Reminiscence

Shinrin Park 森林公園 Thursday, Aug.28th 2008, I went to Shinrinkouen in Namegawamachi, Hikigun, Saitama Prefecture. I arrived at west entrance (西口) which has many attractions, such as water park, athletic field (wood swings, balance beams, climbing ropes, sliding ropes, jungle gym, see-saw, pyramid rope, kid's dome/playground, circulation bus, restaurant, toilet, etc.). If you come with your kids, it is better to enter from West side. If you want to explore the park, the best way, I think, is from the central gate (中口) then go clockwise. At North Side, there is not a circulation bus and it is quite dull there, nothing but greenery and trees. The bus ticket costs 100 yen for kids and 200 yen for adults and 400 yen for one day pass. The Park entrance ticket costs 400 yen for adults and for kids (6-14 years old) 80 yen and the parking costs 610 yen. Rental bicyles will cost 410 yen for 3 hours (70 yen for every additional 30 min.) for adults and 250 yen for 3 hours (30 yen for every...

Sulawesi 2008 – Trip Report Introduction I must thank my Indonesian friends for all of the time and effort that they put in to our project, the search for and document of Rhododendron Vireya in the Minahasa Peninsula of the Island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Things, unfortunately, went bad from the very beginning of this journey. The first leg of the flight from Seattle to Indonesia , was cancelled. I lost one of my bags in the airport in Manado , our first stop in Indonesia . We were led up two mountains which our guides said were the highest in the region only for us to find that when we got to the top we could see much higher mountains right across the hill from us. I found that I was completely out of shape. I could not take the heat as I once did. I thought that I was going to collapse on the homeward legs of the first two mountains, as small as they were. Then the Indonesian department of Forestry set us up to climb the wrong third mountain, again the smaller o...