Phuket - Summer holiday

On Saturday Aug-13th we flew to Phuket with Kyo-chan for our summer holiday.

We stayed at Le Meridian Phuket Beach resort.  This is on the east side of Phuket island, about 1 hour by taxi south from the airport, in a small cove just south of the town of Pa Tong. 

Looking south-west from our room, across the pool to the beach and the Andaman sea.   

The center of the resort is a massive pool,  with a buffet restaurant in the middle, where we had breakfast.   

August is actually off-season for the resort, with the weather generally cloudier and cooler than normal (temperatures 24-31 C).   This was perfect for me since I wanted a break from Tokyo's heat and to be able to swim without being fried by the sun.  

The guests were the expected mix of  French, Australians, Chinese, Japanese.   But the the most common guests were Russian families, and they were quite fun to watch.  The men tended to be large and dangerous-looking, often with tattoos.   Often accompanied by their overweight mothers and mothers-in-laws.   The wives tended to be beautiful and expensively, if skimpily, dressed.   And their  children generally blond, tanned and attractive.   (perhaps these oligachs leave their ugly babies out in the snow to die).    

The private beach.

Hannah at the beach. 

At the beach bar.

Sunset at the beach.

Rika, Hannah and Kyo-chan on the last day.

Daddy, Hannah and Rika

Daddy duty

In the weekend of 6-Aug we stayed in Tokyo for the first time in many weekends.   I did the regular routine of looking after Hannah abd taking her to the park and sports center.

I was glad to see that the swimming pools at the sports center have reopened again first time since the March earthquake.

Hannah goes to the sports center each week with Shimada-san, who has clearly taught her how to use the balance beams and use the trampoline.

Hannah has a very firm routine of trampoline, then snacks in the resturant,  then more trampoline.  She is pretty good at making friends with the other kids and their parents.  So it is easy to just go with the flow (just don't expect her to share her ice-cream).   

This weekend for the first time we saw 'samurai' practicing in the gym with real swords.

When I take Hannah to the park I often check the radioactivity with the Russian geiger counter we bought in July.   So far our measurements always confirmed that the radiation level in our area of south-west Tokyo are elevated but broadly safe, with no signs of 'hot-spots'.    Average measurements are around 0.1 micro-siverts per hour indoors and 0.15 - 0.25 outdoors, occasionally 0.2-0.3 after rain.   Individual measurements are much more variable with higher and lower readings - maximum of 0.75 and minimum of 0.00.

Having the geiger counter is worthwhile for our piece-of-mind, since there have been reports of  'hot-spots' of high radioactivity even within the Tokyo area, although mainly on the north-east suburbs.  

 The community organization 'Radiation Defence Project' recently released the results of their soil testing project (http://www.radiationdefense.jp/en/investigation).    The reading nearest us was 20k Bq/m2  in Uuehara, Shibuya-ku on 1-Jun.   The highest reading in the wards near us was 70k Bq/m2 in Ichigaya, Shinjuku-ku.   The average Tokyo reading was 30k Bq/m2 but the highest reading was 240k  Bq/m2 in  Edogawa-ku.  Averages and maximums were higher in Chiba and Saitama prefectures bordering Tokyo to the north and east.   

For comparison, thresholds set during Chernobyl were 37K Bq/m2 to define a Zone 4 'Radiation Protection Area',  187k Bq/m2 Zone 3 'Preferred Evacuation Area',  and 555k Bq/m2 for Zone 2 'Obligatory Relocation' Area.         

We are following the nuclear crisis carefully on alternative media like enenews.com.  Like many people in Japan we are concerned that the government is not facing-up to the scale of the crisis, and may be managing or withholding information to minimize costly disruption.   In particular we are worried about 'hot particles' in the air and contamination through food.    Internal radiation caused by eating or breathing radio-active particles is more dangerous than ambient external radiation, especially for growing children like our Hannah.  And unfortunately we cannot easily measure this with our geiger counter. 

We are not confident that a comprehensive and reliable system of testing has been put in place to ensure contaminated food is not sold to consumers.  So we expect to see more stories of contaminated food being sold and exported, especially after the harvest season.    In the meantime we have tried to limit Hannah's consumption of domestic dairy products and are trying to buy food from south-west Japan.  But we are still eating out frequently and have no control over the source of that food.

Obon

"Obon (お盆^?) or just Bon (盆^?) is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the departed (deceased) spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori."

" The festival of Obon lasts for three days; however its starting date varies within different regions of Japan. When the lunar calendarwas changed to the Gregorian calendar at the beginning of the Meiji era, the localities in Japan reacted differently and this resulted in three different times of Obon. 'Shichigatsu Bon' (Bon in July) is based on the solar calendar and is celebrated around 15 July in eastern Japan (Kantō: areas such as Tokyo, Yokohama and the Tohoku region). 'Hachigatsu Bon' (Bon in August) is based on the solar calendar, is celebrated around the 15th of August and is the most commonly celebrated time. 'Kyu Bon' (Old Bon) is celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and so differs each year. "    The Shuzenji area is differnet again, celebrating O-Bon from 30-Jul to 3-Aug.

Baba prepared an altar with the family 'ihai' (spirit tablets inscribed with the buddhist names of the family ancestors), and various offerings.

On Sunday morning a local priest visited for a short service, Then we went to visit the graves.  ('ohaka-mairi').

At each grave an offering of eggplant and rice was made.

"Bon Odori (盆踊り^?), meaning simply Bon dance is a style of dancing performed during Obon. Originally a Nenbutsu folk dance to welcome the spirits of the dead, the style of celebration varies in many aspects from region to region. Each region has a local dance, as well as different music."

"The typical Bon dance involves people lining up in a circle around a high wooden scaffold made especially for the festival called a 'yagura'. The yagura is usually also the bandstand for the musicians and singers of the Obon music. Some dances proceed clockwise, and some dances proceed counter-clockwise around the yagura. Some dances reverse during the dance, though most do not. At times, people face the yagura and move towards and away from it. "

The music can be songs specifically pertinent to the spiritual message of Obon, or local min'yo folk songs.  Some modern enka hits and kids' tunes written to the beat of the "ondo" are also used to dance to during Obon season.  Consequently, the Bon dance will look and sound different from region to region.   The dance of a region can depict the area's history and specialization. For example, the movements of the dance of the Tankō Bushi (the "coal mining song") of old Miike Mine in Kyūshū show the movements of miners, i.e. digging, cart pushing, lantern hanging, etc. All dancers perform the same dance sequence in unison.

This is the bon-odori at a festival at Zenkouji temple in Omotesando in mid-June.   It was a small festival but very elegant and a great atmosphere.   As you might expect in Tokyo most fashionable suburb.

Pacific Cultural Arts Festival

Hannah has been learning Taiko drums at a club after school.  Today she performed with the club at the Pacific Cultural Arts Festival at Komazawa Park.

We stayed around to watch some of the other acts.   Next was a New Zealand maori song and dance group, apparently all Tokyo residents.

A group dressed as anime characters singing what sounded like folk-songs 

And the highlight for all the daddy, a samba troupe!

Photo Booth

Last night and this morning we had fun today playing with the Photo booth on the Ipad

Happy Birthday

In July Hannah had her much anticipated 'happy birthday' when she turned 4 and officially became a big girl.

She got to celebrate this three times with three cakes.   Firstly with Baba, Makoji-chan and Ya-chan on 17-Jul at Baba's house.  With a cake from the surprisingly excellent shop just down the road.

You can see how much Hannah loves having 'happy birthday' sung to her.

Then opening presents from Baba and Makoji-Ya-chan

Then a second time, on her actual birthday with Mum and Dad in Tokyo.

Hannah loved opening presents from our family in New Zealand and reading the birthday cards, especially the cards made by William, Sophie and Claire which Hannah has hung up in the living room.

Then a third birthday party on 23-Jun, with Kyo-chan.   By now our practiced birthday expert know how to get every detail just-right!

And finally, many weeks after her birthday, Mum and Dad bought their present for Hannah.  This was a big hit - a nice big box for playing 'my-cat-likes-to-hide-in-boxes' with! 

The actual contents of the box - a keyboard - was unfortunately rather less popular.  

Within 5 min Hannah is saying 'I dont like practice'