Simplicity
I finally got around to picking up my India holga prints from the new sparkly Yodabashi in Kichijoji. Sadly over half of them have some weird triangular obstruction over the bottom right corner, strange that it appears in all rolls, but not all prints. The joys of toy cameras. Anyway, this is one of them – I took it inside one of the side Mosque halls at the Taj Mahal. It’s my fave so far, but there are a few other shots I quite like too. I’m slowly uploading them to Flickr…
Productivity and life-hack blogs have become quite prolific in the past year or 2 and I enjoy skim-reading them to see if anything catches my eye. There is usually something interesting dealing with some issue that’s been on my mind…
Back.
Well, I’m back in Tokyo, back: in my own bed, in my own kitchen, at my job, on my bicycle, in my fab shower, with my turtle, on a fast internet connection and *sigh, an underwear drawer that has *more* than 3 pairs of underpants and 2 bra’s to be washed daily on rotation…. after 50 days on the road.
10 000 angry monks
Please visit the 08-08-07: Tibetan protest demo in Delhi album at Flickr.
What an amazing day this was – and it just happened to fall on my last day in India.
The night before the Tibetan protest
Written on August 7th, 2007 in Majnu ka tila, Delhi….
It’s still about 33 degrees in Delhi tonight, and the lanes of Majnu Ka Tilla are uncomfortably damp and steamy as they cope with the influx of many thousands of Tibetans from all over India. Huddles of older mountain folk in traditional dress standing around piles of bags as they seek some place to sleep, in this little colony where virtually every room is overflowing. Packs of roaming Tibetan youths – some of them monks and nuns, carrying Tibetan flags and newly bought tee-shirts with Free Tibet slogans, occupy every lane and street corner. The atmosphere is quite electric – everyone is excited and worried by what tomorrow will bring.
The old-school phone ring cut the silence of my room a few minutes ago – Sonam was looking for his uncle Dawa (my friend Tenzin Choegyal’s youngest brother) who I happened to run into at the internet cafe earlier this evening. He told me that all the people (around 400 people) from his massive Tibetan Hostel in Western Delhi, and many others, were planning to meet at Jantar Matar at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning to await the announcement from the Indian Gov’t regarding approval for the protest, and said I should come too. Jantar Matar holds the motivation for tomorrows massive demonstration – organised by the dynamic Tibetan Youth Congress.
14 members of the Tibetan Youth Congress (not all of them are young by the way – some are quite elderly) have been on an indefinite hunger strike since July 8th (at Jantar Matar) to try to force 5 demands from the Gov’t of China and the International Olympic Committee. An indefinite hunger strike. Indefinite. That means that they are all willing to die for this. Tomorrow marks one month of no food in the stifling Delhi heat.
The Tibetan Youth Congress are building a renewed push in the Tibetan movement and in recent years they have made some great advances in stirring their people back into hopefulness. Tomorrows planned demonstration will be the biggest gathering of displaced Tibetans since the 1952 invasion, and the Indian Government are reluctant to allow permission. They need China, you see. They need the economic potential that a healthy relationship with China can bring. They are already in the bad books for accepting the Tibetans in the first place. If they don’t crush the demonstration tomorrow, it could get really ugly. And well, if they DO crush the demonstration tomorrow, it’ll definitely get really really ugly.
I don’t think the Indians have noticed the subtle shift occurring in the Tibetan community. The Tibetans are getting restless, and an element of radicalism is entering the struggle. Their culture is being blasted to smithereens by this displacement and they really just want to go home and pick up the pieces and try to pull their people back together. Not that the Tibet they left will be anything like Tibet now. Anyways, they have such a strong sense of community, these people, and there is a real sense of challenge in the air – if the Indian Gov’t forces the cancellation of the demo, I am quite sure there will be a lot of blood spilt.
The Indian police are not shy about their use of force, they all carry big sticks and guns and are not afraid to use them. I’ve seen them use their sticks and it ain’t pretty. But the Tibetan community is angry and frustrated. They all have horrible stories, and they tell them with such a sense of matter-of-factness that it seems as if they just accept these beatings and hardships as a part of every day life for modern Tibetans. And then they’ll say something, show a little sign, that actually, they’ve really had enough.
What are the 5 demands of the hunger strikers?
1. To produce concrete evidence that Gendun Choekyi Nyima, XIth Panchen Lama, is alive
2. To produce convincing evidence that the judicial proceedings of Tulku Tenzin Delek and other current Tibetan political prisoners have taken place in a fair manner.
3. To produce concrete evidence that the human rights of Tibetans are respected in Tibet.
4. To produce evidence that the railway lines in Tibet benefits Tibetans economically.
5. International Olympic Committee (IOC) to produce conclusive evidence that the human rights situation inside Tibet is acceptable.
Wanna act?
The distance calls
“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Listen can you hear the distance calling
Far away but will be with you soon”
Well, here I am. 2 a.m. and *finally* ready to go. Just this quick blog post and I’m off to bed for 4 hours….. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some annoyingly important things but they’ll just have to wait. I’m out of time now. I’ve been quite nervous but now that everything is as ready as it can be, I feel a sense of calm and relief. It’s nice.
Budget-travelling through India is going to be a challenge after all the comforts of my cushy little life here in Tokyo but challenges are totally what makes life liveable and exciting and goddamn I need a good dose of reality. Living in Tokyo can be a little like living in a dream world sometimes. It’s so surreal in all its manifest consumerism and convenience. I heard that the average life-expectancy of a mobile phone here is 4 months (a lot of people have 2 phones – one for work, one personal). That’s a pretty good indication of how out of control consumerism is here. Somewhere in the world there is a pile of unloved mobile phones as big as Fuji-san. Gads. Anyways…. I digress. I will miss my room, and my house, and my garden. Especially my comfy futon.
I guess I should introduce my travel buddy, Suzan since he will, no doubt, feature heavily in the weeks to come. His full name is Ryosuke Suzuki, and in the Japanese way, his friends take the first syllable of his (sur)name then add -san to it (or -chan, or -kun, or -chin) – and so, he becomes Su-san or Suzan.
He is a sweet, pure soul – an art teacher and photographer who embraces most things in his life with a fabulous sense of wonder and gusto and complete focus – to the point where he can be an utter space cadet about basic mundane stuff. I’m really looking forward to travelling with him because we’ll no doubt make each other see things the other would probably never notice. He’s usually a very calm man which will help keep me grounded when I have the urge to smack people in the face – we’ve been practising Japanese phrases for tense/tricky/difficult situations a bit so we don’t have to use English in front of English speakers. That’ll be fun.
Suzan and I arrive in Delhi at 5 p.m. local time this evening, to be greeted by Tenzin Sonam – my great friend Tenzin Choegyal’s nephew. He’s Tibetan so we will be greeted with a white silk scarf around our necks and a small prayer. Then we’re off to Majnu-ka-tilla, the Tibetan camp in Delhi where I stayed 7 years ago. I’m curious to see how much India has changed. No doubt it’s still a complete head-fuck. Hope so, anyway.
The itinerary so far looks something like this: Delhi – Rajastan – Agra – Khajuraho – Varanasi – Manali – Spiti Valley – Delhi. We have to try to do that in 3 weeks and I don’t really think it’s feasible but we’ll see how we go. After India, Suzan returns to Tokyo and I’m off to Thailand where I’ll be taking the train from Bangkok to Singapore over 3 nights, then spending 2 weeks in Bali where I intend to find a cool beach hut and just chill.
I’m taking my canon DSLR with my 2 fave lenses, and the holga and 6 rolls of B&W film and no doubt will come back with a motherload of images. Not sure how much posting I’ll be doing – depends on internet access, but I hope it’ll be pretty regular. I always get all verbose and poetic and shit when I travel.
Talk to you from India….
Technorati Tags: travel
Mishaal and miscellania
Mishaal is a Tokyo based belly dancer. Quite possibly the best belly dancer I’ve ever seen. Here’s her website. I saw her at a Greenpeace event in Ebisu that Yama-chan dragged me to. Very happy that she did. More pics up at Flickr.
Technorati Tags: araku, bellydance, canon, Canon Digital Rebel, canon300D, flickr, life, photography, mishaal, sigma17-70mm, tokyo
It’s 44 degrees in Delhi and 30 degrees here in Tokyo (finally!)
The tinsel tartan samurai is a regular sight around Inokashira Koen.
Coz I just can’t get enough of people laying in grass.
Darin knows some awesome frisbee tricks. He cracks me up.
Tyler about to catch the frisbee – see it just on his leg?
So finally the world knows that Kat is pregnant! She announced it on her blog a week or 2 ago. Which means I can write about it now too.
Technorati Tags: araku, friends, inokashirakoen, japan, life, photography, sigma17-70mm, teachingenglish, travel
Fever
Fever. Makes one delirious. It’s an interesting journey. Not quite sure what I’ve got exactly but it’s not pretty. Everything is fuzzy, too bright, achey, swollen, distant, disconnected. I don’t like my futon anymore. And I’m quickly tiring of this armchair. Can’t get comfortable. Waves of cold shivers sweep through but I can’t turn the fan off – the still air is stifling. Reminds me of Varanasi where, in a truly delirious 3 day fever, I watched dead bodies pass by my window (some on nothing but a plank of wood, others covered with rich cloth and a million flowers, accompanied by drummers and chanting crowds) and dreamed about dying. What else does one dream about when you sleep next to a burning ghat? It also reminds me of my Mum, who had recurring malaria (caught in New Guinea) through my childhood. She would sit in front of an open fire wrapped in blankets shivering in the middle of the Australian summer. Fever. Hope it breaks soon. Wet cloths to the neck help. Last check, it was 38.4 degrees. I’ve taken quite a liking to my electronic thermometer. It’s crazy the way the temp bounces around when you’re sick. Been playing guessing games with each check but I’m wrong every time.
Eiko, the superstar landlady is looking after me most capably. She wanted to give me rum and raisin ice cream with some medicine. She knows my opinion on doctors and Japanese medical care so she hasn’t pushed me in that direction too hard. But I do think it’s rather ironic that today – the first day I’ve stayed home truly in bed *all day* due to illness in a very long time – I received approval on my first ever private medical insurance cover since I arrived in Japan (erm, except for the compulsary NOVA in-house cover a few years back). Global Care health Insurance have a rather excellent teachers package. I am now fully covered with a private insurance company for all my medical care needs for the first time in my life. Feels quite comforting.
Technorati Tags: canon300D, EF50mm/f/1.4usm, fever, selfportraits
A Day in Photos
In lieu of any real news, apart from the fact that things have been pretty quiet around here, I figured I’d follow in Flickr’s footsteps and do a Day In The Life Of Me for Saturday, May 5, 2007. 24 pictures.
Oh, and P.S. – My dear friend Jackie had a baby boy, Angus, on Saturday morning. Congratulations, Jackie, Russell, Tallulah and Hannah!
Technorati Tags: a day in the life of, canon300D, flickr, inokashirakoen, japan, kichijoji, life, photo projects, photography, shibuya, sigma17-70mm, tokyo
Fuku-chan
My new flatmate is even wackier than my old one. Lucky I love wacky. Fuku-chan rocks.
In other news, I told my aunt (also an English teacher, but in Brisbane – not Japan) that I’ve taken on too many classes this year. It’s true. My head is spinning. 21 school classes, 13 of which I am solely responsible for curriculum planning and assessment (from Elementary through to Senior High School), on top of my pre-existing private student schedule of anywhere between 8 – 15 students a week. 6 days a week with no less than 5 classes a day and usually around 6 – 8. Thank god for school holidays to help get stressed teaching feet back onto the ground…. There is no way I could keep this schedule up for any lengthy stretch – say longer than about 4 months… Roll on Golden Week!
Technorati Tags: friends, japan, teachingenglish, tokyo
My baby’s back!
Shibuya streets… every visit, something new pokes its head out at you. Taken with the Powershot G3. Yes, the sensors need cleaning desperately.
The first picture with the new improved 300D. Hallelujah.
Everywhere you go there are signs of the coming pink storm! Plastic cherry blossoms adorn every shopping street in Japan.
And they’re in balloon form too….
Picked up the newly repaired Canon 300D (mah baby) from Fujiya this afternoon. Walked outside and pointed up at a sign and clicked and WOW! A nice healthy, heavy shutter sound, the automatic focus worked, the images were clear as crystal thanks to the new parts and clean sensors and suddenly I felt like blogging again. And not a second too soon, as:
1. the old powershot G3 is on it’s way out – the images have long lost their sharpness and colour. I should get the sensors cleaned as I do really love the old workhorse….
2. hanami is almost upon us….
3. started to get emails asking me why I’ve been so quiet on the blog…
Technorati Tags: japan, last.fm, life, tokyogigguide, tokyo
The see-saw is level but the foundations are a little cracked…
I uploaded a bunch of street art pics (mostly from the Ryogoku Mural) at my Flickr page. Go check ‘em out. That’s one of them up above in the middle. The top pic is a cool little piece that turned up at my station this morning, and the other is a beautiful old traditional Japanese-style house just near Kat and Darins place. Love checking it out whenever I go past. A pretty random selection of images for you today.
It’s been a little quiet around here, mostly because I’ve been furiously busy with work and projects and stuff… anyways….
I was mulling over the events of the past 15 months and had a kind of blinding epiphany the other night.
What are you optimistic about?
So what are YOU optimistic about? That’s the 2007 Edge Question.
The dusk of another year
So. Here it is – the dusk of another year. The photos above were taken a week or two ago in Kamakura. There are some more pictures from that day up at Flickr.
The new tattoo
My friend and super-tattooist, Ms Aureole McAlpine came to visit me in Tokyo on her way back from various tattoo conventions in Europe. She gave me my second tattoo – a follow up to the foot tattoo she gave me last year. We used a similar design idea, something that blends Japanese and Australian culture – using stylised water-designs with sakura flowers arranged in a Southern Cross constellation (as seen in the sky only in the Southern Hemisphere)… It hurt a little more than the foot tattoo, mainly because it took twice as long and used twice as much more colour and ink.
Charlene, Tyler and Steve were the support team…. they fed me some much needed beer afterwards. It was an intense experience and I was quite exhausted by the whole thing but gawd, I do love the final result. It’s quite beautiful and the colours are just gorgeous.
I made a flickr set of the proceedings…
„Åó„ÅÇ„Çè„Åõ (Shiawase): A fortunate life.
4 years in Japan. I was thinking of calling this post “the girl who stopped running” but that seemed kinda naff and I figured “a fortunate life” was more adult and appropriate. Reasons for my fortunate life:
A different life part 2
In keeping with the Australian bush theme, here are some pics my brother sent me of their recent holiday on a cattle farm near Cooktown, in Far North Queensland – complete with authentic Aboriginal cave art. Enjoy.
Technorati Tags: Australia, family, life, photography, travel
A different life
On my fathers side of the family there is a long history of ‚Äúbush‚Äù Australia. My great grandfather was the owner of one of Australia’s largest cattle properties, Brunett Downs, which has long since been broken up into much smaller properties. My Dad spent most of his young life – from age 15 to the time he met Mum, working out west around Longreach and Cloncurry and so on, working with cattle or on huge cattle stations. The bottom picture here is him, aged around 20. He was the real deal. A working cowboy, able to roll his own ciggies with one hand while the other held the reins.
My cousin Andrew fancies himself a bit of a bushie (due to the family history, no doubt), despite the fact that he lives in a little cottage in Ascot (ok, ok so his folks own a small farm, too)…. he likes to head out to the bush where some of his mates are real bushies, and today he sent the family these pictures from his latest trip. They are such great photos that I thought I’d share them with you all. Australia. An amazing, drought-stricken country. Such a different life.
Technorati Tags: family, life, Australia, travelphotography
Speeding towards that time of year…
‚ÄúSo we’re speeding towards that time of year
To the days that mark that you’re not here
And i think i’ll want to be alone
So please understand if i don’t answer the phone
i’ll just sit and stare at my deep blue walls
Until i can see nothing at all…
And now my sorrow seems so far away
Until i’m taken by these bolts of pain
But i turn them off and tuck them away
’till these rainy days that make them stay
And then i’ll cry… to these sad songs…
So i’m waiting for this test to end
So these lighter days can soon begin
i’ll be alone but maybe more carefree
Like a kite that floats so effortlessly… ‚Äù
Azure Ray, song title “November”
I think I hate rainy autumn days. My flatmate flew home to Canada today to be with her Mum for her cancer surgery. It’s all been very sudden. She’ll be gone a week, all things going to plan. I think I’ll be drunk all weekend. Grieve the passing of summer, accept the approaching winter, worry about my flatmate and think about my Mum and Dad a bit. It’s almost been a year since Dad passed away. The passing of time shocks me. I recall again the words of Robert Frost: ‚ÄúIn three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.‚Äù
BTW, email problems are still not fixed.
Going on walkabout
My long-planned hazy crazy 44 days of summer in Thailand begins tomorrow.
