Hello Everyone! Hope you had a
tranquil Christmas and wish you a healthy New Year 😀
This year is no doubt the most special
as every single person in the world has been facing the same virus, everyone's
life has been impacted by the virus no matter where you are - have you ever imagined you have to wear a mask in your daily life? I have never before 😷
How can we defeat the virus??? I have a
different idea on this ... hehe! I still completely agree to wear mask,
maintain social distance, wash hands and stay home as much as possible. But at
the same time I am thinking of 因果 concept. There should be a reason for the virus
out break. As you can see, many developed countries are seriously affected by
COVID. Aren't they supposed to be able to prevent it better than the poor
countries?
Of course there are many factors that
contributed to the out break and loss of control ... not listening to the
government, reluctant to wear mask, gathering with friends (or secret partner 小三?). But how did we treat our mother earth? Did we
respect our land and ocean? 我們是怎樣對待我們的地球？有珍惜過嗎？The wealthier countries respect less (even no respect at all) to our mother nature 🌍
Believe it or not, here are the statistics:
I thought USA consumed the earth resources the most, but the table shows Australia consumed the most (year 2016). Wow! Australia used more than 5 earths' resources while USA used almost 5 earths' resources. 很多發達國家用超過一個甚至兩個地球的資源. See how bad we treat our mother earth!
Not only we used up the earth resources, we also created tremendous
amount of garbage, especially during the
pandemic when billions of disposable masks and gloves are thrown away every single
day ... increase burden on our earth 😭 (同時我們製造大量垃圾污染整個海洋，特別現在我們每天都棄置億萬口罩和手套)
Then we consume excess meat to increase
our air and land pollution. Why??? To make it simple, I just give 3 reasons:
animal farming releases almost 1/5 of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, animal
farming increases acid rain, and animal farming requires deforestation (cut all
the trees in a forest) for animal grazing and feeding. 吃肉也增加環境破壞和空氣污染 - 畜牲業增加溫室氣排放、酸雨和森林砍伐...
Here's another table to show the
consumption of meat among the countries:
These are all the bad 因 we made in 因果 concept. Finally I remember the terms in English ...this is the concept of cause and effect which is equivalent to karma. Now humans plant lots of bad causes (or bad seeds, 壞因) into our mother nature. Once all these bad causes (or bad seeds, 壞因) become mature, the bad results or returns (惡果) will arrive.
Hopefully we can all work together to change the bad returns (such as global virus ) to the good returns by planting more good seeds now 🌱 減少破壞環境，種下善因，讓善果快來 💖
Have you ever thought of making a meatless Christmas dinner? I saw this offered by One Nature in Taiwan which is just as amazing as a regular Christmas dinner (賣相很吸引的素聖誕餐).Now we can plan a home-made meatless dinner for New Year Eve or Valentine's Day or next Christmas 😋
If you think this is a dish contains ham and fish slice ... haha ... they are actually cheese and boletus (像魚排的牛肝菌菇).
I have been thinking how to minimize the garbage on our landfill in our daily life. I can tell you it's not easy but then the world will get worse if nobody is willing to take an action on it. And I believe in 因果 concept (karma concept), more bad behaviours will create more bad returns. Probably that explains why many developed countries are greatly affected by COVID.
Here I would like to share the eco products that I've discovered or purchased in a year. I wish more people can support these products or businesses as they contribute to our earth's sustainability. 今年發現的環保產品，值得推介！
The well-known battery brand Energizer has made it's batteries with 4% recycled battery material (含4％回收電池材料的電池).The company is planning to raise the recycled portion from 4% to 40% by 2025.
This is a school bag made from 11 or 12 water bottles and the diamond logo is made from apples. A 15" inch laptop can be fit into this bag, very functional. Also a good way to educate children to purchase something meaningful as this bag eliminates water bottles in landfill.
水瓶座的女人？水瓶座的男人？這是水瓶座的書包,因為用水瓶做 💧
還有用蘋果皮做的鑽石型標誌 Cool!
There are more options for the children or students 😉 Another company Dakine has produced school bag from recycled plastic bottles and cinch pack from recycled polyester.
Besides Matt & Nat, Pixie Mood is another cruelty-free, vegan handbag company. Instead of killing the animals, tearing their skins to make the bags, both Matt & Nat and Pixie Mood use recycled plastic bottles to make their bags. I think they are pretty similar. 環保手袋（無動物皮, 由純素皮革製成）
Matt & Nat is a Canadian company in which since 2007 they've been committed to using linings only made out of 100% recycled plastic bottles. They have also recently introduced recycled bicycle tires to their collections.
Pixie Mood states that their SS20 collection diverted 100,000 plastic bottles from landfills, repurposing harmful plastic into recycled fabric. I wish there are more companies like this and more customers to support the companies!
Here's just one example of Pixie Mood bags I found in a store. This is called Leticia Bucket Bag, really looks like a bucket. The colour and the size are not bad, except that it doesn't have any zippers. But they have lots of other collections and different colours as well.
If you are looking for a light lunch box or food container, Starfrit LocknLock ECO collection can be one of the great options! These eco containers are available in different sizes and colours. They are also BPA free, leak proof, microwavable and dishwasher safe. Most importantly, these containers are made of leftover or surplus plastics. Instead of throwing away the plastic residues, they are collected and transformed into food safe plastic containers 👍
Muji has lots of products made from organic cotton. These pairs of socks are made of 78% - 91% organic cotton (有機棉襪). Even the little hooks are made of recycled wood, very thoughtful! (連掛襪的小鉤也是用回收木材做)
Now it's on sale with 3 pairs of male or female socks for $12.90, not bad considering it is only $4.30 for a pair of high quality organic cotton socks 😊
Another amazing thing I like Muji is the elimination of plastics for their packages. They also have organic cotton underwear for both male and female in which the package design is paper-based, made of recycled commercial packaging. See! The hooks are paper made, not the plastic ones 😄
Actually I have an interesting question in my mind? 50 years ago there were no disposable diapers for babies and no disposable pads for women, how did our grandmas or grandaunts manage to take care of babies pee pee (and poo poo) and to handle their periods??? That means it should work without the use of disposable diapers or pads, it's just not very convenient in their lives. 有沒有想過以前母親或祖母年代也沒有一次性尿片和一次性衛生墊？🤔
Well, should we choose convenience or sustainability? Just my own conservative estimation ... now I am doing a math ➕➖❌➗ ... 7 day period per month ... 3 days use reusable pads (during non-heavy times) ... save from throwing 3 disposable pads a month ... one year means 36 disposable pads have been eliminated ... 30 years means 1080 disposable pads have been eliminate. That's a rough estimation for one female. Imagine if a group of 10 girl friends are doing this good practice, then at least 10,800 disposable pads can be reduced. Of course more people are involved more disposable pads can be reduced in our landfills.
Finally it came to our last day in Okinawa. I recall after
we checked out from our apartment, we would be able to get a taxi right away
(very lucky 🚕😄) Here comes a question, how could we tell the taxi driver where
to go? Probably he understood the English word "airport". But we
wanted to stop at the domestic terminal for lunch. So I wrote down 国內線
(similar to Chinese character) and gave it to the driver.
The driver did drop us off at the correct terminal in Naha
airport. We went to the food court in the domestic terminal, which I think it's
on the 2nd or 3rd floor??? Anyways it doesn't matter now since there was a
renovation in early 2019 which I believe the domestic and international
terminals are connected together and the floor plan might be different from
before ... hehe 😅
As you can see from our photos 4 years ago ( I don't know
how it looks like now). The food court was spacious since not many people there
and we could pick any table we like. I really loved the food court since it's
not crowded and it's very comfy no matter where we seated.
There were some souvenir shops across the food court, good for last minute shopping! I remember my mom bought a local bitter melon 苦瓜 for her brother. It was the most beautiful bitter melon we've ever seen. It was very green and fresh.
The picture of Shureimon gate (守禮門) at the food court reminded me that I forgot to visit Shuri (首里) which was a royal capital of
the Ryukyu Kingdom (琉球王國). A number of famous historical sites are there including Shuri Castle and
Shureimon gate and they are all designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
Some of the seats at
the foot court has a view of the planes ✈
Time to order lunch! Uh-oh ... couldn't read the menu 😟Fortunately they had displays, not
edible thou. What can you imagine by looking at the display above? I could
picture a happy moustache man. Tomatoes are the eyes, cucumber is the nose and
pork cutlet is the moustache ... haha!
More displays to look
at ... do you think the picture on the right looks like Chinese doughnut (油炸鬼)?
With mobile phone, I took pictures of the displays and showed them to the person who prepared the food for us. No communication barrier ... hehe. Here's my order ... do you think the display and the real dish look alike?
We still had some time after lunch so I went to the upper
floor with my mom. She saw the display of avocado and vegetable sandwiches and
decided to buy one. Now she knew the
trick, take a picture and show to them 😂
Remember the title of my blog is "Inspirational
Thoughts"? I was inspired by this simple and healthy sandwich ... should
make some for summer picnic ✌
Time to leave Okinawa although I would like to stay for a
few more days. When we were waiting to board on the plane at the boarding gate
in the international terminal. The flight attendant of Hong Kong airline let us
go to the front because of my mom (not my auntie as she looked much younger
than her age). Very good service, they respected the senior and we were the
first to get on the plane!
Overall it was a relaxing trip and nice experience. We had
some fun also. I learned two Japanese words to use in Okinawa - konnichiwa
(hello) and arigato (thank you). Then I got mixed up when I talked to the
cashier in a convenient store. Before the payment, I wanted to say hi but I
said arigato. Then after payment, I wanted to say thank you but I said
konnichiwa. Even my brother noticed the words were wrong 😅
Finally
I finished writing my Okinawa trip before another new year. Thank you for your
patience 🙏💓
Happy
Holidays Everyone! Now I continue to write my blog for the trip in 2015 ...
haha. Does the above picture look like a traditional Chinese garden? It is a
Chinese garden in Naha, Okinawa called Fukushuen 福州園 (https://www.naha-navi.or.jp/fukusyu-en/).
According
to Wikipedia, Fukushuen was constructed in 1992, in celebration of the 10th
anniversary of the establishment of the sister city relationship between Naha and Fuzhou in China.
Fukushuen was one of the must see attractions that we visited in the morning. It took us 10 minutes to walk from our apartment to the garden, which was a healthy exercise 😄
The scene I like most there was its pavilion with the waterfall and a bridge in front.
As Fukushuen is a representative of traditional Chinese garden, there are many Chinese couplets found at different entrances. Examples:
耳悅潺湲，喝水休煩神晏衲；心儀窵遠，眠秋欲借歲寒寮。
高風亮節，誼聯三益締寒交；鐵骨貞心，品壓群芳孚峻望。
Any idea about the
picture above?
Let my auntie
and brother demonstrate it ... put 100 yen (around $1.50 CAD) into the machine
to buy a box of fish food. Then drop the food into the lake. See ... many koi
and even turtle come up for the food!
After visiting Fukushuen, we headed towards Naminoue Shrine (波上宮) since it's within walking distance. Probably another 10 minutes to get there. What's special about this shrine? I think it's the location as people can overlook Naminoue Beach and the ocean at a particular spot in the shrine.
According to Wikipedia, it is originally a sacred space of the native Ryukyuan religion, due to its location and natural beauty. At some point it came to be known as Nanminsan: Nanmin is the Okinawan reading of 波上, meaning "above the waves", which is pronounced as Naminoue in Japanese. I recall there were
much more visitors in Naminoue Shrine than Fukushuen. There was a Chinese
tourist group with a tour guide explaining the shrine so I merged into the
group and paid attention to what he said ... hehe!
Next we went to Karakara Buffet for lunch (http://karakara-okinawa.com/).
I found this restaurant on a website and like it very much since it is similar
to 草楽 buffet I
had when I travelled to Nagoya in 2012. Both restaurants have lots of wood
design creating a cozy and natural environment. They offered local ingredients
and seasonal vegetables. Every time when I had buffet in this type of
restaurant,I felt I was in a
countryside garden (很有田園氣色).
However Karakara Buffet was not easy to find. We were almost
there but had no clue about the exact location. None of us can speak Japanese
so we just picked a young guy to ask for the direction. With simple English, we
hoped he could understand what we asked. It turned out he's so excited to be
able to practice his English with us. Although his English was a bit limited,
he was able to use the term "elevator" because the restaurant was
just located on the 9th floor in the building behind us...haha!
As you can see from the pictures, the restaurant provided variety of vegetables and sauces, noodles and two types of rice. The desserts were light and tasty! The most popular dessert was almond tofu pudding which was gone very fast. Once we saw the staff bringing a bowl full of almond tofu pudding, we grabbed it right away 😆
There were several signs in the restaurant to indicate the food category by three colours - green, yellow and red. Green means fibre, yellow means carbohydrates and red means protein. Then it showed us how to place our food on their plates.
I wanted to be creative so I didn't follow their way. I put
whatever I like on the plate. One thing I like their plate design is I could
try nine different food but each one was just a small portion (like a sample
tasting) so I would not eat too much and gain weight.
Just right outside the restaurant, they put pictures for the
dishes available in November (the current month). I think it's a very good
idea!
After we returned to our apartment, I was trying to check my
office email on its computer. But the login screen was in Japanese! Wow! Better not to touch it so I didn't check my email there.
