Wednesday Weirdness: Beni-imo Man!

(Nana and I are traveling until July 7, but we've put a couple posts in the pipeline to tide you over until then.)

Beni-imo (紅芋) is an Okinawan variety of sweet potato. It's actually deep purple inside, and very sweet. What you see above is an advertisement for the classic Okinawan souvenir: half-shell cookies filled with a sweet paste made from beni-imo. You can also find beni-imo ice cream and these beni-imo fritters.

We also found some beni-imo sticks fried in black sesame batter.

Apparently, beni-imo is a fairly sensitive variety: there are strict bans on importing satsuma-imo strains of sweet potato from Kyushu, with signs posted throughout the airport warning against the dire consequences of any illicit inter-sub-species interaction. (These are not to be confused with the signs warning kids against picking up old WWII grenades, which kind of look like potatoes. More on that later.)

Where in the world?

As posted to my Facebook wall, and successfully guessed by college friend Diana: where are we? A city in Japan with deer on its sewer grates. The famous deer if this city were stolen in an episode of Carmen Sandiego. Where are we?

Bonus: the second grate is from a trip earlier this spring. The text reads "Zamami," the name of a small island in that prefecture. Where were we?

Angkor Day 4: Angkor Wat

(Nana and I are traveling until July 7, but we've put a couple posts in the pipeline to tide you over until then.)

I've wanted to see Angkor Wat since I was a kid. I remember sitting in the old family room in Pittsburgh watching a TV show about the Khmer temples, recently re-opened to the world after decades of civil war. Like most in the West, I had known nothing about this sprawling Southeast Asian empire, a state which I found completely unacceptable. I resolved to visit these temples, a resolution which eventually crystallized into a desire to "see Angkor Wat."

No, not on the shirt - behind you! (And all around you.)

Of course, I wasn't the only one - Angkor Wat is now one of Asia's biggest tourist sites, bustling with sightseers even on a scorching day at the height of the Cambodian summer. Like many of those tourists, I was surprised to find that Angkor Wat, despite its size, is only a fraction of the Khmer Empire's architectural legacy. (And not even my favorite fraction - that would have to be the Bayon.)

But I was also surprised to find that Angkor Wat, unlike so many tourist attractions around the world, actually looks much bigger in person. None of the photos below comes close to capturing the size of the place: Angkor Wat is less a temple than it is a city, built on a scale that dwarfs any individual piece of the whole. In many ways, it is literally too big to comprehend.

The view across the moat. Those tiny-looking towers in the distance? Remember them.

For instance: the western gate of Angkor Wat, shown below. It's larger than the central tower of most surviving Angkor temples, even after its uppermost levels have collapsed.

Just one fairly forgettable piece of the Angkor Wat complex.

Behind that huge wall - itself behind a huge moat - is a giant plaza, with five tiny-looking towers at the far end of a huge stone causeway.

In the old days, this space would have housed a bustling holy city - built largely of low wooden structures that have not survived.

Note how you can barely spot this building in the previous photo. The little wooden sign in front is taller than a grown man.

Inside the western entrance to the main structure, which itself occupies less than 20% of the total footprint of the temple, are three large ritual pools.

Here's one. They're drained these days, for conservation.

Here's another.

Oh, and did I mention that nearly every square inch of each gallery is covered in decorative carvings?

Angkor Wat is home to bas-relief carvings at least as spectacular as those of the Bayon - though in this case they're entirely mythological or historical, whereas the Bayon reliefs include scenes from everyday life.

Of course, all of this is just the ground level of the main structure: behind and above these galleries are five high towers atop a stone terrace, representing the holy Mt. Meru of Hindu mythology.

Starting the climb.

This picture begins to give some sense of scale: you can see the western gate below and to the left of the yellow balloon, plus the library mentioned earlier just right of center. Note that this is the view from one of the intermediate terraces - not quite the top of the temple mountain.

Looking down on an intermediate courtyard.

One of the four "smaller" towers atop the central structure. 

The central tower itself - tall in its own right, even if it weren't atop a  high terrace. All together, the tower is 65 meters (about 215 feet) off the ground.

So how does one even begin to understand such an enormous structure? One common way is to contrast Angkor Wat with the Bayon (reminder: the one with all the face towers): Angkor Wat is huge, classical, symmetrical, impressive; the Bayon is small, ornate, asymmetrical, intimate.

Another is the tried-and-true archaeological method of extrapolating (sometimes wildly) from tiny details. For instance: Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east and its mythological bas reliefs are read in reverse of the usual order, just like the rituals in a Hindu funerary rite. Thus some claim that Angkor Wat must be the world's largest mausoleum, giving Suryavarman II the standing record for world's biggest grave. Then again, there are a half-dozen competing theories to account for all of Angkor Wat's numerous quirks.

On a personal level, even a couple months later, we're both still processing this experience. As a building, Angkor Wat it simply larger than a single mind. Which makes sense, as its design and construction involved countless thousands of laborers and artisans, each of whom shaped the final product over the decades of its construction. Even today, the people who use the site continue to shape it: there are active Buddhist shrines scattered throughout the structure . . .

. . . coupled with ongoing efforts to restore and conserve Angkor Wat for future generations.

A badly weathered face of the central tower.

Restoration work on one side of the central tower.

Wednesday Weirdness: Various Kinds of Salt [from] All Over the World

That is, in fact, the name of this delightful little shop on Naha, Okinawa's Kokusai-dori shopping street.

They do not fail to deliver on promises: here's a huge table of salts, free for the tasting.

They even seemed to offer master classes through which pupils could be trained as "salt sommeliers."

Nana and Kath may have found a new calling.

A Month of Madness, Some of it Welcome: or, Making Excuses

Please believe me when I say I hate writing about not writing. But there come times in every amateur blogger's career when the demands of actual life must take precedence over the demands of the loyal dozens who read our blog.

Now is such a time: with the last frantic weeks of the school year upon us - made even more frantic by a bunch of travel for both business and pleasure - it seems highly unlikely that we'll be blogging much between now and early July, when we get back to the States. Between now and then, we'll be averaging over two flights per week - crossing the Pacific twice (once north to south, once west to east, roughly speaking), plus the equator once in each direction.

We'll still try to post something from each destination, and we'll try to keep friends and family informed, but don't be alarmed if we drop off the radar a bit.

Chiang Mai: Lila Thai Massage

Besides the whole elephant thing, Justin and my favorite thing in Chiang Mai was Thai massage. I had never had a Thai massage and Justin had never had a massage of any kind, but after an arduous day of elephant riding we decided to give it a shot. We were riding around looking for another place when one of Thailand's afternoon thundershowers hit. Hopping off the scooter to wait out the storm, we found ourselves accidentally in front of the storefront of one of Lila Thai Massage's 4 Chiang Mai locations. God watches out for fools and expats, and particularly expats who are total fools.

Justin had been intrigued by Lonely Planet's listing of the Chiang Mai Womens' Prison Massage Center. According to the Kamlangjai Project, a program for female inmates affiliated with princess from the Thai royal family, Thailand has the fourth highest number of incarcerated women in the world (remarkable, seeing as the leaders - USA, China, and Russia - have vastly higher populations, and a fondness with incarceration). Women offenders, presumably nonviolent ones (it seems drugs is a common offense), are trained as masseuses to allow them find legitimate work when they are released. We had a similar program in Ohio where I grew up, where inmates could train in landscaping. The women complete 180 hours of training and then must pass a national licensing exam.

It seems, however, that the women had trouble finding massage parlors which would hire them. Hence Lila, a chain of massage parlors staffed by these former inmates.

So Justin and I went in, not really knowing what we were getting into but game. The staff all has enough English to get through the spa "menu." We chose the 1 hour Thai Traditional Massage. The price is excellent - 180 baht, or about $6, for the full hour. The lowest I saw near the old town was 150 ($5). Things start off with a foot bath, since feet are a bit gross in Thailand. I mean, culturally, they're considered dirty and low (the furthest part of the body from the head, which is the spiritual center). But they're also literally gross because it's hot and you've been walking around in sandals all day. So I fully support the foot bath.

Check out the family cankles!

After, you change into a comfy pajama-ish pair of pants and shirt and the Thai massage begins. Justin read a description of Thai massage as "like assisted yoga." Basically, imagine that massage and wrestling had a baby. Your masseuse will use her entire body to give you a working-over. Jean-Claude Van Damme's critically-acclaimed masterpiece Kickboxer includes the immortal line "They kick differently here! With knees, and elbows!" Well, in Chiang Mai, they massage differently: with knees, and elbows, and feet, and forearms, and you name it.

You have to be in good shape to even have a Thai massage. Here are some positions you might find yourself in during a Thai massage:

The Full Nelson:

http://www.ratana-thaimassagespa.com.au/our-packages

The Dirty Dancing Warm-Up:

http://www.thaimassagechicago.us/thaimassagechicagofaq.html

The "Bates from Downton Abbey" Special:

http://www.little-jasmine.com/

And of course, the Kidney Heimlich:

http://www.lovebeijingmassage.com/thai-massage.asp

And the crazy thing is that all these contorted poses work: Thai massage feels amazing. It's like a methodical low-impact workout and stretch for every single cell in your body. Afterwards, you have all the great mellowness of a massage combined with the virtuous endorphin buzz of a workout. Justin and I went on a bit of a binge and had three Thai massages in six days, and honesty could probably have gone for at least another one or two. The women at Lila were terrific (we tried 3 of their 4 locations) and I strongly recommend them. If only they'd open up a Japan branch... at Chiang Mai prices!

Wednesday Weirdness: Avocado Sashimi

Turns out it's a thing.

I don't know about you, but when I think "interesting," I think "the history of the avocado in Japanese cuisine."

It may surprise you to learn that avocado is not native to Japan. It actually entered Japanese cuisine via California, where transplanted Japanese sushi chefs were looking for a cheap, palatable alternative to toro, or fatty tuna belly.

The Japanese, it turns out, are obsessed with toro, thanks to its rich, fatty flavor and creamy texture. But if you don't mind dropping the tuna-ish taste of toro, avocado is actually a decent approximation. Savvy chefs didn't have to think too hard about swapping out an expensive fish product with little or no distribution in the US for something that, in California, literally grows on trees. Everywhere.

Hence the California roll was born and subsequently transplanted back to Japan, where it remains the only staple of American sushi you can regularly find on the menu. Before long, the avocado took off on its own, popping up in a variety of sushi and non-sushi dishes. These days, reasonably priced avocados can be found in most grocery stores. In fact, they're typically cheaper than they are in the eastern US, and for us at least they've become an important staple as we've tried to trim our consumption of meat.

And avocado sashimi may be the single easiest recipe in the world.

1. Slice an avocado or two.
2. Squeeze a lemon wedge over top.
3. Dip in soy sauce with wasabi to taste.

 Delicious and nutritions.

Today's Lesson

アボカドさしみをします。

a-bo-ka-do sa-shi-mi shi-ma-su

avocado sashimi make

(I) make avocado sashimi.