Family Journal: Arrival to USA – July 3-5, 2016

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We had a nice stop in Seoul before heading over Siberia, Alaska and Canada to arrive at JFK airport safe and sound. It is over 13 hours flight time with 2 and 1/2 hours added getting out of the plane and out of the baggage claim area. I actually don’t mind flying, I enter in a Zen mode and just enjoy the quiet time reading and spending time with my family. Ocean is getting taller! Seoul airport is really nice so the 3-hour delay was not bad at all. I was swinging her forward on her Healy’s shoe/skates on the smooth floors of the terminal. Her shoelace came undone and tripped her once, but she was not hurt, but it really scared me.

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I resisted the temptation of getting the “Baby Pure Shining Mask” male version. As I wrote earlier, the Koreans take skin care to a whole other level!

We are all fighting jet lag! I keep finding myself all of sudden hitting the wall and needing to sleep in the late afternoons. Today I slept from 4:00 PM to almost 7:00 PM. We went to the fireworks last night in Bethlehem and it was good to soak up a bit of the festivities. Fireworks are a bit overrated and I learned that we need to be doing something else while the fireworks are occurring. I wonder what else we can do to celebrate our independence from Great Britain (Amerexit). I read an article about how young the founding fathers were when they signed the declaration of independence and fought the war. Many were in their 20s and 30s. Crazy to think they had such important positions of power, but I guess with a new country, many people there were risk-takers and it was suited for younger people who were not set in their ways. Good on them!

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I forget how far east the Lehigh Valley, which is only  a short drive from Philadelphia and New York. Most of the big names of the revolution visited Bethlehem and I hope during my time here to visit some of the historical places in the old district of the town. We are really happy to be back in the USA and me back in school! Loving Lehigh, Pennsylvania and spending time with family! Despite the rain, we got out and watched the fireworks.

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Ollie and Owen at the fireworks show

Seoul Food (and sightseeing)

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Oliver & Owen in Myeong-dong with the Seoul Tower in the background. 

On our way to the USA for summer vacation, we stopped in Seoul, South Korea to soak up the atmosphere and some of the sights of the largest city in Korea and fourth largest metro area in the world.

I was really curious how Korea compares to Japan and found that they are different. Japan is unique in Asia in that it is singularly refined, quiet, orderly compared to the other cultures I experienced in my two years in the region. Korea had lots of street vendors, some litter, people were louder and more direct, etc. They are neighbors and hosted a World Cup together and there are many similarities, but I was surprised at how more “in your face” our interactions were with locals. I guess every time we leave Japan we will experience a bit of a shock at cultures that are more expressive and places that are not as neat and orderly.

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We stayed at Days Inn near Myeong-dong station, one of the big shopping areas in the center of Seoul. Immediately we noticed the hustle and bustle of street vendors. We had a pretty good BBQ and some traditional Korean dishes. I especially liked the roasted octopus sticks. Nadia and Ocean enjoyed a day of shopping. Ocean was especially happy with her hand sanitizer holders and bracelets. She was acting so grown up.

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The boys and I hiked up the hills of Namsan Park to the Seoul Tower, one of the iconic buildings of the capital. The views, as you can see above, were worth the effort. There was a pretty extensive outdoor weight/exercise area about halfway up to the summit, where we had a good workout. The hill was always a fortress to protect the city from attack and we walked along the protective wall (a mini-Great Wall of China) down to the Sungnyeum Gate. I had to bribe them with $6 drinks from Starbucks to get them to take a longer loop back to the hotel. As readers of my blog know, I gravitate to green areas when I am visiting big cities. I highly recommend Namsan Park if you are in the city center.

It was a beautiful summer evening and good people watching. We noticed many US military personnel and were reminded that crazy, nuclear weapon-capable North Korea was only a couple hours drive away. I hope on my next visit to see the DMZ (de-militarized zone) and learn a bit more about World War II/Korean War. It is amazing the economic and infrastructure growth the country underwent after being heavily destroyed and very poor in the mid-1950s.

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Oliver standing along the Seoul City Wall

Koreans are obsessed with their skin! We saw hundreds of stores dedicated to creams, moisturizers, whiteners, etc. for both men and women. Korean women spend more on cosmetics per capita than any other country in the world. We bought many of the famous face masks and other products as gifts. This BBC article was right, they are world leaders in skin products. I was surprised that men also are into both cosmetics and fashion and with their slight builds and the tendency to dress in the same patterns as their girlfriends, they are a bit androgynous. Many women do have nice skin and like Japanese women, they dress well and are well kempt. I bought a nice night cream to help my aging skin. I have spent way too many hours in the great outdoors unprotected to have silky smooth skin. I was looking for a special cream for the sunspots on the top of my head, but not many Koreans are bald.

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Another satisfied customer and an uncomfortable salesperson!

 I am looking forward to exploring more of this interesting country. As with many places in Asia, my only complaint is there are too many people and Seoul has one of the highest population densities, 14x greater than New York. There are plenty of inexpensive and convenient flights between Osaka and various destinations in Korea, so I am sure I’ll be back. I’ll finish this post with a video from the Myeong-dong shopping street.

Quirky Japan: Polling Stations

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Things are very organized in Japan. One example is the candidate boards at polling stations. This is a municipal office in our neighborhood and in preparation for the election on July 10, the 8 candidates are neatly posted in their positions on the board on the left. One does not see signs haphazardly posted around the city. There are strict regulations for all political campaigning.

This is a historic election because it is the first election where 18 year olds can vote. The voting age was recently lowered from 20 to 18. The election is for the upper house of the legislature. The television NHK was at our school this week filming Kwansei Gakuin university students speaking to the Japanese grade 11 and 12 students about voting. The voting rate is around 50% for most elections here. The 18 and 19 year olds are only about 2% of a population that is heavily skewed to an older demographic, so it will probably not affect the outcomes of the elections very much. I think it is good to get younger people voting and hopefully it will bring fresh ideas and innovation to politics and the economy.

Quirky Japan: Eating Daggertooth Pike Conger

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Japan has a “foodie” culture and presentation and delicate tastes are very important at restaurants. They also eat everything that comes from the sea including the summertime Kansai (name for the western region of Japan where we live in Osaka) dish, hamo. It is in the foreground in the photo above and served with beefsteak leaf, wasabi paste and either a spicy red sauce or mustard. It was delicious but when I looked up the English name for hamo, I found it was dagger-tooth pike conger (Muraenesox cinereus) a type of eel. It lives on the sandy bottoms of oceans up to 100 meters deep.

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Hamo is best in the summer and I love the seasonality of seafood. Fish are best to eat at certain times of the year and each season brings with it new fish and other creatures to try. I am trying to learn all of the different seasonal fish and also learning how to prepare them. I never grew up eating much seafood, but really like it and I know that it is very healthy for me. One of the starters was the summer noodle, somen, which is in the foreground in the photo below. It is served cold. I had these dishes at Fujiya a restaurant close to the kitaguchi-nishinomiya station.

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People like to socialize and drink over meals in Japan. Restaurants rather than bars and dance clubs are less popular than restaurants. Meals last a long time and are many courses. It must be the Japanese metabolism that keeps people thin here because when they go out, they eat a lot. Below was my kanji lesson for the night. The top part is the kanji for white and the bottom has a portion for bird and go forward, which signifies “white hawk” and it is a type of sake. I would like to learn more about how sake is made and the different types of sake.

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Family Journal: June 24, 2016

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Ocean has a strong artistic bent and is always producing art works. This week she brought home her ceramic pieces from school. She has a great eye for color and shape and they are some pretty impressive dishware from an eight-year old. Our school’s art program is excellent and it is rare that a second grader would have the opportunity to produce this many ceramics.

 

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Nadia and I attended Oliver’s parent teacher conferences last week. He is such a cute little guy! He still writes cartoon stories of violence and technology like he did in grade 1. Ollie is shown above in front of his time machine that he and a couple of classmates constructed. He is slowly maturing and we are proud of his accomplishments. His team lost in the finals of the World Cup Soccer tourney at school in penalty kicks, but he handled it well. I loved his friend Noah’s story about Oliver’s trip to Guam. Hilarious!

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Ocean recently has been taking vocal lessons at school and it culminated with a concert. You can see a bit of the video below. She really likes singing, although I think she inherited my lack of musicality. It was very special to watch her perform. She also did a duet with an older student. I’ll link to the full concert when it goes online. Ocean was a bit nervous at the start, but felt more comfortable as the song went on. Performing and presenting oneself is so important for one’s development. Good on ya Ocean!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Day at the Ballpark

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Nice to see the bullpen car survives in Japan professional baseball! 

Owen, Oliver, Kenta and I went to yesterday’s Hanshin Tigers versus Soft Bank (Fukuoka) Hawks Nippon Professional Baseball league game at Koshien Stadium. In a pitchers’ duel, the Hawks defeated the Tigers 1-0. Kodai Senga pitched 8 scoreless innings to improve his record to 7-0 in 12 appearances. Soft Bank, the biggest cell phone and internet company in Japan, really does a good job in baseball operations and has far and away, the best team and organization in the league. They are 44-17 this year to be atop the Pacific League and have won the Japan Series the past two years. Senga is one of many excellent pitchers for the Hawks. They originally were based in Osaka and were owned by a railway company before being purchased by a department store in 1988 and moving to the southern city of Fukuoka.

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The Hawks had great pitching from Randy Messenger, the 6-6, 265 American import. He played for the Florida Marlins, San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners in his 4-year MLB career. Messenger has played for the Tigers for 7 seasons and is their ace, despite being sent to the minors briefly last year. Messenger pitched 8 strong innings and the Hawks scored the only run in typical fashion in the third inning. After a leadoff hit, a sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second. They love sacrifice bunting here. Senga got a hit to move the runner to third and then a suicide squeeze bunt play brought the runner home. Messenger also had one of the 4 Tigers’ hits and deserved a better fate.

27732443456_4a2edd45b9_z1Other observations: 

  • The Asahi beer girls must have been uncomfortable in the hot temperatures but beer sales were quite brisk.
  • This was a rare interleague game, as the two leagues (Central and Pacific) only play each other from May 31 to June 23 in a 144-game season. There are only 12 teams total, six in each league, so it must get boring to play the same 5 teams all the time.
  • They still use the bullpen car to bring in relief pitches. The car at Koshien is a convertible. Much better than the golf carts with a baseball on top like in the 1970s MLB.
  • Our man Tsuyoshi Nishioka got the start at third base for the Tigers and of course struck out twice and grounded out to first base. He has the best song of any player, however. (see video below) The fans are constantly singing or slapping the plastic bats together.

Family Journal: June 12, 2016

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The end of the school year is always busy and I don’t have much time for family and personal reflection. I am catching up on my blogging with a post about last weekend.

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Much of my time last weekend and this week has been assembling a basketball hoop. We purchased a plexiglass board, adjustable hoop from Costco, which was on sale. It has pushed my mechanical ability and has required drilling, using two wrenches simultaneously, hoisting the backboard up to connect to the pole, etc. all the while reading through a 70+ page manual. Many of the parts’ bags were open and so searching for nuts, bolts and small parts has been tedious. The only good thing about the experience is spending time with Owen! He is a patient and positive kid and the reason I am putting myself through this. We will certainly enjoy the hoop once it is up. With vacation looming and typhoon season on its way, I am hesitant to finish and put it up while we are away for 6 weeks. Several times in the process I have wanted to write a strongly worded letter to the Lifetime, the manufacturers of equipment. Can you make it a bit more complicated so it will take even longer than the 4 hours normally required to assemble it?

June and July is the rainy season here in Japan and there has been plenty of grey skies. The humidity is crazy high and combined with warm temperatures, it feels like tropics. I always loved summer growing up and would rather be uncomfortably hot rather than painfully cold. It is so humid that paper left on my desk has that soggy feel. Sunday afternoon whiffle ball continues and last weekend, Ocean hit a walk-off double, with Owen scoring the winning run. Oliver had a chance to make a catch that would have extended the game, but he completely missed the ball. We all had a great laugh, even Oliver. I love baseball and think my kids like it too. The rain kept everyone away from our neighborhood, Matsuide park, except for us. A memorable afternoon for me.

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On Saturday night the administration team went downtown Osaka for dinner and drinks. We had a lot of laughs. The urban Japan scene is fun and so different from where we live in the suburbs. I wouldn’t want to live down there, but it is a good night out. Below is a photo of the 70-meter, 18-story OS office building. There is lot of interesting architecture in Japan CBD (central business districts).

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Family Journal: June 8, 2016

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We had a bit of a scare on Monday when Owen went over his handlebars on his bike ride to school this morning. We was going over a bump and came down awkwardly and hit his front brake too tightly. He broke his fall with his wrist. Thankfully he just had scrapes and bruises and we not seriously injured. He is pictured above in the school health center. The dormitory students were quite nice in helping up and get to the nurse. As you can see, by Wednesday he was back to his normal, smiling self.

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On my own bike ride this morning, I noticed that the ferris wheel at the Expo City Mall is almost complete. There is a very wide bike/running lane around the entire park and it is one of my regular bike routes. It is about 13 kilometers and can be completed in less than an hour, so it is ideal for before school or in the evening because it is safe from cars. The mall is another development that has taken part of the park away. It is hugely popular based on the weekend crowds. Combined with the new Suita City soccer stadium across the street, it is a hub of activity. Ferris wheels are quite popular in Japan and there seems to be one in every city. I don’t see the appeal to them, but maybe I am a just a grumpy, old man.

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Family Journal: June 6, 2016

billkralovec

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Unlike non-educators, I go to prom every year. It is much different of course as an adult chaperone rather than a teenager, but it is still fun. Nadia loves to dress up and go out, it is part of her Latin America heritage where social outings are almost mandatory. We had a nice time dancing to a few songs and trying to take pictures of friends’ children.

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Our school is owned by the Kwansei Gakuin Educational Foundation which has besides us and several K-12 schools, they also run a 24,000-student university. Above is a photo I snapped before a meeting with the board of trustees. The campus looks like Stanford with the Spanish style buildings and palm trees. I enjoy cycling to the university from our campus (approx 20 kilometers) and because of traffic, it is not much longer on bike than car.

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On Sunday we drove over to the Kyoto Costco for supplies. With the kids getting older and eating more, the bulk purchases make sense for our family. It is nice to have the American warehouse retail chain in Japan. We get items not usually found in Japan and there are some pretty good deals.

 

 

“The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet”

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I just finished reading the 2010 novel by David Mitchell. He is famous for writing the book that later was a movie, Cloud Atlas. In reading a bit about Mitchell, I didn’t know that he lived in Hiroshima for 9 years and is married to a Japanese woman. The work of historical fiction is set around the turn of the 18th century in the Nagasaki Bay. This was during the time that Japan was closed to the world and the only contact with the west for 200 years, was a small, artificial island trading post managed by Dutch traders. The story’s main character Jacob, is a young clerk who falls in love with a Japanese medical student. As with Cloud Atlas, there are several plot lines that come together in the end.

As with all good historical fiction, the book gave me a strong sense of what it was like back then. Mitchell writes in the final pages that “Obscurity is Japan’s outermost defense. The country does not want to be understood.” Japan was for over 200 years blocked to the rest of world and leaving the islands or visiting the islands was punishable by death. Mitchell is right in that during a time of colonialism, Japan was not taken over by the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English or other maritime powers when neighboring nations fell. Mitchell’s years in Japan served him well for this book in that he understands Japanese culture intimately. It is a decent story and I enjoyed being taken away in the evenings before falling asleep. One takeaway from that period is how slow news travelled. The Dutch traders only learned of the bankruptcy of their company a year later and with news only coming with incoming ships, they were even more isolated that other places. Today with the internet, an information-rich environment and instant transmission of news, it is hard to think how it would be to live like that. I also liked that Mitchell told the whole story in a realistic manner and we get to see what happens to each character years later.

Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to visit the island which is now a museum and see the city where the second atomic bomb was dropped, ending World War II.