Ethiopia - Short Journeys

Hi everyone!

Today I am happy to announce that I have a new book published on Amazon for Kindle. The first 'Short Journeys' is out, and the country in question is Ethiopia. Today I include an introductory excerpt for my blog to give readers an idea what's inside.

US Amazon: Short Journeys Ethiopia

UK Amazon: Short Journeys Ethiopia

Simien Mountains

This is the first ‘short journeys’ I have written. It was 2009 when I headed over to the horn of Africa to visit a country that had long held a big interest for me – Ethiopia. From outside it really came across as a very unique African nation, and I am glad to say that once I was there, it was equally unique. Ethiopia has a look, a feel, a rhythm and a way completely of its own. It’s not a country I can easily compare to other African nations I have visited, such as Mali or Cameroon.

A church in Lalibela.

It’s cuisine is quite unique too. It’s people have a wonderful love of their country, and are as unique as their homeland. Ethiopia’s history is rich, they have their own script and notable and deserved pride for their nation. A country that the world knows for several things, such as marathon and long distance runners, coffee, but perhaps more unfortunately, for poverty and famine.

The image that many have of Ethiopia is a starving people, the centre of the famine in Africa back in the 1980’s and still struggling today. Whilst there are significant areas in Ethiopia suffering from bad conditions, drought, desertification and famine, and

Monastery on the Zege Peninsula.

whilst this should never be forgotten, it is not fair that this is the central image of this amazing country. These common images are very negative ones, which sadly does nothing to help the country’s economy or its tourism industry. To those who are ‘in the know’ however, Ethiopia is a beautiful land of warm people, an amazing culture, brilliant trekking, history, and coffee! Not only that, but Ethiopia also produces a good amount of wine. There’ are many surprises awaiting those coming to Ethiopia.

I visited the capital, Addis Ababa, and places north of the capital. There are beautiful lakes, rivers and waterfalls. There are some stunning high mountains, ancient churches carved into rock, and wonderfully kind and warm people. The climate is cool to mild in the northern area which makes travelling more pleasant than some of the hotter areas of Africa. 

Included in the book:

Addis Ababa

Lalibela

Gondar

Debark

Simien Mountains

Lake Tana

Bahir Dar

Blue Nile Falls

A delicious Ethiopian meal.

Introducing 'Short Journeys'

This weekend sees the launch of the 'Short Journeys' - a series of ebooks I am writing about different places I have been in the last few years. The very first one is out in the next 24 hours, and it is about the amazing Ethiopia. Here is the front cover design for you and some information about 'Short Journeys'.

'Short Journeys'

‘Short Journeys’ is a series of stories about my travels to different countries. Whilst they are not intended as a guide book, I have endeavoured to include information about where I stayed, what I ate, what I saw and how to go about it if you were to visit the countries in question. My previous writings – the ‘Dhaka to Dakar’ books, were simply travel experiences. This time I wanted to go a little further for the reader.

I wanted to include any stories and experiences I thought were interesting, important or amusing whilst I was travelling. I want to encourage you the reader to read, think about, and then perhaps go there yourself. You will find information on the places I stayed and visited, and how I got there and around. Occasionally I may write about a place I didn’t stay at if say I stayed with a friend to give readers an option. However, please don’t use these writings as a guide book!

The countries covered will in the main part not be the most touristed of places. Hence they may be less literature out there for these places than say Western Europe, but they are places I found very interesting, beautiful, perhaps challenging at times, but essentially worthwhile. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself and head somewhere you may have never considered before. You won’t be sorry!

Hachimantai dreaming

Just north of Morioka is a place called Hachimantai. Whilst I can't comment much on the town, I didn't really go in there, I did get a chance to look at two places in the area and both were spectacular in their own ways.

The lava flow is an amazing area at the foot of Mount Iwate. 

For those who are interested, the volcano that is the mountain last erupted in 1919, where ash was sent into the air. The lava flow, known as Yakehashiri,  is from the previous eruption in 1732. 

http://www.thr.mlit.go.jp/iwate/kodomo/english/iwatesan_e/CON5/index.html

This is where I got my information from. Amazing - they have the internet on computers now! Anyways today it's a rather large area covered with rocks formed from the molten lava which obviously cooled in the years after the eruption, and today have a nice path marked out through them that people can wander at their leisure. It's a truly remarkable place I had no idea existed! I would put it right up there with any tourist site in Iwate.

Mount Iwate in the background behind the Yakehashiri Lava flow.

Also in the Hachimentai region is an old sulphur mining town. It's part of the town of Matsuo, and was known as the Matsuo Gouzan mine. The drive up was beautiful, on a beautiful clear day. Unlike the lava flow, there was not a lot of people there to visit it, although the odd interested passerby did pop in.

In fact, the mine closed way back in 1969. The mine itself you can't visit, but the small accompanying town is still there of sorts represented as a collection of old concrete apartment buildings. It is said to be one of the creepiest places on Earth. I was there on a cool but sunny Autumn day, so it wasn't so creepy, but never the less it is an amazing place.

Not the sort of place tourists normally frequent, the old concrete buildings have most of the innards ripped out today, as you can see in the picture. I'm not sure how safe the buildings are, but I was with a few people and we all made it out alive! It's certainly eerie, and beautiful in its own way.

So it goes to show, I've been here a year and half now but still discovering new and unusual places to visit. Both of these are free of course - although you're going to need a car to get to either of them! Viva Iwate!

Robocon

Sunday in Ichinoseki, and I went to one of the more 'different' events I have been to since I have been in Japan. Ichinoseki played host to 'Robocon' - where high schools from across the country come to enter their robots in a competition to rival the Olympics. Well, maybe the Maths Olympics.... That's a real thing, right? 

The challenge was this - to make a robot that could jump. Hence the theme of the convention was 'Shall we jump'. Robots had to go down a short course jumping rope several times. Get turned around, come back and then skip five times. The students made two robots, one to do this 'course' and one to help with swinging the rope around. They all had hydraulic workings of some kind. Some were quite small, some where quite big, and one was tall with an aerial and every time the rope went over the robot, it caught and the timing was put out.

The robots were all dressed up in interesting fashions, as were the students operating them. I don't profess to know how the robots worked or new when to jump, but some had some sort of infra-red thing attached, like the sensors that tell urinals when to flush. Some students were smart and held the rope very low to make it easy for the robots to clear it, others were not so smart and paid the price sadly. Robots appeared to be great and worked well, or didn't work at all and didn't come close to finishing the course in the three minutes that were allowed.

The students all wore costumes which ranged from the frankly silly to sublimely ridiculous. Many wore helmets for no reason at all. I felt a bit sorry for the students to be honest. They were on TV, probably national TV, and there was quite an audience with organised cheering and a count in (3-2-1) for the start of each 'match'. Two robots were pitted against each other in elimination style.

What can I say? There may be robot competitions in Australia, I'm sure there are, but it seems very important here. Japan has a love of robots, just look through anime and manga and you can't fail to see that! For me it was just another slightly surreal Japanese experience!

Autumn is harvesting time in Iwate!

Here in Iwate Autumn is well and truly upon us and as the weather cools and within a month will be quite chilly, the rice fields are saying goodbye to the crop that has been growing in them for a while now. I wanted to share some photos of the local area, most are around Senmaya and Kawasaki - there are MANY Kawasakis in Japan by the way, this is obviously the one in Iwate! 

The rice is harvested, by machine or hand, and then hung up to dry out on wooden structures with wires connecting them as you see below and above here.

The countryside is perhaps at its most beautiful right now, and flowers are still blooming which is nice because as the winter approaches the greens, reds, yellows pinks and blues will all be traded in for the white of snow. It's interesting living in such a rural community. Actually when I think about it this is a very organised rural community. That is why we will see in October and November many festivals - because everyone harvests at the same time (because it's the right time to harvest) and the end of the harvest is the reason that most of these local festivals began in the first place.

You can see below some farmers employ a different technique for drying out the rice. The rice spirls up a wooden pole, again guided by wires and sticks. We see rice everywhere in this area, it's easily the primary crop. The interesting thing to remember - Japan still imports a lot of rice!

So this is a little look into the pulse of the local community around Ichinoseki - an area which covers a hell of a lot of towns. Can I understand the life of a farmer in Iwate? No that still escapes me somewhat. But I do appreciate the order and planning which goes into it all. This area is something of a bread basket. What they lack in cattle they make up for in staples. I hope you enjoy these pictures!

Electioneering at its finest

It's October here in Iwate and the rest of the world too by chance, Autumn is here as the nights get a lot colder and the days cool down too.
Last weekend there were local elections in Ichinoseki, for the post of Mayor and other positions in town. I was up in Morioka on Sunday filming so I missed the big day, but I experienced the build up to the fourth election I have seen in three years in Japan. (2011, 2012 and two in 2013).
It seems elections are a regular occurrence in Japan. Every morning I drove to school at 7.30 I would pass a van parked on a main intersection and people with microphones would introduce themselves to cars waiting for the lights to go green.

A van outside my apartment building.

These vans then did the rounds most of every day up until about 8pm in the evening, with an introduction message repeated and several people with their hands stuck out the window with white gloves waving like the Queen of England. It's all very ... fake I guess. Apparently they are only allowed to talk policy in a forum with the other candidates present. More relevant for the parliamentary elections, but I wonder if people are voting for people depending on how nice they sound.
What is more amazing is the fact that people don't retaliate towards these vans, which truly appears as no more than noise pollution. I think if politicians went about elections this way in Australia the vans would end up egged very quickly indeed.
Still, elections are better than no elections. Right?