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More Japan on a Friday stories Obamajority - that's what the mayor of Hiroshima wrote of his denizens in a peace letter addressed to all nations that still insist on stockpiling nuclear weapons.　I souvenired several copies of this letter, stamped with an official Hiroshima Peace Museum logo, to gift to my most vocal peace and Obama-lovin' friends. Obama is yet to visit the Hiroshima Peace Park, according to A-bomb survivors and witnesses like Mito Kosei. Affected by radiation when still in his mother's womb, he outgrew a sickly childhood and now roams the park as a volunteer guide, offering free and informative backstory to the official materals displayed in the museum. "[Aussie Prime Minister] Rudd was the only PM to visit the Peace Park BEFORE he was elected to office, Obama has not," he said. "I think it not easy for him. 60% of Americans still believe dropping the bomb was a good thing. That makes it harder for Obama to visit." He showed me a picture...

More Japan on a Friday stories I've just gotten back after some bad bachelorette behavior, that is, hunting down and scarfing a 10pm okonomiyaki. This is a specialty 'pancake' of Hiroshima fried in front of you on a big flat griddle.　In fact, there's an entire 6th floor of a garish neon-lit building called GAIA PACHINKO right opposite the station, dedicated to this glorified Japanese bubble'n'squeak (google that term if you aren't from the British Commonwealth). The okonomiyaki stall I chose at random was called 'HOPE'. Because the place is frequented by tourists, the young owner said he thought an English sounding word would float them to the top of the passing selection panel. He asked if Australians ate koala sashimi. I suggested that since all the stands were offering practically the same thing for the same price, he could try advertising kangaroo to distinguish himself in a less obtuse fashion. But what would I know? They do a roaring trade ...

More Japan on a Friday stories Despite big plans to maximize my spendy 7 day Japan rail pass and hop all over the country, the allure of Kyoto was too great. I opted for the hostel-recommended walking instead. First, breakfast. Feeling sure I could better the hostel 680 yen offering, I traipsed around the block looking for a Japanese breakfast. It does not exist except in the form of extremely expensive coffee and some basic white toast. I returned to the hostel and sheepishly took my place among the other gai-jins scarfing the unlimited eggs, sausage, toast, jelly, coffee tea, salad , cheese, cereal, yoghurt... no wonder Ks Hostel won an award. What was meant to be a half day tour ended up a day and night half of a tour, because I was held hostage by soaring temples and shops selling all kinds of Japanese souvenirs. The mochi shops were making a killing. People love to crunch and chew things and mochi satisfies the latter - it's like a stressball for your jawbone. I ate mor...

More Japan on a Friday stories Well, not yet, but soon. My 6 dorm-mates at K's Hostel are sound asleep and I don't want to rummage in my stuff for the third time to get out my SD card reader. Today started out in a most inauspicious fashion. I left the Bickel's idyllic semi rural retreat in Kakegawa and caught the bus across the road to the train station - 20 mins away. I got off at what I thought was the station, but it turned out to be the hospital - two stops too soon. note to self: when you arrive in the dark, things may look different in the cold light of day. Now, this is when I started to realize that Japan is hopelessly difficult when you don't speak the language. The only words I seem to remember reliably are "takai" = expensive, and "yasui" = cheap. I spent a good 20 mins gesticulating with locals, poring through my Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook that devotes whole chapters to pick up lines and getting drunk. Eventually they "got...

Shizuoka Prefecture is renowned for green tea, grown in topiary-neat rows like this. More Japan on a Friday stories Today was a perfect sightseeing day on a Friday. I took the Shinkansen bullet train from somewhere near Tokyo ($US50!) where, despite speeds of 207 km/h passengers still find time to fall asleep - I think it's the hi-carb rice crackers. I landed at Tom and Sumiyo Bickel's rustic house in Kakegawa, midway between Tokyo and Kyoto. They run a language school called Oregon House of Kakegawa (in Japanese, contact them at oregonhouse@amail.plala.or.jp) named after Kakegawa's sister city Eugene, Oregon where they spent 10 years as stewards of the city's cultural exchange farm. Last night they hosted a very Eugene-style potluck dinner with a number of their friends and students so they could "meet the Chinese-Australian on the folding bicycle." Pot Luck in Japanese translates more or less to "mochiyori" or "bring something over". It...

Watch my illicit little movie It's a traveling exhibition of individualized Moleskine notebooks by artsy types that you can fondle and admire - with white gloves. I've used a Moleskine for years - my favorite ones are the simple notebooks that come in packs of three and fit into the tightest jeans pocket. Guess what - they still tell you phone numbers and addresses even after your cellphone dies. The most memorable one - on fast glance because unbeknownst to me, you weren't supposed to photograph anything - was designer Julia Lohmann's glass (or was it crystal?) studded Moleskine. It gave me all kinds of ideas of what to do with the draw full of found objects I can't quite bring myself to trash ... More at http://www.galfromdownunder.com/japan I'll be wringing the most out of my $US330 (!!!) Japan Rail Pass from Oct 29-Nov 4, using internet cafes rather than lugging my precious MacBook Pro, so stand by ...

Above: Pink is the new pink in Japan - read about my adventures on the  Bike Friday tikit  at the link below Know how to fold 'em (with a bullet train)  I've barely managed to blog about my Singapore cycling experiences and now I'm doing it again in Japan! Check out my Japan on a Friday  chronicle below, where I reveal what you can see with a 7-day bullet train pass and a folding bike: Japan on a Friday: One Perfect Day in Kakegawa, Shizuoka Japan on a Friday: Kyoto, Temple Central Japan on a Friday: Chasing nabe pots in Kyoto Japan on a Friday: Hiroshima via Nagoya Japan on a Friday: An Obamajority in Hiroshima Japan on a Friday: Miyajima to Fukuoka for monument hopping and wallet dropping Japan on a Friday: Himeji-Jo and back to Tokyo! Japan on a Friday: Sayonara to sushi and all that VIDEO Galfromdownunder in Japan playlist  : in-the-saddle video reveals what it's like to bike in Tokyo with the Half Fast Cycling Club and Bike Friday folk Below: One of the 'g...

Here's a clue to where I'll be when, or was: Bike Friday Event Calendar  ... specifically my spot on it +++ Oct 2009 Singapore and Japan Sep 2009 Cape Cod Jun 2009 Georgia May 2009 New York April 2009 Colorado April 2009 Yoga Teacher Certification March 2009 Arizona +++ Jan 2008 San Francisco/Sacramento Feb 2008 Hawaii Mar 2008 Arizona Mar-Aug 2008 Galfromdownunder downunder Sep 2008 New York GAL MOVIES Check out the latest Gal movies on YouTube or go right to the all-time best ones My old Livejournal Latest News use to do the job of this WHERE sticky - now it just stores interesting history about my Cuba book for posterity Permalink for this post: www.galfromdownunder.com/where

Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Houses, Oak Bluffs. They're not all pink ... I'm just back from a weeks riding on Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket with 40 or so cyclists, courtesy of Friday Friendly Tour Company BikeandtheLike and 5 magnanimous Bike Friday customers. I have these customers to thank: Sue, Glen, Leo, The Knables, plus Charlie (he must be inside getting some chowder) for sponsoring my visit to the Cape How magnanimous? I cajoled them into signing up for a Friday Friendly trip in the Berkshires, but due to the recession? Hills? The tour was undersubscribed, and thus cancelled for this year. A bit of fast webgotiating and within an hour I had them switched to a completely different Friday Friendly tour company, $400 less expensive, and subbing my attendance to the tune of $100 each. "If you can get them to sponsor you, I'll kick in the rest," said Suzy the tour operator. Of course, my part of the bargain was to write a full multimedia...

Tucked between the concrete, concessions, cars and cacophany of NYC are some Edenic little gardens, lovingly maintained and enjoyed by the surrounding neighborhood. This is one of many on the lower east side I visited with my mother and friend Christina, who has the coveted iron key. The garden spreads to the surrounding neighborhood My mother in front of the cute mini chalet My mother communes with flowers Christina in the gardenshe shares with her Lower East Side neighbors Inside the little treehouse. The Traffic Cone Bag ever present - in city mode.

The house that Alison sat looked a bit like this, but unlike Thoreau's digs, was way more than a stone's throw from a home cooked meal and hoogs (that's hugs in Scottish). WHEN you're asked that standard contest question, "Who do you admire the most in the world, and why?" - just who comes to mind for you? Someone famous? Infamous? Completely unknown? When asked this 10, 5 and 2 years ago, I thought of the same gal each time - a friend I met in my travels called Alison. More about her in a moment. This question came up recently in a heated, though chummy debate with a couple of friends about Henry David Thoreau, the eloquent writer/philosopher/inward excursionist who's practically deified by the general public for his contribution to voluntary poverty, or rather, simplicity. Don't get me wrong - he wrote a great book, but when I read that his little cabin was a stone's throw from a home cooked dinner with a loving and supportive family - gimm...

Continuing my tikit on Trial experiments in NYC, we test the welcome at some upscale locations, proving there's almost nowhere a Bike Friday can't go ... MOVIES tikit on Trial in NYC Check out the new videoblogs about a certain Princess Pink tikit living large PLUS Meet Bicycling writer Steve Friedman, father and son Cantos and Bfold staff - the people you meet while loitering under the stoop at a bfold.com ...

Still on a a "transcendental tear" after my Yoga teacher training , last night's spiritual excursion was to a Gongyo - a formal chanting ceremony in the Nichiren Buddhism tradition, as practised by members of Soka Gakkai International . Wiki oh wiki, what is Nichiren Buddhism? Nichiren Buddhism focuses on the Lotus Sutra and a belief that all people have an innate Buddha nature, and are capable of attaining enlightenment in their present lifetime. Nichiren Buddhists believe that the spread of Nichiren's teachings and their effect on practitioners' lives will eventually bring about a peaceful, just, and prosperous society. Sounds good to me! I was first introduced to SGI by leadership coach and friend Chuck Craytor , an SGI devotee for over 20 years. I was mesmerized by the power of even a small roomful of people chanting the key mantra, or Daimoku: Nam-myoho-renge-kyo . From Wiki: The basic practice of SGI members is based on faith, practice, and stu...