Dateline: Kyoto

This is the first time I have ever composed a travel blog entry on my cell phone. Errors and misspellings will prevail I am sure. Because I am dictating this, punctuation is also suspect but how anyone can use the tiny keyboard on these phones is beyond me so I will continue speaking and hope to clean this up before it is posted.

We are traveling with our son, Benjamin, the first time we have gone on on overseas trip with him since he was eighteen. That trip was to Australia when I was still working. Now I don't have the excuse of a convention or professional meeting to get travel assistance from the university. Fair enough. I never really attended much of those meetings anyway; they were so boring.

We arrived in Japan last week and stayed in Tokyo 5 days. The city is huge and somewhat confusing. The subway system is a bewildering maze of different colored routes. To complicate things further, there is more than one subway company, so you must buy separate tickets unless you invest in a multi-pass, an option we did not choose because our stay was so short.

We arrived in Kyoto two days ago and have found it a very different place. it is still a huge city, but with narrow streets and crowds of tourists navigating the streets is more of a challenge. This city was not bombed during World War 2. As a result the architecture seems more authentic and ancient.

Some brief observations:

1. The people are incredibly friendly and nice. Benjamin and I tower above the average citizen, and considering their pleasant demeanor they almost seem like H.G. Wells's Eloi to me!

2. We have seen few homeless and mendicants in thesec ities, quite different from Tucson or New York City.

3: The streets are incredibly clean. The the public green spaces are well maintained and inviting. We could learn so much from these people.

4. There is one vending machine for every 10 Japanese. None of them take a ¥50 coin, but they will return a 50 in change!

Boys will be boys....

Yessir, the vice president of the United States has reassured us that the vile text messages exchanged by the Young Republicans are just an example of kids doing "stupid things." I feel so much better now, but I wonder: what happens when these kids grow up?

Worm Your Way Out of This One

Can there be any doubt at this late date that the lunatics are in charge of the asylum? What national sin did we all commit to deserve these clowns? President Lincoln made the observation on more than one occasion that the Civil War was our collective price for the institution of slavery, but at least there was an end in sight back then. Now idiots like these are leading us all into a new Dark Ages, where superstition supplants science, and ignorance is celebrated while education is scorned. Recovery from this descent into darkness is most defintely NOT in sight.

Stranger in a Strange Land

I make this final trip entry from the comfort of our own living room, which we reached after a marathon 36 hour journey from an airport hotel in Dublin, a flight to Chicago, another flight to Phoenix, a motor coach ride down to Tucson, and a final drive in our own car the last two miles to our driveway. Jayne managed to sleep a bit on the plane, but I was unable to take advantage of the reclining seat and doze off myself. It was exhausting, but we made every connection without a hitch.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Killkenny. The first night we went to a bar just about 100 feetfrom this hotel and heard a delightful trio of musicians playing traditional Irish music that was beautiful and emotionally moving. It required that we stay up later than usual, but the tunes were so lively that it did not seem a hardship. The next day we toured the large castle that dominates the little town, and we explored a few other sights such as an ancient church with a giant watchtower. That evening we wanted to go out and hear more music, but we got sidetracked by visiting the Hole in the Wall, a delightful miniature pub with room for only six patrons and a bartender. The place was built in 1327 and it both looked and smelled it, but we had a delightful time talking with the Israeli bartender, an African born woman of Welsh descent, a German woman who had lived in Ireland for 17 years, and two ordinary Irishmen who wandered in during our stay. The conversation was pleasant and we really liked getting to meet more locals on this trip. The next day we took the train back to Dublin which was a brief hour and a half of sitting and watching the countryside roll by. Once we gained the city, we took a coach to the airport, and then a cab to our hotel, staying there until time to go to the airport the following morning. It is all a blur at this late date.

We have returned to a country and a society that I find hard to recognize. A vague uneasiness has taken hold as I have driven around the town the last few days, a feeling that over half the people I see I have nothing in common with. We have been avoiding the news, but of course you cannot escape at least a few blurbs leaking out from a cycle of 24 hour coverage of the Orange Lunatic and his antics. A brief ray of sunshine has appeared in the rejection of one of the wannabe dictator's most ardent admirers, Kari "Okie" Lake in her bid for the US senate seat for Arizona. A fanatical election-denier, Lake finds it difficult to question this cycle's results because her Orange god-king actually won in this state while she lost. A fitting end to a career of deciet. All the same, I feel like a stranger in a strange land now, and that will be a sensation hard to shake for the next turbulent four years.

In the Interior

We have left Dublin and taken a comfortable train ride to the center of southern Ireland, the small city of Killkenny. Our last day in Dublin was spent at the National Museum of Archaeology and the Botanical Gardens. Both were impressive. At the gardens we saw, in addition to the magnificently manicured lawns and hedges, two massive greenhouses which seemed to contain an impossible selection of plants from all over the world. In the largest of these greenhouses the palm trees grew at least three storeys tall and threatened to press against the glass even higher overhead. There was also a large cactus room with many specimens from South America, including a couple that looked very much like saguaros. The grounds outside also had a replica Viking hut that looked particularly comfortable in spite of the loosely woven branches that made up the walls. Adjacent to the gardens was the extensive Glasnevin Cemetery, which is kind of a who's who of Irish dead. We saw one tombstone, or more accurately a cenotaph, erected to the memory of family members who had died in Butte, Montana!

Our next stop at the Museum of Archaeology had a lot to do with death as well. Exibits of artifacts recovered in Ireland from the stone age to the 1500s were arranged in chronological order. Of particular interest were a set of bog "mummies" of ancient people who were preserved through the nature of the soil in which they were found. It has been speculated that some were victims of ritual sacrifice. What struck me was the fact that these remains, who were once real, breathing people, are preserved and displayed for we of the present age, without the slightest hesitation. Compare that to the controversy in our own country regarding the display of ancient Indian remains.

This morning we took the train from Dublin to Killkenny, a pleasant ride of one and a half hours that allowed us to see some of this incredible green landscape. Sheep and cow paddocks, small homes, and overcast skies all went wizzing by as we relaxed and took it all in. We are now in another comfortable hotel room and tomorrow we will tour yet ANOTHER CASTLE!

You Say You Want a Revolution

The lyrics of the Beatles song from the White Album are drifting through my head this morning as I find a quiet place to write during the pre-dawn hours in the lobby of this comfortable hotel. It will all make sense near the end of this posting.

For the last two days we have been exploring Dublin and have seen quite a few interesting things. I wish evey destroying Vandal who currently masquerades as a librarian could be required to visit the Book of Kells at Trinity College. The sight of that magnificent manuscript and the beauty of the library's Long Hall might cause even the most dedicated book shredder to pause a moment. For those who do not know, the Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript copy of the four gospels. The intricate lettering and detailed drawings contained therein give ample support to the claim that it is the most beautiful book ever created. It is kept in a special dark room with an entrance gallery that gives a thorough overview of how monks in the ninth century worked tirelessly to both make and defend this ancient Bible. On the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland they worked on every individual page, and when Viking raiders came they grabbed their treasure and slipped

across the Irish Sea to found a new monestary at Kells, Ireland. So many raids, thefts, and other catastrophes occured but the book miraculously survived. After viewing the book, visitors are directed to the Long Hall, a massive two story set of dark wood shelving lined with bust sculptures of the great thinkers and philosophers of Western Civilization. Most of the books have been removed for conservation work (no, Biblioposers, they are not going to scan them and chuck them in the bin as you have been so recently engaged in doing with our American printed legacy) but two shelving bays have been left filled to give the visitor an idea of what it would look like fully shelved. Interesting items were also on display, including the oldest harp existing today, personal letters and photographs of Oscar Wilde, and a printed copy of the 1916 Easter Rebellion proclamation declaring Ireland an independent country. Upon exiting the Long Hall, visitors are directed to another building with mind-boggling multi-media displays describing thr Book of Kells history and the ongoing conservation work ofn the precious volumes removed from the long hall. One display featured replicas of the marble busts of Shakepeare, Socrates, and others come to life and debating philosophical issues. Their lips moved and their eyes blinked!

Our next visit was just as thought provoking and a bit unsettling. In 1916 Irish people were divided on the topic of separation from England, much like our own forefathers of the American Revoluion. The most radical separatists armed themselves and decided to ignite a war, even though they were in the minority. On Easter Sunday, 1916, these radicals attacked British forces throughout Dublin and set up their headquarters in the main post office. They held out there for days until the English army took them prisoner. Six of these men were later executed, and their deaths led to an evental shift in public opinion, culminating in eventual independece for Ireland. Today the GPO in Dublin hosts a museum that presents another fantastic milti-media display telling the story of the rebellion and its human cost, such as the many civilians who died when caught in the crossfire. The whole experience disturbed me. The thought of a radical minority commiting an armed insurrection that eventally swayed others to join them reninded me not of Lexington and Concord, but instead the goons who attacked our capital on January 6. Apparently the act resulted in a shift in public opinion, resulting in the reelection of the petty little orange lunatic in our last election. God help us.

In Dublin's Fair City

The balance of our time in Stirling was enjoyable. We toured the impressive castle late in the afternoon, spending the morning checking out the very unimpressive (from Jayne's perspective) thrift stores in their small downtown. There was a small open air market in the pedestrian zone and we foolishly bought two delicious looking sausage rolls without considering the difficulties in heating them later. The castle actually closed during our visit and it was dark when we made our way downtown only to find every restaurant packed to the walls with no tables available. I did encounter two living history interpreters (now in civilian clothes) who we had engaged at the castle. They had been demonstrating a card game and I told them about my experiences as a faro dealer for the museum folks back home.

The next morning we drove back to the Edinburgh airort where we thankfully divested ourselves of the albatross that was our rental car. A huge sigh of relief and the a multi hour wait for our plane to Dublin. Itwas the first propeller-driven aircraft I have been on in decades. Our hotel in Dublin has turned out to be kind of like the one in Fawlty Towers, without the comedy, and is in a beautiful Edwardian brownstone in a nice residential area about two miles from the city center. Yesterday, our first full day here, we took a brief walking tour and went to Trinity College where we saw the Book of Kells. The experince of the latter deserves more detailed description which I will provide next time.