Author: billkralovec

Owen, Oliver and I enjoyed watching the Tigers beat the Fighters, 4-2 last night at Koshien Stadium in a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) League. It was the first time we witnessed a victory by the home team in the 3 years we’ve been attending games. Hanshin improved to 30-21, still 1 game behind Hiroshima Carp in the Central League. The Fighters are now 22-29 and in fifth place, of six teams, in the Pacific League.

The game was also special because it was one of the 16 interleague games the Tigers will play this season. There is a short span of games in the middle of the season that the two leagues play each other. I wish there was more because with only 6 teams per league, playing the same five teams regularly is boring. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the “Babe Ruth” of NPB, Shohe Otani who is rehabilitating from a foot injury with their farm club. They also have one of the best names in sports, Nippon Ham Fighters. Nippon Ham is a processed foods company (think Kraft), that owns the team. They play in Sapporo, the capital of the northern island of Hokkaido. For most of their history, they were the second team in Tokyo, sharing the same stadium of the richest club, the Yomiuri Giants, but moved north in 2004. I like that they represent Hokkaido and play a slate of regional games on the island. Sharing Tokyo Dome with the most popular team in the league must have been tough. We’ll try to see Otani play later in the season at the Pacific League Kansai-based team, the Orix Buffalos.

As always, the best part of the game was spending time with my sons and our friend Kenta. To get to the stadium via public transport, we ride our bicycles about 2 kilometers to the train station. We take it to the center of Osaka and then take the express over to Nishinomiya, which is between Osaka and Kobe. It takes about an hour to get to the stadium from our house. On game days, Hanshin Railways run cars specifically for fans going to and from the stadium. It is a comfortable way to get to the game and it does not feel crowded, despite lots of people.

As you can see in the video on this post, my favorite player for the Tigers, Yoshio Itoi, had a good game with the RBI single. Itoi is similar to Bryce Harper with his power and athleticism. He has a lot of range in center field, in the leadoff spot he hits for average and steals bases, but also has the power to go deep. He is an exciting player to watch.

I am always curious about the import players. The guys who end up in Japan are the fringe Major League players. These players usually excel in the top minor league (AAA) but are not good enough, or lucky enough, to stay with the MLB team for long. For example, the Hanshin closer, Rafael Dolis. He pitched 44 innings for the Chicago Cubs in 2013 before being demoted and then traded. He never made back to MLB with attempts in the San Francisco Giants and Detroit Tigers. The 29-year old Dominican then gets to be the closer here in Japan and making good money. Or take Brandon Laird, the third baseman and #3 hitter for the Fighters. He played 53 games over three seasons with the Yankees and Astros. Brandon had a key hit in the World Baseball Classic this year playing for Mexico. His brother Gerald, was a back up catcher on the Detroit Tigers for a couple of seasons.

It is an entertaining atmosphere at the stadium due to the enthusiasm of the fans. They like to sing songs for players and the team throughout the game. They also like the routine of the 5th inning Asahi beer toast, the janken (rock,scissors, paper) scoreboard games, releasing of balloons during the seventh inning stretch, etc.

I wanted to get out of town for the day so we rented a car and headed to Awaji Island. It is the largest island in the “inland sea”, the water between the main islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu and it is a short cut between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. Awaji forms the east side of Osaka Bay and it was only about a 2-hour drive to Keino Matsubara (black pine) beach, our first destination.

Beach season does not begin in Japan until June, so there were very few people. The water was nice and the kids enjoyed skipping rocks and catching moon jellyfish. The beach gets its name from the huge stand of black pine trees which house a camping area. The pines are beautiful and always remind me of the white pine stands next to Lake Superior in my home state of Michigan.

We bought several bags of onions on a roadside stop. Awaji is known for its onions and there were numerous farms, interspersed with forested hills. Bicycle companies promote it as an ideal150-kilometerr circumnavigation ride, which I would like to do someday. The Naruto whirlpools were a disappointment, reeking of “tourist trap”, but there were nice views

The Naruto whirlpools were a disappointment, reeking of “tourist trap”, but there were nice views of the bridge and the strait. The sea level differences between the Pacific and Seto inland sea cause strong currents under the bridge. At certain times whirlpools form, but when we visited in the late afternoon, there were just lots of currents, but no whirlpools.

It is a perfect weekend get-away and I found the day relaxing. Owen stayed home because he is battling a bad cold. He also was tired from a volleyball tourney which I will blog about later this week.

The culmination of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) is the grade 5 exhibition. It is a good “rite of passage” for elementary students as they complete elementary school and move into middle school. The exhibition is a deep-dive into a topic. This year’s central idea is migration is caused by push and pull factors. Oliver researched African immigrants trying to get into Libya. He focused on dictators and bad government as “push factors”.

Congratulations to Oliver for finishing up grade 5 and becoming a middle schooler.

Last Monday I hosted a meeting of the Japan Council of International Schools. The officers and committee chairs needed a place to meet so I offered Kwansei Gakuin University’s Tokyo office as a venue. I forgot how centrally located the office is, just steps away from the doors of Japan Railway’s Tokyo station. It is on the 10th floor of the Sapia Tower and is probably one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in the world. Our view looked over the station and the area around it.

A part of my quirky Japan series, I had to purchase a Japanese “egg McMuffin” or at least the convenience store version of it. The egg and sausage are wrapped in a layer of rice and seaweed. So Japanese! It gave me the energy to prepare the office for the meetings.

After the meetings, I wanted to get some exercise before heading back to Osaka on the shinkansen, or bullet train. Amazing that I can travel to and from Tokyo for the day with a comfortable commute of a little over 2 hours each way. By car, the trip would take 5-6 hours. Anyway, just blocks away from the station is the Emperor’s palace. It is a massive green space in the heart of Tokyo. I combined a loop around the palace with a side run around Hibiya Park to have a 10km run. It was cool and cloudy, perfect running conditions. The endless green lawns, manicured trees and ponds and just space is so rare in Japanese cities.

On my way out of the building and a final check to make sure the meeting room was clean, I thought about how far I have come since my childhood. Spending the day in a high rise in the largest city in the world is so different from growing up in the village of Caspian, Michigan, my hometown. Over 25 years working abroad has given me an appreciation for large cities, but, both the village and metropolis are special to me.

We have a 5-day weekend due to Japan national holidays. They string together the anniversary of the constitution, nature day and children’s day and name it “golden week”. Our family is not going anywhere for the holiday, but relaxing at home and spending time together. I am finishing a couple of papers as it is exam week at Lehigh University where I am working towards my doctorate degree.

Yesterday we played a stirring game of baseball and even Nadia joined us. After the game, we challenged each other to sprints. Both Nadia and I are sore today, we need to get to the track more to work out.

After finishing a big paper this morning and “invigilating” IB exams, I went for a 20-kilometer bike ride up to Katsuo-ji, a temple in the Minoh national forest. The Japanese call this season “new-green” which gets its name from the spring growth of trees. The new leaves are a brighter green and combined with the blue skies and cool breezes, it is the absolutely perfect weather!

I love riding my bicycle in Japan. Although it is always a risk, drivers here are very safety conscious and respectful to pedestrians and bicyclists, so it is much easier to get out and go! Almost all school children and many adults ride bikes daily to work or shopping and running errands that cars are used to watching out for them.

It is so nice to have time to reconnect with my children and wife! I am loving this break and feeling recharged for the “stretch run” of school.

Owen won several medals and team trophies at last weekend’s World Scholar’s Cup. He had his highest score in the debate. Fortunately, he was with two experienced teammates and his team of three won the junior division.

The World Scholar’s Cup is fantastic for young people as it puts academic achievement on the same level as sports. The founders of WSC find interesting topics for the kids to learn more about. They are also “hip” and between the music and schtick (stuffed alpacas, jokes) kids are super engaged in the challenge rounds which are like knowledge bowls. There is also an essay contest. My favorite is the debate competition. The resolutions for the senior category this year were “Japan should land a manned mission on Mars” and “it should be legal to bring back people from the dead”. These kinds of questions force students to form logical and evidence-based arguments and develop their public speaking and presentation skills. These types of skills are really needed here in Asia especially. Owen will not be going to the Global Round in Hanoi this year, although he qualified, but depending on his work ethic, we hope to send him to next year’s round. You can watch his debate on YouTube. He is so far ahead of me if I compare him to my grade 8 self…

Oliver is really coming into his own as he approaches his 12th birthday. He is shown above playing for his club soccer team, the International Soccer School of Senri (ISSS). He has been going pretty faithfully all winter and now with spring, he is starting to go to games. I think a big reason he is committed to the team is the camaraderie of his friends on the team. He is like his grandfather, Popa, and loves to socialize with his buddies.

Oliver is shown above with his mother feeling grumpy. He was so excited for the dance, that when we arrived 5 minutes late, he was quite upset. I guess he has been living in Japan so long when being exactly on time is so important. He has some good dance moves. We are looking forward to his birthday this weekend!

A friend bought me an ice cream treat on Monday, called a “Jumbo – Party, Party!” The ice cream sandwich had the cone surrounding vanilla ice cream with hard chocolate in the middle. It conveniently breaks into perfect sections along the ridges, so easy to share with friends. Aptly named, “party, party”! It tasted like the bottom of an ice cream cone but with the perfect amount of ice cream inside. Food choices are always surprising in Japan.

I ride my bicycle a lot here and often see the sign in the photo above. There are many overpasses in Osaka and according to the sign, pedestrians, bikes and “rickshaws” are not allowed to use them. I have never seen a rickshaw in Japan except in the rare tourist zone. I wonder why they ban them specifically if people haven’t used them in Japan for decades. Always something interesting here.

I was in Tokyo for two days of meetings last week and stayed in the neighborhood of Yoga. It is a residential area in the most populous of Tokyo’s 23 wards, Setagaya. There are almost 900,000 people in this southwest section of Tokyo. The hotel was close to the train station. I didn’t really have a lot of time to explore the area, but I did go for a night walk and morning run to nearby Kinuta Park. It used to be a golf course and then landfill, but today it is a beautiful park. I enjoy exploring urban parks. The area between the station and the park has a relaxed feel, despite so many people and the big Tomei Expressway (main highway between Tokyo and Nagoya) running by it. The narrow streets are designed more for pedestrians than cars with plenty of trees and benches to promote meeting people and resting. However, the sound of the highway was ever present.

Everytime I go to Tokyo I see something new. It is the largest city in the world so it makes sense. I go back next month for more meetings.