Travelers Among Mountains and Streams

Something that you will find everywhere in the world, no matter where you are, is art. Though it may differ in style, content, or form, wherever you go, you will witness that basic human desire to create and express one’s self. Art can serve to interpret, comment on, or enhance basic human experiences. Viewing life through an artistic prism, it is possible to find new meaning and dimensions to things that once seemed clear. On a voyage like ours, art can add perspective and a global outlook that can reach across cultures and national borders.

Voyagers are very lucky to have Professor Fred Levine on board this semester. Both an author and lecturer on a vast range of issues in art and cultural studies, Fred is currently a professor of art history at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA. He has previously taught at the University of Texas, Northwestern University, Colorado State University, and the University of Tasmania in Hobart. He is also no stranger to life at sea. For the past twenty years, he has sailed as a lecturer on art and architecture aboard cruise ships around the world and this semester marks Fred’s third voyage with Semester at Sea.

Fred is one of the rare people who recognize art in daily life. From exceptional architecture, to natural wonders, to paintings on the walls, he is able to capture the essence of art and help the rest of us relate to it.

Earlier today, I had the chance to sit in on one of the three courses that Fred is offering this semester, Migrations of Art. As the title suggests, students in this class are learning about how different techniques, styles, and themes have migrated around the globe over history. However, there is an additional element to the course, unique to Semester at Sea that Fred offers his students. Using the skills of visual analysis and interpretation, students in Migrations of Art use the pieces they learn about in class and see in the field as a framework for analyzing their own experiences during the voyage.

I’ll use today’s lecture as en example. The main discussion focused around Travelers Amid Mountains and Streams by the Chinese painter, Fan Kuan. Considered to be one of the finest Chinese artists of all time, Kuan lived during the Song Dynasty (960-1030) and was known for his incredible landscapes.


Travelers Amid Mountains and Streams in particular is viewed as an incredible work of art, which served as a model to other Chinese artists. As Professor Levin explained during class, “One of the things that Chinese paintings tend to do over and over again…is to teach you to look at details.” He told us how Kuan would spend hours studying objects in nature to see how they interacted with the world around them. I don’t know if this representation of the painting (which is actually ink on silk) can actually do it justice, but just look at how intricate everything is – the mountain in the background and the path, set among the rocks and trees down below.

If you look closely on the right side of the painting, you will notice that there is a mule pack with two figures descending down the path of the mountain from a temple that is shown in the forest on the cliff. In Chinese artwork, paths are typically represented as a metaphor for life’s journey. Fred continued to explain how the boulders along the path signify the difficulties one may face in life and “how you need to climb over obstacles to get there in the first instance.”

Take note of how small the humans in this work are though compared to their surroundings. They almost seem to get lost in the grandeur of nature. It just shouts, “Take the time to be, to just stop and look a tree and enjoy and experience the journey while you find your identity,” Dr. Levin commented.

Now transition this to our current journey. After seeing so much of the world with our own eyes, how small do we feel? Maybe somewhat like the people in this painting. We are also nearing the completion of our voyage; we are on our “descent,” just like the figures on the path. We have had obstacles in our path over the past few months, but we have worked around them and made it through. Most importantly, I think we all learned to stop and observe both people and nature and really take in the most that this journey offers.

Pen Pals

To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.
-- Phyllis Theroux

How many of you had a pen pal when you were in school? I’m sure almost everyone did at some point. Maybe you wrote two or three letters back and forth to one another over a span of a few months and chances are you probably never spoke again. What are the odds you would still be writing one another a year later? Five years later? Almost fifty years later?

In 1961, Judy Burtner, mother of Professor Matthew Burtner (who you may be familiar with through the MICE postings) received an assignment from her social studies teacher to write a letter to a Japanese girl named Setsuko. They corresponded with one another over the course of the year and they seemed to have a lot in common so they kept up with one another, swapping stories, telling each other about the big events in their lives, and trading photos and little gifts.

They would not write each other every week, or even every month, but two or three times a year, Judy and Setsuko would check in to see how the other was doing. As the years went by, their lives, incredibly, seemed to mirror one another from opposite ends of the globe.

Judy took up the piano, Setsuko played the piano. Judy lived in Alaska, Setsuko lived in the coldest and snowiest region of Japan. Following college, Judy decided to become an elementary school teacher, Setsuko became an elementary school teacher. Both of them even married teachers! And over the years, Judy had four boys and Setsuko had thee boys (I think that’s close enough, don’t you?). It just seemed that the independent paths of their lives were running incredible parallel to one another.

Over the years, Judy explained how Setsuko had “emissaries coming from Alaska to her.” Matthew stayed with her one time and a daughter-in-law of Judy found herself a guest of Setsuko’s at another point, but over all of the years, the two had never met themselves, or even heard the other’s voice.

When Judy found out that she would be joining Matthew on Semester at Sea this Semester, she knew that this would be the chance to finally meet Setsuko after so many years. They began the preparations seven months ago and continued trading emails during the voyage since their regular method of communication wasn’t available to them. By the time the MV Explorer reached Kobe, they had worked out all of the details and had a plan to meet.

“It was incredibly emotional,” Judy said. “When I saw her, I just knew her already. I knew everything about her but at the same time, I didn’t know anything about her.” Just staring at her face, I couldn’t believe she was right there.” Setsuko reads and writes English very well, but she does not speak very much so she communicated through her husband. At one point, Setsuko brought out what her husband described as “her treasure,” a stack of letters and photos from Judy, including the first letter sent in 1961 that had been the catalyst for their incredible friendship.


Judy, Setsuko, and both of their husbands were able to spend a few days together during our stay in Japan. “Even though we didn’t talk, we were happy just to sit side by side.” Now that they have finally met, Judy is hoping that she can return the hospitality sometime and host Setsuko and her husband back in the U.S.!

Dalit Service Project

To date, the MV Explorer has called on 13 different ports in 11 countries. We have two more stops to go and in exactly 22 days, we all will have circumnavigated the globe. I feel very comfortable stating that no one will disembark in Ft. Lauderdale with the same world outlook as when they boarded the ship in Nassau two and half months ago.

Voyagers are exposed to so much of the world though that it often takes time to process our experiences. It may be weeks before something clicks in your mind. It is possible that you don’t appreciate something that happened until you are later able to place it into a regional or global context. Oftentimes, voyagers also find themselves always looking forward. With upcoming academic and field requirements, you just don’t always have the chance to reflect right away. I have found that it can be very beneficial to just take a step back, reread through some journal entries, maybe scan through some pictures, and just look back at some of the incredible things that were done during the course of this voyage.

Tomorrow will mark exactly six weeks since the ship departed from Chennai, India. Now that we have finished with the Asian segment of the voyage, I spoke with a few students about how the different countries compared to one another, and specifically where they saw India in the mix. “How do you even do that?” replied Whitney Bairstow. “It was a whole other world,” she continued. Another student, Gavin Booth joined in and said that, “You just can’t compare India with anything…its culture and religions were completely different, especially in contrast with Japan,” our last port. They were right.

Our videographer, Jerry Pratt, just finished putting together a great video on a service project with Bridge Education Trust. When I watched it earlier today, everything just came rushing back to me. The first excited child I saw as I exited our bus, the sounds of the band as we were led to the school where we would be working, and the incredible graciousness of our hosts and the important work that they do.

Bridge Education Trust works to improve the lives of the Dalits in India. Under the caste system, they were the poorest class, the “untouchables.” Historically, they were relegated to the lowest occupations, specifically those that were considered impure such as butchering and cleaning the streets. The Dalits were segregated from the rest of society and were literally untouchable, because it was believed that the tasks they performed made them unclean and that this pollution could be contagious to the rest of the population. Although much has been done in recent years to eliminate the segregation and discrimination against Dalits in Indian society, it is still a problem in many of the rural areas.

The Director of Bridge Education Trust, Dr. Henry Thiagaraj, described the work of his organization as, “building the emergence of community leaders as agents of social change.” The group started out as a centralized organization that went out into the dalit communities to help educate the people and assist them in their climb out of poverty. Over the years, it has transformed into more of an educational institute. While its mission is still the same, its methods now include more training for local leaders and greater grassroots initiatives.

Semester at Sea’s relationship with Dr. Thiagaraj and Bridge Education Trust dates back almost twenty years and they will be celebrating their 20th anniversary of working together during the fall 209 voyage. Every time that Semester at Sea has visited India over the past two decades, Voyagers have gone out and contributed in some way to help improve the lives of India’s Dalit population.

During our voyage, there were two service projects organized in conjunction with Bridge Education Trust. One was an overnight visit to a Dalit village where voyagers were given the chance to interact with the people there and learn how they are being trained with new skills to advance in society and break free of the caste system. The second project, which the video below focuses on, visited a Dalit school set up by Bridge Education Trust in the slums of Chennai. Voyagers who participated repainted the school and then interacted with the children and other community members. I really don’t know who benefitted more that day, the Semester at Sea Voyagers or the Dalit children, but I do know that it is an experience that none of us will ever forget.




Video by SAS Videographer, Jerry Pratt

Japan Part II: Kyoto and Tokyo

Kyoto

On the morning of our second day in Japan, I awoke early to join about 40 other voyagers for the SAS trip to Kyoto. It was one of the best excursions I have been on yet. Other participants described it as, “fabulous and a lot of fun.” One student told me that she “never thought we would get to see all of this in one day.”

Our first stop was the Nijo Castle. It is an incredibly large complex and contains two palaces, the Ninomaru Palace and Honmaru Palace. Construction began in 1601 and was completed twenty-five years later. Nijo became a residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns, who ruled Japan under a feudal system from about 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. At that time, imperial rule was restored and the shogun was forced to submit to the emperor. Prior to 1868, the real power of Japan lay with the shogun, who controlled the nation's military power, while the emperor had been more of a religious and political leader.



The majority of our time in Nijo Castle was spent seeing Ninomaru Palace and the extensive gardens of the complex. Most of the original palace, built out of Hinoki cypress, remains standing today just as it did over 400 years ago. There have been some modifications made by subsequent shoguns and emperors since its original construction but it remains an incredible symbol of the power of the Japanese shogunate.

The palace was built in concentric rings, the innermost being the shogun’s private sanctuary. As we walked through the different layers of the palace, the tone changed to reflect those who had been granted access to it. The outermost part of the palace was the most opulent and intimidating part, because this is where the shogun displayed his power to those he ruled over. As you moved closer to the center, the decorations became simpler until finally we reached the residence of the shogun, which was for the most part bereft of any lavish symbols of power. It was a simple room where the shogun could retreat and be with his own thoughts.

The gardens of Nijo Castle were equally if not more spectacular than the palaces themselves. The meticulously manicured trees and shrubbery with the ancient Japanese architecture of shrines and other buildings scattered throughout the grounds, coupled with the simple luck that we were there at the height of the cherry blossoms provided for a magnificent addition to the palace tour.



Another highlight for those of us on the Kyoto trip was the Garden of Heian Jingu Shrine. It was built in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the capital and the main entrance was built as a ¾ scale replica of the first Imperial Palace. Voyagers walked through the gardens at their own pace and were given the opportunity to enjoy the scenery, which was nothing less than stunning. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.


Tokyo

One of the great things about Japan is just how easy it is to get around. A number of Voyagers opted to travel independently from Kobe to Yokohama and meet the ship there at the end of our time in Japan. Robert Perry, an SAS student from San Diego State University who traveled Japan by rail explained that, “We just went from station to station. No matter where you got off, the longest you would have to wait for the next train was five minutes or so. It was a great way to travel.”

Robby shared one of his favorite experiences with me, something that I was lucky enough to see as well. For those of us who were willing to wake up just a tad on the early side, visiting the Tsukiji Fish Market of Tokyo was probably one of the most unique and fun experiences to have in Japan. Robby told me how he and the group he traveled with had a 4:45am wakeup call, dragged themselves out of bed and were off to the fish market, arriving by about 5:15am to see the live auction of that morning’s tuna catch. “It was just an intense experience,” Robby told me. “It was just something so unique to see, there’s nothing like it anywhere else in the world.”

Robert provided me with this video of the auction to share with everyone. Enjoy!



After observing the auction for a few minutes, visitors could just walk through the marketplace and in and out of the small stalls where you could encounter just about every type of fish and seafood imaginable. There were eels, crabs, lobsters, salmon, tuna, squid, and whale, amongst an even greater number of things that I could not name.

Just exploring Tokyo could show you so many different sides of the city. There were SAS trips that showcased Tokyo’s modern side, like the Akihabara Electric town, Tokyo Tower, and sleek car exhibits, as well as others that presented the historical and cultural aspects of the city. Voyagers on these trips were able to see the Imperial Palace, the Meiji Shinto Shrine, and the Asakusa Kannon Temple.

It was an incredible five days, but now it’s time to hit the books again. With the end of the academic semester in sight and exams in the not too distant future, students have really ratcheted up their studying and the entire ship has been consumed by students, busily pouring over their notes and organizing work completed in the field.