ingrid

I will be out of office for this week.  Rest assured that your attention IS important to me, but the Oregon Coast is more important to me.  It is the ocean, and therefore massive, which makes it important.

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My sister Anne and I share many interests; composting, growing things, running (sometimes), art and fabric, weird exhibitions of language and learning, and bitching about why people can’t get their shit together.  For me, perhaps one of the most fun and surprising of our shared interests is our enthusiasm for eating…. most anything.  My most recent trip to Kobe was a great opportunity to indulge our shared love of good and pretty simple food.

When I first met up with Anne right off the plane, she had a long list of “things we would eat”.  Whereas many travelers might arrange their week around things to see, our week was shaping up to incorporate “the best sushi in this little shop”, “okonomiyaki that this old woman makes near my house”, and food on sticks in China town and at a little alley yakatori.

First stop after dropping off my wet luggage at her place was okonomiyaki, a fried pancake of egg & vegetables topped with sauciness.  I think they usually have meat in them, but Anne has hers “like the monks”, which essentially means vegetarian.  It was full of those long stringy mushrooms which I think would have been better if they were of a larger, less ropey variety.  Anne eschews meat, but admits she is a sucker for mayonnaise, an ingredient I have something of a weakness for to.  The whole thing was great!  The shop that she took me to was charming—an old woman worked over a grill in front of us so we were able to watch her creation while drinking super cold beers.  Anne kept up a comfortable banter in Japanese with the owners and I felt like a bit of a superstar to get to be eating okonomiyaki in a tiny hole-in-the-wall in Japan.

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Actually I don’t always feel that way and neither do my kids, but today it is all stars for me.  We are taking off on our annual trip to Ashland to “get culture”, and I figured that as I hate driving anyway, how about taking the train the first leg to Eugene and letting Brad schlep his way down the freeway in the car tomorrow after work?  Viola!  Kids are beside themselves with happiness.  Now all I have to do is get ready for a big trip a day earlier, but hey— I also get to get out of here a day earlier!  And I figure this might be a bit like wedding planning—-if you give yourselves 2 years for planning, you are seriously going to RUIN that 2 years.  Better to get it all over with.

So off we go to Ashland via Amtrak Cascades.  We’re pulling into Eugene and my sister’s house at about 9 pm tonight.  If I am really organized, the kids will have a nutritious picnic dinner on the train.  If I am not, $6 corndogs in the dining car everyone!  Either way, I am about breaking my arm patting myself on the back.

Have a great week!  I’ll be back next Monday or so with all new tales to tell (and a wrap up on Japan—-sorry!).

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Devoted fans, I am hearing that you are not intrigued by the bus ride into Kobe.  Why not?  Public transit and what we can see from our windows is deeply philosophical.  I encourage you to consider these moments more deeply.

But more about Japan.  I had a few small goals for my time there:

1)  Bond with the sister.  Get the dirt on her life straight from the source.  Take advantage of the time she remains in Japan to get a free tour guide.  Check out her apartment, neighborhood, the school where she teaches— just see and touch the everyday things that she sees and touches.

2)  Eat super good food.  I like Japanese food for both its flavor and aesthetic.  I am an adventurous eater, so I wanted to try as many wonderful things as possible.

3)  Run a bit.  See if I could still pull off 4 to 6 miles in preparation for the 5K I was to run in Willamina on the 4th of July.

I guess I am a bit embarrassed to say that I didn’t feel any need to see many historical or culturally significant sights.  It isn’t so much that I didn’t want to, it is more that I felt no need to seek them out.  I figured they would come to me when they were good and ready.  Is it bad?  When I travel, I prefer to plan very little about what I will do, learn little or nothing about the place, and just sort of plunge in and experience things.  I like to be ignorant and unprepared, but with my eyes and ears wide open, and my feet flexible and ready to wander miles to check out the lay of the land.  Granted, it is sort of a stupid way to travel sometimes, and it has resulted in some really miserable situations, but I pride myself in being unfailingly cheery in the worst of situations, so it seems to work for me.  No one else might want to go with me, but it is my most natural way.

Following my hobo heart, I got off the bus in downtown Sannomiya Kobe 2 hours early in a massive downpour, wearing just a sweater and cap to protect against the rain.  It turns out that the Japanese love their umbrellas–something that Portlanders, even in the rain don’t seem to possess.  I figured that I could sit out the deluge in a tea shop, but I didn’t have any money because I figured I would find an ATM once in Japan.  I was carrying heavy bags full of too many pairs of shoes (a weakness of mine), huge hardback books, and a couple extra pounds of coffee and chocolate as gifts.  My number one priority was to find money, make change, plop my 30 pounds of chocolate and coffee and shoes in a coin locker at the station and find a place to wait.  Instead, tired, penniless, and conspicuously western, I wandered around in circles in the rain toting my huge bag, and looking for an ATM that would take my foreign bankcard.  Five ATMs later, I learned something new—you need to bring cash to Japan.  Preferably Japanese cash.  Who knew?!

Midway in my wanderings, I hopped under this temple tucked in between two huge office buildings just to get out of the rain.  I considered sitting down right there in front of the altar, but that seemed tacky.

Japan is so fascinating in its conjunction of the old and the new.

I did find a lovely lady (God Bless her!) who drew me a detailed map of where to find a “foreign ATM”.  Once there, I came smack up against my ignorance again when it was time to select the amount that I wanted to withdraw.  I had no clue as to the exchange rate.  What should I take out?  100,000 yen?  5000 yen?  Or just 2500?  What amount would be acceptable to pull out at the tea shop while making it clear that I only wanted tea, not to become an investing partner?  And what amount would not make Brad back in Oregon gasp too loudly while checking our online banking?  And WOA!  Which button do I press to show I accept the charges?  It looks like a little gate and a squiggle and then a slash and oh my eyes are blurring!

You’ll be pleased to know that I figured it out.  I got out a decent amount, (it turned out to be about $50 USD), and found a dry tea shop that didn’t look too hoity-toity for my disheveled self.

Stay tuned for EAT SUPER GOOD FOOD!

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Sorry I haven’t posted for a bit.  I am recovering, kind of slowly I might add.  Something about returning on a serious red-eye and going straight back to the needs of clamoring children plus a big old house to pull together makes for, well, tiredness.  Returning from Japan was sort of bittersweet.  I missed Brad and the kids of course.  I didn’t miss the laundry.  I didn’t miss keeping the refrigerator stocked.  Or the construction dust that covers every surface around our house right now.  Or waking up to no milk for my coffee.  Time out for some self-talk—-(Stay positive.  Quit bitching!)  Okay!  So I am glad to be back!  And all the things I just named can only predicate MORE TRIPS, so what is so bad about that?

Kobe, where my dear sister is living, is an interesting little corner of the planet.  Osaka/Kobe itself is not a gorgeous place.  It has some nice elements like the way that the city nestles in between the mountains and the ocean.  It is clean and orderly.  The hills are green and the ocean is wild and lovely.  Coming in from the airport is a trip though!  I couldn’t figure out if it was just the efficiency of a port area, good zoning, or if I should be incredibly depressed with the consumerism that fuels so much industry, because all you see for the first hour on the bus in from Kansai International airport is just warehouses, docks, and manufacturing for miles and miles and miles.

These two photos are actually sort of charming, but I truly saw electrical plants the size of cities.  And no actual housing to be seen for miles and miles.  Is this good or bad?  I guess it is good.  Keep all the ugly stuff that keeps society going in one place…and yet to see it all in one place is sort of depressing.  Some of the factories looked like sets from apocalyptic movies.

Oh dear.  I’ve run out of time.  I have to get to chores around here.  Today is the day to run stuff to proper recycling places: namely, Free Geek and Rebuilding Center.  Stay tuned for Japan Rocks the Asian Continent Part 2!

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I can’t seem to quit waking up at 6am.  It’s ironic too as I sort of expected that coming to Japan would allow me all this excellent, unbroken sleep.  Anne asked me the other day if the kids slept through the night and I didn’t really know what to say.  I mean, technically, everyone sleeps through the night, but when you take the combined needs of three small children, I would say that I wake up from 2 to 3 times all together.  Inez drops her comfort object (the lamb) out of the crib and cries like someone has died (or wandered off as the case may be), Zephyr wakes all distraught and confused because he needs to go to the bathroom, Francis THINKS she has wet her bed (I swear this has happened 5 times where she comes crying to me because she has wet her bed and I truly can not find where the sheet is wet).  Last week Zephyr went into a crazy fit seemingly running into the closet. When I picked him up to comfort him, I seriously got peed on.  The guy was trying to find the bathroom and wasn’t awake enough to pick the right door. All told, I can’t remember the last full night of sleep.  And now I am here in Japan where I should be able to make it from 11pm to 8 or so, and I am waking up ready to go at 6am. Oh well.  The body clock is mysterious.

Anne and I had a fun day yesterday eating street food in China town and then going to her school for a few classes.  She had students interview me, which was fun but sort of exhausting. I am sure that she feels this way at the end of the day—-listening so hard and trying to understand another person is super tiring.  Last night we ate fantastic sushi at this tiny little hole in the wall place.  Then we hoofed it up the hill to her friend’s place.  Japanese people are funny socially.  It isn’t so strange to me that they are excited about drinking, but man, they sit down to drink and go for both quantity and variation of alcohol.  Twice now I have ended up at parties where people have just continued opening bottles of wide-ranging beverages, none of which are water.  Last night it was beer, then shoju, then wine, “where’s that sake?”…I can’t do that.  That is a sure recipe for sick, sick, sick.  I was handed a glass of wine and I gasped, “Oh no, I CAN’T!”, which was confusing to my hostess.  ”Can’t?” she asked.  Yes, can’t.

Today we go for a run with Anne’s American girlfriend, then hopefully to the onsen by the beach.  I am campaigning for massages as I am still totally creaky from the plane ride and just generally being old.  After Anne finishes teaching, we hop a train to Kyoto where we are staying at a monastery. I can’t wait.

Well it is now officially morning as the crossing guard who stand below Anne’s window has started his chorus of “Oh-hi-o!” to the children on their way to school.  Anne had told me that kids go by her window every morning, and I had at first thought that sounded charming.  They are LOUD though.  Who knew that Japanese elementary kids could yell so loud?  Besides the kids’ “Azakabaaaaaaakkarisoooooon!” (just a word I made up), the crossing guard keeps up a steady stream of greetings.  This dude is cheerful…and a little repetitive.  I think Anne will miss waking up to him when she leaves Japan.  I won’t though.

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On the Shin Kobe Ropeway

You know how sometimes you have to ditch the husband and kids and just take off for foreign countries?  Well, that is how awesome I am.

I’m in Kobe Japan with my sister Anne… I traveled all by myself and it is awesome.  Anne has been here for a year and a half and I knew I needed to get over to see her life while she was still living it in this locale.  This was the right time to go, while the kids didn’t have much going on and could safely be sequestered at their grandparents’ houses (Thanks Mom and Dad & Dennis and Sue!).  I have had some pangs of guilt, but not many when I think of them having the time of their lives being all spoiled and entertained in the country.  Inez is probably being licked by a dog right now.  Scratch that.  It’s 1 am Oregon time, so that baby had better be sleeping!

Anyway, I don’t intend to be updating this blog much while I am here, but I did want to let people know where I am.  Eating awesome food!  Chatting non-stop with my little sister!  Going running with Kobe Hash Hound Harriers!  In Freakin’ Japan!

In the herb gardens at the top of the rope way

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Which is why I have not been updating my blog.  It is hard to remember you see, when your view is this:

This last summer, my dear friend Lynn made the statement that made it all happen.  ”I don’t care when we go— it could be three years from now—we just need to make a plan so that I know that we will go.  I need it to look forward to.”  Lynn, Kristi and I all have three kids.  Devra lives “in a very cold country” (this became something of a joke in Mexico, reiterating that England is indeed “a very cold country”.  Why it is funny stating this fact, I don’t know, but it was.).  We needed things to look forward to.  And so we did it–we booked our Playa del Carmen, Mexico vacation.  Devra in England made all the arrangements.  I began worrying about leaving the kids about an hour after buying my ticket.  It seemed so far away back in September, but February came quickly.

A few things I’ve learned this week.  First of all, I really needed a vacation!  This time was so precious and freeing.  It is so rare for me to have a stretch of time not dominated by children and others’ needs.  It felt good to think of what I wanted versus what everyone else wants.  (Oh!  Woe is me!  Who are these children and why are they calling me mom?).  But really, I am a mother now and although I am not one of those crazy martyr-mothers trying to show the world how great I am by self-sacrificing, care-taking takes a toll.  It is tiring.  It is a bit thankless.  It involves a lot of menial labor and interruptions.  It was good for me, good for Brad to be the primary care giver, and the kids were FINE.

Second, people are lovely.  Mexicans are a special people.  I met some wonderful, kind people who live really interesting lives.  I felt a bit of a disconnect being in a touristy area though.  The people I talked to in the shops and restaurants worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week.  Often their children were with them late at night while they worked.  I am not sure what employment laws Mexico might have, but it appears woefully insufficient for families, and that made me sad.  I felt crappy that anyone would have to bring their tired little kids into a shop late at night just for my convenience.  That didn’t seem right.

I feel recommitted to my whole self after this week.  My friends are all dear to me in sort of different ways, but one thing that they tend to have in common is their interest in emotional and physical health.  We went to a yoga class together that was amazing!  I had never done yoga before and totally would not have gone without friends to bolster me.  I too often make excuses for not doing things because I fear not being good at them.  It is a dumb reason to not try stuff.  I could tell someone else this, but tend to make the same mistake over and over again.  The class was so good, even though I didn’t know sh*t about downward-facing dog and sun-salutes and such.  It was the perfect kick off to trying to achieve better health.  I went to a yoga class today actually.

It doesn’t hurt that my friends are all fit and beautiful either!  Just being around them is inspiring.

I’ve gotten a bit quieter of late.  I still love to socialize, but it felt great to do that and then hang out with a book.  I liked my plane flights— so much uninterrupted time!  No one bothered me at all!  It was great.  I knit a whole hat!  Most of all, it is so fantastic to sit around and talk with interesting, inspiring people who care about you.  This was very much a “bring the love” week, and I think we all need more of those.

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I don’t know what it is about me and death hikes.  I keep finding them.  I forget that many places that are beautiful to go are

• wet
• high up in the air
• made by scrabbling a barely flat surface into a cliff wall

I was pondering why we always end up like this, a white-knuckle death grip on each kid as we inch along a rock face, hissing at our dear children with each clumsy step.  (I swear that Zephyr starts tripping every third or fourth step when we are up 100 feet in the air clinging to a metal cable.  Swear.)  Why does this always happen to us?  Then it occurred to me… it is the terrain dummy.  We keep hiking to these waterfalls in the gorge.  Gorge + waterfalls = rock walls with just a cable to cling to.  If I were in Death Valley say, this wouldn’t be happening to me.

Anyway, we had a break in the rain this last weekend and we raced for the outdoors.  I feel like such a caged animal these days, eager to get out be RUN around.  I am coming to terms with my true nature.  The truth is that I like exercise.

So why not get it here?

This was Eagle Creek Trail.  William Sullivan, Northwest hike guru has this to say about this particular trail:

The Eagle Creek Trail is one of Oregon’s most spectacular paths, passing half a dozen major waterfalls. The trail is also an engineering marvel. To maintain an easy grade through this rugged canyon, the builders blasted ledges out of sheer cliffs, bridged a colossal gorge and even chipped a tunnel through solid rock behind 120-foot Tunnel Falls.

Yes siree.  It was high up there.

We did this particular hike with our friends Jason and Angela and their two boys Soren and Anders.  It is fun to have a whole family of friends.  Everyone has someone to love!  That is definitely how we feel about these guys, so we were certainly open to risking our lives with them.

Brad is such a good sport.  I have yet to decide if he really likes hiking but pretends not to or if he really does not like hiking but thinks he should or if he just doesn’t like it and… you get the picture.  For him, the best thing about hiking in the gorge is that Edgefield is between us and Portland when we are done.  The kids, (all five of them), were so exhausted that they were really pretty mellow at dinner.  Who can resist?

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Kids are smarter than us.  Or at least, they tend to think about the world in a more productive way than we do sometimes.

Take a couple of  weekends ago for example.  We went up to Mt Hood with my bro-in-law and our two darling nephews.  The idea was to drive up there, park somewhere off to the side of the mountain and then hike in to a secret sledding hill attached to an outdoor club cabin.  All right!  Set!  We drove, we fully outfitted all children in their very fine ski gear including my son in his PINK snowsuit— hey, it was $7 at Fred Meyer out of season.  (The only other ones they had were camouflage and I don’t consider war costumes much of a fashion choice for my children).  ANYWAY, off we go to the snow.  The kids love the parking lot, but that isn’t good enough for us adults.

Oh no, now that we have made it to the snow, we have to hike in to MORE snow.

The problem is, when we get to more snow, there is really, really MORE snow.  There is actually so much snow that you can’t really move in it.  There is so much snow that the sleds don’t slide much.  There is so much snow that you sink in up to your hip— your adult hip, which is just worse when carrying a kid.

We try to pound the snow down so that we don’t completely sink, and eat a quick lunch in the snow.  It is cold.  The kiddos decide to play in this little downhill area, but I have my eye on a huge hill.  Wouldn’t it be great to make a really long sled run?  The problem is that it is nearly impossible to move through there.  It is exhausting to try, but off I go.

I work and work and work.  I hum that song about John Henry, and that is how I feel as I pound with my arms and try not to fall in.  I am exhausted, but I keep pounding and clearing.  This’ll be fun!  They’ll love it, I think.  My arms ache, but finally I make a 30 yard run.  And then… no one wants to go down it.  The kids are cold.  They don’t want to go through the snow to get to my run.  They don’t want to fall off the side of the pounded down snow and get buried to their necks.  It is too hard to get up the hill.  Zephyr starts crying, “I don’t like this place!  I want to go home!”.  The other kids are happily playing on a 15 ft slick area just yards away from the cabin.

Sigh…. I hope someone comes along and uses my great run.  I really broke ground for them, ground that some other kids will surely appreciate.  It wasn’t entirely fruitless, right?

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