JAPAN

I went to Osaka, to my grandfather's cousin's house. Her name is Michiko, and while we were there she helped me put on a Japanese kimono. 

 

 I went to Kyoto. This is a photo of us and our cousin Miyoko and her family.  While we were there we went to a traditional Kanko festival where a bunch of men young and old wearing traditional clothing representing the five towns carry their town's shrines to the same place. 

 

I went to a town named Gobo and stayed with Takakazu and Kayoko. This is Kayoko holding a sword that she uses for Tai Chi. She taught me how to open a Japanese fan.  She also taught me some Japanese phrases: "arigato gozaimas" means thank you, "ohio gozaimas" means good morning, "kombanwa" means good night. 

 

 This is Michiko and I having fun, posing like Japanese girls do for photos.  Michiko taught me how to say "kay ko des" which means no thank you.    

 

These are two of Michiko's grandchildren Kazuma and Manaka in Nagoya. Their father is Michiko's son Ken and their mother is Ken's wife Yuko. 

 

This is my cousin Yuya and me with the artist Hashizume Kiyoshinuki. He made this painting by carving the design on canvas and soaking it in handmade indigo dye.

 

And here are a few more photos from Japan:

 

 Takakazu and Kayoko

 

Kentaro and Junko

 

In front of Taka and Miyoko's home in Kyoto, with Miyoko's daughter Hanna and Taka's mother.

 

The Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto 

 

cousin Ken Otokubo in Nagoya

 

 hand washing tradition at To-ji temple, with Taka, Miyoko and Yuya

 

and Hello Kitty

 

 

Japan

 

TAIWAN

I went to a building in Taiwan called Taipei 101 but in Chinese they call it Yi Ling Yi.

In Taipei there are lots of night markets which are streets full of food stands and other things. In one of the night markets my mom made me try stinky tofu. It smelled sooo bad, it smelled like a rat that has been dead for 100 years. But it tasted delicious!

 

This is a another photo of a night market in Taiwan.

 

Something that is popular in Taipei are surgical masks. Almost everyone wears them! But we don't 

know why they do.

 

While we were in Taiwan we saw many rice fields. When you plant rice you have to flood the field with water and then when the rice plants turn goldish you have to drain the field and harvest them. 

 

Another thing that is popular is shaved ice with condensed milk.  I thought it was good.



This is a Buddhist temple. There are many temples with beautiful roofs.  The woman next to me is my grand aunt, who I call "xiao puo puo."

 

One more thing about Taiwan is that 7-ELEVENs are everywhere, and people can pay their bills at any 7-Eleven and even pay for parking on the street.

 

And here are some more photos from Taiwan:

 

 

and

and

 

 

 



I ate worms!

Chuntacuru is a type of grub worm that is found on a chunta plant.  Chuntacuru is a Quechua word.  That is the language of the Native Americans in Ecuador.  We went to a small town in Amazonia called Sapo Rumi.  We stayed with a family who are friends of ours and they cooked breakfast and lunch for us, and for dinner we had chuntacuru.  Native Americans that live in the Amazonia jungle eat chuntacuru for protein. 

Our friends loaned us rain boots so we could walk in the river to see an old petroglyph from more than 600 years ago.  A petroglyph is a story carved onto a rock with symbols. 

 

We also played some soccer.

 

More Spanish School

I just finished another week of Spanish school at Raices Spanish School in Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador.  The name of my teacher was Cati and she taught me songs, how to conjugate verbs and the gerund. 

Full Moon Party

In Ecuador we went to a full moon party.  There was drumming, music, dancing, juggling and fire juggling, unicycles and fire dancing.  The party was at the same place we are volunteering at, called La Biblioteca at Arte del Mundo.

 

This week we have been working at Arte del Mundo.  I did some mopping, sweeping, sorting books, preparing art projects, and reading with the kids.

 

 

 

 



Fruits and Foods in Ecuador

Here in Ecuador I have tried many types of fruits that I never had before.  Some of my favorite fruits here are: Granadilla, Maracuyá, Guanabana and Babaco.  And one of my favorite fruit juices is from "tomate de árbol" which means tree tomato.   This photo is of a fruit salad that I made for my lunch out of granadilla, banana and papaya.

Here is another food that is popular in Ecuador.  It is called Cuy, but the English name for it is Guinea pig.  In this photo I am crying because I don't like seeing their faces on the grill.  I have not eaten any Cuy.

Colombia

We spent almost all of February in Colombia. We went to Medellin, Guatapé, Bogota and Villa de Leyva. Here are some things that I found interesting in Colombia:

• All the milk in the supermarkets is in BAGS!!!!!!
• There are very many parks all over and some have swimming pools, exercise equipment, weightlifting, running tracks, basketball, yoga classes, archery, playgrounds and many different soccer games, one for girls, boys, adults and toddlers.
• In Medellin and Bogota, every single time we wanted to cross a street we had to RUN FOR OUR LIVES!!!!!
• The people in Colombia treat a coffee farmer named Juan Valdez like he was a king.
• I also saw a lot of the art of the famous Colombian  artists Fernado Botero and Nadin Ospina. Botero made many sculptures that are all over Medellin
  

and he made paintings for example his own version of the Mona Lisa

 

And here are some other random photos of Colombia:

And I had a great time visiting an old friend from P.S. 3 named Alicia.  She moved back to Bogota after first grade.

How Native Americans make a Chacara bag

Maybe some of you already know that I love textile arts, and I love making them too.  Yesterday I learned how Native Americans called the Hato Chami in Panama make Chacara bags that are used for carrying things like wood and sometimes for carrying babies.  There are a lot of steps and it is hard work.  Here are a few videos that show the process.
First they cut a big leaf from a wild pineapple plant.

Then she cuts off the edges which have little needles.

Next they bring the leaf back to their house and lay it on a log and with a special tool they scrape the fibers off of the leaf. 

Then she cleans off the fibers using water and then hangs them to dry on the wood bars of the house, and they get bleached by the light of the full moon.

After the threads have spent enough time in the moonlight, they dye the them different colors using fruits and vegetables, and then they weave and sew the threads into different patterns.

When we went back to the shop that all the women in the village share, and my parents said I could buy one thing, and after looking at everything and trying on dresses and shirts I chose a bag.  I love my Charcara bag.     

November 2014 to Jan 2015

Hello friends,

Sorry I didn't post anything for such a long time.  So, now I will write a summary of the travels so far.

Granada
First I went to Managua, Nicaragua and then the day after we took a bus to Granada, Nicaragua and took spanish lessons in a school called NicaraguaMia.  My teacher's name was Fatima. My parents were taking classes next to me with a teacher named Jarlan.  We were separated by a bamboo wall.  Some of the favorite phrases I learned so far have been "quieres jugar?" or "jugar con migo" which means "do you want to play with me?" and "play with me."  Also "no te preocupes" means "don't worry", and "no pase nada" means "nothing happened."  And "Como no?" means "How could you not?" 

Matagalpa
After Granada we went to Matagalpa, Nicaragua.  In Matagalpa we stayed in a hostal called Martina's Place. The hostal was named after their five year old girl Martina. I couldn't talk to her that much because I didn't know enough Spanish.  Martina's friends came over to play at the hostal and the two girls spoke English. Their names are Metzy and Xochitl.  We became good friends. Then we stayed at Metzy's and Xochitl's house for a week.  Their family was working for S.O.L. that stands for Seeds Of Learning. They build schools for children.
Here is a photo of us at the school they just built.

Also in Matagalpa, there were a lot of chickens on the roads.  Here is a photo of one.

Panama
After Nicaragua, we came to Panama.  The first place we went to was Bocas del Toro, a group of islands in Panama. We took a very little, different and beautiful plane to get there.  My favorite part of Bocas del Toro was Playa Estrella. In English that means star fish beach, and here is a photo of a star fish I saw there.

The next part of Panama we went was Boquete. In Boquete we went to a laundry mat and they gave away our laundry by mistake or so we think, we still don't have our clothes back but I hope they return them. Basically it rains every day in Boquete, but the best part of Boquete are the rainbows.  In Spanish a rainbow is un arco iris. 
Here is a photo of a double rainbow:

 

And here is another rainbow we saw near Boquete in a town called Cerro Punta:



 

To get away from the rain for a while, we drove to a beach in Panama called Playa Las Lajas.  In Las Lajas, I did some boogie boarding and body surfing.  Here is a video of when I was first practicing body surfing with a girl named Marisol who lives in Las Lajas.

  

And a video of boogie boarding

 

 

Volcan

Now we are in a town called Volcan, Panama.  All around in Central America there are many stone sculptures.  Here in Volcan we met a few of the sculptors that make these stone sculptures.  Below is a video of a man making one.  When he took a break, he invited us into his house to show us some other sculptures he made and also some artifacts that are over 2000 years old that he found around Volcan.  After the video, there are photos of other stone sculptures that we've seen on this trip.