Flourishing Central (盛放的中環)

Walking through Central, one easily gets the impression that it's all steel, aluminum,  glass, and polished stone or marble surfaces. There is something in the human psyche which may find such an environment too tidy, too regular, too cold, too impersonal. Where is that apparently chaotic richness and abundance in the unplanned profusion of Nature in which that primitive loinging in us may find a measure of comfort?.

As if to assuage our sense of unease, here and there, along the corridors, the corners, the sides of the hallways or platforms one can find a wisp of Nature which beckons us from pots, bowls or vases or stands and even from a flower shop!.

Central Surfaces (中環的表面)

Central is unforgettable. Too much time there. Too many memories.
But scientists tell us that memories are not necessarily remembered or recollected.. 

Often they are more the products of creations than recollections.

 Whether they are recollections or creations, I'm certain that perceptions are never unbiased: we see what we wish to see.

Even supposedly objective realities are seldom as objective as we would like to believe or have others believe that they are, when we try to tell them about the "realities" of what we actually "see". 

The Central that I see now is certainly very different from the Central I used to see. Which is true, which false? Are both real or both false? Or partly each?  In the long run, does it really matter at all?



a mechanical caterpillar emerging from its box cocoon? It stands proudly, it head raised, on the very top of the edifice, secure of its foundation, surveying its surrounding, a symbol of the human will for domination.

Sweating it out on Cheung Chau (長洲浴汗)

Saturday was hot.

I thought I might get some sea breezes in Cheung Chau and took the ferry there.

On top of Hong Kong again (再度踏在香港之上)

It's been quite a while since I went up to the Peak. It's no fun being jostled and elbowed by the impatient horde from up North.

 

 
Now that their big vacation is over, perhaps one could perhaps take a peep around the peak again? I was lucky. Not very many of them around on the lookout tower.

A Quiet Stroll(不起眼的閑逛)

It seems that whenever people go to Tung Chung, they think only of the mall there with all the so-called "factory outlets" right above the MTR station or of the cable car station for bringing them up to the Big Buddha at Ngong Ping and little else.

But there is more to Tung Chung than all those items at "bargain" prices and being simply the transit spot for the Big Buddha.

There is a huge garden just by the coast

Yanagawa (柳川)

After the stunning spectacle of thousands of roses at Huis Ten Bosch and the fantastic meal there, we were taken to a quiet little town of slightly more than 70,000 in Fukuoka Prefecture called Yanagawa (柳 川市), formed by merging Yamato and Mitsuhashi (both from Yamato District). The city is famous for two things: it's the place of birth of a famous prolific modern Japanese poet and children's song writer Kitahara Hakushu (北原 白秋 ) (1885 – 1942), originally called Kitahara Ryūkichi (北原 隆吉), one of the top 5 Japanese tanka (短歌 or short poem) poets writing in Taishō (大正時代 )(1912-1926) and Shōwa (昭和時代 ) (1926-1989) periods and widely accepted as one of the most popular and important poets in modern Japanese literature, having more than 200 publications under his own name. The city is criss-crossed with nearly 500 km of wide canals. It's really pleasant to feel that sense of leisure and serenity as our small boat glided smoothly along a stretch of one of their canals by one of the 200 professional "punters" pushing their pole proudly and apparently effortlessly in his impeccably clean kimono.

The Japanese May holidays over, the boats lay empty

Tai O Again (重返大澳)

Tai O is one of those places one can go more than once to practice photography.

It's got hills, houses and boats

 
 leaves

Hotel, Food and the Dutch Night (酒店食物荷蘭夜)

The hotel where our  tour group stayed in Nagasaki is an interesting bit of Nagasaki history

It's a hotel built to commemorate the presence of the Portuguese traders and missionaries who first came to Nagasaki in 1543. To the left of the photo, one finds the front of a Catholic church "confessional".

The code of arms of the Nagasaki Monterey Hotel

The Other Side of Lamma (南丫的另一面)

Lamma Island is the 3rd largest island in Hong Kong, smaller only than Lantao and Hong Kong island,  well worth more than one visit.

On my way again!

 
 Clouds over Western

Exercises in Tai O (大澳練習)

Tai O is a place rich with colors and smells

the color of smell

Lamma in Mid-Summer (盛夏之南丫)

Clouds have always been an unending source of fascination for me.

  

 Heads rising on the pedestrian bridge to the outlying islands ferry piers

Heavy clouds overhanging Kowloon, our link to China

Symbol of the spirit of Hong Kong

Huis Ten Bosch Hario Island, Omura Bay, Sasebo, Nagasaki(長崎 佐世保市 大村灣 針尾島 豪斯登堡)

After stepping on to the dilapidated ruins of a bygone economic era of heavy metallurgical industries fueled by coal, our coach drove us into the glamor of another one based on titillating the human spirit and its capacity for fantasy.

This is the famous Huis Ten Ten Bosch (literally "House of Forest" in the suburbs of The Hague where Dutch Royal Family used to reside) (ハウステンボス Hausu Ten Bosu), a theme park on Hario Island in Omura Bay, Sasebo, Nagasaki  which does its best to "re-create" the feelings of an old Dutch town through life size copies of its hotels, villas, theatres, museums, shops and restaurants, canals, windmills, amusement rides, and a park planted in seasonal flowers. The site is close to Hirado (平户市), where the Dutch set up its first trading post in Japan in 1609.

A small Nagasaki museum, the harbor and Hashima (端島) or Gunkanjima (軍艦島)

After visiting the oldest arched stone bridge in Japan, we were taken to a small museum cum shop marginally related to Japanese history.

Tongs and pincers used in a Meiji workshop in Nagasaki ("meaning "long cape") , the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture, center of Portuguese and other European influence from 16th through 19th centuries. For a long time now, Nagasaki has been a trading and manufacturing city, but not until the Portuguese ship arrived in 1543 at Tanegashima Bay, when it was only a small fishing village. Soon after that Portuguese ships were plying busily between Japan and the rest of the world, especially between Japan and China  because at the time, official contact between which was prohibited on account of various incidents in the South China Sea involving Wokou pirates (倭寇). The Portuguese merchants served the much needed role of intermediaries between the two nations.

A day in Nagasaki (長崎一天)

When it became all dark, it was time for us to leave Mount Inasa for our meals which we were told would be the best on the trip costing slightly less than 9000 yens. We were curious.
 

As a starter, we would have some assorted seafood cold cuts consisting of various types of sashimis of fish, octopus, shellfish plus the relevant Japanese garnish, beans, bean curds, tampura etc. The most unusual for me was thin slices of whale meat, which doesn't taste like fish at all. I'm not surprised. After all, the whale is not a fish, but a mammal. Some tour members didn't like it. But for me, it was OK. It hasn't got any strong flavors. Rather crispy and chewy and goes well if dipped in the sweet soy sauce with fresh Japanese mustard.

Then we had another sashimi platter with salmon, tuna and a special kind of fish whose name I don't remember. They all tasted good because very fresh.

From Shimabara to Nagasaki (從島原至長崎)

After having had our fill of the sight and smell of Japanese "hells" , we were on way to our next destination, the city of Nagasaki (長崎)



We're leaving Shimabara

We passed through a pier

Unzen Hotsprings National Park (雲仙嶽國家公園)

After visiting the Unzen National Park for the azaleas, we went to another tourist hot spot in the Unzen area of at the eastern end of the Shimabara-hantō (島原半島) of Nagasaki Prefecture. It's a literally hot spot!  it's located on the foot of an active volcano  called Unsen-dake which includes the 4,460 feet Fugen-sake (普賢嶽)  which started tremors in late 1791 and then finally erupted in February 1792 when hot molten lava continuously poured out from its vents for some 2 months, ending with a huge explosion in May 1792 which caused an entire mountain to slide into the Ariake-kai (有明海 ) sea, the largest bay in Kyushu, leading to a tsunami with waves more than 100 meter-high and resulted in more than 15,000 deaths! Earth tremors re-started in July 1990, flames started to spout in November again and then in June 1991 huge quantities of molten lava suddenly began pouring down from its sides, causing 43 deaths and destroying some 180 houses. The last recorded lava flow was in February 1995. Since then, its volcanic activities seems to have subsided. it's not known when it will erupt again.

Before reaching the hot spot, we passed through one hill after another all full of blooming wild azaleas.

Everywhere we went, we saw such steaming gases filled with the peculiar acrid smell of sulphur.

Japanese Azaleas at Unzen National Park (雲仙國家公園的日本杜鵑花)

According to the Wiki,  the flower called Rhododendron (Greek ῥόδον rhódon "rose" and δένδρον déndron "tree") is a huge genus with 1,024 species, either evergreen or deciduous growing mainly in Asia but can also be found also in the Southern Highlands of the Appalachian Mountains of North America. During the trip, we were brought to see, not just wisteria, but also some Japanese azaleas, which is a sub-genera of the genus rhododendron. Like the wisteria, the Japanese azaleas originally came from China but they have been growing them for centuries. Traditionally, the Japanese divide the azaleas into two groups called respectively the Tsutsuji (ever green) and the Satsuki I (literally the 5th month of the lunar calendar). The Tsutsuji azaleas bloom one lunar cycle after the spring equinox whilst the Satsuki bloom two lunar cycles after the vernal equinox.

This is an azalea park at Unsen

We were so afraid that we wouldn't be able to to take any photos there because it had been raining all morning.

Kumamoto Food (熊本美食)

If we wish to check out whether we can rightly describe the Japanese as a  meticulous people, then one of the best ways to do that must surely be to see how they deal with their food.

After visiting the Kumamoto Castle, we were taken to our restaurant for a fairly good meal. But we were a bit early, so we were given some time to walk around a small square full of shops specializing on all kinds of snacks, drinks and preserved food.

The Kumamoto Castle (熊本城)

The highlight of our visit to the capital of the Kumamoto Prefecture is the similarly named Kumamoto Castle (熊本城), whose history is intimately intertwined with the complicated fabric of Japanese history, especially those events associated with the modernization of Japan in the period of Japanese history called the  Meiji Inshin (Meiji Restoration) (明冶維新) (1868-1912), a movement for the radical reform and transformation of the economic, military, political and cultural structure of Japan and led to its rapid rise in power in East Asia, a movement which gave Japan victories first in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894-95 in which The Qing Government lost Taiwan and sovereignty over Korea to the Japanese, then in the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 in which Japan defeated Russia and took over its control of Dalien, Mukden and the Liaotung Peninsula and Manchuria, something which in turn led to the downfall of the  Qing Government in the 1911 Nationalist Revolution also the May 4th Movement in 1921.

Our first view of the famous hilltop castle erected on two high stone bases which taper up, shallower lower down and rising steeper and steeper until they become vertical at the top, an architectural style called teikakushiki nawabari (梯郭式縄張), which fortifies the castle entrance koguchi (虎口) by connecting several barriers called umadashi(馬出) along an axis rather than enclosing one within the other. Since umadashi usually consist of a walled barrier enclosing a space, the continuous series of barriers and spaces thus resemble the rungs of a ladder. 

During the pre-modern era before the opening of Japan by Commodore Perry of America in 1853-1856, the Kumamoto Castle was part of Higo no kun (Higo Province) (肥後国)  and was associated with 3 famous Japanese clans viz. the Katō Clan (加藤氏) (1588-1632) and the Hosokawa Clan (細川氏) (1632-1871) a Japanese samurai clan descended from the Seiwa Genji (清和源氏) a branch of the Minamoto-shi (Minamoto Clan) (源氏) originating from Minamoto no Tsunemoto (源経基) (894-961) which can be traced ultimately to Seiwa-tennō (Emperor Seiwa) (清和天皇) (850–878) himself, through the Ashikaga-shi (Ashikaga clan)(足利氏), a prominent Japanese samurai clan which ruled Japan from roughly 1336 to 1573 and whose members established the Muromachi or Ashikaga Shogunate (military regency period) (室町/足利將軍攝政時代)(1336-1467) and wielded considerable power in the Sengoku period (戰國時代)(1467–1600) and the Edo period (江戸時代) or Tokugawa period (徳川時代) (1603-1868). 

The Aso Volcano (阿蘇火山)

It's time to leave our hotel.

A last look at the Aso Volcanoes ( 阿蘇火山) from afar before making the journey to look at it much closer

The foothills of the volcanoes and the surrounding mountains seemed bathed in a thick apron of white clouds.