Japan a la Planes, Trains and Automobiles — Or Rather — Plane, Shinkansen, Japan Rail Line, Subway, Charter Bus, Minivan Shuttle and/or Taxi.

 

The day after Christmas started out with a 5:00 a.m. flight to Tokyo.  Six hours later and having arrived safely in Japan, we transferred from airplane to Shinkansen, Japan’s zippy high-speed bullet train, and headed for Nagano, 300 kms northwest of Tokyo and home of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games.  Two hours later and having arrived safely in Nagano, we transferred from Shinkansen to charter bus, which took us up the mountains to Hakuba, a valley-town in the heart of the Japanese Northern Alps.   One hour later and having arrived safely in Hakuba Station, we transferred from bus to minivan and arrived at our destination, Hakuba Springs Hotel.  Five minutes later we transferred from minivan to minibar, from flip-flops to snow boots, and most importantly, from sleepy to elated. 

Here’s the Shinkansen and our first view of Tokyo from its windows.

  

Our first dinner in Hakuba was, of course, fabulous Japanese food, followed by some glorious play time in the snow.

          

Hakuba rocks (although Jackson is convinced it’s called Habuki).  It’s the Japanese version of Washington’s Leavenworth, with quaint buildings lit up with twinkling lights, all nestled snugly under Japanese-style roofs.  It was here that our kids had their first experience with Japanese onsen—naked hot tubbing (males and females in separate rooms) in natural spring water boiled up to near flesh-scalding temperatures.  Wooohooo!

  

Jackson and Mark spent a day skiing while Cameron and I spent a day sledding. 

   

We were told by one of the hotel workers that Japanese snowmen only have to main circles for their bodies, and lo and behold, he was right.  The little guy below was made by a local (we watched), and the big guy is ours.

   

Two days later, our time was up in Hakuba and Kyoto was calling.  Alas, our five-minute minivan shuttle to the Hakuba Japan Railway Station led to the unexpected discovery that the train had to skip over Hakuba that morning.  So, into a taxi we jumped and found ourselves, 45 minutes later, at the next Railway stop.  Onto the JR line we went, enjoying a two-hour journey that had us transferring trains in Matsumoto and Nagoya. Our last leg put us back on the Shinkansen, which had us in Kyoto in no time.  From Shinkansen to Kyoto Subway we went, where the kids quickly became pros at figuring out the complex subway system and ticketing process.

   

Kyoto is astounding.  It was Japan’s capital from 794 to 1868, and is brimming with temples and elaborate gardens everywhere you look.  We began our first day in Kyoto with a walk through the Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) grounds.  The 2nd and 3rd floors of the temple are covered with gold-leaf on Japanese lacquer, and a gold Chinese phoenix statue perches on top.  It’s truly a sight to behold.

 

Our next stop was the Sanjusangen-do, a temple built in 1154 which means “A Hall of 33 Bays.”  Inside are 1,001 Kannon Bodhisattva statues that flank one enormous, principal Kannon Bodhisattva with eleven faces and one thousand arms.  It is said that the 1,001 Bodhisattva statues can and do take on 33 different manifestations, so that they equal 33,033 actual Kannons.  It is said that if you stand still in their presence, you can see the faces shift and move.

     We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but as this was by far my favorite, you have to check out the website:  http://www.taleofgenji.org/sanjusangendo.html

Our last temple visit for the evening was the Kiyomizu-dera (Pure Water) Temple.  This temple was initially constructed in 798, and then added to in 1633.  It was believed that if you jumped and survived the 13m fall from the balcony (the 3rd photo down), your wish would be granted.  We’re glad, for Jackson’s sake, that jumping is now prohibited.

 

                                        

One of the surprising discoveries of Kyoto was the difficulty in finding an on-the-fly available table at most restaurants.  After many frustrating experiences with, “Sorry—full!” we settled for a restaurant that boasted its sweets over its dinners.  Luckily, the kids weren’t too sad.

  

We woke up on Day 2, New Year’s Eve, in Kyoto to discover the city had been blanketed in white.  Determined to see one more sight before heading for Tokyo, we made our way to the Nanzenji Temple.  It’s reported to be Japan’s most important Zen Buddhist temple, but most of the grounds and buildings were closed due to the heavy snowfall.  You can find lots of good info on this one here:  http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3905.html

 

 

This temple has an amazing aqueduct on one side of the grounds that the kids thought was a blast to hurdle through. 

                       

With numb toes, faces and fingers, we made our way back to the subway and headed for Tokyo, ready to party it up New Year’s Eve style.

                         

                                             

Fun extras:

 

                      

Tokyo, comin’ up…

Welcome to “4 Jewett”

I am so proud.

In January of 2000, my wife made an incredible sacrifice and stepped away from her passion of teaching in order to be a full time mother and raise our children in the best possible way.  At the beginning of this last week, she returned to being a full-time teacher at Overseas Family School (or OFS, the same school where Jackson and Cameron attend).

She’s frequently worked part-time during the past 10 and a half years, but this is the first time back to full-time and it’s a true milestone.  She has kept up her teaching passion, credentials, credibility, and employability during a time in which I think it would have been much easier to just let it go.

You can see her featured here with the other ten 4th grade teachers at OFS.  Yep, you read correctly, eleven 4th grade teachers… more than 200 kids in one grade level alone (3,500 kids in K-12 at OFS).  Here’s a panoramic of the school’s sweeping campus.

There are lots of anxieties, certainly.  Starting at a new school.  Working in an International school with students from all over the world and an unfamiliar International Baccalaureate curriculum.  Trying to balance family and career. Etc.  But anyone who knows Kirsten and has seen her teach, know that these are but temporary obstacles.  She is a wonderful teacher.

So, kids and parents in 2010-2011 “4 Jewett” (they name the classes in OFS by the number of the grade and the last name of the teacher), you might not realize it every minute of every school day, but you’re getting one of the best teachers the world has to offer.  We hope you appreciate her as much as we do.

 

- Mark

 

P.S. – here is Kirsten’s first announcement to the kids and parents.

My name is Kirsten Jewett and I am excited to welcome you and your child to my fourth grade classroom. I am from Seattle, Washington in the United States, where I earned a Masters Degree in Elementary Education K-8, a Bachelors Degree in Spanish and an English Endorsement, and have taught elementary through high school levels since 1995. Together we are going to have a wonderful school year filled with exciting challenges, engaging ideas and concepts, and fabulous new friends.

I firmly believe that open communication and a strong partnership between parent and teacher are critical components of excellent education. Any information or insight that can assist me in teaching your child will be greatly appreciated throughout the school year. In turn, you will be updated on the particulars of your child’s curriculum through our weekly “Ask Me, I Know!” newsletter, and are always welcome in my classroom as a volunteer.

I am very much looking forward to meeting you and beginning a year of fantastic discovery and growth. Please do not hesitate to contact me at any point in time with any questions, concerns or thoughts you may have. Together, we are going to create an amazing fourth grade year—I can’t wait!

 

P.P.S. – Kirsten decorated her classroom in a whole University of Washington Huskies theme (pictures forthcoming).  GO DAWGS! (or, per the new tagline which I absolutely love, “Go Purple, Be Gold”).

Singapore, Tarzan-style

    Last Sunday we rallied some buddies to do some zip lining, tree-swinging, high-in-the-sky obstacle courses at the Bedok Reservoir Forest Adventure.  For you nutters who like to surf, you can check it out at www.forestadventure.com.sg.  Or, here’s a map below.  What you see is the far-east corner of Singapore, and the big white blob on the right is Changi Airport, where you’ll fly in when you come to visit us.  Remember—if you click on the map, you can play…

   Anywhoha, the Forest Adventure is an aerial course (5 km high) through the trees with ladders, bridges, swings, nets, trapezes, slides and zip lines.  There’s a kids’ course, and a junior/adult course, and they both rock (Cameron is now a pro at both courses, and swears it’s the best place in Singapore).  The reservoir itself, however, looks so much like Greenlake that we feel comforted just being in the park (only here, you get to zip line over the water!).

Below:  Cameron all geared up with her buddy, Brynn, and then up on the first platform.

Up high, you move from platform to platform, challenging yourself with different obstacles between each one.

There are ladders, swings, moving bridges, and tunnels to crawl through.

 

        

     

The grand finale is a zip line to a sandpit where, hopefully, you don’t end up with sand in your shorts.       

    

We ended the day with a good ol’ game of flyers and a picnic.  

 

Wanna come play with us?  You’re invited…

More soon–Kirsten

Bali

    On December 28, 2009, we took a trip to Bali, Indonesia, with Grammy and Papa.  We figured it would be a pretty awesome place to spend New Year’s Eve.  We stayed in the town of Seminyak, on the southern tip of the island, in a villa just off Petitenget Road called Latitude 8.

       

     Bali is one of the many islands in the country of Indonesia, just south of Singapore.  Bali has its own language (Balinese), and nearly everyone is also fluent in Bahasa Indonesian (the common Indonesian language), Javanese (because the island of Java, Indonesia, is directly to the west), and English.  It’s amazing to think that while Bali is still a third world country/island, most of its citizens speak four languages! 

     Ninety percent of Bali is Hindu, unlike the rest of Indonesia, which is predominantly Muslim.  Every Balinese home has its own temple right in the front yard, and each family temple is dedicated to a particular Hindu god cherished by that family.  Each neighborhood also has a larger temple for communal worship, and foreigners are  always welcome to enter the temple (but women, beware:  you are not allowed to enter when the monthly fairy is visiting, and yes, they will bluntly ask you).

Below:  Here we are at a neighborhood temple in Ubud.  The sarongs are loaned to all who wish to enter the temple.

  

 

Below:  Typical Balinese home temples.

     Neighborhoods in Bali are amazing.  You might see a few homes in a row with their temples nestled in the front, next to a tired minimart, next to a repair shop, next to a rice field, next to a swanky villa.  It’s a bizarre mix of life, and insanely interesting to see.

Below:  Local restaurants, homes and villas next to rice fields.  Gotta love that cows can simply wander into the road whenever they fancy…

     We spent a few days playing on the different beaches of Seminyak, Legian and Kuta.  Jackson and Mark learned to surf, Cameron to learned to  boogie board, and Mark was properly buried alive.  Oddly enough, the beaches had lots of dead tropical fish washed up on the shore, which we learned is a common occurrence during monsoon season (something to do with saltier water, lightening, and wacky weather.  Who knows…). 

 

     One of the highlights of our trip was river rafting down the Ayung River.    The descent to the river’s edge was 500 steps down, followed by a two-hour ride, and then 250 steps back uphill.  It was fantastic. 

 

 

 

     On one of our excursions to a temple, we came across a village in the midst of a temple celebration.  Once every six months, neighborhood temples hold specific ceremonial celebrations, which always begin with three rounds of cock fighting (the loser’s blood being used in opening rituals).   The rituals are followed by huge offerings to the gods, and then the offerings are taken home and eaten. 

Below:  Roosters waiting to fight, villagers on their way to temple, and women bringing the offerings home.

   

    We spent part of one afternoon at the Ubud Monkey Forest Sanctuary.  The Monkey Forest is a temple complex (three  Hindu “temples of the dead”), and the forest teems with monkeys who are carefully watched over by trained guides.  It was here that Cameron had the unfortunate experience of holding a macaque who, for whatever reason, got spooked and reacted by slapping her numerous times across the face.  It’s not so fun when mom goes into a “Rabies!” panic and hustles you off to the park aid station…

      

     One evening we had the pleasure of visiting the sacred Uluwatu Temple and seeing a Kecak dance, a version of the Ramayana sung in chant, at sunset. 

      

     Our final day of the trip ended in a boat ride to the island of Lembongan, where we spent the day taking numerous banana boat rides, viewing the ocean floor in a glass bottom submarine, and snorkeling.

   

      Random photos of statues and temples ‘cause hey, I dig ‘em:

 

   

    All in all, we had a phenomenal experience.  We learned so much about the Balinese culture, and realize that despite pronounced poverty, the Balinese are truly beautiful, happy, genuine people.  We could’ve easily stayed another week or two…

Next stop:  Yogyakarta, Indonesia in February to see the Borobudur and Prambanan.  Stay tuned.  –Kirsten

It’s a Jungle out There—Really!!

   What do you do when your kids have a full week off school and the husbands are beyond busy at work?  Book a three-night, four-day trip at a tribal longhouse village deep in the heart of the jungle of Borneo!

     On October 12th, Elizabeth Tuohy and I packed up the kids and flew to Sarawak (pronounced saw-RAW-walk), Malaysia, located on the island of Borneo.   Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the world, and is located just southeast of Singapore.  It is an island divided into three countries:  Malaysia (which occupies the northern part of the island), Brunei (a tiny country rich in oil), and Indonesia (which occupies the southern half of the island).    The flight lasted only an hour, and it was exhilarating to see NO skyscrapers up0n arrival.

    We were picked up early in the morning by a friendly driver in a rickety, seatbeltless van that drove us through the jungle to the Annah Rais Longhouse, a village community occupied by the Bidayuh (bih-DIE-you) tribe.   The village is entirely up on stilts, made of bamboo and rattan (except for the metal rooftops), and all houses are connected to each other duplex-style.

The view from the van window as we drove through Borneo.

Views of Annah Rais longhouse village.  They have electricity, they have running water, and that’s about it (no hot water, no air conditioning, etc.).

Our bedrooms consisted of mattresses on the floor and sheets—too hot for blankets, but cozy enough!

Day one:  After we settled in, we were introduced to our guide for the day, Rambo (whose real name is Sylvester), and we were off, hiking through the jungle.   After trekking over bamboo bridges and through rice paddies, we finally arrived at a natural hot springs.   Although the sky quickly proceeded to DUMP an insane monsoon storm on us, we were happy to lie down in the hot water and laugh our heads off.

 

Rambo had brought all the fixings for a fabulous lunch, carrying a basket on his back with a machete, cooking pots, raw chicken and precooked rice rolled in bamboo.  He quickly lit a fire, cut down a long piece of thick bamboo, stuffed it with freshly cut tapioca leaves and lemongrass, chicken and water, and set it over the fire to cook for an hour.  The kids, of course, decided to “help” him tend the fire.  The food was truly fabulous.

When we tired of the hot springs, Rambo hiked us to a new part of the river where he shimmied up a tree and cut down vines so the kids could swing into the river.  He also taught the kids where to jump off the bank into deep water, and how to have fun playing target practice with river rocks.  It was here that Ryan got his first leech on his foot—not such a big deal, as it turns out (they’re little, non-poisonous, and easy to remove).  Disgusting, yes, but harmless.

After hiking back to the village, we were served a huge dinner consisting of ingredients grown on village land, and despite the heat, we all slept soundly that evening.

Day two:  The day began with another fabulous meal, and we found ourselves hiking by 10:30 a.m.  This time, our group meandered up into the hills, where we stopped halfway to rub fresh, ground ginger on our feet and legs to deter the leeches (leeches, by the way, are abundant in the mucky trails and on the undersides of low-growing plants, but do not live in the moving river.  Who knew?). 

We arrived at the River Yakina (yah-KEY-naw), where our guides Rambo, Stanley and Soonye began whacking down bamboo and stringing them together to make rafts.  Stanley’s wife, Elina, made another batch of bamboo chicken, and also cooked up a python that Stanley’s cousin had run over with his car the night before (not kidding).  Ryan decided that the python, being so tendon-like in texture, did not at all taste like chicken.

Photos of our hike out of the village, across a bridge, and up into the jungle.  Note the basket on Elina’s back—it held the lunch food and ground ginger.

The river Yakina, where the kids played in waist-deep water while our guides built rafts in front of our eyes.

After picking leeches off the feet of Ryan, Kate, Elizabeth and Rambo, we boarded the rafts and basked in the glory of the silence of the jungle.  The trees connected in a constant canopy overhead, palm and fern fronds bigger than Jackson’s body grew as epiphytes from large banyans, and Tarzan-like vines wrapped themselves like snakes through everything they touched.  It was truly breathtaking, and we thoroughly enjoyed the glorious ride downriver.

During the actual raft trip, one guide took the front of the raft while another guide steered from behind. 

 

That evening, Edward, our host, gave us a tour of the village.  We learned that the Bidayuh tribe was a headhunter tribe, and were shown 400 year-old skulls as proof.  We also learned that the villagers today live extended-family style, grow nearly all their own food, and still uphold the traditional ceremonies and sacred rituals of the past with the aid of the four village shaman.

Our tour of the village, where Edward showed us the food grown on site.

  

The 400 year-old skulls of the enemies of the Bidayuh.

Inside a traditional longhouse, where rice was kept in huge vats on the second floor, and families slept on rattan mats on the main floor.  The kitchen was always kept next to the front door for proper ventilation.

The kids purchased flutes made of bamboo from a villager, who was more than happy to give them a hands-on lesson.

 

Day three:  Today we hiked to the sacred waterfall of the Bidayuh, where it is believed that the brave warriors’ spirits reside.  Our trek took us over bamboo bridges, through rice and corn paddies, and ended up at a most glorious site.

The sacred waterfall has many tall layers, each with its own swimming hole, and the top layer holds a small, dark cave.  Cameron was thrilled.

 

 

Lunch was, again, bamboo chicken, and by now, the kids were pros at keeping the fire going.  Jackson also enjoyed building a wall of vines and leaves.

Our hike home from the waterfall was pure comedy.  After making the journey to the road where a van waited to spare us from the three-hour hike, we piled in like sardines—and made it about 1/8 mile uphill before the van died.  So, out we stumbled, walking along a main road in the blazing heat, until the van magically appeared again.   Elated, we jumped back in, coasted downhill for a bit—and the van once again died, this time for good.   Out we piled again, heading on foot to the village, until Stanley and Elina rescued us in their teensy car.   

That night, Edward showed us traditional Bidayuh clothing and instruments, and taught us to shoot a real five-foot dart gun—fun!

 

 

Our vacation ended with a day-long stroll through the city of Kuching (Malay for “cat”), and a fast-paced race via taxi to the airport where we nearly missed our flight.  As Kate liberally dabbled eucalyptus oil over her many mosquito bites, and the kids inhaled the chocolate cake purchased at the airport Starbucks counter, we found ourselves marveling at the journey we’d just taken.

What did we take away from this trip?  We learned the value and strength of communal living, gained a huge appreciation for a culture steeped in tradition, and developed a love for beauty of the jungle.  We realize how fortunate we are to see and learn all that we did, knowing, somehow, we’ve opened our minds a little bit more…

Until later…Kirsten