Blog
chipple.net
May 20, 2010
Trip to India - Auroville
Picking up from last time, we went down from Chennai to Pondicherry, though our main destination was a place called Auroville just some 6 km north, where we stayed for 3 nights from March 1 to 4.
Auroville is a community founded in the late 60's by Mirra Alfassa, referred to as The Mother in India. The main part of Auroville consists of a village of a closed community, living together with nature and self-dependent in many ways. Located in the woods with paths to get everywhere either by bicycle or scooter, entrance of cars and outsiders is restricted. There are however guest houses where people from outside can come to visit, it's also the way to start integrating for those who wish to become part of the international community. Auroville attracts visitors from India and also everywhere in the world. It's a very relaxing place for sure.
We stayed at a guest house called Afsanah, a beautiful place with Japanese-style gardens and an excellent Indian cook who learned French cuisine in Pondicherry. Our guest house was located in the northwest across from another called Vérité where are held yoga classes. It takes some 10 minutes to get from the entrance of Auroville (Visitor's Centre) by bicycle. We used bicycles lent by our guest house, they're old, bulky and take some getting used to, but they're good enough for getting around. Other bicycles we rented in Pondicherry where quite similar too.
An important part of Auroville is a large gold-plated structure called Matrimandir. Located in a big garden, it's a symbol of peace and perfection and is a place of meditation. Guests are only allowed inside after a few days in Auroville, having to first go to a "viewing point" and then book a guided visit that happens once a day. Matrimandir itself was completed just 2 years ago after 37 years of building by Auroville's residents. The surrounding gardens are still underway.
When taking a guided tour of Matrimandir, it's possible to get inside the large dome. Everything is white and silent, and the only lighting source is sunlight that's directed down each floor using large crystals. Entering Matrimandir everyone leaves their shoes outside, and before entering the main meditation room we had to wear provided white socks. Touching the white walls or floor isn't allowed, to avoid stains. We then sat there on a white cushion and blanket for some time. This place truly feels out of this world.
To get between Auroville and Pondicherry, we first used an auto rickshaw several times, but later we realized that it can be even cheaper to book an Auroville air conditioned taxi with a nice driver who speaks English. Still the rickshaw can be better for feeling the environment.
You can view a map of a day we went from Auroville to Pondicherry and back, at Gmaps Pedometer.
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr: March 1, March 2, March 3
Posted on May 20, 2010 at 21:55 | Permalink | Tweet | Trackback (0) | Comments (0)
May 5, 2010
Tokyo's Coolest Sound
It's been a few days already since I launched the new site Tokyo's Coolest Sound. It's basically the "Agenda" blog that was located in this site, moved into a better place where it can grow some more.
I had been thinking of doing this for about 3 years, when the name and design were already pretty much set, but it's only at the beginning of this year that I got the coolestsound.jp domain that I had been wanting, and then I started integrating the site only little by little until now.
The live show reports I used to feature here will also be posted there from now on, so if you like them I suggest subscribing to the new site's RSS feed, or if you use Facebook you can follow the NetworkedBlog. I also post on Twitter as @coolestsound.
I hope you like it!
Oh btw, I will be on radio this Thursday! The show is teknohauswt which contains a 10-minute segment "Elektel's Lounge" hosted by club-lounge unit Elektel. I've been their fan for over 10 years, since the old mp3.com days, and they invited me to present some music that I like.
This is a mini FM station that can only be heard in the west side of Tokyo, FM West Tokyo (FM西東京) 84.2MHz, teknohauswt starts at 23:00 every Thursday. Elektel's Lounge is featured every 2 weeks and I'll be their guest for the next 4 times (2 months!). Dates are: May 6, May 20, June 3 and June 17.
Posted on May 5, 2010 at 09:30 | Permalink | Tweet | Trackback (0) | Comments (3)
May 4, 2010
Trip to India part 2 - Pondicherry
After having spent one day in Chennai, it was already time to head for our next destination, Pondicherry (actually known as Puducherry since 2006). We left our hotel around 9 AM on March 1st, and took an auto rickshaw for CMBT (Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminal).
We were a bit confused as to which bus to take for Pondy, but we were determined to take an air conditioned bus. Walking by the buses several drivers would ask us "Pondy? I go to Pondy!" even though their bus' destination showed something else, probably not a direct trip. I wouldn't trust those buses that say "Super Luxury". :) Most also looked old with the windows open meaning no A/C. A random guy passed by and told us to go to gate #1 for Pondy with A/C, and a nearby driver got in a long argument with him! Anyway so we got to gate #1 and there were the nice-looking busses that clearly said "Pondicherry". The driver took our money, Rs.170 each though we paid with a Rs.500 bill, and we were given a receipt to get change much later on the way. We were set for the 3½ hour trip.
The road that leads to Pondy is called East Coast Road (or ECR). We had a nice time watching the scenery.
We arrived at the bus terminal past noon, and our first priority was to get food! We got to eat vegetarian "meals" at a nearby restaurant, on their air conditioned floor, for only Rs.32 each (about ¥70). What they call "meals" stands for a variety of curry, pickles, yogurt, etc. served with rice and/or chapati (a kind of bread), served on a banana leaf. It was pretty much our first experience eating rice with our bare hands. The waiter there was happy that we liked the food and kept giving us more (meals are "all you can eat").
These photos are from lunch the next day at Surguru Restaurant
(Chronogically, we then went to our main destination, Auroville, but I keep this for the next part. First let's continue with Pondy.)
Pondicherry is a former French colony, and therefore there are many bits of French throughout town. Actually half of the town is considered as the French part, on the ocean side, and the rest is the Indian part. The French part has French-style street names, places like a French Lycée, and many French tourists. Aside from the tourists I didn't really find an opportunity to speak French though. Streets are often decorated with Kolam, drawn flower designs. These reminded us greatly of Japanese artist SASU. I wonder if she took inspiration from India..!
On the next day we spent the afternoon in Pondy again, renting bicycles for Rs.40 each (about ¥85) for the day. The bicycles are old, heavy and quite high, probably dating from the 80's or older. Still they're very practical to get around town quickly.
At the end of the afternoon when handing back our bicycles, the man at the shop recommended us to visit the Ganesha (the elephant god) temple nearby, saying that Ganesha is his brother. We went there and finally found a lot of Ganesha stickers, more beautiful Koram designs, and the real Ganesha!
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr: March 1, March 2, March 3
Posted on May 4, 2010 at 00:38 | Permalink | Tweet | Trackback (0) | Comments (0)
May 3, 2010
Ryūjinkyō Koinobori matsuri
Yesterday we went to Ryūjinkyō Koinobori matsuri. Ryūjinkyō is a canyon in Hitachiota, Ibaraki. The 375m suspension bridge called Ryūjin Ōtsuribashi is in itself an attraction, but right now people are visiting it for the "koinobori" festival where huge colorful carp-shaped wind socks are suspended along and across the canyon. The festival goes on until May 16.
We were lucky that we were there just in time for a taiko performance. They're called Yansadaiko Hozonkai and came from Naka-shi, Ibaraki. I filmed a few songs with my camera.
There's more on my YouTube account.
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Posted on May 3, 2010 at 12:26 | Permalink | Tweet | Trackback (0) | Comments (0)
April 22, 2010
Trip to India - Chennai
Almost 2 months have passed already, and you might know already if you watch my Flickr photostream. We had a very nice vacation at the beginning of March to go to India! We went for the south, entering by Chennai (aka Madras) and then visiting Pondicherry and Auroville. I will be presenting our highlights from each of these places.
I want to keep it short but with a week to recount, almost 500 photos in total, and so many things to say, it's hard to decide where to start. Let's try starting at the beginning.
We left Tokyo on February 27 before noon to arrive late night in Chennai after a transit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where we enjoyed kaya toast (coconut jam which I love). On the plane we had a lot of fun watching a Hindi movie called "Quick Gun Murugun" (trailer at YouTube), a super-Indian western where the vegetarian hero fights against a bad guy who's starting a chain that sells non-vegetarian "McDosa"(!) (dosa is an Indian crepe). Just hilarious!
Upon arrival at the Chennai International Airport, we needed to exchange money to rupees, and we were confused by people telling us different things. One would tell us that the rate is better once out the gate, but the prepaid taxi booth is inside the gate and someone else would tell us we couldn't come back in after. The prepaid taxi guy offered to exchange our money at a rate that didn't seem very good (Rs. 4000 for ¥10000) but told us he paid better than the Thomas Cook exchange nearby, we went to verify and he was indeed giving us about Rs. 500 more. So we exchanged money and got our prepaid taxi booked. A guy led us all the way out of the airport and to a line of people who were waiting for the taxis that kept coming in. We got our taxi and the guide guy asked for a tip but we didn't have any small change yet except for a lonely Rs. 10 that we decided to keep for the driver, the guide seem to tell the driver that we don't tip, neither seemed too happy.
Anyway we made it to our hotel, Sea Shell Residency, a 3-star business hotel where we stayed for about ¥5000 per night. It was alright clean but more than anything the staff was very nice and helpful. We only stayed 2 nights but even days after we had checked out they were happy to keep our luggage and even call a restaurant and taxi for us.
One thing that was a bit hard to get used when speaking to Indian people, but that was at the same time amusing and charming, is that when saying "yes!" they tilt their head from side to side. It looks a lot like they're saying "no" but at the same time they're saying something like "sure no problem!".
Yoga on TV at 7am / Sea Shell Residency / Looking down the window / "Auto rickshaws" parked outside / 2nd day Indian breakfast
At 5:30 in the morning we were waken up by loud adhan (Islamic prayers) coming from a nearby mosque. Hear what I recorded in the dark:
We then got ready while enjoying a bit of Indian TV (there was a daily yoga program with a long-bearded guru wearing red) and the complimentary continental breakfast. On our first morning when breakfast was delivered we asked if we could get Indian food the next day instead, and the room service guy seemed more than happy to tell us about their Indian menu. The next day we got 2 vadas and 2 dosas (quite an amount of food) for only Rs. 100 or ¥200!
So on our first day in Chennai, we had plans to meet the family of a very nice co-worker who had invited us (although he's currently studying for a MBA in Japan). We had to meet his brother at the hotel at noon, so before then we took a walk to Spencer Plaza, a large mall about a 10 minute walk away.
Walking down Anna Salai to Spencer Plaza. P. James Magic Show ads on the walls are omnipresent.
Spencer Plaza
So we had the great pleasure to be greeted into an Indian home, and eating mom's dosa! We ate two or three each, as well as many delicious Indian sweets! Everyone was so nice and welcoming.
Then we were brought back into town, while looking at the colorful streets.
We enjoyed some shopping at Citi Centre, a very nice recent shopping mall, and then we hired a Rickshaw to take us to Parathasarathy Temple and then Marina Beach. The driver seemed to care to take us through small streets where we could see cows! There wasn't much at the Temple except for some ladies outside who were begging for some money. I ended up like this before I knew it. :)
Marina Beach felt quite nice, everyone had recommended us to go, saying that just everyone goes to the beach at the end of the afternoon. We couldn't relax for long though, as soon there were three kids who kept following us, we weren't sure whether to trust them but it turned out that they just wanted to have their photo taken. Great smiles! :) There was a guy on a horse too, and we saw him on the newspaper the next day!
In the evening we went to a place called Amethyst, a café and shop selling clothing and various things, the whole is aimed at foreigners and therefore more expensive than the average. We had a comfortable time there. Then we headed to the nearby Saravana Bhavan, a chain of vegetarian restaurants originated in Chennai. The food was delicious! In the entrance we found a large group of 12 French people waiting for their turn. It was fun to talk to strangers in French in such a far away place!
An unforgettable moment... When walking on Nungambakkam High Road, not far from our hotel, trying to find the way to Amethyst, there was a small dog who was first following other people but then started following us closely. There are many homeless dogs on Chennai streets. So we kept walking hoping that he would leave us alone (we wouldn't want to end up with a bite, we heard that dogs in India are calm during the day but can be scary at night), but he stayed very close. So we ended up getting a rickshaw... and as we drove off the little dog just kept running just as fast as us on the sidewalk. I guess he liked us...
Watch part of a rickshaw ride:
To be continued...
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Posted on April 22, 2010 at 23:59 | Permalink | Tweet | Trackback (0) | Comments (2)
April 18, 2010
Curry and Farm Party 2: live report
Yesterday was a day of curry and indies music. We woke up late and went to have "lunch" at about 3 PM at Culcutta Café@和ちゃん in Higashi-Nakano. It was our first time there but friendly chef soon started talking about India and also showed us her toy elephant's photo diary of a trip from a few days ago. She serves various Indian curries. That was really good and we will surely be going back!
Just a few hours later at 19:00, we were off to have more curry, at an event by Indian food unit Masala Wala held at Enban in Koenji. For ¥1600 you get all you can eat curry, a drink, and also some live music. When we got there we could catch a bit of a rehearsal of band conti, featuring one of the guys from Masala Wala on sitar! Later there was a show of two guys playing improvised drums and percussions under a blue sheet. Very Enban! The curry was really great too, so many kinds of food! There was also vada, "chicken 65", pakola and more.
We really wanted to hear some more sitar, but we had another place to go, so we left just a bit past 20:00, heading for Gamuso in Asagaya where was being held Farm Party 2, an event organized by the great Tokyo Gig Guide.
We got there catching the end of a set by tsuma-saki, a trio of girls playing synths and drums. They were followed by Abikyokan, a band of three guys of different nationalities (UK, US, Japan) though this time they were accompanied by organizer Craig and another.
Next was Hosaka Akane, the main reason we went to this show! Her set was along the usual lines with a selection of her best songs, though she opened with a great new song, "uchū no korisu-chan" (translates to "The little squirrel in/from space", the last song in her playlist at MySpace). Also different from her usual shows was the audience's reaction, while her shows often have a quiet audience this time there was lots of laughing and even singing along to her cute melodies, surely thanks to the event's variety.
Last up was another band from the Enban scene (like Akane), called Living Astro. The band is a guy and a girl playing guitar, bass and various electronics. Their songs are mainly short, experimental and beatless. They were quite good!
Today we had some curry for lunch too..!
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Posted on April 18, 2010 at 20:42 | Permalink | Tweet | Trackback (1) | Comments (0)
Continue reading in the April 2010 Archives.
Next entry: "Sweet Sakura Revue 2010" (April 11, 2010 at 01:40)
Archives
2010: May
April
March
February
January
2009: December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2008: December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2007: December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2006: December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2005: December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2004: December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2003: December
November
October
September
August
July
Syndicate this site: RSS 1.0/RDF RSS 1.0/RDF Comments
Blog powered by Movable Type Open Source 4.1 (Movable Type 日本語版について), moblog powered by Flickr
