Owen Stars in Victory

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Owen’s school team, the Senri & Osaka International Schools Sabers defeated the Canadian Academy Falcons 10-3 yesterday. In the video above, Owen hits a ground rule double over the head of the left fielder. He played first base and pitched the final three innings in relief. An interesting side note, the Canadian Academy pitcher is the son of former MLB player, So Taguchi, who is also a graduate of Kwansei Gakuin University. Besides winning a World Series with the Saint Louis Cardinals, he was a teammate of Ichiro Suzuki on the Orix Buffaloes and he is a from Nishinomiya.

In the Western Japan Athletic Association, the balls have a rubber cover for safety, but combined with the artificial turf, one sees many high bounces. Owen’s team is still undefeated heading into the last two weeks of the season. There is a really good group of grade 7 players on the Sabers MS team this year. The Japanese players are so fundamentally sound. It is like Serbian basketball, it seems like everyone naturally knows how to play the game because baseball is so popular in Japan. They really made some good plays in the field and it separates us from the other teams in the WJAA.

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Owen plays first base and pitcher

 

Ocean in Pregame Ceremony

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I found some time this morning to put together a quick video of Ocean’s experience at the baseball game last weekend. The Osaka Tourism Board was promoting international tourism before the Orix Buffaloes and Soft Bank Hawks NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) league game last Friday. The kids were so excited and Ocean represented the USA and greeted third baseman Koji Oshiro. The last place Buffaloes won the game 4-3 over the first place Hawks.

I also was asked to be the kampai taicho (captain of the toast) between the third and fourth inning. It was a fantastic evening and I would like to thank the tourism board and the Orix Buffaloes for the first class treatment they gave our delegation! Orix gambare!

30 Seconds on the Big Screen

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Asahi beer asked me to be the kampai taicho (toastmaster) for the traditional third inning toast at Friday’s Orix Buffaloes game against the Soft Bank Hawks at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka. It is a tradition/marketing ploy to get people at the stadium to buy more beer. My daughter Ocean was part of a delegation from the school taking part in a pre-game ceremony. The Osaka Tourism Board was promoting international tourism. There is a push in Japan to be more open to other cultures, especially with the Olympics coming in 2020. They wanted a foreigner to do the toast for this game. Usually it is a fan chosen at random. I got a free beer from Asahi and got to wear the taicho sash! It was funny to be asked to drink beer in front of the students I was chaperoning, but in Japan, drinking publicly is acceptable.

 

 

Best Seafood in the World

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You are not going to find fresher and better tasting fish and other sea creatures in the world than in Japan. On our way home from the beach last month, we stopped at a fish market and hand selected our piece of tuna. The vendors had a live demonstration of cutting the fish for people to purchase. The market is located near Shirahama Beach on the Kii peninsula, so the catch is fresh. This is also the place of the infamous dolphin harvest featured in the documentary The Cove. I hope it was sustainably harvested.

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The day at the beach reminded me of the Mediterranean, with warm water, green hills and lots of people. It was our first beachtime all summer, so it was quite exhilarating. Now that the swim “season” in Japan is over, the beaches will be less crowded and we hope to go a couple of times in September before it gets too cold. Shirahama means “white beach” or “white bay” and it was a very popular tourist beach in the 1970s. Due to erosion, they had to import white sand from Perth, Australia, but I think they have it under control now. It has lost its popularity due to other options being available for beach holidays, but it is still a pleasant place to go. It is about a 2-hour drive from our home.

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Owen stars in Sabers win

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Owen with some of his teammates

The Senri & Osaka International School’s middle school baseball team defeated Sons of Light IS 3-0 yesterday afternoon in their second game of the day. Earlier they defeated Kansai University International Academy 14-4. They are now 3-0 this season and on top of the Western Japan Athletic Association. Euan L. went the distance, pitching a shutout and Owen had a clutch 2-RBI double in the fourth to break open the pitcher’s duel. Owen played first base in the second game, and pitched for 3 innings in the first game.

The Sons of Light threatened to score twice in the game. In the fifth inning, the first two batters got on base, but then Euan struck out the next two batters and a groundout ended the inning. In the last inning, a runner was put out at third after a perfect throw by right fielder Rintaro.

 

After a game there are distinctive Japanese practices of showing respect towards others. The video shows the final out and the post-game team bows towards the opponents, coaches and umpires. It is a nice tradition and manner of ending games, reinforcing sportsmanship. American sports should integrate something similar.

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Owen on third base

First Day of School

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We managed to get a photo despite it raining most of the day today. The Kralovec family took our annual first day of school photo. Nadia and I are so lucky to work at the same place as our children, one of the perks of international school life. Ocean was the most excited for day one and was the first awake of the kids. I made pancakes for Owen and Oliver and Ocean had her favorite –  cold watermelon. Oliver is in fifth grade this year and looked forward to seeing all his friends again. Owen the grade 8 teenager was also ready to go this morning, and I saw him preparing his daily planner the night before. We made a trip to Daiso (the 100Yen shop) yesterday in the afternoon to finish school supply shopping.

As the years go by, the kids are catching up to us in height! This is the last year we will not have a high schooler in the house for awhile, as next year, Owen starts high school and then the other two will go quickly in succession. I will continue to try to live everyday to my fullest and enjoy my time with my family.

 

 

 

Shower Climbing in the Kanzaki

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Owen is about to jump into the clear waters of the Kanzaki River on Saturday. We went with two other families for a day of “shower climbing” (canyoning / river hiking) as the Japanese call it on the Kanzaki River in Shiga prefecture. With deep swimming holes, jumpable cliffs, a brisk but not too fast current, clear cool water set in a verdant green ravine, we had a refreshing day in nature. The kids had so much fun walking through the river, jumping off the cliffs and rope swings and swimming. There was plenty of food and good conversation as the afternoon light faded, and we put a full day on the banks of the Kanzaki. Osakans would be surprised that the Kanzaki is so clean near its source in the mountains of Shiga, just east of Lake Biwa. The river flows all the way through Osaka into the bay, and by the time it gets to the urban center, it is quite tamed.

A special thanks to Naoki and Tara for taking us up and Art and Mariah for joining us. There is nothing I like more than an active day outdoors.

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Quirky Japan: Political Campaigns

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Local elections in Osaka were held this past Sunday. Our arrival to Japan was marked with politicians driving around the neighborhood announcing their virtues as a candidate with loudspeakers. On my way to school, I shot this short video of a typical candidate van. Several acknowledged me on the street while driving by saying hello (konichi wa). I wish my Japanese was better to understand what they were saying. I am not even sure what the elections were about.

In looking at the election board in my neighborhood, if I were eligible to vote, I like Hideo Takeuchi from the One Osaka party pictured below. One Osaka is a movement to reduce redundancies in the metropolitan government structure through mergers, which I favor. I don’t know who he is or what his policies are, but I like his originality in promoting his candidacy by highlighting his love of dogs. I wonder if he walks his two dogs in a suit all the time?

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Book Review: “Everybody’s Fool” by Richard Russo

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I finished Richard Russo’s novel Everybody’s Fool on the flight back to Japan. The book follows the lives of people in the small fictional town of North Bath in upstate New York. Having grown up in a similar small town in northern Michigan, I could relate to the characters, although I realized it has been a while since I’ve been home and my friends today are different to the people I grew up with. Although not as pronounced as Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance, my life has taken a similar trajectory.

Everybody’s Fool takes place in a 48 hour period and is a sequel to Russo’s 1993 “Nobody’s Fool”, which was made into a movie starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Newman. The story gains momentum throughout and I eagerly read the last third to find out what happens. I couldn’t help but have the picture of the actors in my head while reading the book. A great casting job! It also reminded me of the plight of small towns in America in a time of economic globalization. The book is not life-changing, but it is an entertaining read.

I spent the last part of our summer holidays in the small Poconos mountain town of Freeland, Pennsylvania, which is probably quite similar to Russo’s North Bath. I saw plenty of signs of Trump support in Freeland. I agree with Vance that he appeals to whites in small towns because of his blunt way of talking, which differs from the polished and privileged speech of Hillary Clinton. One of the reasons Bernie Sanders appealed to me was that he was not a multimillionaire and I think could relate to average Americans. He has a lot of support in middle class urban areas similar to Trump in more rural areas.

 

 

 

Visit to Washington DC

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Nadia and Kim reunited with their families visit the Pentagon

On our final weekend in the USA before our return to Japan we visited our dear friend Kim in Washington DC. The nation’s capital is a 3 and 1/2 hour drive from the Lehigh Valley. We saw some of the iconic sites like the White House and the Pentagon, toured the National Geographic museum and just spent time with Kim and her daughter. It is always a thrill to see the center of the US government, driving by the Federal Reserve, the Capitol building, etc. Despite the heat, we managed to see a lot. We even got a taste of Bolivia, stopping by a restaurant for saltenas. Around 250,000 Bolivians live in the Virginia side of the DC area and it felt like we were in Cochabamba!

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Ocean and I check the bees

Kim allowed us to check on her bees. She is a conservationist and works for the US Forest Service and is an avid beekeeper. It was quite an experience for the kids and me! It is sad the plight of bees worldwide and through the efforts of people like Kim, hopefully they will continue to pollinate and keep our planet’s environment healthy. The bees were doing OK, but we didn’t find much honey. We have been friends for a long time and it was such a pleasant visit. Thanks to Kim for her hospitality!

We are packing in preparation for heading back. I am refreshed and ready to go for 2016-2017!

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Nadia poses with the boys in front of the White House