Passage to (and from) India

We had originally been planning on travelling to India in October or November when the monsoon has run it’s course and the weather has cooled down. Our friend Khen Rinpoche invited us, however, to come visit him in his village in Ladakh in August. Ladakh is in Northern India, high up in the mountains (12,000 feet above sea level) and is much cooler than the rest of India (and too cold to visit in November). Very sadly, however, about a week before we planned to go, huge flash floods hit Ladakh, a dry, high-desert area unaccustomed to so much rain. The main city, Leh, was terribly damaged, many people were killed and hundreds more are homeless. (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gLb2kMuLUyJJ_gkmLQfqKyfvNDuA) . Khen Rinpoche and his village of Stok were reportedly okay as they were on higher ground. Given the situation, we decided to postpone our visit, but that wasn’t until we had already arrived in New Delhi.

Delhi was a major challenge for us. Maybe it was because we had just come from Japan, or that we had forgotten what living in Egypt was like, or that we had over-estimated the trickle down of economic growth of India, or the state department warnings about travel in India, but it was major culture shock! Our hotel was in the heart of New Delhi. In contrast to Old Delhi, New Delhi was a city planned out by the British in the early 20^th century and was completed only shortly before Indian independence. The hotel was actually part of the New Delhi city design. It was beautiful and had a colonial feel to it – white, opulent and palm trees everywhere. A high wall also surrounded it with armed guards at the entrance who inspected our car as we arrived (the kind of thing that both does and does not put you at ease).

Our first outing from the hotel was just a walk down to Connaught Place, a large roundabout with a shopping area around it only about a half-mile from the hotel. I thought it was strange as the concierge wished us good luck as we exited the hotel, but thought he was just being nice. We needed it!

Unbeknownst to us, all of Connaught Place was under construction for the upcoming Commonwealth Games (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/CWG-2010-Dug-up--delayed-CP-down-in-dumps/articleshow/6310025.cms) . The facades of the building were half chipped off and being repaired, the streets and sidewalks were dug up, and there were giant pits and holes everywhere (completely unmarked). On top of this was the insane traffic pouring through the now dirt streets, the street hawkers and beggars and sticky heat (about 90 degrees and 95% humidity). We lasted about an hour in the chaos.

The hot weather made sightseeing more challenging than it might have usually been. The heat just zapped our energy. We did manage to go out to see Humayan’s tomb (the inspiration for the Taj Mahal) and visit the Gandhi museum.

Emma and David At Humuyan's Tomb

Assending the stairs to the top of the tomb and inside in front of the carved windows

Walking in Gandhi's footsteps...

We also made the huge trek out to Agra to see the Taj Mahal – 8 hours of driving to travel about 70 miles each way – but we made it. It was Indian Independence day so it was pretty full, with tons of security, but it was spectacular nonetheless. It is situated on a hill with a big river behind it, so it always has that look of “floating”. We kept hoping a monsoon would hit to cool us down as we could hear the thunder booming in the distance but no such luck.

One of the nights we were in Delhi we were invited by a guy in the Delhi chapter of Dylan’s entrepreneur group to come to his son’s birthday party. Emma and David had a great time – they had ice cream and candy galore and a bouncer. Everyone we met was so nice and welcoming. Emma was especially excited because another guy and his wife were there with their 10-year old daughter and she and Emma really hit it off.

Off to Singapore!

What David learned about Japan...as told to Mommy

-Japan has lots of temples.

-Japan has lots of sushi. In Tokyo we went to this restaurant where they would put little plates of sushi on this thing that would circle them around and after it had circled them about a half an hour, they would take them off.

-On either side of the temple there would be big guardian deities.

Watching the puppet show...

-In Takayama we went to a puppet show and a puppet made me a scroll that said "dream" first in English and second in Japanese.

-"Arigato" means thank you. "Doy tashi ma-shi tea" means you are welcome. "Konichi-wa" means hello. "Hi" means yes. "Doe-zo" means go ahead.

In the cedars on the Tokkaido highway (samurai trail)

-We walked on a samurai trail when we were at the Fujiya hotel.

-Tokugawa Ieyasu was a very famous samurai and the first shogun on Japan. Samurai are special Japanese warriors.

Showing off their chopstick skills!

-I learned how to use chopsticks.

-Before we go in a jacuzzi or a bath, we usually have to wash off.

-They had vending machines all over the place.

-Whenever you wanted to go on a train, it was only a couple of blocks away. The trains are really, really fast.

-Mount Fuji is the biggest mountain in all of Japan.

-When we were walking down an alleyway towards our apartment, we ran into a geisha, a special kind of Japanese girl. Her housing mother was nice and let us take a picture with her. A housing mother is a person who helps take care of the geisha.

-We went to the Tokyo Disneyland on Emma's birthday.

-I wrote two haiku which are special Japanese poems.

Emma's report on Geishas

The Maiko that we met in Kyoto.

"A geisha is a type of woman in a kimono. A kimono is a type of robe with designs on it. In Tokyo they call them Geisha but in Kyoto they call them Maiko and Geiko. A Maiko is a Geiko in training. A Geiko is a Maiko that has completed her training. Maiko and Geiko both wear white face paint. I will tell you how to tell a Maiko from a Geiko. Maikos' kimonos have long sashes in the back of them and Geikos' kimonos had short sashes in the back of them. Maikos have higher shoes than Geikos do. Geikos wear wigs but Maikos do not. Maikos have lots of little ornaments [in their hair] but Geikos have only one or two ornaments. You say My-Ko, Guy-Ko, and Key-mono. I saw a Maiko and I got to take a picture with her. She was very beautiful."

Emma turns 8!

Emma's special birthday surprise was going to.....Tokyo Disneyland! It was crazy. It was almost like the California Disneyland with Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion and the Teacups - but not. Maybe it was the soy sauce and butter popcorn, the hot dog that looked like a hot dog but was not, the Mickey Mouse head-shaped pork buns, or the polite and plentiful bowing before every ride began. It was still fun. I just hope that Japanese everywhere aren't learning all their American history from there (Davey Crockett's canoes, Tom Sawyer rides, etc.)!

Emma and David with their furry friends... David kept petting him!

Sleeping Beauty's castle - even bigger than in Anaheim!

We actually went to Disneyland the day before her birthday and then spent her birthday at the hotel swimming pool. The pool backed up to a big Buddhist shrine so there was incense wafting over the whole afternoon which made it seem even more exotic.

We went out for a special sushi dinner that night as requested by Emma. The place we went to had a sushi bar with a conveyor belt moving around it. The chefs would just keep putting fresh plates of sushi on the belt and you could grab off whatever looked good. They were priced by plate color. The fancy part was that each plate had a microchip in it so they could keep track of how long each plate had been in circulation and take them off after a half-hour. When you were done, the waiter just moved his wand over the plate stack, which read the microchips in the plates to total your bill! Emma ate tons of salmon while David was just preoccupied keeping a running tally of our bill based on our plates. :)

Wendy meets Mount Fuji

Armed with pointers from Dylan, I took three buses to the fifth station of the Subashiri trail to start my assent up Mount Fuji. The fifth station is at 6,562 feet above sea level and the summit of Mount Fuji is at 12,688 feet. I arrived at about 6pm on the last bus. Dylan recommended waiting as long as possible so that I wouldn't have to wait around on the top for too long for the sunrise. I got a bowl of ramen at the station but at about 7:30 they started closing the place down, so I decided I would set out and just take it really easy. I felt pretty safe going up alone after having been in Japan for nearly a month and getting a sense of it.

It was foggy, steamy and drizzling. I had about 15 feet visibility and was the only one on the trail in the pitch dark. Until the next station, pine trees tightly surrounded the trail. I felt okay at first but started feeling pretty freaked out being there alone. It was like a creepy scene from a Kurasawa film and I kept expecting to find a blind old witch or someone around the corner. My adrenalin kicked in and I ended up sprinting up the hill to the next station to catch up with other people and get about the tree line.

There were a handful of people of other people also hiking up, so after the sixth station we kept seeing each other. Above the tree line it was clear and I could see the stars and below all of the clouds covering the valley. There were lightening storms all over the place below that kept flashing through the clouds. The clear weather changed shortly after and a torrential rainstorm started a few hours later just as I was approaching the eighth station.

When I reached the eighth station, my pants and shoes were completely soaked. It was only midnight and it would only be another 2 hours to reach the top. I was starting to get cold so I decided to stay at one of the huts. I had heard that they were loud and crowded, pretty much a futon shared with a stranger with people coming in and out all night. It ended up being great. I had 3 futons and 4-5 down comforters to myself and had a chance to warm up for a few hours before my final assent.

I left the hut at 2:30am to start for the top. At the eighth station the Subashiri trail meets another trail from the other side - a more popular one - and suddenly becomes a crazy traffic jam. Between the mass of people and high altitude, people were moving at snail speed. There were huge tour groups being guided by leaders with bright yellow suits and flashing red lights. I was nervous I'd miss the sunrise luckily made it by 4:50am. It was amazing to be up there with all the people and in a place I never thought I would be!

Waiting for the sun......

Sunrise from Mount Fuji - beautiful but not solitary!

Getting ready to descend after the big show

The top was so crowded with people and I could see more winding up the hill from below.

I was initially relieved to begin the descent...until I hit the scree (small loose volcanic rock about the size of a walnut). The trail down went straight down, steep with loose rock the whole way. By the time I reached the bottom about 2 hours later, my legs were just like rubber. I felt like I could hardly use them without the flopping around!

Dylan sets off for Mount Fuji

Dylan left this afternoon for Mount Fuji. It was freaky saying bye to him…not just because he was going off into the unknown but also because we have been together 24-7 for the past month!

We are looking forward to enjoying being back at the Fujiya hotel – it is such a beautiful and magical spot….and letting the kids work off some energy in the pool.

View from our window at the Fujiya hotel at sunset

Takayama and back

Beautiful Takayama........

We arrived in Takayama expecting that we would have a break from the heat we had in Kyoto, only to get off the train and find it was about 96 degrees! At least it wasn’t also humid. Takayama is up in the Japan Alps and is surrounded by mountains. It is very well preserved and has beautiful traditional wood houses throughout, many of which are hundreds of years old. Once of the nicer things about it is that it is small – we could walk from one end to the other which was a nice change from huge Tokyo and big Kyoto. It definitely has a small town feel and we found that the people were SO friendly.

The train ride here was spectacular –it followed the river (with beautiful blue-green pools and limestone banks) up the canyon filled with bamboo and cedar trees. We’d go through

On our first day we decided check out the Japan Alps National Park. They have a tram that goes up to the top of the mountains. We thought we could hike back down but found this wasn’t possible (probably because they are so steep). It was still beautiful and nice to be up so high. It was also amazingly crowded with Japanese tourists, the first time we’ve really felt like we were here during the high tourist period.

At the top of the Japan Alps!

There was a hot springs at the top, where they were cooking eggs in the hot water. We got a couple, just to try, as they are supposed to be good for you. The consistency was strange. The yolk was hard but the white was runny. I was pretty sure that the kids would NOT like this. On the contrary – they slurped them down and begged for more!

We did manage to get our hiking in the next day. We went to a nearby park that housed the ruins of the Takayama castle, which was originally situated on top of the big hill that made up most of the park. It was drizzling and muddy so we had the whole place to ourselves. We wound through the park on stair paths with bamboo risers through the pine trees and bamboo. It was hard to believe that the little town was just down the hill.

Hiking through the trees

Discovering the original walls and gate to the Takayama Castle

To reward ourselves for our hiking efforts, we decided to try a burger place we’d read about, Center 4 Burgers. The region Takayama is in Hida which is supposed to be famous for it’s beef. We ended up at this crazy place with 1930’s American memorabilia and Johnny Cash playing in the background. The Canadian tourist at the table next to us was devouring his second burger as we sat down. There was a good reason why – they were awesome – better than most at home! The guy who ran the place told us he had never been to the US but had learned to make burgers from a place he had worked at in Tokyo. He wants to open his own restaurant in the US…we had to explain that unlike Japan, there are burger places all over in the US. He was surprised!

Dylan considers taking a tenured position at Center 4 Burgers...

That night, we were fortunate enough to be in town for a summertime fireworks display over the river. The whole town seemed to come out and were all dressed in their summer kimonos. Carny-type food stands were up all over the place with not so familiar Japanese carny food like takoyaki (puffy little pastry balls with octopus inside them covered with teriyaki-ish sauce), shave ice (snow-cones), and fish paste on sticks. It was so cool to see all different generations together – even the hipsters in their traditional kimonos (you could tell because they still had their Duran Duran hairstyles) – all enjoying the evening. It was a different vibe than we had experienced in big Tokyo and Kyoto.

The next day we went to check out the nearby folk village. While there were a few houses originally in the village location, most had been relocated from another valley where they built a hydroelectric dam. Even thought it was a little contrived, it was still pretty cool to see the houses (you could go inside) and realize that they had been built without nails. Most of the houses were 200-300 years old.

David and Dylan check out the folk village

Checking out the construction without nails...

The kids loved navigating the village using the map and running around. Their favorite part, however, was probably dressing up in the traditional clothes and pulling the wagon. David refused to smile because he said if he did, no one would think he was working hard and make him do more.

Hmm...looks like David must be doing all the hard work...

David before his Takayama barber experience.

David after his Takayama barber experience!

We decided to go from Takayama back to Hakone and to attempt to climb Mount Fuji. You can climb it during the day or go up at night so you can watch the sunrise in the morning. We have decided on the nighttime trip but it will be too much for the kids so Dylan will go up on Sunday night and then return Monday morning and I will go up on Monday night and return Tuesday morning.