Riding With the One that I love

Germany has a dark chapter of its history.  Events surrounding the Holocaust are difficult to learn about, to connect with, to see, and to feel.  This history is hard to live with, I'm sure. Subtle and forthright, planned and happenstance, creative and simple, many diverse kinds of markers in Berlin serve as place holders and reminders for the heavy history from World War II. The omnipresent monuments and memorials are well-integrated into the fabric of the urban landscape and yet still stand out for their creatively jarring messages.  Popular guidebooks such as Rick Steves' book report that the Germans are "taking responsibility" for the turbulent past that is the responsibility of their forebears. Reading this in advance of our trip caused my eyebrows to raise. I've found current cultures frequently deny culpability and certainly do not claim responsibility. Questions loomed in my head: How do the German people move forward while acknowledging their past? How do...

 In a post I wrote about our experience in Japan, I described how our guide identified five important principles of Japanese behavior within the culture. In Prague, the tall, dignified buildings -- many of them Medieval -- were topped with statues of the saints and apostles.   I saw an interesting parallels of both in Berlin; I could not help but think this was quite a commentary on the similarities and differences in these cultures.   On the tops of the reconstructed buildings in Berlin (reconstructed because the tour guide on our "Fat Tire Bike Tour" reported that between 75% and 90% of all the buildings in Berlin were destroyed in World War II), statues loomed overhead.  We stood in the platzes of lore in the Mitte area of town and gazed up at darkened figures silhouetted above. These figures appeared on the government buildings, the museums, and cathedrals. "Those are the original figures," the tour guide reported as we looked skyward in Babelplatz near...

This post is, meaningfully, my very last post on our Japan visit.  While these are all wonderful and important places to see and visit, currently it simply feels somewhat obligatory to include tourist sites. The most meaningful parts of the trip for me were the vernacular (which some people find mundane); for it was here in the common, everyday experience, that I learned more about Japanese people and customs.  Many of the images below are included in previous posts; this is just a blog post that summarizes the "bucket list" items, if you will, that we saw on this trip to Japan. Golden Pavilion : This was the grandest of all for the shimmering gold three-story building.  Certainly this was a surprise to round the corner and see this exquisite sight.  There were acres of gardens to be tended.  I saw a single gardener clipping a bush; when I commented about him to our guide, the guide said it was a great privilege and a great honor to be a gardener at this...

Some things I saw or experienced on our trip simply defied explanation or words. Some were just  things that stuck with me -- or that I wanted to stick with me.   Many things I found meaningful or interesting, but I could not categorize.  This post is a compilation of the silly, the interesting, the surprising, the mindboggling, or simply the un-file-able. Hats for Cats were for sale. As we rode our bikes the last day by the river, we saw not only fields of small plants planted in rows: rice patties, but we saw subsistence farming at the river's edge. Everywhere we stayed offered magnificent views.  This is the view of a temple from our ryoken window. The lotus flower in the front is in a fountain. The streets are empty because the earthquake just happened. Streets in Japanese cities are very narrow. Cars, bikes and pedestrians on the same road just make it work. During one of my bike rides, I slowed my bike whe...