Monday, January 31, 2011
ikebana #4
Here's ikebana #4. The first picture is from the night it was created, and the second is about a week later, now that the lilies have opened.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
a pool with a view
I'd never before swum in a pool on the 34th floor of a building. It was neat, especially since this one had a tremendous view.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Batu Caves
The one tourist spot we did go to in KL was the Batu Caves.
These are some big caves that have been turned into a Hindu temple, and are supposed to be quite the attraction. We had read that there were also some monkeys in the area who were used to people feeding them. We saw a few outside, on the side of the hill. They would take food from people and hop back over the fence. We kept a little distance and took pictures. Outside the cave there was an enormous statue of Vishnu next to the stairs we had to climb to enter the caves.
The caves themselves turned out to only be mildly interesting; we couldn't go into the main temple, which might have diminished the interest. But really, the dominant feature was that the caves were completely overrun with the monkeys. They were everywhere, trying to get food or drink or just running around. One jumped on a women going up the stairs in front of us. At the top, lots of people were feeding or trying to pet the monkeys. (The monkeys did not like being petted). Some people teased the monkeys, which seemed like a bad idea at the time and a worse idea when we looked at our pictures and saw just
how big their teeth were. There were some roosters also (naturally) and sometimes the monkeys would chase the roosters away from "their" food. It was simultaneously neat and a little frightening. At one point a monkey started snarling and moving forward, and everyone tried to get out of his way, but it was tough. Finally he just scaled the wall, but it definitely reminded us that they weren't just cuddly little things.
There was a pretty funny moment as we were leaving, though. There was a monkey sitting on the banister of the stairs drinking what was left in a lemon pop can. It was cute to see a monkey drinking from a pop can, so lots of people were watching and taking pictures. But then the monkey finished its drink. A man helpfully handed the monkey his water bottle so the monkey could continue being cute. The monkey grabbed
the bottle, but without drinking, sniffing or even really looking at it, tossed it to the ground with a disdainful air. It was pretty funny.
-Jason
The KL pictures are finally on Picasa!!
These are some big caves that have been turned into a Hindu temple, and are supposed to be quite the attraction. We had read that there were also some monkeys in the area who were used to people feeding them. We saw a few outside, on the side of the hill. They would take food from people and hop back over the fence. We kept a little distance and took pictures. Outside the cave there was an enormous statue of Vishnu next to the stairs we had to climb to enter the caves.The caves themselves turned out to only be mildly interesting; we couldn't go into the main temple, which might have diminished the interest. But really, the dominant feature was that the caves were completely overrun with the monkeys. They were everywhere, trying to get food or drink or just running around. One jumped on a women going up the stairs in front of us. At the top, lots of people were feeding or trying to pet the monkeys. (The monkeys did not like being petted). Some people teased the monkeys, which seemed like a bad idea at the time and a worse idea when we looked at our pictures and saw just
how big their teeth were. There were some roosters also (naturally) and sometimes the monkeys would chase the roosters away from "their" food. It was simultaneously neat and a little frightening. At one point a monkey started snarling and moving forward, and everyone tried to get out of his way, but it was tough. Finally he just scaled the wall, but it definitely reminded us that they weren't just cuddly little things.There was a pretty funny moment as we were leaving, though. There was a monkey sitting on the banister of the stairs drinking what was left in a lemon pop can. It was cute to see a monkey drinking from a pop can, so lots of people were watching and taking pictures. But then the monkey finished its drink. A man helpfully handed the monkey his water bottle so the monkey could continue being cute. The monkey grabbed
the bottle, but without drinking, sniffing or even really looking at it, tossed it to the ground with a disdainful air. It was pretty funny.-Jason
The KL pictures are finally on Picasa!!
Pringles, anyone?
These are some of the interesting flavors of Pringles that we saw in Malaysia.
And you're going to need to wash it down with something.
And you're going to need to wash it down with something.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it seemed 
to be known locally, was our first stop in Southeast Asia. It was an interesting city, as it was quite a blend of different cultures and different stages of development. We stayed near the Petronas Towers, twin office buildings that at one point were the tallest buildings in the world. This area of KL was quite developed and resembled any other big city: lots of big buildings, business people and business travelers, nice restaurants, etc. Outside the twin towers is a park with a rubber running track and a fountain. Every evening we were there lots of people gathered to hang out in front of the fountain. It was a nice atmosphere.
We didn't have to go too far to find less-developed parts of the city, though. KL seems to have been developed in a scattershot manner, so there are big gleaming buildings next to really run-down and decaying ones.
On our first full day in the city we went to explore the other main area (besides the twin towers), which let us walk through Chinatown and Little India. It was interesting to see these two different displays of culture so close to each other.
We had lunch at a sort of street market in Chinatown, then wandered through Little India and looked at the various shops, many of which had colourful clothes.
Though it was interesting to walk around, it was probably OK that we didn't spend too long in KL. Outside of browsing through the neighbourhoods, there weren't too many big sites that demanded our attention.
-Jason
(Chelsey is still working on the pictures.)
to be known locally, was our first stop in Southeast Asia. It was an interesting city, as it was quite a blend of different cultures and different stages of development. We stayed near the Petronas Towers, twin office buildings that at one point were the tallest buildings in the world. This area of KL was quite developed and resembled any other big city: lots of big buildings, business people and business travelers, nice restaurants, etc. Outside the twin towers is a park with a rubber running track and a fountain. Every evening we were there lots of people gathered to hang out in front of the fountain. It was a nice atmosphere.We didn't have to go too far to find less-developed parts of the city, though. KL seems to have been developed in a scattershot manner, so there are big gleaming buildings next to really run-down and decaying ones.
On our first full day in the city we went to explore the other main area (besides the twin towers), which let us walk through Chinatown and Little India. It was interesting to see these two different displays of culture so close to each other.
We had lunch at a sort of street market in Chinatown, then wandered through Little India and looked at the various shops, many of which had colourful clothes.Though it was interesting to walk around, it was probably OK that we didn't spend too long in KL. Outside of browsing through the neighbourhoods, there weren't too many big sites that demanded our attention.
-Jason
(Chelsey is still working on the pictures.)
Thursday, January 13, 2011
ikebana #3
Here's my latest attempt at ikebana.
I know some of our readers are anxious for Cambodia pictures, and I promise to get some posted this weekend.
I know some of our readers are anxious for Cambodia pictures, and I promise to get some posted this weekend.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Kakogawa Marathon (10km)
Just before we left on our trip on Christmas, I did another road race, this one a 10km in Kakogawa. I also ran this race last year, and thought it was a good one. It's easy to get to (10 min. by train), lots of people and well-organized. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite up to last year's standard myself. The main problem 
happened two days before, as I was doing an easy run with another teacher from school. With just a couple of minutes left in the run, I felt a painful twinge in my left calf. I stopped running, thinking I had just strained it a bit and it would be fine. But the next day I was hurrying up some stairs and felt a much sharper twinge, and from that point on I could feel my calf muscle even just walking. So it wasn't a good sign for the race. I was nervous about doing more damage to my leg, so I left my normal racing shoes in the bag and just wore my training shoes, which have more support. I also was afraid to really push the pace too fast, because when I run fast I tend to land on my toes, which would put more stress on my calf muscles. So it wasn't much of a race from my perspective, because most of the time I was just focusing on how much my legs could take. But my final time was right about my marathon pace, which isn't too bad considering the injury and the extremely slow and conservative start to the race.
My next race is coming up this weekend. I'm hopeful that my legs will hold up, but over the last couple of weeks I've had some on-and-off trouble with both calves, so I'll have to wait and see what happens on Sunday.
-Jason
happened two days before, as I was doing an easy run with another teacher from school. With just a couple of minutes left in the run, I felt a painful twinge in my left calf. I stopped running, thinking I had just strained it a bit and it would be fine. But the next day I was hurrying up some stairs and felt a much sharper twinge, and from that point on I could feel my calf muscle even just walking. So it wasn't a good sign for the race. I was nervous about doing more damage to my leg, so I left my normal racing shoes in the bag and just wore my training shoes, which have more support. I also was afraid to really push the pace too fast, because when I run fast I tend to land on my toes, which would put more stress on my calf muscles. So it wasn't much of a race from my perspective, because most of the time I was just focusing on how much my legs could take. But my final time was right about my marathon pace, which isn't too bad considering the injury and the extremely slow and conservative start to the race.My next race is coming up this weekend. I'm hopeful that my legs will hold up, but over the last couple of weeks I've had some on-and-off trouble with both calves, so I'll have to wait and see what happens on Sunday.
-Jason
Cambodia
Happy New Year!
We're back in Japan after a wonderful trip to Malaysia and Cambodia. I have well over 1,000 pictures to process (and whittle down, I'm sure none of you are that interested) and we've got a whole list of blog posts to write. So bear with us while we work to catch up.
We're back in Japan after a wonderful trip to Malaysia and Cambodia. I have well over 1,000 pictures to process (and whittle down, I'm sure none of you are that interested) and we've got a whole list of blog posts to write. So bear with us while we work to catch up.
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