We flew from Christchurch to Auckland to San Francisco on Air New Zealand. It was a comfortable flight but miserable. Very long and I can’t sleep on airplanes. I got this amazing shot out the window. My friend told me the glass was tinted to that kind of burst my bubble.
I spent a few days in San Francisco mainly going to art museums and hanging out with friends.
We took the ferry to Angel Island. We were hoping to go the Immigration Station museum but they had just changed their hours so we got there too late. Next time. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed it anyway.
The New Otani 10-acre Classical Japanese Garden Tokyo, Japan
The Imperial Hotel, Tokyo
The Imperial Hotel, built by Frank Loyd Wright, opened in 1923. It was demolished in 1968 and replaced by a high rise structure. My family stayed there in 1959, when we were on our way from Burma to the United States.
This postcard was written to my grandmother from some friends of hers traveling in Asia in August, 1961. I think the stamp is pretty cool.
I arrived here in this fabulous city of Tokyo after very pleasant jet air rides (without incident). Bob and I are enjoying our visit here very much and we’ll fly on to Taiwan a couple of days. The Japanese people are busy, clean and well dressed in American styles mostly. The children are adorable. The traffic is terrific and fast! We walked along the Ginza last night – it is hot but everyone fans – and doesn’t seem to mind it. Even the men use fans. We have rooms in the new part of this hotel. Best wishes, Cornelia
Kyoto, Japan
Enjoying a Cool at the Ryogoku-bashi Bridge by Utamaro Kitagawa (1753-1806), Ukiyoe A Series of Six Pictures
The Buddha of Kamakura
1971
We have been in Nara for a week in a stunning Japanese style room. Asian Education Conference. Am deep in the writings of the Buddha.
The Buddha of Kamakura – built in 1252, is the largest Buddha next to the Buddha in Nara. IT is well known as a “handsome” Buddha.
A thousand and one images of Buddha at Sanjusangendo Hall, Kyoto. (Actually this is the temple of Rengeō-in. This main hall dates back to 1266 and these figures are standing Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy (Avalokiteshvara).)
1984
You should come to visit Japan as holiday with your wife. My family can speak English. You are welcome.
Best wishes, Yoshi
1992
Greetings
We are knee deep in pink and white cherry blossoms speeding on to Kyoto to see the last of them as well as the countryside – Erik and Kilena have an enormous modern apt., an all white kitchen I would kill for. Have done lots of sightseeing – no end to Tokyo so no rest for the weary but we are having a marvelous time. Weather is sunny in 70’s perfect. We both send love,
Gunta
The world fastest “bullet train” on the New Tokaido Line Shizuoka.
Toshogu Shrine, Nikko
September 1978
Enroute Tokyo. I just lost a day in crossing the Intl. Date Line. Maybe someday I can make it up. I doubt that I will get to Nikko to see this shrine on the trip but we have a picture of you there. Hope you got your auto insurance ok.
Love, Bill
Aerial View of Tokyo
February 1970
Singapore
We got this card on the airplane yesterday – we are Not in Tokyo. Singapore is a lovely city – we toured it today and will take a tour of the harbor in the morning. It is one of the largest shipping harbors in the world. Off to Indonesia tomorrow aft – again on JAL. Bill had a nice Bday yesterday – dinner and dancing in the eve!
Love, Mom
Tokyo – the beauty of Japan caresses you… as gently as Empress service takes you there. @1960’s
Kunimatsu Dressmaking School, 1952 Yoshio Hayakawa, Japanese, born 1917
Summer is back and it is a hot day but the leaves are already starting to turn. Fall is coming.
I had a small flood in my house due to a faulty shut-off valve on my furnace to I spent most of this week entertaining various workers who removed my old floor and then installed my new floor. It is an improvement. I like it.
My son came over and helped me move all my furniture back and then we went to a good Kurdish restaurant not far from my place – Babani’s Kurdish Restaurant. We started out with Kurdish bread with feta cheese and olive oil. I had a delicious lentil soup (my favorite food) and then I had Sheik Babani – Named after a distinguished man’s striped trouser, this Kurdish delicacy is cored eggplant peeled in decorative stripes and filled with spice meat and vegetables serviced with a red sauce over basmati rice.
I read a couple of books. One I read for book club – A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. Now this book won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1991 and was adapted to a 1997 film of the same name. I personally hated the book. I don’t often hate books but I had a very negative reaction to this one. Maybe it lost something over the years and is now dated. I did read the whole thing. I usually just stop reading if the book doesn’t hold my interest but this one I read all the way to the end and after I read the last page I wanted to just throw it across the room (it was an e-book so couldn’t really do that…). Okay, what was so terrible. There was not one character I cared about. They were all terrible people. It dragged on and on and on. People did things that made not sense. If your father raped you every night when you were a little girl would you really just nonchalantly mention it to your sister and have to convince here that he did the same to her? All very odd. Anyway, yuck.
The other book I read was Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams. This one was published in 2021, and is, obviously, a spy novel. It had some interesting twists and turns and the characters were very well developed. I found it easier to read than LeCarre. It wasn’t so convoluted. Not a lot of rabbit holes. Easy to read and held my interest. Hey, it’s a spy novel, what’s not to like?
Although I am still trying to slog through LeCarre’s Agent Running in the Field. which I think is the last book he wrote. It has a lot of rabbit holes but I will finish it and hopefully everything will tie together neatly.
I met an interesting artist this week who travels the world and makes very cool art. He gave me this print of one of his pieces.
This week my social calendar explodes. I’m looking forward to going to see this art exhibit: https://z.umn.edu/human-condition-umncal “Though we come from all different walks of life, what binds us together is our humanity. “The Human Condition” explores the feelings, experiences, and connections that are uniquely human through myriad mediums and styles. Come look through someone else’s eyes, or find your own looking back at you. Works by University of Minnesota students and local artists.”
From the Minnesota Latino Museum: “Alebrijes are a Mexican folk art of colorful and fantastical creatures, often the combination of multiple animals (for example, the head of a fox with the body of a goose, fish fins, and horse legs). “
These creatures are made from papier-mâché and/or wood. When I visited Oaxaca in January I saw a lot of these but they were much smaller. These are giants. They are here for the summer located on Raspberry Island in the middle of the Mississippi River just south of St Paul.
In other news….
I read the second book in the Chara series, Ocean. You will remember I read the first book, Atmosphere a few weeks ago. Ocean is the second book in David Scott Moyer’s Chara series. It continues with the original characters from the first book and adds more humans from Earth into the mix. However, they have a very different mission and threaten to destroy all the first mission was able to accomplish. This book is full of tension and suspense and surprises. Again, I found it hard to put down. I recommend it and look forward to the third book in the trilogy.
I also read and enjoyed The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I found it kind of predictable but it was an overall “feel good” novel with good insights into human relationships and self discovery.
It is has been super hot here and my air-conditioning decided to quit working at the peak of the heat so have been a bit stressed lately. Was told I have to wait a week for service. Plus I just bought a new unit so not happy. Plus plumpie just started a war so am dreaming of foreign shores….
It was raining. It was hot. It was Humid. It was Florida.
Miami Beach
The Miami Design Preservation League was founded by Barbara Baer Capitman in 1976. The Art Deco District became the first urban 20th century historic distric on the National Register of Historic Places. Capitman fought for the district and was known to stand in front of bulldozers to protect the buildings. Over 800 Art Deco buildings remain.
Calle Ocho or Little Havana
Cigars, food, music, roosters…
Hemmingway House Key West
“The first thing that happened when we were back in Paris was Hemingway with a letter of introduction from Sherwood Anderson. I remember very well the first impression I had of Hemingway that first afternoon. He was an extraordinarily good looking young man, twenty three years old…., rather foreign looking, with passionately interested, rather than interesting eyes. He sat in front of Gertrude Stein and listened and looked.” The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
I learned something interesting recently. There are only four self-supporting marble domes in the world and the second largest one is at the Minnesota State Capitol in St Paul. It is made of Georgia (US State) marble and weighs more than fourteen million pounds and has a diameter of 87 feet.
The largest is St Peter’s at the Vatican in Rome. It has a diameter of 138 feet. The other two are the Taj Mahal in Agra, India with a diameter of 58 feet, and the Rhode Island State Capitol with a diameter of 50 feet.
The building was renovated in 2017 and the interior is impressive.
Oaxacan Museum of the Cultures – Regional History and Culture The building itself was worth the visit.
The Oaxaca Textile Museum
San Bartolo Coyotepec Popular Art Center
Community Museum, Teotitlan del Valle
Teotitlán del Valle is a town of about 4,000 people. Most of them are weavers and belong to a weaving cooperative. They use all natural dyes to color their fabrics.
