Kansai region, Japan

March 2008
In the case of Japan, my pictures say far more than my words so, in keeping with all things Japanese, I will keep this simple:


Kyoto and surrounding area
Beautiful, historical, clean and efficient, Kyoto strikes an impeccable balance of the old and the new. Temples are to Kyoto like Starbucks is to Seattle... You can find one on just about every corner. Each temple was a masterpiece of design and joinery (although some stood out in particular for their craft and design, as shown in my photos) and many were surrounded by gardens that far out-did the temples themselves. Other pleasures involved eating (sushi, soba, sashimi, raw eggs and squid on a stick), shopping for Japanese tea cups, riding a bike around town and meeting some great new friends.




Koyasan, Wakayama Preficture
Site of one of Japan's holiest of mountains and the center of Buddhist training in Japan, Koyasan is a remote area in the South of Kansai penninsula. A small town full of shrines, temples, tall cedars, crisp mountain air, monks and the ever present, overlapping sounds of ritual music, just being in Koyasan inspires meditative reflection and inner peace. Lodging is limited to staying in traditional (active) temple-inns, which is an experience in itself. This included joining morning prayer, sleeping on tatami mats, bathing in a traditional wooden public bath, and being served trays of Japanese cuisine (so beautiful it was difficult to eat) by friendly, laughing monks.


...And a little work
Before heading back to the deserts of the UAE, I attended an interesting international conference on socially and environmentally-responsible design and design education (Cumulus Kyoto 2008). The conference combined lectures, panel discussions and the signing of the "Kyoto Design Declaration", a statement of commitment by the members of Cumulus to sharing the global responsibility for building sustainable, human-centered, creative societies. Coincidentally, this declaration was signed in the same hall in which the Kyoto Treaty was signed... Despite my concerted effort to locate the treaty and sign it on the behalf of all enlightened Americans, the treaty remains untouched by American penmanship.

I have posted a ton of photos on my flickr account:
www.flickr.com/photos/rustythumb/
Please look for the collection on the right of my flickr homepage titled "Kansai, Japan 08".

-Tonya

Tanzania X-Mas 07

Tonya’s Adventures in Africa

While my original plans regarding visiting Kenya changed due to the onslaught of election-induced rioting, the month I spent in Tanzania was everything I had hoped it would be: Colorful, lush, beautiful, fertile, charming, mystical and full of hospitality and smiling faces. The following is a streamlined version of my adventures:



Mt. Kilimanjaro
I read somewhere that 1 in 5 people don’t make it to the summit of Kili (19, 340 ft, 5895 m.), and for some reason I thought I was going to fall in line with the lucky ones, the 4 out 5. This, however, was not to be. I made it damn close though, all the way to Barafu Base Camp (15, 200 ft, 4800 m.), which is high enough to clearly see the receding glaciers of the “Roof of Afica”. My body and the altitude were having an argument and the altitude won. (I will leave the details to your imagination, but just know that there was one stretch where two guides each had an arm and were more or less dragging me down the mountain at the end of a nausea-filled 9-hour hike at which point I thought I just might die. …And then there was also the gasping for breathe at base camp which kept me on my toes.) Alas, I have no regrets: It’s all about the journey and not the destination, and the journey was incredible. Memorable moments include hiking past colobus monkeys and Dr. Suess-esque trees (lobelias), being passed by scrawny, young porters carrying entire camp-ready dining rooms on their heads, eating amazing meals and entirely too many bananas, Jamaica’s magic juice, waking up at midnight on x-mas eve to pee under a freezing full moon with the whole mountain lit up and a million stars overhead, drinking morning tea in a frost-covered moonscape, climbing up rocks like a “dicky-dicky” (mountain goat), being above the clouds with Moshi blinking through, hot Nalgene bottles on my toes, wind storms, watching a line of head lamps work towards the summit, and great conversations with my climbing companions and guide. The folks I joined up with were Russian-American, all related, and were great people. They pretty much adopted me into their family, which was tremendous of them. I even learned a bit of Russian, in addition to a fair amount of Swahili.




Safari
I did a short two-and-a-half day safari to Tangere and Nogorogoro Crater parks where I saw multi-generational herds of elephants walking tail to trunk, giraffes running in what looks like slow motion, ostriches so huge that –from a distance- they are easily mistaken for elephants, baboons running around with babies attached to their bellies and backs, muscley-skitterish-wig-wearing warthogs, termite mounds as big as houses, zebras, zebras, and more zebras, impalas, bison, waterbucks, wildebeests, cows, dik-diks, mongoose, vulures, hippos, a male and female lion, and two black rinos. My companion for the safari was a Chinese-American who worked in computers, and who was the Chinese version of my mother’s husband in every detail.




Moshi
Moshi is a fairly big city in Tanzania, bustling with market life and mini-busses (called Dolla-Dollas) which get filled until over-flowing with people hanging out of the windows and climbing on top of each other. It’s a colorful place where women wear bold patterned dresses and carry huge loads on their scarf-wrapped heads. While there are plenty of street hagglers to wear a tourist down, it was always easy to make a friend or chat with a stranger or just hang out and watch the comings and goings as if watching a movie. I made friends with some local craftspeople and so had the fortune of having a personal tour guide of sorts. They escorted me and two volunteers I met to a part of Moshi that is at the base of Kilimanjaro where we hiked out to a beautiful waterfall and sampled the local banana beer (Imagine the taste of fermented bananas… It’s awful and not recommended). One of my most memorable (and frightening) experiences occurred between Moshi an Arusha, a large city about an hour from Moshi: I was on a big bus, sitting in the backseat, when the bus broke down in the middle of the road and caught on fire. Everyone, including myself, started to jump out of the windows onto the road. The funny thing is that no one seemed phased, as if this sort of thing happened all the time… I met a German missionary on the side of the road who had also jumped out of the bus who was trying to make his way up to the riot zone of Nairobi. He made some comment to me about how taking busses in Africa is risky business, but I’m not sure if going into a riot zone is any less reckless. I hope he made it there, and back out, safely.



TunaHaki
I spent some of my time volunteering with TunaHaki (which means “We have a right” in Swahili), a center for children who have lost one or more parent to AIDS. The kids were amazing and full of smiles, and were eager to take on the craft projects that we (the volunteers) organized for them. I lost all inhibitions and sang silly songs and danced to Twist an Shout… I think they were into it, and, if not, then I had fun anyway. My most memorable times at TunaHaki involve the kid teaching ME skills, including the fastest way to peal garlic cloves and cook over a smoky fire, and how to hand wash clothes systematically and efficiently with a bar of soap and a bucket of dirty water. I lugged along two big bags of new shoes, soccer balls, and art materials, but the kids were most receptive to the candy I brought. Initially I was confused when they all were holding out their hands and exclaimed, “pee-pee”, but then I learned that this is the Swahili word for “sweet”. (Translation caught me off guard in a number of occasions; for instance the word for brother is Caca.) TunaHaki is in the process of having a new, sustainable building built to house the kids and I commend the director, David Ryatula, for dedicating his time and energy towards this end. By the way, if you use the search engine “Goodsearch” (instead of Google, for instance) money will automatically be donated to the organization of your choice, and TunaHaki is on their list.



Tribes
Tanzania is a country with somewhere around 120 tribes and various religions including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and primitive faiths (including witchcraft), and yet it is peaceful. Of the tribes in Tanzania the one that is most pronounced is the Masai. You have seen pictures of the Masai in National Geographic and, if you are like me, you probably thought that the way of life of the Masai was a thing of the past. Well, I am here to tell you that it’s not. The Masai, a hunting and herding tribe who live simple lives in huts of cow dung and sticks on the outskirts of town and who often have many, many wives, coexist with townspeople who are trying desperately to be a part of the modern, industrialized world. I saw Masai riding bikes, talk on cell phones, and go through airport security. I also saw them herding cows and goats and perform a ceremonial mating dance. To be clear, I JOINED them in their dance, and I thought I might be married by the end of the it but, I guess it wasn’t meant to be.



Architecture
While the Masai huts were fascinating to me (they were the most sustainable structures I have ever seen in my life), the architecture I saw around Moshi also intrigued me. Much like patchwork quilts, houses are often put together with whatever materials are available, and the result I beautiful. I know they thought I was crazy (kitcha) for being so excited about their houses, but I was just so enamored by their ingenuity and craft. The bricks pictured are handmade from soil.



Sustainability
Speaking of ingenuity and sustainability and resourcefulness, there were lots of people in Moshi who made things out of car tires such as gaskets, bicycle brakes, and belts. They even made these cool sandals; I bought a pair for $5. The Masai wear these too. Pretty cool, huh?




Zanzibar
The last six days of my trip were spent in Zanzibar, a primarily Muslim island off the coast of Tanzania. I spent a whole day exploring Stone Town with my camera, taking photos of narrow streets, the light, fish, dhows, and everyday life. Three weeks into my solo travels and I was feeling very worn out. I found myself a quiet little hut on a beach on the East side of the island where I happily drank fresh pina-coladas, searched for sea shells, swam in the ocean, read two books, and finally had the chance to reflect on my first experiences in Africa.

I took a LOT of great photos and they can all be viewed at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rustythumb/

PLEASE, PLEASE CHECK THEM OUT! The collection is on the right of my main page and is labeled "Tanzania X-Mas 07". I welcome your comments... and gifts and emails in general.

UAE and Oman, straight up, on the rocks.

Yes, I am still here… Just too busy to sit at my computer and push the buttons to formulate words. Alas, it is the National Day Holiday this weekend in the UAE (the equivalent to Independence Day, minus the fireworks but with the addition of gun-waving, flag-bearing, dish-dashi-wearing, car-honking Emiratis parading around town) and I finally have an extra minute to reconnect.


What’s been going on in the world of Tonya, you ask? Well, let’s see… In November I took a trip to the Musandam Peninsula of Oman where the terrain is refreshingly three-dimensional, the food is cheap, and the people are amazingly friendly. A group of colleagues and myself took a chartered dhow out around the peninsula where we wove our way through rocky islands, were chased by dolphins, and snorkeled with purple and yellow-striped fish. Only a two and half-hour drive from Sharjah, I definitely plan to visit the area and the people of Oman again I the future.




Sharjah. Unlike Dubai, Sharjah is a backwards, ugly and unglamorous city full of old buildings, chaos and perpetual traffic jams. Despite this, I have been trying to explore the emirate I call home and take advantage of some of the textures it has to offer. The dhows are a point of intrigue for me –particularly because they represent one of the few traditional crafts of this region that has survived the onslaught of globalization—and I find that when I go out to shoot pictures that I am naturally drawn to their forms and to the bustle of the shipping industry that surrounds them.



To the North of Sharjah is the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah where the terrain is similar to that of Oman: Rocky mountains pushed up against the blue ocean. For an “out-doorsy” person such as myself who is living in a flat, inaccessible, super-car-culture-driven place, RAK is a real godsend. I bought a Jeep and the official “UAE Off-Road Guidebook” and went off in search of a hike called Stairway to Heaven. Well, I’m not sure if we were ever on the trail described in the book, but my colleague and I did find lots of rocks, mountain goats, and a German and Austrian duo also trying to follow the cryptic directions described in the guidebook. It was a strenuous hike, traversing through a wadi (dry riverbed) of boulders and scrambling across loose, dry (sharp as the dickens) rock, but the views made it all worthwhile. Plus it gave me one of the few opportunities I will have to properly break in my new hiking boots before my upcoming trek up Kilimanjaro. (Be sure to check back at the end of January for excerpts for what I imagine will be an adventure-filled trip: Kenya and Tanzania from 21 Dec. to 18 Jan.!)

To see all of my cool, new photos please check go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rustythumb/

Once again, I recommend viewing the sets on the right to avoid photo overload. I would love to hear your comments, so please feel free to drop me a line!

Until later,
-T