Favoriten shows us a multicultural Austrian elementary class' world (Film review)

  

48th Hong Kong International Film Festival 

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Favoriten (Austria, 2024)

- Ruth Beckermann, director and co-scriptwriter (with Elisabeth Manesse)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Documentary Competition program

 

In what can seem like another life now, I aspired to be an educator.  Hence my often gravitating to books. TV shows and films with educational settings (including, to name just a few: To Serve Them All My Days; To Sir With Love; The Paper Chase; and Dead Poet's Society).  

 

If given the choice though, I'd focus on secondary or tertiary rather than primary education.  For, frankly, my sense is that the younger the child, the more difficult it is to deal with them!  So I am inclined to take my hat off the most to primary school teachers -- and was left in awe of the one we see in Favoriten -- who is obviously adored by her young charges, all 25 of them, the majority of whom she teaches and communicates with in a language that's not their first language.

 

Ilkay Idiskut is a teacher in the largest elementary school in Vienna, Austria.  Favoriten -- which takes its name from the working-class district in which the school is located -- documents the goings-on in her classroom over a period of three years as she guides her multi-cultural, co-ed class of students (many of them recent migrants and/or refugees from countries such as Turkey (where she herself originally hailed), Syria, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine) through the third to fifth grade of the Austrian school system.  

 

Director Ruth Beckerman and cinematographer Johannes Hammel also follow Ilkay and her class on trips to a mosque (where a student proudly reveals that his father is an imam) and a Catholic church (where it is revealed that none of the students are of the Catholic faith).  There are also scenes where the parents, with their children present, meet with Ilkay (where it comes to light that quite a few of the parents are themselves struggling with speaking German); and one where the school's head teacher holds a meeting with his staff (during which one gets the distinct sense that the school (system) is not as well-funded as should be the case).

 

In the main though, the focus in Favoriten is on the learning that takes place in the classroom; with Ilkay teaching the class about how to behave and treat one another as well as maths, German and other formal subjects.  And while Ilkay is the main "character" in the film on account of her being the teacher in charge and primary adult in the documentary, the students quickly show that they may be diminuitive in size but quite a few of them have outsize personalities, and presences that have an effect on their surroundings and others around them!

 

At one point during filming, director Beckermann gave the children camera phones and had them film and conduct interviews of their classmates.  This results in interesting footage and conversations.  But the actual film crew also appear to have been successful in getting the children to act naturally in their presence too; resulting in Favoriten being a remarkably intimate collective portrait of a group of children whose struggles along with endeavor are honestly shown, and who have been helped along for three years by the presence in their life of an exemplary educator who truly cared for them.    

 

My rating for this film: 7.0

Two films from very different worlds viewed at the 2022 Hong Kong International Film Festival! (Film reviews)

Advertising for the 2022 Hong Kong International Film Festival

 

Klondike (Ukraine-Turkey, 2022)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Young Cinema Competition (World) program

- Maryna Er Gorbach, director, scriptwriter and editor 

- Starring: Oksana Cherkashyna, Serhi Shadrin, Oleh Shevchuk

 

There was a Q&A with Klondike's director, scriptwriter and editor, Maryna Er Gorbach, after the screening of the film I attended.  If not for it being close to midnight at that point (and my not going to get home after well after midnight that evening as a result), I would have stayed and tried to get in a few questions such as: What's the meaning of the film's title? (Since this Ukrainian-Turkish co-production doesn't take place anywhere near any Klondike I know -- all of which are located in North America); and what's the point for including the real life crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in the picture besides locating the proceedings in the Donetsk region of Eastern Ukraine in the summer of 2014?  (This since I could totally envision this film's story working fine without it.)

 

I'd also have liked to have known if Gorbach had envisioned Klondike to be a straight drama or very dark, absurdist comedy.  If it was the latter, this would better explain the often strange behavior and perspectives of the film's main characters -- a 7-month pregnant countrywoman named Irka (played by Oksana Cherkashyna) who can seem far more obsessed with the state of a baby stroller or sofa than her and her loved ones' physical welfare and safety, and her husband Tolik (portrayed by the late Serhi Shadrin), whose fixation for getting his car back from a separatist friend again seems to surpass his own physical safety and well-being.  

 

The thing though is that there were hardly any laughs to be heard throughout the screening I attended.  Maybe other viewers half a planet away from the world depicted in Klondike found the film's characters and story hard to read too.  Or maybe we were correct in that it meant to be a dramatic work -- in which case what unfolds in the film is absolutely chilling to behold: namely, residents of a wartorn part of the world who look to have become numbed by violence and try to continue living regular, ordinary lives but absolutely can't because what is happening to their country and world is so very tragic and terrible.

 

Even before MH 17 got blown up in the sky above them (by, it is implied, comrades of the friend who "borrowed" Tolik's car that fateful day), Irka and Tolik already saw the front wall of their house destroyed by a stray mortar.  Yet, as in the following days, they continue doing such as preparing food, eating, sleeping and watching TV in their house despite the gaping large hole that exists in it.  Though they try to think otherwise, you just know that this can't go on forever though.  Even so, the last sections of Klondike really offer up a number of shocks that left this (re)viewer further unpleasantly shaken by, and uneasy about, it all.      

My rating for this film: 6.0

 

Love Letter (Japan, 1953) 

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Portraits of Women -- A Tribute to Tanaka Kinuyo program 

- Kinuyo Tanaka, director

- Starring: Masayuki Mori, Juzo Dozan, Jukichi Uno, Yoshiko Kuga

 

Eleven years ago, I viewed a much loved Japanese film entitled Love Letter (in English) at the 2011 Hong Kong International Film Festival.  Like that Shunji Iwai work, Kinuyo Tanaka's decades older Love Letter also hails from Japan but it's quite different in tone and subject matter (though it's true enough that both of these films do feature actual physical love letters!).

 

The first directorial effort of only the second filmmaker in Japanese cinematic history was originally released in 1953 but its story takes place three years earlier, in a Japan that's recovering from World War II but with people who bear psychological scars from the war and early post-occupation years.  Navy veteran and former prisoner of war Reikichi Mayumi (Masayuki Mori) now lives in Tokyo with his younger brother, Hiroshi (Juzo Dozan) -- the latter of whom one gets the impression was too young to be enlisted into any of the branches of the military and thus was spared going to war, resulting in his having a sunnier and more optimistic as well as energetic demeanor and personality than his elder brother.

 

Finding it harder than the entrepeneurial-minded Hiroshi to find a job and get on with his life, Reikichi does perk up some after a chance encounter with a former naval academy classmate.  Having parlayed the English language translation skills he acquired at the academy (along with knowledge of the French language) into an unconventional business, Naoto (Jukichi Uno) enlists Reikichi to help him... write English language love letters for Japanese women whose lovers have returned home to the West (but still, after some pleading and cajoling by way of those epistles, provide some financial aid to them)!

 

Naoto also tells Reikichi that, when doing this, he finds himself becoming more sympathetic to the lot of his clients but it's clear that Reikichi continues to look at them as fallen, sinful women even while turning out to be pretty good at writing love letters for them all the same.  Even when his childhood sweetheart (Yoshiko Kuga) turns out to be one of these women, Reikichi is intent on remaining on his moral high horse; and only begins to get to thinking again after Naoto reads him the kind of lecture which Japanese people are often accused of not doing.  Frankly, it's a real doozy -- and perhaps more than any other dialogue, reminds the viewer that Love Letter's script is by the great Keisuke Kinoshita! 

My rating for this film: 7.5

Of Hong Kong film censorship and international celebrities who are speaking out

Hong Kong's second biggest film festival is currently taking place!

 

The latest edition of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday, the day that Hong Kong's now opposition-less Legislative Council passed amendments to the film censorship law to allow film censorship on the basis of national security considerations.  As a Variety article points out: "The revision to the law is the latest operation to tighten the government grip on civil society, artistic and speech freedoms in the country"; and "[u]nder the film censorship amendment, violators screening unauthorized films may face punishments including fines up to $129,000 (HK$1 million) and three years in prison." 

 

As was pointed out in the same piece: "Significantly, the amended law gives authorities retrospective powers. Films that have previously received release approval can now be blocked if they are considered to be glorifying or supporting acts that could endanger national security."  And I wouldn't be all that surprised if a film (or more) will end up getting pulled from the ongoing Hong Kong Asian Film Festival; this not least because one of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's scheduled opening films ending up being pulled from the program this year.     

 

As it so happens though, both of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival's opening films were allowed to be screened as planned.  Something else worth noting is that, for now, the amended film censorship law does not cover the online screening of movies.  And neither does it cover music videos.  Thus it is that while Malaysian bad boy rapper Namewee's Fragile music video (featuring Australian singer-actress-model Kimberley Chen) has been banned in Mainland China, this Mandopop song which makes fun of jingoistic Mainland Chinese nationalists known as "little pinks" has not been banned in Hong Kong -- and, in fact, has gone to the No. 1 spot on Youtube in Hong Kong as well as Taiwan!    

 

Actually, Namewee and Kimberley Chen -- not just their particular collaboration -- have now been blocked from Weibo in the wake of the release of Fragile!  But neither entertainer seem particularly upset or regretful about this.  After all, their music video now has more than 20 million views and been a big hit in Namewee's native Malaysia and neighboring Singapore as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan! 

 

Amidst all the furor, NBC News reported that Namewee had said some interesting things which I reckon deserve amplifying.  Firstly, in response to accusations that he, whose real name is Wee Meng Chee, is insulting Chinese people: “I am [ethnically] Chinese. Am I insulting myself?”  And in response to accusations that he has been promoting Hong Kong and Taiwan independence: "I have never said anything [about Hong Kong and Taiwan independence]. If you don’t believe me, you can do a search... “Regarding this question, you should ask the people of Hong Kong and Taiwan what they think. My nationality is Malaysian. I cannot speak on their behalf."

 

At the same time though, Namewee made the following clear: "I will definitely stand with freedom and democracy. The human rights that we were born with are universal values, and that is what [I am] after as a Malaysian. This is why people take to the street to protest over and over again."  

 

After seeing the likes of his compatriot, Nigel Ng (AKA Uncle Roger), kowtow to China (or, at least, Chinese money), this is a refreshing take to see and hear.  Also refreshing and heartening to see and hear has been NBA player Enes Kantner standing up for Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  At a time when many people living in China don't feel able to speak up (for themselves, never mind others), it is a good thing that there exist people ouside of it who are caring and willing to do so.     

Segovia's marvelous ancient Roman aqueduct

The exposed section of Segovia's UNESCO World Heritage-listed

Roman aqueduct makes for quite the awe-inspiring sight

 

The Segovia Aqueduct is a truly monumental ancient structure

 

Puppet Ponyo posing in the vicinity of the 2,500 foot long and

100 foot high exposed section of the 2000-year-old aqueduct

 

Although I've yet to visit Rome (or, for that matter, any part of Italy), I've come across a fair number of Roman structures over the years while travelling in various places that used to be part of the ancient Roman Empire.  In England (where I spent a fair bit of my childhood), I was shown surviving fragments of London's Roman City Wall in the British capital, saw more Roman ruins in York (which was founded by the Romans in AD 71), visited the Roman Baths that gave Bath its name, and walked along sections of Hadrian's Wall in Carlisle.   

 

In Trier, Germany, I spent time atop a fortified Roman gate, amidst the ruins of imperial baths, inside the massive confines of what used to be an imperial throne room and exploring the site of a vast Roman ampitheater.  On a visit to Istanbul (during which the camera I had with me sadly went kaput on my first evening in that Turkish city), I came across the physically impressive Valens Aqueduct completed in the 4th century AD.  And in Segovia, Spain, I came across an even older watercourse constructed by the Romans, whose famous exposed section stands at the heart of the city and is the number one symbol of a wondrously picturesque old city.

 

An easy day trip from Madrid by bus or train, Segovia is one of those places I wish I could have spent more time in.  With not enough time to see and do everything that I had wanted to see and do in that beautiful historic city, I ended up giving one of its major attractions a miss -- even while being unable to resist spending quite a bit of time staring in awe at the large exposed section of its massive Roman aqueduct and admiring it from a number of different angles. 

 

There's no getting away from the monumentality and great age of the structure but what's also really amazing about the Segovia Aqueduct is that it functioned for so many long, providing water to the city for close to 2,000 years, from the first century AD through to the mid 19th century.  An engineering as well as architectural marvel, its incredible nature is further cemented upon realizing that the colossal granite blocks of the exposed bridge section of the aqueduct are joined without the use of mortar or clamps and are held together, instead, by balancing forces according to technical guidelines laid out by a Roman architect cum engineer in a guide he wrote in 15 BC!

 

On an aesthetic note: it's astounding that something so functional can also be so beautiful.  And when gazing at something like this, one can't help but think that certain of the ancients really could/can teach contemporary folks (including many architects and engineers) more than just a thing or two! 

A visit to Kowloon Masjid on the mosque's Open Day

The shoe-strewn entrance to Kowloon Masjid 

during the mosque's Open Day :)

 

Freely accessible areas this afternoon 

included the main prayer hall

 

 The spacious room can accomodate

up to 1,000 worshippers at a time

 

Equipment set up for prayer time

 

While taking an American visitor around Central a few months back, I was asked whether there are any Muslims in Hong Kong.  If that fellow had stayed in a hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui (like many of his fellow tourists), chances are higher that he'd have known that this is indeed the case since one of that area's most prominent landmarks is the largest of the Big Lychee's six mosques.

 

Situated next to Kowloon Park over on Nathan Road, Kowloon Masjid (AKA Kowloon Mosque) opened for prayers on Friday, May 11, 1984.  Replacing an older mosque on the Kowloon Peninsula that had been a place of Muslim worship for over 80 years before it was demolished, this newer, larger structure also houses an Islamic Centre and its facilities include separate madrasah for boys and girls, three prayer halls (which can accomodate a total of 3,500 worshippers at a time), a kitchen, offices for its staff and a community hall.

For a few hours this afternoon, the lower two floors of the Kowloon Masjid were made accessible to the non-Muslims as well as Muslims alike.  On the ground floor (in British English but first floor in American English), things were on the festive side this Open Day.  To be sure, the central area was given to a speaker delivering a talk about Islam in Cantonese and exhibits on such as "The Books of Allah", "Pillars of Islam", "Articles of Faith" and "25 Prophets of Allah Mentioned in the Quran".  But there also were rooms where women could try wearing hijab and men could put on Arabic attire, and corners where people could sample halal food and get their names written out in Arabic calligraphy.

 

On the first floor (in British English but second floor in American English) can be found the mosque's main prayer hall.  I must admit to being surprised to be assured, when I asked, that I was free to go check it out and that I wouldn't need to put on a gown or veil in order to go in.  And I also appreciated being informed that the Arabic writing at the prayer hall's entrance spells out the Islamic greeting of Assalamu Alaikum (which translates into English as "Peace Be With You".

 

Inside the prayer hall, I saw a man praying and other men sitting about, individually and in groups.  I also noticed a sign asking people to not sleep in the space -- and I suppose that might be tempting to some because the carpet that covers the entire floor is really nice and soft and, despite my suspecting that the prayer hall isn't air-conditioned, it actually felt airy and cool in the high ceilinged space.  

For all of its size, this prayer hall may well have been the most modest-looking of all the mosques I've been into (which thus far have been limited to ones in Istanbul -- whose Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Suleymaniye Mosque really can take the breath away with their beauty and grandeur -- and Malaysia, including the royal mosque in Kuala Kangsar).  At the same time though, I felt a serenity about the place that was really comfortable and comforting -- and imagine that Kowloon Masjid is a mosque that Muslims in Hong Kong are happy to visit, worship in, and can feel at ease. 

An evening with Sascha Goetzel and the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra

The Hong Kong Arts Festival program I attended this evening

 

There were a surprising amount of empty seats for the performance I attended at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre's Concert Hall this evening.  Perhaps, since the publicity for the Hong Kong Arts Festival generally has the dates for its 45th edition as being February 16th to March 18th of this year, many people didn't realize that tonight's concert was actually part of this annual mega arts affair -- and, in fact, the festival opener!

 

Another possibility is that the prospect of seeing and hearing conductor Sascha Goetzel and the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra perform didn't sufficiently excite people.  I know at least one classical music fan who told me she's only willing to pay the amount that Hong Kong Arts Festival concerts usually command to see and hear better known musicians, and one lover of things Turkish who told me she'd prefer to go for something more culturally Turkish than a Western classical music concert predominantly featuring works by non Turkish composers.   

 

In any event, I think it's their loss to not have attended tonight's concert and my gain to have done so for there were some interesting and just plain enjoyable music on offer from this young orchestra whose artistic director and principal conductor hails from the land of Mozart and Johann Strauss (the elder and younger) but looks to be predominantly composed of Turkish musicians.  And before even one beat of music was played, I got an inkling that things would be different from usual from the seating arrangements of the orchestra. 

 

For where I regularly expect to see the cellists and double bassists, I saw second violins instead.  Also, where I normally expect to see the second violinists, I saw viola players and double bassists. And where I normally expect to see the viola players, I saw the cellists.  Oh, and I noticed too that there was a larger complement of percussionists in the orchestra than is usually the case -- and the percussionists really did have quite prominent roles throughout the program, including for the very last piece, where two of these musicians who usually are placed in the back row were assigned seats right in front of the conductor!

 

The orchestra got things going with a lively rendition of Turkish composer Ferit Tüzün's Capriccio a la Turque, an orchestral piece essentially inspired by Turkish folk tunes and combined rhythms which was over too quickly as far as I was concerned.  Next up was Scottish composer James MacMillan's Violin Concerto, whose dedicatee, Russian-born Belgian violinist Vadim Repin, actually was tonight's featured soloist!  The impression I got was that it's a rather unorthodox piece that is challenging to play, and also listen to -- with the vast majority of the concert audience being far more appreciative of the encore work that Repin chose than the MacMillan's concerto which possessed sequences of dissonant music as well as ones that I actually found pretty electric!

 

After the interval, the orchestra performed what has come to be its signature piece.  Its melodic and often mesmerizing rendition of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "exotic" Scheherazade was a step above what had come before, and made all the more different -- in a good, creative way! -- by way of the Arabic qanun and Turkish oud being employed along with the musical instruments that normally feature in a Western classical music orchestral work.  Still, from the way the musicians looked -- relaxed, with big smiles on their faces -- when they performed the encore work (whose title I sadly failed to catch, though I did hear maestro Goetzel describe as being a quintessential piece of Turkish music), they had saved the best for last -- and I must say this peppy piece really was a great way to conclude the evening's program.

 

Music-wise, I think this concert was a lovely way to start off this latest edition of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.  I just hope that Sascha Goetze and the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra get the audience they deserve for their second concert here in Hong Kong (that's scheduled for tomorrow): one that's ultimately as appreciative as this evening's but bigger and better behaved (in that some people clapped at the wrong time a couple of times tonight, quite a number dozed off during the slower and quieter parts of the concert, etc.)! ;S

Eating bread, pasta and pig in Germany

Bavarian schweinbraten is one of those dishes

that helps warm one up in the winter ;b

These Swabian maultasche look like from the outside

like large elongated ravioli...

 But when cut into half, their inside brings to mind lasagne to me!

Before my most recent trip to Germany, a friend of mine in Hong Kong told me to enjoy eating lots of sausages.  But as was the case on my previous trips to Germany (including in 2010, when I first visited my German friend in her home country), I actually ended up eating far more meals that didn't involve a single sausage than ones that did -- and, in fact, I ate more sausages on the flights to and from Deutschland than I did in Germany itself!

Actually, what I ate the most regularly on this past German trip was bread -- and there was many a day when I'd have bread at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Although this may sound boring, it was not since there really are many varieties of bread to be found in Germany: for example, I tried bread made out of chestnuts for the first time on this recent vacation!  

Also, I didn't just have German bread -- which actually may be my favorite bread in the whole wide world -- on this recent holiday.  Instead, on the two occasions that my German friend and I opted to have some Turkish food, there was Turkish bread -- which I first grew to love when I visited Istanbul some years back -- thrown into the mix!

The second most common thing I ate this past holiday was pig meat - be it in the form of pork, ham or bacon.  (And yes, I sometimes wonder which people love pig more -- the Chinese or the Germans!)  Among the more memorable and  delicious pig meat I had this time around were a traditional Bavarian pork loin dish -- despite not visiting Bavaria this time around! -- and a Swabian one featuring pasta that was thicker, rougher and more substantial than the Italian versions that I'm more familiar with, with a spinach filling and served with fried bacon along with onions.

While the Swabian maultasche was pretty unusual, it still was not the most exotic thing I ate on my recent German holiday.  And neither, even, was the cheese with volcanic ash in it -- the second time I've eaten such a thing (with the first time having been at the Caprice Bar in Hong Kong).  Instead, that accolade has to go to the lard that I have to say really does taste great when spread on good bread -- one of them a traditional German pig fat concoction that I had in Trier with some tasty craft beer; and another a vegetarian version that may be considered to be healthier! ;b

Public toilet talk!

Does this look like a public toilet to you?

Not only did it cause me to do a double take but

I felt compelled to take some photos of it for my records!

As I noted in my blog entry for that day, two Sundays ago, I walked from Repulse Bay to Aberdeen.  In passing in that post, I also mentioned my having come across what may well be Hong Kong's most elaborately constructed public toilet while strolling along the Aberdeen waterfront -- and yes, so remarkable did I find it that I'm now hereby dedicating a specific blog post to it!

Funnily enough, when I showed these photos of it to a friend who had lived in Beijing for a time, she remarked that the design style looked "so mainland".  For my part though, I can't recall having come across any public toilets on my one and only trip up north to Mainland China thus far that looked like this elaborately decorated that I saw in Aberdeen. But if truth be told, it's because I remember the designs of the public toilets there far less than I remember the behavior of the people I had the misfortune to witness while in them!!

Rather than spend too much time recalling certain sights that may well have left me mentally scarred for life, I'm going to thank goodness that Hong Kong's public toilets do tend to be cleaner -- and better designed -- than those in a number of other territories I've lived in and visited. (In addition to Mainland China, I also most definitely am not a fan of Malaysia and Tanzania's public toilets!)  

At the same time though, they have a ways to go before they can be considered as nice -- and not a nightmare to visit -- as the public toilets of Japan and -- I have to admit this came as a surprise to me -- Vietnam.  Something else to commend with regards to Japanese public toilets -- and Hong Kong ones too -- is that, unlike in, say, Britain, Turkey, Malaysia and Vietnam, I've never had to pay to use one!  (So yes, that very nice looking public toilet over in Aberdeen is one that people don't have to pay to patronize!)   

Kyoto's UNESCO World Heritage-listed Nijo Castle

Relatively close-up shot of Nijo Castle's 

Kara-mon (Chinese style gate)

The Ninomaru Palace of Nijo Castle*

 

 View from atop a castle wall of the Honmaru Palace*

 

Ever since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by castles.  This may sound strange coming from a Malaysian -- but something to bear in mind is that for many of my preteen years, I also spent a portion of every year in England.  And England, to put it mildly, sure does have its share of castles -- ruined and still lived in.

So strong was my fascination with these particular structures that in my late teens, I actually went on a self-guided tour of castles in northern Wales (including UNESCO World Heritage-listed Conwy, Carnavon and Harlech).  And in recent years, I've been visiting my share of castles once again; only these days, it's largely been ones in Japan (like Himeji) -- with the odd German and Turkish one thrown into the bargain -- rather than British ones. 

Having been introduced to castles by way of Britain, Japanese castles don't quite fit the archetype I have of these fortified structures.  For one thing, they tend to be constructed of a lot more wood than stone.  For another, they often just are way too visually attractive!

While I reckon Himeji-jo cannot be beat in terms of its exterior beauty, I think Nijo Castle (AKA Nijo-jo) is tops in terms of its interior beauty -- which made it really sad from a shutterbug's point of view to be told that photography is prohibited inside Ninomaru Palace.  

But at least visitors are allowed inside Ninomaru Palace to see its beauty with one's own eyes and, also, experience walking along its very cool nightingale floors (so-called because they are designed to emit "chirping" sounds when walked upon) -- whereas, in contrast, the Honmaru Palace's buildings are not open to the public, only its admittedly already aesthetically impressive garden.

These restrictions notwithstanding, I still did opt for Nijo Castle to be the first attraction I visited on my recent Kyoto vacation -- though partly, I have to admit, because it's the sole attraction I had on my "to visit" list which I could easily get to by subway rather than bus, and I decided that it'd be best to ease myself into using Kyoto's public transportation by first using its subway rather than the buses!

In any event, Nijo Castle did not disappoint this visitor who came away feeling privileged to have seen the beauty of a structure that began to be constructed back in 1601, whose wall paintings and other sections are understandably considered Important Cultural Properties of Japan, and which is one of the properties that make up the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto on UNESCO's World Heritage list.

*Addendum: I find it funny that I ended up taking a few photos that look very similar to ones on sarah sbk's Nijo Castle blog entry which I first checked out back in 2009! ;O

Literally earth-shaking experiences

The stone island called Horaijima at Tokyo's Rikugien

had its shape altered by the earthquake 

that hit northeast Japan in March 2011

Sign at Rikugien detailing earthquake damaged areas

and also what to do in the event of an earthquake  
(in imperfect English and presumably much better Japanese)

This past Friday morning, while I was at work, I felt my chair move on its own underneath me.  As I stood up to inspect the chair to see whether there was some problem with it, I happened to glance at a few of my colleagues and saw perplexed and disturbed looks on their face.  That gave me an inkling that I had not been alone in having felt something unusual.  

After going around and ascertaining that pretty much everyone in my area had felt unusual movement, my next question was: did we have a problem with our building or had an earthquake occurred somewhere over across the border in Mainland China?  And as we found it a bit later that day, it indeed had been the latter.  More specifically, an earthquake of magnitude 4.8 had occurred at 11.34am that day in Guangdong Province, with its epicenter being some 180 kilometers away from Hong Kong.

For the record: this is the fourth time I've been in an area that experienced minor tremors courtesy of an earthquake -- and something I found interesting is that each time, it's been in a different part of the world.

The first time, I was nine years old and visiting family friends in California.  Late one night, while I was in bed but not yet asleep, a picture hanging in the room fell down with a bang.  A few seconds later, my hostess ran into the room to make sure that I was okay, and to tell me that there had been a small tremor.  I still remember my relief at her telling me that -- because I had been inclined to believe that a ghost had caused the picture to fall down!

The second time, I was on a visit to Istanbul with my mother.  One evening, I was walking on a bank of the Bosphorus at Ortakoy with her and a Turkish friend of ours when waves splashed into our path.  We were inclined to chalk this down to a big boat having passed closed by until a friend of our Turkish friend phoned her to say that a small earthquake had just occurred!

The most recent time before Friday was on the last night of my 2011 Japan visit -- and the one where I felt the most movement.  Like in California all those years ago, I was lying in bed -- only this time, I was reading and the bed very noticeably pitched to one side before rolling back to its original position!  This being mere months after the Tohoku Earthquake (AKA Great East Japan Earthquake), I was a bit scared -- but when I mentioned it the next morning to a friend who lives in Japan, she was nonchalant about it, saying it really was not a big deal at all.

And that's the thing: all four tremors I've personally felt thus far in my life truly are the results of small earthquakes -- and yet, I remember the experience of their occurring so very vividly. All of this makes me really hope that I never experience a big one, and gives me some sense of how incredibly terrible it can be to be caught in a major earthquake like the one that occurred in Japan on March 11, 2011.  (And when one remembers that in that particular instance, there also were tsunami and nuclear radiation problems, it seriously is amazing how the country and many people have managed to recover as much as they have... )

The literally earth-shaking experience on Friday morning also reminded me how unpredictable life is, and how there is so much that we really cannot control.  Rather than be traumatized by this though, I'm inclined to think they serve as a good reminder of the wisdom of the first few lines of The Serenity Prayer: i.e., we need to accept the things we cannot change, have the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference between them.

Vegetarian favorites at Yardbird

The famous KFC at Yardbird

The less heralded but still plenty delicious -- as well as 

super filling -- rice topped with chicken skin and peas, 

and with an onsen egg mixed into it all

My favorite dish by far at the popular 

Sheung Wan eatery -- sweet corn tempura!

Earlier today, a friend and I were discussing what governs our decisions with regards to such as where we want to travel.  I think she was somewhat surprised when I told her that there have been places I've felt compelled to visit after reading about them (be it in a newspaper, magazine or book, or on a website or blog) or seen them in a movie.  (For example, I'd credit a Time magazine article about the Cheong Gye Cheon stream with making me want to go to Seoul to walk along its banks and it was only after having viewed Fatih Akin's In July that I got a strong urge to visit Istanbul (and its suburb of Ortakoy in particular.)

Last night, that same friend and I enjoyed our second dinner at Yardbird, a trendy specialist yakitori eatery owned and operated by New Yorker Matt Abergel. (She wrote about our first dinner there here.)  Funnily enough, I'm not sure if I told her but the two things that made me really want to check out that eatery just happened to be: its inclusion in a blog entry about Hong Kong's best Japanese restaurants over at Tom Eats Jen Cooks; and my discovering Yardbird serves sweet corn tempura -- something I've longed to eat after seeing it being consumed with relish in Hirokazu Kore-eda's touching Still Walking.

Something else that I found somewhat amusing is how despite its being billed and viewed as a yakitori joint for the most part, my three favorite dishes at Yardbird actually do not have any chicken in them.  To be sure, their chicken oysters skewers are definitely worth trying and I also would recommend the rice with chicken skin along with peas and an onsen egg, particularly if you're looking for something truly substantial on the restaurant's menu.

However, I easily could forgo both those chicken concoctions -- or, for that matter, all of Yardbird's other chicken offerings -- in favor of its delicious Korean Fried Cauliflower (i.e., cauliflower encased in batter that's glazed with a sweet and spicy sauce, on which sesame seeds are sprinkled), tasty stir-fried brussels sprouts garnished with garlic chips and -- this especially! -- addictive balls of sweet corn tempura.

One of the reasons, my friend and I wanted to return to Yardstick for a second round of eats in a month was that on our first visit, the waitstaff had forgotten to serve us the dish of Korean Fried Cauliflower that we had ordered (but fortunately were not billed for either).  After finally sampling the KFC last night, I can definitely understand why it has its fans.  But for my part, the sweet corn tempura -- which I've never seen on the menu in any other restaurant I've visited to date -- is the special dish of this Sheung Wan eatery that's pricier than I would like (especially if looked upon as a "yakitori joint") but still definitely can see myself dining at again in the future.  :b

Cultural diversity in Germany

A taste of Africa in Ludgwigshafen

Roman material culture in Cologne

Approximately 24 hours after I set foot in Germany for the first time this century, I was effectively served notice that this vacation would not (just) involve the usual sights and experiences that many leisure travelers to the country can expect to have. For, as it so happens, what my German friend and host had lined up for my first evening out in her town turned out to be... an African fair!

After first having dinner involving dishes such as fried sweet plantains (yum yum!) and a chicken curry concoction (that also had plantains -- these ones more regular potato like in flavor -- in it), we spent some time surveying the arts and crafts that were on display and up for sale. And since attendance at the event was on the sparse side (because, my friend suggested, the evening had been on the rainy side and it was a week night), we ended up having plenty of opportunities to also chat with the stall vendors -- one of whom told us he was originally from Senegal (like Patrick Vieira!) but currently a student at the local university; another of whom, a Kenyan woman who had lived for several years in Germany, I got to practice my Kiswahili with.

On a further linguistic note: It was interesting to hear lots of French and English being spoken as we wandered about checking out the African fair. At the same time, my definite sense was that most, if not all, of the Africans at the event were people who had decided to make Germany home. (And, as unlikely it may seem to some, they would by no means be the first Africans to have done so.)

At various other times during this German vacation, I would get still more evidence that many people of varied cultural and geographic origins had settled in this part of the world over the years and centuries. For example, in Cologne, physical proof of it having once been part of the Roman empire abounds -- seemingly miraculously when one considers that the city was bombed in 262 separate air raids (including a notable 1,000 bomber attack) during the Second World War. (And lest it be thought that I only learnt about the horrors wreaked by the Allied forces, my German friend also took me to visit sites -- notably the remains of a 12th century mikveh ritual bath and Jewish courtyard in Speyer -- that provided poignant proof of the lengthy settlement in the area of a people that the Nazis sought so virulently to wipe out.)

On a lighter note, we also dined on a selection of meze at an ethnic Turkish restaurant one evening, came across another multi-cultural fair while strolling about Heidelberg, one in celebration of immigrants from territories as diverse as South Korea, Ethiopia and the Ukraine -- and, in the small German town of Schwetzingen (with a population of less than 30,000), visited a palatial castle built by a nobleman known for his love of the English language as well as German whose grounds include gardens in the English and French styles with features such as a "mosque" and "Chinese bridge" that speak to the nobleman's fascination for the East.

In short: I was witness to more cultural diversity in German than I had expected; and came out of this recent vacation having learnt quite a few new things about the land and its people -- even while also having had had a really enjoyable time throughout. So... yes, count me in as a believer in the adage that travel broadens the mind (and, no, it doesn't have to loosen the bowels in the process!). :)

One week in Hong Kong

Scene at sunset in Northeast Hong Kong
this past Sunday

Work hard, play hard. That's a saying I've heard more than once in my life -- and have to say that I really feel that I'm living that maxim over here in Hong Kong -- a place that's notoriously workaholic but, also, I reckon, full of people who know how to actively have fun (rather than, say, just lounge around watching TV like I feel too many people in Astro-dominated Malaysia).

In any event, here's reporting that this past week, I got my first pay check from my new employers. (One that, more than incidentally, I'm pleased to report is larger than previously even though I also work fewer days a week and fewer hours a day!) Also, that the following are some of the things I did outside of work over this time period:-

Tuesday: Stay home sheltering from the typhoon(!);

Wednesday: Go out and attend a theatrical performance of Alex (the stage version of the Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor cartoon strip) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in Wan Chai (Note to Hong Kong movie fans: The HKAPA is the very academy that was celebrated in Simply Actors (2007));

Thursday: Celebrated my birthday by taking my mother to see the very fun Mamma Mia! (the ABBA-inspired movie -- which I had seen by myself the previous week and enjoyed very much!) at the Palace IFC in Central;

Friday: Attended a screening of Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin's involving Head-On (2004) at the Hong Kong Film Archive, then went for dinner with a couple of friends and after dinner, walked along the promenade from Sai Wan Ho to Tai Koo Shing (one of the beauties of Hong Kong is that it's perfectly safe for four women to go for a walk in the park/by the harbour at 11:30pm!);

Saturday: Dim sum lunch with a whole bunch of people in a restaurant inside the APM in Kwun Tong (on another Hong Kong movie fan note: this is the modern complex that can be briefly seen from projectionist Anthony Wong Chau San's window in Mr. Cinema (2007)); then a Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra concert at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui in the evening; followed by a late night viewing of my beloved Arsenal lose to Hull City (the one blot on my otherwise wonderful week) on TV in a Causeway Bay pub with fellow Gooners (including my mother!);

Sunday: Hike in Tai Mei Tuk and a walk on the 2km dam that separates Plover Cove Reservoir from Plover Cove with friends, followed by a bona fide Hong Kong-style barbecue (or "bbq" in Hong Kong-ese; one in which every one does his or her own cooking and where the food includes squid and various kind of meatballs as well as sausages and meat :D); and

Monday: Attend a piano recital by Peter Jablonski at the Hong Kong City Hall in Central.

(So, if you ever wondered what are some of the things I get up to/go for while not blogging nor working... ;b)