Hong Kong Pride Parade Day 2020

At the most recent Pride Parade that was allowed to 

take place on the streets of Hong Kong

 

A message and sentiment that still resonates in 2020

 

Some color and whimsy are also pretty much always welcomed :)

 

For the second straight year, there will be no Pride Parade on the streets of Hong Kong.  Instead, 2019 saw a static pride rally in Central after the Hong Kong police banned the annual march over safety concerns (hmmm...) while 2020 has seen the pride parade go online after the Hong Kong police again refused to provide a letter of no objection for the event -- citing Wuhan coronavirus pandemic fears this time around.   

With things going the way they are doing in Hong Kong (with pretty much every planned march getting banned; the latest being what would have been a journalists' march to highlight the suppression of the media and issues such as the arrest of the Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) producer Bao Choy Yuk-ling), I'm thinking the odds are pretty low that there'll be a Pride Parade in 2021.  Too bad since the 2018 Pride Parade had been such a wonderfully joyous as well as rainbow colored affair which brought together gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transexuals, couples, singles, parents, children and so forth -- all united in calling for equality for all under the law.

 

More than incidentally, heterosexual people are welcome to participate in the Pride Parade.  Just as men can be feminists, heterosexuals can be allies and friends of LGBT folks, after all.  And while 2018 saw me participating for the first time in a Pride Parade in Hong Kong, it was not the first Pride Parade I took part in -- with my maiden participatory foray having taken place decades ago when I was living in Philadelphia.  

The reason for my deciding to go march came out of an incident in a classroom at the university that I was attending in Philadelphia.  It involved the professor being casually making disgustingly homophobic remarks of the kind that just would not have been accepted in the much more liberal liberal arts college that I was an undergraduate student at.  

 

Going from a college where I had so many lesbian, gay and bisexual friends that I sometimes joked about being moved to wonder who at the college was actually heterosexual to one which was noticeably more conservative, socially and politically, had been quite a shock to the system.  Even so, I honestly hadn't realized -- and thus was pretty shaken -- that homophobia was so tolerated, probably even condoned, in that particular place and institution of higher learning.  (And the fact that the homophobic professor was an anthropologist really did make things seem so much worse in my eyes!)

 

So caught off guard was I by the homophobic remark that I actually hadn't issued any protest in the classroom.  So when I heard of a Pride Parade taking place on campus a few weeks later, I figured taking part in it would be a good way to make amends for my silence in the classroom that day.  Thus it was that I came to take part in my first protest march ever -- but by no means my last; with Hong Kong being the part of the world where I've taken part in so many protest marches over the years.  

A reminder re why Hong Kong is such a city of protest: it has never been fully or really democratic.  In lieu of voting for what was always a rigged Legislative Council (which recent events have now made into a rubber stamp legislature), people have often sought to make the voices heard on the streets.  But while the authorities are doing their utmost to deny people even that, they have not succeeded in silencing us yet.  

 

Instead, people find alternative venues to voice their concerns and demands such as  Apple Daily ads, online (like with this year's Hong Kong Pride Parade participants) and even pop concerts like the Tat Ming Pair's last night!  As one of the chants I've heard at Pride Parades go:  "We are loud; we are proud; get used to it!" (And should it not be apparent: no, we are not dead yet!)

A rejuvenating spring hike in Aberdeen Country Park filled with scenic views and critter spottings (Photo-essay)

If I were to go by the weather alone, this is a good time to be in Hong Kong.  To be sure, the temperatures have gone up a bit in recent days but the humidity levels still aren't all that high -- so one is not sweating buckets when out hiking.  With a fourth consecutive day of no new reported Wuhan coronavirus cases (and for the sixth time in ten days now), there also are far worse places -- like, say, the USA or UK -- in the world to be in terms of the global pandemic situation.

Sadly though, the political situation in Hong Kong looks to be getting worse by the day.  And it really says so much that not only did yesterday mark the one year anniversary of an anti-China extradition bill protest that I attended but that, in contrast to what happened on April 28th, 2019, the police saw fit to break up a small, peaceful protest in a luxury shopping mall in Central last night.  

In all honesty, there have been so many days and nights in the past year when my heart threatened to break and I got to feeling for a time that there's no hope left for Hong Kong.  And then things happen to get me hopeful again.  Or I just go out into the peaceful and beauty Hong Kong countryside to temporarily get away from it all; and return feeling far more rejuvenated than I would have thought possible, and convinced that Hong Kong really can be a lovely place to live...

Minutes after beginning yet another hike in Aberdeen 

Country Park, I spotted this colorful emerald dove

 

With the sun beating down strongly, I was glad to be

under foliage for a good part of the hike

 

But of course I also welcomed those sections of the trail

where I was treated to unblocked scenic vistas :)

 

On trails like this, I can't help but stop to admire the views that show 

how close to the country parks the city can be (and vice versa!)

 

 Click on the above image to really appreciate

this panoramic view from Bennet's Hill :)

 

I know it's a bee but how can one be scared of it

when it looks so cartoon-like?! :D

 

A pair of white rumped munia which showed soon after

I took this photo that they can fly really fast!

 

The sight of squirrels often get me thinking of my alma mater,

whose campus was on the green side :)

10 highlights of my 2018 year

An image that brings back fond memories 

of my favorite hike of 2018

Puppet Ponyo posing in front of a temple in

my favorite town or city visited this past year

The proverbial "they" say that time flies when you're having fun.  If so, I must have had a lot of fun in 2018 -- and in the similarly fast passing first month of 2019!  So it really would be a crime to not note down 10 highlights of the past year for the record to add to my previous posts for 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006 (the last of which was the year that I began this now over 12 year old blog) -- and preferably before the second month of 2019 comes long!  So, without further ado...

Best book: It's been decades since I last set foot at my beloved undergraduate college but, as a recent blog entry shows, I still find myself fondly recalling my experiences there from time to time.  Perhaps for this reason, I still enjoy reading stories that take place, even if only partly, in college settings.  So when I saw a copy of J. Courtney Sullivan's Commencement for sale at the local Salvation Army thrift store for HK$25 (~US$3.18), I bought it despite being unfamiliar with the author or book title.  Post reading this 2009 novel, I now realize what a bargain I got -- since this gem of a book is one that I can easily foresee myself re-reading again more than once in the future! :)    

Best concert: I went to a number of classical music concerts in 2018 that I thoroughly enjoyed, including yet another Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra concert which had my favorite classical musician, Ning Feng, as the featured artiste, and a Hong Kong Sinfonietta concert with a movie-themed program.  However, none of them got me beaming from ear to ear all evening that the Hong Kong leg of Charamel's Splash Tour did!  There's no two ways about it: my favorite pear fairy and its band really rock, and are super entertaining and fun to watch as well as listen to! :)   

Best decorated building (complex): I visited many buildings in 2018 whose decorated interiors as well as exteriors had me gasping at their sheer beauty, and filled with awe at the mastery of the artists and artesans whose creations remain amazing centuries after they were made.  This was particularly the case in Spain, a country whose past glories have left it with a number of really incredible works of art, including architecture.  In Segovia, I was so busy admiring the buildings seemingly everywhere around me that I literally fell down in the street.  In Sevilla, I was bowled over by Christian cathedrals along with Mudéjar artistry.  But it was Granada's Alhambra, particularly its Palacios Nazaries, which I found truly heavenly -- and I count myself very blessed to have been able to see its beauty up close and with my own eyes.   

Best exhibition: After visiting in Hiroshima in October 2017 and discovering that the area's oyster season hadn't begun yet, I vowed to return there soon to feast on fresh and raw Hiroshima oysters.  Upon doing so early last year, I not only was able to do that but I also got to check out a special exhibition of works by the great ukiyo-e artist, Hiroshige, at the Hiroshima Museum of Art which ran there for less than two months.  Although the art history classes that I took at college in Wisconsin focused by and large on Western art, this former art history and anthropology double major (and museum studies minor) still is able to appreciate masterworks from the Land of the Rising Sun which may use different aesthetics but depict scenes that I increasingly find familiar rather than super foreign, and feel an emotional as well as intellectual connection to.

Best hike: For a number of reasons, I didn't hike as much in 2018 as in previous years.  At the same time though, I was able to get in a number of hikes outside as well as in Hong Kong -- sometimes on my own but also often in the company of friends; with my favorite being a hike in southwest Lantau on the third day of Chinese New Year in the company of two good buddies who I've done a lot of hiking with over the years and are always fun to be around both on a trail and off it.  On that particular excursion, we got to see lots of great views (and Chinese New Year flowers) and also get to talking about a wide range of subjects -- the kind of ingredients enjoyed by people who go for the kind of "non-competitive hiking" that we all like to do! ;b 

Best meal: The category with the most candidates by far; something which should come as no surprise considering how much of a foodie I am and that the territories I visited in 2018 include Japan, Penang, Spain and Jeju!  This past year, I also dined at a couple of three Michelin-starred restaurants (8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo and Lung King Heen) here in Hong Kong.  The more I think about it though, the more I return to my most recent meal at zero Michelin star Godenya -- which I actually am a bit shocked to realize that I didn't blog about.  Many months later, I still can almost taste the incredible kabogani (female snow crab) risotto, the inspired combination of sweet potto, beets and century egg, the rich-tasting abalone and shirako combo dish, and the amazingly delicious pistachio and sake dessert -- and their memory is getting me thinking that another visit to that sake-food pairing specialist is overdue! 

Best museum: Last year, I achieved a dream I've long had of visiting Spain's Museo Nacional del Prado.  But as it turned out, my favorite of the museums I visited in 2018 actually was another Madrid museum: the, to my mind, better designed and curated Museo Arqueológico Nacional which came across as well as innovative as well as interesting and informative, filled with lots of impressive artefacts and also possibly the best multimedia displays that I've ever seen in a museological institution ever!

Best sunrise: Being far more of a night owl than early bird by inclination, it's extremely rare for me be awake at sunrise, never mind wake up to hike up to a high vantage point from which to watch the sun rise.  Thank goodness that the views from the top of Jeju's Seongsan Ilchulbong were absolutely worth it -- and the sunrise I viewed there may well be the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen, never mind for the year 2018, which is saying something since the previous year, I had seen the sunrise from atop Indonesia's Borobudur!  

Best tour: If I could only choose one alcoholic beverage to drink, it'd be sake (yes, rather than beer!).  And if I could only drink one brand of sake, the Asahi Shuzo Company's Dassai sake would be it.  With this in mind, I hope you can get a sense of how much of a thrill it was for me to be accorded a personalized tour of the Asahi Shuzo Company's brewery: one which included visits to a rice milling factory and various rooms in the main building including one where the koji was being sprinkled onto the rice along with my third meeting with company president Kazuhiro Sakurai (and the first in his home country) and complimentary glasses of the three sakes at the top of the Dassai range.  In addition, so amazing was the hospitality that I will feel forever in the Sakurai-san's debt -- one which I guess I can only repay by making sure to imbibe a lot of Dassai sake in the years to come! 

Best town/city visited: There are many towns and cities in Japan, my favorite country to visit, that I've been charmed by over the years -- places where I've seen beautiful sights, tasted good food and had great encounters with local folks.  Nonetheless, Takayama, which I visited for the first time this past year -- and certainly want to return for another visit at some point -- really did feel especially wonderful.  In just a few days there, I got to see a seriously gorgeous sunset, had daily encounters with super friendly people, enjoyed a lot of good food and loved the sights found in its streets so much that I spent many hours doing nothing more than strolling around the town that I would go so far as to say that I fell in love with... :)           

Memories of riding (pillion) on a motorbike in Malaysia, Zanzibar, and Beloit

Car and motorbike show in Central this past Sunday

Biker types hanging out near their dream machines

My choice for the most beautiful vehicle at the show ;b

After having my second dim sum lunch in two days last Sunday, I decided to go for a stroll that took me from Sheung Wan (where the eatery I had been at with my friend is located) to Central and beyond.  Near the IFC (International Finance Centre), I came across a car and motorbike show featuring some pretty eye-catching vehicles, including a number of big bikes along with sports cars and antique automobiles. 

I get the feeling that most of the people present were particularly impressed by certain of the cars (including Lotuses, Ferraris, Maseratis, Porsches and such) on show.  By my reckoning though, the most aesthetically pleasing machines on display were the large motorbikes -- all of them Harley Davidsons that were so shiny and well looked-after that I have to admit to wondering if they spend much time being ridden on actual roads!

Although I am a big advocate of public transportation (and have voluntarily gone through all but two years of my life -- when I lived in Kuala Lumpur, whose public transportation system leaves a lot to be desired -- without owning any motorized vehicles), it's also true enough that I have fond memories of riding (pillion) on a motorbike.  Of these, the earliest involved going on joy rides on the backseat of a bike belonging to a then 20-something-year-old aunt who regularly rode around town on a machine that may seem pedestrian in type and light on power but still seemed cooler to my preteen mind than those of her siblings who drove about in cars instead!

Then, when I lived in Zanzibar, I had a motorcycle-riding Italian doctor friend known to all and sundry as Dr Mario with whom I shared a common love for the beers produced by Malawi's Carlsberg brewery.  Whenever he managed to get a few bottles of their brew, he'd send word to me to drop by his clinic after work and after his own work day ended, I'd get on the back of his motorbike and he'd take me back to his place to enjoy a few beers and a feast that invariably included items -- such as salami and other preserved meats -- from care packages that his mother would send him from Italy along with fresh bread from a local bakery! 

Later in the evening (yes, after he and I had imbibed quite a bit of alcohol), he'd take me back into town.  I think in part because traffic tended to be on the light side and in part because I had got quite a bit of Dutch courage, I never feared that we'd come a cropper on those late night motorbike rides.  Instead, I thoroughly enjoyed the rides back into town as much as the rides to his place, the brewskis, the food, and viewing one of the only two video tapes he owned: the more frequently watched of  which was The Beatles' Yellow Submarine; the other of which was a documentary about giant whales!    

Probably my best memories involving riding on (the back of) a motorcycle though are those involving a beloved college professor and his beloved motorbike.  Although Dan Shea was born, went to school, taught and lived pretty much all his life in the state where the Harley-Davidson Motor Company was founded, his choice of vehicle was a British Norton bike that, after we had become friends, he'd take me on joy rides along beautifully long and lonely Wisconsin roads that went through farm land on which cows roamed or wheat grew in abundance.

I remember once telling Dan he should take prospective students on these bike roads as I figured it'd get them deciding they'd want to attend Beloit for sure, whereupon he laughed and pointed out that if he had an accident while doing so, he'd have the pants sued off him!  Since I wasn't thinking at all like a college administrator, I replied that I figured that it'd be worth the risk -- because, in all honesty, I think the experience showed how, at Beloit, professors and students didn't just interact in classrooms and actually could become friends who could have fun times (as well as seriously educational ones) together!

On June 19th, 2012, Dan Shea died of accidental causes while in Chile conducting archaeology field school.  A friend who's a fellow Beloit alum and friend plus fan of Dan broke the news to me a few days later.  I think I was so shocked by it and in denial that he was no longer of this Earth for so long that I couldn't write about his passing until now.  At the same time as I still feel sadness about his passing, I have got to realizing how many good and fond memories I have of the man that remain unsullied by his death and also still very strong, and how such as the sight of a beautiful motorbike parked in a central part of Hong Kong can get me thinking of him.         

Golden hour views from a Seongsan hotel rooftop

Another day in Seongsan, another beautiful sunset/golden hour :)

 

The kind of image that looks Photoshopped but wasn't!

 

View from my hotel rooftop of Seongsan town and Seongsan Ilchulbong

 

When I checked into the Seongsan branch of the Co-op City Hotel, I was told that our rooms had been upgraded so that we'd get a nicer view.  At the same time, the receptionist neglected to tell me that the hotel had a rooftop area which was accessible to guests and had all round views of the area.  (In addition, in the warmer months, there are jacuzzis up there that hotel guests can rent by the hour -- how cool is that?!)

 

Fortunately, I found that out on my own -- after spying a couple of people up on the hotel rooftop on the way back to the hotel from hiking up and down Seongsan Ilchulbong -- and in time to take in some splendid golden hour views the day after I had been treated to wonderful sunset and twilight views from both my hotel room balcony and the edge of the lake in front of the hotel!

 

Back when I was a Beloit College student, I was privy on many occasions to beautiful sunset views in that old Wisconsin town that were ascribed to the industrial pollution emanating from such as the Frito-Lay factory across the river from the college (whose Cheetos production also was said to be responsible for what was nicknamed "the Cheese Breeze"!).  And I must admit to thinking that air pollution played a part in creating some of the beautiful sunsets I've seen over the years in other parts of the world (including Hong Kong).

 

At the same time though, it's not escaped my attention that some other places where I've witnessed beautiful sunsets (and associated twilight and golden hours) aren't exactly known for having air pollution.  These include two of the places that I've been treated to fabulous sunset displays this year: Takayama, Japan; and Jeju, South Korea. 

In the case of Seongsan, I find it further interesting that a place which is famed for its sunrises (with it really being quite the thing to view them from atop Seongsan Ilchulbong) also can have pretty gorgeous sunsets; and this especially when they seem to have gone unmentioned for the most part -- unlike the sunrises and the indisputably photogenic sunsets that are very much part of the tourist draw over in the Land of the Rising Sun's Matsue! ;b  

Positively reacting to snowy sights in Spain this past May!

Snow on the mountains visible from Madrid's Palacio Real!

 

 Lots of snow visible too on the Sierra Nevada range when viewed 

from atop the Alcazaba's main tower at Granada's Alhambra

 

Still more snow visible on the peaks of mountains -- 

this time from a viewpoint by Segovia's Roman Aqueduct 

 

Growing up, as I did, as a small child in a country situated very close to the Equator, the closest thing to snow that I saw or touched in real life was the frost in the freezer section of the refrigerator.  Little did I know then that there would come a time in my life when I would see snow so regularly and in such great quantities that I would get sick and tired of seeing that cold white stuff and decide that if I never ever saw snow again, that would be fine by me.   For as it turned out, I ended up spending four years attending college in a part of the US known to many as "the Siberia of America", where winter comes with the Halloween Ghost and leaves with the Easter Bunny!  

 

The first winter that I was in Wisconsin, I was happy and excited when the first snow fell.  But it kept on snowing and snowing and snowing for a number of months.  And long before spring finally came along, I not only got fed up of seeing so much the cold, white stuff on the ground and roofs of buildings and such but also being asked whether I was happy and/or excited at the sight of the snow.  (With regards to the latter: I took to responding in a world-weary tone: "No, because I'm an Eskimo"; which apparently was so convincing that it prompted many of the questioners to apologize for having mistaken me for, well, someone from warmer climes who wasn't used to seeing snow!)

After garduating from Beloit and moving to Philadelphia, I continued to see snow regularly each winter.  And while there was far less of it in that part of the country, the authorities seemed to be far less able to deal with it -- with the result that roads were often more hazardous in winter and the snow often didn't get cleared for days and, consequently, often turned gray with dirt or yellow as a result of many a dog in the neighborhood getting walked out to pee on it!

So it suited me perfectly fine that for some 11 years after I left Philadelphia, snow was confined once again to paintings and the silver or small screen.  But on a visit to Shirakawa-go in May 2014, I caught sight of white-capped mountains and one year later, found myself unexpectedly walking once again on the wet, white stuff on a visit to Norway in June 2015.  Since then, I also have had snow fall on me while on transit at Munich airport one January evening in 2016, got to gaze at a beautifully snow-topped Mount Fuji in the fall of that year and trudged through quite a bit of snow in Hikone this past January! 

 

In Spain this past May, I found myself viewing snow-capped mountains on a number of occasions, one of which happened to be the Old World's Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Rather than be alarmed or annoyed by those snowy sights, I found them to be pleasingly picturesque.  Consequently, I've now amended my "not ever wanting to see snow again" stance to one where I do think it rather pleasant to catch sight of the white stuff every once in a while, albeit from a distance, and without having to set foot on it and feel the icy cold temperatures that are required for it to stay for a time on the ground. ;b

First blog post after my first trip to Spain!

The kind of scenery that's par for the course 

when travelling from one part of Spain to another

 

Bucolic scene seen from a bus window

 

A government building in Madrid

 

I returned to Hong Kong yesterday afternoon from a trip that took me back to Europe for the first time since early 2016 (which saw me spending the New Year that year as well as Christmas 2015 in the Netherlands).  Like on that previous vacation, I changed planes on both my way from and back to Hong Kong in German airports.  So, thanks to the Schengen set up, the first two stamps on the new passport I got a couple of months ago bear German imprints even though I actually was visiting Spain this time around rather than Deutschland!

 

Although I had never set foot in Spain before this trip, I already was familiar with a number of Spanish words (including the important gracias (thank you) and cerveza, por favor (beer, please)!) and, also, as befits the country having been a major cultural as well as political power in centuries past, was familiar with the names and works of personalities such as Miguel de Cervantes, Diego Velazquez and Francisco Goya.  Actually, at my undergraduate college, I not only learnt to appreciate the works of a number of Spanish master painters in art history classes but I actually also had taken a couple of Spanish language courses!

 

In view of my love of art and museums, and preference for pre-20th century art rather than the more modern stuff, Madrid, with its Prado, most definitely was on my list of places in Spain that I considered a "must visit".  After discussions and negotiations with my German friend (who I've travelled with to Indonesia, the Netherlands and Luxembourg with as well as hung out with in Germany, Malaysia and Hong Kong), we also agreed to spend time in the Andalusian cities of Cordoba (whose Mezquita we wanted to check out), Sevilla (which a Spanish colleague of hers had highly recommended visiting) and Granada (whose Alhambra may well be the single most famous historic site in the country).

 

In addition, I ended up going by myself on day trips to the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo at El Escorial and Segovia, which the blogger behind the great Paul's Travel Pics had named as his favorite Spanish town.  In the process, I ended up visiting five of Spain's 40 UNESCO World Heritage-listed sites in the little more than a fortnight that I spent in that cultural heritage-rich country (as well as taking four long journey train rides and another four bus rides that took me from Madrid to places not that far away geographically, yet often felt like different worlds)!

 

All in all, I managed to see quite a bit more of Spain than I thought I would be able to do on this one trip there.  And despite fears (mainly, if truth be told, on the part of my German friend) that all seats would be booked up way in advance on the transport that we wanted to take, we not only managed to make the reservations we wanted and I actually was able to buy bus tickets on the day of my travels.  In addition, thanks in part to tips doled out in Rick Steves' trusty Spain guidebook, we were able to beat the crowds for the most part -- though it's also true that the terrible throngs we encountered in Cordoba played a big part in my ending up deciding to forego visiting Toledo (despite my passion for El Greco) for fear that that ancient city would be the most packed with tourists of all.  

 

On a food note: Spanish food is one of those cuisines I found myself happy to eat day in, day out for more than two weeks -- and yes, I did go ahead and order Spanish jamon (Serrano, Iberico and even Iberico de Bellota) on several occasions!  Even larger than my jamon consumption was my consumption of Spanish beer.  And yes, I admit it: I do count it as one the highlights of the trip that draft beer is available so readily and cheaply in that part of the world! ;b

Hiking with two good friends in southwest Lantau on the third day of the lunar new year of the dog :)

Out on the hiking trail with couple of friends in Southwest Lantau

 

Not the edge of the world, though it sometimes looked like it! ;)

 

A veritable Chinese New Year flower bonanza this afternoon!

 

After resting for a day (during which I went and watched A Beautiful Moment at the cinema), I got back to hiking ways on the third day of the lunar new year of the dog.  And even though we're just into February, I already have an early candidate for hike of the year in the form of the one I went on earlier today!    

 

Ever since I came across Man Cheung Po and Lung Tsai Ng Yuen (along with a "flying dragon") back on February 12th, 2012 while going along Sections 5 and 6 of the Lantau Trail, I've wanted to go back there and spend more time there as those sections of Lantau Island really did seem to be very pleasant sections of Hong Kong.  And a little more than a year ago, I did return to that part of Hong Kong's largest island by way of the Keung Shan Country Trail that allowed me to avoid having to go up (and down) the many hills of Section 5 of the Lantau Trail.  

 

As it turned out though, I ended up not lingering in the area as much as I had wanted to because the conditions I encountered there were far more misty than I had hoped would be the case.  But thanks to that hike on the second day of Chinese New Year last year, I now knew of an easier way to get to that area: one that seemed very much following again -- as was the case this afternoon!

 

This time around, the weather gods were also cooperative: in that, while it rained a bit in places in Hong Kong in the morning, it was dry where my two friends and I ventured this afternoon, far from misty and even sunny at times, with bright blue skies peeking out from the clouds every once in a while.  And at various parts of our excursion, scenic, even downright spectacular views revealed themselves; with today's visual highlights for me including the spotting of clumps of pretty pink Chinese New Year flowers and a point during the hike when one looked out at a sea so similar in shade and color to the sky that it was hard to see where one ended and the already began!

 

At times even more enjoyable than the beautiful scenery around us, and as far as the eye could see, was the company of my two hiking buddies: one of whom used to be my regular hike companion until she returned to Canada a few years back and is currently back in Hong Kong to celebrate Chinese New Year; the other of whom is the erstwhile regular hiking buddy who coined the phrase "non-competitive hiking" to describe our preferred hiking style.  Here's the thing: I really like that we never obliged to hurry to make particular times and, instead, just walked along at a pace all three of us were comfortable with -- and did quite a bit of shooting the breeze while we were tramping along too!

 

Back when I was at secondary school in Penang, I used to regularly walk up and down the school field during recess while chatting with a friend (or was it vice versa?).  I also made it a habit while attending college at Beloit of spending quality time talking with friends while strolling up and down the campus.  And I have enjoyed my share of conversation-filled long walks with friends when I lived in Philadelphia too. 

 

In Hong Kong, I do quite a bit of chatting with friends over meals and in bars but I also still very much enjoy chatting with friends while doing a bit of walking, or hiking as the case may be.  And as it so happens, the conversations today contributed quite a bit to making this afternoon's hike as fun as it was -- and, to my mind, helped further cement the friendship between the theree of us who went out hiking in Southwest Lantau together today. :)

Snow in Japan!

Snow falling while I waited for my train to arrive at 

Hiroshima Station on the second day of my recent Japan trip

 

I found the snow to be really pelting down and 

settling on the ground the day that I went over to Hikone!

 

 Not a scene I expected nor wanted to see on a Japan visit!

 

For the first twelve years of my life, I only ever saw snow in picture books, on TV or in movies.  On a visit to England a few months after my thirteenth birthday though, I saw snow for the first time and was pretty ecstatic to have had this then exotic -- to me! -- experience.  

 

After I moved to England to attend boarding school though, snow became less of a thrill and more of a bother, especially after it melted and then re-formed into super slippery ice.  And the four years I spent at college in Wisconsin (aka the Siberia of America) definitely made me like the cold white stuff even less, with the subsequent years I spent in Philadelphia -- during which the city would regularly run out of salt for the roads in winter -- making it so that by the time I left the USA on July 4th, 2003, for far warmer climes, it would have been perfectly fine by me if I never ever saw snow again!

 

Since then, I've actually been pretty successful in avoiding seeing snow for the most part.  Indeed, it wasn't until 2015, on a May visit to Norway, that I came across -- and even tramped on -- the cold white stuff again!  And after a brief encounter with falling snow while on transit at Munich airport later that same year, I had not had more encounters with that which can be so pretty to look at but not all that great to be in until my trip to Japan last month!

 

I won't lie: the first time I saw snow falling in Japan (upon coming out from Hiroshima's Okonomimura. where I had just enjoyed a delicious lunch of Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki), I let fly an expletive -- and it wasn't because I was excited by the sight of the cold white stuff but, rather, because I actually was horrified by it!  But after I realized that the falling snow wasn't sticking onto the ground, I calmed down somewhat -- to the extent that the knowledge that snow was falling did not dissuade me from going ahead and journeying by shinkansen later that day to Osaka Funassyiland (and back later that evening) in order to get a 60cm Funassyi!

 

Over the next few days, as I saw more snow fall but almost never accumulate on the ground, I relaxed even more.  Indeed, I could be accused of having become rather blasé about the uncommonly snowy conditions that the Japanese media appeared super excited about; and this especially when the snow that I saw falling on my way to the Asashi Shuzo brewery up in the hills of Iwakuni prefecture also didn't seem to be sticking much at all to the ground.  Thus it was that I wasn't all that bothered when it began snowing once more my train journey from Hiroshima to Hikone, one that involved my switching trains at Shin-Osaka and moving from the Chugoku region over to the Kansai region.     

Some forty minutes after the second train of my journey passed Kyoto though, I began to see landscapes that were distinctly snowy in nature, with the snow getting thicker and thicker the closer I got to my destination that day.  By the time the train rolled into Hikone Station, I was thinking that some of the winter scenery I was passing could easily be mistaken for Siberia's rather than Japan's! 

I have to admit: there was a part of me that wanted to get on the next train out of Hikone soon after I arrived in that part of Shiga prefecture; and this especially it wasn't just snowing when I got there but pelting down pretty heavily!  But after reminding myself that I had experienced similar -- and even worse! -- conditions in Wisconsin, I not only kept to my plan of staying the night but decided to go out and walk around in the town since I was there for a bit before going and getting dinner (and at least one alcoholic drink!) in a nice, warm izakaya in the evening!

 

As I tramped about in the snow, I got to remembering how slippery the not completely cleared paths can get, how wet snow actually is, how few people are keen to be out walking about when it's snowing heavily, and how bleak but also beautiful it can turn landscapes into.  In addition, long before I completed my walk around Hikone town, I was thinking how happy I am that I no longer live in a part of a world where snow falls during winter but also how cool it actually was -- metaphorically that is, not just literally! -- that I was getting to see truly snowy conditions for the first time ever on a visit to Japan! :)   

Western art on permanent exhibition and works by Hiroshige on temporary special display at the Hiroshima Museum of Art

Within this building can be found artworks by masters

such as Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rodin

 

And yet the Hiroshima Museum of Art doesn't seem to

attract all that many visitors! :O

 

The special exhibition that was the number one reason why 

I went and visited this particular museological establishment!

 

On my first ever visit to Hiroshima last October, I made the obligatory visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Peace Memorial Park.  I also stuffed myself with Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki and other delicious foods, and visited the restored (post Atom bomb devastation) Shukkeien.  But it wasn't until my second visit to this rejuvenated Japanese city that I went and checked out one of its three (major) art museums.

 

When deciding between which of them I'd (first) visit, the Hiroshima Museum of Art easily won out over the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum and Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art once I discovered that there was a special exhibition on there of well-known works by Hiroshige, perhaps the most famous ukiyo-e artist ever other than Hokusai; and this despite the admission fee to this private museological institution having been increased by 300 Yen because of the special exhibition taking place to 1,300 Yen (making it more than thrice as expensive than that for the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and around two and half times more expensive than that for the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum).

 

In view of my ending up spending three and a half enjoyable hours checking out the offerings at the Hiroshima Museum of Art, I actually consider that to be money well spent.  Make no mistake: Hiroshige's Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido series of woodcut prints are really something to behold, as is the master's Four Seasons in Edo.  The detail in them is amazing, and many of the works really are things of beauty.  And the icing on the cake with regards to this particular exhibition is that it details and offers up examples of the variations between the first and later, altered print editions of same-titled works in the series!

 

On a personal note: it was fun to see 18th century views of parts of Japan that I've visited in this century, notably Hakone and Kyoto.  I also thought it rather cool to discover via the Hiroshige art exhibition that a Japanese friend's hometown -- which she reckons so few people outside of her native country know about that it's easier to just say that she's from (relatively) nearby Yokohama instead -- actually is one of the historic 53 stations of the Tokaido!

 

Also on temporary exhibition at the museum were netsuke from the collection of Prince and Princess Takamado.  I first learnt about these miniature sculptures first created in 17th century Japan that functioned as pockets for wearers of kimono and other pocket-less traditional Japanese garments while at college in Wisconsin because its art museum had a sizable netsuke collection.  And it was interesting to find out at this art museum in Hiroshima that the artistic values of netsuke are more greatly appreciated outside of Japan than within it.

 

Something else that I found interesting at the Hiroshima Museum of Art is that the jewels -- and bulk -- of its permanent collection appears to be Western rather than Japanese artworks.  And while a good many of these pieces could be said to be minor works of the featured artists, the individuals concerned are none other than the likes of major names such as Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, to name just a few!  

 

When visiting the likes of this museum and the Ohara Museum in Kurashiki as well as the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno, Tokyo, it seems to me that there really is a major appreciation for Western as well as local art in Japan.  To be sure, on my visit to the Hiroshima Museum of Art, the rooms where Western art were pretty deserted while those highlighting traditional Japanese art had more people in them.  But I think it may actually be more a reflection of the Western art being on permanent display (and have been seen before by many a Hiroshima-based art lover) while the works of Hiroshige and the netsuke are/were available to be viewed at this venue for only a finite amount of time! ;b