Yesterday was the mid-congress tour to Kamakura, a town on the coast south west of Tokyo.  Of course it was built up almost all the way, the population pressure here is huge.  The sheer numbers of people everywhere in Tokyo are amazing.  Everyone seems quite in their own world, I guess this is a natural response to the sheer numbers in large cities – you isolate yourself in your thoughts, sleep or read because you can’t interact effectively with the hundreds of poeple you will pass on your way to the office.  These are my rambling thoughts about it, anyway.  I imagine family and friends are the foundation of life here as they are in most places, as a tourist you don’t have access to that side of community life.  On the other hand whenever I stop and look lost or puzzled, some total stranger will come up and ask me if I need help.  The other day I walked to the Meiji Shrine early in the morning (it is next door to this complex) and had a lovely conversation with a man who explained a little about the shinto view of the world.  Those unexpected generosities are delightful.

Where was I?  Oh yes, Kamakura.  It was a very pleasant trip and the guide, who spoke very good English, told us about Tokyo and the various places we visited in Kamakura.  we went o a Temple connected with Kannon, a representation of compassion and mercy, and a huge bronze Buddha statue which sits in the open air. That one was associated with a working monastery I believe, but there was no sign of that from the parts the tourists could access, not surprisingly.

We went to the beach where some people collected seaweeds, but since we can’t bring things like that back we ate our bento box lunch, wandered up and down the beach regretting we had forgotten our sunblock, then headed into a nearby cafe for a refreshing iced coffee.   Very civilised!

Tonight is the banquet, then tomorrow is the last day.  I fly out at 6pm on Saturday, hopefully a nice walk in the park n the morning will set me up to sleep on the plane.

Oh and sorry about the lack of pictures, I have buried my camera cable somewhere in my luggage!

Have been a few days in Tokyo now. It is hot, and humid, pretty much as expected.  On my first day here I went to Asakusa, an old area where there are lots of shops selling all kinds of things to tourists, both Japanese and non-Japanese ones, around a Temple dedicated to Kannon, the symbol of compassion.  I had been once before, it was fun to negotiate the Japanese subway system and manage to get there, and importantly get back.  I even managed to avoid the expess trains and take the one that allowed me to stop at the station where I had to change lines.  I felt quite proud of myself – except that I did forget what the subway entrance looked like and spent ages trying to find it again to get home.  The extreme heat didn’t help – but basically I have decided that my sense of direction is not my strong point.  So that’s one of many things I need friends for.

Today we went to the Science Museum at Ueno.  There were lots of great displays, even though most of the text was in Japanese you could get the gist.  They have a circular area displaying the tree of life, with images and specimensat the end of each branch so you can see what things are.  it was very cool.  No backing away from evolution here!  And it was interesting to see the different waves of migration of people into Japan.

I am at the conference now, settled into a spartan but functional little room. It’s one great feature is that it does have air conditioning, which means I’ll be able to sleep.  Some people here I saw just a week or so ago at the Hawaii meeting, but many I have not seen for ages, and there are always new people to meet.  It’s always good to put faces to names, and discuss common interests  like how the beer tastes (very, very good at the end of a hot tiring day) and what is inside those little rice balls (could be any of a number of things) .  Oh and algae too.

At nearly 9pm, I am totally done in and headed for sleep.  I miss everyone back home, am looking forward to being back, and hoping there will be signs of spring.

Honolulu from the top of Diamond Head

You can see for miles, back over Waikiki and Honolulu, and right up the east coast of the island.  Many more photos were taken, of course!  I have a whole lot by now.

We walked down and all the way back to our hotel, which is quite some distance!  My legs are still sore.  But it’s good to be out and about.  We ate lunch at a market, and checked out the various food stalls including one selling pickled seaweed.  Of course we wanted to know what species… and the vendor had no idea.  It’s just seaweed! Tasted quite good though.  We continued back through another market, and along the Waikiki strip, running the gauntlet of all the shops.  It’s exhausting just looking at it all.

This morning we were picked up at 6:05 for our trip to Pearl Harbour.  It is a sad testament to the stupidity of war – so many lives cut short.  It was really quite moving.  We watched the informational film, and went out on a Navy launch to the memorial, which sits over the top of the wreck of the Arizona.

The Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbour

The ship was 60m tall and the water is only about 40m deep,  some of the wreck is well settled into the silt, but some still sits up out of the water.  Over 1000 people died there. A torpedo hit the magazine and the ship exploded and sank within 9 minutes.  She is quietly leaking oil – quite steadily, from what I saw. It’s surprising there is any left – she burnt for 3 days.  It’s all just sad, but it seems like a respectful thing to do, to go and see it.

The kind bus driver dropped me off at the Bishop Museum, and I spent a couple of hours there.  Unfortunately the main hall is closed for renovations so most of the Hawaiian artefacts aren’t on view.  I felt a bit cheated, at first, but there was plenty of interesting things to look at.  I’m glad I went, gave me a bit of perspective on the Hawaiian culture.  They came so close to keeping control of their islands, seems like they were defeated by disease as much as anything else.

I had a dip in the sea this afternoon (yes, really!) . I am actually developing a tan!  It won’t survive long in the Dunedin winter, I know.  Tomorrow is my last day here, I’m not sure yet what I will do, or when I’ll next write.  But it will be warm and sunny, that I can be sure of!

Went for a drive with some friends today, up the east coast of Oahu to the north shore.  We left the towers of Honolulu, for the towers of the mountains.  Remember the mountains in central Rarotonga, those you who have seen them?

Hawai’i is similar but on a much, much larger scale.  Around Honolulu it is relatively dry, but for the past few ays coulds have been hanging around the mountain tops.  i sonder if they always do?  Moist, sea air hit the land and rises up and up – no wonder there are clouds.

The peaks are like everyone says – steep, and razor sharp.  And beautiful.
We stopped off at Waimea Valley, and walked through a lovely valley to the waterfall at the end.  Not a huge waterfall, but it has a claim to fame – it is the waterfall Jack jumped from in LOST, last season, when Hurley was floundering in the pool below.  It is, I must say, a fairly tiny stream below the waterfall, it looked much bigger on TV!  LOST is pretty well publicised here, apparently you can do tours of the locations!  Think I’ll pass – I want to keep it as a story.  The waterfall was disillusionment enough.

Jeff, Mariana and I. Note the white legs!

I got a bit dehydrated on the walk, slept most of the way back to Honolulu.  But I’m cooled off andrehydrated now, ready for the next thing tomorrow.

Oh and it’s trued that 20 or so channels of TV does not guarantee you anything at all decent to watch.  I have veered from Criminal MInds, which I can see at home to Independence Day which is loking rather tired and dated after so many reruns. Oh wait – I’ve found House!  Entertainment at last!

Honolulu skyline from the conference centre

It is so good to be away from the Dunedin winter.  Coldest winter at home for years, and here I am sitting in a t-shirt in the lobby of my hotel, quite warm enough, and it is warmer outside.  The air has that lovely tropical gentleness, a hint of humidity but not too much, and it is WARM.  I tell you, humans evolved in the tropics and we should all live here.

Sure, Honolulu is a big city and has all the usual big city things – traffic, malls, roads, more traffic – but I knew that and it is also very green, with parks and grass and trees, and, as I said, warm.  The LCD display on my camera seems to have given up the ghost entirely, but I’m still taking a few shots.  Working with just a viewfinder seems so odd and a bit primitive.  I can compose all right, but I can’t see all the camera settings, and occasionally take a photo with completely the wrong setting because I have not noticed it is still on portrait, for example.  So it remains to be seen how they’ll turn out.