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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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