Visiting Japan-Days One and Two

Of all the places I've visited so far, Japan was by far the most difficult. Perhaps that was because, for the most part, we stayed away from the most well-worn tourist destinations. The exception, and the most accessible place we visited, was Universal Studios in Osaka. So, there may be some complaints here and there in my narrative. Most of them quite likely reflect my own ignorance of the language, the culture and the nation I was visiting. I hope I was not too much of an Ugly American, but  I fear in retrospect that I was.

May 19, 2013, Day One:

First, though, a funny thing. And this happened just after we arrived at the airport in Nagoya, and we were waiting for boat that would take us to Matsuzaka where we were staying. Yuro (age 5)  asked his Dad "Are you sure this is Japan?" I'm not sure why he asked that but it was hilarious. We took a high-speed boat across Ise Bay from Nagoya. It was a little windy and so the water was choppy, and it was dark so there was no way to see the horizon. The kids (Yuro and his sister Reika, age 3) got sick and Mexica didn't feel so good and I've felt better. Even the crew looked a little uncomfortable and no one on board enjoyed it. By the time we got to Matsuzaka it was raining pretty hard and very windy and I'm quite sure it was the coldest Mexica had ever been in her life. The boat cost 2700 Yen a piece for Mexica and me, with 1 Yen being about $.01.

We finally got to the condo at about  11 PM. We hadn't eaten yet. The only place open near us (and we didn't have a car yet) was a steak house called Bronco Billy's. It was only a short walk, so we ate there. The quality was not great for the price. But  it was really the only bad meal I had in Japan.

May 20, 2013, Day Two:

After we ate, we went across the street to an all-night grocery store. Being in that store gave me a taste of what it must feel like to be illiterate. There were signs everywhere, and I'm sure they were informative, but if I couldn't recognize the food or the label on the package, I had no idea what I was seeing. Very humbling.

As the day dawned, I was surprised to see so many rice fields outside Nok's window. His condo is on the 14th floor and has a nice view towards the inland area outside Matsuzaka. It is not a big city, and his condo is near the outskirts, but  even within the confines of some quite urban areas there was rice. I liked it. It certainly made the cities seem friendlier and it was more attractive (and more useful) than a vacant lot.

Matsuzaka, Japan, the view from the balcony of the condo where we stayed.

Matsuzaka, Japan, the mountains.

The Japanese love gadgets! And that was very clear from the condo. Everything that could be electrified was.

In Memoriam-Suzie Shultis

A very recent picture of my sister

My wonderful sister died this morning after a fierce battle with Adrenal Cortical cancer. It was almost exactly a year from her diagnosis until her death. Even though she was never given any hope of beating her disease she fought it with grace, dignity and heart for many months. I admire the spirit with which she confronted her coming end.

She was my sister. We fought like cats and dogs throughout our childhood. We had very different approaches to things. My mom and dad said that when they asked the two of us to do something, I would argue, fight, scream and complain--and do it. Suzie would remain silent--and not do it. Needless to say, I was always the one in trouble.

As adults, there were many years when we weren't close. We were geographically separated--after she was done with Don's moving about the country in the Navy she never left Springfield, while I moved to Oregon and then Washington. More important, however, we disagreed about  a lot of things--our politics could not have been more different. Then I divorced and left the LDS church, while Suzie always remained close to the church.

When I retired in February 2012, just before I moved to the Philippines, I went back to visit mom and Suzie and Steve. We had a nice time. Suzie was complaining of kidney pain--she was pretty sure she was suffering a recurrence of kidney stones--little did we know that it was really the first symptom of the disease that took her life. Suzie was very supportive of my move to the Philippines and of my decision to marry Mexica. It meant a lot to Mexica that she was accepted and loved by my sister, brother and mom.

Finally, as things were clearly drawing to an end, I traveled back to Massachusetts in January 2013 and spent a lot of time with Suzie. We went through photo albums and talked about the memories they brought back to us of  vacations, cousins, our  grandparents, summers on Brentwood Street, etc. It was a good time. I'm so glad I made that final trip back to see her and had a chance to spend meaningful time with her.

Suzie was a great sister. She leaves three strong and good sons and grandchildren who love her. It says volumes about her that the ex-wife of one of her sons cared for her right to the end. She was loved my many and I will miss her forever.

Hong Kong Disneyland

For our first anniversary we took a trip to Hong Kong and went to Disneyland. We had planned to do one day in Disneyland and one day in the city, but we had such a good time the first day that we decided to go back to the park and do it again for day two.

The weather in Hong Kong was new for Mexica. She found it quite cold. The temperatures were around 70 degrees F during the day and cooler at night. She was freezing. We had thought about the temperatures and she brought sweaters and a hoodie but those were not warm enough. Day two was cooler (about 65F) than day one, and she bought a Disneyland fleece-lined jacket. I wore shorts the afternoon of the first day and then long pants but a short sleeved shirt on the second day, and I was very comfortable. It was summer in Seattle!

My favorite part of the park was Grizzly Gulch. There were no crowds, maybe because it was farthest from the entrance, and no lines for the their great Runaway Mine Car ride. I mean NO LINES. We rode the ride twice, back to back with no waiting. It's a good roller coaster and Mexica loved it. There was also only a short line to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse, so we had our pictures taken with them.

We stayed at the Disneyland Hollywood Hotel. It was very convenient, they had a shuttle bus to the park, and the room was nice. The food in the hotel was not great, but that was the only downside.

We came back loaded down with "pasalubong" for the family (pasalubong is Tagalog for gifts, particularly from overseas).

Mexica in our hotel

This got a laugh from some of the other park visitors

The hotel gave us this little packet for our anniversary

I was tired, but not really THAT tired!

Chef Mickey's. The food was OK, but there was only a buffet at dinner and at breakfast

A geezer with a geyser

Palawan Vacation, Part V, Flora

I did a post of wildlife, so now flowers and plants. This is such a beautiful place, I hope these pictures capture a little bit of that beauty.

This was taken from the patio in the back of our hotel room.

As we exited the underground river.

I can't tell you anything about these flowers, except that they're beautiful.

Palawan Vacation, Part IV-The Entrance to the Cavern

I just thought I'd post a few more pictures that I took while we were waiting for our turn to go into the underground river. It was really a beautiful spot.

Also, a few more pictures of the island near the entrance to the cave. After seeing mostly beautiful beaches here in the Philippines, these rocky and rough shores were quite different, reminders that the Philippines are part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and that these are volcanic islands. The boat in the picture is identical to ours--we could only tell ours by number. There is no dock at the park site, you have to splash ashore through a few feet of surf, which just made the whole thing feel cooler!

Mexica's little sister, Russia, enjoyed herself playing on the bank of the river while we waited. She and her dad played with the fish in river. Once she'd been there a little while, she had a playmate.

Not much to narrate here. I just went back over the pictures and decided some of them were worth sharing. In case you're wondering why there are few pictures from after we left the cavern; well, I was getting a low battery indicator on my camera and I didn't have a spare battery. By the time I took the pictures of the lizards, the battery was dead and I had to wait and recharge it when we got back to the hotel.

Mexica on the river bank

Palawan Vacation, Part III, Wildlife and Fauna

One of the things that has struck me about the Philippines, at least here around Manila, is the absence of wildlife. I really see very little by way of fauna. There are no squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, or anything similar. No raccoon, no opossum. I know that there are rats and mice, but its hard to really count those. There are dogs and many of those are feral. I live very near the coast, within sight of Manila Bay, but there are no seagulls or shore birds to speak of. I don't know why, maybe the super-dense human population, but there are few wild animals here. Palawan was different.

Once you got out of Puerto Princesa, you started seeing more domestic animals, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, goats and carabao. There were birds on the beach. It was different, more alive with fauna besides humans. Much as I appreciate the human species, I enjoy other animals too. Palawan has them.

When we got to the Underground River, the first thing I noticed was that there were monkeys on the beach, a small troupe of long-tailed macaques. They are also called crab-eating monkeys, and they live near the shore all around Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. The Philippine long-tailed macaque is a threatened species, protected throughout the islands, but in the wild and sheltered area of the national park, they seem to thrive. The cities of the Philippines, as I noted above, seem very hostile to any kind of wildlife.

Inside the caverns, there were hundreds of small, brown bats. I couldn't get a good picture of them (sorry), the ceilings of the cave were high and they were hiding in the dark. According the Wikipedia article on the caves, there are 9 species of bats native to the area.

When we got out of the cave, our guide took us back to the beach by way of a different path, and on this path we found monitor lizards. They were huge. The guide told us that they could be short tempered and did not like human contact, so I kept my distance! I know my grandson, Lukas, is boiling with jealousy that I saw these. I can only reassure you, Luke, that they're not an endangered species and they are easy to find here, so if you ever get out here, I'm sure you can see them.

I mentioned carabao, which is the Tagalog word for water buffalo. I saw quite a few of them on Palawan, still being used in the traditional ways for plowing rice paddies and hauling carts. They are large and seem very slow moving.

Carabao cart on the beach at Palawan

Palawan Vacation, Part II, Underground River

Me and my beautiful wife, Mexica, at the entrance to the park

The main reason we stayed at the hotel we did was that it is close to the entrance to the Underground River. Visiting the river was the highlight of our vacation.

First we took a small boat from a dock near the hotel to an inlet on the coast near the mouth of the river. As you can see in this picture, the island of Palawan has very rugged features, the cliffs in the background were typical of the whole area near the river.

These limestone cliffs are typical of formations all over the island 

From the beach, it was a short walk to the entrance to the cave. There was, however, another highlight of this area, monkeys! To be precise, Long-Tailed Macaques, the primary monkey of the Philippines. I had never seen a monkey in the wild before, and that was exciting in it's own right. There will be a separate blog on wildlife.

At the cave entrance we waited a while for our turn to enter. Entrance is strictly regulated to protect the delicate environment. Only 800 people per day can go in, and the only conveyance is a small boat powered by oar. No motors allowed. Each boat holds 8 tourists plus a guide/paddler.

The entrance to the underground river. 

As far as measured to date, this is the longest underground river in the world, about 8 km, and it is navigable for much of that distance, but the tour we took only goes in about 1 km. It was a very impressive 1 km. The limestone of the cave contains many wonderful and strange formations. From time to time, you could see an offshoot of the cave, going into the distance. Like most large caves, this one has never been fully explored. The darkness was so complete, I couldn't sense the closeness of the walls except when the spotlight was on them. In some places, the river was wide and the roof  was high above. In the highest point, our guide said the roof was 65 m above us.

I say it looks like the root of a giant, if discolored, tooth.

Of course, there were bats, many bats. Neither Mexica nor I got any good pictures of them, though. They were small, brown bats, hanging high in the ceiling of the cave, and the darkness and the distance made good pictures impossible for us. The guide warned us to keep our mouths shut when we looked up. The river, he said, was rich with bat guano. Luckily, the only drips on me were water falling from the ceiling.

We weren't the first ones here, but tourism has increased a lot with the river being named one of the "7 Wonders of the Natural World", so we are sure not to be the last.

3/18/37--Before my time

It was nice to see the sun again