Glass-blowing in Awa Kamogawa

One really wonderful surprise about living in our neighborhood in Tokyo is that we have an abundance of amazing international neighbors.  Our neighbors across the street (whose last name I just realized that I don't know), Hamish and Yoko, have two sons, Max (age 12) and Hugo (age 7), who are like brothers to Andreas.  The boys are constantly playing Nerf guns in the street or soccer in the park.  Our neighbors next door, Cassie and David Guttenfelder, have two girls, Julia (age 8) and Mae (age 6) who are like sisters to Annika.  They hole themselves up in Annika's room to play with American Girl dolls, disturb the whole neighborhood with their squeaky pogo-sticking or are enmeshed in crafts on Cassie's dining room table.  Needless to say, we feel extraordinarily blessed with such great neighbors. 

In any case, Hamish and Yoko generously invited us all to visit their country home in Awa Kamogawa in Chiba Prefecture.  Peter, Annika, Andreas and I took the "wakashio" train from Tokyo Station at 9:00am on Saturday and arrived a smooth and easy two hours later at Awa Kamogawa where Hamish picked us up.  Saturday we spent drinking red wine, eating steak and the most delicious fried potatoes ever around the fireplace.  In the evening, we had an incredibly communing-with-nature outdoor hot bath on their roof while it snowed (love that!). 

The next day, we visited a famous glass artisan named Yoji Suzuki at his studio.  He seems to live a simple life on a little piece of land where his glass studio is.  For 3,500 yen, he will teach you to make your own glass item.  You get to pick the shape and design and then you get to work.  I don't think this kind of thing could happen in the U.S. because the liability insurance would be enormous.  There is 500 degree Celsius glass on the end of poles being moved around the room as the kids learn how to blow glass.  Peter and I joined in the fun too.  It was a great experience.

Easy to miss the sign in the road

The glass studio is next door to Suzuki-san's house

 

Hamish, Deanna, Suzuki-san, Yoko and Peter

The view across the street from the studio is one of rice fields and hills.  Kamogawa rice is so superior that it is the rice of the Emperor, apparently.

Our creations: Andreas', Peter's and Annika's glasses



Deanna's bowl was a bit lopsided...

 

Bali

It has been a really long time since I have written a post, mostly because I could not locate the notebook with my own password in it.  Pathetic, but true.  Well, said notebook has been located and we are back in business!  There is much to share, but I'll start non-sequentially with our recent trip to Bali, Indonesia. 

When Peter and I looked at the calendar back in early November and realized that the kids would have off of school for 3-1/2 weeks (!), I realized that we absolutely had to get out of town for at least a part of the time or this mother bear might end up eating her cubs.  Being novices to Asian travel that does not include hitchhiking, sleeping overnight on airport sidewalks and sharing hostel rooms with unseen roommates who keep you up at night with various noisy shenanigans (all true), but instead includes two short and highly-demanding travel companions, we were unsure of where to go.  We looked at Okinawa (not warm at this time of year and pricey), at a JW Marriott resort in Phuket (loved the idea of the Kids' Club, but seemed a bit too isolated) and going to my parents' in Virginia (seemed too wimpy of us).  Finally, Peter happened upon a website for villas in Bali.  The villas in the photos looked really too good to be true for the price.  Little did I know that the price even included "a staff" of cleaners, cooks, gardeners, not to mention the butler (he was kind of our babysitter who made sure we took the right taxi and remembered to order our breakfast and to not go out without our umbrellas...).  Anyway, we decided to go to Semenyak in Bali and to stay at a villa called the Kalimaya II (www.villakalimaya.com).  The villa was paradise and Bali was a sensual and exotic pleasure of warm breezes, tropical fruits, spicy food with lots of peanut sauce, kind, gentle, smiling people and lots of spirituality with an abundance of  Hindu temples and religious offering to the gods in front of every doorstep.  I am hoping this becomes a December tradition...

Peter just sent me the following article about problems that Bali is facing with overdevelopment of tourism.  It's an interesting and sobering read.  All of that luxury for tourists comes at a big price for those who live in Bali.  By the way, did you know that Indonesia is the world's 4th most populous country?  Another amazing fact:  Indonesia is comprised of 17,500+ islands.  Much of the land is rainforest and, as in Brazil, is rapidly disappearing due to the lumber industry and development.  Consequently, Indonesia has the largest number of endangered species living in it. 

http://bloom.bg/K9BkBP

Getting ready to surf

 Amazing dinner at Sarong in Semenyak

Temple grounds in Ubud 

 Temple in Semenyak

 Enjoying the goddess at the pool at our villa

 Entrance to our villa