Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Vietnam
Chapter 2
New Home
in Kofu
Chapter 3
Hong Kong
China,
&
Korea
Chapter 4
Yamanashi
Chapter 5
Society
Chapter 6
Hospital
Chapter 7
Nikko
Chapter 8
Holiday
Greetings
Chapter 9
Culture
Chapter 10
Holiday
Trip:
Kansai
&
Kyushu
Chapter 11
Mores
Chapter 12
Hankos
& Brush-
writing
Chapter13
Friends
Chapter 14
Festivities
Chapter 15
Okinawa
&
Nagasaki
Chapter 16
Hong Kong
&
Australia
Chapter 17
Special
People
&
Events
Chapter 18
Coming
to
Japan
Chapter 19
Letter to
Editor
Chapter 20
Teaching
English
Chapter 21 Hamamatsu
Chapter 22
Women's
Relation-
ships
Chapter 23
Reflections
on
Education
Chapter 24
Nephews'
Visit
Chapter 25
Thailand,
Korea
&
Home
Chapter 26
Taking
Stock
Chapter 16
Hong Kong and Australia
March, 1996
Dear Friends,
Carolyn and I started our travels with a trip to Hong Kong, where we stayed for four days before our 12 days in Australia. Carolyn had never been to Hong Kong and had always wanted to see it. Besides it is a good link when traveling from one part of Asia to another. It is also an interesting place to visit at this time, with the reversion to China imminent. We were particularly pleased to be going for the Chinese New Year celebration. However, that turned out to be a mixed bag. The decorations and fireworks in the harbor were quite impressive, and the assorted parades are exciting, however much they clog the traffic that was already so thick that one wondered how people got where they were going. When we arrived we could have walked to our hotel faster than by taxi, as the streets were closed or blocked, due to a parade in progress. Businesses are closed from three days to a full week for the new year. The celebration is a time to reunite with one's family and quietly celebrate. So, except for parades and fireworks, people are at home during this time. Consequently, we were not able to do the shopping for which Hong Kong is famous. All the shops that have great buys on silk products were closed for most of the time we were there.
The fireworks for the New Year were absolutely spectacular and we wish we could have captured them on film. The first challenge was to be able to see any of the celebration, as crowds started forming on the street hours before the start of the festivities. There was no way that we could see anything from the street. Besides, we were warned by hotel staff that it was unsafe to mingle with the crowd. Luckily, we were able to change our room to a harbor-side one (for a reasonable charge) and we had an unexcelled view from our window. After some experimentation with our cameras we realized we could not get decent pictures and settled for simply enjoying this last New Year celebration for British Hong Kong.
The organized part of our Hong Kong tour included a trip to Victoria Peak, and a guided tour of the city, including the floating city and restaurant, and shopping. The most meaningful part of Hong Kong for me was meeting our guide, who confided that he was a recovering heroin addict. He invited us to meet his recovery group and therapist, but we didn't have time to go. We did have some good conversation and he gave me a book entitled Chasing the Dragon. It is a different approach to recovery, with its origins in the walled city of Hong Kong, the heart of horrors of the city. The approach seems to have worked for him, as he has been clean for a couple of years, after a drug habit that began at age 12 and resulted in numerous arrests and time in prison.
The mood of Hong Kong has changed since last summer. We asked many people we encountered how they felt about July 1997, when China will be taking over. The answers varied. Some, who consider themselves Chinese, will again be speaking their mother-tongue. Others, with relatives in mainland China, are pleased that travel back and forth will be easier.
However, the majority of people with whom we spoke seemed anxious about the future. Our guide, whose father was a British naval officer and whose mother is Asian, said that he is a British subject and that his sister is already living in Australia because Hong Kong is now hiring Chinese for the job she was doing in Hong Kong. We were told that the easiest place to go was Canada and the second was Australia. Apparently, many people have already moved, and others are ready to go quickly if things become difficult.
Meanwhile, the official language for the legal system has been changed to Mandarin (from English), and there is a concern that it will hurt business if the official business language is also changed. The primary Chinese language that has been spoken in Hong Kong is Cantonese, but the official language of mainland China is Mandarin. That means that many expatriates are being given the opportunity to study Mandarin. Many, many adjustments to be made. China officially states that it will not change the government or workings of Hong Kong for 50 years. However, they control the committee that is making the transition. Thus, many of the people of Hong Kong fear that most of the democratic practices instituted under British rule will be superseded by the political practices of the Peoples' Republic. We saw evidence of this already happening. As we toured the city, various building sites were pointed out where projects were to be completed before the transition, under orders from the Chinese government.
The overriding impression of Hong Kong continues to be the crowds, the jostling, the rudeness, and the signs that warn people not to take their eyes off their luggage (in airports, buses, and hotels). The contrast with Japan is notable. The size of crowds in Japan may be no smaller, but they are more genteel, organized, and almost never hostile. And, in Japan, one can leave luggage almost anywhere without fear of it being taken. People often leave their purses on chairs to save their places while leaving the train, or at events while going to the bathroom or getting a drink, etc.
As we approached Australia we had a unique experience. We were given a long lecture about things we could not bring into the country and then told to cover our noses while they fumigated the plane. Attendants walked up and down the aisles, spraying the whole interior of the plane. It was jarring and was not a pleasant smell. They were especially concerned about food stuffs, specifically, grains. I gave up the rolls that I was carrying in my backpack and the snacks that we have learned to have when traveling. We discovered a long time ago that one never knows when there will be a problem and no food is available for a lengthy period of time.
It was a good time to visit Australia. Besides being summer, the Parliamentary elections were occurring. (While primaries were being fought in the U.S.) The Australians are totally irreverent when it comes to politicians and the comedy shows mocking the candidates were outrageous and fun to watch.
Australia is in a peculiar position, neither belonging to the East or the West. We were surprised that we needed a visa to go there, but Tom said that may come from a history of trying to keep Asians out of the country. And Australia still seems ambivalent about Asians. While Japanese is being taught in many schools, and the former prime minister was dedicated to building a closer relationship with Japan, the new administration may have a different point of view about the country's relations with its Asian neighbors and its place in the British Commonwealth. Everywhere we went, we saw more Japanese tourists than any others. (Our Japanese friends who have traveled there like it because of its wide-open space.) But we also witnessed some evidence of discrimination. One bus driver mentioned that they had "allowed" 40,000 more Asians into the country. We watched as a couple of young Japanese women were told there were no seats available in the restaurant where we were eating, when many tables were empty and continued to be empty throughout our meal. (We hope we misunderstood the situation.)
What a change it was to be in a country where the language is English....sort of. A Japanese tourist, with good English skills, asked me if I could understand Australian English. He said he could understand the Americans, Canadians, and English but not the Australians.
Other shocks to the system included the informality of dress and behavior and the size of people. In Japan I feel fat all the time. In Australia I felt tiny. I was not used to spontaneous conversation, people touching each other, large people, casual dress, and the general informality. I 'm certain it would have felt different, if the trip had been direct from the U.S., instead of from Japan and Hong Kong, but given my circumstances, it took some getting used to before I could relax and enjoy this easy-going country.
While in Australia, we spent 4 days in Sydney, 2 in Melbourne, then on to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock, before winding up for 3 days in Cairns and a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Sydney has a beautiful harbor, great walking, and we easily could have spent a month there without running out of things to see. The botanical gardens in Sydney, and those in Melbourne, each could take weeks to explore. We were fascinated and entranced. The nicest experience in Sydney was going to the opera "Fidelio" at the Sydney Opera House - which boasts the third best acoustics in the world. (No one could tell us which are first and second.)
Melbourne is a lovely city, but the highlight of our visit there was seeing Emma, Eiwa's Australian exchange student, who had just returned home in January. During the time we spent with her in Japan, she had become our adopted daughter and we had a developed a loving friendship that we know will last a lifetime. She is a delight and it was nice to meet her mother and thank her for lending Emma to us for a time.
Alice Springs, in the middle of the outback and home of many Aborigines, brought us mixed feelings. The aborigines have been treated in Australia, where they have been for 50,000 years, as the Native Americans have been treated in the U.S. Many live on reservations and they live primarily in land that is uninhabitable for others. (It reminded me of the "Trail of Tears" when Native Americans were forced to give up their land and move to Oklahoma.) We felt as if we were interlopers in their land. It was here that we had close encounters with drunken Aborigines, and I said to one who grabbed my hand, "This is your country." Words seem inadequate. We took no pictures. It would have been a violation. I felt sad and reflected on "man's inhumanity to man." It seems that every country has its history of horrendous behavior toward some of its people.
One of the side trips on our bus ride from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock was to a camel farm where we had a chance to ride a camel. We were surprised to learn that there are many wild camels in Australia, and that they originally came from the United States.
This was definitely a unique experience, but not all that exciting. A bit bumpy, short, and awkward getting down when the ride was over. However, the young girl who was in charge of our camel knew exactly how to control it, so it did kneel in obedience when the ride was over.
Ayers Rock (Uluru) is sacred to the Aborigines, and we had seen newspaper articles about tourists taking pieces of stone from the Rock as souvenirs, only to send them back later. About a half ton is sent back each year, because they were found to cause bad luck. We didn't push our luck by taking any, but it didn't seem right anyway. It just seemed like an invasion. I climbed the Rock, one of only a handful from our bus, because we were warned that no one with any kind of medical condition should try it. People die trying the climb, and others die later from having overextended themselves. Others fall, and you are close to the edge while climbing, with no guard rails or fences. Just this huge rock in the middle of a vast expanse of desert, more properly called a semi-arid zone. It would be impossible to have something like that in the U.S., due to people's fear of litigation.
It was worth it!! It was the highlight of the trip for me. Here I am at the top!
Particular highlights of this trip were viewing the sunrise and the sunset at Ayers Rock. We were instructed to take pictures every 10 to 15 minutes in order to appreciate the gradations in color and light and dark, something that could not be fully appreciated with the naked eye. It was awe-inspiring.
For Carolyn the best experience was probably snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. She said it was the best snorkeling she had ever done. Even though it was a cloudy day, she said the coral was more colorful and beautiful than any she had seen before. I was content to view the coral from a glass bottom boat, and discuss politics and everyday life in Singapore with a couple from Singapore, who promise to come visit us when we return to the U.S.
If we had more time we would have taken a side trip to the rainforests in the area, and we wish we would have had time to visit Tasmania, which is only a 40-minute plane ride from Melbourne. However, we felt that we had a well-balanced trip seeing much of Australia and getting a feel for the country and its people, as much as one can do during a short trip as tourists.
Tom and I have always liked Australians, as we encountered them in our travels. We thought maybe it had to do with our common heritage, coming from renegades and criminals! I was not disappointed when visiting the country. It is huge, with most people living near the water, and everyone seeming to be friendly, laid-back, unassuming, informal, and hospitable. That was borne out everywhere we traveled. However, something about the country reminded me of Oklahoma. Maybe it was the red dirt, the dust storms, the renegade attitude, the desert plants, or the terrain in general. Of course Oklahoma does not have the ocean and the cities of the Australian coast, nor the vast expanse of land. Nevertheless, when visiting the interior of the country, or interacting with the people, I was heard to murmur on numerous occasions, "This really reminds me of Oklahoma." It was the strangest feeling and one to be further explored. I don't know if that helps to give you a feel for the place, but I hope so.
A funny thing happened on returning to Japan. It felt like coming home. More and more, it is becoming clear why people choose to live here, when they had only come for a short time, initially. (Don't worry we are coming home, we are not tempted to stay here beyond the year.) It felt comfortable and right. But it was also time to began serious preparations for the PV/Eiwa reunion.
Best Wishes,
Marie
This website is a nice overview of Australia with good pictures.
