Gad what happened to the month(s)?

Must be the pressure of work. Such a lot has happened including an incredible outing to a very inspirational Digital Divide crossing ceremony at Shongweni, where the DST minister and the people from the Meraka institute, and Ethekwini Municipal library showcased the implementation of “Digital Doorway Phase Two”. This is literally a doorway to a better future, personified for the young people in rural areas – I hold it high as a sign of hope for the future.

And last night I was privileged to hear two presentations – One by Angela Spencer, webmaster / mistress of eThekwini and one by Ramon Thomas, high priest of Blogging! You really need to hear what Ramon has got to say… more later.

This was his birthday cake and much more elegant than anything I’ve ever presented!

Then we set off on foot from the hotel toward Momochi where there is a man-made beach / seaside park; with the objective of catching the ferry to a nearby island called Shikanoshima – where there is another seaside park called Uminonakamichi Seaside Park. The wind was blowing hard, but we were surprised to see no bathing costumes being worn, everyone was fully dressed.

En route to the ferry we bumped into a bridal party, and saw all the guests releasing lots of white balloons and two red heart balloons, followed by the throwing of the bouquet.

It looked very Western, only quite uniform in terms of the men’s clothing (“you can wear any colour suit as long as it’s black….”)

Then at 13h00 it was time for the ferry to depart, so we boarded for the 20 min trip to Uminonakamichi Seaside Park – on the hovercraft. It was a wild and windy trip but quite fun.

When we arrived we were lucky enough to find a map in English which helped a huge amount, as this is a BIG place. The second thing we did was hire a bicycle each. I must tell you I was last on a bicycle at about age 12, so was a little apprehensive, and glad that there seemed to be plenty of space to wobble around in, on the designated cycle tracks. After handing over y400 each, we chose our bicycles (Dave was a bit too big for any there!), each with a basket to carry our stuff. The deal was that we could return the bikes at any of the Bicycle stations dotted around the park.

There were lots of families whizzing around on bikes, the place was a kid’s paradise, and everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun.

I gave up and went to the desk to plead for English instructions. The staff were delighted to help and handed over not only english instructions for the washing machine AND the microwave (that should move me off the one button repetoire I had stuck on with the microwave!) Instructions were very clear. However I still ended up with dripping clothes so I hand wrung them in the basin and hung them out on the string that I tie my yoga mat up with.

Finally out shopping to Tenjin. Very expensive so mostly confined myself to window shopping. An interesting experience when in many cases it is hard to know what is being sold unless you can see inside the packaging.

Later I met Dave at the conference centre and we went to see the port area nearby

 and from there to the amazing Canal City, a new shopping centre and area for nightlife. What a place. They have a whole (LARGE) shop just dedicated to Pokemons! And a “monument” to the baseball team.

(sorry shots below are sideways due to lack of image processing time – just twist your neck for me….)

The locals come in droves mostly on their bikes,

and enjoy entertainment, good food and shopping. Late home (about 10pm, the city was still buzzing!) and we have to be up early because we are going to Nagasaki tomorrow. Our hotel has florescent modern art as part of the decoration, shows up really well at night…

The park has a lake in the centre, and there is a running track about 2km long around the lake. Lots and lots of people enjoying the outdoors. There is a series of bridges and islands which allow you to cross the lake if you don’t want to go round. Some places you can even fish.

Tucked away in one corner is the most wonderful Japanese Garden, round every corner pure poetry in the trees, water, stones. OK, I know you all think I’m mad, but there’s a lot to be said for the timeless silence of these things. I had the garden all to myself, or else the other visitors there were amazingly discreet. The cool shade was wonderfully contrasted with another blisteringly hot day.

Of all the trees in the garden only one was going into Autumn colours…I would love to see this garden when they all change to brilliant red.

I’m beginning to realise this sun is worse than the African sun! No wonder all the Japanese women carry umbrellas and wear hats everywhere they go. They have lovely skin and have learned how to keep it that way.

Finally to the Art Gallery right next door to the Japanese Garden. Some ancient and some modern. I went quickly past most of the modern. Why does it make me feel rather despairing? Whereas the ancient works are inspiring. Maybe I’m just really old fashioned.

I discovered a whole new school of artists I had never heard of, Japanese artists who parallel the impressionists of the West. Their work is amazing.  Many of them paint on silk using very difficult natural materials; also on gold leaf. Tomita Keisen, Imanaka Soyu, Mizukami Taisei. No photos allowed obviously but I found some of their works afterwards on the internet:

 This is by Ikegami Shuho.

This by Tomita Keisen. Gotta go now Dave downstairs ringing to come in…

We went to see the new Prefecture (like a Province) museum at Kyushu, to have lunch, and then to visit Dazaifu Shrine, followed by Koumyouji Temple.

The museum is huge, devoted to historical artifacts specifically illustrating the connections between Asia and Japan (appropriate, because Korea is very close to this part of Japan.) It is very new, we were told open for less than a year, and the architecture is amazing! It is gentle on the environment in terms of energy and water use; it blends in to the environment amazingly well considering the size; and it has up to the minute engineering for earthquake tolerance.

It was a fascinating experience, very well put together, with English tapes you could carry around with you to listen to the explanations of the items, and most items were labelled in English too. Lighting was very dim, obviously to preserve the artifacts – and no photography allowed once you entered the halls.

Lunch, very nice. Chopsticks a matter of great humour (we are all mostly unused to sitting on the floor with chopsticks – Christine the German lady ended up winding her noodles around her chopsticks in order to get them into her mouth! And I resorted to fingers. Our Japanese hosts must think we are rather rude.) The group was again a polyglot mixture, joined by some new people from Taiwan. Everybody was quite hard to control for the poor tourguides, disappearing in all directions to take photographs.

Then two shrines – the Dazaifu Shrine immensely popular with students. Crowds of them there making prayers for good results. We even saw a blessing being done on a new born baby (hoping for a well-educated child?). There were some statues there representing, I think, the deity of learning. All around the shrine little mini wooden houses where I saw scholars making representations.

Then we walked down the hill to my favourite place of the day, the Koumyouji Temple. Of interest to me because it contains a Sansui (Rock and gravel) garden. A really beautiful place, very serene.

Then back on the bus (our little tour guide sang to us beautifully on the way back to make the journey go faster – she really should be a performer).

I’m really enjoying the serenity of Japanese places, you find little zen gardens tucked away everywhere, such a love of nature is evident. In fact a love of beauty and order also. The pottery is exquisite, perfection in the details.

Another thing is the strong bonds you sense within families. Yesterday on the way to the subway everyone was off to baseball matches. Mum and Dad on a bike each and little one (four?) in the basket of the bike, all decked out in baseball colours. Little one is playing and Mom and Dad (after a very busy week!) are there to cheer him on.

How’s this for saving space? Park your cars literally on top of each other. How you arrange to get the top one down I don’t know….hopefully it costs less than parking at the bottom!

I was amazed to see my name (check photo showing the bus and sign - top right hand corner). I hope it isn’t a brand name for disposable nappies or something. The weather here has been very hot but lovely sun.