Europe 2009 -- Three Countries & A Wedding

This is a long posting! I was away for longer than usual this summer and it could not have been more exciting ... click on a photo to 'zoom' to it in a new window. Right click on a link to open it in a new tab or window.

England and A Wedding

This summer was one of the best ever. My (one and only) son getting married to the sweetest young woman imaginable cast a rosy glow over the whole trip! Weddings are my favorite kind of gatherings: three and sometimes four generations coming together to celebrate their loved ones. Then there's the love of the happy couple that falls like confetti over anyone passing by. The whole gestalt of a good wedding creates a happy soup that is absolutely scrumptious and the taste lingers on for a lovely, long time!

Daniel and Abby got married on a boat in Bristol: the Glassboat ... a floating restaurant in the center of Bristol.

Bristol is an ancient sea port  in the West of England, packed with fascinating architecture from many centuries all jumbled together.






The center  feels a bit like Paris in places what with the winding river, cobblestone streets lined with plane trees, street musicians, pavement cafes and throngs of people.



The cries of seagulls ever-wheeling overhead spoke of the ocean just a spit away.



The Wedding!

It couldn't have been more relaxed day -- unusually, delightfully so for a wedding. Abby was a breathtakingly beautiful bride, Daniel a graciously handsome groom. The speeches were beautiful and hilarious. The food the best I've ever had at a wedding - one of the benefits of having a wedding in a good restaurant! The non-religious ceremony (officiated over by two delightful, local registrars) was both satisfyingly solemn and heartwarmingly uplifting. I couldn't have been more honored to have been part of it. Daniel and Abby asked their respective mothers to each give a reading and I read a poem I wrote specially for them, for the event.

Happily married!

 

Abby's dad with his grand-daughter

Ah! Confetti!!!

We happened to arrive in the middle of the annual wine festival. It was like Xmas! The streets of the town at the bottom of the Castle hill festooned with lights and live music blaring from loudspeakers throughout. People of all ages including little children partied in the streets literally all night long. The booths of food were incredible, wines galore including a local desert wine served in little chocolate cups, a whole roast pig, seafood to die for and some to wonder at: dried octopus grilled over a charcoal fire.



One night (at 1 am!) the whole castle was lit up with a magnificent firework display that made it look, at one point, as if the castle were on fire. Being able to walk all around the castle ruins any time of day or night was a special treat.



We then spent two nights in Evora in a cell at an inn that once was a medieval monastery. On the inn's doorstep (literally!) were the remains of a whole Roman temple. 



Evora is one of Portugal's best preserved medieval towns (a unesco heritage site). Inside its 14th-century walls are a maze of narrow, winding lanes, a myriad picturesque squares and some spectacular churches. We got lost one morning and wandered into a church that was off the tourist trail (not listed on any tourist map on or off line). This was our most precious discovery ... three walls of the church were lined with painted tiles and the fourth with gold. Absolutely spectacular.



Although Evora was interesting in a touristy kind of way, what knocked our socks off were the neolithic monuments outside Evora. Whole hillsides scattered with hundreds of neolithic stones and monuments ...

These stones are over 25 feet tall ... it's hard to convey the sheer magnificence of this site in a small photo. It is thought to have been used for religious purposes as well as a burial chamber.



Cork! It was so interesting to learn about all about cork -- how it is grown and harvested ... to walk in a cork forest and see how cork is harvested at first hand.

 





 
 

There city is sprinkled with statues - many depict the fierce Vikings ... the one on the left is Leif Ericson, the son of Eric the Red ....

And yet the feeling inside was every bit as spiritually moving. Maybe more so.

Erla and Gudny - Board members of The Organon along with Anna and also with Anna, organizers of the Anniversary event.

Anna - president of The Organan - and I

Miranda Castro's Healing Creams
Have you tried my fabulous Healing Creams
for Joints or for Scars yet?
You should! They work like a dream!!!

It's hard to believe that this time last week I was teaching homeopathy to 400 homeopathy students
and practitioners in Tokyo plus another couple of hundred in two other locations in Japan by
simultaneous video transmission.

 

Japan is a long, long way away. Twenty-four hours door to door (more on the way home),
including two flights (three on the way home). 14 hours on one flight is just too long. After about 8
hours I just wanted to get off or go for a walk. While most people slept I walked a circuit of the plane
- 100 steps each time around meant I did 1000 steps stretching all the way! That helped!!

My first impressions of Toyko were affected by the weather. It was dreadfully gray and wet - so gray
that the sky merged with the gray concrete of the skyscrapers and the streets and motorways all
around.



The view from my 22nd floor hotel room!



Looking down!!



ZEN Curry & Piano Cafe! What could that be?!



A soup kitchen - like so many restaurants, beautiful, organic design.



A peak into the restaurant.

My time in Japan passed in a blur of exhaustion and wonder. I never managed to catch up on my sleep
and after a few days I just stopped trying. Maybe it was the double jetlag, not having recovered from
my UK trip the week before, or maybe it was the extra hard beds! There was so much to wonder at ...
so much that was new or different. While I hate to travel I love to experience another culture -
meeting the people and eating the food is always fascinating.

My first impressions of Japan started at Narida Airport. There were lots of people but hardly any noise.
A reverential hush best describes the atmosphere - almost church-like. The airport itself gleamed and
sparkled like a new pin and the 'staff' were all very smiley and polite! Compare and contrast the shock
of Chicago on the return journey. A filthy, hellish experience. Masses of noisy people. Rude,
intimidating airport staff. What a shock this must be to Japanese people visiting the US for the first
time.

Then there was the food. It was out of this world. I was lucky to to eat with Japanese people - in
restaurants or their homes. The food was a far cry from the Japanese cuisine that I have eaten in
restaurants in England and America. It made me think of how different it is to eat Italian food in Italy.
Japanese food explodes with freshness and with taste and texture contrasts. There was so much new
to discover - some of it rather strange. A Japanese ice cream sundae with gray and green ice creams,
cubes of gray and sea green jelly (jello) and a dollop of cream and a red bean on top! The gray ice
cream that looked as if it had been made with the ashes from a coal fire. Dirty gray with dark gray
flecks. It was black sesame ice cream and absolutely delicious. Udon soup with a variety of gray,
brown and beige 'items' (not one of them a noodle) most of which were delicious but largely
unidentifiable. There was one rubbery item that resisted chopsticks - it squeaked against my teeth
when I chewed it and tasted of nothing. Everyone I asked about it said 'oh yes - no calories.'  Another
day, another soup. We cooked this one at our table. It was full of vegetables zinging with freshness,
big slabs of soft tofu, glutens (rubbery lumps of various shapes and colors), and rolls of tofu skin. This
highly nutritious food stretched my culinary adventurousness to its limits and slightly beyond.

Here are just a couple of memorable meals - without smell-o-rama i'm afraid they aren't great.
The first is from the breakfast buffet at my fancy hotel. Scrunchy salads, steamed broccoli fish and an
umeboshi plum! Great way to start the day.


















A lunch box! Always a hot towel. Always pickles and fresh fruit. So healthy and varied.
This box had rice and steamed vegetables, a selection of grilled and skewered meats and fishes, and 
salads. On the saucer are pickled crysanthemums. I told my hostess I loved bitter foods and this was
the bitterest delicacy she could find. They were delicious.
















Ah - sashimi! A work of art. The fish folded and placed just so. Fresh wasabi. A mound of minute,
fragrant, purple, sweet basil sprouts. A basil leaf behind which hides a pile of grated daikon raddish.
 



















Pickles are required at every meal. They come in an unimaginable number of colors, shapes and sizes.
Here are just a few from the pickle booth at the covered market in Kyoto.



















Did you want to know what a wasabi looked like?! In one restaurant the fresh, green root was served
with a special grater so you grate your own into the soup.















I loved the covered market: half a mile of booths selling all sorts of weird and wonderful foods.

And so to work!!!
I spoke for three days on using homeopathy during pregnancy, birth and the post natal period to
students and practitioners at the Japan Royal Academy of Homeopathy. The principal is Torako Yui - a
powerhouse of love and dedication for homeopathy. She trained in the UK and became Japan's first
homeopath in 1995. In just ten short years she has spread homeopathy throughout her land, with
schools, offices and clinics in three main locations. There are 600 graduates and 400 current
students.  She has a pharmacy and has bought land to build a manufacturing facility. She has written
two books on homeopathy and translated a dozen more into Japanese. She is also president of the
Japanese Homeopathic Medical Association (which she inaugurated in 1998), the standard setting
organization for homeopaths in Japan. Her plans include many more translations (including my book,
Homeopathy for Pregnancy, Birth and Your Baby's First Years), and a hospital. Her school is a miracle
of technical sophistication with huge flat screen monitors absolutely everywhere, including at two
remote locations showing the seminar at the same time and allowing for students at those locations to
participate by asking questions.

   















   



Torako Yui





















Homeopathy Japan's main pharmacy and clinic - a blend of beautiful old and new woods, custom
design, fresh flowers and friendly courtesy.













































The school! What fun to see the Union Jack flying!



























Just thinking about where all the shoes were going to go was deeply puzzling to me. It didn't occur to
me that the 'empty shelves' in the school shop were empty for precisely that reason!















One student looked beautiful in her kimono






















The equipment!









































































The office - a hive of quiet efficiency.






















A 'nursery' classroom housed the mothers and babies who also watched the whole seminar on a big
screen while, feeding, changing and playing with their babies.











































I was full of trepidation at having to teach through an interpreter, but that trepidation all but melted
away as soon as I met Midori, the translator, a bright and vibrant woman who laughed happily when I
said she must feel free to make my jokes funnier if she liked. The last shreds of trepidation
disappeared after just a short while. Row upon row of attentive students who appeared to be
understanding my everyword made it hard for me to remember to stop after every sentence or so for
Midori to 'catch up'.

















































A professional photographer took photos which I taught the first morning - he must have taken
hundreds of photos if not more. It was so embarrassing I pretended he wasn't there. On the last day
one of the teachers at the school took more photos. I was over my embarrassment by then and
whipped out my own camera to take one of him photographing me!

On my last day I was presented with an album of photos showing 'me' in at least a hundred
expressions and stances. Rivetting. And what an interesting way to make a visiting lecturer feel
appreciated.




























This building, around the corner from the school, houses the school's pharmacy and overspill classrooms.

The Kyoto Office, Clinic, Pharmacy and Classrooms!

Kyoto Temples - ancient buildings and gardens full of peaceful spirits

Five hundred year old trees




























Balance everywhere










































































       







































      

Finally - some quirky or beautiful sights in no particular order!

A tree trunk wrapped around a lamp-post. Yes how? but more importantly why?




























This is the most beautiful bath plug I have ever seen.
It is a triumph of practical, beautiful design.

Changing trains we have to make our way from one platform to another - via
an archway that is 4 foot 6 inches high!!!




























Hilarious plant. Solanum mammosum (solanaceae) originated in Brazil.
Due to the shape of its yellow fruit, this plant is known as Fox Face.
With Midori - my wonderful guide/companion in Kyoto

Hilarious traffic signals












          

Hilarious socks

I am so sorry these photos are out of focus. The dog has a matching helmet.

The special stones at this shrine are wearing aprons.

Beautiful beautiful drain. So simple.

A bamboo fence merges effortlessly with nature.

One of the 'joys' of jetlag is being able to catch the sunrise!

I’ve been back from the UK for a little over 2 months and my trip now feels very far away. I am fully ensconced in a South Florida summer – keeping as cool as I can – noticing that I’m setting the A/C a little bit lower each year. Three years ago I was perfectly happy with the A/C at 78 or even 80. This year I’m happier when it’s at 76 or 77!

The saddest thing that happened shortly after my return was the death of Julian Winston on the 12th of June. Julian was one of homeopathy’s fiercest proponents – a vociferous defender of classical homeopathy. He owned one of the world’s largest homeopathic collections (2000 volumes, 4000 vials of historical remedies and a huge collection of homeopathic ephemera). He became a unique repository of knowledge and wisdom – especially of the philosophy and history of homeopathy.

He was gloriously eccentric – a renaissance man, having an almost impossible range of lifelong passions including: racing cars, homeopathy and healing, shooting and guns, making and playing pedal steel guitars. He was at different times in his life an artist, industrial designer, musician, historian, author, professor, collector. He edited Homeopathy Today – the National Center for Homeopathy’s magazine for over 20 years.

He was a prolific communicator writing 100s of articles and many books including three on homeopathy and two on playing the pedal steel guitar.

I visited him in New Zealand in 2001 – here he is with 3 of his true loves: Gwyneth (he moved to NZ in 1994 from the US after his marriage), part of his homeopathy library and the pedal guitar he made himself.

The latest edition of Homeopathy Today (available any day now) is dedicated to Julian. His website is full of his spirit which shall live for always.