Tokyo - Zen, Sustainablity

Arrived Tokyo last night. Very peaceful yet vibrant place. How do the Japanese manage to be relaxed, energetic and quiet? For now I'll put it down to Zen. Here to meet with some of the rapidly growing PwC Japan Sustainability Services Team to talk about their recent success.

Tokyo Tower Park in Autumn Splendor

Did you know Zen is a form of buddhism that travelled to Japan and America from Nepal? Well that is according to Peter Maththiessen, famous explorer and author of such informative books as 'The Snow Leopard' which is a must read for those searching for work / life balance.

Did you also know that the "ka" used at the end of sentence in Japanese to denote a question is also used in Tetun, the national language of Timor-Leste, for the same purpose? Strange.

Japan has a unique role to play in International Development and Sustainability in general. It has large financial and technical capacity to assist developing companies and is the unenviable economic position of wanting to assist these undeveloped economies in order to support its own struggling system. There is hope that in the future the role Japan takes will have a strong sustainability focus, for the benefit of developing countries and Japan alike. I like what I see so far.

Autumn Garden at Tsurutaro Kataoka Tofu Restaurant

Great big read

I love reading
Stimulating the imagination or stimulating the mind
Theres nothing quite like
A good blog find.

http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com

Needs a decent Sunday afternoon to do it justice,  it is good for stimulating the mind, or trying to understand it, or to marvel at its complexities and nuances. It is a blog that does a much better and focused job of explaining philosophy and in particular the philosophy of the mind.

Recently, they even got onto Climate Change! Check it out.

The world is small (& round)

The world is small. When viewed in parts.

I'm in Bali again. Flight over gave a great view of the part of the world that is Atauro and Timor, Wetar and the Alor islands, and the rest of Nusa Tengara Timor - Flores, Komodo, Rincha, Sumabawa, Lombok and Bali. Got me a little nostalgic about the amazing kayaking trip I did with dad in 2002 through those islands and also made me realise how close all these islands are, including Timor. On a clear day you can see Alor from the beach in Dili. For sure you can see Alor from the hills south of Dili on the way to Ermera. Got me thinking that if I had my kayak I could kayak across to Atauro and even onto Alor or Wetar.

That got me thinking if I could do it, for sure the Timorese and Indonesians at one stage before they were Timorese and Indonesians had done it. Whats that Noam Chiomsky / Max Weinreich said about a dialect - it "is any variety of a language spoken by a specific community of people. ... with an army and a navy."

Then I had dinner on the beach in Bali and got talking to the mother of 2 little kids. Turns out she had grown up in Maroopna and had even gone to school in Cobram for a year or two when she was growing up. Now she lives in Bali (since Tuesday!).

The world is small. When viewed in parts. Can't we all just get along?

PS. The last US troops pulled out of Iraq yesterday...

A lil present for Charlotte

It started as a simple map but got a bit cluttered when I added all the trips!

East and West Map yet to come! East Map includes the Maliana Hot Springs trip with dad. The trips are not actually in chronological order, just drawing order!

Trip 1 - To Turiscai and back in the rain. Read the blog post here.

Trip 2 - To Hatu-Builico (oops, wrong name on map!) at night. Climbed Ramalau. Read the blog post here.

Trip 3 - Haha, Whoops! isn't there something about bad luck and 3's? Great attention to detail Damian.

Trip 4 - The Energy Needs Assessment with Renato on the back of the bike. Read the blog post here.

Trip 5 & 6 - Two seperate trips to Liqudoe, one when it was red/yellow & dry and once when it was green!

Trip 7 - This weekends planned trip to Hatu-Builico and beyond. Going to be remote! Post soon.

I got my helmet back!

I was riding home from a joy ride to Liqudoe with Paolo on the weekend when I spotted my very precious stolen helmet! I was very very annoyed when this helmet was stolen and this frustration and anger bubbled out of me when I spotted the helmet on the street. I promptly locked up the back wheel in front of the Presidents Palace and the crowd assembled for the Independence celebrations. Dropped a U-Turn and roared off after the Helmet. I raced passed a truck load of transit police, over the canal on Comorro Road and finally caught up with the culprit outside Tiger Fuels. It was definitely my helmet, albeit with a few new stickers.

I hemmed the other bike rider behind a taxi and some other bikes and screamed at him to pull over, waving my left arm to tell him to pull over. He tried to duck around the inside of the taxi then the outside but luckily a parked car and myself kept him on the straight and narrow. More yelling and hand waving and with me guiding him to the gutter he pulled over.

He was riding a 125cc Yamaha motorbike but by no means looked rich or tough. His pillion passenger was a bit bigger but I hardly noticed him, he was grinning. I was making a scene and he looked pretty shocked. Still yelling, somehow some rational thought got through to my sub-conscious and after telling him that he was wearing my helmet which had been stolen 3 months before, I asked him where he bought it. Of course, he had bought it from a friend and it had cost him $60. I explained it was my helmet, showed him the Australian Standard sticker and demanded it back. He rather feebly said that he had paid $60 for it. I had paid $50 for the best helmet I could find in Timor, and I told him he could have it in exchange for my helmet. Amazingly, he accepted, I got my helmet back!.

At this point I calmed down a lot. Then, I explained that his 'friend' also had my gloves and that I would be willing (not really) to pay $10 for the other glove (read the full story on why I have one glove and his friend has one glover in this blog post). I gave them my number but never expected to hear from them. 

The next day they called me and wanted to meet. It seemed like they had the other glove. We arranged a meet and I gathered a 'crew' for the show-down. Paolo and James were back-up and we headed to Timor Plaza for the meet. Unfortunately, they didn't have the gloved and just wanted another $10 because he had paid $60 for the helmet and I had only paid $50 for the one he ended up with. Fat chance.

When I re-tell this story I'm surprised at my own stupidity and the amygdala reaction to fight. I've never been in a fight in my life and I don't harbour much frustration or anger normally. I'm not sure why this is different, but I guess the blatant act of crime right under my nose might have been the reason. I guess in some situations, you can never know what you would do until it happens.

Moral of the story: don't buy stolen goods. if you don't buy it, they wont steal it.