A Little Settled during an Unsettling Time

Written by Lyla

April 24, 2025 – Chiang Mai, Thailand

We flew to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand from Kho Phangan on March 20th. Though we really liked the AirBnB where we spent our last week on Kho Phangan, we did not like the Oracle, the AirBnB where we spent the first three weeks on the island - as you know from Mona's March 11th blog post. It was rough to be somewhere that we didn't like during the same time as USAID was being dismantled and I was realizing that I was out of a job, out of most of my retirement, and out of the framework for our lives - the Oracle added insult to that injury.

So, when we were making our post-Kho Phangan plans, we were reluctant to make a commitment anywhere because our long reservation (and their strident cancellation policy) at the Oracle is what had us stuck there longer than any of us would have liked. So when we decided to come to Chiang Mai after Kho Phangan, we agreed we'd only make a one week AirBnB reservation in case we didn't like the city or the AirBnB.

We liked the AirBnb well enough, but I had pictured us riding bikes in Chiang Mai and where we were staying didn't seem super conducive to riding bikes - too much traffic. And it didn't feel right - like I didn't think I wanted to spend more than a week or two here. But we really liked the idea of being settled somewhere for a month to catch our breath and figure out the rest of our lives...or at least the next year. So, the first few days, Mike and I walked for miles all around the city, trying to find a better spot for our family. We looked all over AirBnB for nearby areas and researched towns within a few hours bus ride. We were searching, searching, searching - not wanting to get stuck in another Oracle situation. But this can feel exhausting - especially in the midst of our non-travel life plans imploding. On the third day, we decided to just chill and extend our AirBnB reservation until April 3rd, which was the longest we could extend it for - someone else had reserved it after that. 

One neat thing about this year has been that, even though Mike and I have been together almost 19 years, I'm learning new things about him. For example, he loves moats - who knew! And the old town where we're staying just so happens to be completely surrounded by a moat, so you know we're taking that as a good sign!

As soon as we decided to just chill, we actually really started to like Chiang Mai and the old town, which is where we were staying. We realized the maze of alleys that comprised most of the old city would be good for bike riding and there's a creative energy that infuses the place. I started weekly yoga classes at a very charming studio that's on the second floor with open windows and the birds chirping. We found our favorite smoothie spot and got massages. We did a Chiang Mai Global Studies Scavenger Hunt. We frequented the night markets for dinner. We established our favorite pizza place. We settled in.

But then our visas were expiring and our AirBnB reservation was running out. Fortunately we were able to extend our visas for a month and we picked another AirBnB (just for a week!) right by our favorite pizza place (pizza has become a great comfort especially to Mona during this year of travel) and a beautiful silver temple. We have now extended our AirBnB reservation until mid-May when our Thai visa runs out for good. After being on the road all year, one thing we've realized is that we really like to be somewhere at least for a few weeks so we can start to see familiar faces and places - it's comforting and the best way to understand a place. I love the travel and exploration and, at the same time, I'm definitely starting to miss having a home - it's so comforting to have your own place and, before, when we knew we would have a new home when my next tour started in June, it seemed like a guarantee, but now that we're needing to reinvent our lives, it feels more distant and elusive.

Our current AirBnB is about a 10 minute walk from our old place, so I can run to my yoga class Friday mornings then go to the produce market afterwards to stock up for the week. We go to the pizza place at least once a week (we had to set a limit otherwise we'd probably be there every night!), we go to the night market right in front of the pizza place for dinner every Saturday night. On Sundays, Mike and I have started having a date at a coffee shop we enjoy - he applies for jobs and I work on my computer too, then we stroll through the Sunday night market outside the coffee shop and visit temples as we walk home in the evening warmth. It's lovely to have our little routine.

Meanwhile, I am in the thick of mourning the loss of USAID - our mission and impact, the community, my career, my goals, my plans. I feel like I'm going through a Trump-induced mid-life crisis -- having to figure myself out all over again at 45. When we were at the Oracle, I frantically applied to a bunch of jobs, until I realized I am not eager to go back to a 9-5 job, so then at our first place in Chiang Mai, I decided I wanted to start my own business and I started furiously working on that, until I realized I didn't like the idea of having to chase customers. That left me feeling rather lost, which is something I've never felt in my life. So, I am trying to not plan since I don't know what I want to do, but I am such a planner! It's definitely an opportunity to grow and I try to keep refocusing on the present moment to help me appreciate how wonderful this time is and to try to disengage from planning. I hope that I can figure out again what makes me happy and what I want to do with the rest of my life. I am grateful that, even though I seem to be going through an existential crisis, I get to be somewhere where I get fresh fruit smoothies and massages and spend lots of quality time with my amazing little family. And there's a lot to be said for that. :)

JOHOR, JOHOR, JOHOR. 

Johor, a fairly large state at the tip of mainland Malaysia. Johor contains many cities, Kulai, Pagoh, Muar, but a tiny seaside city called “Johor Bahru” has landed itself in the zone of capital cities since the year 1994. 

After being in Hawaii for the winter, we traveled back out to the glorious, uncaptured by whether forecasts, South-East Asia. Malaysia caught our eyes, and so we went to Langkawi, and Panag. But where to start? I mean, we’d want to stay somewhere for just a couple days before settling down somewhere again and starting school. As we were about to go to sleep, I tucked myself into my blankets, wondering where we’ll be next. Suddenly, a voice came out of the walls… we couldn’t see it, but its voice and its words were clear in our head.  “Johor… Johor Bahru… Johor…” And that was when we knew, we had to go to Johor. Johor Bahru.

Arriving there was definitely something. Johor is the part of Malaysia that touches the tiny star of Singapore, so we flew into Singapore. Unfortunately, most famous things come at a price, meaning the number of dollars it would cost to stay in Singapore would be over how much we would want to pay. With some searching, mommy and daddy landed us a one story apartment in a building. Little did we know how high up said apartment was. 

After we got out of the airport, we got in a cab to the border between Malaysia and Singapore. Me and Mona got two bottles of chocolate milk at a seven eleven for the car ride. In the process of getting those chocolate milk bottles, I got some weird black rubber thing stuck to the bottom of my shoe. I’m telling you, this thing was giant, the reason I noticed it was because I couldn’t walk normally with it on my shoe. Anyways, getting to the border we hopped out of the car, and got through to Johor surprisingly quickly. We just had to go through this machine thing that scanned our passports. But the part that took a bit was when we had to wait in line to do something. I don’t know all the details, so…if you want more info ask mommy or daddy. All I know is that I was waiting at the front of an empty line for a while with really heavy bags on my back. This was when I found out what Malay people look like. BECAUSE EVERY ONE THERE WAS MALAY. I swear. I looked person after person in line there, and not one of them was any other race! I mean, I guess it was ‘cause it wasn’t the empty foreigners line we were standing in, but in this day and age anyone can be a legal Malay person. I think. Wow I just spent 68 words talking about how everyone in that line was Malay. Uh, somehow we got to the other side of the border after waiting for what felt like HOURS. Skip to the part where we pull up to the apartment. We got out of the car as any other demons pretending to be humans would, and daddy struggled to get the key out of this weird box thing…I-I don’t know what it was. These buildings were REALLY high. There were a lot of them actually. I can’t imagine how much money the people that own these apartments earn in a year. We got in an elevator, and oh dear there were a lot of buttons on that wall. I felt like Buddy going up the Empire State Building, waiting for my fingers to unfold and touch every one of those buttons. But no, my hands stayed strapped to my sides. You will not believe your…ears? Eyes? W-when I tell you that we were on the 41ST FLOOR. Yup. Outside the widows looked insane. And there was a balcony. Guess which one of us got terrified! No, it wasn’t me. The Airbnb itself was oddly fancy. Like, fake plants. Who puts fake plants around a house? Well, I guess some people. Like these people. Me and Mona shared a bed, which is a clear threat to my safety. There was a window in our room, and in front of it was this ledge thing that was covered with leather, so at least I didn’t have to be next to Mona all day. Phew. 

So y’know how I said that outside the windows looked insane? Yea, you could actually see the floor from the windows. But even that wasn’t the bottom floor. That was the 8th floor. The 8th floor was weird. It was connected to this, like a food area, or I think a mall is more accurate. And it was also this playground place that was outside doors on the 8th floor. But it wasn’t just a playground, it also had a bunch of exercise things, stuff you’d see in South Korea to keep the elderly healthy and fit. Those exercise things were fun to play on :). There was also this skateboard-lookin’ thing. Mona tried it fist, and couldn’t really balance, and then I tried, and couldn’t really balance, and then daddy tried, and he totally balanced, and then mommy tried, and could totally balance too, and then Mona tried again, and totally balanced. The conclusion? I was just too light :(. But at least it was more fun for me!

We decided to go to a Hindu temple, and get food while we were out. But it took FOREVER to get to the temple. I didn’t really know what was going on. All I know was that the driver of the grab we ordered was very chatty, especially towards daddy, the person sitting next to the driver. (Grab = pretty much the south-east Asian Uber).   Finally, we got out of the car and made our way onto a path leading to the temple. It was a fairly spooky path, right on the edge of a forest. We saw this sign a bit more than half way. It was a red sign with white silhouettes of people. On holding what looked like a guuuunn…. And some Malay. We were all freaked out, well, of course we were! Especially Mona. I think he started crying actually. (Mona, don’t kill me after this). Luckily, technology is at our disposal! Daddy translated it and turns out it was just something like: “don’t trespass over here, or we’ll take you to court!” And we weren’t trespassing. I think. 

The temple was really colorful. At the front it had a bunch of colorful guys above the door, that I have no idea what they’re called. And inside were tons of pillars covered in sainted glass. In the center was a thicker pillar with deities on the sides. Something that lives in the oddly clear part of my brain is daddy taking a picture of a statue of mother Turisa, (I hope I spelled that correctly), and saying that grandma likes mother Turisa. There was a plethora of families praying and admiring the deities, and other people being there. Just about the most interesting person there was the boy, seemingly in his early to mid 20s, sitting on the ground beside the thicker pillar shaking and moving coins in his hands. And it was a lot of coins considering how strong RM is. What he was doing might have been a Hindu thing, so I’m not that confused. Him and us were the most noticeable people, mostly because of our races, but also because of our SICK FASHION SENSE! But once again mostly because of our races. Of course, we are Americans, and he seemed to be East Asian. Everyone else there looked to be from Indian descent, as India is where Hinduism came from. 

I said before that we were gonna get food after we left the temple. Did we get food? Nope! We found a small cute waffle place where we would be feasting for the night. It was called Fufu, which in Japanese apparently means something like pure enjoyment. I agree. Those pancakes and waffles were pure enjoyment. We got a couple plates and tried our best to share. A memory that we will always remember is when we had just gotten chocolate waffles. Well, they were specifically for Mona. Unfortunately, there were banana slices on it. And Mona doesn’t like banananas. So Mona gave us the bananananas, mostly me though. I got to the point were Mona had made it a game that he controlled, but it was oddly hilarious. I said with a very distressed voice; “Why are you so invested?” And that was when it happened. Daddy was sitting next to me, and I am not lying when I tell you that was the hardest I’ve ever seen him laugh, maybe in my whole life. He laughed so hard I bet his tum tum hurt so much after that. 

Our original plan was to go back over across the border to Singapore and walk around exploring for a day. But we decided that it would be a pain, and so we didn’t actually go back over to Singapore. I can’t speak for all of us, but that's pretty much it for me :). So…that’s it! We did a lot of other stuff, but that’s all that’s not just us hanging out. And also I’m writing this on the day of the deadline, so uh… bye bye until my next blog!

On the Train

Written by Lyla

February 18, 2025 - on the train from Bangkok to Surat Thani

Here we are on a 9-hour train ride from Bangkok to Surat Thani. We’ll spend the night there then, in the morning, we’ll take a taxi for an hour to the port where we’ll take a 2.5 hour ferry ride to Koh Phangan, our home for the next month. We had a wonderful few days in Bangkok. It is fun to be bouncing back and forth between mellow places and more bustling places – each has their own value and joy to them.

When we lived in Tajikistan, Mike, Mona, and I came to Bangkok 12 years ago because I had a training there. Mike and Mona spent the days, with 1-year old Mona on Mike’s chest in a Baby Bjorn, wandering the neighborhoods of Bangkok while I was at work. Mike remembered one of the neighborhoods, Talat Noi, which used to be mostly mechanics on the border of Chinatown and has now turned into a funky, artistic mellow enclave…still with mechanics scattered throughout. We had fun wandering around and eating yummy food.

Mike and I like to wander more than the kids, so yesterday, we let the kids stay home and Mike and I walked around for a few hours in the evening warmth going in any direction that seemed interesting. During our stroll, I was reflecting on how fortunate I feel that Mike and I have so many similar interests and approaches to life. Though, after nearly half our lives being together, I wonder how much we’ve grown into this commonality vs being this way before we met.

We had to wake up at 5:30 this morning to catch our train. This morning and honestly most days, I’m just so bawled over by how amazing my kids are. They are so resilient and patient and accepting! Of course, they probably just came in this amazing (my Mom always says that personality is nature via nurture) and I think our lifestyle has set them up so well to be this way, which is really coming in handy during this year of travel.

This year has ignited in Lulu a real curiosity about the world – throughout the day, she asks questions about random country’s history, colonizers, languages, population, currency, and religion. The questions she asks makes me think it would be fascinating to be in her brain – and, after a quarter century spent working in global affairs, I still have been learning so much thanks to her great questions!

And I feel like Mona is coming into herself this year – now that she’s officially a teenager, she seems to be building her confidence in herself and her place in the world. She has always felt older than her years and it is wonderful to see the young adult she is becoming as she navigates so many new contexts.

Both kids have such an amazing attitude about life and the world – it makes me so proud!

This year has felt life-changing – I think it has made me a better person. It feels like so many more amazing experiences than I could have asked for in a lifetime, let alone in a year. And our family knows one another in such a depth and breadth that we would have never gotten to experience in normal life. It is such a gift!

When Life gives you Lemons

Written by Lyla

February 10, 2025 - Langkawi, Malaysia

Wow - this past week and a half has felt surreal. Here we are on this amazing magical adventure while my Agency is being dismantled in Washington. It brings up so many emotions and so much uncertainty, which are both things that, by nature, humans grapple with handling! But here we are in this beautiful setting. Our AirBnB is a great space in the countryside. Most tourists who come to Langkawi stay near the beach, so it's rare to see other tourists when we're out and about near our AirBnB. The call to prayer reminds us of being in Jordan, which of course makes us all happy. We've been riding bikes and having school and trying local food and seeing some tourist sites. 

All and all it is a very serene place to be while navigating these challenges we are going through. On a very fundamental level, I feel so sad about how the aid freeze and dismantling of USAID is hurting people all over the world. USAID helps people in so many different ways in so many different countries. We save lives through access to medicine, vaccines, emergency feeding - and those lives saved have positive ripple effects in their communities. We strengthen local economies so that people can stay in their home country and not need to migrate for work. We teach people their rights and responsibilities as citizens so that they can productively engage with their government instead of violently and so that they can help make their countries stronger. We improve the quality and quantity of schools around the world so that children can get an education and contribute to their local economies. My friend shared with me JFK's speech from 1961 about why he created USAID - to have American influence around the world, to prevent the need for American military intervention around the world, to build economies, and on - these are the same reasons we exist today. 

On top of how it hurts our beneficiaries, I am sad thinking about my hardworking and committed colleagues at USAID Missions around the world, Americans and the local staff, who are losing their jobs and being demonized. Thinking about the civil society organizations and companies that work with USAID around the world and in the US who are now closing because of a lack of funding - thousands and thousands of people, many of them Americans, are out of a job. The whole development industry in the US will likely cease to exist without USAID funding. Development professionals are some of the most dedicated, committed, and earnest professionals in the world - people who work in development do so because it is their life's mission to help make the world a better place. These people aren't doing this work because it's glamorous or well-paying or easy - they're doing it because they know how important it is. 

America is less safe as USAID's work spread good will on the US's behalf around the world, we made other countries stronger so that they would be good allies to the US and be able to keep their citizens at home, we helped create markets for US goods, we spread a belief in democracy and human rights, we stood for the spirit of America. On a personal level, this upends our world as well - whereas we thought we would move to a new country this summer and live there for another four years and that I would retire in five years with my pension and probably get another job, all of that is likely not happening now. To be in such a peaceful setting as this all unfolds is a godsend. I know it would be so much more stressful if we were at an Embassy and being told to pull the kids from school and go back to the US within a month. I am so sad thinking about all the stress this order is causing so many families. I am grateful to be a little sheltered. 

And honestly, I think in addition to the anxiety and sadness and despair, my foundational feeling right now is gratitude. I am grateful to have been a representative of the United States Government for the past 19 years. I am grateful to have been able to do such meaningful and impactful work on behalf of the USG. I am grateful for all of the amazing colleagues I have had through the years and friendships that have formed. I am grateful that I fundamentally believe that humans are intrinsically good and that the world can be a place of equality, abundance, respect, and dignity. I am grateful that I am a raging optimist and know that things will turn out ok one way or another for my sweet little family. I am grateful to be in the countryside on a Malaysian island while this new reality sinks in. I am grateful that, while I can't control what happens in the world or even what happens to me, I can control how I feel about it and, even though I despair on so many levels, I am not beaten, I am not giving up on humanity. I know I still have more to give to help make the world a better place. Now I just have to get out there and figure out how to do it!

JORDANIAN SHOPS:

Monday, Jan 20th 2025 - George Town, Penang, Malaysia

Written by Lulu

Jordanian shops were not far off average. They were just kinda, normal.

The family bookstore was one of our favorite shops in Jordan to get toys and birthday presents. It wasn't a family bookstore. In fact, it wasn't a bookstore at all. It was a small room at the end of a string of shops. The door was all glass, but it had prints of bobblehead superheroes. Inside was a desk at the front, a desk more near the back i think, a bunch of shelves, and a stand. A bunch of random toys were put on the shelves. But the real hot stuff was on those stands. I dont know how often they replaced the stuff on them, but they always seemed to have new and cool stuff. I remember one time in maybe, 2021, they had a bunch of stuffed toys there named huggy wuggy. It was from a super graphic horror game, but it was everywhere. No matter if you were 4, or 44. And another time, right before the new school year started, it was packed with back to school stuff. I'm telling you, those two stands were the most relevant things in the whole shop. 

But it wasn't just toys. There was slime, and markers. I think i bought a grayish-blueish marker once from the family bookstore, and a couple other ones that i can’t remember. I ran out of ink in two markers, so mommy and i went to the family book store to get some new one the next day or weekend. 

Near the counters, there was boxes of fidgets and small squishy things. I was drawn to them, and im sure most kids are. Think about it, imagine you’re about 7 years old, your older sister just got some glittery slime in a tube-shaped bottle. You’re too short to see over the table, so you stare at two small, chibi, stuffed figures. You have no idea who these figures are or who they’re supposed to represent, but you heard older kids talking about them. Kids older than your big sister. You grab one. It’s has a printing on it’s fabric, and its not as soft and squishy as you thought it would be. It’s more stiff, like something molding.

There was a shop that we would always drive past on the bus. I dont know what it did or sold, and I’ve never actually walked past it or gone in it, but the reason i remember it is because it had the word 

“NADEN” 

in big gold letters. Naden was the name of one of my teachers. Miss Naden worked wonders. Not only was she a English teacher, but she was also a math teacher. She takes the cake for the person that taught most of the English i know, and she also was the first person to ever teach me angles. We would drive past it early in the morn’ and I would think as I sang to myself and talked with friends, “ Naden.”

There was a legendary blob of brown cement above two shops. We dubbed it, 

“The Ice Cream Splotch.” 

Every time we drove past it, a kid would yell, “The Ice Cream Splotch!” 

Those two shops that lied under the ice cream splotch, well i think only one of them was actually a shop. I think the other one was a empty garage, but it kept changing. The other one was juice shop i think. I honestly have no idea what they were. 

Mele Kalikimaka

December 29, 2024 - Kealalekua, Hawaii

Written by Lyla

Getting to spend Christmas, my birthday, Ramona's birthday, Lulu's birthday, and New Years here in Hawaii with my amazing parents, their lovely roommate, Joy, and my sweet 91-year-old step Grandmother is such a good reminder that something that seems bad can turn into a blessing. If my visa to Vietnam hadn't gotten messed up and if we could have stayed more than 30 days, for sure our plans would have evolved differently and we wouldn't be here now. And here now is a great place to be! 

We've been having such a wonderful time together! My parents place overlooking the ocean on a macadamia nut farm is just such a peaceful place to be - I love nothing more than sitting on their lanai and soaking it all in. We've had fun helping Popi around the farm - throwing coconuts in a bin, cleaning the koi pond, weed whacking, juicing lemons from the orchard. We've also been having fun cooking for everyone. For Christmas, Mike and I made a big Christmas dinner - we think it's the most involved meal we've ever made and, though I don't think I'll become Martha Stewart anytime soon, it was fun to spend the day in the kitchen together. I've been carrying our Christmas stockings around with us not knowing we'd be here for Christmas, so it was fun to surprise the kids with them and get them advent calendars with chocolate behind each day, which is a holiday tradition we love. My sweetie pie mother-in-law, Julie, and one of my childhood besties, Camille, sent us Sees Candy, which also makes it feel very Christmas - there's nothing like a box of See's chocolates to bring the holiday spirit!! Lulu, Grams, and Popi decorated the Christmas tree with Momo supervising. And, as part of the holiday celebration, we saw the Christmas story with a Kona twist at the Aloha Theater, the local community theater. It's been a treat to have store bought egg nog - alcoholic and non-alcoholic. I usually spend most of December making batches of egg nog at home because it's not as common to find in the stores where we live abroad. But there's nothing quite like the store bought egg nog!

We also went bowling one day - the kids enjoy bowling and Popi and Mike are really good at it! It's fun to see Lulu's reaction when she hits pins down - she jumps, she dances, she hoots! And though Ramona is more subdued in her response, I think she enjoys it too. We've also gone to our favorite gelato shop, which we will surely be visiting much more with the kids birthdays approaching. I like taking myself down to the ocean some mornings to run alongside the ocean then go swimming - it's a wonderful way to start the day. Today my Mom and I are driving to the north of the island to get to meet the baby of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Carey. Her parents live about an hour and a half north and it's amazing we're both here at the same time so that I can meet Lena! 

We arrived on December 18th and will be here until January 11th. We had thought we'd then fly to New Zealand, but it was so expensive and, with living off of our savings for the year, it made more sense to not go there - I tried to slice and dice it in may different ways, but it just didn't seem like a good fit. I next looked at flying to Fiji to see our great friends, Somer and Nick, but my research for heading there also didn't make it feel like the right next step. As I mentioned in a previous post, we're really going with what feels right and it's so interesting to flex that instinct muscle because it's been leading us to great places! So we're flying to Singapore and, after a few days there, we'll head on to Malaysia - right now we're deciding where to go first in Malaysia - we'll see where it is!

A Wonder of the World

December 15, 2024 - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Written by Lyla

Woweee! As long as I can remember, I have wanted to visit Angkor Wat and, let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It is the largest religious memorial in the world, so it is humongous. It was built in the 1100s and one theory is that it was originally built as a Hindu temple. It is now a Buddhist temple as 95% of Cambodians are Buddhist. We saw Buddhist monks each of the three days we visited. The temple complex, which is four times larger than Vatican City, is about a 20 minute tuk tuk ride from the town of Siem Reap, Cambodia. We flew into Siem Reap Wednesday night and spent Thursday relaxing at our charming AirBnb and going into town for dinner. We went into town for dinner each night and one night had dinner at a seafood food stall, which was delicious and fun. Last night, at a Khmeri restaurant (Khmer is what the Cambodian language and culture is called - and the name of the ancient civilization that built Angkor Wat), Lulu tried fried frog. The kids are being raised pescetarian, but now that they are older, I encourage them to make their own choices and frog is on the fence anyways - is it meat or seafood. I was impressed by her adventurousness! Mike tried it too and I'm also always impressed by his adventurousness as well :)

Most of the Cambodians we met seemed really nice, though it was hard to see so much poverty and so many landmine victims. The country still has some of the most landmines in the world and people's lives are still getting stolen and ruined by them. There was also a lot of children working selling tourist commodities and people begging for money. I know that feeling bad doesn't make their situation better so I try to treat them, and everyone I meet, with kindness and respect and give what I can when it seems right. But I felt a heaviness in the country and I don't know if it was real or what I imagine because of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. It is devastating to think of what this country suffered - a quarter of the population killed by its own government in four years - and the lingering psychological impact of that collective trauma.

Even with this, it is a beautiful country with such a jewel to behold in Angkor Wat. Friday, our first day going to Angkor Wat, we called a tuk tuk on Grab, which is like the SE Asian version of Uber. The driver was so nice we used him to get around Angkor Wat our other two days there as well. The first day, the four of us went to the main temple, which is the largest and most famous. It reminded me of the Treasury at Petra - like it's where the majority of people go and it's what people think of when they think of Angkor Wat. The majesty and scale and detail and beauty was a real wonderment. It was incredible to share this experience with the kids - to get to go somewhere I've always wanted to visit and to have Mona and Lulu see it and experience it at 12 and 9. So cool! Yesterday, the kids wanted to stay home and rest, so Mike and I went to several of the smaller temples and it was so lovely to have the day together exploring these mesmerizing ancient sights. We also went back to the backside of the main temple to see the a stone carving of The Churning of the Ocean of Milk, which was so impressive. Today, we had to check out of our AirBnB at 11, so we went back to Angkor Wat with the kids for a few hours to show them some of the temples we went to yesterday and enjoyed. Mona was also eager to see the monkeys we saw yesterday, but was disappointed when I told her she couldn't try to pet them. 

And now here we are at the airport waiting for our flight to Tokyo (through Hanoi). We'll be in Tokyo for 36 hours - partially to break up our flight and partially so Mona can get the anime figurines she didn't get when we were there in September (because there wasn't space to lug them in her backpack for the year). She can get them now because, on Wednesday, we're flying to Hawaii to be with my parents and 91-year old step-grandmother for Christmas and our birthdays! And we picked up a duffel bag for her to pack her anime figurines in on the way back to Hawaii. So from Wednesday to Wednesday, we'll be in Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, and the US. It's a lot, but so worth it! I love the holidays and I'm excited to spend it with my incredible parents and in the US. The last Christmas we spent in the US was Lulu's first Christmas and now she's turning 10! I'm excited to share store-bought egg nog with the kids! On January 11, we will fly to Singapore then take the train on to Malaysia after a few days.

Expect the Unexpected

Written by Lyla

November 26, 2024 - Hoi An, Vietnam

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a planner. Not that I like to plan or that I'm good at planning, as much as those are both true, but rather that planning is part of my DNA. I can't not plan, it's just the way my brain works - same with being efficient, fast, persistent, and productive. Thank goodness Mike came along to help chill me out (haha!). So knowing this about myself, I was pleasantly surprised by the evolution of my character that wanted to not plan this year too far in advance. If left to my instinct, I would probably have had every week of this year planned - the location, housing, sightseeing, etc. But in talking about how we wanted the year to unfold, we realized that we wanted to go where the wind took us and be more flexible than having everything planned would have afforded. Our lives are usually so planned out with living in a country 2-4 years, work and school schedules, etc. It sounded so appealing to just be and see where we ended up and it has felt really perfect and even a little magical.

Of course, we did some pre-planning in advance and, honestly, it was a lot of work to get us out of Jordan and on the road. It turns out that not having a home or address or much stuff for a year can add some complications to things! We narrowed down the area where we wanted to focus on to Asia and, before leaving Hawaii on September 1, we had a plane ticket to Asia, an AirBnB in Tokyo for 2 weeks, an AirBnB in Kyoto for a few weeks (we ended up extending), and a ferry ticket to Busan for November 1 (since you need an onward ticket to enter Japan). And that is the most planned in advance that we have been since hitting the road. And it has been really great! We've figured out that we prefer to stay in one place for at least a few weeks, which means we don't get to see as many places, but we get to dig into one spot and develop a rhythm to our days. This is really helpful with homeschooling since we're not able to have school on travel days - though I know the kids are still learning a lot on those days!

(Just a side note -- two things I didn't anticipate: 1. It's beyond awesome to get to incorporate the countries that we are in into the Global Studies class that I'm teaching the kids for homeschooling. I planned on including things about the countries, but couldn't quite grasp what this would look like. Well, it turns out that it's very present and in everything we're doing! It's so cool to help the kids learn about these countries while also learning about Global Studies. I love it. 2. We wanted to take this year to soak up being with our amazing kids and to get as much time with them as possible. We are apart for so much of the day with school and work and it's been so special to have so much time together -- this I expected. What I didn't realize was that, with being their teachers, we would get to understand what sort of students they are and more about how their brains operate. And my goodness that has been cool. They're both so brilliant in their own ways.)

In Japan, we knew we wanted to visit Tokyo and Kyoto and had a whole long list of other places we would like to see, none of which were Beppu, the lovely town where we spent a few weeks in October. We ended up choosing Beppu because we wanted to visit a smaller town (but one big enough that it had AirBnBs and we didn't need a car to access it) and it made sense to us to go to the island of Kyushu since that was where the ferry for South Korea departed from. After doing some research, we settled on Beppu and it was one of our favorite places! Fortunately, Mike and I work well together where we will brainstorm possibilities, do independent research, then come back together to compare notes and make plans. We stopped in Osaka on the way to Beppu from Kyoto to see Uncle Stan and Aunt Eiko, who happened to be there at that time. And we spent a few days in Hakada to make sure it was easy to get on the ferry and that's where we got to see the huge reclining Buddha, which was really cool.

Originally we were going to spend a few days each in Busan, Seoul, and Gyeongju, but then we realized that we'd rather not be on the move so much, so we decided to just stay in Busan the whole time we were in South Korea. We will have Seoul and Gyeongju for another time, and it was great to leisurely explore Busan and settle into a bit of a routine. We usually plan about three to four weeks in advance - far enough in advance that it gives us time to make arrangements (plane tickets, AirBnB reservations, visas if necessary, etc), but not too early. 

Before departing for Busan on November 1, we needed to decide where we were going to go next since, like Japan, you need an onward ticket to enter South Korea. We had been thinking we would go to Laos after South Korea, but when I was doing the research on where in Laos we would go and where we would stay, it just didn't feel right. Laos looks beautiful and I still want to go there one day, but something wasn't clicking about going there after Busan. So I started looking into Vietnam and things clicked a lot more. And it has been delightful - even more than I could have imagined! Our AirBnb is in rice patties between the beach and old town Hoi An. It looks like a movie set because it is so beautiful and the colors are so vivid and it's so charming. The food has been incredible! I had heard of Pho and Banh Mi, but I didn't realize how delicious and fresh Vietnamese cuisine was! And the people are beyond friendly! The houses are very open and people like to wave and say hi as they eat their dinners while you're walking by. We've been teaching the kids how to ride bikes and the neighbors who are out feeding their geese or working in their fields have gotten involved in helping push the bikes as the kids learn to balance. I've gotten a massage and we all got manicures (Mike got a pedicure) from our neighbor Lilly who runs a spa out of her home (she was very tickled by the fact that Mike asked for his toes to be painted blue!), I've been going to yoga class on the weekends and the yoga teacher hosted a private class for us this morning as part of the holistic wellness class I'm teaching the kids. Vietnam's coffee game is strong (Vietnam is the world's second largest coffee producer after Brazil) and their fruit smoothies are amazing and everything is affordable, which is nice after being in more expensive countries like Japan and South Korea. We've had clothes made by the friendly tailor who's shop is nearby and saw an amazing performance called the Bamboo Circus, which was kind of like the Vietnamese Cirque du Soleil. And we're taking a lantern making class on Friday. Vietnam has been quite an immensely pleasant surprise!

Of course, we had planned on spending longer here in Vietnam, but then, as you read in Lulu's recent blog post, because I didn't put my middle name on my visa application, I could only get a 30 day visa. We knew we wanted to go to Angkor Wat for a few days, but now with only a 30 day visa in Vietnam, we had to decide if we wanted to come back to Vietnam after Angkor Wat or go to Malaysia or take a train from Bangkok to Singapore or go to Kona for the holidays. So we're going to Kona! My step grandmother, who is 91 years old, is visiting my parents, so we'll get to see her and my parents and be in the U.S. for the holidays and my birthday and the kids' birthdays for the first time in 9 years. We think that, in early January, we'll fly to New Zealand, but no plans are set yet! ;)

Shrines!

Lyla and I have always been nesters. When we inhabit a new place, like an apartment, an office, or for me, a classroom, we like to immediately set up shop and put everything "just so." It's kind of like decorating a Christmas tree. You pull out your ornamentation, stuff that's primary value is aesthetic, and you go about arranging it in a way that's both chaotic and harmonious. There's no plan or structure. You just focus on the whole and go bit by bit. 

With the amount of moving that we do in the foreign service, we do lots of nesting in new homes. I think the nesting instinct has always been there for the both of us, but the foreign service definitely amplifies it. Since we moved in together in 2006, Lyla and I have lived in seven different homes. And perhaps because of that, we've become deeply attached to the little things that make up our nest. The rooms may be of different shapes and sizes and positions in each new home, but I can walk around the corner in each of them and see the painting of my grandmother, Zina. Or I can sit down on the couch and see the little flying crane that hangs from a string on our bookcase. I think nesting is one way to feel safe in an inherently chaotic lifestyle. 

And when we decided to embark on this year of living on the road, one thing I knew is that the chaos was going to be even more amplified. We have stayed in seven different cities since starting our journey on September 1st! And if the road was the home of this family of compulsive nesters for an entire year, I sensed that something "nesty" might be a nice psychological balm in all the constant upheaval. Thus, the shrine was born. 

The shrine is a small, mobile collection of meaningful "little bits". Some have a story. Others are mostly ornamental. It started very small in Hawaii: a few trinkets small enough to fit in a zip-loc snack bag. It's bigger now, big enough that it will probably have to be trimmed down sometime soon if it's not to get cumbersome to take everywhere we go. But that's a problem for another day, and one that, like banzai, comes with its own pleasures.

I want to take a moment to attend to the particular word I chose for our mobile nest: shrine. When I named it, I wasn't thinking about or even aware of the deep power and importance of shrines to the places we were about to visit. But shrines play a substantial role in all three of the countries we have visited so far. In Japan, there are obviously huge, gorgeous, ornate Shinto Shrines and Buddhist Temples all over. In Kyoto, the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shinto Shrine spans a huge park and includes the famous red and black tori gates as well as hundreds of buildings and statues, all nestled in canyons and perched on hills. And there's the Kikaku-ji Buddhist Temple, adorned completely in gold leaf. And that's just two in a city of more than 2,000 shrines and temples. And while those two are certainly impressive, I found myself just as taken in, if not more-so, by the myriad neighborhood shrines that are all over Japan. It filled me with such happiness to walk around any given corner and find myself face to face with a frog statue, or a serene buddha, or a rock that is not just a rock, but contains a god, as the yorishiro in Shinto belief do. And it's not just Japan! Korea had fewer community shrines and more churches. And it seems like just about every Vietnamese home and business has one if not more shrines. 

This brings me to a notion that had been very important to me before starting our trip, but has been amplified and nourished in the context of this journey. Materialism seems very pervasive to me right now. This is really hard for me to express succinctly, but it seems as if many of the most powerful cultural and social forces in our modern world: media, politics, economic ideology, rationalism, technological utopianism, etc. often conspire behind the belief that I, that we, exist merely as physical properties in a knowable universe, that everything is reducible to discrete, interchangeable commodities. One place I observe this very powerfully is in the Western, modern, rational attitude towards our stuff: Christmas isn't a spiritual tradition, it's an opportunity to exchange gifts. Our phones and TVs and laptops are interchangeable and are subject to planned obsolescence. Big Data and algorithms know more about us than we know about ourselves. God is dead. 

In contrast to that, my own experience seems to reinforce that there is mystery at the very heart of all things: all of our efforts, our plans, our structures, our stuff. I don't reject Big Data or Christmas or any of it, but to me it all seems teeming with life and mystery and excitement. So the shrine isn't just a collection of trinkets (it is), it isn't just a record of our experiences and memories on the road (it is), it isn't just a psychological comfort in a chaotic lifestyle, a little bit of home on the road (it most certainly is). It's a pretty little beating heart. It's love and god and life materialized and held in my hand, if just for a second. It's a doomed attempt to bottle magic. It's a nest for our wayward family. And it's cute.

Our shrine will grow and change as we continue to travel to new and unforeseen places, and make new and unforeseen memories, but here's a snapshot of our shrine today:

1. Pre-trip - Before we hit the road, I wanted to create a base to begin from, so I gathered up a few things that I had around: a paper doily from the hotel that we stayed at in Giza, Egypt, a US quarter, a US penny, a cube fashioned from a put-together toy (kinda like Legos) that the kids had in their room at Momo and Poppy's house, two different shells from the beaches of Hawaii, a slip of paper that says "Where is he?" from a joke "Dog the Bounty Hunter" missing poster that was on a community cork board at Black Rock Pizza in Captain Cook, Hawaii, and a nametag that says "Nico" with a lion emoji that I got from Lyla's and my boat trip down the Na Pali Coast with my family when we went to Kauai for my parents' anniversary in August 2024.

2. Tokyo - A Mount Fuji themed paper chopstick holder, two kintsugi glass and gold lacquer tchatchkis Lulu and I made at a kintsugi workshop in our neighborhood, a one Yen coin, a subway train ticket, a plastic yellow flower from a sushi container, a label from a bag of candies with a dove on it, and an amulet from Meiji Shrine that wards off evil.

3. Kyoto - a self-closing jam jar lid (from a Tik Tok one of Lyla's friends sent to her), a Maiko's business card from our visit to a Maiko (Geisha-in-training) presentation, the box from an orange gummy candy with edible wrapping that I remember Uncle Stan sending to my family when I was young, and a stone from our Kyoto AirBnB.

4. Osaka - two Halloween cupcake toppers from the cupcakes Rei, our AirBnB host, brought us as a thank you for letting her interview us about our trip.

5. Beppu - the box from two bottles of yuzu cider, a shell-shaped amulet I found deserted in an onsen, a fish-shaped soy sauce container (the fish's name is Soy Sauce), a praying serval cat toy (the serval's name is Strobert), and a stamp from the blue "Jigoku", one of the seven famous mineral hot springs in Beppu. Jigoku translates as "hell".

6. Hakata - three Yen coins, two soda-can shaped candy containers, and a mini "welcoming cat" I got from a cat shrine on our visit to Nanzoin Temple's giant reclining bronze Buddha statue (the welcoming cat's name is Turbo Granny). 

7. Busan - A sticker of three pandas from Gray Pipple cafe in Seomyeon, where Lyla and I went on a day-date, a chubby pig (the pig's name is Cherry) from Haedong Yonggungsa Temple, a Cinnamoroll toy, a pebble from the bushes in front of our AirBnB, a dinosaur toy Lulu got in a chocolate egg (the dinosaur's name is Senor Gazpacho), and a metro train coin to remind us of the extra day we had to spend out near the airport because the airline wouldn't accept Lyla's visa and we had to wait to get an emergency visa before we could fly to Vietnam.

I haven't compiled a list of our Vietnam additions to the shrine because we're still here, but I know there's a little plastic astronaut I found walking in the rice paddies with Lyla and a stone from where the kids have been learning to ride ride bikes. I'm sure there are a few other things I've left off too.

In any case, a lot of the items that populate our shrine are consumer goods, and in some ways, it can be tempting for me to downgrade these things because we purchased them and didn't encounter or build them. But even though I wrestle with it sometimes, I think consumerism is a part of our spiritual milieu and to reject it whole-cloth invites a very American desire to curate, to pick and choose what is in our hearts and souls. But I guess that's in my spiritual milieu too. Ha!

On the subject of the American spiritual milieu, I also often feel an internal tug at taking photos of other people's spiritual practices and things. But clearly I do anyway (at least when doing so doesn't feel disrespectful). This trip and these photos have actually given me the opportunity to think about the place photography has in my spiritual milieu. Instead of seeing photography as cultural colonialism; gathering the cultural and spiritual evidence of others to hoard for myself and boost my own cache (Look where I've been! Look what I've seen!), or to see my photographs in purely aesthetic terms, I choose to explore the spirit of photography that lives in me. My American spirit wants to explore and seek. I hold a portion of my heart and soul in the photographs I take and keep. 

So that's it. I love these shrines, these spirits made manifest.

Osaka 

Before we got to Beppu, we had a brief, but lovely stop over in Osaka. It's Japan's largest city outside of the Tokyo area, and so it was where we caught the Shinkansen south to Kyushu, the southernmost island in Japan, where Beppu is located. But another plus is that we got to have a fantastic meal with my Aunt Eiko and Uncle Stan! Eiko and Stan met in Vermont at a Teaching English as a Second Language School there in the 80s, fell in love, got married, moved to the Osaka area, and raised their two awesome kids, Tyler and Emily, there before moving back to the states in the 90s. They still regularly return to Osaka (they have an apartment in Sakai, a suburb of Osaka) and our visits happen to overlap, so we were able to meet up with them for the afternoon. They introduced us to okonomiyaki, Osaka's native dish. It's egg, cabbage, meat and/or seafood, all cooked together on the tabletop in front of you, then covered in a Worcestershire tasting sauce and mayonnaise. As I describe it here, it sounds kinda gross, but it was really delicious. Plus, the meal gave us a great chance to catch up. The kids said that Stan sounded like a "softer grandpa". And we were able to tell him that, as the kids' great uncle, he is their, "Gruncle Stan", a character from one of our family's favorite cartoons, Gravity Falls. Of course, Eiko is so lovely to chat with, she has such a curious and friendly demeanor, and we loved catching up with them, even if it was brief.

Our second day in Osaka, we did karaoke! Ramona had been asking if we could before we even arrived in Japan, and we had been on the lookout for a good place. But I'll be honest, we were all a bit intimidated by it, whether it was because we thought it was more of an adult activity, like in the states, or simply because we hadn't done it before in Japan. But I'm so glad that we ripped off the bandaid and just did it, because we had a blast! We went out in the early afternoon for sushi, then nearby saw a chain karaoke joint and just approached. They were very welcoming to the kids, we were all shown to a place where we could fill up drinks such as soda, juice, tea and coffee (I had a vitamin C elixir), then we were ushered into an elevator and shown to a private room where we could sing to our hearts' content. We were having so much fun that we paid for extra time, and brought so much joy to songs by ABBA, Guns-n-Roses (Lyla's karaoke staple), Starship, Tears for Fears, and more! After karaoke, we headed to the glittering lights of Dotonburi, Osaka's neon-filled promenade. It was so packed there that we had our fill pretty quickly, but it was still fun to be amongst the bright lights and bustling nightlife.

I could have spent more time in Osaka, but I have really loved Beppu and am glad we have been here for so long. As we were walking down to a nearby restaurant for dinner last night, I mentioned to Lyla that I think this trip would be so much different without AirBnB. Having apartments to stay in has been a wonderful blessing. Living in hotels for months on end can get pretty tiresome, and although I have been bumping my head on doorways pretty regularly in our AirBnBs, I have been glad we have multiple rooms, doors to close, and kitchens.

Another cool thing about AirBnB is the different spaces and hosts we get to interact with. Some AirBnBs are just handled at a distance from a firm, hotel-like apartments with minimalist furniture and keycodes to access. But sometimes we get lucky and have far more homey experiences with wonderful, warm folks. Rei, our host in Osaka, was the latter. She is Chinese, but has been living in Japan for most of her life. During Covid, she started renting out her apartment to supplement her income, and it was a lovely, roomy space, filled with wood paneling, beautiful kabuki dolls, comfy carpets and pillows, and a gigantic tv.

We mentioned a little bit about ourselves and our year of traveling when she let us into the space, and later that day she wrote, asking if she could interview us! She was charmed by our choice to homeschool the kids, and interested in our philosophy. So we arranged a time the next day, she stopped by, and we had a lovely time talking with her. She recorded the interview, saying something about having her son cut it together. I'm not holding my breath that we'll ever see the edit, but it was just fun to connect with Rei and share a bit about our journey with someone so interested. 

As a special surprise, that evening she even brought us four incredible, Halloween-themed cakes to say thank you! There was a raspberry flavored Frankenstein monster, a chocolate Dracula (with chocolate crucifix to boot! 😅), a grape flavored ghost, and a fig and creme bat! It capped our stay in Osaka with a truly magical evening, with all four of us sitting around, sharing the treats Rei had brought us. 

A First Look at Beppu 

We took a step out of the hot pink bus and walked past a big building that didn’t seem to be a house. Beppu is on another island in Japan that we’ve stayed on before. Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka are all on Honshu. Beppu on the other hand is on Kyushu. 

The sun at three thirty PM shined a watery light on the tall block like buildings, making on the opposite side, a darkish blue shadow from the bright yellow and pink walls. Looking to the other side of your face on the sidewalk, at first glance you see just a normal old wall. But I need the blog for this week to be longer than it already is, so let's turn our attention to the plants growing on the side and bottom of this wall. Bushes and branches covered the cement, latching on like a sleeping baby latching on to its parent. The shining foliage combined with the burning cold concret gave a feeling of welcome to new people and visitors. 

It’s right sitting on the water, you can actually see the Beppu bay from where we’re staying. In the distance you can just slightly see the darker ripples in the water. It kinda makes a C shape, the land curving around the bay. Looking Mauka, (to the mountain in Hawaiian). There are multiple mountains surrounding Beppu. There are,  wait…one two… three… four? Five six…seven…eight… Does that count as a mountain? And ten… There are ten mountains surrounding Beppu as far as I can see without falling off our balcony. That's a lot of mountains, and once again that's just what I can see without leaving our airbnb. A mountain in front is completely deprived of trees on the side facing inward, there being a clear line between where the mountain was normal and shaved. 

Down on ground level, there are mostly normal houses and sometimes you walk past    onsens or hells. (Hot springs).  Over to the left is the city. I can't see much of it, but for some reason it kinda looks smaller than the town. The town is so charming and amazing to walk around, even if your a bit too late and almost everything is closed.

A couple days ago I woke up to see a big bright white light in the middle of the sky. I thought it was a street light, but at how high up in the sky it was, it couldn’t have been. I pushed the curtain out of the way to see what that ufo like thing was doing out in the night sky. I had to angle my head awkwardly to get a glimpse of it between the blurry part of the window and the top of it. The bright light was a full shining moon! I pushed things around for about a minute before I acquired the courage to go knock on my parents door and ask my mom to come out with me. We talked on the balcony for a second and then went back inside. I laid myself down and covered the blanket over my body, soon falling asleep.

The Joy of it!

Written by Lyla

October 6th, 2024 - Kyoto, Japan

Holy guacamole! What a great experience this is! When you plan for something for so long, but it’s so outside of your normal mode of operating, it’s hard to know how it will actually be in reality. And I’m happy to say that this experience so far has been just as amazing and magical as I thought it would be, if not more so. The best part, and our motivation to take this year off, is to be spending so much time together as a family. Ramona and Lulu are growing up so quickly and getting to have so much consolidated time with them is really a treasure and so worth everything it took to make this sabbatical happen. I am grateful for this opportunity to spend so much time with them – they are both such immensely enjoyable humans. And then on top of the quality time spent together, getting to go on adventures and explore and experience new things together is just remarkable.

It’s interesting to see who you are and how you are when you have so much of your normal life (work, school, friends IRL, your stuff, a home, etc) removed. Your experience is more distilled down to the essence of the moment. Of course, there’s still distraction involved – I just spent the last few weeks bidding on my next assignment (which will start next summer), and we have to do planning for homeschooling and travel – but the distraction is so much less potent when it’s not the main focus, it’s more like it’s on the backburner rather than the main dish of the meal.

And the main dish of this meal is delicious! Part of the incredible experience is homeschooling the kids. Mike and I spent the summer in Hawaii working hard to prepare for homeschooling – we outlined our curriculum, made unit plans, grading rubrics, etc. Implementing our plans has been so cool – I feel like we’re really able to be responsive to the kids’ interests and inquiries and nurture the idea that they are in the driver’s seat of their education and that every moment is an opportunity to learn. So much of what we are learning about is based on experiences we have out and about soaking up Japan. I’m learning so much too! And I’m so impressed by how my kids’ brains work – on top of being insanely charming, they’re also brilliant!

Having spent the first two weeks in Japan in Tokyo going out sightseeing almost every day, we’re taking a more mellow approach from here-on-out so that we can pace ourselves better. We’ve been in Kyoto for 2.5 weeks and have almost another week to go. We have class Monday through Thursday – classes in the morning and the kids’ reading, journaling, and working on projects in the afternoon. Some days we stay home all day – or just walk to the store to grab lunch or to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Other days, in the afternoon, we go exploring and sightseeing. 

We’ve been to many temples and shrines, an anime convention, a geisha experience, a manga museum, Nijo Castle, and just walking around the beautiful winding alleys of Kyoto. We also went to the Kyoto City Hall to learn about Japan’s local government. And, of course, we have been eating so much delicious food – mostly sushi and pizza because of the kids’ preference, but we’ve gotten in some udon and soba here and there as well. And we have a lot of fun experimenting with interesting snacks and desserts. I love the feeling of exploration and I especially love sharing that feeling with my family. The kids have been amazing troopers and walk between 3 and 7 miles on the days we go out.  

There are tons more tourists in Kyoto than when I did my study abroad here during college 24 years ago. But even with all the tourists, I still love the essence of this city. It’s amazing how much of the ancient sites are still so well intact and even a lot of the neighborhoods feel old and traditional. It’s just so charming and I feel like I'm soaking it all up!

Mr. Barber!

I love visiting the barber. It's not really about the haircut itself. In fact, as I have less hair than when I was a young pup, anymore I usually just buzz it down at home with a pair of clippers. The convenience of doing it at home whenever it suits me and the fact that it's free make it the obvious choice most of the time. It's kind of like air vs rail travel that way. Obviously air travel is quicker and more convenient most of the time, but man I love a train.

Barbershops are singular places for me. I've visited barbershops in North America, Central America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. I once got a haircut in a hammam barbershop in Istanbul that had been open since 1584 (the barber burned my ear hair off with a cigarette lighter). I used to visit a barber in Tajikistan whose shop was in a tunnel under the road. He did a great job and his cuts cost less than a dollar. 

Speaking of economics, I have to say, according to my travels, being a barber seems to be one of the most stable jobs on earth. Without fail, anywhere I've visited, if the town is large enough to have shops, it has at least one barber. It makes sense, of course. Most every man has hair, and all it takes to open a barbershop in the 21st century is a storefront with an electrical outlet, some scissors and clippers, and a chair. In fact, the only other shops that seem as ubiquitous are salons and florists. Salons make the same sense as barbershops. But florists? That one's weird to me. Nevertheless, there they are, everywhere from Borjomi to Bangkok. 

But back to barbershops. While generally, I think the barbers' are nice, clean, wholesome places, those features are certainly not exclusive to barbershops. So what is it that makes me like them in particular so much? 

I think it's the fact that at the barber's, I'm forced to sit still. When you climb into the barbers' chair, they immediately drape a big cape over you (I just looked it up. That thing is called a barber's cape!) that covers your arms and hands. So I can't even look at my phone! I just have to sit in perfect stillness while the barber does their work. And I think that stillness opens up my mind like an aperture. Which brings us to Mr. Barber!

Right before we left Hawaii for Japan, I clipped down my head and face. So, by the time we got to Kyoto three weeks later, I was starting to look a little shaggy and I googled local barbershops for a cut (I didn't bring my clippers with me on our sabbatical). Enter Mr. Barber (Figure 4)! I chose his place because, while he wasn't the closest barber, I liked his smile, and he was close to a bike rental place, and I had been thinking about renting a bike. So I set off on a lovely stroll to Mr. Barber.

When I walked through the door, he was tending to a customer and an older woman (let's just assume she was his mom) directed me to the waiting seats. Immediately, this was a relief, because before that moment I wasn't 100% sure I'd be served. Maybe they only took reservations. Maybe they were booked up for the rest of the day. But no, I just had a brief wait while he finished up his current cut. So already, with the wait, my stillness aperture was opening. I looked around the place at the ceramic ducks and Shinto iwakura in the windowsill, at the tv blaring Japanese news, at the fake wood paneling and molded plastic spaceship console shelving under the mirrors. I smelled the powders and tinctures.

Finally, Mr. Barber's mom directed me to a chair and draped the cape over me with a cackle. Both she and Mr. Barber were so quick to laugh big, hearty laughs. She laughed at how hairy my back was, and how I tried to say thank you when she dusted my ears with powder. She did more prep work as he finished up the other patron. Then it was my turn. I shuffled my phone out from under the cape and showed him a picture of me freshly buzzed so he knew what I wanted. Then I mimed that I'd like a full shave too. 

I don't really shave as a practice. At least half the year I prefer to let my beard grow long. And even when I am beardless, I just put the clippers on their shortest setting and clip down to stubble. Before visiting Mr. Barber, the last time I'd been clean shaven was when I officiated a wedding in 2018. And even then, it was because we were traveling and I hadn't brought my clippers. I even wore stubble for my own wedding.

But for today, I wanted the works. And that is what I got. Mr. Barber went to town clipping me down, then shaving around my neck and ears with a straight razor. I got whiffs of his kitten breath as he leaned over me (Hey, it was the end of a long day for him, I didn't judge.) There were hot towels and more powders and ointments. He even had this strange humidifier he pointed directly at my face as he shaved me with a straight razor. I could tell that my beard was thicker than he was used to, but he took his time and carefully shaved me down to as baby smooth as a 44 year old with tough, Scottish heritage can get. When I got home later, the kids were agog at my smooth cheeks.

Travel offers all kinds of weirdness and dislocation. But with smiles as reassuring as Mr. Barber's and his mom's, that weirdness is a still and comforting home.

The anime convention blog by: RAMONA!❤️

On 9/21/24 and 9/22/24 there was an Anime Convention called Kyōto Manga And Anime Festival or KYOMAF in Kyōto, where we as a family all went on both days. In short it was extremely fun and exciting, I wanted to cry.

So on 9/21/24 (the first day of the convention) we took the bus to the convention and immediately I saw many people who were going to or from the convention, and we even saw people in cosplay already! It was amazing to see people dressing as some of my favorite characters. Some cosplays characters I saw where:

1: Suo Hayato from Windbreaker

2: Tamaki Suoh, Mitsukuni Honeynazuka, and Kyoka Ootori from Ouran Highschool Host Club

3: Hatsude Miku

4: Izuku Midoriya, and Shoto Totoroki from Boku No Hero Academia

5: Ai Hoshino from Oshino ko. Etc…

Then we went to this place with a few market looking stalls and we saw this group of men dancing to an anime song and I pointed out to men that one reason I think the anime community is very healthy and loyal is because of how no matter who it is you can like your favorite character even if you’re a guy who likes a girl and a girl who likes a guy, and you can cosplay them and no one will judge you. I’ve probably seen more men cosplay women than men. Then when we finally found the main convention hall and went in I was immediately overwhelmed with all the amazing anime stuff. It was just beautiful. We started walking around seeing all there was to see and there were a lot of ads for new anime I’ve never even heard of before but I definitely want to watch now! And near the corner of the floor we saw a Boku No Hero Academia drink stand and even though there was a forty five minute long line we decided to wait and some people might say it wasn’t worth it but I thought it was amazing and I got some really cool pictures. And I even got a picture with a Izuku Midoriya cosplayer and was shaking for about an hour after. And while in line I saw a woman with a Kimitsu No Yaiba shirt and I ended up completing her shirt anxiously.

Then after walking around some more and looking at some more sights, stands, and booths we came across this black paper wall covered in many different anime characters in all different colors drawn by Poska Markers that were free to use. Obviously as Lulu does she immediately wanted to draw on the wall, and so draw she did. But after she tried drawing she accidentally messed up and she was very upset about that and decided to start over. I was skeptical and nervous about drawing on the wall but in the end I decided it wouldn’t hurt anyone to give it a try. I chose to draw Todoroki Shoto from Boku No Hero Academia. Surprisingly my drawing went quite well and I generally liked the outcome. But Lulu was once again upset how her second try came out (she was trying to draw Tokito Muichiro from Kimitsu No Yaiba). 

Then the last thing we did at the convention that day was going to a live showing of these men advertising and discussing a new anime that was going to come out. The concept seemed cool but we soon lost interest because we didn’t understand anything the men were saying.

Then on the second day we went back to the main hall immediately, and we decided to go to the third floor and it was really similar to the first floor except it was much louder! There was this small stage where you could sit in front of and watch some of the most popular anime introduction songs. I stood in front of it for a while because I thought it was just amazing! I even sang along to some😅. And mom got us a picture with these really pretty cosplayers who were cosplaying as a group of some magic girls. And then we went to the basement and although we didn’t see much there, there was still a shopping market which we went to and I got two mystery boxes, one of them was a keychain of a few different Attack On Titan characters, and out of them I got Levi Ackerman who was one of the three I wanted and so I wasn’t complaining. Then for the other one I got was a bookmark kind of thing of a few Bungou Stray Dogs characters and out of them I got Dr. Akiko Yosano! She is really cool so I was happy about this one two! And then after that we decided to leave the convention to get food so that was our two days at the convention!<3

SUMO WRESTLING

It’d be surprising to me if you said you didn’t know what Sumo was. And if you do know what Sumo is, let me teach you more! 

(I am not an expert, if you find an interesting fact in this please fact check it.)

What do Sumo wrestlers look like?

Sumo wrestlers typically have large bodys, with lots of fat and big belly’s. Underneath all that, they have huge amounts of muscle mass. Although, some Sumo wrestlers have smaller bodies, these wrestlers use technique instead of force. They barely have any clothes on, only having a belt wrapped around their waists to the color of their choice. This is to show they have no weapons during the match they are playing. They normally have straight black hair, tied back in a bun.

What are the rules of sumo?

Sumo rules are very important to the sport, but to have rules you have to have a way to break them. In this, it has to do with the surroundings. The surroundings of a sumo match look like this: 

The base is a large clay platform with a white circle painted on it covering most of the platform. A roof resembling a Shinto shrine called a Tsuriyane is draped over the base.

if you step out of the white circle you lose the match. But, that is only the case when you put your foot or other limb down outside of the circle. If your limb were too hover over the outside of the circle you would be fine 

If you put any body part (excluding the bottoms of your feet) on the floor, you lose that match. This can be hard when you are putting lots of pressure on the opponent or vicavirca.

What are some tactics sumo wrestlers use?

As I said earlier, some sumo wrestlers are not as big as others. Some sumo wrestlers are more skinny. So instead of putting pressure on the opponent, they use smart tactics to trip or make the other wrestler let go. Take Midorifuj Kazunari for example. He is one of the smaller sumo wrestlers, but he has won 38 out of 87 matches! In the match I saw, he use a technique that when like this:

1. Get the opponent to put a lot of pressure on your body while still standing in the circle and not falling

2. Let go or step away from the opponent .

3. have the opponent fall on the ground.

Other techniques include; katasukashi, oshidashi, yoriki, etc. 

Tradition/History of sumo 

The first ever sumo wrestler was Nomi No Sukuna, who lived in 29 B.C.E. With the sport dating back to 23 B.C.E. Then, in the 1600s it was made into an official sport. It was originally made to pray for the rice harvest that year. Later being a way to entertain Shinto deities. And then a way to entertain the public as it is now. The first ever match was held in Korea at the count of empress Kōgyoku in 642 C.E.

Sumo is a very interesting and entertaining sport and I hope you find it that way to after reading this. I recommend going to a game or just watching it on television.

Credits/source

https://www.sumo.or.jp/EnSumoDataRikishi/profile/3743/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimarite#:~:text=Oshidashi%20(%E6%8A%BC%E3%81%97%E5%87%BA%E3%81%97%2C%20'frontal%20push,belt)%20or%20extending%20the%20arms

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/techniques/33/#:~:text=Katasukashi%20%2F%20Under%20shoulder%20swing%20down,-Others