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The city of Sydney is blessed by nature. The Port Jackson harbor, with its deep inlets, peninsulas, islands, bays and ravines makes for numerous stunning views. The Mediterranean sunshine and climate allow verdant, tropical gardens to grow easily, and this combination of blue water, green hillsides and limestone cliffs is absolutely stunning.

City authorities have done a decent job of protecting some of the coastline from development. Yesterday we went for a hike in the Harold Reid Reserve, a protected area on the Middle Cove peninsula. It is about 3 kilometers from where we are staying in Chatswood. Running through the reserve is the small Scotts Creek where I caught a brilliant blue glimpse of the Azure King Fisher. The reserve also has a mangrove area and  we identified massive tree ferns, banksia trees, and saw two kookaburras. There was also a flock of sulfur-crested cockatoos, and a pair of rainbow lorikeets, loudly squawking in a date palm. I was sure we were going to see one of Australia’s infamous poisonous snakes, but no such luck.

The only thing that bothers me as usual, is the encroachment of housing developments. I guess the money is too good not for people to put multimillion dollars homes on. On the way back we looked in the window of a real estate agency and were shocked what goes for a million-dollar home + here in Sydney. In the USA, the same homes would go for a 1/3 of the price. I don’t know how so many people can afford such expensive homes.

It is always nice to have access to a bit of nature close by in a city of 5 million people. Let’s hope city officials can build on this and preserve more areas of coastline.

We are spending Christmas in Sydney, Australia. We are staying at a friend’s apartment in Chatswood, an affluent suburb on the north shore of Sydney, about 10 kilometers from downtown.

On our first day in Sydney, we visited the the iconic Sydney Opera House and walked around downtown. Seeing the opera house is like seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Taj Mahal, it is one of the world buildings that is instantly recognizable. The opera house is unique, although it is in need of a face lift as the roof has yellowed a bit and the dark wood beams scream 1980s. There were heaps of people outside the opera house and hanging out along the docks. The atmosphere is quite nice with outdoor restaurants, bars, and cafes. We escaped the crowds and spent the afternoon at the Sydney Botanic Gardens. The open lawns with a skyscraper backdrop reminded me of Central Park in New York. We had a fantastic, relaxing, and fun day with each other. We had running races, sumo wrestling matches, and I especially was interested in the trees and plants that were identified in the gardens. As I always say, it really doesn’t matter where I spend my holidays, as long as I am with my family, I’ll have a wonderful time.

Nadia is happy to be reminiscing about her childhood. She grew up in the suburbs of Melbourne and left when she was 14 years old. It was funny that we couldn’t find a meat pie yesterday for lunch. There are lots of Asian restaurants but not Aussie meat pie shops. It may be a reflection of Australia being in Asia or the impact of immigration. We did get some fish and chips for dinner and a stop at the Woolworth’s super market resulted in a descriptions by Nadia of every product she remembers. 🙂

We finished the evening enjoying some Australian wine. Nadia and I had a glass of botrytis semillon produced by the Nugan Estate here in NSW. I forgot how good Aussie wines were! We used to live in Perth 13 years ago (has it been that long since we left?) and we learned about wine through courses at Western Australia University and trips to the Margaret River wine region.

Some of my initial impression of Australia:

• Osaka Japan is cheaper than Sydney. Things are really expensive here. I always thought Japan, Norway, and Switzerland were the most expensive places, but I would put Sydney on that list. I wonder if the economic statistics bear that out?
• Owen nailed it on the head by saying he was reminded of Spain while were were walking to the train station. The sunlight here is like the Mediterranean and I would say Australia is a mix between California and Spain. I can see why people want to come here as it is so beautiful with perfect weather.
• Sydney is much busier and cosmopolitan than Perth. We lived in Perth from 2000 to 2002 before moving to Venezuela.
• Topics in the Sydney Morning Herald were breaking down the recent attack on the Sydney cafe by the Iranian immigrant and a horrific story of 7 siblings aged 15 months to 17 years old were found dead in a Cairns home. The mom was also stabbed but was alive and taken to the hospital. There was also an article about real estate, which continues to increase in value like in the USA before the bubble burst. I foresee a real estate bubble bursting here also. Incomes are not rising as fast as real estate prices are rising.

Well, that is it for this morning. We are headed off to the famed Bondi Beach today to give the kids a taste of Aussie lifeguard and beach culture.

Men turn into their fathers as we get older. I am more and more interested in the weather as I age. I remember my father always mentioned the weather when I talked with him from afar and he had thermometers outside all sides of the house to check daily. I guess a part of it is my background in science and my interest in the earth sciences like geology, astronomy, and meteorology. Understanding and observing climate, wind patterns, tracking precipitation, etc. is fascinating.

After living for 13 years in tropical countries, my past two posts, Serbia and Japan, have been refreshing because of the change of seasons. This is my seventh consecutive year of living in latitudes outside of the tropics. Osaka is 34 degrees north of the equator, which generally the same latitude as Los Angeles, California, Atlanta, Georgia, Nicosia, Cyprus and Kabul, Afghanistan.

Osaka’s climate is classified as humid subtropical. It has hot, humid summers and cool “mild” winters and a definite change of seasons. The summer was incredibly hot and wet and the fall was gorgeous with perfect weather. This winter so far has been cold, not northern Michigan cold where I am from, the more like the Balkans cold with temperatures around 0 C. We even had snow flurries yesterday, which is very rare for December here, and over the year on average it only snows 3 centimeters (1 inch) per year. That is a bit sad because I love snow.

It feels much colder because of the lack of insulation  and central heating in Japanese homes. They tend to close off rooms in the winter, use small heating devices like electric rugs/blankets, pocket hand warmers, portable gas and electric heaters, instead of a furnace like in European or North American homes. I was joking that living in our house is like living in our summer porch in my childhood home in Michigan. We had a non-insulated room in the back of our house that was used for storage or sleeping in the summer (before the days of air conditioning). I find this interesting why the homes are not insulated well, as things here have a developed infrastructure, like highways, buildings, etc, why not have insulated homes? It is a mystery I hope to answer in my time here.

The students at our school from India and Brazil were very excited to see snow yesterday. I am looking forward to see how the winter progresses into spring.

It is a cliche that kids grow up so fast, but it does seem like it. I can’t believe Owen, our eldest son is already 12 years old. It seems only like yesterday that he was a little, chubby baby and in my jogging stroller drinking his bottle while I ran around Anaco. Where does the time go?

I took the photo above last week showing Owen in his basketball uniform and holding his MVP trophy. He won the award as the best player on his team at the Western Japan Athletic Association (WJAA) middle school boys basketball championships hosted by the Marist Brothers International School in Kobe. He really enjoyed playing basketball this year and we are very proud of him.

Yesterday we took him to the Hard Rock Cafe, made him breakfast in bed, and allowed him to use his iPad as much as he wanted. Typical of a boy nearing his teenage years, he was thrilled to receive headphones. We got him the popular “beats” by Dre type.

We are so proud of Owen and we love him very much! Happy Birthday!

This is my first time living in a non Christian culture. I am curious to learn more about the religion of Japan, which is mostly Buddhist mixed with elements of Shinto. I see many temples around here and want to understand them. I started reading on the subject and during my stay here, I am sure I will learn more. Note that I am not religious and being raised Catholic, I am now a secular humanist. I don’t believe in the supernatural, although I want to, and I am undertaking this study from intellectual curiosity, not a search for the meaning of life or other higher calling. I do think that religions are full of wisdom and my life can benefit from their teachings.

I started with Shinto because it would be like if Europeans still practiced pagan rituals. In a way they do I guess, because Christianity did incorporate some pre-Christian festivals like the winter solstice become Christmas, but most of beliefs have been lost to time and the power of Christianity. Shinto not so and it is the original religion of the first settlers of the island. It gives a window into what they thought was important and how they answered those big questions of why are we here and what happens to me when I die.

The central focus of Shinto is the kami or spirits. The kami can be of ancestors, great historical figures, or of natural phenomena like the sun, trees, wind, etc. Shinto started as honoring ancestors and family lineages, but as the population grew and time went on, the kami became more general. I think that is one way the early Japanese found immortality, by keeping the memory of their forebears alive.

Besides the kami, the religion centers on rituals performed at shrines. There is no sacred scripture or teachings, no belief in a god or heaven. It has been passed down through the generations by repeating of group ceremonies or personal rituals. I enjoy going to the shrines, mostly because they are always surrounded by trees, plants, and peaceful surroundings. This is much like the monasteries of Serbia, they were placed in wilderness, away from attack from the Turks. Visiting them usually involves a hike in the surround hillsides and forests. Shinto shrines are surrounded by not so much forests because Japan is a crowded island, but they all have at least a small grove of trees. You can see it very easily in any view of Osaka from above. Where there are a bunch of trees, there is usually a shrine or temple in the center. Nature not only gives the worshipper peaceful surroundings, but also the kami are found in nature. That might be the thing I like best about Shinto, the reverence for big trees. I respect and cherish old trees.

All shrines have a gate, called a torii. This helps people move from their busy, daily lives to a peaceful spiritual time. The gates are guarded by fierce looking statues of dogs or lions. These ward off evil spirits and the bad things that plague humanity. There is usually a water fountain to ceremonially wash away pollution and negative spirits. It also involves a walk to a temple that holds a sacred object that symbolizes that particular kami, whether it be a former emperor, war hero, or the spirits from that local area. People leave offerings at the shrines.

I don’t think foreigners can become Shintoists. It is a religion that is really tied to the DNA and culture of Japan. During the Meiji Restoration through to World War II, the Japanese government tried to make Shinto the official religion and rid it of Buddhism. They were unsuccessful and today, Shinto is practiced by regular citizens. They form neighborhood networks to take care of shrines and some even become priests for the shrines.

Last week I watched a Shinto procession through our neighborhood here in Onohara (neighborhood of Minoh) consisting of a palanquin being carried by men in costumes. Inside the palanquin were drum players and it was followed by about 100 people in colorful robes.

I have a lot to learn, but hopefully I have given my readers an introduction to Shinto and one outsider’s cursory view of it. I hope to understand Japan better through a better understanding of Shinto and Buddhism.

Source:

Shinto: The Kami Way by Sokyo Ono (Ono is a professor at the Shinto university of Kokugakuin Daigaku) with help from William Woodward – Charles E. Tuttle Company publishers, Tokyo 1962

On Sunday I took my first ride on the Shinkansen or in English it is known as the bullet train, from Osaka to Tokyo and back. Shin means new in Japanese, although the high speed train is celebrating 50 years of service in Japan. It was very easy to get a ticket and get on the train. The train left from one of the major stations on the daily commuter train line, Shin-Osaka, and with 16-car trains leaving every 10 minutes, it was easy to buy a ticket moments before getting on the train. The return ticket was a bit expensive, around $250, but getting to Tokyo, a 5 and 1/2 hour car ride in 2 and 1/2 hours, is worth it. Especially with Tokyo traffic! The 3-hour mark is the cut-off for convenience over flights, and considering getting taxis, baggage, check-in, etc. it is the easiest method of going between Osaka and Tokyo.

The ride was comfortable, with much more leg room than a plane and my seat had a pull down table and electric charger. I struggled with reading or getting work done however, as the train did shake a bit and it made me a little motion sick. The outside scenes whir by and you can tell how fast the train is going. They can reach speeds of up to 150-200 miles per hour (320 km/hr).

The shinkansen has lines connecting the big cities on the two central islands of the Japan archipelago.  They had planned to expand it to Hokkaido and further south, but those have been postponed. Around 150 million passengers per year take the line between Osaka and Tokyo. The train uses only 16% of the carbon of a car, so it is good for the environment.

Last weekend I got to see a short Noh play during the 125th celebration ceremony at Kwansei Gakuin University. They were opening the new auditorium and they had an Oscars like ceremony, with lots of music and lights between speeches.

The most unusual aspect of the ceremony was the ancient Japanese theatre form called Noh. This started over 800 years ago and is very traditional without innovation so it was like going back in time. It was strange to watch! The chorus sang in few tones and in character. The two women in the front row had solo parts and they sang in a deep voice, but forced. The music ensemble consisted of a primitive flute and these drummers making the oddest noises with their voices while occasionally beating on the drum.

This group wrote an original play, which is rare in the Noh art form as they have a traditional list of around 250 plays. The play was based on the founding of the university by American Methodist missionary, Charles Lambuth. 125 years ago he started a school in Kobe and it has now grown to over 24,000 students from K-12 schools to graduate university programs.

I am glad the university put Noh into the ceremony. It is a distinctly Japanese art form and those isolationists, the Tokugawas, had it be the official theatre form of the their court. I can’t say it was entertaining, but it was fascinating. I couldn’t understand the weird vocal grunts and what appeared to be random beats of the drum.

There must be something to it because it is still performed today and there are theatres in Tokyo and Osaka dedicated to Noh. I am not sure if I will give it another try, but it was an experience and gave me a better understanding of Japan.