Category: Uncategorized

Miyajima World Heritage Site

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The famous torii at low tide

I can see why the shrine on Miyajima (shrine island) is an UNESCO World Heritage site. Besides the really cool looking shinto gate (torii in Japanese), the green, mountainous island in Hiroshima bay is a stunning backdrop.  It reminded me a bit of the Mediterranean coast. I highly recommend staying at a hotel on the island and spending 1-2 days exploring. Besides being recognized by the UN, it is also one of the “three views of Japan” cited by 17th century scholar Hayashi Gahoo. This is the second of the three that I have visited.

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The view from Mount Misen

My favorite part of the island is the hike to Mount Misen (535 meters – 1,755 feet). The views are spectacular, especially on a bright, sunny day like we had yesterday. It takes about 1 and 1/2 hours of pretty steep climbing, but well worth the effort. There is the typical tourist alley of shops and restaurants. We tried the Hiroshima style okonomiyaki, the savory pancakes. In Hiroshima they use more cabbage than in Osaka. I also had a bowl of the abundant grilled oysters that are caught in the bay. There are also loads of tame deer making a nuisance of themselves with tourists.

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The torii at high tide.

It was a great day for me. Walking in nature, cool sea breezes, delicious food and lots of laughs with the students and fellow chaperones. Also being a weekday, there were not the usual holiday crowds. I can’t recommend enough, a visit to this special place.

Hiroshima – August 6, 1945

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The Atomic Bomb Dome Monument – Hiroshima Peace Park

This is ground zero of the first atomic bomb detonation aimed at killing humans. The “atomic bomb dome” in Hiroshima is now a monument visited by thousands of people weekly in the Hiroshima Peace Park. On August 6, 1945, an uranium bomb exploded 600 meters almost directly over this building, a former exhibition hall. Because the angle of impact was directly above, the building’s columns and dome survived the blast while a kilometer in every direction was leveled. Almost half of the city (140,000 people) were killed and combined with a second atomic bomb in Nagasaki August 9, 1945, the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945, known as VJ Day (Victory over Japan) in the USA. The Americans were aiming for a nearby bridge as the target, but missed by about 300 meters.

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Hara-san gives his story with a translator. 

I am in Hiroshima  as a chaperone with students from our school. Last night at the hotel Garden Palace, we arranged a survivor of the bomb to come and speak with us. Hara-san is 77 years old and the former director of the Hiroshima Peace Museum. He was waiting for a train on that fateful morning at the Hiroshima station with his parents and older sister. Fortunate for him, they were on the backside of the building and luckily survived the walls crashing on them. The debris protected them from the fire and they were able to crawl out. They also fled the city in an eastward direction, which was away from the epicenter. They had no idea which direction the blast came from and by leaving to the east, avoided more radiation poisoning. He spoke of stepping over dead bodies for hundreds of meters and listening to the cries of people with burned flesh. Absolutely horrible. His message to us was one of peace and futility of nuclear weapons. Walking through the museum and seeing the charred school lunch boxes and school uniforms emphasized the fact that many children died.

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A scale model of the city after the blast – the red ball is bomb explosion.

The grade 4 students made 1000 paper cranes, a symbol of healing and long life in Japan in honor of the children who died in the blast, and like the famous Sadako, died from cancer several years later, and the students placed the cranes at the children’s peace memorial.

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Peace Cranes at the Children’s Memorial

Aboard the USS Blue Ridge

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On Thursday evening we attended a reception aboard the USS Blue Ridge. The communications and command flagship of 7th Fleet is making a friendly visit to the port of Osaka. The 900 sailors aboard will be enjoying a bit of R & R here in Kansai and doing a community service project with a local orphanage. The ship when not on patrol in the Asia Pacific region, is docked on a naval base near Yokohama. Nadia is shown above with a couple “cryptographers”, the communications specialists.

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The heads of international schools in Kansai with US consulate students were invited to attend the reception hosted by  US Consul General Greenburg. It was a crisp evening down at the port of Osaka where the Blue Ridge was docked, but the friendliness of the sailors and guests, live music and food and drinks kept us warm. It was my first time on a navy ship and it is incredible the logistics that goes into maintaining a vessel at sea carrying so many people. The Blue Ridge is quite old (since 1967) but it is well kept after and serves as a communications hub for the seventh fleet. We met the commander of the 7th fleet, Joseph Aucoin, and we discussed our memories of the Balkans, where Vice Admiral Aucoin also spent some time.

It is amazing and incredibly expensive the work of the US Navy. They have basically mapped out zones of the entire world that the various fleets cover. Thanks to the US navy, world trade and commerce can take place without disruption. Times are a bit tense in the Asia Pacific region with the always crazy North Korea and the rise of militarism of China in the South China Sea.

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I would like to thank the personnel of the USS Blue Ridge and the US Consulate in Osaka for the pleasant evening! I also want to thank the men and women of the Blue Ridge and the entire seventh fleet for their service to our country and to the idea of democracy and free trade.

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West Iron County Basketball 1984-85

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I made a digital copy of an old (almost 31 years ago) VHS tape of my high school basketball team. I graduate from West Iron County High School, “the Wykons” in 1985. On the video tape were the following games:

  1. My dad filmed the fourth quarter of a regular season game against Iron Mountain high school in the Iron River Armory. We played our games there for years before a new gymnasium built in the new high school. It is appropriate that the new gym is named after our coach, Charles “Chuck” Greenland, who passed away a few years ago. This was the game featuring “the shot” which was my greatest moment in my high school basketball career. I made a last second shot to give us a 56-54 victory, giving the then #1 ranked team in the Class C Upper Peninsula of Michigan polls their first loss of the season. It was wonderful to hear my dad’s voice on the video. It was also great to see so many people at a high school basketball game. This was in the early 1980s before the internet and cable television was just starting, so people had more time to pay attention to high school sports.
  2. Next are the WLUC TV channel 6 news broadcasts of the game above and later in the season, we played Iron Mountain again in the first game of the district tournament. I enjoyed watching the sports segment on the 10:00 pm news program on the television station in Marquette, Michigan, the “capital city” of the Upper Peninsula. My sons were awestruck to see and hear me speak as a teenager and I won’t forget the look on their faces when they watched the video.
  3. Finally, there is the entire WLUC TV broadcast of the class C regional championship basketball game we played against Manistique high school. This was the unofficial Upper Peninsula championship game. We went on to the Michigan state finals, that season, finishing 24-4. I hope to find some more old VHS tapes that I can upload.

I want to thank my teammates, Dan Lewis, Brian Lewis, Jeff Shepich, Mike Nelson and “the scrubs”(Tom Anderson, Scott Bociek, Dave Puskala, Troy Brunelli, Matt Sherman, Kyle Erickson (RIP), Gary Sarafiny, Darren Bray, Bob Lindbeck, Ray Waite and coach Greenland. I have so many fond memories from our basketball team and the good times we had in high school.

Kralovec Boys Perform

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Oliver is shown above (third from the left) in the recent school production of Grease. He was a member of the elementary school choir that performed several songs in the musical. Oliver’s costume was that of a “greaser” and he had fun with the 1950s hair style. The little guy put a lot of time into the rehearsals and the four performances. As he was on stage more, he became more comfortable, singing and dancing in front of large audiences. The performing arts gives young people the opportunity to develop self confidence and presentation skills. It also gave Nadia and I a thrill to see him on stage. Congratulations to Oliver, we are so proud of you!

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Earlier this week Owen had his turn on the stage at the middle school music concert. He was featured in the first ensemble. The four piece ensemble played the difficult, “Gonna Fly Now” the famous theme from the movie Rocky. He has been playing the trumpet for almost two years now. Owen is getting pretty good and I hope he continues to play. Music is good for the soul and being able to create your own music to me, a non-musician, is special.

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Below is the video of his performance. Way to go Owen!!!!

Geocaching on the Yodo River

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Sunday afternoon we took the kids down to the Yodo River, one of the big rivers running through Osaka into the bay. There are over 300 geocaches along the shores of the river and people come from all over to see how many they can get in a day. We did a loop around both banks of the river and got a bunch, but not close to 300. The sun was out and despite the cold winds, it was quite pleasant to be outside. The Japanese love baseball and play all year round as you can see by the photo above. I also like to see the large number of bikes at the park. That is one of the reasons the Japanese are so healthy is that they get a lot of exercise, which is a suggestion for Americans to improve their health.

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As I have previously written, geocaching is a great excuse to get outdoors, spend time together as a family and explore new areas. The river banks are for public use in Japan and one finds sports fields, golf courses, bike paths, fishing spots, etc. We are passing over the Nagara bridge, just outside the central business district (photo above)

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Above are the old locks that carried boats between the Okawa and Yodo rivers. Because of dams and levees to prevent flooding, the two rivers had a large difference in elevation. They are no longer used and city officials have turned them into a sort of outdoor museum.

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A highlight for me was crossing this train bridge. The tracks are under construction so no trains are crossing, but Oliver was really frightened to cross, thinking a train would come. There is space on the side and it is safe, so it was a managed risk situation. We made it across with no problems.

Thanks to Josep for driving and Pico and Bernie for helping us find so many geocaches!

 

 

Tateyama Ski Trip

Tateyama Ski Trip

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Owen goes down the hill!

I am finally starting to feel a bit better after last week’s influenza. I was well enough to accompany the students on our school’s annual cross country ski trip. The students learned how to cross country ski at the Tateyama National Youth Outdoor Learning Center. It is just outside of the Tateyama national park, which is located on the far north eastern part of the Japanese alps. The park is famous for the giant snow walls that tourists visit each spring.

It has not been a great year for the skiing business on the main island of Honshu because of a lack of snow. Fortunately for us there was enough snow to be able to ski and students really had fun throwing snowballs, making snowmen, etc. Snow brings out the kid in everyone! The government run center is set up for school groups and so it was a perfect place to bring a large group of adolescents.

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The view from the center looking across the river valley.

This was my first visit to the Nagano / Japanese Alps region and I hope to explore more of the region during my stay in Japan. Below is the view of the mountains from the city of Toyama on the Sea of Japan coast. Of course the highlight for me was spending time with Owen. He gets along so easily with others and is such a positive young man. It was a pleasure to watch him interact with the other students on the trip. A big thank you to Baba sensei for organizing the trip and allowing me to be a chaperone.

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Family Journal: Cold Snap Hits Japan

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A cold snap has struck the islands of Japan this weekend. It was -2C in Osaka yesterday for most of the day with a cold wind making it feel even colder. One feels the cold here even more because Japanese homes are not insulated and there most do not have central heating. One needs to heat room by room. We also have the extra special touch of no hot water this morning when I desperately need a bath to warm my core.

Ocean is shown above on our bike ride to Daiso last night. She is such a trooper! It turned out to be a really nice ride with her with the almost full moon and Orion in its full constellation glory. Ocean is doing an astronomy unit at school and it has sparked her fascination for space and the night sky.

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I was a single dad this weekend. Mom had a girls’ weekend in Korea. We had a nice time together and I was proud of my cooking. I am becoming better in kitchen this year due to necessity with Nadia working and limited domestic help. It is nice to have her back! Below is Ocean pushing her bike up the hill in Kita Senri park. brrrrr…. Many parts of Japan were hit with heavy snow, it seems like everywhere except Osaka. Both north and south of Osaka saw significant snowfall.

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First Snowfall in Osaka

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Osaka’s climate is similar to Atlanta USA so it rarely snows here. Earlier this week, we awoke to a thin covering of snow! By noon it was melted and gone but the morning was fun for the kids and for me. Above is a tsubaki flower, known as the “rose of winter” which is an apt name. They are a common garden hedge in Osaka.

It was strange to see our street (below) with snow cover. I love snow and if it is going to be cold, one might as well have snow. The word for snow is Japanese is yuuki. This is the third occasion in my time here that it has snowed and I am hoping for more.

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The cold weather finally arrived last week after a pretty warm December and early January. As I write this, it is -1C in our suburb of Minoo. It will stay around the zero mark all day today. The cold weather will stay until Wednesday when it will go back up to a high of 12 C (54F).  Nadia is pictured on the way to school on Tuesday morning during the snow.

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The Japanese Tea Ceremony

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I had the privilege of participating in our school’s tea ceremony class this week. In the video above, Maki sensei explains how to mix the matcha or powdered green tea. The ritual is very Zen, being brought to Japan 1,300 years ago from China. Each movement must be performed just so and is kind of a form of meditation. The idea of slowing down the mind and focusing on a mundane activity, lifting it to an act of beauty and calmness. I see it as a way of slowing down one’s life so it can seem longer.

The students were very patient and kind with my bumbling of folding of the napkin. Our school has a traditional tatami (tightly bound straw mats) room and it is used for such occasions. The first day Maki sensei wore a kimono, which is such a beautiful formal dress for women. We didn’t get to even see the tea on the first class, which is very Zen. On the second day we finally got to drink some warm tea.

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 Matcha tea is bitter and so it is always accompanied with a sweet. The rubbery but pleasant mochi wrapped around a sweet bean paste center, made a nice combination with the tea.

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I have a long way to go before I master the movements of the tea ceremony. Maki sensei studied for 10 years to become a sensei (teacher). We are fortunate to have her on campus. She teaches a tea ceremony class for SIS seniors and runs an after school club for high school students which is open to students from both schools. I would like to organize a workshop for OIS high school students with her sometime this spring.

A huge thank you to Maki sensei and the SIS seniors for allowing me to share the experience! I feel a bit closer to understanding this complex and different culture, al