The weather in April and May in Japan is absolutely the best! On one of my morning bike rides this week, I came across the scene above, one of the many reservoirs for the rice paddies in Minoh. The fresh green leaves, blue skies, cooling breezes, dogwood flowers and bright sun just make it delightful to be outside. I love the early sun rise in Japan, it gets light before 5:00 AM and it is a perfect time to exercise for me.
I cleaned out my daughter’s backpack and I am always amazed at the amount of stuff she collects! Her backpack is a reflection of her room. She is often making little projects with her hands like taking an aluminum container cover and converting it into a stylish hat. She also has many diaries or journals. She is a queen of clutter, but oh so creative.
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Last night we went out to dinner and dancing with friends downtown. I recommend the Absinthe Solaar which is located on the roof of the Takashimaya department store. It is a Mediterranean style restaurant. Later we visited a nightclub popular with international people. We had a lot of laughs and special thanks to Anna Y for being an awesome tour guide!
Finally, Owen was quite pleased with his haircut. His hair was getting into his eyes when he played basketball and he wanted a short cut for summer. It is really nice to have him as our in-house babysitter now. He is growing up!
Friday I attended the AISA (Association of International Schools in Asia) meeting hosted by the Yokohama International School. AISA is our high school’s athletic conference and includes international schools from Korea, Japan and Taiwan. It was my first time visiting and I wanted to give my impressions.
Gate to “China Town”
Yokohama is continuous with the Tokyo being part of the largest metropolitan area in the world, but on its own, it is a city of almost 4 million people. Thanks for US Commodore Matthew Perry landing with his “black ships” in 1853-54 just south of present day Yokohama, it went from a small fishing village to the first port and enclave that foreigners could use when Japan opened up to the world. The Tokugawas chose Yokohama because it was not too close to Tokyo. The Yamate area where the school is located, is on a bluff overlooking the bay, and it had a Mediterranean feel to it. It was still Japan, but one could notice the foreign style residences, which are much more spacious than regular Japanese housing. There are spectacular views from the park and foreign cemetery on the hill. We had lunch in the largest “chinatown” in Japan and there is a fashionable shopping district similar to Tokyo’s Ginza, called Motomachi close by also. It seemed to be a really nice place to live, although probably very expensive.
Mount Fuji can be seen from the school
The port is huge and well developed like most urban coastline in Japan. The reclaimed land holds a large warehouse converted into shops and restaurants. There are plenty of parks and a bicycle/running trail all through the bay. They were hosting a major tour event by International Triathlon Union on Saturday. It inspired me to run a bit faster to see all those young men and women in such excellent physical condition. I stayed at the Hotel New Grand, the same hotel that General MacArthur stayed after Japan’s surrender ending World War II. It was one of the few places undamaged. Large, western-style rooms, a decent Western breakfast buffet and an International Herald Tribune delivered to my room in the morning, made for a very relaxing stay. I see why MacArthur stayed here.
MacArthur leaving the New Grand Hotel – 1945
The highlight for me was the opportunity to watch the Osaka Hanshin Tigers play the Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars on Friday evening. The Nippon Professional Baseball game between the fourth and sixth place teams in the Central League was played to a capacity crowd. The stadium is much smaller than the Tiger’s Koshien stadium and there were more Tiger fans than the home fans. I finally got to see a Hanshin victory thanks to Ryota Arai hitting a ninth-inning home run to give the Tigers a 3-2 win. It is interesting to see Japan’s take on the American sport of baseball. I was shocked to see the starting pitcher for the Bay Stars pitching while his team was batting to keep loose. In the MLB, managers are restricting the number of pitches to reduce injury, and in Japan, they disregard this. He threw 112 pitches before being taken out in the 8th inning, but with his between innings throws, he probably threw over 200 pitches. The between innings throws were not game speed, but they were pretty hard. I don’t understand it. Anyway, it was an enjoyable game except for the tight seating arrangements. I was in a group of large North Americans and the seats were designed with smaller people in mind.
I really liked the feel of Yokohama, much less busy than Tokyo and I would like to bring the family up to stay sometime. It would make a good weekend get-away and has something for everyone in my family, shopping/restaurants, the historical Yamata district and lots of parks.
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.
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