I love the photo of the finish of 400 meter run during our school’s “Osaka Olympics” earlier this month. The expressions of pain on the three runners behind, the look of relief on the winner, says it all. Oliver on the far right of the photograph, leaned in enough to finish second. The 400 meters is the most painful race in athletics (track & field for Americans) and it shows on the boys’ faces. Even though the Tokyo Olympics 2020 are four years away, everyone at the school is getting into the spirit! Congratulations Oliver! Thanks to the resident professional photographer Steve for the world-class photos!
It was a dreary, rainy day today but it was lightened by the “only in Japan” umbrella sheath. It is quite common in the entrance of buildings to find plastic wraps for umbrellas. Japanese love umbrellas and it is rare on a rainy day to see anyone without an umbrella. Women use umbrellas on sunny days as well to avoid getting a tan. As you can see in the photo above, I was surprised at how much water was on captured on the bottom of the sheath. I have a large umbrella and it was difficult to slip on the tight-fitting sheath, but I was happy not to have any leakage and keep the floor of the meeting room dry.
My only complaint would be the plastic use. More plastic bags to end up in landfills…
We had a wonderful day pleasing mom in appreciation for all she does for us. A beautiful spring day in Osaka with a beautiful woman! Happy Mother’s Day Nadia!
It was Nadia’s day and so we all went on a run with her in the morning, helped her clean her classroom and get ready for this week and then take her out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. She especially liked the bike ride home from the restaurant!
I also met up with my brother Andy’s college roommate, Katsu. He is from Osaka and is a proud graduate of Northern Michigan University, my brother’s alma mater. It was nice to connect with a “yooper” and we had a facetime chat with Andy. I can see why they were friends, he is a very nice guy.
Springtime in Japan is so refreshing. The flowers on our balcony are out in full force this week. It is really hard to be in a bad mood with such gorgeous days and cool nights.
The big focus for last weekend was Oliver’s 11th birthday! The little guy, well as you can see in the photo, not so little anymore, turned 11 last Saturday. I can’t believe how fast time goes by, (typical parent cliche, but oh, so true) and it is such a gift to be a father. We love his heart of gold, charismatic personality and creative imagination. We celebrated by having dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe downtown and then taking him to the Pokemon store at the Expo City mall. He is currently totally into Pokemon and he spends a lot of time looking at the cards, watching the program and fighting imaginary battles while walking to school.
Owen qualified for the Global Round in the Kansai round of the World Scholar’s Cup. The debates and knowledge bowl events were very good for him. Nadia and I are encouraging him to be a well-rounded person and we like him showing enthusiasm for something other than sports.
Nadia and Ocean got their hair cut and styled and we rode our bikes with them to the salon. The weather is absolutely perfect lately and we have been riding our bikes everywhere. I love April/May in Japan before the humidity and rains of June come.
We are staying home for our Golden Week holiday. Japan is an overcrowded country and with this being one of the few holidays workers get, the highways, airports and tourist spots are really full. I am taking advantage of the week to catch up on my research for my doctorate program.
Will try to post more this spring. Here is a video of us riding to the train station with our friends to catch the train for Oliver’s birthday dinner.
It was a normal busy week for the Kralovec family. The kids are at such a fun age right now (13,10,8) and the house is buzzing with activities, ideas and energy, it is so nice to have them around! The other night I had to just laugh at my attempts at getting them all to sleep. I was reading with Ocean, and Oliver kept coming in and crawling under the bed to scare us and Owen was outside in the hallway being a typical teenager. I decided just to lay back and enjoy their enthusiasm for life rather than try to get them to go to bed. What a treasure to be a parent!
Nadia took control of Oliver’s grooming as you can see above. Like a typical boy, he has an aversion to picking formal clothes to wear, combing his hair, etc. Nadia took him to the grade 4-5 dance yesterday at the school. We really have good kids to work with and they all had a lot of fun. Oliver is a dancing machine with his signature move being the ankle grab and hand behind the head.
Sunday we explored the Minoh Hills Quasi National Park which sets the backdrop for our suburb. We found this terraced farm and little village and spent the afternoon walking around the area. It is so peaceful and relaxing up there and so close to the hustle and bustle of the city. There is a lot more to see.
On Tuesday I took the kids to the final AFC Champions League game that Gamba Osaka will be hosting in the group stage this year. They will not be advancing and with one game to go, they are currently fourth in their 4-team group. Shanghai who we saw play last time we went and the Melbourne Victory will be advancing. The video above explains why Gamba lost 1-2, they missed on two penalty kicks and one point blank shot against Suwan Samsung “Blue Wings” from Korea.
We are looking forward to Golden Week holiday, with one more full week of school and then 4 days off. We will be staying around Osaka because I am working a couple of the days and Owen has the Scholar’s Cup tourney.
One forgets that Tokyo is on the water. The metropolitan area is massive and every trip I make I get to know a different part of it. This time I explored the area around Shinagawa station. Shinagawa is one of the major train stops in the huge spider web of train lines that makes up the network. We had dinner on one of the canals that comes in from Tokyo bay. It was odd to see big fishing boats close to big buildings. It reminded me a bit of London and the Thames River.
My morning run
Most of Shinagawa is reclaimed land and has been occupied since the Edo period. Today it is the home of hotels, embassies, office buildings and home to close to 400,000 people. You can feel the density with the many apartment buildings. It is very pleasant along the water and the best example I have seen in Japan about developing the waterfront. In the US and Europe, property along the water is looked at as desirable they are often packed with expensive housing, restaurants, bars, and usually have a walking/biking trail. Japan on the other hand, does not view waterfront property like that. Most coastline real estate is not residential. It is just not in their culture to desire living or being on the water as much as in other countries. That is odd for an island. I think it that it dates back to the Shikoku period, when for over 200 years, citizens were not allowed to leave Japan.
Shinagawa has a nice paved path that made for a pleasant run this morning. I spotted black-headed gulls, cormorants and spot-billed ducks in the pretty clean water. At least it didn’t smell or look polluted.
The view from the TY Harbor restaurant
Alas, I didn’t have enough time to explore the area more because of work, but it did give me a glimpse of another part of the biggest city in the world. I recommend a night out on the water. We had the head of school dinner at TY Harbor restaurant. The food was decent and the craft beers delicious. It also had a bustling atmosphere and different from Osaka, lots of foreigners. I hope to get back again.
Oliver made Kralovec family history yesterday in snagging a foul ball at a professional baseball game. He attended the Hanshin Tigers vs Hiroshima Carp NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball). Unfortunately, the Tigers lost 2-6. They are still tied for first with the Yomiuri Giants in the Central League with 8 wins, 5 losses and 1 tie (yes, there are ties in Japanese baseball). It is nice also that Hanshin shares the nickname of Tigers with our beloved Detroit Tigers!
It was a foul ball off the bat of Tiger’s outfielder, Kosuke Fukudome, former MLB Chicago Cub All Star. He was so excited, but I think me more so. Since a family trip in 1977 to Minneapolis and a three-game series between the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers at the old Metropolitan Stadium, I always bring a glove to games just in case we get a chance for a foul ball. In all of the professional baseball games I have attended, including MLB, minor league games, the Venezuelan Winter Leagues and now NPB, a member of my family finally caught one! It only took 39 years! Way to go Ollie!!!!
Either Nadia or the shaking of two earthquakes woke me up Saturday night. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency’s webpage, you can see at 1:55 AM an earthquake of magnitude 3.5, struck near us. The earlier earthquake at relatively the same spot had a magnitude of 4.0. Earthquakes between 3.5 and 4.0 are minor or light according to the Richter scale and will result in shaking and rattling noises. I certainly felt it and it made me understand what a major earthquake must feel like. I can see why people leave their homes after the first big one in fear of aftershocks.
Finally, Ocean found a 5-leaf clover at the local Matsuide Park.
Last night my friend Josep and I took our boys to the Asian Football Confederation Champions League game between our home Gamba Osaka and Shanghai SIPG Football Club. It was our first time to the new Suita City Stadium, which is absolutely gorgeous and a great place to watch soccer. The visitors won 2-0 virtually eliminated Gamba from the competition, but we had a great time anyway.
Shanghai players acknowledge their fans after the game
The Suita Stadium is conveniently located only about a 15-minute bike ride from our house as Suita is a suburb of Osaka that borders on Minoh. The 40,000 seat stadium opened this winter and it was our initial visit. I loved the rectangular shape of the stadium, without an athletic track that puts spectators really close to the field like in many English Premier League stadiums. I was not sure about the seat location when I purchased them online. We were in the “family” section and the reasonably priced tickets (1,500 Yen for children and 2,500 Yen for adults) gave us seats a few rows from the field behind one of the goals. On the opposite side of the stadium were the fervent Gamba supporters and they provided a nice backdrop with their singing and chanting through the game, similar to the European professional leagues.
Conca with a free kick
Shanghai International Port Group FC had a much better team and game and deserved the victory. The coach is the famous ex-England coach Sven Goran Eriksson and they had a couple of high-priced stars in Conca (Argentina) and Elkeson (Brazil). They dominated play and fortunately, the two goals in the second half came on our side of the field.
Fight between supporters of the teams
It was interesting to watch the China versus Japan dynamic played out in the stands. We were near the visiting fan section. Several Gamba supporters tried to raise a sign that I couldn’t read but it had something about Shanghai. A Chinese fan grabbed the sign and eventually threw it on the field before being escorted out by security. There is a lot of tension between the two countries, stemming back from Japanese takeover and occupation of China last century. I felt like watching the future conflict between the two countries as China is growing economically. It is the first time in a long time that both Japan and China are doing well economically and I wonder what the repercussions will be for the Asia Pacific region. I hope they can cooperate for the benefit of citizens from both countries.
Go Gamba!
We had a great night as fathers and sons bonding over sport and it was a thoroughly entertaining night. We might head to another game in the regular J1 professional league this season, although Gamba is currently in 12th place in an 18-team league after 5 games.
This is a common sight in morning parks throughout Japan. Groups of senior citizens perform synchronized stretching exercises. I photographed them yesterday morning during my bike ride in Senri Chuo central park. 1/3 of Japan is age 60+ and 1/4 is 65+ and this reflects a trend in people living longer and young people having less children. If it continues, in 40 years, 2060, 40% of Japan will be over 60 and the population will drop from 128 million in 2010 down to 87 million. A professor at Tohuko University continued the calculations, stating in the year 3776, Japan will be down to 1 remaining child.
In some ways this is good for Japan in that Tokyo, Osaka and other cities are overcrowded. One needs to be selective when going for holidays or excursions during breaks. Traffic and crowds are something always to be aware of. In many ways it is bad however, to have a dearth of young people, especially regarding taxes and pensions. It will force Japan to consider immigration to get more working age people here.
The exercise group is an example of the healthy living here in Japan and why people live long, productive lives. Older people eat a lot of fish and vegetables, don’t eat big portions and do a lot of walking and biking. That compares to the sedentary lifestyles and highly processed unhealthy diets of many Western cultures.
Taking my mind off Japan’s demographics, we are in the middle of sakura (cherry blossom) season and it is really stunning! There are lots of cherry trees in the city and as you can see, they are shining in color. The culture appreciates this explosion of life and the ephemeral nature of the bloom. Hanami (viewing parties and picnics) are common at this time of year.
It is so strange that Guam is part of the USA and prides itself on “where America’s day begins.” Guam is so far away from the continental USA. The closest American state is Hawaii, which is a 7-hour flight away. From Osaka, Japan, where we live it was only about a 3 hour flight and that is one of the major reasons why the US has Guam as a colony, er, “unincorporated territory”. It was a strategic location to fight the Japanese in World War II. Today there are close to 6,000 soldiers and a naval base and air force base on the island. They have 10 times that amount stationed in Japan. I don’t see the USA leaving anytime soon as the Americans will want to keep a presence in the Pacific due to the rise of militarism in China and the unpredictable North Koreans. The locals are ambivalent towards the military, a high percentage serve in the military and the money the bases bring is needed. In speaking with an experienced military person, he mentioned that that there is some resentment for the amount of land that is reserved for the military. He feels they can get by with much less and put more in private ownership.
Ocean overlooking Merizo
As I wrote earlier, it is a convenient location for resupplying ships and planes. It was the same for the Spanish, who arrived with Magellan in 1521 and ran the island for almost 400 years. They liked stopping to resupply ships going between the New World and Manila. The Spanish treated the local Chamorros horribly for a long time, so when America won possession of Guam after the Spanish-American war at the end of the 19th century, the people were generally happy. The Japanese took over for a 4-year period during World War II and were quite cruel to the chamorros. Today we visited the massacre site of 30 villagers from Malessa. The Japanese army, anticipating US forces retaking the island, took the 30 biggest men and executed them days before the invasion in fear that they would help the Americans. It shows you how much time has passed since WW II in that one of the biggest sources of income today for Guam is Japanese tourism. It is a short flight to a tropical country with US shopping.
Campaigning for Bernie Sanders in Hagatna
I’ve been thinking about should Guam be independent. The UN, among others view Guam as a colony and declared that there should be no more colonies. Former US president Gerald Ford gave his blessing for Guam to become a commonwealth in 1974, but it was never acted upon and some in Washington actively stopped this movement. I think the locals would vote to stay in the USA because of the development that has come to the island. I have visited several Caribbean islands that are independent countries and the scene is pretty bleak for most of the locals outside of the tourist resorts. They do have much autonomy with a democratically elected governor, a 32-representative legislative body and a supreme court. Guam also gets one representative in the US House, without voting rights, but he/she serves on committee and can participate in discussions. This is much more than they ever had with the Spanish and Japanese. However, I do feel that they should have more autonomy. I would suggest merging with the rest of the Marianas Islands and become a commonwealth, similar to that of Puerto Rico.
It somewhat feels like the USA with Kmart (no competition from Target or Walmart so it is THE place to be in Guam), Home Depot and several American fast food franchises. Most (75%) of the people are chamorro, Filipino, Asian, Pacific Islander, bicultural and only 7% white. That compares to Hawaii with a 25% white population, so it does feel like a foreign place.
Guam National Wildlife Refuge – Coconut Palm Grove
When I travel to places I always ask myself could I live here. I am not sure what it would be like to live on an islands 4-8 miles wide and 32 miles long. The weather and scenery is so nice, however. I don’t think I would ever get sick of those beautiful sunsets, Pacific waves, palm trees and the green hills. Sadly the introduced brown tree snake from Australia has decimated the island’s bird population and there is certainly a lack of birds here. Not many mosquitos however as well. The chamorros remind me a bit of the Venezuelans (where I lived for six years) with the cement block, flat roofed homes, cars on blocks in the yard and dark skin. Everyone here has been super friendly and I am sure we could find friends and a community here. I think I could live here with a fulfilling job and good school for my children. We will most likely be back here as it is an inexpensive flight from Japan and there are plenty of outdoors (hiking, snorkeling) for me.
It was great to decompress in a tropical paradise and enjoy a bit of the US culture.
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