A Monk’s life

Posted on March 7, 2009
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Holidays, Breaking news, Photography - All about the photos Baby!, 365 | 3 Comments

Last weekend I decided, that rather than sit alone at home, bored stiff, while the other 5 units of my family spread off on their own adventures (or work), I would go on a day trip to New Norcia. It’s about 2 hours drive north of Perth and boasts a monastery town with a pretty amazing history.They offer walking tours with a guide twice a day so I timed my visit to catch the tour. I have to admit, the town has an impressive history and some pretty spectacular buildings, alters and paintings.

This was one of the 4 boarding schools in New Norcia. At the time, they were segregated. White girls, aboriginal girls, white boys, and aboriginal boys all run by nuns and monks.

Boarding school a la monk (by She'll Be Apples)

Apparently a artist was commissioned to make this piano with the little ivory that the monks had in their possession. Because there was such a scarcity of ivory at the time, there was not enough to make the traditional keys, so they are reversed. Ivory on the top instead.

Reverse Piano (by She'll Be Apples)

One of the many churches in New Norcia (St Gertrude’s I think)

Look up...waaaaaaaaaay up (by She'll Be Apples)

My favorite image… this alter and the ceiling mural were exquisite!

Drawing eyes towards the heavens (by She'll Be Apples)

Ironically, after flying 15000 km to live in Perth 5 years ago, it took a trip to New Norcia to meet another Canadian! A woman from Saskatchewan who also holds a pretty big interest in photography (as did her partner.) This commonality resounded with all of us and we spent most of the afternoon together having a drink and a laugh after the tour ended. As you can see in this next image of one of the boarding schools, the day was pretty much overcast and what looked to be a pretty decent storm was on the way!

Cross on high (by She'll Be Apples)

By the time 6:30 rolled around, I knew I should head back. With 2 hours driving ahead of me, I didn’t want to be caught in the storm or the dark really, with the road under quite a bit of construction (I.e. red gravel blocks off an on, slowing to 40km and then up to 110km.) As is turned out, the storm seemed to have preceded me, leaving tree branches, bushes and gum nuts all over the road making the drive just a smidgen longer as I avoided the debris and slowed over the gum nuts so as not to go flying off a cliff skating all over the road slam headfirst into a land train who did NOT feel the need to slow for the gumnuts.

I was almost home when I saw the sunset over the ocean. WOW! I couldn’t bear making the left turn towards home without stopping to get a shot of the technicolour sky! I convinced myself that abandoning my kids for 10 minutes more wouldn’t scar them for life (or at least not that badly) and headed to the beach.

The result.

The incredible technicolour sunset (by She'll Be Apples)

Sorry for the scars kids, but this ones a framer!

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Day 15 - Goodbyes and Hellos

Posted on August 1, 2008
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Japan, Holidays, Breaking news, Photography - All about the photos Baby! | Leave a Comment

Our last day was not only hectic but very sad for both of us so I didn’t take notes on what happened so I’ll have to go from memory.

We got ready that morning pretty quickly and took our luggage down the the office where the Ryokan was kind enough to store it for us until we had to leave for the airport.
We felt a bit frantic as we knew this was our last chance to see anything we had missed.  We headed out to Asakusa first. Sandy had decided at last minute that she wanted to buy yukatas for a few of her friends and Asakusa was where we had found the best ones for the best price. We walked around for most of the morning just taking it all in and feeling the impending moment when we would have to say goodbye. Around 2, we collected our bags from the Ryokan and headed towards the airport. It takes about an hour and a half to get there so when we arrived I stowed my bags for a few hours and went to check Sandy in. We wandered through the mall in the airport, stopping to pick up some sleeping tablets and have a late lunch. We were both pretty emotional and didn’t talk too much for fear of crying. That in itself is astounding! If you know me or Sandy personally, then you know that quiet is not a word used to describe either of us very often.

Finally it was time for Sandy to go through security. We hugged…a lot, and cried…a lot. It’s not easy saying goodbye to your best friend for an indeterminate amount of time. It feels like goodbye forever. We made promises to do it all again, with our Mother next time… maybe in Rome because that’s where Mum would like to go.

Then she went through security and was out of sight.

I bawled like a baby and wandered off to get my bags and go to my terminal. I think I must’ve looked a sight because everyone was so kind to me (helping me on and off the bus with my bags) though, to be honest, everyone in Japan had been very kind at any time. I truly loved the politeness and propriety of the people there and learned to say “Arigato gozaimas” (Thank you very much) an awful lot.

11 hours later and I was home again. Connor met me at the airport while Brian avoided paying for airport parking (such a rip-off!) and we headed home.

As much as it was hard to leave, it was good to be home!

 

 

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Day 14 - Tokyo…ANOTHER Earthquake!

Posted on July 14, 2008
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Japan, Holidays, Breaking news, A "How-to" tutorial of insanity, Photography - All about the photos Baby! | Leave a Comment

As a woman, I must admit that I love to shop and with the end of our holiday looming we were in dire need of souvenirs for friends, family and work colleagues. We had managed to pick up a few small things in Kyoto and Mt Fuji but now it was time for the big guns…

We took the train to Asakusa where we found the best market ever! More stores than I could count with everything from paper fans to kimonos, key chains to beautifully painted porcelain dishes, mobile phone trinkets to gold statues…and so much more.

We wandered from stand to stand trying to figure out what gift would suit which person and trying not to buy things for ourselves. This was gift shopping!

Alas, I have no control…lol I bought 2 yukutas for myself while choosing one for my mother and best mate Maggy.  I bought a painted porcelain fan for Sandy and one for myself because they were too beautiful to choose between.

Laden with bags we stopped for brunch in a little café above the markets. I had a rice omelette with miso soup (OMG YUM) and Sandy stuck to non-Japanese food in the form of cinnamon toast with whipped cream (also yummy…lol)

By the time the proprietor had stopped piling food on our table, I had to use the facilities pretty badly. We hadn’t seen any public washrooms anywhere in the markets so figured this was our last chance. I asked where the toilet was and was pointed to the back of the café whereupon I found…a single Japanese style toilet.

Uh oh.

Up until now, I had always manage to find (or wait until I found) a western style toilet. In the end, desperation won out and I managed to successfully use the facilities without falling in or embarrassing myself. I did however warn Sandy before she got up and she chose to wait. LOL

We made our way down to the end of the markets where we found…another temple!

 

(They really are EVERYWHERE) What was new, was that the fortune shirne had bilingual fortunes. Sandy had gotten one in Ueno but as it was written in Kanji, she didn’t know whether to keep it or not. (If it is a bad fortune, you are meant to tie it to the shrine where the wind blows the bad luck away from you.) She had planned on bringing it back to the Ryokan to ask the staff dor a translation but somewhere between Ueno and home…. It disappeared.

Sandy was very disappointed and upset that her fist fortune in Japan (something she had been really looking forward to) had disappeared and she didn’t know whether the bad luck would stay with her.  I reasoned that if it was bad luck, it blew away on its own…a good thing!

In any case, we had found another shrine and one with English! Sandy pulled twice and both times got terrible fortunes. Both were tied to the shrine post haste. The third time was obviously a charm (Sandy was determined to get a good fortune.) She finally got one that was positive… an excellent keepsake of our trip to Japan!

The Bad Fortune

To Sandy’s chagrin, the first fortune I pulled out was glowing. It couldn’t have gotten any better. I think I may frame it, if I ever remember to pull it out of my “Japan” file at home.

Back at the hotel, we desperately made an attempt to pack our souvenir spoils into our already bulging suitcases.  We looked at the pile of shopping carnage (bags, boxes and paper removed to make packing easier) and wondered how in the world we were going to get this all back home.

Time to do some strategic paring down of our “necessities.”  Anything that got ruined in the wash, socks with holes worn in them from incessant walking … bin. Anything not needed back home (travel soaps, shampoos, creams etc…) got put on the table for our use on the last day and then binned. I lost my favourite pair of jeans to a split in the leg that I have hoped to repair but gave in and tossed them in lieu of my new yukatas. It was a difficult process but in the end, we managed to pack everything.

We had popped into the local corner store to pick up dinner and drinks on the way home.  I had bought what looked to be a juice box and Sandy had gotten us a treat…a butterscotch sundae. Thr juice box turned out to be Jello and the butterscotch sundae turned out to be made with actual scotch. It reeked of alcohol. Needless to say, we ate it anyway *grin*I decided to make a documentary video of our room in Tokyo for our families and we had a good time showing the room, the shopping carnage and our horror movie bathroom which we both agreed was so creepy we could picture ourselves being murdered horribly within its walls.

As we sat reviewing the tape, the floor started rolling under our feet… AGAIN!

This time, we were awake and alert so we ran into the doorway and waited for the earthquake to finish. It was at least twice as long, and much stronger than the one we had our first night in the Ryokan. I cannot stress how much the building swayed during these quakes. We started looking at the cracks in the walls with new eyes and thanked our lucky stars that we were leaving the next day.
Here’s the link to the news story

I wasn’t able to find a news story for the first one. Obviously, it wasn’t big enough to merit more than a mention on the news.

We both went to sleep knowing that it was our last day in Japan. We’d be flying out of Narita airport at 5pm and 8pm the next day.

Sadness…

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Day 13 - Harajuku

Posted on June 29, 2008
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Japan, Holidays, Breaking news, A "How-to" tutorial of insanity, Things that give me inspiration, Photography - All about the photos Baby! | Leave a Comment

Today was an exciting day for us. We were going to Harajuku, the punk, goth, fashion capital of Japan.

Both of us were happy to simply wander through the shops and people watch. BOY are there some cool people to watch in Harajuku! The fashion there seems to be “whatever you want” although I did notice that the girls very commonly dressed like little dolls. Goth dolls, baby dolls, maids etc… They all had the “cute little girl” look in common and I have to say, Japanese girls are beautiful! Their dark eyes and flawless skin is striking to say the least and being young, they glow with health as well.

I could have taken pictures all day if I’d had my camera with me! I had forgotten it at the Ryokan that morning. Even if I’d had it with me, I don’t think it would have made a difference. Unfortunately, thought my phone’s camera is pretty decent under most circumstances, it doesn’t’ zoom well. Which means far away pictures or blurry close ups. That, or asking people to pose… I wasn’t that brave!

I have stolen a few pictures from Gideon though to give you an idea. (I hope you don’t mind Gideon, I certainly give you full credit!!) He’s a great photographer and really inspired to me to take some photography courses and get a decent camera.

 

I bought a pair of shoe to DIE for in Harajuku but Sandy struggled to find shoes in her size. They come in S (5) M (6) L (7) and LL (8) There must have been places with bigger shoes but we didn’t find them!

We went back to Ueno for a bit more browsing and a dinner of kebabs before heading home for the night. More massage chair madness and finally, Sandy hears the noises the coffee Thermos is making. Thought I was going nuts!

 

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Day 12 - Sakura in Ueno Park

Posted on June 21, 2008
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Japan, Holidays, Breaking news, Things that give me inspiration, Photography - All about the photos Baby! | Leave a Comment

Our first morning in Tokyo, we set out towards Ueno Park to meet up with Gideon.  We had some time to kill so took a tour of the little side streets around Ueno Station which are filled with markets and little shops. We stocked up on traditional Japanese souvenirs (silk fans) and generally people watched before lunch at the Hard Rock Café. A must for any traveller… find the Hard Rock Café. LOL

 When it was time to meet Gideon, we headed toward Ueno Park and were met with this fella.


The pose he was doing was called “The new Buddha”  as marked on the piece of cardboard beside him. OK, if you say so.

The Cherry trees were in full bloom (we timed our trip this way hoping we’d get Sakura) and all the trees were snowy white, pale pink and occasionally deep pink. Strong gusts of wind blew petals all over the throngs of people below.


 

Sakura is a big deal in Japan. People arrive in the wee hours of the morning to place their tarps under the trees to hold their place for later in the day. Everyone is very respectful and leave empty tarps where they are. People picnic under the trees and some of them dress up!

 

We spent a very long time here, walking through the food markets, (Yes, those are fish on sticks! They are however hot as they sit on burning coals. ‘Fishsicle’ came to mind nonetheless.) checking out the temples and getting some pretty incredible pictures.


Fishsicle

Dinner in Asakusa saw us buying some gorgeous china from a little shop and not buying anything from a shop so packed with stuff I failed to see how to get in!

Not what I bought but cute none-the-less

Where’s the door?

On the way home, Sandy and I marvelled over the Japanese habit of not blowing your nose in public. The guy next to us on the train practically inhaled my jacket sniffling in an effort to keep his nose from running.  I understand that it is very bad manners to blow your nose in public but this is better??

Sandy and I had a moment of hysteria that cause a few stares to come our way when we had a Roger Rabbit argument on the train (that I won by the way).

Me: No, you don’t!
Sandy: Yes, I do!

Me: No, you don’t!

Sandy: Yes, I do!

Me: Yes, you do!

Sandy: No, I don’t! (Confusion set in here – then realization of what had happened. Laughing until your weak is fun.)

Ahhh… to be in a foreign country and immature as babies!

We managed to make it home and treated ourselves to the massage chair in the common room and finally sleep.

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