Japan First Days in Tokyo

I went back and added photos to my last Bali blog so if you want to see it with picture or just look at the picture you need to go back to that blog.

Japan First Days

Tokyo October 16, 17 and 18

The trip to Japan lasted 24 grueling hours from bed to bed. With very few hours of sleep, a five hour lay over in Malaysia and too many hours on planes, I managed to get a nasty head cold along the way. The transition to Japan has not been smooth. Our computer and phone do not work here and it took five tries to find an ATM that would give us cash. Credit cards are not widely accepted. We knew all these things coming in but dealing with the reality is different. If not for our host Shige we would have been even more lost. He is a professor at Gakugei University where he got us an apartment in the international student housing for most of the month we are here. He also met our plane, which was two hours late at the airport, bought us food, took us to the 24hr supermarket and then delivered us to our new home away from home around 1:00 am. We know him through my Uncle Bob. He is trying to help us make our plans for the rest of our time here.

Yesterday Shige took me to the campus Dr. to get some medicine for my cold. He insisted I do this. I told him at home I would never go to a Dr with these symptoms because there wouldn't be much they could do. He insisted. I got some kind of white powder to take three times a day for three days. I have no idea what it is. The Dr didn't speak much English but we communicated some how. And it was free, by the way, both the appointment and the medicine. I do feel better now after a good nights sleep and taking the medicine.

On our second day here Dave and Anika took the train to some area of Tokyo (Shibuya) Anika wanted to go to for shopping. She came home happy with lots of “cute stuff”. I stayed to meet with Shige. He was hoping I would be well enough to speak to his class on international education today. I felt better so off we went. First he told me he wanted me to get paid so we went to fill out some papers. I told him I was happy to do it for nothing but he insisted. I am now officially a visiting scholar! His class of about 26 freshman were meeting for the first time. He spent part of the class doing the usual here is the book you need to get etc stuff. Then they talked about why US companies grow most of the bananas eaten in Japan in the Phillipines. I was confused but then the conversation was mostly in Japanese with short bits in English. Shige showed a video about the history of US education starting with immigration at the turn of the century. It was in English and I do know something about this so things got easier. Later Shige told me most students understand at least some English but few speak it. They got to John Dewey and how he influenced US schools. Here is where I was supposed to come in. I ended up talking for only a few minutes, maybe five, describing a bit about Monarch and how John Dewy's philosophy influenced our school philosophy. The students asked some questions and that was it.

I noticed none of the male students participated. The female students answered questions and asked them. There was a lot of light banter and joking. The class felt very relaxed. There were two international students one from France and one from Singapore. The woman from Singapore introduced herself to me after the class and we talked a bit.  she ended up befriending Anika later that evening. The classroom itself could have been in the US in terms of what it looked like.

The university is very modern looking over all but with big old trees and well tended grounds. Shige says it was the site of a tank base during WW2 so it had been heavily bombed. It was rebuilt into a university after the war. The buildings have mostly that 50s-70s look, very practical and utilitarian. The colors are very neutral, the offices are organized and simple. We went to Shige's office after the class so he could meet with students. It was floor to ceiling with books, many of them education books I have read or know. There was a coach one one side of his desk and shelves with all kinds of technology (printer, DVD player flat screen TV etc. ) on another. It was small and full of stuff and reminded me of past college professors office's I have been in.

Three female students showed up and he made them tea. They took out sweet treats and he offered everyone chocolate. It was like a little tea party. Then he and the three girls talked about a book they were reading on Puritanism and the rise of capitalism. It reminded me a bit of Sarah Lawrence where you meet with your Don and have these kind of conversations. I could not follow the conversation but every so often Shige tried to include me. Another student walked in and he realized he had double booked. She waited patiently, refilling the tea, until he was done with the first three students. I excused myself shortly after they left to go home. 

Shige who insisted we get a phone to use here. Anika and I went to a gathering for all the international students living in our apartment complex.  They are all education students and most are already working in their home country. They are in Japan to do research but most spend the first year or so just learning Japanese. Many of them brought dishes to share form their country. It was a potluck and the food was great. Everyone went around and said who their name, where they were form and what they were there to study. I was happy I could now call myself a visiting scholar not just a world traveler on a year long vacation. A few students even did little performances of music or dance. I spoke Spanish with a couple of women from Peru and Mexico, that was fun. They were in Tokyo for the earthquake and Tsunami and told how amazed they were at the quick and organized response of the government. Shigue told me the Japanese consulate gives scholarships that many of these students have to come study in Japan. It was a very interesting group of people and a fun night.

We left the next day and have now been traveling in the mountains of Central Honshu for  almost a week. It is so beautiful. I am in sensory overload almost. Next blog photos and stories of Japan travel! don't know when that will be as wifi is hard to find.

Bye Bye Bali

I haven't written about our last three weeks in Bali and now we are in Japan.  I am going to post this now while we have Internet, something that has been hard to find in Japan believe it or not, and add the photos later.

Rafting

We took a fun easy rafting trip one day. It included a great buffet lunch afterwards.

Us in front of an amazing rock carving a fancy hotel put beside the river about 5 years ago.It looks ancient.

Dave and I get a riverside shower.

 
Batur Volcano and Hot springs

Dave and I spent a lovely day in this area. (Anika stayed home sick.) The cone of the volcano, which last erupted the year I was born 1963, is in a valley with a lake on one side and mountains ringing the whole thing. Parts of the area reminded me of the Big Island of Hawaii. The view from the rim is magnificent. Then you drive down into it. This area is very dry at this time of year and you can tell people have to work hard. Farming and fish farming are the occupations and some tourism. We went to a hot springs on the side of the lake. It was obviously geared toward tourists. We paid and had in and out privileges all day. The view from the hot springs was spectacular, over the lake to the mountains on one side, and the cone of the volcano on the other. We left to have lunch at a very simple restaurant near by. The fish we had was right out to the lake minutes before we ate it. It was one of my most memorable lunches in Bali. There is a very manageable hike to the rim of the volcano most people do at night arriving for the sun rise. We would Ike to do it if we ever come back to Bali.

Sideman and Tenganan Villages

This was another great outing day. We drove through rice fields to Sideman, known for weaving, particularly ikat. Ikat is a type of weaving found only three places in the world India, Japan and Indonesia. We visited a studio and saw beautiful cloth. The village itself had a very different feeling than other villages we had been to. Many villages are just buildings a long the road with no sense of center and everything behind stone/cement walls. There was more of a sense of place here although the layout was the same, people were friendly and happy to see you. There isn't a lot of tourism.

These two photos are of different parts of the ikat dying and weaving process. Women do all the weaving and men do the dying.




From there we took a ride on roads that see very little traffic, something you don't get here much any more. The view were great all the way to the coast. The rad was very narrow. Steep and windy down the mountain. We stopped to buy watermelon form some people at the side of the road. A little girl charmed Dave into buying a basket for 4$. As I examined it going down the hill (it is very well made) I opened it and found a bag of money! We made the driver stop. Dave and I trudged back up the hill, there was no way for the car to back up or turn around. When we got to the people they looked at us like what the heck? We showed the mom the basket and the money. Her face went from confusion to shock to a glance at her daughter of upset mom to appreciation. I am sure they don't have much business up there and we had driven off with some of the profits. The average person in Bali makes less than 6-7$ a day and these people were making far less than that. It was a travel moment. Anika was in the car for the whole thing.

View from the car on the windy road.

At the bottom we turned, had lunch at a great German restaurant and went to Tenganan. This is a Bali Aga village, people who chose to preserve the way of life from before the Javanese royalty came to Bali. There are no cars and the village has a specific lay out. The cows roaming around look like they are from a different era. The village is know for weaving and double ikat, even rarer than single ikat pattern. We wandered around looking, buying and talking to people. All the craft work was of high quality not like what you see in parts of Ubud and around the island now. The atmosphere was very relaxed and people far less pushy to sell. They seemed very proud of their work and happy just to talk about it. We met a furniture maker who was doing very original work and he invited us into his home, made us tea from their “redwood” bark. Everyone spoke enough English to communicate well. I could have stayed much longer but Anika was ready to go so we left.

Dave with one of the Tenganan village cows.

The furniture maker in his home.

Sarasuvati the goddess of knowledge. We could not afford this piece of art.

Munduk and Aras Panas Banjar

We explored the central mountains and hit another more locally oriented hot spring.

View in Munduk

Aras Panas Banjar hot springs

Amed and the Salt

We spent four days in Amed on the North East coast of Bali. This was my favorite spot in Bali. It was a vacation from our vacation as my friend Louise who recommend it described it for herself. The area is very dry. It reminded us of Arizona (Anika), Southern CA (Dave) or Mexico (Lysa). Our hotel was right on the rocky beach. The snorkeling was a few feet from the shore and full of every color, size and shape of coral and fish imaginable. I think it might have been the best snorkeling I have ever done except maybe the Caribbean. We had left all technology behind so the three of us read and talked and hung out. This is a place I would go back to. They are just starting to develop so the narrow road is not shoulder to shoulder shops, hotels, villas and restaurants. Its quiet at night. No traffic and surprisingly little trash.

Entrance to the beach from our hotel

One day Dave and I rode the rented scooter (the only form of real transportation on Bali) to where they process salt from the ocean in the traditional way. We were swarmed by kids selling salt with notes written in English, French and German about how the money would go to pay for them to go to school. One girl stood out form the rest to me and I asked her to give us a tour. She was self confident, not a pushy, whiny or pouty sales person (all strategies the other kids were trying) and she spoke English well enough to describe the process well. As she told us how they do it the kid had spark. The teacher in me thought this girl needs to be able to get to school every day. We talked for a while about her school, age (12) siblings, family etc. I told her I would come back the next day to buy something. Her name was Kaday.

Funnel used to filter ocean water to separate salt

Salt drying in split palm trunks

Kaday is here is white.

 We went back the next day and she was so happy to see me. Dave went to get Anika ( with one scooter Dave had to do a lot of shuttling in Bali) so I hung out with Kaday and she showed me how she weaves little baskets to put the salt in. When Anika got here I asked her to give Anika the tour. Then I asked to meet her mother. Kaday took us down the road with a parade of other children following. Her mother was very shocked to see this parade walk up to their home. I gave her 100,000 Rp,, about 12$US, and explained it was for Kaday to get to school. I met the family pig and saw the outdoor kitchen and washing area and the outside of their house. They wanted us to stay for dinner but I declined. Anika was ready to go so Dave took her back and I hung out and communicated as best I could. Kaday's dad is a fisherman but there haven't been fish for three months. (Another fisherman had told us big fishing boats from Java and Japan come and do drag net fishing leaving little behind for the small fishermen.) Other than that they have the salt production which is very hard work and subsistence farming to live from.

Kaday's Family pig

When we left Amed I asked out driver to take us back to Kaday's house. She was at school but we met with her mom, dad and uncle. Raday helped me explain the money was for school only and I gave them some more. I am explained that when I got back I would try and send more through Raday. They were so grateful they kept giving me stuff, mangoes, salt, little baskets. I told them that I was a teacher and I could tell Kaday was very bright and they needed to make sure she got to school and I would do my best to help. The school is 30 minutes away by Bemo (little buses that run very infrequently). She needs money for the bus and to eat at school. Raday said a promising student like her the school would find a way to get her a uniform and books as they did for him when he was young. He was very helpful and sympathetic I think because of his own personal experience. His family was homeless at one point and very poor throughout his childhood. At around age 7 an Australian man came to his school and gave lessons in art. He took Raday under his wing and helped him with school, English, art etc. Raday says this changed his life.

Kaday in her school uniform

Ceremonies

The lst week we were in Bali I got to go to two ceremonies with Radhay's family. Ceremonies are happening all the time. It seemed to us like Balanese people were always preparing for, participating in or cleaning up from ceremonies. We went to the purification ritual for the full moon ceremony with Radhay's family. First we went to his family temple and sat around for a while.

Raday with his kids in his family temple

Gamelon instruments

Then every one got in cars or trucks and drove about an hour to the beach. It was a beautiful black sand beach with miraculously almost no development. About 1,000 people gathers along the beach most sitting behind alter type things decorated with flags, umbrellas and poles with things attached to them. There was a loud speaker with a priest talking and at times chanting. People walked through the crowd selling sunglasses and all kinds for snacks and drinks. It was hot with the sun bright over head. The crowd was wearing mostly white. We were in costume because you have to wear a sarong and sash, and the men a hat. Radhay and Iyou his wife made sure the three of us had the right stuff.

Women with offerings proceeding to the beach

Men with flags and decorated poles parading down the beach

Anika sat in the shade with Iyou and her two children and Dave and I wandered through the crowd. We were the only people there not from the village. It was a colorful spectacle unlike anything I have ever seen before.

Raday asked us if we wanted to worship with him. We said sure and the three of us sat down in the sand behind the many rows of other people facing the ocean. He lit incense and we each got a stick. Then the priest said something. At intervals the people were silent holding their palms together in front of and slightly above their faces with a flower petal between their fingers. The flower petal was fist passed through the smoke of the incense. We did this around three times for varying intervals. At the end a woman came and sprinkled everyone with holy water. And that was it. All the people paraded back to their vehicles and as we left the next village was pulling in to set up for their purification.

Very young worshiper

We asked Radhay lots of questions that he could not really answer in a coherent manner. I suspect he did not have the vocabulary to explain spiritual concepts in English. The next day he invited us to the full moon ritual at his family temple. We went a little late. The place was packed and a mask wearing story teller was in the midst of telling a story. As at the purification ceremony some people listened and others didn't, kids ran around, people answered their cell phones or were texting and it did not have a solemn feeling. There was a shadow puppet story too. The priest was chanting on and off in the back ground the whole time. We went through the incense, flower petal water worship ritual again with the only difference this time being drinking some holy water. Dave and I were both amazed that people get together like this on a regular basis all year long. IT is not like seeing your family for Thanksgiving once a year if that, eating hanging out and going home until next year. We could not make out how everyone was related exactly. The moon peeked out from a crack in the clouds from time to time as if to say ya I'm here and I see you, carry on.

Dave and I on our way to the Full Moon ceremony

Final Bali thoughts

Bali was a very easy place to be. The people are tolerant, super friendly, speak English and have been catering to western tourists for years. We could find good food easily (but not as good as Thailand). We liked living close to the Yoga Barn and took classes there regularly during our stay. Our favorite teacher was a Balanese man Marcus Wayan. Dave was happy because they had his style of free dance every Sunday. There was even an African dance class taught by an African woman. The place could have been in Santa Cruz or many other US towns. At the Monday movie night the yoga barn showed “The Yellow Submarine” one week and I wondered what the Indonesians in the audience thought of it.

Yoga Barn yoga room

View while doing yoga in Yoga Barn

What was hard in Bali was the traffic, trash and uncontrolled development. There is no good public transportation so you have to rent a scooter or take taxis. Neither of these were good solutions for us. I was not going to try and learn to ride a scooter on the left side of the road in traffic with no rules. Tourist buses and construction trucks regularly blocked the narrow roads. People would just stop and park in the road because there is no where to pull over so everyone just has to figure out how to go around. If people behaved like this in the US road rage would have new meaning. Sitting on the back of the scooter breathing in exhaust fumes is not going to be one of my fonder memories. Many times we looked out over beautiful rice fields and then down at our feet to piles of plastic trash. And all this is because tourism is the big money maker. Every traveler or vacationer needs some travel infrastructure but it seems many places do not know when to stop building hotels, villas, restaurants and shops. Or how to create the services needed to support them. It will be interesting to see if Bali can keep being the money maker it is for Indonesia once the rice fields are gone and the local people are so jaded by tourists they are no longer kind and friendly. If you went there 10 years or longer ago be happy. If you want an easy place to vacation go soon.

Temples and Rice Fields

Hey Big Trip Blog Readers,
You can now go right to Dave or Anika's blog from this one.  Just click where it says Dave's blog or Anika's blog and it will take you right there.  Soon they will have the same feature on their blogs as well. We are learning as we go! Hope you are enjoying the blogs.  All three of us love comments on the blog or via email. Thanks for following our blogs.

Temples

Bali is full of temples. They are every where and they are all surprisingly similar in some respects. They are black, grey and reddish made of brick and cement, sometimes stone or lava rock. There are often umbrellas in white, yellow, red and black. There are stone or cement statues of gods and demons. Here are some temples we have seen.

This temple is probably from the 11th century. It is in honor of Shiva and Ganesha.

Goa Gajah or The Elephant Cave

Gunung Kawi 

 This temple is also thought to date to the 11th century. It is the only temple we have visited where we got a spiritual feeling. That may be because many people where there preparing for a ceremony. Or we just might not be in tune with what is spiritual here.

Women preparing offerings for the ceremony. Men do this too but they make different ones. Younger women were in another group making yet another type of offering.

Offerings

The scared spring at Tirta Empul

This temple honors a magical spring that was first found in AD 962. The temple gate above leads to Pura Tirta Empul the water temple at the spring. People come to bath in the water and take it home for other ceremonies. Many big temples have a gate like this called a split gate.

The temple below is Besakih  temple, the mother temple, the most important temple is Bali. It is on a mountain side with fantastic views to the coast on a clear day. I found it disappointing despite the scenery and many temples (its actually a group of over 60 temples). What bothered me was the aggressive local people asking for donations, offering to be guides and selling things. It was constant and made it hard for me to connect to the place.

Many big temples have a doorway like this in addition to the split gate.

This is a priest performing a ceremony.

The three of us in front of the split gate.

One of the temple towers and a wind toy.

Rice fields

Another thing that says Bali like temples are rice fields or terraces. The sad thing is these are disappearing due to tourist development. The work is hard, back breaking, doesn't pay well and the young people would rather drive a taxi or work in some form of tourism if possible. I can't blame them. Many fields are bought up to build villas like the one we have rented. Bali used to produce all its own rice and now it is beginning to depend on imports. Rice also was more of a luxury in the past but now people expect to eat it with every meal. If they do not protect the rice fields they will lose a valuable tourist attraction and the power to control their own food supply. Although they are disappearing we have seen some beautiful rice growing areas.