Cookies N Tea N Travel log
Mood:  bright
Homemade Chocolate chip cookies, ice coffee, and many other delicious treats.
Osawa-san showed a Power Point of an interesting research trip he made to Australia and some incredible pictures of London and Abby Road just like the Beatles Album cover. wow.
Miwa-san shared her pictures of London and Yale where she studied English for two weeks this summer.
Miki shared an album of pictures of her trip to Portugal.
Hase took us on a photo trip to scenic Switzerland.
Siddique-san shared some shots of Saipan and Bangladesh.
Shinobu amazed us with stories and gorgeous shots of Cambodia.
Oh, and i showed some photos of Tanzania.
We all took a vicarious trip around the world with some great friends.
What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
we are truly blessed.

Saturday, Sept. 25th
Koto Concert with Shakuhachi and Shamisen accompaniment

One of my supervisors at the main office plays the KOTO. Her daughter also plays and had a recital in downtown Nishinomiya today. We were invited and enjoyed a free concert that was incredibly relaxing and inspiring. Koto music ranges from very traditional but to more modern pieces that almost sound like jazz. Shakuhachi is a traditional Japanese flute - oh so soothing - and the sounds reminded me of Native American and South American flute melodies at times. The shamisen is a three stringed instrument that looks a bit like a banjo. It is strummed with something that looks like an ice scraper for our car windshields. I'm told this instrument, bachi, is a lot more expensive than my ice scrapter!

Friday, Sept. 24th
Kyoto with Jan and Joanne and Yoshie and her daughter Miki and my other wonderful friend, Miki
Heian Shrine and gardens
Kyoto Craft Center
Nishijin Textile Center, kimono material weaving, silk painting, and Kimono Fashion Show
Kawaramachi Shopping and a stroll through Gion with Geisha and Maiko.
what a day.

Joanne and Jan
Mood:  energetic
My gosh, how time flies!
Jan and Joanne (friends from Spokane) arrived last Saturday, Sept. 18th, and we have been having so much fun that i haven't even thought about updating my BLOG. We've taken the shinkansen to Hiroshima and spent hours in the museum there. Wandered through the gardens around Himeji Castle and oooo'd and ah'dd to our heart's content.
We've taken the time to explore the amazing grocery stores here and the bicycle parking lots and we even got to experience an emergency trip to the hospital to help Connie out when she fell and split open her knee. This was especially exciting since Joanne is a nurse and was able to follow Connie through the whole process of x-ray, clean up, and stapling the knee shut. This took about an hour and cost a whole $45. It's a marvel what tax dollars can do when they aren't wasted on war games!

Taikutaikai
Today Jan and Joanne rode bikes with me to "Taikutaikai" - Sports Day - at my junior high, Kobu. This is an all day event that happens at all the junior highs in Nishinomiya sometime during this week. My friends were so impressed with the quality of the kid's performances and the difficulty of some of the events. Our brass band played and marched as well as any high school band that i've seen in the states. The kids competed with all their might in sprints, laps, and relays. Some were serious races and some were definitely NOT so serious. We had three-legged races, and centipede races where the kids were lined up with their right ankles tied to one long rope and their left ankles tied to another long rope. It was truly amazing to see 30 students synchronize and be able to race up and around some poles and back to the finish line. It was also funny to watch some of the centipedes collapse when one person got out of step! The clubs all paraded in full uniform, very impressive. The girls performed some really fine dance routines for us. This was not just the elite kids of our school. Everyone, i mean, everyone participated - even the special ed kids. These guys took a lot of practice to get them to work in a group but they were definitely enjoying it every bit as much as the others.

The whole school practiced their events every day for the last two weeks. The teachers put all their hearts and souls getting their students ready for this day and it paid off. Parents, grandparents, siblings and friends came out in droves to cheer these kids on. Lessons learned included: team building, sportsmanship, practice makes perfect, determination sometimes beats sheer talent, patience, respect, acceptance of all levels of fitness and skill/talent and much, much more.

I couldn't help but make comparisons to our sports in the states. THERE IS NO COMPARISON. I hope that you will be able to view some of my photos shortly. They are truly impressive.

Our school system sure could learn a thing or two about kids from this event.

Personally, I think that we don't push our kids hard enough and expect more of them. I don't see how any of our students here could have walked away from this event without feeling super good about themselves. It is a privilege to have been a part of this day with such dedicated teachers and such enthusiastic, healthy, and athletic kids.

Thunder N Lightening
Mood:  energetic
Tuesday, Sept. 15th

It started out a normal warm, muggy day when i cycled to school this morning. Half way through the morning i noticed some clouds developing but this isn't unusual. By 12:50 it was getting darker and darker and within minutes thunder began rumbling it's way towards us. Wow, it was suddenly raining sideways and the lightening was almost on top of us. We had a rather nerve-racking lunch watching the lightening bolts streak down towards the trees outside our window. The lights flickered and the loudspeaker popped. The result is that two days later we still don't have our bell system working. It seems the lightening fried some circuits.
Amazingly, the storm zoomed on past us and within two hours the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day again. Oh, except that the humidity must be up to 80% - gasp.

Kansai Rambler's Hike
Mood:  smelly
Sunday brought another great day of hiking to Koyasan.
I met my friends, Yoshie and her daughter, Miki, and Shinobu at the train station at 8 am yesterday. We travelled by train and subway to get to a small train stop in Wakayama prefecture to begin our hike. We picked up more and more Ramblers on the way. Our group was over 50 as usual. We have people from Japan, Australia, US, UK and more. We are hiking in the mountains to about 1,000 meters (a piece of cake after Kili) but, oh, the humidity. Thank goodness for towels and sweat rags to mop off the dripping brow.
Koyasan is the spiritual center of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism, which was established by a priest named Kukai aboutr 1200 years ago. On the summit there are many temples, towers and a huge graveyard thatt leads to Kukai's mausoleam..This is a very touristy area. Incredibly pictureesque. Too bad that we have to keep moving. I really would like to come back here and spend some time leisurely strolling through the grounds. There are monasteries where people can stay and meditate and do other religious practices and enjoy "Shojin-ryori" which is a Buddhist vegetarian cuisine.

More later

Earthquakes and typhoons
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: Mother Nature Doing Her Thing
It is an eery feeling coming to school and seeing no kids on the street or on the school grounds. The sky is clear with a scattering of light clouds, warm and sunny. It's 8:30am and there's been a typhoon warning so all the kids are waiting at home by their tv sets. We are waiting to see if the warning is lifted by 10am. If it is - then the kids will come for the afternoon session. If it isn't - then the typhoon is coming and i guess the teachers stay here to help out in case of emergency. I have a pair of shorts to ride home in because if the rains come i'll be drenched no matter what and my philosophy is - why fight it? If i could i'd ride naked! hahaha. So we are just waiting when all of a sudden the building starts shaking violently. It feels as if a giant has our building in his hands and is trying to shake us out. I just realized the difference in the earthquakes here. In the ones in California there was always a loud rumble and i always thought it was a bomb dropping or some kind of explosion. Here it is silent. The shaking isn't bad enough to knock anything off shelves, but it's distressing to everyone here. The Hanshin/Awaji earthquake is still fresh in people's minds and it would be no fun to go through a disaster like that again. So we wait and see what Mother Nature brings to us today.

Earthquakes
Now Playing: I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet
Sunday, 7pm
An odd feeling - standing on my deck with the earth swaying and rumbling beneath me. The apartment shook but nothing fell or broke so i guess it wasn't a bad quake. David was already on the street when i finally decided to leave and go downstairs. What a thrill.
Midnight Sunday
Wow, it shook so hard that it woke me out of a sound sleep. I wondered whether i should leave the apartment again but everything is still on shelves so back to sleep i go.
At work on Monday i am trying to find out how strong the quake was. On the internet i found a site that says it was around 7.1 on the Richter Scale. The Japanese rating was a 3 or 4. (Their scale goes from 1 to 7)

I'm back in Japan
Mood:  silly
Now Playing: Oops I fortgot to mention
Oh, dear, I just realized that i never mentioned that i'm back in Japan!

WELL, I'M BACK IN JAPAN!

After travelling for about 20 straight hours (from Dar Es Salaam with layovers in Nairobi and Dubai and then on to Osaka) I hit the ground running, so to speak. I got back to my apartment on Wednesday evening, August 25th. I remember having a beer with David, downstairs, before falling into bed that night. I think that Thursday i probably slept in and did laundry and unpacked and got some money to buy some groceries, i really don't remember. We had to go to work on Friday and there you go! She's off.

Typhoon
Mood:  incredulous
Wow, typhoon winds and rain last night kept me from my beauty rest last night.

Now i understand why they keep the trees so trimmed here in Japan. The winds would rip the branches right off the trees if they were any bigger! Amazing what can be learned by living in a different land.

What a Safari!
Mood:  incredulous
Photos up on my new Tanzania WebSite

"Buenas Dias.
Traveling with 7 Spanish speaking folks, I've practiced so much Espanol these last five days that i am totally confused now with languages. Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro were like a dream come true. It was just like being in a National Geographic special on TV. We watched cheetahs stalking gazelle up-close and personal. Watched as a lioness left her clan of cubs and other girls lounging under a tree next to our vehicle and amble across the road and then try to catch an impala! We also watched a bunch of huge crocodiles rolling a dead baby hippo and ripping it's legs off and gulping it down. wow. I have inhaled more dust than i care to think about. I don't think I've ever been so dirty and grimy but oh so happy. We went shopping today in Moshi and i have more batik and shirts and wooden art than i care to think about. I am not sure how i am going to manage to get all this on the plane. I will go back to DAR on Monday and see if i can negotiate with the airlines to allow me an extra 20 kg for my luggage. Otherwise i am in real trouble! haha.

So that's it for now. Love you all and can't wait to show you all the over 600 photos that i've got on my camera chip.

Peace and love,

mama maria

There were three maria's on Safari and guess who was the oldest?"

Tuesday, August 17th
Lake Manyara to the Serengeti

What a luxury to get a whole 8 hours sleep last night. That and Amalie's magic pill that has put an end to my cursed diarrhea makes me feel on top of the world. There was lots of road construction today. We got a late start, 9:30am) and it's a long, long ride. We went out of our way to get to an overlook of the Ngorongoro Crater but it was a waste of time because we were totally in the clouds and couldn't see a thing. That's a shame. We stopped at a Maasai Village where the drivers tried to convince us to spend $50 a vehicle to tour it. The group was split on spending that much extra money and decided to pass on the offer. We made a surprise lunch stop at the Olduvai Gorge. There was a small museum that filled us in on the whole Leakey story, and the fascinating struggle to preserve this site. Mother Nature is busting up those precious footprints found there, and i was amazed at the projects that have been undertaken to preserve them for posterity.

We reach the Serengeti around 4pm. After being told that we wouldn't see much wildlife, our first animal sighting is within minutes - a cheetah - up close!

"Serengeti National Park is undoubtedly the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world, for its natural beauty and scientific value. With more than two million wildebeest, half a million Thomson's gazelle, and a quarter of a million zebra, it has the greatest concentration of plains game in Africa...The name 'Serengeti' comes from the Maasai language and appropriately means 'endless plain.'"

Our evening drive treats us to sightings of cheetah, gazelle, impala, wildebeest, warthog, crocodile, hippo, giraffe, zebra and the most surprising - a serval cat. This critter is nocturnal and very shy and we are very privileged to see it on the side of the road. We also see ostrich, the largest flightless bird, and so prehistoric looking. Our driver is super patient with us as we scream at him endlessly to stop and let us take one more photo before dinner. We end up putting up tents in the dark because of too many "Kodak moments." We are warned to use our headlamps and to pee next to the tent tonight so that the roving guards don't mistake us for a lion and shoot us. yikes.

Trivia: Hyenas (male and female) are difficult to tell apart. Females have fake male genitals. Females are the largest.

Let's Safari
Mood:  bright
"I have hooked up with a group from the Basque country. There are 3 women and 2 men. Maria, Maria Jesus, Amalie, Juan and Alberto. Now I will practice my Spanish and also learn some of the Basque language!

We leave this morning for Lake Manyara (hope to see lots of flamingos). Then two nights in the Serengetti and then on to Ngorogoro Crater. What a dream! This is going to be so wonderful after all the work of bicycling and hiking. Now all i have to do is to sit in a 4-wheel drive vehicle and view animals. There's a swimming pool at our first safari camp! Good grief. This is how the other half lives.

peace and love,
mary"

A sweet couple from Spain (married only one year) joined our group this morning, another Maria and Michel. We have two 4-wheel drive vehicles to transport the 8 of us and a guide for each vehicle. The rigs are jam packed with our tents, cooking gear and food, duffle bags, binoculars, sunscreen and water bottles, oh, and cameras. We drive up to and through the Massai steppes and view banana and coffee plantations along the way. The steppes are arid, dry, flat land with so little grass that it's hard to believe that it supports the healthy looking Massai cattle. There are Massai boys standing along the road with their dark, dark faces elaborately painted with white paint. We are told that these 13 year olds have just been circumcised and are wandering around away from their village for 3 months while they heal and then they will be allowed to return home. Now there's a new idea to deal with our rebelious teenagers in the states! hah. The traditional Massai don't want their pictures taken but we have been warned that the kids will encourage us to take their photos and then try to charge us exhorbitant amounts of money. At Lake Manyara we are treated to the sight of elephant, wildebeast, zebra, baboon, vervet monkeys with their bright lite blue balls, giraffe, and pelicans in profusion all with a back drop of pink flamingos in the distance. The river slowly flowing into the lake is full of hippo lolling in the belly-deep water.

I thought this would be the restful part of the trip, and i'm surprised to discover that it's a challenge staying upright in a 4-wheel drive rig when it's bouncing over rough, pot-holed roads. The tent camping is comfy. They have provided us with foam mats. African drumming entices us over to the bar after a yummy dinner and we enjoy the ending of a gymnastics troup performing to the rythm of the drums. Quite good. There's a swimming pool but i'm too tired to swim and my skinned knees are too fresh to be soaking them in chlorinated water. My brain is tired but happy from straining to understand Spanish and Basque all day. All is well.