Hong Kong Halloween

Halloween Dance Party

Our building held a Halloween costume party last evening which culminated into a big dance party for Ingrid and all her pals.

Thanks for the Care Package

Thanks for the care package Grandma, Ingrid loved it. She broke a major rule of superstition by opening the umbrella indoors, but she had a lot of fun doing it.

Pollution Record

Why does the United Nations hold its Climate Change conferences in clear-aired cities like Kyoto and Copenhagen? To show the world how wonderful clean and cool air can be? They should have held the conference in Hong Kong yesterday when the city set a new record for air pollution, to show how disgusting unchecked industry and consumption can be on a city's breathable air. It was nasty, we just stayed inside and stared at it through our windows, though it did make for a pretty sunset.

Halloween Prep

Something we miss greatly about home is being able to go to a proper patch to pick out our Halloween pumpkins. Pumpkin patches in Hong Kong are found only in the supermarkets that cater to the expat crowd, so today we headed to Oliver's market and picked out a nice 20 pounder. We brought it back to the apartment building and all Ingrid's friends marveled at its size. If only they could see the 1200 pounder that won this year's HMB festival!

Ing & the Wy Guy

Ingrid and Wyatt had a professional photo shoot last time they were together in Phoenix....we're quite happy with the results.

Back in HK - Some Things Never Change

We had a great trip to Japan but now we're back in HK and must celebrate all the things that make it such a unique city. With that comes news of an apartment that sold yesterday to a Mainland buyer for $57 million. It is actually in a building that looms above ours on Conduit Road, if you look at this photo our building is the white one to the left and behind of it.

The developer's advert touts the building saying the buyer "will enjoy an exclusive address in the hills of Hong Kong's main island - a majestic realm for the city who's who".....that must be us! Not making the news was a $51 million apartment sold in the same development. This is a crazy city.

Kyoto Temples

Kyoto is absolutely dreamland beautiful. It was Japan's capital city for nearly 1000 years until the capital was moved to Tokyo in the late 1800's. Kyoto escaped the double devastation of natural disasters and Allied bombing that leveled many/most Japanese cities and left them to undergo the ugly rebirth that modernity and poor urban planning has wrought. Nowhere is Kyoto's beauty more visible than in the thousands of small temples and shrines that are so easily happened upon in any short stroll out your hotel doors. The big shrines are mobbed by the busloads of tourists but we found the small neighborhood temples to be the most charming. Here is a photodump of our temple explorations

Geisha

Late each afternoon thru the early evening is the prime time for Geisha spotting in Kyoto's Gion district. And in the heart of Gion is Ichiriki Ochaya, a near 300 year old tea house that is a geisha hotspot, so much so that tourists gather in hordes to get their 'fish in a barrel' photos of young Maiko entering/exiting their evening engagements. The tourists stand outside because entry to Ichiriki is a total impossibility -- over the 300 years it has been in operation only a handful of foreigners have gained entry. You must be a member or a highly recommended guest and it is very secretive, kind of like the Bohemian Club without the ritual sacrifice. Those of you who have read 'Memoirs of a Geisha' will remember that Ichiriki was a frequently cited setting in the book, however the current proprietress is apparently adamant to spread the word that the gaijin author never has set foot in the establishment.




As a general travel rule we despise tourist rabble and forced photo opportunities. So we stuck to the back alleys and lesser traveled areas of Gion and while we didn't see nearly the number of geisha as the paparazzi did outside Ichiriki, we had far more genuine experiences with those we did see. To see a lone geisha clickity clacking her way past us in high-rise wooden geta clogs and full kimono and white-faced get up was really kind of exciting. And we behaved like normal human beings by not firing our camera shutter at them like they were zoo animals (the pictures on this post are from my 2005 visit when I was a less respectful person it seems). I think it was something they appreciated, and it even earned us the odd eye contact and a quick smile at Ingrid.

You have to be careful of getting too excited about seeing 'poser geisha,' women who visit the salon and photography studios to be done up like a maiko and then to be photographed in front of Gion's famous sites. I like to call them Barbizon model geishas -- Train to be a geisha, or just look like one! It's a funny site to see a Barbizon geisha being stalked by camera toting tourists, but it really can be tough to tell the difference unless there is a Japanese businessman on their arm. We came across one geisha in the early afternoon -- we couldn't tell whether she was legit because she looked and acted legit but our timing was suspect. Ingrid didn't care, she marched straight up to her and put her hand out and touched her kimono. Out little ice breaker, very cute.

Museum of Japanese Hairstyles

Most signs in Kyoto are in Japanese so when we saw a sign for the 'Museum of Japanese Hairstyles' we knew we had to check it out out. Turns out the museum is run by one of the 5 remaining keppatsu-shi, or Geisha hairstylists and the only male who practices the lost art. Apparently the other four look down upon him because he's a bit promotional in an otherwise secretive world. He's written a couple of books, has published an instructional DVD and of course has the museum. But he must groom good geisha hair because as we were exiting the museum we could him in his adjoining salon fast at work dolling up a couple geisha's doo's. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6563-2004Aug16.html

Kyoto Odds and Ends