Category Archives: Out in the Big World/Travel

South Korea, Jeju, New Zealand (North and South Islands), Fiji, Thailand and China — the places we’ve been honored to visit on this year-long adventure.

The Capitol of Ecuador

28 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by in Ecuador, Out in the Big World/Travel

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QUITO. What a cool city. It’s nestled in the valley of several mountain ranges and volcanos, and sprawls 44 miles in its entirety, though it’s only six or so miles wide. Can a city nestle and sprawl simultaneously? Indeed it can.

Looking north.

Looking south.

It was only supposed to be a stopover for our trip to the Galapagos Islands, really, but it turned into so much more. Had I but unending money and time, I’d have spent several more days exploring, talking with people, reading up on Quito’s history (abounding) and modern expansions (also abounding). As it were, two nights at the start of our trip, one in the middle, and one at the end were what I got. I’m so grateful I did.

To sum up in blog form, let me give you a list of the things I learned about Ecuador from just a few nights in its capitol.

  1. Pedestrians never, and I mean never, have the right of way. Vehicles do. Give it to them.
  2. “Don’t touch the ducks.” Which is to say, don’t touch the dogs, though they are cute and seemingly harmless. They are teeming with worms and fleas and they will want to go home with you.
  3. Try every glass of juice offered to you. Delicious.
  4. You can barter nearly everywhere, including inside actual shops.
  5. Don’t hitchhike here. I mean, I guess you can if you’re so inclined, but the locals do not.
  6. Smokers are very few and far between. But diesel engines rule. So there’s still some wear on your lungs as you venture about.
  7. If you’d like to take a picture of a person, always ask, but if they demand money, walk away.
  8. It’s a great thing to hire a guide. Navigating this crowded city felt easy on a bus with a leader.
  9. Ecuador is a country consistently marauded throughout history, but if you are really paying attention you’ll see how the people finagled their own flair into everything, even Catholicism (see the giant statue of Virgin Mary with wings.)
  10. When using toilets, do not flush paper. Always place paper into available receptacle. The exception to this rule was the airport, in which we could use the toilets as we do at home.
  11. Try the avocado ice cream!
  12. Try the hot cocoa with mozzarella cheese!
  13. Try the llama and the guinea pig!
  14. Eat the aji (local hot sauce) as much as possible, then ask for a cooking lesson at your hotel – worth the time for sure.
  15. The survival rate of infants is still 50% in this little country.
  16. The coffee in Ecuador is not bitter.
  17. Ecuador is a good place to be if you’d like to avoid US news for awhile.

A few days is not enough to really know a place. (I would argue a lifetime isn’t always long enough to really know a place either.) Bottom line: I left Quito feeling that I’d been welcomed but not begged to stay. People there work hard, do not complain, make do with what they have, and move slowly toward a new world in which their unique and beautiful talents and contributions shine in the world at large. They go forward deliberately, and with thoughtful heads bent toward what is good for the many, and for the environment.

Meanwhile, a full scale effort toward increasing tourism grows. Lucky for me.

 

Adventure #7: As Luck Would Have It

23 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Stuff I Want to Tell You About, Tokyo and Aomori

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My bad luck started in a cemetery – a very old one, in which emperors from centuries ago are buried. I’m one of those weirdos who believe cemeteries to be beautiful, reverent spaces (though a useless waste of land space) and typically, I seek them out when in foreign places, but this one gave me a feeling of unwelcome, as if I had absolutely no business being there. Not a bird chirping. Tall trees standing at attention in utter silence. A ray of sunshine, muted, peeking through.

Just one person is enshrined in this building, and more individuals in several like it in a row to the left.

These ancient tombs lay like scrolls I wanted to be begged to unroll and read. Instead, they whispered “go away”. So I did.

This ominous feeling followed me to our next stop, a pagoda and shrine at which I bought a tiny little rolled up piece of paper that housed my life fortune. Why did I do this? Because I’m an optimist and a buoyant believer in creating one’s own luck,and hadn’t planned to put stock in what it said, thank you very much.

Said pagoda.

But dammit. My fortune declared me quite unlucky indeed: a #3 (not as bad as a #1 but nowhere near a #10.) A three? Really, Fate? A three. I’ve been luckier than a three standing in the pouring rain/freezing sleet at a train station in Korea when I found a beautiful pair of leather gloves on the ground which were: you guessed it. Just my size. So THERE. #3 my butt.

Still. I couldn’t shake it. I didn’t even allow Patrick to read the fortune part. Instead, I attempted to leave it hanging on a string outside the shrine, as one does in Japan when one, in essence, puts a palm in the face of Fate and won’t hear another word. That’s right. Fate turns we unlucky people into teenagers.

You’re supposed to unroll the fortune, gently tie it in a loose little knot and leave it — creating time for Fate to reconsider. But when I went to gently tie my little paper in a tiny little knot, it tiny little ripped. Like the space/time continuum itself. Again, dammit. Now I knew Fate would not reconsider. Fate was to hold me to my #3.

Which seems silly, doesn’t it?

But in Japan, luck is a big deal. There are six ways to say “luck” for crying out loud. When I returned to my host family that evening, they had already heard about my slip of paper. WHAT I’M SAYING IS: this news preceded me. How, I didn’t know. But rumor had it, I was, big inhale, unlucky.

Only one person in my family thought it funny, rather than a curse. At first I felt relieved, but then he was the one who suggested I go to a shrine the following day to leave an offering and pray for a change in my fate! In fact, he insisted on it, though he wouldn’t be the one with time to take me. What made me nod my head and oblige? I have no idea. Nothing unlucky had happened, unless you count receiving the #3 to be the thing.

But off we went, at 7am, after the hot springs and before the Sakura Festival. Hitomi drove a total of 45 minutes just so I could have a chance to reverse my #3. I took pictures of this outing, but deleted them later, as they were blurry and dark and I think Fate put His finger over the lens.

Anyway. I brought water as an offering, took my shoes off, washed my hands properly, and, at this point, genuinely prayed for my luck to return as I would be boarding a flying piece of metal in less than 24 hours and, whatever, I’d take all the luck I could get.

That night, after a lovely goodbye banquet at city hall, Ka-san and Hitomi led me into the worship room in their home and closed the door. This had not happened before, I noted, this closed door thing. They silently lit incense, kneeled before each of the Buddhist and Shinto shrines, and murmured prayers. Then it was my turn. They handed me matches, encouraged me to light my own incense, and pointed to the sand in which to place it. “For your luck,” Hitomi said, seriously. Then I understood. So I lit the incense and matched her somber tone. “For my luck,” I repeated.

This visit to the public shrine and this lighting of incense at the private shrines must have worked. I’ve had exactly zero bad luck since.

Knock on wood.

 

 

 

 

Adventure #6: Schools In and Around Aomori

21 Sunday May 2017

Posted by in Tokyo and Aomori

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Each little textured piece of these red and white faces is an individually folded origami crane or flower.

If you want to get to know a foreign place, I recommend you visit its schools, especially if they know you’re coming, and make you lunch!

I’m kidding actually. Cafeteria food is the same quality all over the world, it seems.

We visited four schools on our journey; two elementary schools and two middle schools, each unique and special, as schools are. At each one, we played a video we had made of our ten student travelers, introducing themselves in English and Japanese, and showing a video or photos of an activity they love and are involved in, such as swim team and skateboarding. They then performed a dance choreographed by one my middle schoolers. (Thanks, Kate! You rock!!) In turn, students at these host schools presented cultural dances, songs and the like. My favorite was two fierce young ladies showing their amazing karate skills. Here’s one: 

On average, we spent three hours or so doing activities with the student body and having a meal together. And in one school, we cleaned hallways and classrooms – as students in Japan do daily.

This is what Ava thinks of having to clean.

Just joking! She was thrilled to do anything and everything asked of her.

One of the activities we took part in was traditional painting of neputa floats (we practiced on paper). Afterwards, and because it was pouring rain outside, students created an indoor parade of miniature neputa floats made by the student body. They banged on large drums in a traditional rhythm and the crowd yelled “Yah, yah, doh!” as they do in Aomori at the annual neputa float parade. People from other areas of northern Japan have their own, different chant they yell.

They looked like they were done by pros!

Other activities included origami, taking part in after-school activities such as track and performance dancing, and playing the Japanese version of rock, paper, scissors whereby if you win a round, the loser joins your “team”, then faces the next person as an entourage forms behind you — until YOU lose, and you join the winner’s entourage. Eventually there is one winner, who gets a nice round of applause as a prize.

We visited several classrooms to see what classes are like. The students in the upper grades respectfully ignored our presence, but middle schoolers (like the above) were bubbly, friendly, and … probably in a bit of trouble after we left.

Saying goodbye was the hardest part of visiting each school. Here are elementary students waving American and Japanese flags at and out their windows as we drove away in the rain.

I’m not crying, you’re crying!