Spring Break; a study in extremes... in India

Being in Asia, we took the opportunity to explore more of the world by flying over to Kerala, India, where my sister Rebecca has a Fullbright scholarship to do sociological research at the university of Thirumvananthapuram (how is that for an impressive name!). Her husband Ward decided to join her for the 7 months so we thought this would be an amazing opportunity to see them in a new world and learn about a country we know very little about. 

Our first time on the Arabian peninsula; Abu Dhabi through the windows of the airport

And off to Thrivindrum (as the locals say for easier pronunciation) and meeting up with Rebecca and Ward in their dark, cool and modern apartment.

Walks around the neighborhood permitted us to get a feel for daily life in the area with lots of evidence of the current Communist Party in power in Kerala. 

Many vibrant and alive temples with signs of faith everywhere. 

We were interested to hear about the work Rebecca is doing for her Fullbright Scholarship at the University in Thrivundrum.

A university beautifully designed many years ago by an English architect for natural air conditioning. 

Rebecca's office...

We toured a variety of richly textured temples including a temple that boasts a Guinness book of World Records record for the largest gathering of women (click here)

Rebecca and Ward introduced us to the amazing real life legend of hidden riches at this, the mysterious temple called: Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple. 

It is a story of intrigue, of hundreds of years worth of treasure hoarding, of rumours of theft. The Indian Supreme Court ordered in 2011 that one of the chambers be opened and inventoried. As it turns out the value of that one room's treasure was estimated at ... $22 billion (yes; billion!!!). There are several other chambers to be investigated. For more on this story click here. Now there are huge and passionate discussions among the faithful and the non-faithful as to whether this treasure belongs to God and thus remains in the temple as supervised by the Maharaj, or does it belong to the state to be used for the good of all people (and risk corruption etc.)? This is still being argued about today. 

Springing off from Thrivindrum, Rebecca and Ward took us on a fascinating series of adventures around the state of Kerala.

A stop in the ancient city of Kochi which had seen Roman traders come through looking to trade for spices as well as some of the earliest Christians. St. Thomas, the apostle of Jesus, arrived in the state of Kerala somewhere near 50AD where he was later martyred. (click here for more)

This was also the first Portuguese colony established in India by Vasco de Gama, who later died here. (more details here)

Ward and I were impressed by the high quality Lamborghini tuk-tuks....

Fascinating things to learn about in Kochi, like these special chinese fishing nets... but also hard to ignore the layer of filth and garbage covering most of the beach.

We enjoyed the sights, colours and smells of the shops...

Sampled some henna...

And found some shade in a peaceful sculpture garden...

Kochi and area had a very large christian presence seen on trucks...

As well as magnificent churches.

From Kochi we were driven on a long, long, crowded and winding road up into the Western Ghats mountains to a peak near the community of Munnar. A 5:00 AM expedition up the side roads to a trail head...

To find ourselves way above the cloud level...

To see the sunrise (partly made more beautiful by the poor air quality!).

The heat just began to assault us at the top of the peak so we headed back down...

with vistas of tree plantations on all sides.

Our guide was quite friendly and cheery and enjoyed sharing stories about his recent wedding.

From the mountain peak we wound our way down through perfectly manicured tea plantations that gave us a real understanding for how tea is grown. The trees can be quite old but they are trimmed down to waist height with passageways between each series of bushes so the new shoots can be cultivated.

The entire morning we could hear blasting music and speeches echoing throughout the valley. We assumed it was some kind of wedding. No... it was a political rally with about 30 people there. They just wanted to make sure no-one missed the fact they were there!

In the late afternoon, after all day in the sun, we appreciated going for a tour of an organic spice plantation where the spices are planted underneath the tree canopy.

It was fascinating to see cocoa growing:

Tapioca:

Pepper vines:

Our final trip back to the lodge had us careening down the mountain with all four of us jammed into the back seat of our guide's tuk-tuk (no, there were no seat-belts!).

The next morning we were up early to go to the Periyar Wild Life preserve. Without the crowds, the noise, the litter, it was a very peaceful hike deep into the wild life preserve with all of its unique flora and fauna.

The highlight was when we came across some wild elephants grazing in a clearing. It was particularly meaningful to us as we had just heard the previous day in the tea plantations about how a wild elephant had come out to a temple and killed two people! Needless to say, we kept our distance...

 It was lovely to travel with my sister:

Our final stop on our tour of Kerala was catching a houseboat at Kumarakon. This area of inland waterways is popular for the lovely houseboats you can rent to be taken through some of the back waterways of the area. 

We head a two bed-room boat...

Lots of lounging and relaxing space...

A cook and two assistant to serve us delicious food...

With periodic stops to walk along some of the country trails. Check out the matching colours here!

As we were tied up at night, the view from our window was quite special at sunrise.

Lovely fresh and healthy food done by our chef...

That was our last stop on our planned India trip. We had thought through the days, decided where we wanted to go, enjoyed our time exploring, and boarded this train to return to Thrivundrum and our flight back to Tokyo. We were ready to head back to our world in Tokyo feeling quite grateful for the work Ward and Rebecca had done to make this a great trip.

Only little did we expect that this was actually the beginning of a whole new adventure because my passport disappeared on this train; this was a BIG problem!

In India you need a passport to buy train tickets, to register overnight in a hotel. The airports are guarded by soldiers with submachine guns who won't let you in the airport unless you have a passport...

To be continued in the next blog.

On the work front; completion of year 2 for BSCIS

Here it is mid-March and this marks the end of year 2 for Bunka Suginami Canadian International School. This also marks Shelley's and my second full year here in Tokyo.

Here is the gate that I go through everyday on my bicycle, rain or shine, wind or sleet. There is always the pleasant gate guard who bids me a formulaic greeting with a big smile, no matter what the weather. The weather provides a regular conversation between him and I.

These are my Japanese colleagues, the senior administration team that I work with very closely, dressed in their finest for graduation. The principal (in the center) and our VP on the right speak no English which means I get to practice my Japanese (rough as it is) on a daily basis. 

This is part of our DD staff in my office, decorated with reminders of the physical beauty that surrounds us in BC. My assistant in the middle of this photo is the facilitator of our cross-cultural and multi-lingual conversations that we need to have on a daily basis. 

Our DD program this year comprised of grade 10 and grade 11 students. Next year we expand to grade 10, 11 and 12 students. Because the graduating class did not have DD students the entire graduation event was in Japanese. 

Grad is a wonderful time for all of us to dress up. Signs of respect at important ceremonies here in Japan include a white tie for men, and better yet, a traditional kimono for both men and women:

The homeroom teachers are presenting their thank you. 

The actual event was a very formal event with hundreds of students, speeches of thank you by the principal, the owner of the school, the teachers, the grade 12 rep, the grade 11 rep. At every speech the entire assembly stood up and bowed then sat down. The empty chairs here are for the grade 12 students. Once they entered it was no longer appropriate to take photos. 

The stage was beautifully set with flowers, the Japanese flag and a gold panel evoking Japanese history. 

After the formal part of the ceremony the parents' association put on a celebration for students and staff with fabulous food, a year in review slide show and several humorous performances. 

The students had a great time watching their teachers in action:

All teachers were given a beautiful gift by students: 

And then the teachers were cheered as they proceeded out fo the room, ready for another year. 

As we wind up the year with final exams we are already prepping for next year. We have accepted a whole group of enthusiastic new grade 10 students and we are expanding our BC courses into grade 7 and grade 9 next year. 

We look forward to getting our new students oriented at the beginning of April for a new year. 

We continue to learn in Tokyo: The work of Yayoi Kusama

This blog is about the surprise of discovery and the power of art. Once again, one of these Tokyo weekends of taking our beloved bikes and heading off into the BIG city. A quick check of Tokyo web-sites for what's on (click here  or here if you are curious) and we discovered one of our favorite museums:

... has another artist of who we knew nothing about: Yayoi Kusama. Ah yes... and spots seemed to be the theme of this artist. 

We brought along two of our guests who are Polish cyclists touring Australia, New Zealand and Japan to share in the discovery. 

T his Saturday we were once again transported into a breath taking world of expression and passion by Yayoi Kusama, an artist that we had not known,. 

Yayoi Kusama, as it turns out, had had a long and famous/infamous artistic life spanning back to the early 70s in New York City. She returned to Japan in 1977 where she checked herself into the Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill. She has been living there since then producing a vast amount of art spanning painting, sculpture, novel writing, fashion design and interior decorating. Click here to find out more about her fascinating life and works. 

We were able to have a quick visit with her before entering the exhibit.

Spots... and pumpkins. There are famous representations of huge pumpkins around Japan and the world done by her. 

When we entered the exhibit we were stunned by the power and volume of her work! Since 2007 she has poured her energy into 500 (!!!) highly detailed, highly passionate and huge paintings. This gallery exhibited only 190 of them. Each one uniquely different and each one with a passionate title that went from romantic, to hope, to despair, to suicidal... then back again. 

Check out the intensely detailed and huge work she does!

Some samples of painting titles:

The exhibit then branched out to some of her huge 3D sculptures that really reminded us of Niki St. Phalle (from another blog of ours; see here)

It then went into exhibits of some of her other work which includes interior design: 

(Would this clash with any of your other furniture?)

She wrote a whole series of novels (one of the more strange ones):

She also was well known for her art happenings in New York in the 1970s (of course with dots):

Now in her 80s, wherever she has a show around the world it generates huge excitement and long lines (8 hours in New York; click here)

Her last gift is that you get sticky dots as you leave and you go through an interior room with white furniture... to create your own work of art:

This room travels around the world with the exhibit to create an international art-piece. 

We left the exhibit breathless, having felt alternately lifted up, pounded down, drawn in, repulsed and consumed by her vision and her art. We ambled through the lobby of this amazing museum ....

de-briefing together and being inspired by our surroundings. Here is to a very powerful artist whom we just discovered... are we the last ones to know about her? Did you know about Yayoi Kusama??

Girl's Day celebration in Japan

March 3 is Girls' Festival in Japan. Our school, like most households in Japan, pull out and display a beautiful set of dolls. These dolls are a re-creation of the Emperor's court during the Edo period. Our program assistant at BSCIS particularly loves this time because it reminds here of a similar sized collection that she was given by her grand-father at her birth to celebrate. She loves looking at our school's display because, due to the vicissitudes of travel, moving and small apartments she no longer has her set. 

Each doll is intricately dressed with period outfits and each face is quite expressive and detailed.

Here are the Emperor and the Empress, at the top of the display:

Underneath them are various ministers and Samurai, wearing the appropriate head coverings:

Each layer of the display has progressively less powerful people until, finally, at the base, there is a display of the huge dowry that comes with any bride.

Each layer is well described in this link here. 

Kumiko describes the various parts of the display and explains that this is linked historically to ensure that the household's daughters have a good marriage. The superstition is that if the dolls are not put away on March 4, this will delay the marriage of the daughter. She laughs about that part!

The role of women in Japanese society continues to be a hotly debated and challenging conversation in this society. From generation to generation, things are changing but it is interesting to note that even in the language of Japanese, the character for female is associated with negative words. Check out this article if you are interested in a more in depth conversation about this. 

This is our second Girl's Day celebration and we learn more about Japanese culture the longer we live here.