Asia 2009 Travelogue: Japan and Hong Kong

Baleigh's Mother's Day Flowers

PACIFIC RIM TRAVELOGUE May 10, 2009 Mother's Day in Honolulu, Hawaii

Jack and I flew to Hawaii this morning in preparation for a day and a half of work here. While it was lovely having an early mother's day dinner last night with Jack, I missed having my kid with me. After 6 hours of flying, we arrived at the Prince Hotel in Waikiki and learned that someone had left a gift certificate for me for a massage…but they didn't know who. When I arrive in our room, there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers and some chocolate almonds…then I found the answer, my sweet daughter had arranged a mother's day celebration for me in Hawaii! Wow..what a way to settle into Hawaii! So I dashed off for my massage (that does sound like me…speeding off to relax) and it truly helped me change gears. Then, I could get into the slower Aloha pace. Jack and I took a short walk around Ala Moana Park which is right near us on the ocean. It was filled with picnics: people were celebrating mother's day. Beautiful day-around 80, sunny skies with a few little clouds. We met up with our colleagues, Darrell and Joann Beck and a friend from Hawaii, Marilyn Gagen for dinner here in the hotel and a lovely visit. Now to rest before the week on the Pacific gets under way.

May 12/13, 2009 Over the Ocean near Midway Islands

I am so excited! I can't believe that I am actually on the way to Japan!! For some reason, going to Japan has been a lifelong dream. This dream is much like my desire to build an adobe home. I have no idea where it came from, but it has been in my consciousness most of my life. Jack and I are sitting on the plane, enjoying a leisurely lunch and reading, finishing up work from Hawaii and getting oriented to our next stop.

We had our choice of foods for lunch: western or Japanese and we went for the Japanese. We had halibut, a julienned Burdock salad (a vegetable I have not encountered before) seared beef slices, braised shrimp, rolled salmon with radish, baked minced chicken cake and “egg roll.” The latter was not what we usually think of as “egg roll.” It was egg, jelled and rolled I suspect we will have quite a culinary adventure.

Our flight arrives in Osaka, we take the train to Kyoto and go upstairs from the train station to our hotel. More later!


Kyoto May 13/14,2009
We went from the airplane, to the train to the hotel without ever stepping outside! Amazing system of connections here in Japan. The plane went across the Pacific and arrived in Osaka within minutes of the stated arrival time (actually early); the trains operated efficiently, with cleaners ready to jump in and make sure they are immaculate and jump off so that passengers can be seated and every stop occurred just exactly when it was supposed to. They stood on the platform and waved goodbye as we departed.

Upon arrival in Kyoto, we went up escalators from the train to the station and then to the hotel and were greeted by gracious bellpeople who don't accept tips.

Toilets: another interesting phenomenon…from ultra modern with warmed seats and electrically operated bidets within the toilet to holes in the ground that flush!
In some ways that captures the paradox of Kyoto: home to Geishas and Nintendo!

After a long day of travel, Jack and I settled into our very comfortable room on the 15th floor of the Hotel Granita (above the train station). We face the Kyoto tower out of our window and have a panoramic view of the city. We were asleep early and consequently arose very early this morning. Our first visit was to the executive lounge on our floor as soon as it opened at 7, since we had been up for several hours. There we had cappuccino and received advice about touring the town. We followed that with a quick and comprehensive Japanese breakfast (fixed menu) of an exotic juice, more coffee, pastries, eggs, salad with ham and parmesian cheese, vegetables with sausage and yogurt.

We joined a city tour and spent the morning seeing several interesting sites along with other tourists from Canada, Florida, Paris, Toronto and Japan!

Nishi Hongan-ji

Nishi Hongan Ji. The guide gave us her interpretation of the evolution of Buddhism in Japan through our visit to this Buddhist temple. The sect that is represented here was one of 3 major streams that flow into Japanese Buddhism: the so called “esoteric” that was only available to the highest citizens; the zen and Amida. The founder of Amida wanted the common citizen to have access to Buddhism so he created chants for them. Followers of this sect worship at this temple. Like many of the other buildings in Kyoto, this was rebuilt after fires. It is gilded with gold throughout.
Nijo Castle
Nijo-Jo was the palace of the shogun who wanted to show up the Imperial family with a spectacular home. The building had many fascinating features including beautiful metal plates with Cranes, mountains and flowers on them (probably 16” long by 6” wide) that cover nails in the construction (photography was not allowed in the building).
Beautiful nail covers (gold) and carvings
The prohibition against photography was to preserve the beautiful screens that were in each room. The screens were decorated in quite purposeful ways depending upon the status of those invited into the room ( e.g. show of strength with mighty trees in some, delicate birds and domestic features in others) The floors squeaked purposefully to alert the shogun to enemies trying to sneak in.

Jack and Leslie at Golden Pavilion

The Golden Pavilion was another reconstructed facility which we could only admire from the outside. We were warned that it was not the best use of our time by others, but it was a beautiful building in a lovely park. I found the “wishing stones” more interesting: in several places, there were stones set up (in one with a metal cup) and people would throw coins and try to get them into a designated spot to make their wishes come true.

Wishing Stones

As with most places we visited, there were large groups of students and they were greatly attracted to this past-time!

Our tour ended, conveniently at a very touristy Handicraft Center. While I might have been tempted by 7 floors of handicrafts, I managed to get out without a purchase! After lunch there, Jack and I walked to the Heian-Jingu and to Nanzen-Ji.

Heian Shrine

Heian-jingu was quite beautiful, brightly painted and still an active Shinto Center. The sculptures in the fountains were quite interesting and the waters of the fountain were purifying. The buildings were actually a 2/3 scale replica of the Imperial Palace that burned down. It was constructed about 100 years ago to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of



The photo above is of the Otenmon (Main Gate) reproduces a gate in the original Imperial Palace (Daidairi) from 794, when Emperor Kammu moved the capital from Nara to what is now Kyoto.
.

Statues at Heian-Jingu

Nanzen-Ji is a Zen Buddhist complex that illustrates magnificently the interaction of beauty, nature and balance. The gardens were designed by a very famous artist and I must say, some nearly took my breath away. (If the climb up the stairs in the ancient gates hadn't already scared me enough!) I can climb up most things…it's coming down very steep steps in stocking feet that was scary. Most of the temples and buildings such as the Nijo-jo did not allow shoes either out of respect for the religion or the delicacy of the floors.

Nanzenji Gardens

Thankfully, by 5:00 we found a taxi to take us back to the hotel as our legs were still rubbery after our walk up and down the steep steps in the entry gates to Nanzen-ji.

Other people going up/down the same steep steps!

5/15 Kyoto
Part of our decision about staying in Kyoto on the days that we did and the hotel that we did was in order to see the AoI Matsuri. This is one of the oldest festivals in the world and is named after the leaves of the Aoi (hollyhock tree). The leaves are believed to have all sorts of powers, including protection against lightening and earthquakes and guaranteeing an easy childbirth. We had trouble finding a hotel for the night before/after the festival and that is why we ended up the at the hotel we did. So the question this morning was about how to organize our day to best see the festival given the crowds that assemble from far and wide. The parade route is many miles starting at the Imperial Palace at 10 in the morning and ending at the Kamigamo Shrine where the final ritual ceremonies take place late in the afternoon.

We also had other places to go and things to see…and wanted to get them all in today! So after breakfast at the hotel, we headed to Kiyomizu-dera Temple. This was recommended to us by our friend, Carol, who said it was her favorite temple in Kyoto. It seemed to be the favorite of most everyone visiting Kyoto, seeing the crowds we encountered there! As we walked up the narrow road past many little stores selling sweets and souvenirs, we were surrounded by hundreds of people, particularly groups of students in uniforms whom we encountered wherever we went.

"Patio" of Kiyomixu temple

This is a combined Shinto and Buddhist site, but was founded by Enchin, a priest from Nara, in the 8th century. and belongs to the Kita Hoso sect of Buddhism. We found the inner sanctuary where Kannon, the god of compassion was surrounded by two others, Jizo-Bosatsu and Bishamon-Ten. We found this inner sanctuary to be very serene, while other areas with shrines were more entertaining, such as the Shinto traditions of wishing for love, abundance and health.

The hills and forests of the Higashiyama mountains provided a gorgeous backdrop for this spiritual complex. The main building and dancing “patio” were built on pilings, using no nails, jutting out over 30 feet from the mountain, overlooking the town of Kyoto in the distance.

The name, “Kiyomizu” refers to the waterfall there which people seek for its healing properties. The original buildings here have been burned down several times and those that we saw were only 400 years old!

Below is Okuninushino-mikoto: a Japanese god who is in charge of love and good matches. The rabbit beside him is a messenger of the god. These statues were in the Shinto shrine area of the complex

Okuninushino-mikoto

We went from the temple complex to the Nishijin Textile Center where we saw weavers at work, all kinds of fabric and a kimono fashion show. The area surrounded the center still has many weavers using old time methods. We did not have time to search them out as we were now approaching the time we wanted to catch the parade!

Kimono in Fashion Show

We took the local bus to the area near the shrine where we were to see the parade. I pretty much had the target location figured out; I had the advice from the receptionist at the textile center on how to get there by bus and we knew what time they were due to arrive in the area. The bus was an interesting experience. It got more and more crowded (till we could hardly breath) before we got off. However, the gentlemen next to me noticed where I was headed and tried to tell me where to exit the bus without speaking any English. He enlisted the assistance of another person on the bus, and between the two of them, we got guidance on where to get off. The gentleman decided to go a step further and showed us where to go by guiding us there…stopping traffic with his cane when necessary to make sure we got across the street without getting run over. What a kindly gesture.

He took us to a park where there were some benches set up on two sides of a “road.” Nearby were kiosks selling drinks, fried eel, chicken-on-a-stick, crepes, toys and even electronic games. We got some drinks and realized we could pay to sit on the benches (I had previously been told that those were reserved long in advance. We happily paid $10/seat to have a seat. There was no shade; it was getting close to 80 and it was humid…we were told that the processional was due in 45 minutes-and given our experience with Japanese punctuality, I figured it would be 45 minutes. But it was close to 2 hours before they arrived: hundreds of men (mostly) in very warm outfits walking miles to the temples.
Several horses with beautiful saddles were in the parade and then there was a princess and a court of young girls surrounding her. She arrived (just outside of the area) in a float, escorted by men on horses. Ancient musical instruments were played, and everyone solemnly proceeded towards the final blessing.

Princess in Parade

Student Watching the Parade

The crowd gradually dispersed because there was an expectation that more of the “floats” would come by. They didn't and we left, having witnessed a great tradition that has continued for over 1000 years. We walked from there for several miles through interesting residential neighborhoods, past single family homes, apartments and neighborhood stores, even 7/11s and ultimately through quite fashionable areas. Alas, we found our way to the subway-another example of (a) courteous help by employees helping us navigate the transportation system; (b) immaculately kept public facilities and (c) efficient, on-time transportation.

Kyogen Play at Gion Corner

We headed to the Gion area (historic “entertainment district”) and went to “Gion Corner” where we saw a commercial production of traditional Japanese culture and entertainment: Japanese tea ceremony, Bunrakupuppet show, flower arranging,, ancient musical instruments, Geisha Kyomai dancing and a kyogen (ancient comic) play. A bit touristy but fun. From there we headed back to our hotel for a quick dinner and sleep. Our legs were still sore from the steep downhill walk the day before…

5/16-17/09 Kurashiki, Japan

As I wrote this, we were en route to Kurishiki on the very fast train from Kyoto. It made very few stops and covered a 235km in 60 minutes. There were plenty of seats available so we wondered why the gal recommended “reserved” seats. However, at the first stop, Shin-Osaka the train filled up including the 3rd seat in our row..making it quite croweded with our bags. Now, on to Kurishiki.

Oh my god! I think I have found my Japanese roots!
This town and our Ryokan are amazing: talk about living in zen-folk art-waterway heaven.

Back to the beginning of the day: We left our hotel in Kyoto with just enough time to check out, find our way around the train station downstairs, “reserve” seats on the Shinkansen Nozomi train to Okayama and connect to Kurashiki. We walked onto the pier to the train at 8:27 and the train arrived and departed within minutes. The train is fast, efficient and clean. Jack and I have both noticed that Japan is the cleanest place we have ever been.

After making our way out of the train station (via a Starbucks, and a department store so we could use the escalator with all of our bags), we found the taxi stand and got into a taxi. The driver had no idea where our Ryokan was, even though we had the address-they weren't in Japanese characters. He called for help and figured it out.

The train station was in a fairly modern area and within minutes we were transported back about 120 years. The old part of town surrounds a canal with quaint buildings with black tile roofs, streets that are too narrow for cars (although they occasionally come by) and tiny museums for everything from Toy banks, to Folk art to the Ohara Museum established by the family that started the weaving industry here and brought the first Western art (European and American) at the beginning of the last century.

Chinatsu, our personal caretaker and Anne

We were greeted by Anne who spoke English in the entry room of the Ryokan Kurashiki and she graciously asked us to sit while reminding us that we could not go to our rooms until 3pm. She brought us maps and tickets for the Ohara museum and took our bags. The rooms we glimpsed were quite reminiscent of what one would have expected in a wealthy Japanese home of another era. Each item is placed carefully, there are benches with sitting pillows, etc. There are places to exchange your shoes for slippers.

Then off to explore! We went over a small stone bridge, saw little boats with a boatman rowing guests, and immediately found the Folk Art Museum. The building was lovely with large old beams, old wooden floors (thus, once again we left our shoes behind) and a sampling of the every day art of Japan. There were items (baskets and ceremonial clothes) that could have been from Native American or African tribes! Some of the ceramic work was magnificent and some reminded me that my mother had visited Japan in the 50's and must have brought back some ideas that she incorporated into her pottery and sculpture. I also invoked the spirit of my folk art mentor, my aunt Betty who would have had a ball here with us.

Exhibit at Folk Art Museum
Toy Museum Display

We stopped into many small stores of pottery, soft sculpture, mobiles and the rural toy museum and gift shop. We found our way to an old factory converted into a hotel and shops and across the street to the antique/flea market. I befriended the owner of this very crowded 3 room complex (“stalls for several vendors”) who spoke English quite well. He had studied in Eugene Oregon and came from a family that was wealthy until he was 8 years old (saki makers) and then lost their money. He proudly showed me photos of his home 20 minutes outside of Kurashiki on his iphone. I had to buy something there…ended up with a couple of very small bronze statutes (you'll just have to see them).

Antique Mall (left) "Mystery Garden" (below)

After wandering in and out of little stores and a small lunch at the Kurashiki Hotel, we wandered into a beautiful little garden-teahouse and thought we might come back later-it was very close (behind our hotel). We walked around and went back to the entrance to the hotel and were greeted by our hostess who took us to the room to register and have tea. It turned out to be the “teahouse” we had just seen! She first gave us warm towels to wash our hands with that had beautiful little flower placed on them; then the registration form to complete and a little fruit to eat while our green tea was being prepared. She then served us green tea in traditional bowls (a very thick tea) and then showed us through the ryokan to our rooms. On the way, they showed us the bathhouse. Typically, women guests can use the bathhouse at certain hours; men at others. But since we have the place to ourselves tonight, we could use the bathhouse together at our leisure. (There are only 5 rooms in this ryokan hotel).

Outside the door of our room "Matsu"

Our “place” cannot be described as a room. It is more like an apartment (sans kitchen). The front door leads to a hall where we take off shoes or slippers and change into slippers for the rooms. To our left is our sleeping room, straight ahead is the tatami room and beyond that the lounge or living room with a rocking chair, cabinet and two sitting chairs (antiques).

The tatami room (above) has the traditional mats, seats on the floor and a low table. This is where we will have dinner. …and where I prepared green tea for my honorable husband (also above).

Then we have a suite of bathrooms: one with sink; the second with sunken bathtub and shower area and third with toilet and controls for use of water in the toilet. Most of the windows and rooms have screens to slide rather than doors.

Out of two of the windows are small Japanese-style gardens. Despite the traditional design of the rooms, there are two flatscreen televisions and telephones! We both are blown away by this place. In between the rooms are areas that are more than halls-with rock and water features and flowers placed strategically.

We were oriented to the hotel by our personal room attendant and “Anne” who speaks English. They showed us throughout the room and found just the right size kimono for each of us and right size tabby socks and slippers. They attend to every detail, including asking our preferences for what width belt we desire with our kimono.
The bathroom had a selection of items one wrapped with a cloth and a “red” sticker (for the lady) and the other with a “black” sticker for the man.

The 9 course dinner (if you consider an aperitif a course) was exquisitely presented by our personal attendant slipping in the room, removing the remnants of the previous course and presenting us with the next. Our menu was offered to us on a scroll in Japanese and translated on another page in English. Everything from squid, eel and octopus to 3 types of fish, 10 different vegetables and a handful of fruits graced our table. Oh! We had a Saki sampling and picked one to enjoy with dinner. It got better and better as the evening wore on : Fortunately, we were served in our tatami room so we just had to crawl into our bed from that room……

What a day!

Sunday, May 17, 2009 Kurashiki

We awoke and read/wrote and then went to the restaurant within the Ryokan for breakfast at our appointed time. We chose the western breakfast, which was served elegantly. Our personal attendant then offered to take our photo (below). After packing and checking out, we headed outside in the rain to see a bit more of Kurashiki. We went to the Ohara Museum-which is an amazing museum founded by a major industrial family of Kurashiki. They brought the first western art to Japan in the 1930s. They also have exhibits of mingei (folk art), ancient Asian art and contemporary Japanese art. The architecture was an interesting combination of contemporary and traditional. We were astounded at the collection and impressed with the legacy this family created for the the town of Kurashiki and Japan.

Leslie and Jack in garden at Ryokan

This was also a weekend of a spring festival and we saw a couple of floats: one carried by young men; another by young women. Also, guys with masks and fans wandered around the touched heads for good luck.

Spring Festival In Kiroshiki

Given the dampness of the day, we decided to head to the train station and move on to Tokyo.
We went back to the Ryokan for a final cup of tea and to collect our bags. We sadly said goodbye to our friends. Rarely have we felt so tenderly cared for and genuinely served as we did in this home-away-from home. While it was an expensive stop, it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime visit.

One room of the Ohare Museum

Monday, May 18,2009 Tokyo

We are definitely in the big city! Stepping off the train, last night, into the huge train station-with an entire shopping center underneath- with all kinds of foods in what we would refer to as a food court-but only one ATM and it doesn't take foreign cards! So we found a cab that does take a card to find our way to the hotel. We spent the evening in the hotel, tired from our visit in Kurashiki and travel to Tokyo. Sitting on the very fast train is not tiring-it is the travel to train stations, through train stations and out of them that can be exhausting-finding our way around with bags in tow!

This morning we played “domestic” doing laundry after a week on the road and finding an atm and getting our bearings. Across the street from our hotel was the only ATM that took US cards: at a Denny's restaurant! We found the local Nikon shop and bought a lens cap as I'd lost one-explored Ginza and saw an amazing array of “name brand shops” from Barneys of NY to Printemps of Paris, Gucci, Channel and every other you can imagine. I had been told that the Japanese like the “names” and I could certainly find them all here.

Tokyo Barneys Interior of Barneys

I have to admit we did stop at a Starbucks for a coffee ourselves. We did stop by one Japanese name sake: The Nissan Gallery. This store, in the chic part of town featured two new cars and Jack wanted to see the cars that we don't see exported to the U.S.

Jack and Leslie at Asakusa

We were then met by a friend of Carol's, named Masayo, who toured with us and took us to dinner. What a lovely woman! She works in her family business helping out her brother. They import ice cream machines and sausage machines from Italy and make salt and pepper mills-a business her father started. We went by subway to an area called Asakusa. This is an area that apparently keeps the feeling of what Tokyo was like “in the olden days. There is a very famous temple (Asakusa or Sensoki Temple)-also dedicated to Kannon, the god of compassion. Nearby is a five story pagoda.

Asakusa Shrine Masayo guiding Jack

The walk up to the temple is surrounded by little stores with souvenirs, foods called Nkamise shopping street. Apparently this shopping area has been around since the 17th century! Masayo said on the weekends it is so crowded you can hardly walk. It was so colorful! We walked up to the temple, and washed our hands in the temple waters at a fountain guarded by an ominous looking statue and a dragon. We then went to something that had tons of incense smoke coming out of it and it is a place of healing. We basked in it hoping to rid our selves of our minor aches and pains. Finally we entered the temple and placed a yen coin (which has a hole in the middle) into the prayer box and made our wishes known to the gods.

Jack praying away aches and pains

We then walked back through the kiosks buying a few odds and ends to take home and waited 10 minutes for a special on-the-hour display from the local clock: it featured heron dancer dolls and dragon dancer dolls with kites and one where the dolls were bringing out a local moveable shrine that circulates in this part of town twice each year for celebrations (one just occurred yesterday!). We actually saw the real one near the temple. The display reminded me of “It's a small world” at Disneyland. Musical, movement of dolls and doors opening and closing . Really cool.

Asakusa Clock

We took another subway (incidentally very clean and well organized, if not confusing to a stranger or even a local who doesn't travel in that area regularly). We went to the ….area and arose near the famous Ueno park. And a temple that is a replica of one we saw in Kyoto., Kiyomizu-dera . I guess we need a big fix of “compassion” since we keep running into Kannon! The park had Japanese maple, ginko, cherry blossoms (not blooming unfortunately) and was huge! We walked through an area that reminded me of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, in that it had all kinds of foods and shops of all kinds and was a maze of little walkways. They even had several golf shops which Jack and Masayo (who is also a golfer) enjoyed exploring.

We took a final subway of the day at 5:30PM and I quietly feared we were going to run into the famous packed subways of Tokyo-where they push passengers in to make sure everyone fits in….But Masayo didn't seem to be concerned so I stayed calm. In fact, we got on the subway and found seats. As we moved back toward Ginza the train got more crowded but not anywhere as much as I expected. In fact, Masayo noted the lack of crowds too.

Masayo was surprised by the lack of crowds at the restaurant we went to as well. This was a restaurant that specialized in “shabu shabu.” This is a Japanese form of fondue. We had one course of shabu-shabu at the ryokan so we were familiar with it. In this case, we had beef, pork and vegetables cooked in a broth at our table by each of us. Two sauces are prepared: one with sesame flavoring (spiced up with onions, chile and garlic) and the other was a soy sauce based dipping sauce that she spiced up as well. One was for the meat; the other for the vegetables. The food was wonderful and great fun. The dish was complemented by rice and wheat noodles and finished off with Japanese plum in gelatin for dessert. Unlike Europe, where people dine late, Japanese like to eat between 6 and 7:00 which suited us fine.

Waitress serving shabu-shabu

We wandered through a department store lower level filled with counters featuring different sweets, as Masayo wanted us to be “exposed” to many of these fine delicacies…we didn't fight to hard!! We parted company outside the store and made our way back to our hotel.

Tomorrow we go to the Mingei Museum and a Honda dealership to see local “folk art!”

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Narita Airport, Tokyo

We are waiting for our plane to Hong Kong. As we took the bus to the airport at 6:15 this morning, I thought
“Well this trip certainly satisfied my yen to see Japan.”
Really-I didn't do that pun on purpose-really!!!

We had a full several days, although it didn't feel like we caught as many of the tourist sights as we might have. We wondered around and used the public transportation (e.g. subways) and walked and walked and walked!

Tokyo Subway Map

Last night we had dinner with our friend Audrey who is living most of the time in Tokyo and working for Arque Orion. We got to see their offices and staff and have dinner in an American style steak house where they entertain visitors regularly. Audrey provided an interesting perspective: that of an American woman who is of Japanese descent and is an attorney working in business in Japan. The regard for women in Japan is still an issue: even with her status as a director of the company and an attorney, she is till often ignored by men. We had a lovely evening catching up and learning about the “ex patriot” life in Japan-

Arque Orion HQ

We went to her offices by way of taxi instead of subway and saw a different perspective on Tokyo: many of the government offices, parks, luxury office areas that we missed by subway. But our feet were tired from walking much of the day so we enjoyed the respite!

Our morning started with a trip to good old American Denny's across the street for breakfast. It was much cleaner than Dennys in America, and much more reasonably priced for breakfast than hotel food. From there we headed to the subway, actually 3, to go to the Mingei museum (Japanese Folk Craft Museum). This was located out in the suburbs next to Tokyo University.
The Mingeikan Museum is housed in a beautiful traditional Japanese building completed in 1936. This was the era when a movement began to appreciate the folk art traditions in Japan.

One of the leaders of that movement, Yanagi Soetsu, lived in the house next to the museum and is featured in photographs with artists. His house was only open for visitors on one or two days/week and not the one on which we visited. Most of the rooms limited photography so I couldn't take many photos.
In all candor, this museum was a disappointment after seeing the one in Kurashiki. The information I began to collect there, however, was of interest, (including a book that is out of print and I found in their gift shop). The “movement” was described there in the following way:
In the wake of the great tide of industrialism in the early part of the last century, something of the human touch and spirit was lost in everyday articles of use. It was with a sense of urgency that Yanagi and his lifelong companions, the potters Bernard Leach, Hamada Shoji, Tomimoto Kenkichi (who later left the Mingei group) and Kawai Kanjiro sought to counteract the desire for cheap, mass-produced products by pointing to the works of ordinary craftsmen that spoke to the spiritual and practical needs of life. The Mingei Movement is responsible for keeping alive many traditions. Interestingly they had specific criteria for what was considered folk art-something I have not encountered in my exploration of folk art in other parts of the world: * made by anonymous crafts people * produced by hand in quantity * inexpensive * used by the masses * functional in daily life * representative of the region in which it was produced.

I use a broader definition, myself!

Jack's type of folk art!

We went from my kind of folk art to Jack's: cars! He wanted to see the cars for sale in Japan and how they differed from those in the US so we went to a Honda dealership (and past by a Mitsubishi one) on the other side of campus from the museum. After examining several objet d'arts (aka cars), we walked through campus to go back to the train station. We walked across the soccer/rugby field, past an incredible variety of styles of building and headed for the train. I had googled the area in the morning and having seen the satellite photos of the area was really helpful to getting around. What an amazing tool!

Tokyo University Campus

Speaking of architecture: the variety of buildings was quite astounding. Some photos are below:

From this train station, we went to the Shuboya station and transferred to another train to go to end of the Ginza line to the same area we had visited the day before in Asukusa.

Artwork in Shuboya Station

We thought it would be fun to travel by boat and see Tokyo by river. So we hopped on a tourist boat and under many of the famous colorful bridges of Tokyo. The variety of architecture, plants and “public art” we saw from this angle made for an interesting take on Tokyo.

View from the boat

We also expanded the variety of our culinary experience here as we had Italian food in the “station.” Pizza crust was about as thin as a tortilla! The station was more like a shopping complex with a dozen different restaurants; stores and kiosks (including Starbucks and Cold Stone Ice Cream!). This station is in a famous area for shops, businesses, etc.

Our boat

Another tourist boat
View from the Boat

Our landing at Hama Rikyu Park

Our boat landed at Hama-Rikyu Garden supposedly a 10 minute walk from our hotel. This was not a manicured garden, like many Japanese gardens. In fact it was fairly wild and woody in places, the most interesting feature of which is that it contains a salt-water pond. With the pattern of tides in Tokyo Bay the water in the pond rises and falls throughout the day. In fact we saw “locks” that help to regulate the levels. As a result, the landscape of the garden constantly changes. In the 17th century (Edo era) the garden was an official duck hunting ground. Duck hunting continued until 1944. They still had duck blinds there! Also, a famous 300 year old tree. The view of the harbor was wonderful, as was the backdrop of the cityscape literally across the street.

A single 300 year old pine tree, with "props to hold it up!

After walking through the park, we started to head the “10 minutes” back to the hotel. Since we had not walked from the hotel, our orientation was missing. We ended up taking over an hour and getting thoroughly lost! One passer by told us to go one direction, but another actually walked us in the opposite direction and helped us get to our street. We found that everyone we met was gracious and helpful. When we went to the kinko/fed-ex locale near our hotel to send back “stuff” from Japan, they gave us a box for free and told us where to mail it from a post office since they showed us how very expensive fed ex would have been. They even called the post office to see if it was still open at 10Pm!

Biker with health precautions

Another interesting phenomenon: wearing face masks. The Japanese apparently do this frequently to avoid catching or sharing germs and to deal with pollen. With the concerns about the H1N1 virus, even more people are wearing them. People often wear gloves as well, to protect their hands. We met some folks at the hotel who flew in from LA and they quarantined the plane because one or more people had elevated temperatures. They let most of the folks leave the plane but checked on them subsequently at the hotel. We read in the paper as we left that medical teams were boarding flights from North America and checking passenger temperature before letting them off the plane! We haven't had that experience. We were told that delays could occur because of that. It will be interesting to see what happens when we land in Hong Kong.

5/20/09 Hong Kong

Well it has been a long travel day, but we covered a lot of territory!
From the hotel in Tokyo, to the in-town terminal to the Narita airport outside of Tokyo to the Airport for Hong Kong which is on a separate island from Hong Kong, via train to downtown Hong Kong and via coach from the downtown terminal to the hotel! All in all it was 11 hours door to door!

We are at the JW Marriott close to the bay and it is a lovely setting. We found out that the buses were leaving for the event tonight at 4:45 this afternoon-an hour after we got into our room! So we hustled to get cleaned up and downstairs to take a bus to the ferry to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and Museum of Art in Kowloon….a beautiful setting with music by drummers, and dragon dancers along with opening ceremonies with dignitaries such as Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAE to begin the International Women's Forum “World without Borders” Conference.

Hong Kong Skyline from Cultural Center IWF opening reception

Jack and I mingled with people I knew and some we didn't know. Jack was relieved to see he wasn't the only man among 400 women from around the world! We were escorted to a series of galleries with contemporary art which was interesting-and were ready to fade and realized it was pouring rain. It rains 7.5 feet each year here! We got our inch or two in that hour!

5/21 Hong Kong
Jack took a tour of the city while I attended meetings today. Still a cloudy, humid day, but no disruptive weather!

The International Women's Forum topic was “World without Borders.” So the first session was entitled “Business without Borders: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything in a World without Borders.” The speakers included Pansy Ho, who was described as the Managing Director of Shun Tak Holdings, LTD., Ed Chan, President of Wal-Mart China, Teresa Au, Head of Corporate Sustainability for HSBC Bank and Chun Wu of Boston Consulting Group in China. It was quite an impressive panel, moderated by Marilyn Johnson who was VP of Market Development with IBM.

They were joined by video conferencing by Sangeeta Talwar who is the Executive Director of Tata Tea, Ltd in India. It turns out that Pansy is one of 4 children of the founder of the 40-year-old Shun Tak holdings andhas succeeded her father leading the company. She is a very bright young woman whose two sisters work with the business as well. Her younger brother chose to develop his own business. This I learned in a short private conversation with her after the program.

Much of what she talked about during the actual presentation was the dynamic tension of continuing their casino business in Macau during the last 10 years when China was retaking Hong Kong and when foreigners were investing in Macau. She delicately addressed the issue of foreigners thinking they knew more about her customer base than they did and the government wanting to balance the gambling business with other types of business in Macau. Driving a family business through these difficult waters was an interesting challenge.

Chun Wu talked about the different types of economies in the world that are impinging on international business: the “upstart” or “challenger” economies such as China and India and the incumbent economies such as the US and Western Europe. Since close to 40% of the global population falls into two challenger economies (India and China); they are formidable marketplaces to deal with. Much of the next couple of days made reference to how businesses must take into consideration how to partner in these countries in order to source intellectual capital, human resources, market share and collaboration to address social and health issues.

Craig Barrett, outgoing Intel chair, later joined us by video over the heads of the panelists

Sangeeta Talwar, speaking from India, raised another theme we were to hear frequently throughout the conference: embracing “many-ness.” In order to be successful in the new world, we have to be prepared to be open to a range of ways of doing business, connecting with people, finding ideas in unusual places, networking broadly, listening to challenging perspectives. This theme came up in many ways in business, technology, health, aging and philanthropy. The “haves” have to listen to the “have-nots.” The incumbents have to listen to the challengers. If not, the incumbent haves may become irrelevant in the new economy.

The next program was about Finance in the World without Borders. Francoise Lyon, VP of Strategies and Marketing, Wealth Management group National Bank of Canada moderated this panel. Sein Chew, Founder and President of Unity Asset management, works from Hong Kong and the United Kingdom was the first to speak. She spoke to the increasingly global footprint that China is creating while at the same time indicating that it is time for a new model-not replacing one superpower with another. It is time to recognize our interdependence and collaborate, rather than dominate. Our global interdependence was another theme of the conference.

Changing business models was another theme today. Chng Sok Hui, who is CFO, DBS Group, in Singapore spoke to the need for banks to go back to the basics in their business model: service, rather than products. Mangwashi Victoria Phiyega, former group executive, Amalgamated Banks of South Africa also spoke to banking and financial partnerships of a global nature. She identified 4 principles that should govern these partnerships:
1. Mutual Benefit of engaging partners
2. Globalization must promote social justice
3. Should be a catalyst of humanity vs. exploitation (mutuality of benefits)
4. Be wary of globalization that takes away local sovereignty , culture, or humanity.

Ms. Phiyega is in her 50s and in a lunch time conversation I asked her what she planned to do now that she wasn't working for the banks. She is taking a sabbatical before deciding what next. She is being recruited by many organizations, but wants to have an impact on her country that is significant..so is exploring options. We discussed microfinancing and that is certainly an option she would like to support.

That afternoon we did trips to various parts of Hong Kong and my group visited the Tea Museum and had a great explanation about the history, botany, preparation of tea leaves and tea from a tea master as well as the history of tea in China.
Teamaster showing us about proper preparation

Purple Clay Teapot

These very small teapots made of purple clay started production in Northern Song Dynasty. The clay is more porous and retains flavor. the small teapot was found to concentrate flavor.

In the evening we had the traditional IWF dine-around where 9 of us had dinner at the home of a local IWF member. In my case, I had the opportunity to have dinner at the home of Kai-Yin Lo who is a very famous jewelry designer and historian who had a fascinating apartment. Our group included an entrepreneur from Israel, a former employee of the Economist who lives in Beijing, a British financier, a friend of Tony's who is a theatre producer in LA, a 24 year veteran of Merrill Lynch who is about to retire from Bank of America, and an Ecuadorian family business owner among others. We had a fascinating discussion about China over the past 20 years and sources of optimism and concern from astute women across the globe. Our dinner was a wonderful Chinese meal.

Our hostess, Kai-Yin Lo showing a huge mushroom she collected:

Dining Table for our "dine around"

Dine-around guests Salad Course

Sunday, May 24, 2009 Rainy Hong Kong
Hong Kong in the Clouds

We are relaxing in our room at the moment watching some sumo wrestling on the tv after trying to explore the city in torrential rains. May is the beginning of the rainy season here and after just cloudy, drizzly days, we have seen how this can become typhoon territory! We had lunch at “The Peak” atop Hong Kong with quite a limited view ultimately to pouring rain, thunder and lightening. We explored a “mall” at the top of the peak as a way to stay out of the rain-a pretty western style shopping center.
Jack at the Peak in the Rain

This expedition followed tea this morning with Daniel Shum, a Hong Kong native who now lives in Scottsdale (and serves on the Scottsdale Center for Performing Arts board) and Mr. Fanglu Wang who is the Chairman of Kaixan Investment ( joint venture between Citic Capital and China Development Bank CDB which are probably 2 of the most important sovereign entities in China). We had quite a fascinating discussion about the biases that each of our countries holds about the other and how hard it is to collaborate when we don't understand each other's culture, politics, business dynamics and language.

On Saturday….
We had dinner last night with David Cripps at the Foreign Correspondents Club not far from our hotel. This is the place where people come to drink, eat and mingle with ex-patriots and other correspondents and find out what is happening in “the colony.” David was introduced to us by my cousin Lisa Robins in Beijing since David works in the wealth management and family office service branch of HSBC Private Bank. Turns out they have been working with several colleagues of mine, Ivan Lansberg and Kelly Gersick with their clients. It is much more fun to meet with locals and learn more about life here. An interesting point that David mentioned: you find many Brits and French retiring here but not Americans-because of taxation by US!

We spent the rest of the day yesterday touring Macau. What an interesting place!
A combination of Chinese and Portuguese cultures. We traveled there with an IWF tour via hyrafoil that took about 60 minutes.

Interestingly, Macau is a separate Administrative Region, like Hong Kong, so we had to go through immigration leaving Hong Kong and arriving in Macau-even though it is right across the water.
We traveled among islands passing many shipping vessels, other ferrys and a few small private vessels. It was a foggy, drizzly day so we couldn't see a lot from the ferry. Macau is situated 37 miles southwest of Hong Kong and consists of the Macau Peninsula itself and the islands of Taipa and Coloane. These are residential areas (the islands) where many Macau residents live.

We were joined by a very knowledgeable tour guide from Macau who traveled with us around. She shared the history of Macau including:
ο Fishermen from Fujian and farmers from Guangdong were the first known settlers in Macau, when it was known as Ou Mun, or "trading gate", because of its location at the mouth of the Pearl River downstream from Guangzhou (Canton). During ancient times port city was part of the Silk Road with ships loading here with silk for Rome.
ο In the early 1550s the Portuguese reached Ou Mun, which the locals also called A Ma Gao, "place of A Ma", in honour of the Goddess of Seafarers, whose temple stood at the entrance to the sheltered Inner Harbour. The Portuguese adopted the name, which gradually changes into the name Macau, and with the permission of Guangdong's mandarins, established a city that within a short time had become a major stopping point for trade between China, Japan, India and Europe.
ο It also became the perfect crossroad for the meeting of East and West religions and cultures. The Roman Catholic church sent some of its greatest missionaries to continue the work of St Francis Xavier. A Christian college was built, beside what is now today's Ruins of St Paul's, where students such as Matteo Ricci prepared for their work as Christian scholars at the Imperial Court in Beijing. Other churches were built, as well as fortresses, which gave the city an historical European appearance that distinguishes it to this day. Because many of these early buildings were made of wood, they have burned down and many were rebuilt out of stone.
ο She described 4 eras of history (not including the era before it became Macao with the arrival of the Portuguese): the current era began with the transition back to being part of China in 1999 as a special administrative region (“SAR”). The concept is one country , two systems: in other words, they are not governed by Beijing-they are autonomous other than foreign relations and military.
Macau in the Rain

One of the interesting aspects of Macau is that most of its revenue comes from gambling. It is the 3rd largest gambling center after Las Vegas and Atlantic City but has exceeded them both as the highest gambling revenue center in the world. As we mentioned in an earlier e-mail the Ho family opened casinos here 40+ years ago and now are collaborating with other western gambling companies to open new casinos. The government ended their monopoly giving licenses to others. Within the next year, several more will be opened, totally 35 casinos in this small space. The revenues from gambling support free education from pre-school through college, along with health care for these youngsters, pregnant women and the elderly. We did not add to their revenues. Both Jack and I left with a few extra dollars in our pockets!

Contemporary/gaming Macau Renovated Old Macau

Besides gaming, we enjoyed seeing the architecture and a temple we visited. The architecture was a combination of colonial (Portuguese influence) and Asian.

The Portuguese seamen and explorers made lots of money via their establishment of this colony and so contributed back to the Macau people (and their own widows) in a social welfare organization. The Roman Catholic Church saw this as a great outpost for converting Chinese to Catholicism. We understood that the first priests who came over did not speak Chinese and their interpreters sabotaged the conversion process. Later delegates from the Church discovered this and then made learning Chinese mandatory for the priests studying and serving in Macau.

The Buddhist/Taoist temples were beautiful and we enjoyed visiting one. The guide described some of the guidance received by fisherman at the temple to determine if it was safe to go to sea. They would set out prayers for well-being there as well. She described them as practicing Buddhism and following Taoist philosophy.

We also saw one that was a shrine that used to be in the “Chinese” part of town (vs. Christian part of town). One of the Portuguese governors who ran the colony was quite brutal. While others had let Chinese citizens come into the Christian part of town to work, etc. and kept peace, this governor was less respectful. He wanted to build more roads so he took land that was a cemetery for the Chinese ancestors and through their bones into the ocean. The Chinese, of course, revere their ancestors and visit their graves and shrines regularly. This act of disrespect was met with great anguish and the governor was assassinated shortly there after.

The sidewalks were often made of mosaics which we found
quite attractive. The contrast with the glitzy casinos was significant.

Mosaic Sidewalks Renovated Church

That was Saturday. Going back to Friday….

We ended the conference with the Gala Dinner on board the Jumbo: a huge floating restaurant. Our group had the top floor where we were entertained with artisans putting our name in Chinese symbols on fans, palm readers and noodle makers.

Peking Duck

We enjoyed visiting in particular with two couples: the Pasters from New Mexico and Westina Matthews Shatteen and her husband Allen. The ride over took us past many large stinkpotters with large towers in the background.

But the socializing was the culmination of another interesting day of panels and discussions. I mentioned the one on Technology beyond borders, we also had a panel on Healthcare without borders. The most interesting panelist on this topic was with us by videocast as well. Fiona Wood is a surgeon from Australia who developed an organization called “Clinical Cell Culture.” She specializes in treating burn victims and developed a form of “spray on skin” that helps burn victims to recover more quickly. She was passionate about what we can do to prevent illness and early intervention into trauma that occurs to minimize long term damage. She also raised the very interesting issues of funding self-inflicted illnesses (e.g. excessive alcohol consumption's damage to the liver or heart conditions brought on by life style issues that are preventable) while not having the funds to treat youngsters who are suffering from illnesses they did not bring on themselves. She felt there is enough health care to go around -if we share information, basic structure and mutual support.

The other speakers focused on changes in medicine-particularly personal medicine that is evolving now that we can map genomes.

The other fascinating program was on aging. “Age divide in a world without Borders.” The panel looked at the new demographics, i.e. that the “over 60” population is outpacing the younger population at a rapid pace. In fact there will be more than 25 Million over 100s by the middle of this century! The statistics, challenges and programs we discussed made us all think about the lives we will all be leading for the next 30 years and how we have to rethink all of the assumptions we hold about that period of life.

On to a great adventure in Yunnan province!