Bangkok Highlights ---- July 3 - 9

The over 90 degree heat limited our sightseeing somewhat. But we enjoyed lots of mango, pineapple, papaya and cooled off in the hotel pool.

In the mornings we visited many wats (Buddhist temples). They are all elaborately decorated with gold, mirrored mosaics and ceramic tiles. The Reclining Buddha is immense, the Golden Buddha serene, and the Emerald Buddha is really jade. At every wat, the Thai people offered lotus blossoms, burned incense and prayed.

The Golden Buddha
   
Our hotel was on the river, so the water taxis were convenient, fast and cheap. We preferred this transportation to traffic jams and tuk-tuk drivers and their buddies who offered to guide us to places we weren’t interested in. We learned to beware of friendly locals welcoming us and informing us that the attraction we were headed for was closed for some reason!
  

The Reclining Buddha

 We were lucky to find the Monks at Wat Po chanting publicly.

Buddhist Monks at Wat Po

Visit to Nikko on June 12

We visited Nikko World hertitage site. On the street of Nikko, we stopped to take a picture of a team preparing to carry a portable shire up the mountain and were invited to have some sake at 10:00AM.
The Shinkyo Bridge is the link between the city and the shrines across the river.

Shinkyo Bridge

The Toshogu Shrine is dedicated to the Shogun who unified Japan. In side of its Torii gate,there are many beautiful building, many of which I would like to include here. So much color and so much gold.

Toshogu Shrine

 
There are many, many individual shrines and temples close together, so I have only named the major ones, - Toshogu Shrine, Futarasan Shrine, Taiyuin shrine, Rinnoji Temple, and the Abbott's garden.
It was a photographer's festival.

The Futarasan Shrine had such a colorful ceiling, I had to get down on my knees to get a good shot.

ARI Rice Planting Day & Celebration

We planted the smaller rice patties by hand. In some, we were wading barefoot in 6-8 inches of mud. Joyce is working in a team to transplant rice seedlings in rows in a naturally planted patty. The ARI team finished a majority of the transplanting in one day.

Utsunomiya Visit

Last Saturday we left ARI and entered Japan on our own. We took the train to Utsunomiya and mastered the bus system. The local information booth was a great help, and once again, we experienced the kindness of the Japanese people. Concentrating on gathering correct change for our bus stop, we left the backpack on the bus! After the bus drove away, we stood on the sidewalk checking the map. Suddenly, a woman came running toward us pointing to a backpack in her hand. She had noticed it on the seat and told the driver to stop the bus so she could deliver it to us!

This 88-foot Heiwa Kannon statue was hand carved from soft volcanic stone in the Oya Stone Village. It is a WW II memorial to those who died and to peace. We climbed up to elbow height for a look around.

Oya Cave & Oyaji Temple

At nearby Oyaji Temple, set at the entrance to Oya Cave, we saw the mystical 9th century Senjyu Kannon Bosatsu carved into the stone. This Buddha image has hands clasped in prayer, but many more arms radiate from the body. It is quite sobering to gaze at this 1200-year-old carving! A series of nine additional Buddha images are carved in relief on the cave walls. They are the oldest Buddhist reliefs in Japan.

In the prefectural museum, we were excited to see a Hamada pottery collection. Hamada, Shoji is a National Treasure in Japan, and we imagine our master potter friend Gerry Williams must have met him at some point. Hamada believes in the functionality of pots, as Gerry does. We saw some lovely glazes and designs.

Futarayama Shrine

At Futaarayama Shrine, several young couples arrived with babies and were escorted into the shrine, even though a sign read no admittance. We guessed that the babies were being brought for a blessing.

Of course, we had to eat gyoza in the city where these steamed or fried dumplings are famous. We ordered, or tried to order, pork dumplings at a little gyoza shop. An Indian man offered to help us. We discovered he had visited ARI four times! The gyoza tasted wonderful and we ordered more!

Post & Beam building

Bob went to a construction site on 5/20 to observe a post & beam project that was using 100 year old cedar trees. The work was a little risky, but the building will be very sturdy.