getting ready for Japan trip

Another trip starts tomorrow. This time to Japan, where I'll be for a month. Everything is ready to go, just the last minute packing.

The idea for this trip started a couple of years ago, when Kate and Michael of the Mountain Rain Zen Community suggested a trip. They had recently accompanied Norman Fischer on  a trip to Japan for a Zen teacher ceremony, and thought our local group would be interested in going some time.

I fly into Osaka, and head straight to Kyoto where I'll meet with the zen group. The first two and a half weeks of the trip will be with the group, mainly around Kyoto where there are a lot of significant temples. This will include a 4 day meditation retreat at a temple between Kyoto and Tokyo, called Rinso-in. This is the temple where Shunryo Suzuki, author of Zen_Mind, Beginner's_Mind and founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, is from. We will also spend a couple of days at Koya San, a very picturesque temple complex outside of Osaka.

The last 12 days are on my own. I'll spend a couple of days in Tokyo, and then take the train to Hokkaido, the northern-most island. I'll spend a few days at a hotspring town called Noboribetsu, and then a couple of days in Sapporo. After that I'll start going south again, spending a few days on the northern tip of the main island where there are more parks and hotsprings. Then the train all the way to Osaka, where I'll spend a couple of days before flying home.

Yellowknife

For the first week of February, 2012, Celene and I went to Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories of Canada. I joked that we wanted to get away from the Vancouver weather. (Most people go south to get away from the rain, we went north). Our friend there, Christine, had our trip all planned. The first evening she showed us around 'Old Town' , which is down the hill from the main 'downtown', beside the lake. There are several house boats frozen into the lake. The winter is spent building a giant ice castle on the lake, which in March is home to a huge party.

The next day, we did the touristy dog-sledding thing. The main surprise here was that the dogs seemed small and short-haired - not like Huskies at all, more like muts. Despite that, it was a neat experience. I got a feeling for how quiet it would be to travel a distance by dog-sled.

The next two days were a cross-country ski trip to a cabin of the Yellowknife outdoor club. About 14 of us did the ski in. We had a amazing luck with the weather, as it was only about -5 degrees C, compared to the -20 C that would have been normal for that time of year. Not only that, but the skies were clear as well, which is very unusual when the weather is warm, so we could see the Northern Lights. This was a highlight for me, as it is one of the reasons I wanted to go to the north in winter.

In the cabin, we stayed up to 2 or 3 am playing games, and the next day skiied out in fine weather. On our last full day there, we tried a bit of ice fishing. That means we drilled holes in the ice - which was over a metre thick - and built a fire and hung out without any real expectation of catching anything. This day had more normal temperatures of -20 or -25 degrees C, so we got a taste of things.

Overall, a fantastic trip. I've always been fascinated by the Arctic, and I hope there will be more trips there.

Mustang video

I made a short video out of some videos and photos I took during the trek in Mustang, and put it on YouTube. You can see it be clicking here.

back home

Slowly unpacking, up in the middle of the night due to jet lag. Whenever I get back from a vacation I think of the opening lyrics from the song 'Sand in My Shoes' by Dido. I think it sums up the feeling pretty well:

Two weeks away it feels like the whole world should've changed
But I'm home now and things still look the same
I think I'll leave it til tomorrow to unpack
Try to forget for one more night
That I'm back in my flat
on the road Where the cars never stop going through the night
To a life where I can't watch the sun set
I don't have time
I don't have time

some first reflections

I'm in the lounge in the Hong Kong airport, now. The flight from Kathmandu to Hong Kong was overnight, but fortunately I actually slept through most of it.

If I think about the greatest impressions of the trip, it would be the scenery and villages of the trek, of course, but also the Nepali people. Not just in the villages, but everywhere, even in the most run-down looking part of Kathmandu, people are very friendly and helpful. I also found them to be quite honest, and I always felt safe. I love that wide-eyed happy, open expression of the kids as the come up to say 'hello'.

Visually, however, Kathmandu takes some getting used to. The paving of roads does not include sidewalks or anything, and garbage collects in the dirt on the side of the road, sometimes in big heaps.

Mukund, the trek leader, explained that the Maoists recruited heavily in villages in certain parts of the country during their uprising. Once displaced from their villages, peopled tended to drift into Kathmandu. So, the population of Kathmandu has increased dramatically. However, it doesn't look like there's been any money spent to improve infrastucture like waste management, power, public transit, paving, or traffic control. And with the instability of government, the money may not come for a while. Right now I think the main thing holding things together is the good nature of the Nepali people. However, if the trend continues, Kathmandu could be headed for a real crisis.

Last day

My last day in Nepal turned out to be quite a busy one. My flight was not until late in the evening, so I had time during the day to do something, but had no plans. A Thai group had arrived at Sanu House, and at breakfast Sarita said she was taking them on a tour, and anyone else could come if they wanted.

Again, we had the adventure of travel by bus.

First, we went to Swayambhunath, a large complex of Buddhist temples and stuppas, also know as the Monkey temple because of the large number of monkeys there.

Next we packed into a small bus and drove the Kathmandu's Durbar square. I'd been there before, but this was interesting because it was so packed for festival time, and there was a kind of car and motorcycle rally going around waving flags and shouting, and groups of people in traditional costume.

Next we took a bus to the village of Kirtipur, on a hill on the outskirts of Kathmandu. There is an old stuppa there, dating to the 1500's. There is also a couple of temples, with a fantastic view over the city.

Things were really festive in Kirtipur. Just about every block had a mandala done in colours on the road.

Everyone was outside, and tons of people were driving around, shouting, banging cymbals, etc.

It is also a time for the men to get together and gamble.

We took the bus back to the house, and got there by about 4:00 pm. Sarita said to be in the kitchen early for dinner, as there was going to be a ceremony for festival that we would all participate in. When I entered the kitchen, I found every sitting place decorated with a design on the ground in front of it, with and arrangement of fruit, flowers, nuts, and candles. Quite a sight. We had to sit in order by age, men on one side, women on the other. Then Sarita's sister came around to each person, put the red dot on the forehead. We were then given a handfull of flowers and grain to hold in our hand. For each person, she lifted all the fruit on the ground in front of them. The person put handfull of flowers and grain over it, and then took the fruit in their hands and lifted it to their head saying 'namaste'. Then each person got an egg to eat, and spoonful of rice and yogurt to eat from their hand. Finally, the plates were passed around and there was a dinner of rice and couple of different types of masalas. What an amazing thing to experience!

On this trip I've seen so much, and this was a really special end to it. I felt very priviledged and grateful to have experienced everything. However, the trip was over. About half an hour after dinner, I got my bags, said the good-byes, and got a cab for the airport.

Tihar

When I first arrived in Nepal, it was the beginning of the Dasain festival. Now, back in the Kathmandu area towards the end of October, it is the Tihar festival (Diwali in India). I think it's a New Years celebration in the Nepali Lunar calender, and there are days of paying respect to certain animals, yourself, your brothers, your sisters, etc. This seems to be the highlight of the year, and with buildings all lit up, people preparing for meals in anticipation, fireworks, etc, it has a real 'Christmas and New Year' feel to it.

The next day in Patan, we woke up before 4:30 am, and Sarita took several of us from the house on a tour of the old town to see the early morning festivities. People prepare elaborate designs in colour on the ground outside their doors, lit with oil lamps.

She also took us inside the Golden Temple, where there was a full ceremony going on. There was a group of older men in the center singing, and a steady stream of people came in to make the rounds worshiping at the altars. The climax seemed to be when a boy serving as the novice for the month appeared, and performed a ritual at the main altar. Everyone gathered round and there was a lot of excitement. Everyone, including us, got the red mark on the forehead, or tikka.

What was interesting was that this was a Buddhist temple, and certainly the symbols were mainly from the Tibetan Buddhist style. But the cermonies seemed to have a distinctly Hindu flavour. Another example of the blending of the religions here.

Afterward, Sarita took us on a tour of little side-streets, showing us courtyards of Buddhist houses that contained a little stuppa, for example. We never would have found that on our own.

On the streets, vendors were selling all kinds of treats that were special for the festival.

We also went to a temple that has the Kumari for Patan. This is the girl who lives there and is thought to be the embodiment of a goddess. I mentioned it before because there is one for Kathmandu, as well, in Kathmandu's Durbar square. In Kathmandu, the girl only appears in a window once in a while, and photos are forbidden. In Patan however, she came into a room with us and pictures were allowed. As another example of blending of religions, the Kumari is chosen from a Buddhist family, but is then treated as a living Hindu goddess. Go figure. You have to wonder about the life of a little girl kept hidden away like that, but I guess it's impossible to judge.

After everything was done, it was about 10 am, and we went back to the house to rest. I slept for a few hours, and then just hung around for a while. At night, several of us walked into town again to take in the festivities. Things were really lively. All the lights were on, and groups of little kids would go from shop to shop, singing and dancing to get a treat.

Durbar square was turned into major party zone, with a stage and DJ and tons of young people dancing. What was interesting was that there was no alcohol, and there was actually a soldier presence around the perimeter. It looked like everyone had fun, but there was no way it was going to get out of hand.