the low low pay. What about the cost of meat? Meat has changed over the past century along with the animals it is produced on. Animals produced for meat have been and will continue to be genetically modified to produce more meat. I want to say here that I am not against modifying things to get better production, even living things. However, these modifications have resulted in larger weaker animals that suffer more broken bones and infections than ever before. The animals start from square one not healthy and have to be feed antibiotics just to make sure they stay alive long enough for slaughter. They are also kept, by the hundreds and sometimes 10s of thousands in confined areas where disease can rapidly spread not to mention the inherent risk of putting any species of any animal in a confined space. Lastly, most importantly, and most obvious to everyone is that meat takes grain to produce, large amounts of grain and water. For instance, what do cows eat? What do chickens eat? Pigs? Do you know? Now ask yourself the next obvious question, is it healthy? The answers are quite easy to find. Anyone can add 2 and 2 in this scenario and imagine the grain production capabilities would be better used going to a starving human rather than a cow or chicken.

3.Health Reasons (10%); Bottom line its healthier to eat less meat. Americans consume way too much meat. I don't even have to bother to list some statistic here to have you believe me, you know its true. However, I can't point my finger at only Americans, basically anyone in a first world nation eats too much meat per capita. For example, Japanese people eat 3 or 4 lbs of fish per week on average. Factor in the other kinds of meat they eat and they aren't so far behind Americans.
What also should be considered is the method in which meat is slaughtered and the raising of the meat itself results in a potentially dangerous meat being consumed, although its hard to go into detail about that.
Most potentially threatening to our collective health is the rise of diseases in animals. H1N1 for example or the "bird flu" H1N5, where did they come from? and if history tells us anything, the 1918 Spanish flu, where did it come from? In the face of examples like this people may say, well, it could originate in smaller breeding stocks such as the 1918 flu, so what does that have to do with consumption of meat? While having smaller farms does not entirely guard against generations of new flu it does reduce the risk. Smaller groups of animals with healthier genetics are less likely to contract or spread disease and healthier animals don't need as many antibiotics (animals consume more antibiotics in the US than people). Influenza is being given a large, unhealthy, antibiotic filled population against which to grow strong, resistant to antibiotics, and to spread. To me, this seems pretty dangerous and foolish when the World Health Organization predicts that its not a matter of if, but when the world will face a massive pandemic.

4. Money (5%); Lastly, money. This should be an easy one. Everyone likes money, so why not keep more or it? At the very least we can exchange the quantity of meat we eat for the quality. You could just eat less factory meat, which will save money because grains and veggies are cheaper or you could use the money you save from not eating factory farmed meats to buy meat from places who raise more natural animals in more natural and humane ways and are close to where you live thereby cutting environmental costs associated with shipping and supporting your area farmers. Not to mention that the meat tastes so much better.
While meat may seem cheap (look up how much the cost of meat has risen in the past 50 years compared to other things) when you consider the ethics, the health reasons, and the environmental impact it becomes more expensive.

I would like to end by first thanking you for reading all of that, I know it was much longer than my typical post. I hope that it has sparked your thinking and will lead to some dietary changes of your own. If you agree with me, or disagree with me, have advice or criticism or maybe even just a good vegetarian recipe to share or a good local farm to endorse, let me know. I would love to address more issues on this topic, I can see there are a lot of things I did not talk about, but this post is getting long.

Tokyo Marathon

2010-01-12T12:46:00.002+02:00

Next month I will be running the Tokyo Marathon. Yes, it is a full marathon and yes I have been training. If you haven't noticed yet there is a link on the right side of this blog which links you to a running journal that I have been keeping.
Tokyo Marathon is a relatively young marathon. The first Tokyo Marathon was held on 18th March 2007. However, years prior to 2007, Tokyo Marathon actually consisted of two marathons - the Tokyo International Marathon which took place on even years, and Tokyo - New York Friendship International Marathon which took place on odd years. There are so many people that apply that a lottery must take place to determine who gets to run. This year about 275,000 people applied. Only 30,000 got in. I was one of them.
This will be my first marathon, so I am not sure what to expect, but judging from the photos it will be crazy packed with people. When I first signed up in July I thought that my goal, should I win the lottery, would be to just complete the race. That has evolved at bit from completing the race, to finishing under 5 hours, finishing under 4.5 hours and now finishing under 4 hours. 4 hours is an unofficial marker for a good time for a marathon. If you can get less than 4 you are fairly swift. Right now my 15k times (avg 1hr 15min, including two short walking breaks and a short drinking/eating break) are telling me that I could do it in less than 4, that is if I can keep that pace. The longest run I have had so far has been 23k, which I am hoping to top this weekend. Even at 23k my pace held, so I am hoping it will hold for the entire 42.195k However recently I have had some injuries and had to cut back training, so my goal is back to being under 4.5 Right now, my main hope is that I remain injury free to race day just so I can race at all.

As race day approaches I think more and more about timing, but really it doesnt matter a lick. Its my first marathon and so any time will be my best time.

New Year

2010-01-10T16:34:00.004+02:00

Kyoto on New Years was fun. We stayed with our friends who conveniently live right next to Aya’s aunt and uncle. Most of the time we lounged around, but on one day we went to Nara to check out the Great Buddha. It is roughly 16 meters, or about 50 feet tall and was built in the 8th century. Of course very little of the original remains, but it was still very cool. We were also there on the last day before the city’s 1300th birthday. 1300! Wow, very cool. Nara was nice, a peaceful place. I recommend, however, going in another season because winter is very cold. Also, be careful with the deer. There are tame deer all around that you can feed, but they are not 100% friendly. One deer head butted my friend and another deer stole a map out of his pocket when he wasn’t looking and ran away with it. He was very unfortunate. Here is the site where Brian posts his videos. You can go here to see footage of us bowing to the deer at Nara. http://www.youtube.com/user/brianadler#p/a/u/0/1IKlvmbjys4

Far and away, but not really

2010-01-10T16:26:00.003+02:00

This winter break Aya and I did not travel to some distant land, but stayed right here in Japan, which can seem distant enough given the right locations. Now that is not to say that we didn’t do anything. We had decided a few months ago that we would like to do some volunteer work and searched for a suitable place. We found an organization called Woof and signed up with them. Once signed up we could see the profiles of many people that had signed up to host people. We saw many farms and hotels, ski resorts and other businesses looking for people to come volunteer with them, but we chose a small farm in Shizuoka. Why did we choose it? Because they said they brewed beer. Now essentially we wanted to volunteer somewhere where people needed us to help them, but as we left Aizu we realized that that was not what we were doing and somewhere along the way our good intentions had been replaced by something much safer and closer to home, which happens a lot when you are in Japan. Despite this we went on.
When we arrived the season converged at an unproductive time and we really didn’t do much of anything. We sowed some seeds, sorted mikans, and made some New Years decorations to earn our room and meals, but it was not hard work and we only put in 4 or 5 hours a day. The rest of the time was spent lounging about or eating dinner with the family. Oh, and did I mention they had two ostrich, a huge German shephard and two cats both named Tama?
They were extremely friendly. When on the first night we asked why they had signed up to host woofers the son said that he wanted contact with foreign people. This struck me as odd. Most males in Japan either don’t have interest in foreigners or are afraid to admit they do. I don’t know why this is, but it is something that I have observed. So over the next few days I tried to talk with Yoshitsugu, the son, as much as I could although he was busy actually working while Aya and I were “working”
At the end of our three days they packed us up nicely with mikans and sho-chu and sent us on our way. I promised Yoshitsugu that I would keep in contact and we may even join up to watch some sumo at the end of January.

Bowing diplomacy

2009-12-05T06:44:00.002+02:00

Last month president Barack Obama made a 9 day visit to Asia. On this trip, like most of his foreign policy, he was received well but didnt get much actually done. However, this is not what I would like to discuss. Or maybe it is, but only in relation to something else that happened. On his tour he made a stop in Japan. Unfortunately the discussion he had with the prime minister, Hatoyama, did not make big headlines in the U.S. What did make headlines is that he bowed to the emperor of Japan.
I first learned about this from a forum of JETs here in Japan. We all came to the same decision as to what the bow meant. I then heard a bunch about news stories in the US and when I was in Hawaii bought Time, 2 issues of Newsweek, and the Economist. All three magazines mentioned the trip and the bow. Time and Newsweek both mentioned that it was not received well by people in the US, but failed to go furthur. The Economist, however, commented not on the media attention it was getting exactly, but the bow itself and its impact in Japan. I think they hit it right on the head by saying, "There was all the customary talk-show outrage over what much of the rest of the world would view as a gesture of cultural courtesy".
The first thing that people in the US should realize is that they live in the US and while a bow may mean something to them it is entirely different here in Japan. The people of Japan did not see this as the president of the US losing face in front of the emperor, but gaining it. This bow wasn't meant for the people of the U.S. to analyze, it was meant for the Japanese people, in a Japanese context. In Japan bowing is respectful and those who dont are considered arrogant and rude.
For me, and I think much of the rest of the world, that bow was a symbol of respect that went a long way in restoring what was lost in the past 10 years. The world is expecting change from Obama and in matters of foreign diplomacy at least, it seems, that it is happening.

Hawaii

2009-12-05T02:17:00.002+02:00

Hawaii was as beautiful as everyone says it is. The weather was great and it only rained a few times, but even those rains were gentle and warm. The ocean was beautiful and the people were equally so. I was most surprised and happy with the number of Japanese people/speakers on the islands and as I make rounds apply for jobs this Spring I will certainly send a few to Hawaii.
As far as sightseeing on Oahu we went to Waikiki beach and the North Shore. Both were beautiful beaches and the waves on the North shore were monsters at about 25 feet. It was amazing to see people surfing them. We missed going to the Bishop museum which I heard was good, along with hiking Diamond Head and seeing the Arizona memorial which I really wanted to do being an avid hiker and history teacher. We also missed out on Hanauma bay, which just about all our friends and family told us was a beautiful bay with great snorkeling.
Near the end of our trip we flew to Hawaii to spend about 12 hours on that big island, and big it is. As we flew in over the land we could only see a scattering of lights as opposed to Oahu which seemed like the vegas strip at night. On the big island we visited black sands beach which was amazingly beautiful at 7am and the Volcano National Park. The park features a number of trails, some of which we got to hike, and lots of interesting things. We didn’t get close enough to active lava, but according to the accounts of friends and family it was stunning. We also made a stop at Rainbow falls which was beautiful. I took a turn swinging from vine (or tree?) that was fun until my abrupt stop against another tree, ouch! How does Tarzan do it?
Overall the islands seemed like very interesting places with much to do, although we didn’t get to indulge that much. We are even thinking of returning this spring for a honeymoon just because we are now tempted to see it all.

The Wedding

2009-12-05T02:06:00.005+02:00

Getting married. Well, now I am married. I guess there are two things I would like to say about it. First; how it all went down. Second; how I feel about it. So, first; Aya and I left Japan on the 18th of November, crossed the dateline and spent the 18th all over again in Hawaii. The first day we checked in then immediatly did various appointments for kimono, AV guy, etc. Later met up with some friends at night. We were jet lagged, but refused to go to bed early and by the time we got up the next day we were on the clock nicely. Friday saw us greeting incoming family before renting a car and going to our friend dan’s rehearsal dinner and the bachelor/bachelorette parties which had both of us out late. On Saturday, the day of my friends wedding, I didn’t even get up til 1 though our phones had been ringing since 7am, and even then wasn’t feeling super. Dan’s wedding was quite good and his bride was looking beautiful. All in all good time. Sunday we had our own shebang. By 12 we were both up, although again calls starting at 7am, and getting ready and were to the shrine by 3. The ceremony went well and I cant imagine anything better. The reception that followed was also good and pretty much everything went as planned. There were some really good skits and songs and I think everyone had a good time. Monday we were up late because of the previous nights drinking, though the phone started ringing at 4am, and ended up hitting the road at 12ish with my brother, mom, and uncle. We went to the north shore to see some surfers which was cool. By 5 we were back in Waikiki where we didn’t do much of anything and went to bed early, we had a 5am flight to catch. The flight was fine, but anything at 5am is bound to suck so by the time we got to the big island of Hawaii we were all bushed. We ended up seeing Rainbow falls, the black sands beach, and some stuff at Volcano park such as a lava tube, and sulfur vents. We didn’t actually get to see lava, but could see the active volcano from a distance. That night, pooped out, Aya and I decided to spend time alone. I went for a run and by the time I got home she was out shopping for gifts. We she returned the stress of 6 days of non-stop family and planning came pouring out of her and we ended up going to bed very late. I may have actually fell asleep listening to her. The next day, Wednesday, we vowed to spend alone, doing what we wanted. We were both hurting to relax a little. We got up late,no 7am phone calls, I ran, she slept a little more then we did a small amount of shopping and went out for lunch. In the afternoon we hit the beach for an hour and then said goodbye to my family before heading to the Hilton hotel for a Luau. The Luau was good, but was on a rooftop and so maybe not so traditional. However the dancers were spectacular. I even was called on stage for a dance alone with 5 ladies, spectacular. Aya said she couldn’t see my hips, which was probably good considering I cant dance at all. After we got some popcorn and headed back to our room to watch some TV and slowly pack our bags. Thursday morning we were up early and to the airport by noon. The flight back was good, I watched 4 movies, and getting to Tokyo was a relief, but also depressing as I was stared at on the train back from the airport. OH JAPAN!Good to be reminded that I am a stranger in a foreign land.

Now, part 2; how do I feel about all of this. Well, this was the culmination of months of planning. Many people said to me “I bet aya is very busy”. Well, we were both very busy. Because the wedding was in America we did joint planning and I wasn’t missing for any step of the way, it was hard work for the both of us and involved lots of emails and phone calls to confirm and reconfirm then switch, then switch back, etc. We also received no planning help from parents or friends because well, no one lives in Hawaii and it would be almost more work to have a third person help out. By the time we actually got to Hawaii it was like a dream, not because we were having so much fun, but because we were both looking forward to it all being over with. We had to constantly remind each other that is was just a little more, a little more, a little more. Once our ceremony and reception came the stress was at a fever pitch as people showed up 2 minutes before our ceremony started and things like place settings weren’t finished when we arrived at the reception. By the time the reception was over our relief was palpable. At this point I think we both thought it was time to sit down and relax, but it was not so. My family wanted to spend time with me and that combined with various other things led to us getting little sleep and no alone time in the next two days which ended up with Aya having a small meltdown and me having to stop and reassess what exactly I was doing. We did finally get one day by ourselves and that was a great relief.
Now by saying all that I don’t want to say that I didn’t enjoy spending time with my family or friends or that I had no fun at my wedding or that I saw very little of Hawaii, although all those things are partially true. I had a great time hanging out with my brother and mother. I think my uncle Paul was fun for Aya and I to hang out with throughout the whole trip. Our friends were supportive and if nothing else provided a great bachelor/bachelorette party for us. Especially our friends Brian and Cynthia deserve a huge thanks for helping us at the reception and as various other stages as well as lending us a sympathetic ear as we complained about various things. Although the ceremony and reception were almost too busy to enjoy, I did enjoy it and my bride was beautiful. Much of my family was there and many people came from very far to be there, Germany the farthest I think. Perhaps that is a 16 hour flight? It's pretty much as far as you can get. Everything went off well and everyone we talked to had a good time which is a really good thing considering all the different kinds of people we were bringing together and all the potential for mis-understanding and uncomfortable silences. The cake, food, and drinks that I did get to have were delicious and the staff at the Willows and at Masako Formal Wear was great, along with our AV guy, Myles, who was visibly busting his ass to do everything he could for us. As far as seeing Hawaii and its landscape along with its people I don’t feel full enough, but I did get a taste and from what I tasted the people are relaxed and kind and MY GOD there are a lot of Japanese people there!
To make this all concise, the wedding was great and went well. It was very busy, but also kind of fun. We didn’t get to do much sightseeing and would like to return someday.

Nikko

2009-10-24T06:12:00.003+02:00

Two weekends ago I went to Nikko, a UNESCO world heritage site. To those outside of Japan Nikko will have very little or no meaning, so I will explain a little bit about Japanese history. As some people know, Japan has an emperor and that empirical line has “ruled” Japan for as long as most written history goes. The true origins are unknown although there is a first recorded instance of someone claiming the descent from the gods and that is where the empirical line can legitimately be traced to. In any case, the emperor has not always been the actual ruler, the present being one of those times. Two things have to be considered. First; although the emperor has not always been the one in control, the line has always been recognized as the legitimate heir to Japan, as it were. Which enters my second point, Japan; as it were. Japan has not always been what we think of it now. Most early history crowds around the areas of present day Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo and that was Japan. It is not until the last 500 years or so that anyone gave any concern to what was to the north of those regions, like where I live now, or to the giant island of Hokkaido. Okinawa is a different, but similar story, but I digress.
The point of all of this is that the unification of Japan, the establishment of a country, and who ruled what when, changes so who ruled what when gets slippery.
So, why the history lesson? Well, Nikko is the burial site of one of the most famous of Japanese people, Ieyasu Tokugawa. He was the first shogun to unite all of Japan, which means he was the first to wrest control of Japan, as it was, from the hands of everyone else, including the figure head emperor of that time. You see, for a large portion of recent Japanese history the country has been ruled not by emperor but by shogun. When we westerners picture old Japan, full of warriors and temples, etc. this is probably what we are picturing, the time of the shoguns.
Along with Ieyasu, his grandson Iemitsu is buried at Nikko. There is also the Futarasan Shrine, which dates to the year 767. That is enough to be pretty cool. Before the discovery of the Americas, before the Magna Carta, before… you get the point, and you can touch it! There is also the famous Three Wise Monkeys, yes, you know them. Hear no, see no, speak no EVIL! There is also a fourth, do no evil, but he was out doing evil so I didn't see him. It’s those monkeys and that is where they come from! Well… at least that is where their fame comes from, the proverb is likely much older. How about that?

Back to Ieyasu; the reason he is important is that he was the first shogun to consolidate power under one shogun. This ushered in about 300 years of rule by his family that ended shortly after the opening of Japan to the west by Perry’s black ships in the 1850’s. That is why he is important. When I asked Aya why he picked Nikko for his burial place she didn’t know. Later, after we had wandered around a bit she said that he had never been to Nikko. I am still wondering why he would want to be buried there. It is a beautiful place, but I can’t see someone wanting to spend eternity somewhere they had never been given that they could have easily gone there during their lifetime to check it out.

There are a few animal carvings around the temple grounds. The first and most famous is the three monkey mentioned above. The second is the sleeping cat. People were piled up to take a picture of this cat, why I didn’t know. I snapped a picture of it because I happened to be walking under the gate and thought it might make a good story later. Turns out that the sculptor Jingoro, was quite well known and that the spirit of Ieyasu is believed to reside in the sculpture. The third, and I think most interesting sculpture is of two elephants. As you can see, one elephant is very strange looking, kind of furry and just generally grotesque looking while the other looks more like a rhino/tiger cross. This is not what the affect artist intended. You see, the artist, Kanyo Tanyu, never saw an elephant! Yes, that is right, never saw one! At the time, it hardly mattered, since no one else had seen an elephant either. I can imagine his thought process, "hm...yes, fur, three claws, a monstrous eye, perfect... yes!"

You would think with all this interesting and beautiful stuff in one place (and there is more than I mention) that my favorite part would be something old or ornate, but it was not. Toward the beginning of our walk around the grounds we went up to a shrine on top of a hill. Around the corner from the main objects was a very small shrine built into a tree. Aya jumped in line to pray as I waited and in line with her was a mother with a boy of about 6 years old. As they stood in line the boy asked, “mama, what are we doing here?” she said, “well, we will put this money in the box and then pray for what we want.” And the boy said, “I want to be a ninja!” and started prancing around like a ninja/pony cross. Everyone in line had a good giggle. It was the best thing I saw all day. Aya said it was refreshing to know that even Japanese kids want to grow up to be ninjas, and that someday, maybe, he might get his wish.

Mr. James

2009-10-04T14:43:00.004+02:00

McDonald's Japan came out with a new ad a few months ago that has raised the ire of some white residents living in Japan. The new ad campaign features a character named Mr. James, who promotes a new series of burgers called the Nippon All Stars. The character, while not readily identified in ads as American, is indeed so. However, to know that you have to access his blog through McDonald's. In the ads Mr. James speaks poor Japanese and on posters uses poor Japanese combined with katakana, the writing system for foreign words (even though Mr. James is speaking Japanese, however poorly, his words are rendered in katakana).

Some of the foreign white community in Japan have taken offense to these ads for a number of reasons.

I have to agree. While the community outside Japan may see this as no big deal I do and I am offended by this ad. I wish that McDonald's would stop this ad and I have not eaten there since the ad began and will not until it is stopped.
Unfortunately in Japan people have little idea of what an actual foreign person is like. This is part of the reason I am here. I am here to be a foreign person, any person not of Japanese decent, in my community. There are 6,000 people in my town, they are all Japanese. When ad campaigns like Mr. James give reason for the people in my town to apply ideas to me I am not happy. I have spent the past 2 years here trying to break those ideas down, to show the people in my town that I am an individual and part of their community. Although I think this man said it best in an editorial on the blog of Arudou Debito, a foreign man with Japanese citizenship.

"The people complaining about this ad live in Japan, pay taxes here, and in some cases have naturalised and become Japanese citizens. Of course from the outside it doesn’t seem like a big deal -it isn’t going to affect your lives or the way your children are treated in school or on the street.

We find this campaign reinforces unwelcome stereotypes that affect our lives here. I have been denied housing, bank loans, and even entry to businesses specifically because of my race/nationality. By pandering to the ‘hapless foreigner’ stereotype, McDonald’s is reinforcing the idea that non-Japanese cannot speak Japanese or conduct themselves properly in Japan.

A multinational corporation like McDonald’s should be more careful about the subliminal messages they put out, and we are just trying to bring that to their attention."

I hope McDonald's, regardless of what they originally thought was a good ad campaign, will now realize how insensitive they have been and stop their ads.

Running

2009-10-04T10:04:00.001+02:00

This morning I ran the Wakamatsu Tsuruga Castle Marathon. In Japan, any race can carry the name marathon and be under marathon length. It is also common to say marathon(ing) instead of running. I decided to run the 10k, which while my longest race, is not the longest distance I have ever run. I was the only foreign person running the 10k, one my friends in Wakamatsu ran the 5k, he got a 21:03, which is a pretty good time. My fastest 5k has been just under 22:00.
Today I ran a 51:43 which while a decent time was not what I had hoped for. In training I was running just over 50:00 and was hoping that the added plus of actually having people running with and against me would propel me to do better and maybe get a 49 or 48. It was not to be. While I finished the first 5k in about 23:30, twice during the second half I had to walk in order to bring down my pulse quickly. I became dizzy and so decided to check my pulse. My watch has a heart monitor on it and when it exceeds 185 beats per minute the watch will beep, which means, STOP, and it did twice. Normally I run between 155-165 beats per minute and will go to 175 or so when I am sprinting at the end of a race, but the day was hotter than normal and I was overheating. So twice I walked.
In any case I am happy with my run, it is the first formal race that I have done in a long time and in the past two months I have run the fastest and longest distances that I have ever run. Many of you are probably thinking, that is great, but why even run? What is the point?
There are two reasons I did this race. The first is that I took initiative to have people pledge money for my run, the proceeds of which I am donating to an orphanage in Thailand called Baan Dada(see sponsor names above on my homemade shirt). Some of the JETs in the prefecture responding by pledging money to see me finish, so I couldn’t let them down. The second reason is that. I love running. My day doesn’t feel complete if I don’t run, or exercise in some way, and it is a great time for me to unwind mentally and physically. Beating the paths around the river in my town I have had lots of moments of peaceful reflection, improved my health, and seen wildlife that I would not have otherwise. I also see my students out and about town and I hope it encourages those that already do to stick with it. Today, I saw many of my students at the race. A few of them were cheering me on as I ran and a few I met after where I learned what race they had just done or were about to do. It was great to see them so happy with what they had achieved. Seeing the power that inspires these kids to run inspires me also. I hope that in turn seeing me at the race will encourage them to keep running.

Sado Island

2009-09-29T05:51:00.001+02:00

Sado island is the 6th largest island in the Japanese archipelago (excluding the northern territories), behind the big 4 that make up the main body of Japan, and then the 5th, Okinawa. It is relatively close to me, about 2 hours by car, then a 2 hour ferry. I have wanted to go for some time, but just could never work out enough time to get in gear. Last week was Silver Week. It is called such because in May there is Golden week, a time when many holidays happen to fall on the same week and so lots of people vacation then. This year, certain holidays in September happened to fall during the week, creating a 5 day weekend. Time to travel.

Aya and I did a little research, packed up the car, and groaned at the ferry fee, but we made it to Sado very sound. It was great weather the whole time, sunny with a slight breeze and just perfect temperature. I felt like I was some little girl in a bear’s house eating porridge. Just right.
There are many interesting things to see on Sado Island from the oldest steel lighthouse in Japan, an abandoned gold mine, lots of beaches, an endangered species (the ibis), the Alcohol Republic, Charles Jenkins and tarai-bune.
The first day there we departed the ferry and started to drive north east, reaching futatsugame beach where we spent some time foraging on the beach. I felt like I was home again with the wind in my hair as I combed the shore for glass and interesting bones. It was great. From there we followed the coast west and took a glass bottomed boat ride over some very interesting rock formations, but really we did not have much time that day to do anything as just about everything shuts down after 6. Sado was strange and wonderful in that way. The buildings were very old and the atmosphere very small town. It was very relaxing compared to the hustle and plastic in the rest of Japan.

Day two had us up early (since we went to sleep at 9) and on my morning run I discovered the oldest iron lighthouse in Japan was about 30ft from our hotel. We snapped a few pictures then headed south and west along the south shore to have some fun in the tarai bune. Basically, these are giant wooden washtubs that people paddle with one ridiculous paddle. You basically have to grab the handles and make a churning motion to move the boat. When Aya tried we went backwards. She was really good. After that we headed north and to the Alcohol Republic. It is so named because there are a good number of sake factories in close proximity. I was told you could get a passport and get stamped at various establishments which of course excited me because it combines two of my favorite things, using a passport and alcohol. Unfortunately no one seemed to know where to get a passport. They did however know where to get free sake for me to taste, so I was ok with it, and then pretty happy with it, then I wasn’t sure what I was or was not happy with.
After some lunch in town we headed to the gold mine to find some gold of our own. After paying a 700yen entrance fee we went through a small museum and into an area full of troughs with sand in them. We were then showed how to pan and let go for 30 minutes to find what we could. We each scored about 8 small flakes. I told Aya that we should do this for a living, she did not agree. After getting brow beaten by an old lady outside to buy an ice cream cone (we got chocolate) we took off again, this time to see what Aya’s co-worker had described as the best thing on Sado Island, animatronics robots performing a Noh play. I had to wonder how robots performing a Noh play could be the best thing on the island, considering there was an endangered species and a gold mine, not to mention REAL Noh plays in the cultural birthplace of this distinct type of theater. We arrived at the center and found out the bots were broken; I guess I will never know the best part of Sado Island.
After that disappointment we went off to see the Japanese Crested Ibis. I had read about the Ibis and was almost as excited to see it as I was to see the Liger in Korea. This particular type of bird was thought to have gone extinct about 5 years ago, then some were found in China (is everything just waiting to be found in China?) and they were bred and given to Japan, which has since managed to breed a good number of the birds, so much in fact that about 12 were released a year ago, back into the wild. The center, nicely priced at 200yen, is basically a small museum and then a short viewing area from which you can see the birds at about 100ft. You can’t get closer. I don’t know if I really wanted to though, they birds are ugly and their call is far from beautiful. It sounds like someone blowing their nose and shrieking. Needless to say it did not compare to the Liger, but it was still cool to see a living thing so rare.
As we left the Ibis center we realized that it was 430pm and it would soon be getting dark. I felt somewhat like we were on an island that would be seized by vampires after the sun set as everyone scurried around doing what they could before activity ceased around 6. We had a plan of our own and went back to our hotel to get drunk.

On day three we had about 3 hours to kill before we headed to the ferry, first on the list, go back to the gold mine and pan again! That’s right; I got Aya to change her mind, almost. She agreed that it was fun, so we went again, but she still would not concede that we should do it full time. This time we managed to get past the old woman hawking ice cream on the way out. With about 1 hour left to kill we decided to do what I had been rolling over in my mind the whole time, visit Mr. Jenkins. Charles Jenkins defected to North Korea when he was serving as a soldier for the US army in South Korea in 1965. One night after deciding that he did not want to go to Vietnam he drank a bunch of beer and walked across the line. He says he almost instantly regretted it. Many years later he was introduced to a Japanese woman the North Koreans had kidnapped from Sado Island, they fell in love and had two kids. Mind you still in N. Korea. In 2005 through a deal between the Japanese and N. Korean government he and his family were allowed to enter and stay in Japan. Once there Jenkins served 24 days in a U.S. army jail for desertion and was discharged. Jenkins now lives on Sado, with his wife, and works at one of the local history museums/ gift shops. He is a very popular tourist attraction and I must admit that I wanted to go see him, but at the same time I was thinking that he must be awfully sick of all the attention. We arrived at the museum and found out the fee was 700 yen to enter, which was just enough to deter me from going in. You may have your peace Mr. Jenkins.
After that we went back to the ferry port, boarded for our way home on a beautiful sunny day and left Sado behind. It was a very quiet and lovely place.

John Lennon Museum

2009-09-22T13:25:00.002+02:00

Aya and I went to the John Lennon museum located in Saitama last weekend. It was really cool. The price to get in is not much, I think it cost us 1,300yen for the both of us and we got a discount because we were married, funny. Although most items in the museum have a Japanese explanation accompanying them, a great deal of them also have English which was really nice. Also, even though it was a Saturday, there were not many people in the museum and at times we were entirely alone.
The items in the museum and the set up itself is pretty cool. Room by room you go through the objects and stories of John’s life starting from his early years all the way to his death. I was very impressed with the amount of authentic objects in the museum from guitars to glasses, to art and signatures, to his report cards and diary. We were asked not to take pictures and I obeyed, mostly, one picture I could not resist and that is the one above, John’s report card!
The overall feeling of the museum was great, it really gave me the impression of actually understanding the years passing and progression from one thing to another. It gave me a much greater perspective on John’s life. I even learned that he visited Japan a number of times and kept a journal with pictures for learning Japanese, that was really cool. There were also many photos and objects from other personal moments and I felt the most moved when viewing objects from the 5 years when John took off to care for Sean.
If you are in the Tokyo area and are a Lennon fan I would highly recommend this place. If you are just a casual tourist I would still recommend it, but only if you have ample time to see other Tokyo places first.

Iide

2009-09-08T12:40:00.004+02:00

I finally got around to climbing mount Iide (2105m). Last summer, myself and a group of friends got up the mustard to give it a try. Driving to the starting point Aya and I were separated from the rest of the group and we started up a different path. It was very difficult and after about an hour Aya said she couldn't take it anymore and we decided to turn around. Rightly so, it was about a 50 degree incline. Very difficult.
That was last year. This year I returned, alone, to claim the top. I had wanted to go with some friends, but everyone was busy. The weather was perfect and I finally had a day free so I decided to go it alone despite that hiking alone is not a good idea.
I started at 9am. After the first 15 minutes of flat trail the fun began. Much the same as last year, despite that this was a different path, the 50 degree incline was intimidating. I slogged on for about 2 hours before that ended and I reached the top of the first of many peaks and a "flat" area. Iide, in respect to other climbs I have done, was different in that way. After the first two hours the next 3 1/2 was a series of saddles between peaks. Sometimes the inclines would be so hard to pass that chains had been hammered in to the rock so you could hoist yourself up the rock face. In a couple of places the trail was only a couple of feet wide flanked by a precipitous drop that certainly would lead to death if you happened to mis-step. In the photo above there is a rock face that seems very slim, you have to hoist up a chain on the left side then walk the middle of that with 100m drops on either side. Scary. After 5 1/2 hours, exhausted, I reached the peak of Iide. Most people that climb take 2 days or more to do so, they stay in cabins along the way which provide water and shelter for the night. Those people are wise, I was not. I had it in mind to do it all in one day, so after reaching the top I promptly turned around and headed back.
Usually when I hike I figure a 3/2 ascent/descent time. If it takes 3 to go up it usually it will take 2 to go down as the descent requires more finesse and less raw power. However, because of the saddles this was not the case for Iide. It still took me 5 1/2 hours to descend and the last 2 hours were spent utterly alone and in the dark. The sun had gone down and all other hikers had long since gone to their cabins for the night. In addition I had somehow hurt my ankle near the top and was having the pain increase on the way down. So there I was, in the dark, hours from anybody, injured, descending the mountain. This is why you should not hike alone. However I always prepare a pack with essentials. I had a sleeping bag, rain jacket, 2 days of food, rope, water, cell phone, headlamp, etc.

To stave off paranoia and to hopefully frighten off any large animals like bears I started talking to myself out loud. I sang songs, rationalized my future, commented on the trail conditions, etc. Anything to remain loud and keep my mind off the solitude of the dark forest. Finally, 11 hours after starting, I reached the bottom. I thankfully peeled off my boots and headed home for some hot ramen and a cold beer. Iide was a great hike, in my opinion more challenging than Fuji, and I want to go again. However, next time I will take more than one day and I will bring along a buddy.

Fujikyu Highland Park

2009-08-24T06:14:00.004+02:00

Fujikyu Highland park is one of the most intense roller coaster parks in the world. With Mt. Fuji in the background a stroll around the park is nicely backdropped, but we did more than stroll. Unfortunately we went on a saturday, lines were very long. We payed about 4,500 yen to enter with an open pass. We could ride anything all day, but the lines were such that we thought we could do 3 coasters at most. Our first target was Fujiyama, which was the tallest coaster in the world when it opened in 1996. It is also really fast, reaching speeds of 130kmh. To say it simply, it was really fun and very intense.
After that coaster we knew we had time for only one more, so we grabbed some lunch and stood in line for Eejanaika. This coaster has the Guinness World Record for the most number of inversions. It is what is called a 4th dimension coaster, meaning the seat is capable of 360 degree turning. Before getting on you must empty your pockets and take off your shoes. You are then strapped into a chair with legs dangling and drawn up the first embankment lying on your back. From there you are tossed and turned over the 14 inversions in a matter of about 2 minutes. It was really really intense and I have to say that i did not enjoy it as much because it was so intense. Fujiyama was good, but Eejanaika was just crazy. One other interesting note, I had my heart monitor watch with me and tested myself at different points along the rides. A normal resting rate for me is 65 beats per minute, 85 is a normal standing rate. I tested myself on both rides and results were close to the same. While in line my rate was 110, which is about the rate your heart would be at if you are taking a brisk walk. Once strapped in I was at 120, which is close to the same. On the ascent, right before the first drops it went to 140 which is the pace of a slow run. After the initial drops it went to 160 which is a normal jogging pace for a male of my age. Interesting to see how my body reacted.

Fuji

2009-08-24T06:00:00.003+02:00

Mount Fuji is the largest mountain at Japan and the peak is 3,776 meters above sea level (12,388ft). Most people start from the 5th station which is at roughly the 2300 meter mark. Richard and I thought that climbing it from the 5th was kind of cheating since that brings you to about the half way point without you hiking, you ride a bus there. So we hiked from the bottom, the absolute bottom. We started from our hotel in Fujiyoshida, Riben minshuku. As we left at 530am the inn keeper told us to "gambatte!" (fight for it!) We took about 20 minutes on foot to get to Sengen Jinja (shrine) and started the trail from there. This is only one of four trails from the bottom to the top, but the most popular, which was hard to believe since we saw not a soul (except for a mountain goat) along the trail.

The altitude at Sengen Jinja is about 800 meters above sea level.
Denver, Colorado, is roughly 1 mile high, 1 mile is about 1,600 meters so the 5th station starts at about 1 1/2 miles high and the top of fuji is over 2 1/2 miles high, much much higher than Denver. If you have ever watched a football game played at Mile High stadium you will have seen the players sucking oxygen on the sidelines. As you go higher the air gets very thin.

The hike was difficult and to get to the 5th station took us about 5 hours. We saw no one on the trail from Sengen Jinja to the 5th station. What a shame! No one taking the traditional route, no one interested in climbing the whole mountian, perhaps on the other three trails fromt the bottom there were other people, but I doubt it since we were on the "popular" one.

We took a break at the 5th station, observed the circus of buses, tourists, ponies, and women in high heels with strollers, bought a hiking stick and quickly moved on. From the 5th on the trail was pretty packed with people. We were never far from anyone and a few times held up by people ahead of us. By the 7th station fatigue started to set in and by the 8th we were both plodding our way onward at turtle pace taking frequent but empty breaths. Along the way, at most stations, we took 5 minutes to have our hiking stick branded and perhaps to sit for a minute.

By the 8th station many of the people had stopped climbing. They were bedding down for the night, waiting to reach the peak an sunrise and/or recovering from the change in altitude. It was also at this point that we started to lose the finer points of speech as our minds became fuzzy from the oxygen deprivation. Luckily, neither of us suffered more than mental slowness. Some people get terribly sick. More than a few times I saw people sucking on cans of oxygen, trying to keep their bodies from rebelling.

At the 7th station, about 3 hours from the top, the wind picked up and it started to rain. We had both brought rain gear, but still felt the biting cold and by the 8th station I could no longer feel my fingers. The rain continued up until we reached the top after 11 hours of climbing with minimal breaks. Once at the top we went searching for our final stamp, only to be told the person had closed down 30 minutes before. Being cold, tired, and dejected we snapped a few pictures, got another coffee to warm our hands, and started our descent.
Almost immediatly Richard came alive again and the next 3 hours descending in darkness went fairly quickly. We reached the 5th station at around 9 and took a bus back to Fujiyoshida. We had briefly talked about descending the whole mountain too, but decided not to since at that point it would be a drop in the bucket as we estimated it would only take about 2 1/2 hours more and after 16 hours we didnt care.

When returned back to Fujiyoshida, stopped at a sushi place for a drink and some sushi, then returned to our room at the minshuku where we promptly fell asleep. I was so tired I didnt fully undress and woke in the middle of the night to finish the job. The next morning after we got up, the minshuku owner asked us how the climb went. When we told him what we had done he said, "yuusho!" (champions!) All in all it was an excellent time and an experience that will not be soon forgotten.

Indecent Proposal

2009-08-16T06:19:00.002+03:00

While in Stanley I proposed to Aya. We had already been talking about getting married, we have a date and location set, have sent out invitations etc. but I had still not proposed, getting married was something we had just agreed upon. So 4 months ago I bought her ring and ever since have been trying to wait for a good moment to come along for me to propose, some nice location or specific event or something. I didn’t know, I just thought inspiration would hit me and I would think, ok, perfect timing, let’s do it Kevin, but that didn’t happen. It finally occurred to me that I had to make it happen and so determined that I would do it in Hong Kong come hell or highwater. I knew that we would be near the sea, which would be nice, so I waited until we were alone, which we were in Stanley.
After having lunch along the board walk I said, let’s take a walk by the seawall. So we did as I thought about how to start. Of course I had an idea of what I wanted to say, but I did not know how to begin. First things first I distracted her by pointing out a junk (ship) in the harbor and saying she should take a picture of it. Meanwhile I slipped the box out of my pocket and put the ring on my pinky finger so that I would have it ready. I then hid the ring as best as I could and tried to begin. But the words just didn’t come out and so Aya said, lets go. I told her I wanted to stay a bit longer and sat on a ledge by the sea wall. I thought perhaps if I just start it will come out alright. So as she turned to walk away I started to get on my knees and said, “Aya I…” and then the ring slipped out of my hand. I watched it make a few weak bounces on the boards of the board walk, praying that it would not fall into the space between the slats and trying my best to put my body into motion, but by the time I made any kind of move to recover the ring it had quietly slipped into the space between the boards. I was shocked to say the least. Aya, who had watched the ring fall between the crack, wasn’t so concerned, so I said, “the ring, the ring fell between the cracks! (frantically pointing)” and she said, “oh well, its ok” and I said, “no, no, not this ring (pointing to the ring on my finger) THE ring, the wedding ring!” At which point she came around to what was happening and we both fell to our knees peeking between the cracks searching for the ring. Luckily it had landed on a flat piece of concrete about 2ft below the surface of the board walk. As some relief crept in that we knew where the ring was we began to talk about how to get it out and how much of an idiot I was. Luckily, just as I was starting out towards the commercial area to find something a security guard was walking by and I flagged her down. I told her that we had lost a ring, she came to take a look, confirmed that I had in fact dropped the ring, and then said she was going for help. About 5 minutes later she returned with two other security guards and a number of thin long tools. The first she tried was a long wire with a hook on the end, which worked and she gave me back the ring which I heartily thanked her for. Meanwhile Aya and the other two security people were taking lots of pictures. Thanks for the memories.

So I had the ring back in my hand and said to Aya, “Despite that I am and idiot…” which was the perfect start that I had been looking for. As we discussed the whole incident we both agreed that it was very much us, a perfect fit, and really the only way to go about it. Oh, and she said yes.

Nebuta Matsuri

2009-08-13T12:28:00.003+03:00

Nebuta Mastsuri, in Aomori ken, is consider one of the three big festivals in the Tohoku region of Japan. When I first came to Japan I noticed in one of the English textbooks that the festival was mentioned and there was a picture of one of the floats. Since then I have wanted to go and got my chance last week. The drive was murder, 12 hours on a bus there and 8 hours back, with 5 hours in between to be at the festival. Despite that, I really enjoyed what I saw. The floats lived up to my expectations.
Nebuta refers to the stomping of the ground that dancers around the float do, but the orgins of the word mean root (ne) and to cover (buta) which refer to the loss of a warrior and the burial of his followers in old Japan. Usually the top of the float is a scene depicting a warrior and made of all paper, lit from the inside. They used to be smaller, built with a frame of bamboo, and lit with a candle from the inside, but now they have changed considerably. Floats are much larger, built with wire, and lit inside by light bulbs powered by a portable generator.
We, luckily, got a spot near the harbor and so were able to enjoy the procession of floats along the water front and the fireworks as well. One thing that really impressed me was that, despite that the waterfront was packed with people rows deep, everyone remained seated despite that most people had an obscured view that could be remedied if they stood. The only time people got up was to take a quick look or snapshot of a passing float and then to sit down again. If everyone had stood at the same time, the affect would be ruined and everyone would be back to square one. In America, everyone would stand, but in Japan, things are different.

Hong Kong

2009-08-10T10:26:00.001+03:00

Hong Kong was a beautiful place full of history and clashing of cultures that often make a place a breeding ground for my most desired combination of things. We only had 2 days in the city which is a shame and I hope to some day return, maybe even to live there except for one thing which really put me off. The heat! Japan is hot, but Hong Kong was hotter. Each day we took refugee in some air conditioned building about every 2 hours just to cool down and not exhaust ourselves. I can’t imagine living there for an entire summer, but the rest of the year must be superb.
On the first of our two days we went to Macau. Macau was “discovered” by the Portuguese in the 16th century and remained under Portuguese administration until 1999! One of the first and last colonies in China it is steeped with historical buildings and contains not a World Heritage building but an area! Clearly there was too much for just one specific point and numerous monuments, temples, and other places were incorporated. We saw the ruins of the cathedral of St. Paul, A-ma temple, and the fortress. Unfortunately, we were so exhausted by the heat, the walking, and the travel of the previous day that we decided to wrap it up early and head back to Hong Kong. The remainder of that day we spent finding a sweet shop for Aya and then a bar with good beer for us boys. We bounced to a few good places, one of which was Ned Kelly’s. I had remembered reading about it before coming. It wasn’t such a bad place, Filled, but not full of people on this Saturday evening with a live band and some decent beers available. It was a nice way to wile away the final hours of our day.

The next day we were up and about early enough to catch a bus to Stanley. Stanley is not far from the city. We took a bus for maybe 45 minutes through winding streets leading up steep hills with suicide drops on one side and sheer cliffs on the other, all the while the double decker bus swinging wildly around the curving road. When we arrived in Stanley we were greeted by a massive tourist market. All of the shops had something to offer, but I would say only a few were unique. Most had the same array of scarves, paintings, ornaments, and other junk that you could find in most major markets. Only a few had other wares, but overall I liked the market. After browsing for a bit we had lunch by the boardwalk and then took a walk by the sea wall. I proposed to Aya by this sea wall, but I will save that for a different thread. Safe to say she said yes.

After Stanley we returned to the city proper and went to some of the other touristy markets, the jade market, shoe street, the lady’s market, etc. Which were all fun and good. We did find some neat stuff and I was pretty happy to be roaming around these markets. One thing I especially enjoyed was a fruit, meat, and vegetable market street just a few blocks from the main action. Nothing too unusual, but a lot of fruits and veggies that I could not identify. Really makes you think about how restricted our diets are no matter how hard we try to expand them. Our second day ended with the purchase of some jade and a Tsing-Tao for me to wash down the heat of the day. Overall good trip.

That Which Dwells Within Us

2009-06-30T15:32:00.004+03:00

The other day I was at my with my Japanese language tutor and we were reading a story about vending machines in Japan. Part of the story focused on the benefits of the vending machines while the other part focused on the detriment. Detriments included things like using electricity, hiring someone to stock the machine, etc, but there was one unusual thing that at first I thought I had misread. It said that vending machines are limiting face to face contact among people. While I thought this was true, I also thought… so what? Is that a problem? Apparently in Japan it is.

After a little inquiry my teacher told me that she had recently had a “student” who had been coming by lately. He was what is called a hikikomori 引き籠もり,. Which translates as someone who pulls away, or a shut in. These people exist in other countries; usually they are people who have some sort of social, physical, or mental disorder or impairment that makes it difficult for them to function outside of a confined or familiar environment that they consider safe. Japan is a leader among the world for this sort of person and China, Taiwan, and South Korea are also seeing rising numbers of hikikomori recently. Some factors that are said to contribute to it is a lack of a right of passage, which would lead to youths becoming adults and also perhaps because of the rigid systems of social ranking in Japan and other countries. Many students in Japan face enormous pressure to test well for universities and highschools and many of those who graduate find slim job prospects, which may also encourage their disallusionment.
My teacher’s student had gone to school as a normal adolescent would, but upon graduating entered his home, rarely to emerge for the past 9 years. As of lately he had expressed a desire to come back into society and so my Japanese teacher, who is also a psychologist, agreed to meet with him to start some rehabilitation.

Apparently in Japan this is very common. I did a little research and asked a few people I know about hikikomori and all of them knew someone at some point in their lives who was or is a hikikomori. By some statistics this involves about 20% of adolescent males (1% of the total population). In fact I know there is at least one at my middle school, and a couple at my elementary schools, although the most serious cases are those that carry on beyond school. At this point you may be thinking, ok, so that is a little strange, but surely its not so bad. At some point these people must emerge from their rooms to go to the bathroom, eat, shop, work, etc. The suprising truth is… not really. Some are known to have stayed in their rooms for periods measuring in years. Many needs such as food and other shopping can be done over the internet or is done by the persons mother, who then brings it to their room. Going to the bathroom may only be done at times the person feels safe, like at night. Which brings me back to the original article I was reading about vending machines.

It seems that a negative side affect of vending machines, which are growing in number in Japan, is that it enables people to remain hikikomori. It also seems that a considerable amount of business occurs at night, which creates a conundrum for owners who don’t want their machines using electricity all night long, but also have a small, but growing costumer base for late night use.

While I recognize that some of these individuals really are disturbed and really do need to be catious about social interactions, the majority are being enabled by their parents and society who has taken a passive role in allowing them to isolate themselves. I can make this argument because when you compare the statistics for urban or middle class families with hikikomori children to those of lower class or rural families the difference is noticeable. People are choosing to become withdrawn from society for petty reasons and their loved ones are allowing them to do it. Despite all that I love about Japan, this is one thing I do not.

Going Grey

2009-06-13T09:40:00.002+03:00

Japan has a big population problems. Standing now at 127 million, the Japanese population is expected to be less than 100 million by 2050. There are a number of reasons for this. First and foremost is a negative population growth at -.14 Coupled with a very low rate of immigration that equals decline.
The second is the tendancy for Japanese to marry late, and therefore have children later or not at all.
This however creates big problems as the population becomes the most top heavy in the world. Creating a large base of elderly with a small amount of young. Now it is estimated that every retired person is supported by 7 working people, by 2050 that will be 2. The future for Japan, looks grey.