A wonderful and challenging hike today from the Sella Bay trailhead, 500 meters above the beach. The trail led us across two small creeks and into an old coconut palm grove. The views were spectacular all the way down with some varied vegetation. When we got to the beach, we were rewarded with crossing this old Spanish bridge, over 300 years old. Amazing it has stood the test of time with erosion and typhoons, you think it would not still be standing.
The highlight of the beach time was the superb snorkeling. Owen and I went out past the reef and looked down into the abyss. Thousands of multicolored fish, coral and other creatures. Ocean and I had a great time snorkeling in the tidal pools.
Oliver and Ocean were troopers! Ocean is so calm and methodical in her hiking. Oliver is really in his element in wilderness. It rained a couple of times, making the trail quite slippery in many places. We made it back safe and sound.
We didn’t see anyone the whole afternoon and had the beach to ourselves. I love the tropics and the smell of the sea, high humidity and tropical foliage, made for a day I won’t soon forget! My highlight was Owen’s reaction when we passed the high point of the reef. “It was like a documentary!” The snorkeling was really great and I recommend anyone doing the hike. It is located on the south side of the island, not far from where we are staying.
I absolutely loved my experience attending the 2016 Osaka Grand Sumo Tournament on Thursday. I won’t bore you with all the details of the sport. If you want to know more about sumo wrestling, check out this English guide here. There are six “grand tournies” per year, 3 in Tokyo, 1 in Nagoya, 1 in Fukuoka and in March, they come to Osaka.
It is such an unusual sport. They maintain many of the traditions and religious aspects that surrounded the sport 1,500 years ago. For example, after each tournament, they publish a banzuke, which is a ranking of all 800 professional sumo wrestlers. Instead of a straightforward list, it is printed in an ancient format. It is like the top 10 college football rankings to be written like the Declaration of Independence, with cursive letters from a quill pen. The ancient customs mean the wrestlers go through the all the rituals like throwing rice to “purify the ring”, the referees where traditional folkloric costumes, etc. The wrestlers choose ring names, like Egyptian wrestler Abdelraham Salel’s “osunaarashi” which means sandstorm in English. He won his match against a Mongolian.
Above is the greatest wrestler in the history of sumo, Hakuho Sho, the winner of 33 grand tournaments, the most ever. He went 86-4 in two consecutive seasons. He is performing another shinto ritual before the matches begin in the final round.
I can see why the guys are so fat. The object of the sport is to push your opponent out of the ring or have a body part other than the soles of the feet touch the floor of the ring. The heavier one is, the harder it will be to move them. I wonder how professional American football players would do in this sport. The sumo guys are big and they must train really hard, but I wonder if one applied the latest techniques in strength training, nutrition, advanced statistics, film analysis, etc. I would like to know more about the different techniques used by the wrestlers.
Oliver gets “up close and personal” with a sumo wrestler
The stadium in Osaka is unique in that you can get up close and personal to the wrestlers. You can stand in the hallways as they enter and leave the ring. We also saw many outside the arena, getting lunch at Family Mart or taking a taxi. Hilarious to see these big guys wearing robes and sandals walking through the streets. Their hair smells like chamomile which is another ancient ritual. I wonder if the guys really believe in shinto rituals or they do it because they have to and it is part of the sport. I think it makes the sport more appealing. The top wrestlers make a lot of money and have beautiful wives, which should not have surprised me. Beautiful women seem to come with money.
I will definitely go again, just not with the kids as they didn’t have the patience to sit through so many matches. There are bouts occurring all day, with the lower rounds starting in the morning, culminating with the masters in the late afternoon. It is a 15-day tourney and the wrestlers fight daily in round-robin style. The best record wins.
I will end this post with a portion of Hakuho’s pre-match ritual. He is the greatest off all time!
I visited the Mazda Motor Corporation yesterday as its world headquarters are in Hiroshima. Hiroshima is most well known for the atomic bomb blast. Without that, it would be known for being the home of Mazda. Car manufacturing is big in Japan with the world’s largest producer of cars, Toyota, being based in Nagoya and four of the top 10 largest automobile manufacturers in the world being located in Japan. Mazda is number 15 in the world. They had a long relationship with Ford, but recently Ford has divested itself from Mazda and only owns 3%.
Hiroshima is almost a company town, with the Mazda complex taking up 7 kilometers of the city. We toured “Mazda-landia” and it is huge. They have the world’s longest privately owned bridge, two fire stations, a hospital, a coal burning power plant and even their own port! They have a large test track in another part of the city.Mazda also owns the professional baseball team, the Hiroshima Carp and professional soccer team. I can imagine how big the larger car companies must be! I am embarrassed to have grown up in Michigan and never visited Ford or GM.
The metal frame before it hits the assembly line.
The most interesting part of the tour was watching the 1000 meter long assembly line. I could have stayed for a couple of hours. There were not too many assembly workers as much of it is controlled by robots and machines. The guys on the floor were all young and nimble, crawling in and out of cars. They assemble a car in 15 hours and they produce about 400 cars per day. Watching the frames getting parts stuck on with rivets and the incredible amount of engineering and logistics that goes into assembling an entire car in a day is amazing! We were not allowed to film or take pictures on that part of the tour.
I am not into cars, as I only see cars as a way to get me from point A to point B. I would never buy a new car, preferring to spend my money on other things. In fact I don’t even own a car and we just occasionally rent a car when we need it. I understand guys who are passionate about cars, but it is just not for me. The tour was interesting however and I learned a lot.
The three-wheeled truck that helped the city recover after the bomb.
Mazda’s speciality is the rotary motor, which is different from the common piston-driven engine. It has more power and a smoother ride, but is not very fuel efficient. This almost bankrupted the company in the 1970s, but they survived and have done well with the “roadster” or “miata” rotary engine car. They switched to the more fuel efficient piston engine for most of their models. The company survived the atomic bomb and were producing a 3-wheeled mini-truck only 4 months after the devastation. They were also the only Japanese car company to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, accomplishing the feat in 1991.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Friday I accompanied the “Junior Sabers” basketball team downtown to play basketball at the Osaka YMCA International School (OYIS). The grades 3-5 basketball club at school wanted a culminating game, so we arranged a day of hoops at OYIS. Oliver was a combination of the power of Andre Drummond and the speed of Reggie Jackson. We are big Detroit Pistons fans and the boys model their games after them. The kids on both schools really enjoyed themselves and the purpose of the day was exercise, learning the fundamentals of the sport and experiencing a competitive team sport and all that comes with it.
Owen centers the ball against Marist Brothers I.S.
Owen finished his soccer season last weekend by winning the Western Japan Athletic Association (WJAA) championship. The “Sabers” upset a much older Nagoya I.S. in the semifinals 7-5 and host Canadian Academy 2-1 in the finals. Owen scored 5 goals in the two days.
Ollie is so fun to watch on the court. He is a big boy, especially here in Japan and is quite physical on the court. Playing against your older brother makes him a bit more aggressive than the other students.
Owen played striker this season and enjoyed playing. The winter seasons are now over for both Owen and Ollie and we are looking forward to more sports this spring.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Below is the video of his performance. Way to go Owen!!!!
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.
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)
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.
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!
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