Author: Sharon

In front of the art museum:

Thailand is a predominately Buddhist country – I knew this. But I wasn’t expecting to see so many Buddhas all around. Perhaps this is in part because we have been visiting areas with special temples and monuments. But I don’t think so – even when we’ve wandered away from this area we see them shining in the sun.

We’ve been to see the Reclining Buddha, who is huge, and the Emerald Buddha, who is actually carved from a block of jade. And then, today, we stumbled across the street where the Buddhas are sold (rented, technically, since you can’t BUY the Buddha).

Wilf and I are off on another big adventure and it all starts in Bangkok. We flew half way around the world via Hong Kong, leaving home mid-day on Saturday and arriving at our hotel midnight on Sunday. It seemed pretty darn hot even at midnight and there were people about and food stalls open on the street. But by the light of day everything was kicked up several notches.

Holy cow is it hot here! Hot like nothing I’ve ever experienced. So if we look shiny, redfaced and sweaty in our pictures – we are. But – hot or not, there is a city that needs to be seen and so off we went.

The river is the heart of the city, so to the river we went. One of iconic sights of Bangkok is the Wat Arun temple, on the other side of the river. No problem – a 5 cent ferry boat took us across. Wat Arun glitters in the sun, but it is not golden. The surface is completely covered in ceramics that came from China as ship ballast. In some places it is broken and re-assembled mosaic style, but other times whole plates and bowls are used.

It is possible to climb way up the main structure, but watching people come back down the steps backward like coming down a ladder made us think – eh, maybe not. Discretion being the better part of valour, after all – especially in the hot sun.

I’ll leave you for now with some pictures of the temple and the river. Next up – some Buddhas, perhaps?

Before we left home we made arrangements to tour a tiger sanctuary in the north of Thailand. A forest monastery had been established, and the monks had taken in an orphaned baby tiger. Next thing they knew they were in the tiger sanctuary business and they had 117 of them and a whole business to deal with.

On our tour morning our guide Jay met us at 4:30 in the morning. Mr. Wit, our driver was waiting with his very comfortable car and we set off in the dark. There was very little traffic and we sped our way north. At about 6:30 we stopped at the bridge on the River Kwai. By this time the sun was fully up and we could admire the scenery and consider the history of this famous place. This was also a breakfast stop – we bought congee from a vendor – a bowl of boiled rice, almost like porridge with a soft boiled egg, bits of chicken, green onions and garlic, mushrooms and an excellent sauce.

We arrived at the tiger sanctuary just after 7:00. Other visitors were beginning to arrive. We signed waivers and then got set up for the first event – distribution of food to the temple monks. We were instructed on protocol and at 7:30 about 20 monks arrived. Once we distributed the food (arranged by our guide) the group was ready to walk to the temple.

The first event was to feed the baby tigers. In pairs we were assigned to a tiger keeper and a volunteer and went up into the sala, a large open room with a wide veranda around it. The tigers were stationed all around the veranda, waiting for us. The tigers (ranging from 1 month to 7 months in age) were on leashes that were fastened to the floor so they could move about but not bolt away. We were given a bottle of milk and settled onto the floor to feed them. The tigers are all about the milk and will lay in your arms, eyes closed, happily drinking milk. Immediately upon finishing their milk they fall asleep. While we are feeding the babies the monks are having their breakfast in the centre of the room. After they eat the abbot leads a short service/meditation. After the service excess food from the collection is laid out for the visitors, staff and volunteers. The babies eventually woke from their milk stupor. They were willing to engage with us, but it pays to be careful. One was licking Wilf’s arm when it suddenly gave him a good nip.

After the feeding the babies are walked on their leashes back to their compound, where our next task was to wash them and feed them some cooked chicken. After this we could either go help exercise the babies, or the 12 to 18 month size tigers. We went to meet the middle size tigers. We went into a high walled enclosure with a water filled moat in it. We were each issued a long bamboo pole with plastic bags and bottles on the end – sort of a giant cat toy. Six medium size cats came in and sure enough they were interested in playing with these toys – there was much jumping and splashing by these quite large cats.

The third event was to meet the big cats. Two big cats were waiting outside the tiger living area. These are the big guys – 220kgs or more each. We we able to take turns (carefully) walking them down to their play area. When we got there four more tigers were waiting. We had our pictures taken with one of the big cats and then all six of them went for their exercise. They have a large pond to play in. The trainers had toys to attract their attention, and again the tigers were jumping and chasing they toys and each other. Like house cats. But huge! That was the end of the tiger tour.

Next up Jay and Mr. Wit took us back to the River Kwai where we went for a swim with a most charming elephant. Her handler helped us up onto her back, where we scrubbed her with brushes while she ‘helped’ by dousing us with copious amounts of water. Over and over! It was quite a sensation to be clinging to her back while she walked in the river. Eventually she gave a mighty shake and dumped us into the river. A water fight ensued – she won that, too! We played in the river with her for a bit, then we got back on board and she gave us a ride back up to where we parted ways. It was great fun and very refreshing.

Before heading back to Bangkok we stopped for an excellent lunch. The ride back took about 3 hours, and we had a long nap on the ride back.

All told it was a 12 hour day and it was great. We came back with over 500 pictures just from the one day – there’s a big edit job ahead. I’ll leave you with a few…

2012 was another busy year, a year filled with happiness and sadness. Sadness came when Wilf’s mother, Evelyn, passed away on Christmas Day, 2011. She wished her caregivers a Merry Christmas, laid down for a nap, and passed away in her sleep. She was coming up on her 99^th birthday and, while her health had been declining, she was still doing well and was happy to visit often with her family. In May, Wilf and Sharon’s family members gathered for a memorial service and internment ceremony in Winnipeg, remembering Evelyn and sharing our memories of her.

When we wrote to you last Christmas we had just completed a cruise from Chile to Argentina. We stayed on for several weeks in the fascinating city of Buenos Aires, enjoying summer south of the equator. Shortly after we returned to the northern winter we flew off to Hawaii to spend some time with Sharon’s parents.

During the growing season (you know – February through November) we tackled a couple of major outdoor projects, and tried to keep ahead of the ever voracious deer. So far we continue to keep ahead of them, but it requires constant vigilance.

We took our yearly trip to Montana – this time we went later in July than we usually do and we found the sweet spot of hot sunny weather. Sharon took the opportunity to take a week long quilting course in Kalispell, and invited her quilting buddies Nan and Lisa to join her. This made for an interesting week, with three hyped up quilters whirling through the house! Wilf took the opportunity to get in some fly fishing.

2012 was the year we made our return to Japan. We had such a good time on our trip in 2009 that we knew a return trip would happen. This time we visited Tokyo again, but spent most of our time on the southern island of Kyushu and again we had a wonderful time. We visited a volcano, had ourselves buried in volcano heated sand on a beach, visited a hot spring spa, went to a sumo wrestling tournament and ate a wide variety of interesting, strange and delicious things.

This year Sharon’s brother Bill, her brother Mike and sister-in-law Christine will be spending Christmas in Victoria with us, and with Sharon’s parents, Joan and Doug. We are grateful that we will be able to celebrate the season together. We hope that you have been well in 2012 and that 2013 brings you joy.

With love,

Wilf and Sharon

It’s getting closer, but no snow yet…

And the cargo ships are beginning to show up, spending time on anchor at the mouth of the Saanich Inlet – hanging out, waiting for a berth somewhere…

Once upon a time Tokyo Bay was all about industry and military. And it probably still is, in places. But in the area called Odaiba land has been reclaimed from the ocean and a fantastic amount of building has gone on. Bridges have been built, transit links have been established. And acres and acres of shopping and entertainment complexes have been built. And, because why not, there is a copy of the Statue of Liberty.

We walked around a bit, decided that the gaming complexes and amusement arcades were not for us. Instead we decided to visit the Museum of Emerging Science and Technology – also called Miraikan, may be an acronym for something. It is an amazing facility. While there is lots aimed at children, most of the science on display is at a really high level. We couldn’t decide if we felt really smart or really dumb, being there. Know quite a bit more about various aspects of physics than previously.

But, oh, but. There is one truly astonishing thing to see. It is called GeoCosmos. It is a sphere 6 meters across that hangs from the ceiling. It is completely covered with more than 10,000 LED panels. With more than 10 million pixels available images of incredible clarity are shown. And the images, of course, are of the earth. It is staggering in its beauty. The picture shifts across the surface, spinning along. The clouds drift along. Sometimes it switches to a night view. The sphere is housed in a huge glass box of a room with a ramp that spirals down around it. But, best of all, at ground level couches are arranged where you can lay and watch the world spin by it all its glory.

Look here: http://www.miraikan.jst.go.jp/en/sp/tsunagari/geocosmos.html

We decided to make a little road trip down the way to the city of Yokohama. It is the second largest city in Japan, with a population of 3.5 million. We took the train from Shinjuko station, which is a five minute walk from our hotel (by the way, Shinjuko station handles over 3.5 million people per day, has 35 tracks and over 200 exits and it always feels like a victory when we get either in or out of the place!). Thirty minutes from Shinjuko and we were in Yokohama.

Our lunch plan revolved around the Ramen museum in Shin-Yokohama, 15 minutes away from the main station on another train. The main floor of the museum contains a gift shop. But down two floors is the main thing. In full scale a street scene from Yokohama in 1958 has been recreated. The little shops contain tiny little ramen shop – there are eight of them. Each one represents a famous ramen shop in Japan, with a style specific to a certain region. Fortunately they offer half size bowls of ramen, so we could try more than one style. After we had our two bowls of ramen we were approached by a young woman doing a tourism survey. Turns out that she is Taiwanese, and that she studied English for two years at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. She nearly fell over when she discovered Wilf was from Winnipeg – although she found the cold a bit much she had only happy memories of her time there and wanted to talk about it. So, you never know, do you?

One of the other attractions of Yokohama is an enormous Ferris wheel. Apparently it is the largest in the world. We decided to give it a whirl. It took fifteen minutes to glide around and the views were really amazing. On a very clear day Fuji-san is sometimes visible in the far distance, but not today.

It turns out that Yokohama is a big craft beer town. An American fellow named Brian Baird runs Baird Brewing Company, and we went to his taproom in the Harajuku district of Tokyo. They recommended their Yokohama branch – the Baird Basamichi Taproom. We paid them a visit and didn’t just discover good beer. Turns out they’ve got someone there doing real Southern barbecue. Not grilling, but actual smokehouse style barbecue. Holy doodle was it good! W had a sampler of brisket, pork loin and rib. So – the best Italian food we’ve had was in Buenos Aires, and for southern barbecue we had to go to Yokohama – go figure!

Let’s talk about okonomiyaki. I have the hardest time remembering that name, so I tend to refer to this food item as okiedokie pancakes. We had them last time we were in Japan, and on Sunday we went down to Tokyo Bay to a part of town know for its okonomiyaki restaurants. Even at 6:00 all the restaurants on the street were almost full, but we found one with a table for us.

At these restaurants you sit at a table with a cooking surface built into it. This pretty much requires serious amounts of beer be on hand, because it gets hot! The waitress brings out a small mixing bowl, mixes it all together and pours out onto the griddle, where the cooking gets going.

We decided to try a version that is thinner than the classic okiedokie, more like a crepe than a pancake. We chose the seafood version, and our gal brought out a bowl heaping with goodies, and shredded vegetables and the batter. Once mixed and on the grill she attached it with a pair of spatulas, chopping the seafood up and blending it all together. We then had to wait, watching, until it got all brown and lovely. We each had a big spatula and a small triangular spatula which were our utensils. We would scrape up pieces as the edges cooked – yummy!

Round two also started with a smaller bowl of beef, vegetables and a thicker batter. It was piled up and formed into a pancake. The trick is to cook it just right, then flip it over for finishing. When it is ready it gets a coating of barbque sauce, piles of Bonita flakes and a serious lashing of mayonnaise. I know, it sounds really weird. But it is so good!

I often comment about how happy we are when we actually find the restaurant or attraction we we are seeking. Perhaps you are wondering how hard that be? It turns out to be surprisingly difficult to find things. We are illiterate. Pretty much totally so. When we’ve been in, say, Germany I may not know what kuchenstrasse means, but at least if I see it on a sign I can recognize it. In Japan the odds are pretty good that I won’t even be able to recognize the symbols.

As an example, while in Fukuoka we decided to go to a ramen restaurant called Ichiran. We knew about it. We had a very good English language map provided by the tourist information centre. We knew where we were. We walked up and down the street a bit. Nothing. We looked down what looked like an alley but turned out to be a short street of restaurants. No Ichiran that we could see. Check out the picture at the bottom of this post. That is, in fact, the restaurant. We figured it was the one because there was a line up. Nothing on the ticket machine, though, that said Ichiran. We asked someone in line. I’m sure they’re thinking ‘Lady, it says Ichiran all over the front of this place’.

While Wilf was taking the picture I looked at the row of boxes in front of me. In tiny little print in one corner it said ‘Ichiran’. So why is it famous? Porky ramen of deep porky porkiness. Oh boy, was it good. We bought our tickets from the machine out front and went inside. We were seated at a long counter that looked like a series of library carrels – dividers between the seats, a curtain that rolled up directly in front of you. Suddenly up comes the curtain and someone you cannot see is there handing out a form (thankfully in English) on which you specify how spicy, how much garlic and green onion, how hard the noodles, etc. Down goes the curtain and you wait. Shortly the curtain goes up and there is your bowl of ramen. Once our ramen was delivered the curtain came down, leaving us in solitary splendour to slurp up the delicious tonkotsu. Save some broth and ring the bell, hand in another form to order extra noodles or, in our case, additional slices of pork. Pay the person and wait. Up comes the curtain and your order appears. Still no direct contact with a waiter. No chitchat with your neighbour, either (although we did figure out how to unlatch the divider between us and fold it back a bit)

So that day was a successful expedition. It isn’t always so – last night I finally went into a real estate office to get help finding the restaurant we wanted. And when we did find it I could actually read the hiragana writing that gave the name of the place – except that they had folded one panel of the curtain out of the way and that panel had the character that made it all make sense. It’s always something.