Category: Travels with a Daughter

I am a single parent with a teenager on the autism spectrum and travel is one of my passions. Travel is a wonderful, educational experience for typical children, and my hunch that Julia would learn and grow with travel experiences was rewarded last summer in Italy. So, I am on a mission to teach Julia about the world—one trip at a time!

yes, morning

Morning. 

Two things.

We are in the middle of the mid-autumn festival.  I’ve read about it and expect the streets of pop up shops, kids toys and general junkies, and then stages filled with traditional dance and performance.  Well, there was a lot of little pop ups fulfilling the expectation, but the performance . . . . Julia was in heaven!  The stage that we were close to (and there are at least three stages) was a performance contest with singers and back up dancers doing a version of K-pop. Julia loves, loves, loves K-Pop.  And excuse me if I am unaware of a vibrant V-pop industry, but my information about pop music in general is from Julia.  Perhaps now, I will hear more V-pop during our days.

The music and performances were fun.  It took us awhile to find the right perch to see it from and when we did, we found screaming girls and young people who were singing along with some of the singers.  

So . . . so far, we’ve found karaoke in Hanoi and now k-pop.  This is an unexpected journey.

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a few more days in Ha Noi

This is scribblings from at least two days.  Just impressions and pictures without much pondering.

Cafe sitting. Finding a place a few doors down from our alley to sit for breakfast.  Lots of light streams in from a sky light three stories up.  

Sitting after breakfast.  Not at all my plan. To the extent that what I’ve thought of is a plan.  I wanted to be out moving during the early morning avoiding if we could the hottest heat of the day.  As it is, we wait for our friend in this pleasant cafe close to our house, but by the time she comes and we go walking, we will be in the hottest part of the day.

I haven’t settled into the length of a days without strict structure.  Not yet.  I am still wanting accomplishment.  Boxes to tick off.  

But sitting in the light is a good thing. 

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Ha Noi

After the pristine guest house and ways in general of Tokyo, we plunge into Ha Noi’s old quarter.  I was here 20 years ago with Jennifer who was adopting Mai how was a mere 6 months old at the time.  Ha Noi is both insanely busy and chaotic and daring and completely unknown, and then, it is like coming home.  I recognize the chaos, the grittiness of a place build over and over upon itself.  The layers of history, of living, of what is decaying underneath what is thriving.

And we’ve been here since 2 a.m.

We are staying in a very funky place—the absolute opposite of Guest House Wagokoro in Arakawa.  

Autumn House is down a very deep and dark and narrow alley.  A house of three narrow floors—one room per floor—the only “window” in each room is a floor to ceiling french door that opens to a tiny balcony and another back alley.  Right now it feels a bit unnerving, but give me a few days to see how I feel.  

20 years ago, I stepped out of our hotel and a shot of terror ran through me at the idea that if I was not careful I would could make an unthinking turn and never find my way back to the hotel.  This morning I am not as fearful, but I do carefully take a picture of the entrance to our alley and note the building across the street.

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muikku

One of Julia’s favorite characters. We stumbled upon a sort of art show of hand crafted Mikku collector dolls from various years. The show was crowded with people, mostly young men, taking pictures of the dolls. Julia has watched videos of Muikku for a long time. This year is the 16th year of the character and as the character is supposed to be 16, this was a big event.

From the internet: “Her name is from the Japanese characters for first, sound, and future, so her name means “first sound from the future.” According to her backstory, Hatsune Miku comes from a not-so-distant future where music was lost. She emerged as a 16-year-old singing android who reintroduced the skills to the world.”

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David Hockney

David Hockney Show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. I wanted to take pictures of it all but it was not allowed for most of the show. Much of the work is only a few years old, done during Covid time using a iPad and printed out in panels mounted along a very long continuous wall.

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food

The food is wonderful–feeding body and soul. I’m sure there is some exceptions somewhere here but we have not found them yet. We have not been able together into our neighborhood sushi restaurants for supper. They are full or ready to close when we are ready to eat. We will try harder. Ramen, however, is an easy find.

Ou first ramen restaurant:

And more last night:

My food photography needs work. If I promise myself to post more, I may get better.

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dualities

This is a city of such contrasts.  All cities, all places are but perhaps because this time has been so multi-sided for me, the contrasts I see here are particularly tender and touching. 

This small cemetery, tucked into a corner of Yanaka was surrounded by a wall with an open gate.Some of the graves were very old, some from earlier this year. A few had an announcement tied onto the stone which said that it was suspected that this grave had been abandoned and the upkeep was unpaid. If someone did not come forward to claim the space, the remains buried would be dug up and respectfully burned, and the space made available to another family. I wonder if this was just the reality of a city where all real estate is valuable.

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bumps in the road

I can’t work this into a chatty post. I can’t make light of it. No pictures can tell the story. I have believed firmly that traveling with Julia was incredibly beneficial. Of course, we have not done any since moving to Boston, but this was going to be doing something we loved together again. And possibly better because Ed was with us.

We’ve hit some bumps, some limits and a bunch of my assumptions have been dashed.  We had a very hard 24+ hours over the last day and a half.  Julia was angry and lashed out at us.  She had melt downs in public and was very difficult to handle. She cursed and swore and talked under her breath until she was raging. She could not be brought down to a calm and rational state.  She didn’t want to be.

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