New Year's and The Next Beginning

In case you aren’t aware, New Year’s is one of the biggest letdown holidays there is. It’s always bigger, shinier, and more awesome in your mind than it ends up being in real life. Even “I spent New Year’s in such-and-such place!” is often cooler in stating than in actual experience. For example, I’ve had New Year’s in Tokyo, and in Las Vegas. In Tokyo, we stood shivering in the grounds of a temple, waiting to hear the bell toll, while TV-host type people went on as if they were a variety show (but that whole thing was, I think, a cultural experience). In Vegas, we went out into the street for the countdown to midnight, or as far into the street as we could get with the way the crowd was pushing us back; couldn’t really see the sky for fireworks, then immediately went back inside to continue gambling (I’m not saying this wasn’t a fun trip, I’m just saying gambling is something you can do in Vegas anytime). At least in my case, the images of me partying into trancelike states that the phrases “New Year’s in [insert big city here]” conjures are mostly on the false.

As for this year, I figured since we’d got up at 4 (again), we weren’t likely to last long into the night, and maybe we could see the first sunrise or something from either some other hill of Angkor’s area, or even from the roof of our building. Yut said that pub street would be full of people, but I pictured a seething mass of American/Australian/European holidaymakers getting wasted and screaming in my ear and I figured it was safe not to expect a big/fun night out for us in Siem Reap. We got Mexican food for dinner, then moseyed over to take a look.

This captures the general feeling well! With Nohea and Brian.

And Yut and Simon

And, happily, as often happens, having low expectations turned out to be a blessing. There was dancing in the streets. Foreigners, yes, but Khmai too, and none so drunk as to be obnoxious, and minus all that horrific toxicity of smoke that fills the air in dance clubs, but music fit for dancing. Yut stayed with us, and some of his friends coalesced out of the crowd and we all danced together behind the speakers until almost 12, when we went in front of the speakers. Shortly after midnight, we progressed in sleepy stumble back to the hotel. A few of our group went on their own sojourns, but of course I like to sleep, so I turned in pretty much immediately.

And then, it was 2012.The next morning, we had hotel breakfast, and rolled out a bit later than usual to travel to Kbal Spien, which is home to the “Valley of a Thousand Lingas.” A linga is a pillar (or phallic symbol) associated with the Hindu god Shiva. “But wait,” I hear, “I thought all this temple stuff was Buddhist, not Hindu!” Good catch, dear reader, and you are correct! But a lot of Cambodian stories and imagery tend to combine Hindu and Buddhist ideas and images together. A good example is that Buddha-protected-by-Naga thing we saw a lot (lot) of. Naga is not a Buddhist image, originally, but was adapted so that one tradition blended with and served the other.

Anyway, Kbal Spien is one of the oldest sites in the area, and the carvings show Vishnu and other Hindu imagery all over the place. There is also a medium-small sized waterfall… bigger, we were told, in the rainy season (of course).

Lingas!

People were playing in it when we arrived, and Yut asked if any of us wanted to go in. I was hot and sticky from the day’s walk, but wasn’t sure how it would be possible to go in, what with my clothes, my shoes, my camera. Still, if I was going to be damp, it might as well be from the river rather than from sweat. Nohea said he wanted to go in, but not alone, so I handed all my stuff to the others, took off my shoes and overshirt, and walked right in. The rocks under the fall were slippery-smooth and made for good water sliding. The fall itself was chill and refreshing. Of course I loved the idea of getting water poured over me in a river sacred since ancient times. This was another of my little magic moments, playing in the waterfall like a new year’s cleansing.

Waterfall as seen from above

I have an image in my mind of standing under a waterfall in Southeast Asia and seeing your path laid out before you, knowing what you want to do or become. This image is borrowed from someone else’s story, who years ago stood under a waterfall in Thailand and knew what he wanted to do with his life. But I saw nothing, knew nothing new, just that I will continue to pursue adventure and learning, and that I will never stay long in something I do not love, and I was very happy with that; it was enough. It also seemed a little related to a September dip in the crystal greenwaters in the Musasabi Canyon in Shikoku once before.

After this, we walked back down the path, stopping at a little sitting area for our Way of the Day with Yut. He told us about Right Livelihood and Right Effort while Nohea and I dripped on the wooden boards; some Korean ladies gave us candies. We trooped back to the van for lunch, where I drank yet more coconut goodness, and we shared yet another round of amazing and delicious food (you might think this would get old, but it never did) in an airy restaurant.

display pieces

Next up was the Landmine Museum, where we learned about the efforts of Aki Ra to find, uncover, and defuse mines, and also the home for injured children adjacent to the museum that he started up. As with a lot of what I saw in Cambodia, it was shocking and intense, but also.. not just a party of pity and blame. I was interested in his unorthodox way of dealing with mines (he preferred to use just a stick and his hands to find and take apart the dangerous items)… methods that got other people killed. Aki Ra (not his original name) was a child soldier years ago, and grew up using weapons, even setting mines. Now he continues to search for and clean up such things. We didn’t meet any of the kids who live at the museum, which is good, because they don’t need to be gawked at like display pieces.

The waiting area for you to wait on the slowest party member.. whosoever that may be.

We went back to Siem Reap, hit the bookstore, and hung out until dinner at our clubhouse, where Yut talked with us some more about the more recent history of Cambodia. Brian re-joined us for a post-dinner drink somewhere on pub street with thumping music next door (I had yet another coconut drink.. yesss) before we retired to bed.

The next day had no particular plans other than to get everyone on their ways after breakfast. Yut took us to the market and we had breakfast at the crowded counters.  My and Kam’s flight to Laos was midday, and we were on the first round of people taken to the airport. We spent the morning writing in one another’s warm and fuzzy books (little notebooks given to use by PEPY at the start of the trip, in which we were to write messages to one another but not read our own til we had gone) and packing up, reminiscing and sharing stories.

And then we were at the airport! Kameron, Miriam (who wasn’t yet sure if she was flying to Laos or heading back to Japan via Korea), and I, all fairly tired, maybe feeling like we were now carrying something rather important even if we weren’t sure yet what it was, or how to share it.

In several of my postcards, I said that Cambodia is farther away than any place I have ever been, and I still think so.. at least about the countryside village; not spatially, necessarily, but in many other ways, it is a place wholly different from where I am from, and even where I live now. Japan and America have a lot in common, actually, and while the differences are important, and are part of the adventure of being here, those commonalities are also comforting.

And although I am aware that there is a great deal taken for granted, in my life, and in the spaces around me, I had never before been to a place where the electricity only runs some of the time, where there is no running water, where objects are reused and repurposed not because their owners are deep believers in the eco movement, but because those are the objects they have, and these are the ways they want or need to use them. People don’t just use things up and throw them away out in the countryside because they can’t afford to, and because a thing isn’t really used up if it can be repaired or reassigned. And that aspect of it, at least, I don’t think is a bad thing.

The downside of subsistence farming is the way that, in bad years (like this one is shaping up to be), there is not a lot of wiggle room, not a lot of margin for error. If the crops fail, by fire or flood, then you are in danger. Outside of that (very real) danger, a lot of people seemed decently happy.

And I’m not trying to say they were happier, with their simple lives (to simplify the situation) than “we” are with our flushing toilets and 24-hour electricity. Just that they weren’t significantly unhappier because of a lack of those things. Their way of life is different than the one I’m from, but it isn’t any better or any worse. Except maybe that one bad year of floods puts their survival at risk, while the pace of consumption in mine puts our entire system at later risk.

But even just personally, going to a place like Cambodia makes you see, irrevocably, how silly 99% of your stresses are, how unnecessary they are, and it does this not by judging you, or by revealing those stressor to anyone, but just by being so full of people whose hopes and whose problems are so different from yours. And not because it’s all a pity party, or because “they have real problems and you don’t” – I think that would have just depressed me.. it’s that they are working on shit.

There are much bigger fish to fry, and methods are being developed on how to catch and cook them. And whether or not you are part of that, you have to respect it. And whether or not you can do anything for them, you can do something for someone. Especially you.

Especially something like, stop tormenting yourself and chasing yourself in circles.

It wasn’t “they have real problems so I should feel sorry for them.” It was.. if they can be grateful for what they do have, then I certainly can too. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot, from all kinds of genres, and between Guns, Germs, and Steel, and The Hunger Games, and coming back from Cambodia, it occurred to me again the other day that I’ve never really been hungry.

In my world that’s something you more or less take for granted because that’s how it’s always been. But that’s not everyone’s world.

And in the same way that the shocking devastation wrought by a tsunami on hundreds of thousands of strangers moves me to silence and tears, but the violent death of one single person that I knew brings me a different kind of mourning because it’s real in a way that numbers and even TV images are not.. the fact that some people in the world are or have been really hungry is much easier for me to grasp when it’s someone I know, and especially respect. Because of war, my grandmother was hungry. Because of hunger, she never wasted food (it’s a habit we inherit). Because of poverty, people are hungry; when he was a kid, it was Yut.

And for me, who has always had enough and more than enough, for me from a culture where thin is in because we’ve outdone ourselves on ‘food production,’ and are in danger of too much intake with not enough movement, for amazingly blessed, lucky beyond all reason me, well… one can feel only gratitude, which diminishes the other stuff to nothing, just as shadows are so naturally decimated by sunlight.

It isn't something permanent. It's not like I went to Cambodia and was 'cured' of taking things for granted, being selfish, focusing too narrowly, making irrational demands on comfort... but it was a little bit of clarity that I will try to remember as I go forward.

Winter Vacation: Winter Wonderland and A Real Japanese New Year's

You can view the full album here, although I'll attach a slideshow at the end of this post. There are 250 photos in this album, so feel free to not be constrained by the slideshow, and just browse at will! (note: this album is for both Kyoto and Tokyo, though this post is for Kyoto only)

Winter Vacation Part I

Our journey began with the bus to Kyoto at 9:30 in the morning on Friday the 31st. At the bus stop, we picked up some little origami charms made by the toll gate people, for travelers. We were about to roam far and wide, so it seemed an auspicious start.

It was snowing in Kyoto as we picked out some gifts for our Malaysian friends. After wandering all over the station in search of one open establishment without a line out front, we gave up and hit the streets and were finally blessed with a deserted Italian cafe of lovely atmosphere.

From Winter Vacation Part I

We next set out to see Ryoan-ji in the snow.

Have water, will travel.

Which was gorgeous, especially the garden area out front.



The rock garden was interesting in the snow, but I think I liked the rocks better in summertime.

From Winter Vacation Part I

The area up near the pagoda was breathtaking, though.

You aren't supposed to touch these trees. I didn't know that, but Miriam read me a sign just as I was eating snow off the branches.

Huh?

We intended to see Ginkaku-ji in the snow, too, but by the time we were done with Ryoan-ji, it was 4:30, nearly dark, and closing time. So we went back to meet up with Nami and Hiroshi!

They took us home to treat us to New Year's, Japanese style, kinda. Which meant we hung out and talked for hours, munching on homemade cookies (courtesy of Miriam), chips and salsa, and other snacks. We taugh Hiroshi-san some English not necessarily found in his study program while Nami-san laughed at us from the kitchen, and watched NHK's New Year presentation (hosted by, who else but Arashi!).

At midnight, you eat soba as you cross into the new year, and we had a look at some osechi-ryori without actually eating any, because by then we were too full from having spent the previous three hours eating.

Not long after midnight, we just bathed and went to sleep. I'd gotten up at like 6am that morning, and was quite ready to call it a day!

It was really nice, though, to spend New Year's together with a family. The family of Nami-and-Hiroshi is a small one, but I've known Nami-san for such a long time, that she feels to me like my Japan family, like my big sister. She and Hiroshi are always so nice to me and whoever I happen to have come to Kyoto with at any given occasion.

From Winter Vacation Part I

Happy New Year!

On the 1st, we got to accompany the two of them to give the traditional New Year greeting to Hiroshi-san's parents. (Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!) Though they didn't eat with us, they did give us a lot of the special foods for the holiday (osechi ryori), and we sipped sake and tea and sat in the formal room. Most of the foods in the osechi boxes had symbolic meanings, and sitting around eating them generally made me feel really calm and happy. I felt then, as so far, that this is going to be a very good year.

From Winter Vacation Part I

Pre-meal.. we're standing because once we sit, we're gonna be in seiza for a long time.

On our walk back, I saw a biking post-person delivering the New Year cards (nengajou)! When we got to the apartment, Nami-san put Miriam's nengajou next to my Christmas card (I sent a nengajou too, but Miriam's was home-made). Next we went into Kyoto city to make the New Year's shrine visit (hatsumode).

First up was Hiroshi-san's natal shrine, Yasaka jinja. It was absolutely packed. In fact, the entire district was packed. We couldn't even walk on the sidewalks, or not very well, anyway. Too many slow old people and stuff. Once we reached the gate, we elbowed our way up to the shrine where we tossed coins and said prayers. The first time I visited Yasaka, I said a little prayer to end the swine flu issues that were then effing up the lives of students everywhere (school closings, tubs of sanitizer, etc.) because Yasaka shrine was connected to an epidemic long ago (the stopping thereof, I mean).

From Winter Vacation Part I

Calm and peaceful, yes?

But I didn't have any swineflu to stop this time, so I made a little wish, and even in that roaring crowd, felt pretty peaceful. Everyone was buying fortunes (omikuji) but I didn't want to.. I don't really like to buy those very much, because I worry that if I read one, it'll come true, not because it was destiny, but because the stuff will get into my head, and then I'll make it all self-fulfilling prophecy. Off to another side, there was a booth for people to retire their old 2010 charms, things they'd bought last New Year's Day. I was surprised to see all these being basically thrown away, but as I was told, the charms have served their purpose, done their work, and now they can go. I guess if everyone kept every charm, they'd have craploads of the little (sometimes big) things hanging around. I personally will only be in Japan a few years, so of course I tend to keep them all.

Nami-san was reading to me the different aims of different charms. I almost bought "transportation," but then she translated another one as "opening up your future" or something like that. Pretty generic, but it was how I was feeling.

We got out of there and headed for Nami-san's home shrine, Shimogamo, but her father reported that it had taken him like an hour and a half to get in and back, so we skipped it in favor of going to her parents' house to eat and be merry.

From Winter Vacation Part I

Yay~!

Now, Nami-san is weird. Not in a negative way, but in Japanese way. Most Japanese people are vaguely interested in foreign cultures as long as they stay just like that, foreign. Fewer people want to actually get involved in foreign stuff.. but Nami lived in the US for many years, and even considered making it permanent. Having been to her family home, now, I know she comes by it honestly. It struck me as basically indicative of her family's way when I got their addresses from her to send thank-you notes after the trip. In the email she asked us to write to Hiroshi-san's parents in Japanese, and it was okay if we made mistakes. To her own parents she said English, Japanese, Hebrew, Russian, whatever we wanted to write was fine, and they loved getting postcards from anywhere. (We sent Hiroshi-san's parents a classy Thank You note.. actually left over from my graduation! And we sent Nami-san's parents a postcard we got in Kuala Lumpur)

So we got a great traditional cultural lesson with one meal, and just hung out at the other. Hiroshi-san made okonomiyaki in a style I loved better than either Osaka-style or Hiroshima-style. Nami's sister and I made takoyaki (yes, octopus balls) like pros. All too soon we had to leave to catch our train to Tokyo!

Though the day wasn't even over, and we were pretty tired, I have to admit that it was one of the best New Year's I've had, partly because it was very different from any New Year's I've had. It wasn't loaded down with expectations, but it was relaxed, educational, and warm of heart. I loved that.

From Winter Vacation Part I

The day isn't even over yet? (Stay tuned for Tokyo)

Happy New Year!

In Japan, New Year’s Day is a big deal. I’d compare it to the American Christmas, when a lot of businesses are closed and a lot of people go home to visit their families. In fact, lots of people send out nengajou, or new year cards, which operate basically like your standard American Christmas card, notifying the recipient that you are still alive and well, despite not having seen (or perhaps spoken to) them for quite some time. I myself adopted this custom, a bit imperfectly, to my holiday season. I mailed haphazardly and late, so if you didn’t get one and you think you deserved one, make sure I have your address and maybe you’ll see something at Asian New Year time, which this year falls in mid-February.
Yeah. I have every reasonable excuse to procrastinate.
I rang in 2010 at Zoujoji, near Tokyo Tower. Having flown from America on the 30th, I am still pretty jet-lagged, but I have to say this has been a very good New Year’s Eve indeed! I’ve been staying with a college friend and his parents, and we’ll be taking the train down to Osaka tomorrow for some sightseeing there. I traveled with this same friend to Spain back in the spring of 2006, so I kind of already know the modus operandi for them. I’ll call him The Doctor.
I also got to see four other Vandy friends since landing in the late afternoon of the 30th, all of them previous residents of the language dorm where I spent several years. I felt like such a jet-setter, sitting on the monorail, passing under Rainbow Bridge just hours after landing at Narita. I collected my stuff, coursed through customs, and shipped my large bags home like a pro. Seriously, I had two bags both pushing 50lbs, and the total cost to take them off my hands and deliver them safely to my door in Shiso was 3600 yen.

You’re not in MarioKart, you’re in Japan, but it’s pretty much the same thing.

I didn’t feel like such a jet-setter when I was falling asleep at the table as the clock struck ten, but there’s only so much you can expect from one who recently underwent a time-travel like that. I had a good time seeing my friends, though. I severely underestimated the time it takes to subway across Tokyo and got in pretty late (okay like 11:30, but when your brain suspects that to be 9:30am, that’s pretty late), but it was no matter because The Doctor and I slept til 9.

Vandy reunion in Tokyo. <3 span="">

More Vandy kids, including your very travel-tastic heroine, at unusual levels of unwashed.

We walked around Daiba the morning of the 30th and glanced in some of the local malls, looking to make drag queens of ourselves on purikura machines. Went to see Cirque du Soleil ZED near Tokyo Disney, which was absolutely magnificent (that is to say, I sat there staring, with my mouth hanging open for most of the show). Delicious shabu-shabu dinner, and off to Zoujoji for the countdown.

O, Daiba.

Because there's a Statue of Liberty. And the Rainbow bridge is white by day.

Ostensibly a photo of The Doctor. Actually about those dogs in tracksuits.

We pass through an area associated with Tokyo Disney along the way...

Almost had "lunch" at Sweets Paradise. This photo is like.. a perfect moment captures on film. All you can eat sweets buffet, fountain, small Japanese children playing in a fountain.

We seemed to be enjoying quite a bit of good timing, as we got up to the temple steps just as some young people that looked like Boy Scouts were bringing torches out of the temple to light the fires. I think they were for burning last year’s fortunes.

We went inside the temple and I got to toss in a fiver and make a new year’s wish; shortly thereafter, all visitors were ushered outside the temple. We managed to use an exit that not many were using (as most people seemed to be trying to use the entrance instead), which led us out around the back of the temple, where there was room to breathe and a great view of Tokyo Tower. We explored this virtually deserted area a bit more before going back out front. They were pounding mochi there, under the light of the full moon (and a bunch of lamps too). Lots of ‘carnival food’ stands. The Doctor finally found a place to buy some mochi, and we got close to the bell outbuilding to await the coming year.

Mochi. Way more delicious than it looks here.

omg Zojoji! You can see the temple main building, the tower, and lots of balloons.

Two Vandy friends found us there and we waited as the crowd pressed closer still, many of them toting one of the special 3,000 balloons to be released upon the turning of the year. The temple monks began to chant and perform the rituals for the closing of 2009, and Tokyo Tower went dark. As midnight approached, the tower began to sparkle and flash, and at midnight, the crowd erupted into cheers, the tower burst into light, a ton of balloons were released into the air, and the monks began the tolling of the bell. At the New Year, they toll it 108 times to purify the 108 sins of humans.

After all that, we aimed for the entrance. The Doctor used his NYC-life skillz of crowd-press navigation to get us through to the entrance, which is impressive, especially because we were packed so close to those around us, it really felt like one had no real choice on one’s speed or direction of progress.

Vandy kids ring in the New Year.

We made it out in unexpectedly good time, and took a taxi to the nearby metro station, and wishing everyone a very akemashite omedetou gozaimasu, we were free to sleep.