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Kyushu is the best roadtrip, a dramatic wide open low-density country with colours and cragginess reminiscent of the US. We took the train past the Mazda factory to Fukuoka and drove through Beppu, with its steaming hillside sulphuric aquifers, pausing in the charming Diagon Alley-like gourmand town of Yafuin and the narrow and expensive ryokan-strewn cobblestones of Kurakawa Onsen;
Kyoto dawned bright and sunny; we’d been here once over 15 years ago and were less than impressed by the kitsch of Gion, the hilly shrines, the pink and green kaiseki goo and hard sweets. You wouldn’t think that coming back here with children would change that but the experience was entirely charming.
It has been almost 5 years since the girls made their way into our lives, and I was reminded today how in the early days of Covid, our outings were very local. This shop was a favourite, which is why I think the pakciks are still entirely indulgent of their messy antics.
A pleasure to visit with dentist-turned-bladesmith Sinan Tansel, who started #kropknives to blend his love and appreciation for music and the culinary arts. He showed us his collection of Damascus, outdoor and kitchen chef knives which use recycled, sustainable materials. He also showed us his wonderful hand-made, dual-toned patterned knife blades, made by acid staining on steel.
A long and educational tour through the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Basilica Cisterns, Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar and Spice Market. We started out at 7.30am and walked 22,000 steps in 8 hours! What a rich and haunting history, so full of clashes and disappointment of human civilizations.
A long and delicious food tour with Culinary Backstreets: Istanbul Eats exploring breakfast simit (ubiquitous baked sesame pretzel bread), peyniri (string cheese), kunefe (fried shredded wheat and cheese soaked in syrup), pide, pickles, pistachio ice cream and baklava.
Sweet Suzhou Saturday roadtrip, with traditional tanghulu and a cultural performance of this Song Dynasty poem by Li Qingzhao, ancient China’s most famous female poet, that went completely over their heads.
Today was such a fulfilling use of a birthday and day of leave. I envy anyone who has the opportunity and aptitude for languages and it has long been a dream of mine to enable earlier immersion study for bilingualism. It mirrors my own language journey, which I regret has ebbed and flowed with my environment and creative quality of teaching; and missed opportunities to spend more time living in China improving my Chinese and indeed, in HK improving my Cantonese.
The spectacle that is a US Christmas light-up, I wonder how the average 100amp house panel can support these incredibly effusive displays. The San Carlos Christmas street, Cambria Christmas market and cycling the 17-mile drive along the Pacific Coastal Highway. This is the first year we can all cycle together! We also passed the Vandenburg Space Military camp while they were launching Space-X rockets, which was Pezzy’s main interest.
Miami sound machine + Cuba Libre
Miami Beach is an odd promontory of drunk tourists and sunbathers baking like red clams, lots of construction and atmospheric sights honouring Latin American singers like Gloria Estefan and Celia Cruz, who popularized Guantanamera (literally, girl from Guantanamo) and Azucar (sugar)! Lots of rumba, jazz, cigars and murals in search of the best empanada and cubano (disappointing, probably permenantly ruined by Chef). It’s sobering how near and far the hop across the Bay of Pigs is to a different world of deprivation, comparison and old-school Havana.