Riosloggers

Taiwan's High Speed Railway (THSR)

2012-01-28T14:57:00.007+09:00

A refreshing November morning at 6 AM, after an overnight stay at Taoyuan, the gateway city of Taiwan with two million people, I took a bus to the new THSR (Gaodi) Taoyuan Station, following advice from my Lao Taoyuan friend, TM Alex Hsiao (in a telephone message awaiting for my arrival at the hotel).

The bus journeyed through the dawning hustle and bustle of downtown, picking up THSR passengers at key spots and corners, gradually filling and almost fully loaded by the time I reached my destination. This was a special bus, exclusive for THSR passengers, (gratis) free.

I was at the newly built Gaodi Station by 7 AM, bought my seat ticket and waited for the train to have a rendezvous with two special friends, my Tokyo friend Shimada and Janifer Quo of Taipei (see January 2010 Riosloggers post). Kazunobu Shimada, President of IQM, an ISO-9000 auditing company, was born in Taipei and studied at Nanmen Grade School. He had to return to Japan at the end of World War II before graduating. I had introduced Shimada to Janifer, asking for her assistance, should Shimada make a return visit to Nanmen, Nanmen and Ximen are two different grade schools in Taipei, but under one Taipei City Government.

Janifer, now retired, but an ex-teacher of Ximen Elementary School, talked to the principal of Nanmen Grade School and arranged to have Shimada awarded with his dream Nanmen diploma after 60 years. They were heading for Taichung together to serve as judges at the Taiwan Toastmasters Conference and a Japanese language contest, and I was joining them.

While I was congratulating Shimada on his diploma, Janifer handed us her homemade breakfasts, consisting of cut wax apples, star fruits, dragon fruits, pineapples, grapes, custard apples, etc. along with youtiao, a roasted rice cake. The care packages were prepared by Janifer so the two of us could try tasting Taiwan fruits and we really appreciated her thoughtfulness. Shimada told me he had eaten some of them in his childhood but not all. Custard apple is shaped like the Buddha’s head, called "Shijia" in Chinese. It was new to both Shimada and me. We scooped up white flesh grain with a spoon, totally enjoying the delicious, sweet taste. I was told many Japanese expatriates leave Taiwan without being baptized of the taste. The fruit, from Pintong area, needs 20 weeks or so to become ripe. Australians call it "Bull's heart".

Our train reached the brand new Gaodi Wurih Station in an hour, just as we finished our breakfast. It was so quick. Luckily, the Conference venue was close to the station and we did not experience any confusion in changing trains from Gaodi to Taidi, on the old Taiwan Railroad.

I was back to Gaodi Wurih Station alone by taxi to return to Taipei at 5 PM the following Sunday. The station was packed like a can of sardines and had many long lines at the ticketing stations. I waited for about 30 minutes to get my ticket. The waiting lines were orderly and even prioritized people with disabilities. I had to present my passport to the ticket counter service. I got a senior discount (65 and above), half the fare of an adult. No wonder I saw a good number of senior passengers. I didn't see empty seats so the THSR promotions must be working. I noticed that the green car passengers got free coffee and a pack of snacks.

I observed that all THSR workers, including those serving foods and drinks, were quite enthusiastic. Their morale was high. The THSR's BOT (Build/Operate/Transfer) prerogative formula seems to be finally paying off after the initial disappointing years of low passenger levels. In 2011, monthly users hit 3 million, recording over 100,000 daily passengers.

My 10th Visit to Taiwan (Part 3)

2012-01-15T04:44:00.005+09:00

Frog Play

While circling Ittekisui Garden, a stone frog statue caught my eye and curiosity. First, I thought of Taoism as a luck bringing mascot. This frog, however, was from writer Tsutomu Minakami's work. Named Bunna (shortened from Bunnaga, the name of Budda's disciple) by Minakami, the frog appears in his book "Come down, Bunna from the tree", one of the young readers' stories Minakami wrote in 1972, as requested by publishers.

Bunna is a young and stout "Tonosama (my lord) Gaeru" in Japanese, a black spotted pond frog, good at tree climbing. He lives in a pond inside the temple. One day, he challenged a tall pasania tree (Formosan oak), disobeying old frogs' advice not to climb this tree. He thought he could climb to heaven, but found instead a temporary prey repository of eagles, the veriest hell of captured animals such as from a shriek bird, sparrow, thrush to rat, snake, etc. to be eaten upon the eagles' return. Bunna narrowly escaped, hiding under cover between clay. Bunna secretly heard their painful cries and whimpers facing death, with mixed emotions, as they are all natural enemies of frogs. A rat advises Bunna that he would kill himself since he knows eagles won't eat dead animals. Bunna survived eating worms and flies out of the dead rat body, and with enough energy, climbed down the tree after one winter hibernation. Through this tree climbing experience, Bunna learns all the living things survive by eating each other and the life of each animal should equally be invaluable. In this world of survival of the fittest, this book teaches and enlightens young readers with the question and meaning of "what is life".

As I mentioned earlier, Minakami wrote this book in 1972. In the early 1970s, I was planning to return to the U.S. and work toward that very same goal with my heart and soul. I had not thought of anything else but myself up to that point.

The sale of the book wasn't favorable at first. But, in 1978, when the theatrical group Seinenza (Youth Group) adapted it for the stage, sales zoomed. The stage version has remained popular throughout Japan ever since among children. Then Amon Miyamoto brought it to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC as a musical in 2008. The title of the musical was "Up in the Air." Seinenza performed it in Beijing in 2007 and in New York in 2010. Recently there was a milestone production performed jointly by Japanese and Chinese children. Minakami reportedly confided before his death that Bunna may be the work that will be remembered by future generations.

Up in the Air
In Taiwan, as well as in Japan, stone lion dog statues guard places such as the National Palace Museum, Tao's Zhi Nan Temple, Hobe Battery Park, etc. Stone frogs similarly may appeal to the Taiwanese as the Japanese word "kaeru" for frog means return or recovery from illness, rejuvenate or revitalize. Frog stone of Ittekisui may attract Taiwanese visitors.

I was told that Ogori, in Fukuoka Prefecture, has a unique temple dedicated to frogs.

Note of Credit:
Photo of the frog stone statue was http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giffrom a Taiwanese blogger whose name is Hsieh Shu-Fen. The writer obtained permission to use it from her and I thank her.
(Source)

My 10th Visit to Taiwan (Part 2)

2012-01-09T11:40:00.009+09:00

Can Ittekisui House be a new attraction in Tamsui?

In just 45 minutes, Taipei Metro Tamsui Line will take you north from Taipei Station to Tamsui, the end of the line. A great expanse of water awaits you as you exit the station. That is Tamsui River - Tamsui meaning freshwater. Rising above the shore of the river is Mt. Kuanyin. The wooden river walkway is different and pleasant. I've been to Tamsui before. I took a bus from Tamsui to Chinshan.

In Tamsui, I walked through downtown Tamsui to Hong Mao Cheng (castle of the red haired barbarians), or San Domingo Fort and Mission built by the Spaniards 350 years ago.

I dropped into Tamsui Tourist Bureau to pick up a brochure of the new attraction. It was not available yet as I expected. (Upon returning home, I found that Tamsui Peace Park/Ittekisui House was already introduced on Facebook by the Tamsui Government. The official opening was March 2011).

Peace Park was a little further north of Hong Mao Cheng and down below the Hobe Battery Park built during the Qing Dynasty days. The Peace Park is also contiguous to the Taiwan Golf Course through a cluster of trees.

I took a taxi this time. The taxi turned right in less than one kilometer after Hong Mao Cheng. The taxi driver pointed at the Peace Park signboard.

The Google site map I looked up on my PC seemed accurate and I was afraid of a long walk. Actually, the park was not that large. I had an inclination to compare it to the Japanese Garden in San Diego, California, which I was deeply involved with while living there in the 1980s. I figured 5 acres and my estimate was just about correct. I found the land measured 19,580 square meters.

The garden project has just started with a small dry garden, stone lanterns, young trees and some greens. It may easily take 10 to 15 years for it to develop into a full scale Japanese Garden with the help of garden architects and gardeners. I noted many Taiwan photographers have already visited and been blogging about it, including those who had shot newlyweds there. I saw a plethora of wedding photographers at Hong Mao Cheng site. Ittekisui will need to try real hard to catch up with Hong Mao if they intend to compete.

I saw two volunteers busily acting as visitor's guides inside the Ittekisui House. I asked how many volunteers are registered and the answer was 1300 so far.

With a volunteer visitor guide

My 10th Visit to Taiwan

2012-01-03T10:32:00.008+09:00

Happy New Year! I start the New Year with a 3-part posting to commemorate my 10th visit to Taiwan.

"Nowadays not only humans, but houses cross international borders."

Meili Chen, Taichung Toastmaster opened a conversation in impeccable Japanese when her close friends sat together for a break at the conference forum in Taiwan.

Meili, in her maiden days, had studied at Kyoto University. "Sounds nice! Is it a Taiwan story? Can you tell me where?" I inquired. "A Japanese house of 100 years old came to Tamsui," Meili started her talk. I had one free day in Taipei on this trip and I was hoping to visit the house to commemorate my 10th visit to Taiwan." Here is Chen's story summarized. The house was originally located in Oicho, Fukui Prefecture along the Wakasa Bay facing the Japan Sea. The project was intended as an inland transplant to a community park in Kobe and any move outside of Japan was not even considered.

What happened was the bond that developed after two intense (above 7.0 on Richter scale) earthquakes that victimized Kobe (1995) and southern Taiwan (1999). Both countries struggled for a speedy recovery. As care packages and comfort goods were exchanged, rescue crews and volunteers mutually dispatched, the relationship evolved into a very close one and grass roots movement of joint cooperation on respective key projects was established.

I am a returnee from the U.S. after 30 cumulative years. It was in late 1994 that my wife and I came back to my Tokyo house. My sister-in-law from Kitakyushu helped us unpack during the New Year holidays. The Kobe earthquake hit hard and the Shinkansen (bullet train) service was halted. My sister-in-law had to return to Kitakyushu by air. In Sept 1999, Taiwan was struck. It was after I made my first few visits to Taiwan. I remember writing sympathy letters, sending donations, to my new Taiwanese friends.

More than 10 years has passed and I just finished my 10th visit this past November. I was reminded that a steady and vigorous relationship has developed between Taiwan and Japan. (On and after 3/11, Taiwan continues to assist in recovery efforts of the Tohoku Earthquake/Tsunami victims).

What kicked off the house transplant project was the disassembly and reassembly of a Fukui antique house for the Kobe Mikura North Park Community Center when Taiwan volunteers saw the beauty of the wooden house. They were so impressed that they expressed their wish to have such a house in Taiwan.

The Mikura nonprofit organization (NPO), called "Machi-Communication," is an organization of that has won awards from the Minister of Domestic General Affairs, as well as the Prime Minister, for efforts of caring for deceased victims and compassion toward recovery. A 100-year old house built by Master Carpenter Kakuji Minakami, father of writer Tsutomu Minakami, was secured for the project. The NPO "Machi-Comi" arranged to make it Minakami's Library with 200 books donated by Tsutomu's daughter. The NPO also arranged to make Chen Shun-Chen's Library, because Kobe is where Chen was born and spent his childhood. The house was christened with the name "Ittekisui", the Zen philosophy Tsutomu Minakami embraced, meaning "the infinite universe exists even in one drop of water".

Meanwhile, Taiwan searched vigorously for suitable land. First, Changhua County in the south volunteered. Plans fell through, however, when the soliciting County Mayor lost his election. It was in 2009 when Tamsui Mayor answered the call as Tamsui was where the writer Chen returned to live from Kobe after the war. It was reported that students from Tamkang University volunteered to complete the termite treatment of stored timbers before the Japanese carpenters were summoned in. The work started in June and was completed in December. It took a full 6 months to refinish, given the fact that the original design did not use any nails. The successful completion of the project was the result of the effort of 5,000 people.

Photos of the progress of the project reminded me of the Amish villagers constructing a new house with all hands.

The celebration of completion was attended by Tamsui Mayor and other key volunteers, including a Taiwanese called Lao-Tai as reported by writer Ryotaro Shiba of the NPO Machi-Communication News. His real name is Kun-Zhan Tsai. He is a Japanese fencing master, an entrepreneur of the semiconductor industry and he served as Taipei guide for Ryotaro Shiba. A Toast to the real hero: NPO "Machi-Comi," the salt of the earth!

The Xie-Xie Taiwan Project

2011-12-10T15:41:00.007+09:00

I traveled to Taiwan in mid November to attend the D67 Fall Convention in Taichung. It was my 10th visit to Taiwan. I had a special mission of my own. To thank the Taiwanese for showing their compassion towards the Japanese plights on and after 311.

Convention programming is usually a hectic one, allowing no interruptions and changes. Foreign visitors are usually recognized by the District Governor and I dared to grab the opportunity, with the prior consent and approval of DG Grace Shih, through Dennis Chen, an old friend and the founder of Taichung Central Japanese club. My speech went like this:

Hello, Taiwan Toastmasters! I wanted to come and thank you personally for the very much needed help from the Taiwanese who pitched in right after the 311 Earthquake/Tsunami that hit Tohoku Japan. Thank you, Taiwan.

I didn't attend the Spring Conference but got your jia-yu (加油）messages posted on the wall during the Spring Conference that was carried back by our delegates to convey to the rest of Japan.

Taiwan topped all quake donors through the Red Cross along with your rescue teams and relief goods that were dispatched.

So in order to physically express gratitude, the Japanese swimmers did a 110 kilometer open water swim in relay from Yonaguni Island of Okinawa to Su-Ao Taiwan, despite the approaching typhoon, calling it the Xie-Xie Taiwan Project. I'm a swimmer myself. I would have joined them if I was younger.

Please accept our Xie-Xie Taiwan voices from District 76. All of the Japanese Toastmasters are very appreciative and deeply touched by your warm feelings for the Japanese.

After the session and during the break, some Taiwan Toastmasters came to shake hands with me. I was happy that I got my message through.

A Month Long Trip to Kunming

2011-11-30T13:15:00.008+09:00

Old timers may recall the 700 mile (1150 kilometers) long Sino-Burmese Road used during World War II, a vital transportation route for wartime supplies to China. The Road runs through the mountains from Lashio, Myanmar and ending in Kunming. Today, Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province (similar in size to California), is getting popular as the marathoners' training base and as the venue of the international horticultural exhibitions. Population of 30 million people includes members of 24 different ethnic groups, which represents a third of the total population in the province. This diversity is also a draw to visitors. There are a couple of theme parks featuring ethic villages.

Kunming, Shilin, Dali, Er-hai. How lovely their names sound! I yearn to go back. That's where I spent my second summer (1995) after returning to Japan from the U.S. when I retired. The general altitude is about 2000 meters (Approx. 6000 ft), so they are great summer retreats from the heat, even though bordering Laos and Myanmar in the south.

It was during one of my regular commuting flights between the U.S. and Japan that I first heard the name Kunming. The guy who sat next to me was a tall, rugged looking American. He unloaded his backpack before settling down in his seat. I asked him how he found the Japanese Alps. His answer surprised me. "I didn't climb Japan's Alps. I did the Chinese mountains." I continued, "How interesting! Where were you? Which part of China interested you most?" He replied, "Kunming in Yunnan, the city of eternal spring". The name stuck with me.

Later on, I made friends with a Japanese woman who had been to Kunming. She told me that Kunming and its backwoods are just paradise, and that you see exotic butterflies there that continually reflect various colors. She kept sending me articles on Yunnan even after I left for Japan. Then she sent an email about a special tour sponsored by the University of Vermont. I emailed the tour contact person and asked if I could join from Japan. I got the answer that the tour was for U.S. teachers to learn about China, but they could bend the rules. I jumped at the chance!

Vermont and Yunnan are in a sister state relationship and they have been exchanging teachers to learn about each other's cultures. It was at a hotel near Beijing Airport where I was introduced to the members of the group. There were four men and ten women, mostly from Vermont. The exceptions were a man from Connecticut, who became my roommate, and a woman from New Hampshire.

The Yunnan College of Teachers, our host school, had a welcome ceremony and dinner reception on the first day, attended by the College President, the faculty who would teach us various subjects of study for the next three weeks, the corps of interpreters, and staff members in charge of taking care of us, including a microbus chauffeur. That is how the three week "daily routine" project began.

Mornings were for Tai-chi exercise on the rooftop before breakfast and an easy Chinese lesson by Mrs. Wang, plus culture and art class (subject changed daily: calligraphy, brush painting, history, etc). Afternoons were for the extra-curricular programs such as visits to the children's palace (musical training for talented children), a hospital of Chinese medicine and acupuncture, Provincial museum and exhibits and temples in the city (including Yuantong-si, Xishan). Dr. Wu, a young assistant professor who specialized in minority races, accompanied us the whole time for the afternoon projects and he spoke excellent English. One evening he surprised us by taking us to his own apartment. He shared a one room apartment with his wife and a daughter 5 years of age. One curtain separated their bedroom from the others. We found out that other teachers and the chauffeur were living in the same apartment complex. The University operated like a big enterprise with hotels, restaurants, apartments and transportation.

Two weekends were for longer trips. One weekend we took a train to Lunnan Shilin, a geological phenomenon known as a stone forest. It is composed of closely knit outcrops of dark limestone karst. It was such a wide expanse of stone forest that you could easily get lost. Another weekend our chauffeur drove close to 10 hours (on a highway under construction) to reach Er-hai, one of the big inland lakes, famous for its pu-er tea. Rough weather made the lake a wild ocean with choppy waves and we had to wait to cross in order to visit a small minority group (subculture) village.

Our conversation with the villagers, including the village master, was the highlight of the entire trip. They live in their traditional homes on the slope of a hill with narrow roads of crushed rock. They were not bashful and very talkative yet modest. Many children gathered around us. Some female teachers had brought souvenirs for the smaller children and they cheered.

During our stay in Kunming we met a number of different minority groups: Na-Shi zu, Tai zu, Yi zu, Pai-zu, etc. Pai (white) zu did not look Chinese at all. They get special scholarships from the government and are allowed to bear up to three children.

Graduation, or the farewell ceremony, was held over dinner. Each member received a certificate, and a seal that was engraved with our names in Chinese characters.

We flew back to Beijing for one more week at another university hotel. A representative from the Chinese Cultural and Educational Exchange Bureau accompanied us on a city tour as well as a one day excursion to The Great Wall. Since the group was eating only Chinese meals throughout the visit, everyone wanted an American breakfast, but they were disappointed with the quality of it. I enjoyed the Chinese dishes during the trip. My favorite was rice porridge for breakfast.

The month long trip ended at Beijing Airport, where I said goodbye to my schoolmate teachers, and promised to correspond over the Internet.

Asian Literature by Women

2011-11-11T15:37:00.011+09:00

The Japanese view recent Thailand floods as if it happened in our own country. We see hundreds of Japanese manufacturing plants submerged under water, causing severe supply chain shortages in key electronic/automotive/medical industries. It invokes the same feeling as the Tohoku Earthquake/Tsunami disaster that hit Japan this past March. It’s unbearable to see Thai priests working hard with sandbags in the water. We sincerely pray for an early relief.

I saw a dozen books of Asian women literature on the shelf of the Kitakyushu University Library I often visit. They look very different because of their non-commercial style binding, no fancy artwork or book belts around them. All the books acknowledge that the translation, printing and free distribution to educational institutions was made possible by the generous contribution of the Daido Life Foundation. I looked up the Daido Life Web page which said the foundation was established in 1985 as its 80th anniversary project to promote international understanding and to bridge the language barrier between Asian nations and Japan. Translations were done both ways. The books I saw were the Japanese translations from Tagalog, Malay, Thai and Burmese. Now, for its 100th anniversary event, Daido’s project has entered its second phase by moving into construction of school facilities. In Thailand, for instance, 16 schools were built in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, etc. by mid-2000 and the effort is going strong.

One book that stood out for me was a book titled “When Sarapi Flowers Bloom” written by Suwannee Sukonthiang (1932-1984), a Thai woman of my generation. The translator is Mineko Yoshioka, who taught at the Bangkok Japanese Language School (1981-83) and is now a lecturer at Tenri University in Nara.

The author Suwannee was born in Bangkok but at the age of 11 she moved to Phitsanulok Province, about 400 km north of Bangkok as her father had to serve as the village doctor. Phitsanulok is a midpoint between Bangkok and northern Thailand, surrounded by several National Parks. The village must be a pretty place. Suwannee wrote in her message to the Japanese readers that she would not have been a writer if she was not raised in Phitsanulok. Her family kept a number of livestock and she dearly cherished memories of a horse named Kee-oo.

That is the horse her father had to ride to visit patients’ homes. She was very attached to him. She fed him, played with him in the stables, and took him out to nearby pastures. She could never have imagined being apart. The horse had to be offered to the Japanese army.

The following is a partial translation from the book:

As the war spread, news came that Japanese soldiers landed. First a glimpse of them but soon we began to see them everywhere we went. They were deep in our turf. I knew some Japanese - “Arigato”, “Banzai” and Konnichiwa”. I learned more Japanese and those words still come to the tip of my tongue even now. The Japanese were inside coconut palm orchards, vegetable farms, and when the village was fully filled with the Japanese, my father moved Kee-oo to outside the village. The Japanese bought up bamboos to make beds, set up bivouac camps, like neighbors. Rumors ran that the Japanese buy up horse as they needed horses to transport military supplies to Mae Sot, by the Thai-Burmese border, with no other way to do so in those days. They said they would buy but we Thais knew it was mandatory and we were unable to oppose… Kee-oo was no exception. Most Japanese soldiers behaved, were disciplined, frugal as well as friendly. They excited us children greatly with the conversation mostly through body and hand gestures. We liked them.

Then one day march began. Horses and soldiers marched westward with many troops and in long lines. Marches, however, seemed lackadaisical and cheerless. Perhaps soldiers were weary away from home and families for many years with no ceasing sign of war. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers marched on and disappeared. I was there on and along the roadside eager to catch a glimpse of Kee-oo. And luckily, I found him among the herds. How could I not recognize him? Alas, he was overloaded and weighed down with things. The luster of his hair under our care was gone. I screamed “Kee-oo!” and ran to him. A couple of bearded soldiers looked back at me. Kee-oo shook his tail towards me as he always did to me and I took it as his good-bye.“Kee-oo!” I shouted again in my quivering voice with sobs and tears.

Notes:
l) Sarapi is a species of flowering plant in the calophyllaceae family. “Mammea Siamensis or Ochrocarpus Siamensis” bearing sweet scented, jasmine-like flowers.

Known in Thai as “Sarapi,” it is a small evergreen tree distributed in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar. The flowers of this plant have been used in traditional Thailand medicine as a heart tonic. Investigations of different parts of the plant have revealed the presence of several coumarins and xanthones.
(Source: The Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society, Vol. 18, No. 5, 2007)

2) County of “Sarapi” is in Chiang Mai Province. Chiang Mai is known as the rose of the North.

3) Mae Sot
Thailand and Myanmar are attempting to establish relations. The Friendship Bridge) connects the two countries across the Moei River.

4) The Bridge over River Kwai, known as the Death Railway Bridge during Word War II, is near Kanchanaburi, 130km west of Bangkok.

Cover Girl

2011-11-03T14:03:00.009+09:00

My June blog post Ultimate Champions described my granddaughter Alina who was on the University of California, Santa Barbara team that won the North American Collegiate Ultimate Frisbee Championship.

CARAMBA Y SORPRESIVA, Alina appeared on the cover of the USA Ultimate Official Magazine of Fall 2011! Please see the photo. Actually it is on the back cover but equally awesome as on the front. The families are thrilled and proud to see her as the cover girl.

The Nadeshiko Japan women soccer captain Homare Sawa was among the honorable guests this month at the Akasaka Garden in central Tokyo to meet Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. Also accompanying her was her coach Norio Sasaki and Kyushu native Sumo Ozeki Champ Kaio, who retired recently. Homare was clad in a light blue “Furisode” formal Kimono. By analogy, I likewise picked Alina’s photo in her formal dress in order to show how happy and proud this grandpa is!

Peacock Garden in Pasadena, California (In memory of Adele and Guy Stone, our family guardians)

2011-09-23T14:01:00.006+09:00

”Ah my heart dances like a peacock,
the rain patters on the new leaves of summer,
the tremor of the crickets' chirp troubles
the shade of the tree,
the river overflows its bank
washing the village meadows.
My heart dances.”
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

For over 30 years of residing in the U.S. (which ended in 1994), we were annually at the Thanksgiving Dinner table in Pasadena of the Stones family of Dutch descent born in Pennsylvania. We loved their Dutch oven dishes from yellow split pea soup, potato stuffing, yams, red cabbage, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc. I met Guy while doing business when I was still single in Japan. Adele took me to a dentist when I had a sudden toothache during my trip from Japan.

They changed houses a number of times from La Canada, San Marino, etc. but they were all in the vicinity of Pasadena, settling finally in an Arcadia senior apartment near Santa Anita Park.

They took me to Caltech, Huntington Library Park, Descanso Garden (the biggest camellia garden in the U.S.), Santa Anita Park, the Rose Bowl, Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Garden. We brought our children and became good playmates with their grandsons. My son was taken to Mt. Wilson Observatory by them when he was in junior high.

Santa Anita Park was one of the so-called Assembly Centers for the Japanese Americans during World War II and we did not know our San Diego friends Ben Segawa, Ted Hirasaki, the Yamadas had spent uneasy days in a horse-stable-turned ‘abodes’ before they were sent to Camp Poston in Arizona. It’s an irony that I knew about Sea Biscuit before the Japanese internees, because of the life size horse bronze statue on display at the entrance of Santa Anita race track. The 1938 match story of the century, Sea Biscuit vs. War Admiral became a book by Laura Hillenbrand in 2001. The story of the Japanese American incarnation of 1941 to 1945 was published by Joanne Oppenheim in 2006. Could it be a case known as “50 miles is as good as 100 miles?” I saw Adele Stone last at the hospital near to Santa Anita Park in 2008. She was reading a book all alone and no nurses attended.

I have frequented Los Angeles County Arboretum even after I left for Japan. I visited Adele whenever I revisited the U.S. and my daughter’s family in Northern California. The Arboretum is on Baldwin exit off the busy Freeway 210. It‘s a good stopover for resting and wandering about the garden to take in seasonal flowers. The pink Ipe and the golden trumpet trees used to greet me at the entrance.

Mind you, this Arboretum is huge, 127 acre (51.4 hectares), 4 times larger than the San Diego Botanical Garden (previously called Quail Garden). You can get a good exercise covering it all. I had covered all corners of the Arboretum on many visits including its historical landmarks such as “Lucky” Baldwin’s ornate Victorian house “Queen Anne Cottage” and the great blue gum eucalyptus tree there, Hugo Reid’s Adobe, etc. Lately, I just stroll the front fountain area, the Stones’ favorite area, and sip coffee at the Peacock Cafe, watch resplendent plumage of male peacocks around the fountain, remembering Guy Stone jokes and his mischievous smiles.

”You know, Rio, Charles Darwin hated Peacocks.”

”Why, Guy?”

”Because Peacocks spoiled his ‘Origin of Species’ theory. He was frustrated by those feathers. How the extravagant plumage evolved was hard to explain. He admitted that it made him always sick, you know.”

When Guy was gone, Adele gave me Guy’s trench coat, windbreaker and jacket which fit me just right. I like to wear them often. Gone is the joy of stopping by Pasadena now that both have passed away.

Ten Years Later

2011-09-15T13:25:00.006+09:00

Where were you when the Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the World Trade Center Towers on Sept 11, 2001? It was 10 years ago but your memory should be very fresh. I myself was in California. I was just back from my trip to South America the previous night and was sound asleep when my daughter telephoned from her work. “Dad, switch on your TV. See what’s happening in New York.” My son had just flown into New York the night before. Wow, I just couldn’t believe it. The Twin Towers were in flames and collapsing.

We observed its 10th Anniversary a few weeks ago. The paper reported Americans all across the land, prayed at churches and laid wreaths at fire stations and remembered, in their own way, a day that was impossible to forget.

Today I wish to talk about Minoru Yamasaki (1912-1986), who designed the WTC, the architect nicknamed Mr. Twin Tower. It was in the early 1960’s that I was working in downtown Manhattan, passing the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey when his project started as a big hole in the ground. The Twin Towers, for your info, were part of a seven building complex that covered a total of eight city blocks.

Who was this man, Yamasaki? Time Magazine featured him, so I bought a copy and devoured the article. He was a Japanese-American, born in Washington State. He was a rising star and I recall the IBM Seattle building was introduced as one of his latest works. It looked superb and graceful with modern technology and innovations. I first learned the word “minimalist” applied somewhere in the text. I took it as his efforts to simplify basic structural designs, and save on superfluous cost.

Yamasaki was chosen from among a dozen candidates. I was quite elated that race was not an issue in the selection of the winning architect. When one shows quality and works of excellence, one can ultimately win the job. There were cynical views and comments such as Yamasaki could be easily agreeable in accommodating developers’ demands.

I left New York in 1969, before the towers were completed. The North and South Towers were completed in 1972 and 1973 respectively. I had a chance to visit New York in the late 1980’s. I went to the Observation Deck, or the Top of World, located on the South Tower. As expected, the venue became the most active business center, accommodating the world financial and trading firms.

Yamasaki said: “The World Trade Center is a living symbol of men’s dedication to world peace – a representation of men’s belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in cooperation of men, and through cooperation, his ability to find greatness". His buildings met with disaster, but I’m sure his vision will survive.

Notes:
Minoru Yamasaki was one of the few Japanese Americans spared from evacuation during World War II because an East Coast architectural firm hired him.Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles
designed by Minoru Yamasaki

Additional Info about Minoru Yamasaki:
Towering Achievements
A Triumph of Talent

English Noh

2011-09-05T11:35:00.005+09:00

"When we carefully see and examine things surrounding us in nature, be they large or small, have lives or no lives, there are certain order and principle of cycles of ‘jo-ha-kyu’, jo meaning launch or intro, ha break or change, and kyu speeding or accelerating such as in birds trilling, insects chirping, …"
- Zeami (1363-1443)

"And, in the midst of a performance, I have closed my eyes a number of times, and listened intensely to the sound, the rhythm and the pauses in between. From somewhere within those depths come, clearly and quickly, “images”. This is what I feel Noh is truly all about, not the images of what one actually sees before oneself, but the images that arise from within."
- Toshiki Komazawa (Writer)

Have you seen any Noh play or heard about it before? Can you name some titles, one or two, such as Hagoromo (celestial robe of an Angel) or Tsurukame (Crane and Turtle)?

Noh is a symbolic play and an intangible cultural heritage designated by UNESCO. It is one of the major Japanese traditional art forms, older than Shakespearian plays and attempts to express human feelings in detail through extremely simplified actions or forms. The audience uses their imagination to understand it as a whole and interpret dramas in their own individual ways. That much said, will you be encouraged to get in a mood to see one when it comes near you? Some of us might, but very unlikely to see those from abroad raising their hands.

I saw great news recently that may change that response. An English Noh play troupe “English Nohgaku Theater” was born and they toured Dublin, London and Paris last year and China this past July. They performed a new Noh play titled “Pagoda”, all in English. Jeannette Cheong is a playwright and Pagoda is based on her own story.

A young English woman of Chinese descent travels to the humble village of her dead father in southeast China. There, at a Buddhist pagoda, she encounters a mother, named Meiling with her daughter, who long ago had sent off a young son to work on a ship to protect him from famine. After climbing the pagoda and looking out to the sea waiting for their son and brother to return, the women disappear. The traveler then meets a fisherman who tells her the legend of the pagoda built by the village mothers who parted with their children and prayed for their safety and welfare. The fisherman asks the name of the traveler’s father and stands aghast. The English woman realizes that the two women she had encountered earlier were, in fact, the spirits of her grandmother and aunt and her father was the son they were waiting for. Later, the spirits reappear and tell of their past hardship, before dancing a dance of reunion. The traveler realizes that her family is now reunited in the spirit world as she contemplates the fates of those separated from their homeland.

Enthralled Cheong wrote the story in the 1970’s with the intention of creating a “musical”. While Cheong visited the Far East often for her academic career, she apparently had a chance to witness and experience a Noh play. She became aware that the living and the dead coexist in Noh.

Cheong contacted Kinue Oshima, the Kita-school Noh actor and manager of Oshima Noh Theater in Fukuyama, Hiroshima who accomplished the collaboration work with Richard Emmert, writer/translator and Noh actor of the same Kita-school of the University of Musashino. Emmert had been involved in the famous play “Hawk’s Well” written by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) and “Drift Fires”, first performed in 1985 at the Tsukuba Expo.

The China project of the English Noh "Pagoda" was reportedly completed with the ardent wish and coordination of Jeanette Cheong at the Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts and at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Probably it was the first time the Japanese Noh was ever performed in China in English. Kinue Oshima, who played a major role herself, reported that the play was a huge success with the storm of applause from the Chinese audience. She felt the warmth of parental love and affection which has no national boundaries.

For Further Information:
Kita-School Oshima Noh-gaku Do
Noh Theaters to Present English Performance

Theater Adventures

2011-08-29T12:39:00.007+09:00

"My pleasant discovery in remodeling the so-called Gassho style farmhouse to a theatrical setup was l) that the traditional Japanese housing is basically made of collage concept, and 2) that the interior space is dim and ill-lit, which satisfy the ideal condition to effectuate dramatic sensation."

"Because the house, originally built for a big family, is quite large and has rather tall ceiling. When the internal wooden and sliding partitions are taken out, the entire floor is on just one level, except the earth floor. This is ideal for creating a theatrical stage but the problem was there are more pillars than we find in western homes. I solved this problem, by setting the centrally located “O-e” (the cutout fireplace that served as the drawing room for guests in local dialect) as the stage which the audience can see from the three directions (upfront and two lateral sides). Then the surrounding floors were lowered down to the ground level with different steps for the audience to sit. Upon completion, the stage looked like a Noh theater with aged beams and pillars shining black. However, it has no bright-and-open-air-ness as in the modern Noh theater. You may say it’s a Noh theater of the submerged or deserted houses."

- Tadashi Suzuki, Founder of the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT) Quoted and translated from his book “Producer’s Perspective”(1994)

-------------------------------------------------------

A unspoken requirement for an expatriate is to meet compatriot celebrities sent overseas on a cultural mission. In 1985, Tadashi Suzuki and his troupe hit the road in the U.S. and their last stop was San Diego. An art benefactor in Rancho Santa Fe invited him and a few key troupe members for a reception one afternoon in her big hacienda residence. The benefactor also invited a few local Japanese expatriates to mingle and stimulate conversation. Luckily I got the invitation to the reception. There was a woman there who was introduced as Kayoko Shiraishi, the main actress performing “Trojan Woman” the following day at the UCSD Mandeville Theater in La Jolla. She didn’t speak much and sat modestly in the corner.

It was the producer Suzuki, who mostly spoke feverishly about his Village Toga project, where he was building an intercultural training complex for future actors and musicians. Toga is a village in Toyama Prefecture facing the Japan Sea, at the foot of Noto Peninsula, but further inland on an elevated mountain range. It is one of the villages known for the traditional Gassho-style farm housing. Gassho, in Buddhism, means a prayer, two hands put together with the palms facing inward. Perhaps you have seen the photos of the UNESCO designated tall straw thatched-roof to have snow quickly skid down to the ground. Those farmhouses sounded like producer Suzuki’s new home. I didn’t understand then why he had to go to such a remote resort away from Tokyo.

Actress Shiraishi’s performance at Mandeville was awesome. During a dialog between a man and a woman, Shiraishi cast a flood of long oratory in Japanese against her Caucasian actor’s English speech. At first I thought she was speaking English. Actually, she spoke in eloquent Japanese, so smooth and natural, yet full of vigor and passion. It was fascinating.

Ten years later, I was back in Tokyo and was suffering from severe reverse culture shock. The summer heat which I had forgotten about was unbearable. I chose Toga Mura as my summer resort and escaped alone from Tokyo. I got theater tickets and Minshuku (communal lodging) arrangement for one week. My travel plan was to visit Toyama one week before Toga, Hida-Takayama and Kamioka areas of Japan Alps, and go down to Nagoya to take bullet train back to Tokyo after a week.

My plans were unfortunately disrupted because, upon my arrival there, I learned that Toyama was the site of the National Athletic Meet and no hotels were available all around Toyama. I had to revise my plan from scratch.

I enjoyed my Toga Mura visit. I saw plays by Americans, Argentinians and Indians. I watched Suzuki’s King Lear, Noh music and percussions, etc. I did not see Kayoko Shiraishi and later found out that she left Suzuki & Company. (She became a superstar. In 2005, Shiraishi won the auspicious Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon for her life contribution as distinguished performer and story teller).

The inconvenience at Toga Mura was transportation. Minshuku hotel and Theater complex were located far apart, unfortunately not within walking distance. We depended on commuter buses in the morning and in the evening. However, I made a lot of friends during the commute to and from Toga, including many foreign visitors.

A big surprise in Toga Mura was that the construction of the outdoor theatrical stage was very comparable (or more authentic) to Greek theaters of Dionysos and Delphi. The performance at night with torch fires was unearthly impressive. I know producer Suzuki brought his plays to be performed in Athens and Delphi in Greece. He wanted this secluded Toga Mura Outdoor Theater to become an inspirational place for stage goers to experience imperishable human dramas in a timeless and geography-free manner.

Note:
Top Photo:
Ancient Greek theater in Delphi – the source of T. Susuzki’s inspiration to build his Toga Mura Outdoor Theater (capacity 800). Thanks to A. Ikeda of Kitakyushu who brought back the Delphi postcard for me from Greece.

P.S.
Today's (Fri 8/5) Nikkei announced the SCOT's 2011 summer program at Toga Mura, which includes five plays performed from August 19 to 28. They are:

1. Image of Mother in My Eyes, Return of Japan, Newest Edition
2. Hello from the Ends of the World - with fireworks at the outdoor theater -
3. Electra - Greek play by Sophocles
4. Cyrano de Bergerac - with a Taiwanese actress in the main role
5. Extra Issue - Junichiro Tanizaki

Tadashi Suzuki is quoted as saying, "Drama is a history of reminiscences since the days of Greece. I hope our programs this year is worthy of association with great endeavors in the history of dramas."

Requiem for the Dead Japanese in Siberia

2011-08-22T03:26:00.009+09:00

During this Obon weekend, I was in Higashiyama Kyoto among worshippers at their family temples and groups of sightseers, while soaking up a distant scent of incense in the air. I felt I shouldn’t miss the last performance of the Russo-Japanese play “When Cherry Blossoms Bloom in Siberia,” performed in Kyoto on August 14, 2011.

The story was originally written in 2007 by Nelly Matkhanova, residing in Minusinsk near Irkutsk by Lake Baykal. I read that the playwright was inspired to write by reading Shizuo Yamashita’s book of ball-point sketch collections called Retained for 1,450 days (1993), and the Russian translation of Kyuzo Kato’s Diary of Siberia (published in l980). Both Yamashita and Kato were Japanese prisoners of war held in Krasnoyarsk, in their respective camps.

There must have been plenty of Japanese plays dealing with Siberian Gulags, but this play is important as the first from a Russian’s perspective. As a child, writer Matkkanova had seen Japanese prisoners toiling on streetcar road construction projects in Taishet and felt pity for them.

The play was first performed in Minusinsk in 2009 without Japanese participation. Then a collaborative effort between Russians and Japanese was proposed as the Sakura Project. Funding and preparations for the project followed, supported by the Japanese MOF, Ministry of Cultural Affairs of the Krasnoyarsk Region, Minusinsk Drama Theater, Japan’s People Theater, Maizuru City (the port city facing the Japan Sea that welcomed returnees from Siberia), the Japanese Association of the bereaved families of prisoners and other organizations.

In 1952, Japan regained its sovereignty through the San Francisco Peace Treaty with the U.S. and its allies. However, Communist countries, the Soviet Union and China, did not join the Treaty as they were in the middle of the Korean War. Mostly neglected from that Peace Treaty were 570,000 Japanese prisoners of war, detained by the Soviet Union. The unofficial number could actually total 600,000 if Japanese civilians, such as 270,000 immigrants tasked with developing Manchuria, were included. My uncle, the youngest of five of my mother's brothers, was one of the immigrants and he went missing right after Aug l5, 1945.

The play opens with the arrival of Japanese prisoners of war at the barb-wired Taishet Camp, about 800 km northwest of Irkutsk, and ends with the “Damoi (homecoming)“ departure, after 1450 days of forced labor. The guard calls roll and crossly examines prisoners’ personal belongings, confiscating some. A rosary is spared. Each of the seven roommates are spotlighted after they go to bed to show what he is thinking. Individual episodes ensue; a skilled mechanic repairs a tricycle and establishes a friendship with the Camp Headmaster’s boy and wife; an artist exchanges poems with a Russian interpreter; student-turned soldier meets a Russian girl and is attracted to her; an eccentric unable to handle paranoia attempts suicide in the snow; a fever stricken man saved by a Russian housewife on his way to the hospital gets into a car wreck and is dropped off in the middle of nowhere when the Russian driver leaves him to report the emergency; a soldier is pinned under a fallen tree while attempting to save the life of a Russian female guard; an apprentice medic helps deliver a baby of a Russian guard’s wife, which completely changes the guard’s attitude towards Japanese. At the conclusion of the story, four soldiers out of seven leaves Taishet. Two die in the camp and one decides to stay to marry a Russian girl.

These episodes are continuously played out alongside the hard labor assignments, treading in the deep snow for outdoor duties. Helped with the solemn, yet rhythmical Japanese music, the stage scenery rapidly changes by the actors’ coordinated dexterity and well designed stage set. One basic stage for multi-scene usage was magnificent, worthy of applause.

Notes:

l) I wish to refer to Yasuo Kazuki (1911-1974), another Siberian artist born and died in neighboring Yamaguchi Prefecture. I visited the Yasuo Kazuki Art Museum in Nagato when I went to Nishinagato Beach (see summer memories - Riosologgers). He spent about half a year in Syya Camp, in the territory of Khakassia (once Kyrgyz but now under Russia). Syya Camp was reportedly one of the smallest (250 prisoners) yet worst detention camps in Siberia. I'm not sure where Syya is but his recollection is that he got off the train at a station called Shira, south of Achinsk, was then trucked to Syya village in the mountain and walked another 3 km on snowy roads to arrive at the camp.

There artist Kazuki saw Dante’s hell. I was so shocked to see the skulls peering out from the prison and explored why Kazuki's experience was so tragic and desperate. I found out why when I read Takashi Tachibana’s (see Note 2) book based on his fact finding Siberian trip. The average mortality rate at the camps was 10% over a 5 year span. The mortality rate at Camp Syya was 10% over a 3-4 month period. The main work for Syya camp prisoners was to bring down timber for the old steam power generating station which supported the Communal Gold Mines nearby. In addition to inadequate food rationing, scandals among the Russian officers were rampant. When this was brought to light, the camp was closed. Kazuki saw friends dying one after another from hunger. Shown here is Kazuki's artwork "Damoi" on S.S. Esanmaru in 1947.

2) Takashi Tachibana (born 28 May 1940, Nagasaki) is a Japanese independent journalist, known for his articles on Japanese social problems. He called the forced labor camps in Siberia the biggest human tragedy of the 20th Century.

He claims, at one point, Siberia had 10 million prisoners, of which 7 million were Russians, 2.4 million Germans and 600,000 Japanese. The Kremlin sent Russian prisoners of war, who were returned from Germany, to Siberia for the camp's administration, without any experience or motivation.

3) Russians appropriated Japanese plants, disassembled them and transported them to Siberia. They used Japanese prisoners to reassemble and restart the plants.

"Our Town - Manzanar"

2011-07-18T13:48:00.003+09:00

Searching Wilder’s “Our Town” on Google, I was led by chance to “Our Town –Manzanar”, a play by Hisashi Inoue (1934-2010), a Japanese playwright. “Our Town” is, I’m sure, a reference to Wilder, as he liked such wordplay. The question is, if Manzanar, the World War II concentration camp in the U.S., had retained all the spontaneous elements called as a town. He must have visited Owens Valley and Los Angeles to get a feel for "his" town. Quoted among the play references are Toyo Miyatake’s photo albums, Manzanar Diaries of Karl Yoneda (1906-1999), etc. The play was published in 1993, about the time I decided to leave California. I didn’t know that he wrote about Manzanar until very recently. It was January this year that I traveled to Tokyo to see Wilder’s “Our Town” played by the reading circle I once belonged to. I found that the Zushi City Civic Theatrical Group called “Nanja-Monja” had just performed “Our Town – Manzanar” in December as their 25th Anniversary event and their tribute to the author who passed away in April 2010. (Zushi performed the same play in 1996 on their 10th Anniversary). I could have hastened to Zushi, near Shizuoka had I known. I also wanted to read the book, but it was unavailable even as a used book.

Inoue was generally known as a slow writer. When we see the list of his works and a number of literary prizes (over twenty something), I acknowledge him as a prolific writer, covering a wide range of subjects, from Shakespeare to Chekhov, mysteries and scientific fiction, with a humorous touch and many twists. Inoue likened himself to a bird - his poems come from the head; plays from the body; novels, both polite and popular literature from two wings; and others like biographies, etc. from the tail.

The first Inoue play I saw was fascinating: Misako Watanabe’s “Kesho” (Makeup), which I volunteered to help promote in Southern California. A 50-minute show, wherein, an actress preparing her makeup and costume, keeps talking to her unexpected visitor and troupe members (to the audience), until she is ready to perform a play within the play. Could this visitor be her son she deserted years ago? The drama comes from the heightened emotions of the actress and likewise, the audience. English subtitles were supplied for the audience.

Upon my return to Japan, I read his “Face of Jizo” (translation by Roger Pulvers, literally “Life with my Father”). The “Face of Jizo” dealt with a female survivor of the Hiroshima Bomb. She is reaching marriageable age, and the dialog between father and daughter was all in Hiroshima local dialect, somewhat hard to decipher. Inoue was born in Yamagata, northern Japan and he was an expert in Tohoku dialects, but not Hiroshima dialect. Maybe he spent a lot of time in figuring out the Hiroshima dialect. The English translation is much easier to read.

Five girls appear in "Our Town – Manzanar". They are Sofia Okazaki, an LA Japanese Newspaper staff; Otome Amatsu, a Japanese immigrant from a farm village and “Naniwabushi” (3-string shamisen accompanied ballad) reciter; Sachiko Saito, a stage magician; Lilian Takeuchi, a singer; and Joyce Tachibana, an actress. These five girls were instructed by the Manzanar camp superintendent to perform a reading drama “Our Town, Manzanar”. The reading script was said to be compiled by a Relocation Center Intelligence Officer, but it was later disclosed that it was written by Sachiko Saito. While they practiced reading, girls were split into two groups, pro-American and pro-Japanese. Sachiko stayed aloof, joining neither. Sachiko admitted that she was a Chinese American sent from the State Department. They went through the feminine slanders and accusations, but settled down amicably to pursue the essence of being human, regardless of race or color.

The play starts as the curtain rises:

Sofia: Where the Sierra Nevada Mountains range in Eastern California

Otome: Where Mt. Whitney soars

All in Chrous; Manzanar! Manzanar!

Joyce: Our town, our plaza!

Note: Jizo is a guardian deity of children

Wilder, Wilder, Thornton Wilder

2011-07-10T11:38:00.007+09:00

1969 was the year I left New York City. I saw a number of great Broadway musicals while residing there, but I realized I was leaving the city without seeing a play. So, one day, my wife and I drove down to a theater without much planning. We saw the Merchant of Yonkers. Larchmont was where we resided in Westchester County. Yonkers is in the same county and that might have drawn us in hindsight. All I remember of the play was that the merchant was a curmudgeon, who begrudged paying even 15 cents to his barber.

It was much later when we moved to San Diego did I found out that play was written by Thornton Wilder. The second version of the play, known as The Matchmaker, became a huge success, and led to the hilarious musical Hello Dolly. In the l980’s, we drove to Los Angeles to see it. The name Thornton Wilder was inscribed in my memory.

I heard the Wilder name again back in Tokyo when I joined a local reading circle of English literature. The circle initially started among the Tsuda Woman University graduates, but later invited the public to participate. Tokyo had changed a lot while I was away. There were no universities around when and where I lived before. Upon my return, I found more than a dozen universities moved out from downtown Tokyo to the western suburbs along with the faculty. I found my teacher from my alma mater lived close by across the Asakawa River. I could see Chuo University campus from my backyard. The closest university was Meisei University, the faculty of which included exchange professors from Mississippi State University. When the circle invited them as guests, we became friends, traveling together to see flowers, Noh plays, etc. One year several members visited a professor from Mississippi in the U.S. and I joined them. This professor was a graduate from Ole’Miss and she drove us to Rowan Oaks where William Faulkner resided.

Back to Wilder. The circle decided to read Our Town in the beginning of 2010. It was recommended by Dr. Caldwell, a professor at Meisei University, who also provided production guidance. The circle decided to put on a production as their 20th Anniversary project. I left Tokyo for Kitakyushu then and was unable to participate, but promised to come by.

I did my homework to know that Wilder created Glover’s Corners, a fictitious town in New Hampshire, just like Yoknapatawpha country in Mississippi by Faulkner. However, Our Town can be any town in the U.S. or any town worldwide.

Acts 1 through 3 of Our Town was performed beautifully in January 2011 after a full year of practice, in one of the small citizen center halls by the Asakawa River. Great thing about the play is that no stage setup is necessary. However, the problem was that there were very few men in the circle. They overcame the problem, casting women as men in disguise, including the stage manager. The performance was for club members and guests only. It was a shame it was not open to the public.

Dr. and Mrs. Caldwell were also invited from Chiang Mai, Thailand, the home they chose to retire in. Dr. Caldwell told us that Meisei University students once performed Our Town as a one act play, combining Act 2 (Love & Marriage) and Act 3 (Life & Death) and omitting Act l (Daily Life). I heard Dr. Caldwell complimenting the circle, telling them their version was better than Meisei’s.

Eighty percent of Wilder’s quotes come from Our Town, particularly from the ubiquitous Stage Manager’s fluffs. No wonder Our Town won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Late in Act I, the Stage Manager tells the audience that he will leave the script in the cornerstone of a new bank so that “a thousand years from now" people can see "the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying.” This struck a chord and motivated me to travel to Kobe to see another Wilder play performed.

While Googling Our Town, I found out the play was performed by elite Japanese actors earlier in the year in Tokyo. I also happened to come upon a Kobe Youth Group planning to produce Wilder’s A Happy Journey in English in April. I obtained the script and discovered to my delight that the journey was from Newark to Trenton and Camden, New Jersey. The locations were all familiar to me. I lived close by in the 1960’s and drove all over New Jersey on sales trips. Wilder chose a family of four - husband, wife and two children - visiting another married daughter in Camden who was sick. For such a trip today, traveling the New Jersey Turnpike isn’t a big deal. But, I see the excitement of the family excursion, from their conversation with the neighbors and stage manager. I see aspects of our children in the children in the play.

Arriving in Kobe earlier than the matinee hour, I had a chance to meet the producer, saw their rehearsals on stage and even had a chance to wish the young actors luck. The play was wonderful. You can safely say that I am immersed in Wilder's dramas.

Youth Stage Performance

2011-06-27T05:33:00.006+09:00

”There has been a comet come near to the earth of late and the earth has been parched and sultry so that the gods are drowsy and all those things that are divine in man, such as benevolence, drunkenness, extravagance, and song, have faded and died and have not been replenished by the gods.”

- from The Gods of the Mountain by Lord Dunsany

―――――――――――――――――――――――――

“Popcorn, 15 cents!” My son was rehearsing proudly his play script with all his might. It was his first stage appearance at a kindergarten in Forest Hills, New York. It was just a few months after his arrival in the U.S. He was unable to express himself fully yet but he was thrilled that he got a part in the play and was very proud. My involvement in school acting came much later in youth than my son. During World War II, there were almost no arts related extra-curricular activities. Prevailing then were martial arts, such as Japanese Kendo or Judo. I practiced Kendo and have participated in the intra-city competition, boys section. There were no school classes when the war was going on. We were either in the rice paddies irrigating or harvesting, or in the factory as worker trainees.

The university I attended held an annual Art Festival day, when 20+ Language Departments each performed plays in their respective language of study. Usually juniors get the assignment, since seniors were too busy getting ready for job placement interviews. For some reason, our class got assigned two years in a row both as juniors and seniors. I found an old album with photos from the two plays we performed.

The first was The Gods of the Mountain, the other, Golden Doom, both written by the same Anglo-Irish romance author, Lord Dunsany (1878-1957). I asked recently one of my classmates why he picked Dunsany. His answer was to the point. Our class had no woman. He went to the SCAP (Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers) Library for the search. Dunsany’s plays were perfect under the circumstances. The parts for The Gods of the Mountain required an all males cast.

On both plays, I was lucky to play key roles - Agmar, the old beggar, in The Gods of the Mountain that has three acts, and the chamberlain serving the Babylonian King, in the shorter play Golden Doom.

Agmar, per author Dunsany, is an ‘imperious’ but cunning strategist. Organizing a bandit of beggars, he marched into the city of Kongros disguised as a deity, modeled after the seven gods of Mt. Marma in green raiment. Each beggar flashed a piece of green garment underneath his rags and was treated with more hospitality than expected, even being offered a valuable Woldery wine. Fearing suspicious eyes of citizens, Agmar never touched the food and spilled the special wine while being served, but began devouring voraciously after the citizens left. Their trickery was short-lived. The Marma gods struck them down and turned all seven beggars into stone and left. The people found the stone figures and became convinced they were true gods all along. The story could be both a tragedy and a comedy.

On the other hand, Golden Doom is a comedy. The King and his entourage are whooping it up around an innocent scribbling of a poem by a child by the guarded King’s door while the guards have an unauthorized break for the bash. The cause of trouble is that the boy claims the scribbling was written with a lump of gold found in the river Gyshon. The King and the chamberlain find the scribbling and send for a prophet to decipher. The country is doomed, says the Chief Prophet, and recommends to the King to make a sacrifice to the stars that envy the King’s pride. The King seems so humble and has never displayed hubris.

“I inherited a rocky land, and windy, ill-nurtured, and nursed it to prosperity by years of peace and spread it’s boundaries by years of war. I have brought harvests up out of barren acres and given good laws into naughty towns, and my people are happy, and lo! the stars are angry.”

I haven't acted ever since.

In retrospect, acting in Dunsany’s plays was almost like being in a Japanese Noh play. I had to wear archaic English and classic robes. I did not discover Noh until much later in my mid-thirties.

Ultimate Champions

2011-06-13T10:32:00.007+09:00

There’s a joke in Japan “entrust your son or daughter, or grandson or granddaughter if you want to be Number l in anything in Japan or worldwide.” I lived to see the joke coming true, to my very happy surprise. I shouted, “Banzai! Banzai” (Hurray, Hurray)! She did it.

This Memorial Day weekend in May brought me fantastic news that my granddaughter’s Ultimate Frisbee team won the U.S./Canada Ultimate Championship in Boulder, Colorado. My daughter traveled there from California with a group of parents who rooted for their daughters and witnessed the moment of victory and domination over the 20 discreet women’s teams, including Michigan, Stanford, North Carolina - Wilmington, Ottawa, Washington, etc. Colorado was chosen as the central location of the U.S./Canada for the meet.

I have traveled to Coors in Golden and the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado. Had I known there was going to be a tournament with my granddaughter, I would have been there at any cost.

Although my wife and I now live in Japan, we often visit my daughter’s family, and were able to watch my granddaughter Alina’s growth in athletic competitions. In her high school days, my Alina was a cross-country runner, and I saw her compete in the high school league events in various places in California. I also saw her compete in track and field.

We were thrilled when Alina was accepted by many University of California affiliated Universities: Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Irvine. It was a tough decision for Alina to choose Santa Barbara, as it is the closest one to her home, but its chemical engineering department is one of the best programs in the nation. I thought she might drop long distance running and concentrate on her studies.

During our last trip to San Diego in 2009, Alina invited my wife and I to observe her frisbee game competitions for two-days at the UCSD campus field in La Jolla. It was our first experience to see the kind of game in which she was involved, and we learned the game basics, glossaries, simple dos and don’ts. One of the impressive codes is self-refereeing and the spirit of the game. No referees are around and each player (7 players on the field) are bound with a high ethical conduct of self-judging.

Frisbee itself has existed since the 1940’s. People say Yale students started it all by throwing pie trays from the bakeries.

Widespread these days are canine disc competitions, but humans were first establishing the “ultimate” form of sports, with a lot of running, requiring physical stamina like a tri-athalon athlete, plus aerodynamic throw & catch techniques, as well as strategic planning and tactics. It is more brains than brawn.

The name of the Alina’s team is the Burning Skirts and we liked the girl’s end of the game cheer and chanting to keep up morale and team spirit.

Alina gave us a souvenir frisbee disc of which she designed the graphics: a picture of a twirling dolphin, with a frisbee on its nose, and a shark gasping with his jaws wide open. This now hangs on our bedroom wall.

Best 10 out of 200 collegiate women teams in 2010 and 2011 listed as below.

Dios da a Borda, Borda da a Dios

2011-06-05T12:03:00.008+09:00

The silver route runs both north and south from Mexico City. My last blog described the north route up to Zacatecas, 350 miles (550km) from the capital. This time let’s travel south to Taxco, Guerrero, 110 miles out of Mexico City, about halfway south to coastal Acapulco. Taxco has an altitude of 1800 meters (Mexico City is 2300 meters). I traveled to Taxco from Toluca by train and detoured to see a stalactite grotto, called Grutas de Cacahuamilpa, one of the national parks.

Three names associated with Taxco are Juan Ruiz de Alarcon, Don Jose Borda and William Spratling.

The name “de Alarcon” seems to evoke images of the ancient homeland of the Spaniards. Taxco de Alarcon is the officially adopted name of the city in honor of Juan Ruiz de Alarcon (1581 -1639), who was born in Taxco, and who studied and lived both in Spain and Mexico. In Spain, Juan had a government post but was better known as a poet and playwright, representing the Siglo de Oro Spanish writers. Taxco stages Juan Ruiz’ plays every year after Christmas. The Mexican people liked his comedies with a Latin influence. His father was superintendent of the Taxco mines and one of his brothers was a local educator.

Don Jose de la Borda Sanchez (1699 -1778), a Spaniard of French descent, arrived in Taxco at age 16. Legend has it that Conquistador Hernan Cortez discovered silver and Borda rediscovered silver here. Borda spotted a rich silver vein while riding and wandering Taxco hills and made a fortune. In gratitude and as quoted above at the outset in Spanish “God gives to Borda and Borda gives to God”, Don Jose built the most exquisite baroque Santa Prisca Cathedral, the centerpiece of Taxco (Don Jose’s son Manuel served as priest in this church), as well as schools and roads. In addition, he managed costly projects such as the Borda Garden in Cuernavaca and Casa Borda in Mexico City that cost him more downs than ups in his career and resulted in death in obscurity. Despite his good conducts, Borda is remembered as one who made his fortune by cruelly exploiting native labor. I visited Jardin Borda in Cuernavaca almost everyday when I traveled there. It is the most elegant and restful garden I’ve ever seen. I added my name to the list of visitors, which include VIPs such as Hernan Cortez, Emperor Maximilian and Carlota and many others.

William Spratling (1900 - 1967), an American architect who was a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans arrived in Taxco in 1929. He designed Casa Manana, Cuernava for an American owner. He was associated with artist Diego Rivera in helping Diego’s exhibits in New York and he initiated and challenged in creating a silversmith workshop of his own. Gradually the artistic and economic foundation of the workshop he established continues to flourish until Taxco became recognized as the silver capital.

Today Taxco boasts 5,000 shops, large and small, embracing 400 silversmiths and apprentices in the city. I read that Tiffany’s silverware are made here. Spratling is acknowledged as Taxco’s Restorer, and the Father of Mexican Silver and honored with having his name attached to Taxco’s Silver museum. It is unfortunate that he got killed in an auto accident. Taxco's narrow, hilly and winding streets are hazardous.

While in Taxco, I took a minibus ride to the top of the hill to see a Giant Jesus statue. The bus started climbing the hill but appeared to go nowhere near the statue. The bus driver finally suggested I go out and walk to the top. I had a great view from the top overlooking the city fully of natural charm accented with colonial ambiance by red-tiled roofs.

Trekking Mexico's Silver Route

2011-05-31T15:20:00.005+09:00

"Receive your barbarous bearded guests from the coast, who brings a signal of God, which comes to us in mercy and pity. The time of our life is coming.”

“Heaven and Earth are in flames! People beseech forgiveness. Bread is lost, so the foods. Owls hoot and weep. Corpses piled at every crossing and flies swarm on.”

- Prophecies by Chilan Balam, Mayan Priest

La Via de la Plata (Silver Route) is the longest of the pilgrim routes in Spain starting from Seville in Andalucia to Santiago de Compostela. The name “Via de la Plata” derives from the Romans transporting silver and gold from the Iberian Peninsula. Via de la Plata in Mexico connects over 50 silver mines, including World Heritage sites along the northward route; beginning at Mexico City. The route was established by the Spanish Conquest to transport unearthed silver back to Spain. I have visited some of the sites along the path, such as Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Taxco (see the next blog entry), etc. and posted details in my travelog some time ago, but silver was not the main topic then. I’m glad I took an extensive trip to Bahio, based in Guadarajara, which was on the original detour silver route, but later changed when a straighter and more direct route was established.

It took Mexico about 300 years to become independent since Hernan Cortez invaded and massacred the Aztecs. At the beginning of this post, I quoted two prophecies by a Mayan priest. Cortez was probably seen as the return of the Mayan Deity Quetzalcoatl, feathered-serpent, but the first quote cautioned that the “time of our life is coming”. The second quote referred to the Seven Gods of Owls, predicting an ill omen. It was a prophecy of doom.

Even Cortez wasn’t named Viceroy, the ultimate title he had sought in controlling Mexico, though he acted as one. His soldiers, with little conferment of honors and grants, had to satisfy themselves with the encomienda and/or repartimiento systems with which they would get paid either by tribute or labor of indigenous Indians assigned to them. Frequent conflicts and revolts followed wherever interactions of Spaniards and Indians took place. Religion as a means to ease conflict and support Spain was not in place until much later.

Discovery of silver fueled more conflicts – in 1546 at Zacatecas and in 1552 at Guanajuato. Traders and merchants were assailed by Chichimeca Indians, nomads turned ferocious insurgents living in the highlands. Spaniards sent troops to conquer Chichimecans at the battle of Mixton. Prisons flourished, filled with insurgents, and Indians from the south increased in the silver mines. Epidemics hit them as well.

I was interested in this type of gradual colonization and I found a travel book written by a Japanese photographer, Shuji Abe. He was born in l947 in Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture (the region affected by the Tohoku Earthquake / Tsunami). Shuji visited Tepotzotlan, near Mexico City, and was impressed with the numerous exquisite baroque churches. He wanted to return to re-photograph them and he most likely spent half a year or so traveling along the entire Silver Route. It is a very unique travelog, an accomplishment earned by his legs and camera. There is none like it anywhere because no one has spent the effort to go on the same adventure.

I have fond memories of Tepotztlan. I still regret that I did not finish climbing the mountain Cerro del Tepozteco. On the map I found two Tepotztolans, one north and another south of Mexico City. I went to the one in the south. Shuji went to the one in the north. They had the same name, same spelling and it was easy to confuse the two. Both have a number of great churches. I realized we did not go to the same Tepotztlan because I did not see a Jesuit church in southern Tepotztlan. Otherwise, I used the same travel style as his, changing buses at major cities, and using taxi as a last resort.

In tracing the silver route, I was happy to find Dona Maria, or Malinche, the name of a Mexican volcano as well as the one who served Cortez as a translator and mistress, married to Juan Jaramillo and settled in San Juan del Rio, between Tepotztlan and Queretaro. I did not have time to visit a typical Hacienda, so I enjoyed reading his book and wondered why the deported Jesuits had possessed so many Haciendas (over a hundred).

Zacatecas, 540 kilometers from Mexico City, boast the best silver mines, even today, and the land used to belong to Chichimecas. This was all new to me. Before then, all I knew about the area was that it was close to Agua Caliente, where I found a number of Imamura surnames recently and started corresponding with them.

Carlsbad, Kaoyuan (Taoyuan), Tijuana

2011-05-22T15:19:00.006+09:00

I listed three locations that possess excellent miniatures of landmark buildings from around the world. These sites are my favorite destinations that take me both forward and backwards in my mental travelogs. Maybe it is similar to children rotating a globe of the world imagining their future lives (in my case, in retrospect to where I have been).

1) Carlsbad, California, USA

Carlsbad is about 25 miles north of San Diego, a culturally progressive city and the home of Legoland California. When I volunteered to look for a theater to stage a Japanese Hisashi Inoue play called “Kesho”(make-up), Carlsbad was one of the two cities that offered its municipal facility to the troupe (which included veteran actress Misako Watanabe). My son was living in Carlsbad about the time Carlsbad City Council was debating whether they should permit Legoland to be built. Whenever I traveled to Europe years ago, I used to bring back Lego toys for my son.

I have visited Legoland California three times before I left for Japan and among all their displays, my favorite was their “Miniland USA.” Models of New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Washington DC and parts of New England were shown. The displays were quite dynamic with working city streets, running trams, a live shipyard and a presidential motorcade! There was even a fire with a Lego Fire Boat putting it out!

2) Kaoyuan, TAIWAN

I have made numerous trips to Taiwan upon my return to Japan, including the trip to Kaoyuan, 50 kilometers south of Taipei. And there, close to Shihmen Dam, away from the bustling industrial semiconductor centers of Xinxchu, there is a theme park that exhibit miniature landmark buildings of Taiwan, China, Japan, India, Greece, Italy, France, Russia, etc. Included were the Taiwan Presidential Office Building, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Osaka Castle, Todaiji Temple, Taji Mahar, Parthenon and Pantheon, Nortre Dam and St. Basil’s Cathedrals and many others at an astonishingly accurate 1/25th scale. (I’ve been to the Great Wall but just one spot near Beijing where you can walk over from the east end to the west end, Liaonin Province to Gansu Province).

3) Tijuana, MEXICO

Tijuana is just 25 miles south from my home where I resided in San Diego. Crossing the Mexican border and walking along the Rio Tijuana, the Estrella Mexitlan building stands right in front of you. I used to accompany my Japanese guests to this building before taking them to tourist spots along Avenida de Revolucion. In the evening, the Mexitlan building becomes alive with live music. On the top floor of the building, there were miniature Mexican landmarks which included the Teothuacan Pyramids of Sun and Moon, Zocalo and Palacio de Bellas Artes, Basilica de Guadalupe, Coastline of Tihuatanejo Ixtapa, etc. It was the best educational exhibit to get my visitors’ feet wet on Mexican culture and history. I searched to find out the latest info on Mexitlan. There was no mention of Mexitlan except as a music venue. The exhibit seemed to have disappeared. What a shame! I finally found an announcement by management that they had to close the facilities, probably due to the economy.

I feel Tijuana has lost one of the more important educational and cultural asset that had attracted Americans as well as foreigners alike to preview inner Mexico at the gate town. They should consider relocating something similar, perhaps to Ciudad Juares, as the central border station.

Tree White

2011-05-15T11:22:00.004+09:00

People often utter an odd voice “what’s this?” when they encounter something unusual or rare. “Nanja?”corresponds to“What’s this?” in Japanese. Nanja Monja perhaps goes a bit stronger than Nanja, similar to saying "What’s this, for Heaven's sake"?

A special tree, native to Fujian, China, was given the name Nanja Monja. In Japan the tree is designated as a natural treasure. Its distribution in Japan is sporadic. One bay in the upper Tshushima Island in Nagasaki Prefecture, Korea Strait, boasts more than 3,000 of these trees. When trees go in full bloom, the entire bay gets whitened. So Tsushima people gave the tree another name “Bay Illuminator”.

The month of May is the blooming season. I heard 120 trees are in full bloom right now at the mouth of the River Onga. I asked my sister, who knows the area, to drive me and my wife there. It is inside Oka Minato Shrine, Ashiya, an old day port that saw departures of the legendary Empress Jingu (AD 169-269) to Korea and the local Lord Kuroda Samurais to Shimabara, Nagasaki to suppress the Christian's Revolt (1637), headed by teenager Shiro Amakusa.

The Nanaja Monja in Ashiya was just marvelous. They are all young trees, branches hanging in showy clusters at eye level. I had read that the trees bloom at night and shed in the morning. We were there at 9:00AM, so the timing was very good. First, I thought the flower was similar to jasmine I had growing in my San Diego residence, but less fragrant than jasmine.

Coming home, I found it belongs to the osmanthus family. Google led me to a Samurai botanist, Toyofumi Mizutani, near Nagoya (1779-1833) who named the tree “One Leaf Tago”, differentiating from Toneriko or Tago, which features multiple leaves. The scientific name of Tago is Fraxinus Japonica Blune. The records show that Mizutani met Philip Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), a German physician and the one who introduced hydrangea to Europe, when Siebold traveled from Nagasaki to Edo.

In the U.S. the closest tree is the White Fringe Tree or Fringer. The official name is “Chionanthus retusus”, chion meaning snow and anthus flower. An American Japanese sent the photo of Fringer in Huntington Garden, Pasadena. But it looks different as he called it "Old Man’s Beard" and it belongs to the Olive Family. He says some describe Fringer as a Gossamer lace look.

Baja California Salt Beds

2011-05-09T00:41:00.008+09:00

There is an island called Cedros meaning cedar trees, 22 kilometers west of Punta Eugenia halfway down the Baja California peninsula. That‘s where the fish hooked shape Baja Peninsula kicks westward and encompasses a 370,950 hectare marine and whale sanctuary. Known before as Scammons’s / San Iganacio Lagoons, it is now designated both by UNESCO and the Mexican Government as the Sansebastian Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve. The Pacific gray whales migrate 12,000 miles roundtrip here to find warm waters and blissful nursing beds there. However, I’m not telling “fish” stories. I wish I could surprise you and say that the solar evaporation salt beds coexist with these mammals of wonder. Whoever operates the plant, they must have had tough negotiations with environmental groups such as Greenpeace. Environmentalists would have opposed if the bay was utilized for commercial purposes. They may have evaded the possible opposition by moving the commercial base to Cedros Island.

The salt beds there spread over 33,000 hectares of land, equal to the size of Metropolitan Tokyo. In 1954, the world's wealthiest entrepreneur, Daniel K. Ludwig (1892-1992), started the Baja salt operation as an adjunct to his line of freighters. I remember him as the lease negotiator, after World War II, of the Kure Shipyard that built the Battleship Yamato and produced many tankers for his National Bulk Carriers. He decided to sell the salt business and the Japanese Mitsubishi (three diamonds) Shoji Corp, already engaged in salt works in Australia, showed keen interest. In the early 1970’s, Mitsubishi purchased the operation with provisions that the Mexican Government’s option to share stocks. Mitsubishi sent their officers immediately to oversee Baja. They were based in San Diego, where I lived. They knew it was a temporary assignment but I envied their work schedule, commuting to the Lagoon by a private jet, back with their families on weekends. I heard their meals were taken care of by locals on site. The expatriates left when the Mexican government bought majority of shares. I almost forgot about them, but I recently saw a news item about a boat named “Cedros” being launched from Hakata Shipyard located in Imabari, my first hometown, to embark on a Japan-Mexico voyage.

Briefly, here’s how the Lagoon natural salt nursery operates: A network of 13 ponds for concentrating sea water works with 64 smaller ponds where salt crystallizes. The total operation covers 200,000 acres, with 120 miles of dikes, 24 miles of canals and 27 miles of roads. The lagoon itself acts as the first of many evaporating ponds. The salinity of the lagoon is a trifle higher than that of the ocean. The main pumping station is at the other end of the lagoon.. Ten diesel pumps draw water out of the lagoon at a rate of nearly 300,000 gallons a minute and feed it into the evaporating ponds. When the concentration of salt reaches 25%, the water turns a bright pink. Solar absorption is increased by the pink color and as the temperature of brine increases, the evaporation rate goes up. When the brine is just short of total saturation, it is pumped into crystallizing ponds where the salt precipitates, forming crystals that fall to the floor of the pond and lump together in clusters as big as a fist. When the layer of crystals is about 6 inches deep, the salt is ready for harvest. The harvested salt is barged at Cedros Island. There could not have been a more ideal setting for these purposes. Sun power is free and is naturally utilized to convert salt water into salt crystals, even though it takes 18 months. Sea water, the raw material of this process is also available without limit. You can find out more about the operations here.

In 2008, salt production was reported to be 8 million tons per year, equal to the total of one year’s worth of Japanese salt imports. All transportation departs from Puerto Morro Redondo, on la Isla Cedros. I am flabbergasted that this port is the third largest port in Mexico, volume-wise, after Veracruz and Tampico, on the Atlantic Ocean. Eighty percent of their salt export was for industrial use, and I’m assuming it includes salt pellets for water softener application in the U.S. The island has a population of 2500, but can easily go up to 5,000 on a seasonal basis. Flights are available to Ensenada from Cedros Airport.

More images of the salt beds:
1. Aerial Photo
2. Gallery

Que Viva Cinco de Mayo!

2011-05-02T12:33:00.004+09:00

We're entering the Cinco de Mayo week, a big, colorful and traditional celebration by Hispanic Americans. I emailed a friend I came to know through the Japan Society of Tijuana & San Diego, to find out if she knows of any plans scheduled this year in Tijuana. She responded to me from Chicago, where she is presently studying, but she sounded unenthusiastic. She wrote to me that May 5 is not even a Mexican National Holiday and why do I bother. I wondered if I have held some misconceptions. I have seen and heard a lot about Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Diego, San Ysidoro and Tijuana so I felt somewhat bewildered with what she said. I checked my Tijuana paper clippings. Years ago, Tijuana had 2 hour parades on Calle Benito Juares.

I reread Mexican history. Father Miguel Hidalgo revolted against Spain in 1810 and this Independence War lasted until 1821. They gained Independence, but with heavy financial burden, particularly to France. Napoleon III, exasperated on debt collection, sent 6,500 soldiers to Mexico. Mexico countered the French with 4,500 militia lead by General Ignacio Zaragoza (born in Texas). The victor of the initial battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 was Mexico, an unlikely one-time victory. France gained control of Mexico eventually and had a Hapsburg prince Maximilian govern Mexico until 1867. Thus, May 5 became a symbol of patriotism and anti-imperialism from the admiration of neighboring Americans, compared to the low-key Mexican modesty.

I read the first celebration of Cinco de Mayo was held in Southern California. It was a show of solidarity by Mexicans against French rule. It continued to be celebrated and by 1930, it was seen as an opportunity to celebrate Mexican identity and build community solidarity. Later, Mexican-American youths appropriated the holiday and it gained a bi-national flavor. Also, it was a way to build Mexican-American pride. Corporate sponsors have stepped in recently and the celebrations have taken on a more commercial flavor these days.

In Old Town, San Diego, my second hometown, Aztec warriors, charros playing quoits, whirling dancers, Jalisco hat dances all ran like insatiable kaleidoscopic sights. And, yes, last but not least, my favorite Mexican dishes and Margaritas!

Baja Brouhaha

2011-04-30T11:58:00.005+09:00

Right after the dawn of the millennium, the “Escalera Nautica Blueprint” appeared on the horizon of Baja California, a mega project surrounding the Sea of Cortez to construct 20 new airports, 10 commercial ports, a string of marinas, 34 golf courses, a dozen new hotels, 6500 condos and connecting superhighways / sea ferries. Escalera Nautica means Nautical Staircase and I thought the time has come for Baja California to make a decision and polish this "rough diamond". I saw the beneficiaries-to-be jumping on the bandwagon, but National Geographic magazine raised the question “Can Mexico Wild Baja California Endure New Marinas?” and I have watched the debated developments, which has taken years.

According to 2009 news reports in a number of Mexican publications, FONATUR (Federal Tourism Promotion Fund) has announced that the much ballyhooed Nautical Ladder's final form has been canceled and the assets of the 10 projects that have either been completed or partially completed will be sold. FONATUR, which over the past six years received more than $1500 million pesos of investment for the project from the federal government, made clear that they no longer have a budget to further invest in the project.

Alas, the ambitious project seems to have disappeared like a soap bubble! - another Baja brouhaha. The one I remember was a story of Japanese Zaibatsu hotelier, who showed a keen interest in developing a fishing port facing the Sea of Cortez into a Disney style hotel resort with tennis courts, golf courses and activities such as whale watching, sports fishing, scuba diving, bungee jumping, ...etc. and that was when I arrived in San Diego in the 1970s.

Baja California is the 4th longest peninsula, after Kamchatka, Malaysia, and the Antarctic Larsen. It is approximately 1500 km (932 miles) from Tijuana or Ensenada to La Paz on Highway 1. The bus ride takes more than 24 hours. I have heard from my friend that he drove all night on a grueling ride returning from Cabo San Lucas back to San Diego. It was during the safe old days when you did not encounter thugs.

My first trip to Baja was a chartered Cesna to Loreto. I saw Picacho Del Diablo, the Devil Mountain and Sierra San Pedro and the mirror-like surface of the Sea of Cortez on the way. We were a party of scuba beginners and the shortage of scuba gear in Loreto forced us to relocate to the beach at Nueva Guayama, or San Carlos, mainland Mexico, where we enjoyed not just scuba diving but the view of the distinctive and mystic “Tetakawi” Twin Peaks. My Baja experience is an accumulation of multiple weekend mini family and golfing trips, both personal and company events to Tecate, Mexicali, San Felipe, Tijuana, Rosarito Beach (where we saw a replica of the 882 foot Titanic used for the film), Puerto Nuevo, Ensenada, Punta Banda (blow hole), Baja Mar, etc. I was invited to my son-in-law’s bachelor party to cross the San Ysidro border for an “all the lobster you can eat” treat. Baja Mar Golf Course was called the Pebble Beach course south of the Border, hazards included cactus thorns. My wife and I took a cruise to Ensenada on a luxury boat with my son and his wife.

Great things in Baja: You don’t have to worry too much about the weather since it is very stable throughout the year. Yes, they have hurricanes sometimes and rain creates big rivers (once you start to cross, there is no going back) and turns city streets into a pool of sewage, but that’s very rare. All Nippon Airways, the second airline in Japan used to have their young pilots stationed in San Diego to practice landings at Tijuana Airport. In the 1970s, I was informed the commercial airplane rental for practice was $1,000 an hour and it was less than the price they paid in Okinawa where their practice schedules were subject to frequent changes because of weather conditions.

I rented cars twice - once an old beat up VW micro bus for a round trip from Loreto to Mulege with my Hewlett-Packard friend from Palo Alto; the other a rather decent car in Los Cabos to drive to La Paz and Todos Santos. Probably my total mileage in Baja was less than 600 miles. But I have enjoyed every minute watching fields of boojums, tasting local dishes, engaging in bonito fishing and enjoying the gorgeous beaches.

I have seen posters and DVDs periodically about The Baja 1000, billed as the world's longest nonstop race, spanning 1,000 miles off-road and all terrain, through the Mexican desert from Tijuana to La Paz-- pretty much the entire length of Baja. I’m surprised they celebrated almost 40 years of the race with 1,000 racers and support teams and more than 200,000 spectators. Well, I wish them the best of luck in carrying on the event and someday reignite Baja’s drive to fly a balloon high that is not just full of hot air.

Viva Bajo Tierra!

2011-04-18T01:16:00.004+09:00

The world watched with bated breath the miracle of thirty-three miners, who were trapped 700 meters (2,300 ft) underground in a mining accident in San Jose Mine (Copiapo, Chile), as they were brought back to the surface after surviving for a record 69 days.

That happened during the end of October 2010. I have just finished reading the first book recently published in Japanese that dealt with this event, roughly five months after the accident. The author is Manuel Pino Toro, a Chilean journalist. The book was translated by a group of Japanese women, headed by Reiko Omatoi - a very speedy accomplishment, which might keep late coming versions at bay. At one time, Camp Esperanze, so named with everybody’s expectations, embraced 2000 people including various professionals (engineers, drillers, doctors and psychologists, NASA), politicians, news media, priests, caterers, not to mention the families of the 33 miners. More books will surely follow and their translations.

I felt the strength of the book was in the behind the scene stories and accounts taken from direct conversations and interviews the Chilean author had with the miners and their family members in Spanish. Most of the headlining stories were already reported on the Web, such as the discovery of a memo scribbled in red ink “estamos bien en el refugio, los 33” attached to the drill bit, the selection of drilling machines, and details of the rescue “Fenix (phoenix)” capsule to lift up 33 miners one at a time.

I believe my guess was right. Families voiced their opinions and banded together to start a law suit. They did not want the whole case to be settled simply as an accident but as a crime with punitive charges against Compana Minera San Esteban, the employer, for being negligent and violating safety rules despite past accidents. Families also demanded using an alternate breakthrough method using explosives as suggested by Juan Ramirez, a fellow expert miner, to get to the trapped miners but were dissuaded by the company. Instead the company used the time consuming drilling method, which they claimed was less risky.

I’d like to point out two interviews in the last two chapters - one "Dios en carne y Hueso" with Jose Henriquez, a preacher and a miner for 33 years and second "Hijos del Desierto (Sons in the desert) with Victor Zamora, born into a mining family.

JOSE HENRIQUEZ

In the case of Jose, Toro’s interview took place at his home in Talca, 250 km south from Santiago, known for hat chain shops “Talca, Paris & London”, mild climate and greeneries. Jose tactfully escaped the media and settled down finally with an honorary citizen award of San Clemente, the city where he was born. Jose confided their survival was nothing less than a miracle. Based on his previous experiences of surviving accidents, he knew how to act and appoint roles to individuals. After exhausting all options, they started to pray with Jose as a spiritual leader.

“I told guys God is with us. Let God guide us all! I’m an Evangelist. If that is acceptable and sharable, let’s pray together. I talked about what I know from Bible, I answered their questions." "The hardest thing was the unbearable temperature. But once communication was established, we were all encouraged to live on. We appreciated all the stuff sent down, food, water, high-tech LEDs, video cameras, Bible, …, etc."

VICTOR ZAMORA

My duty was to check how much food was available in the refugio, with a flickering lamp about to go out. The finding was very disappointing. There was only food for two days, but there were enough spoons and forks for 100 people. We had milk but it was spoiled. There were 19 cans of tuna and 15 liters of water. We decided we would have to accept the situation and follow a rationing plan. We ate very little at a time. Each person equally took one spoonful of tuna in 12 hours. Then one spoonful after 24 hours, then one after 36 hours, then another after 48 hours, …, etc. After a few days, only one can of tuna was left. We didn’t touch it. We kept it to symbolize our survival. Jose helped us a great deal in organizing everything. I felt calm listening to Jose’s talk and felt reassured of my survival. “To get God’s blessing, you have to love your neighbors”, he wrote to his mother from underground.

Earthquake / Tsunami Update on a Fellow Toastmaster

2011-04-08T14:18:00.008+09:00

One love, one heart
Let's get together and feel all right
Hear the children crying (One love)
Hear the children crying (One heart)
Sayin', "Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right."
Sayin', "Let's get together and feel all right."
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa

- Bob Marley (1945-1981)
named song of the millennium by BBC

UPDATE - GOOD NEWS!

Safety of all Kesennuma Toastmaster members confirmed as of April 8. They had two members who had been out of contact after March 11. One member resides in Tome City, bordering between Miyagi and Iwate prefectures. Tome is about 30 to 40 kilometers from the coastline. The other member resides in Rikuzen Takada, in Iwate Prefecture. Rikuzen Takada faces the ocean but his house was not inundated by tsunami as it stands at higher ground. This news is from the Web site Kagurazaka Toastmasters in Koenji started under the yellow banner initiative. It carried a photo of four spirited Kesennuma Toastmasters.

***

A special impromptu writing corner at the recent Taiwan Toastmasters Convention (April 22-24) in Taipei to encourage fellow Japanese Toastmasters. 加油　pronounced "jiayour" means "Fight". Each pasted a pad of note of encouragement with his or her signature.

***

I sent the following message to my overseas friends, Toastmasters and personal alike about a week after March 11, to which responses returned in drove. I thought I should share these responses with more people rather than keeping it to myself, so I’ve decided to post summaries as a blog extra. Thank you for all the messages you sent me with your prayers.

When I found the name Kesennuma among the cities hard hit by the Tohoku Earthquake, I immediately thought of Daniel Ross, founder of Kesennuma Toastmasters. I met him years ago in one of the District Conferences featuring speech contests in Tokyo. His name card read "Owner of Pine Rock School". Perhaps it was before the Kesennuma club was founded. He was quite a likable man. I only knew Kesennuma by name as a famous fishing port of saury and the bygone gold mines. So I asked him how he liked it there. He told me the city is small (pop. 73k), but he likes it because it has retained a natural beauty and small town charm with all the amenities that a bigger city has to offer.

I was happy to hear he was “OK” from a fellow Toastmaster. But that was the only status given on the people finder website.

Today, I got the latest message from the same source and felt really relieved to see it was written by him.

Indirectly reported was his message to his mother in Florida. He said he and his wife were safe. Their house survived the earthquake and tsunami because it stood on higher ground. Among the relatives an elderly aunt of his wife was still missing. On March 11, the port and business of Kesennuma were completely wiped out by humongous tremors and tsunami that followed. The huge oil and fuel tanks for steamers exploded and burned oil at night at the seaport. There was no power, no phones, no Internet, and no water whatsoever. Even cell phone signals were completely out or usage blocked so emergency services can use them exclusively. 15,000 dead in Miyagi. Many others are still missing. Innumerable now in evacuee shelters.

Here are the replies I got back:

Thank you Rio. Believe me, the people of the world have their hearts vibrating in emotion for the people of Japan. It will be a long time, but the Japanese people will put their world back together. I often wonder how many Japanese people are somehow thankful that this calamity did not come upon them by the hand of other human beings. I think about that every day when I join you in spirit.

- Paul (CA, USA)

I was out of the country during the terrible earthquake and tsunami; I hope you are all safe and well. Is there anything I can do to help? You are all in my thoughts and prayers.

- Paula (IN, USA)

Thank you Rio for sharing. So sad what has happened to Japan. The people of Japan are a model to the rest of the world in their behavior and tenacity. Stay well,

- Mikkie (FL, USA)

Aloha, Rio,
During the War time I was evacuated with my elementary school to Tanakura, Fukushima-Ken. The village is too far inland to be affected by a tsunami but may have sustained damages from the earthquake. Since my departure from Japan in 1955, I have not ventured to Tanakura, but did visit Koriyama with a tour group from Atsugi Naval Air Facility.

- Young (HI, USA)

It goes without saying that my sympathies are with the families suffering from the tsunami and earthquake and nuclear disaster that followed. The only ray of sunshine on the whole matter is that the people of Japan are resilient and do have the will and the means to eventually recover from it. Of course the loss of lives is not a recoverable feature of the will of the people, and the tragedy continues to go on as more bodies are recovered and more missing never found again. My heart goes out to those who were.

- Fred (CA, USA)

I am glad that you were not directly and physically affected by the tsunami or the quake. My heart goes out to those who were.

- Fred (San Diego, CA)

We have just returned from a six week trip and I do not think I wrote to you, though my thoughts were with you during the horrific news coming from Japan. I am relieved to hear that you and your family are safe. We were in Bali when the disaster struck and as you may know there was a small earthquake there the same night. We were flying to Australia as the news of the Tsunami broke...and we missed the initial coverage of what was going on. Of course our family was worried sick since there were at the same time tsunami warnings for Bali and Australia...none materialized, thankfully. But we didn't even know about the threat...also thankfully. We continue to pray for the safety and recovery of those who survived the disaster. Sending you good wishes for your family and countrymen.

- Joanne (NY, USA)

Thanks for the update Rio. It must be terrible to be in the middle of this tragedy.

- Allan and Angela (Canada)

Myself, friends and family here in Canada are concerned about my friends in Japan and the devastation your country has experienced. Sending you and everyone in Japan healing thoughts.

- Cristy (Canada)

Thanks so much for all your emails. It's great to know that you are doing ok. It's disheartening to see the images of Japan on the news and I could imagine how the local residents feel having to cope with the recent events. I have been thinking about the friends I met at Takarazuka Club. Have you heard from them by any chance? I sincerely wish them well.

- Reamick (Canada)

Glad to learn this morning that the nuclear crisis is finally wrapping up. Best to Japan!

- Lucien (Canada)

Yes the earthquake in Japan was/is terrible. We thought all the calamities in Australia were bad enough but they were absolutely nothing compared with the devastation in Japan. All those poor people missing and now the Nuclear catastrophe.

- Jose (Australia)

Glad to hear Daniel Ross is okay. The figures of the dead and missing are tremendous, so a small city may be completely wiped out, but not Kesennuma. I vaguely remember that around January 1, 2011, there were predictions made by various people who have predicted correctly in the past. As I recall I think some of the prediction were that the year 2011 would be a "hard" year both in natural disasters and in man-made (Middle East countries) disasters. It seems to me that those predictions have come true. So if there are other planets that are populated in our galaxy and other galaxies, then I hope we can find them and see what their secret to peace may be. The young man that was teaching in one of the international schools and who I thought was in the Tokyo area has shown up at his mother's apartment in Brunei, so at least Imran is safe.

- Shirley (Australia)

I still remember your speech about volcanoes at the Morris Gellman club in Buenos Aires and your several trials to climb Mt. Fuji. In some way or other you were then predicting these circumstances. I have my doubts if anyone could imagine what you are experiencing these days. It is nice we can hear from you once more. Our best regards from all Toastmasters members in Buenos Aires. I personally accompany you with my prayers.

- Lidia, U-4151 Morris Guellman Toastmasters Club (Argentine)

It is a terrible tragedy that afflicted Japan. Hope you and your family are safe. Do you have any relatives in northern parts of Japan? Our thoughts are with you. Let me know how you are, please.

- Jiri (Czech)

I hope that Japan will recover soon from the disaster. The kindness of Japanese in helping the victims of disaster gained high acclaim. There was no riot, no robbery during the disaster in Japan. The good discipline of Japanese has shown that Japan is a VERY successful country!!!

- Josephine (Malaysia)

Hello, Rio-san!
Stand firm. We pray for Japan.

- Natasha (Russia)

Frank and Nevelo Yasuda, Alaskan Mining Hall of Fame

2011-04-03T01:35:00.010+09:00

“We stayed six months cumulatively in Point Barrow, Alaska for scientific research,” said an unexpected message from my San Diego Japanese friends.

“In the Barrow research library, we found a Japanese book An Alaskan Tale written by Jiro Nitta about Frank Yasuda. Jujiro Wada (1875-1937) and Frank Yasuda (1868-1958) - all in the same generation. Have you read Jiro Nitta’s book that became a movie?"

Well, I know author Nitta (1912-1980) who wrote the Death March on Mt. Hakkoda, the deadly military exercise in the winter blizzard that resulted in mass deaths of Japanese soldiers, but I haven’t read the book about Alaska in question. So I checked when the first edition was published. It was in 1974. No wonder! I was in the U.S. and not many Japanese books were imported into the U.S. then, different from today. I have to admit that I missed it.

This reminded me of the day of my family reunion. It was at Fairbanks in the early 1960s that my wife almost did not catch her Northwest flight to New York after refueling. She was feeding bottled milk to our daughter of three months while in the airport lounge. She told me she heard the boarding announcement, which happened to be the last call. Good thing since I might have been waiting for their arrival in vain at Idlewild, now Kennedy Airport.

Further research showed that Frank was sent to the U.S. concentration camps during World War II and that’s the area where I can shed some light, later in his life. I'll quickly give you a brief bio. By the way, the book An Alaskan Tale was translated into English and should be available through Amazon.

Frank, aka Kyosuke, his given Japanese name, left Ishinomaki, Miyagi (the area hardest hit in the recent Earthquake and Tsunami) when he lost his parents at the age of 15. His father was a physician and a well off family but he was the third son who felt he had to leave.

Through apprenticeship on a foreign bound ship, he landed in the U.S. and worked as a farmhand. He was luckily hired as a "cabin boy" on the U.S. Coast Guard USS Cutter Bear that took him to Alaska. Their mission was to hunt for whale poachers and guard the sea infested with smugglers. One winter, the Bear got stranded on ice. Frank volunteered alone to trek to Point Barrow to save the crew from a food crisis. Though he collapsed close to Point Barrow, an Inuit rescued him, and he was able to complete his mission.

There he decided to stay in Point Barrow, not returning to the boat. My guess is that he was unable to stand the racial discrimination he faced. His sincerity and tenacity gradually warmed the hearts of the Inuit villagers, including Amaoka, the local Inuit leader. He settled in by marrying Nevelo, Amaoka's daughter. The village, however, was plagued with disease and suffering from decreased whaling that they depended on for their survival. Frank planned to relocate the village from Point Barrow to Beaver* with advice from his later partner-to-be, Thomas Carter. Beaver had to be cohabited with the indigenous Athbascas Indians. He accompanied George Oshima, another Japanese Frank had befriended, who spoke the tribal language. An amicable agreement was made prior to the exodus from Point Barrow. Beaver is about 700 km away, about the same distance between New York and Chicago, but they had to cross the Brooks Range. I read that Frank made quite a few trips to complete the relocation of 200 villagers. This is why he was revered as the Japanese Moses. There’s a happy episode where his wife Nevelo found gold dust by the river. Frank used all the money for the villagers, none for himself.

In 1942 he was ready with one trunk to be deported to the Concentration Camp, via Fairbanks and Anchorage police stations, and perhaps then to Puyallup Assembly Center, in the State of Washington, and then to Crystal City, Texas and on to New Mexico. There were 3 camps in New Mexico - Santa Fe, Ft. Stanton, and Lordsbuy. I cannot specify which one he was sent to, but the records say his friend George Oshima died in a New Mexico camp. Frank was released after the war and returned to Beaver to join his wife and family.

***

NOTES:

1) Beaver, pop.65, is located on the north bank of the Yukon River, approximately 60 miles southwest of Fort Yukon and 110 miles north of Fairbanks. It lies in the heart of the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. The best way to reach it is via kayaking, as suggested by ardent paddlists, starting from White Horse down the Yukon River through Dawson which may take about a month.

2) Photo of Frank Yasuda

3) Alaska Mining Hall of Fame Foundation

Wada, an Alaskan Trailblazer

2011-03-28T09:35:00.006+09:00

Much to my delight, I found another Ehimean, another stowaway, an Alaskan trail-blazer. I have decided to introduce him here. His name is Jujiro Wada (1875-1937), born in Saijo City, Ehime Prefecture, near my hometown Imabari (30 km away), and was buried in San Diego, California, my second hometown in the U.S. What a coincidence!

His father died when he was four years old and he was taken to his mother’s relative in Matsuyama. He seemed to be quite an ambitious boy and a wizard. At 16 years of age, he left home saying “Ma, I wanna be Sumitomo in the U.S. and send you money.” Saying Sumitomo is just like saying ‘Rockefeller’ in New York.

In 1892, he landed in San Francisco, but seemingly as a slave on a whaling boat sailing in and out of the Arctic. Probably on those voyages, when the boat was caught in the ice, he had to spend long winters and befriended the local Inuit. Inuit and Japanese look alike in appearance and stature and they must have felt kinship with each other.

Stocky Wada, 5’2” (155 cm) in height, was nicknamed by the crew, “Fake Eskimo Shorty”. With persistence, he learned dog sledding from his Inuit friends and traversed Alaska, hunting, trading in furs, prospecting for gold. He paid off debts and began sending money to his mother. (He returned to visit his mother once in 1896).

It is almost like reading a Jack London story. (I saw a couple of Japanese novels available about him by writers Jiro Nitta, Yuji Tani and others).

One story had him hunting caribou in order to feed the crew in a boat stranded near Cape Barrow. Another story told how entrusted he was by the Inuit that they elected him the village master.

He struck gold in Chena at the Tanana River, a tributary of the Yukon River, which later became known as Fairbanks. E.T. Barnette, the first Mayor of Fairbanks, asked Wada to travel to Dawson to get the town so christened / registered and he was able to complete the mission in just three weeks. The trail he followed is part of today's Yukon 300 International Dog Sled Race which started in 1984. It's a 300 mile cross-country competition, between Fairbanks and Whitehorse. Wada is revered as a trail-blazer.

Looking for another challenge, Wada embarked on a 50-mile marathon in Nome in Seward Peninsula and won the $500 award money with a record of 7 hours, 39 minutes and 10 seconds. He did not win it just once. He won the Nome marathon 3 times.

He had many other great accomplishments between 1910 and 1920.

1910 - Opened a trail to the Iditarod Mines using a dog sled.

1912 – Established mines in Alaska, with supporters / backers including Mcllhenney, Tabasco and the Guggenheim brothers.

1920 - Explored for oil in Canada

Things changed after 1924, the year the U.S. government banned Japanese immigration. I read Wada was suspected of being a Japanese spy in the U.S. and he had to curtail his activities in Alaska. He was rejected landing in Alaska with his claim of Canadian nationality. He was still seen in the U.S. often, during his visit to the Van Camp Tuna Packing industry in San Pedro, California.

Van Camp used to have a factory in San Diego where Wada died during his visit there in 1937. He was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery, close to the Japanese Buddhist Temple I frequented while I resided there. Wada is still an inspiration to those that know or uncover his story.

Voyage Across the Pacific

2011-03-26T15:50:00.003+09:00

One more drifters story if I may. My motivation:

l) San Diego connection - my second hometown in the U.S., where the Ehimeans landed, and my friend, a tea ceremony master of the Urasenke School in San Diego, brought it to my attention.

2) Ehimeans were the crew and I am also an Ehimean. I'm from east Ehime and they were from west Ehime. You may associate the name of Ehime-Maru, a Japanese fishing high school training ship that was sunk by the USS Greenville in 2001. That Ehime-Maru was based in Uwajima, in west Ehime.

What was different about the two captains, Jyukichi and Zensuke, was that Kamesaburo Yoshida (1873-1931) knew his destination. Kame, in Japanese, means turtle. (His name will be abbreviated as Kame hereafter.) Born to be a fisherman, he had learned from his boyhood how to maneuver the then popular "Utasebune", a ruggedly built, 10 meter (32 ft) long sailboat, close to the western Ketch or Yole in outward appearance. There is a movement to rebuild the Utasebune (with new high tech materials) and hold sailing competitions in and around Tokyo Bay.

Yes, Kame’s intent was to aim his ship toward Seattle, Washington in his Utasebune. He was there in his twenties and brought fortune back to his hometown Kawanoishi, Ehime. However, his business went bankrupt after the Russo-Japanese War ended and Japan went into an economic slump. Kawanoishi once flourished as an Utasebune port for transporting cargo and the business dried up because of the rise of railroad land transportation.

He wanted to revisit Seattle, but U.S. Immigration practically banned Japanese entry. Impatient with the slow visa approval, Kame devised to stow away in his own Utasebune. Four friends joined him. Yes, they were stowaways, not innocent drifters. Kame used speculative navigation, only with the compass and graduators, with the Polaris as guide, determining and maintaining the same latitude while sailing.

On May 11, 1912, a three-masted Sumiyoshimaru sailed out from Kominato, Chiba, ”50” years ahead of Kenichi Horie’s solo Pacific crossing adventure on a yacht. Atsuo Kojima, a Nippon Yusen retiree and sea story writer, found out about Kame's gallant adventure, traced their route in detail, and wrote a book in 2001 which won an Ehime Prefecture Culture Book Prize in 2002.

The voyage of Sumiyoshimaru seemed as hard as any sea captain had experienced, despite the well prepared drainage and storm protection devices. It drifted southerly without them noticing the passing islands of Hawaii and despite Kame's efforts to redress north, the ship headed to the Galapagos. Another desperate corrective northward sail and Kame's hunch finally got him to head toward Baja California, but Sumiyoshimaru got shipwrecked at Flat Rock, one step before landing and accomplishing his dream of crossing the Pacific in a Japan-made Utasebune.

Flat Rock is a little north of the famous Torrey Pines, now a California State national park and golf course of San Diego. Kame and the other four started walking north, probably along Camino Real, the King's Road, and were caught by U.S. Immigration officers. They were deported back to Japan after being fed well.

Undeterred, Kame tried again using the same stowaway ploy the following year, using a bigger 16-meter Utasebune with 26 friends and succeeded. They landed at Point Arena in Northern California. He was said to have engaged in salmon fishing in Vancouver Island until his death at 58. The surviving second voyage crew members erected a stone monument in his honor in Kawanoishi, now a part of Yahatahama City, Ehime.

Dear Miss Breed Sales Campaign Comes to a Close

2011-03-20T01:52:00.002+09:00

Dear Friends,

The Dear Miss Breed sales campaign was jump-started last October when we appealed to the publisher to keep from shredding unsold inventory of the book. Our rally cry was, "Let's save even one copy."

With your encouragement and help publicizing the campaign on the Internet and advertising in newspapers and magazines, we were able to convince the publisher to offer a one time deal to try to sell the books. This deal was extended to interested buyers in Japan, U.S. and Canada. The San Diego YuYu Magazine even supported the effort by offering free administrative services to take orders, accept checks and distribute the books when they received shipment.

Unfortunately, the shipment that was sent out in mid-October was caught up in the year-end holiday rush and was delayed. When we finally receive them, we discovered some books were damaged or missing from possible pilferage during transport. The problem stemmed from the poor export packaging by the publisher, who apparently had not handled export before by themselves. As a result, there were 30 books that were not in any condition to be sold upon arrival. I have to apologize for these delays and inconvenience these shipping problems have caused you.

I am satisfied that we did all we could do and I am bringing this special project to a close. I am happy to report that we were able to save 200 books in all. I would like to thank those who purchased the book. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to those that helped for your kind assistance and warm friendship, and a special thanks to the San Diego YuYu staff and volunteers who went above and beyond for this effort. I would not have been able to do this without you.

Thank you very much.

”「親愛なるブリードさま」翻訳本の在庫処分裁断破棄から一冊でも救おう”
の呼びかけで始まった昨年１０月来の特別セールキャンペンは、みなさまの
ご声援とご協力を得て、ほぼ予定どおり一段落しました。　事前に流して
いただいた、みなさまの新聞、雑誌、インターネット等の情報のおかげで、
米国、カナダ、日本三カ所でこの特別セールがただちに可能となり、訳者と
して身にあまる光栄でした。

ただ１０月半ばに出荷した輸出分については年末のクリスマスラッシュ
にぶつかり遅れに遅れたうえ、輸出出荷に不慣れなためか、出版社の輸出
梱包に問題あり、紛失に加え３０数冊の破損本を出し、代替本の調達等
の手続きで、みなさまに多大のご迷惑をおかけし、責任上、私も大変
心苦しく申し訳なく思っております。

結果的に国内、国外をあわせ、およそ２００冊を断裁処分から救うことが
できました。これもみなみなさまから得た暖かいご厚情、ご配慮の賜物と
感謝いたします。特にサンディエゴ「ゆうゆう」社のみなさまからいただ
いた読者注文、配本等の事務処理お手間に関しては、頭が下がります。
ただただ感謝あるのみです。　衷心より、御礼申し上げます。ありがとう
ございました。

今村　亮

We Shall Overcome

2011-03-13T14:59:00.002+09:00

Hello, friends! Thank you for your immediate email inquiries and concerns. My family is okay. I join you in offering prayers for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on Friday, March 11 with a 9.0 Magnitude (officially rated). The devastation covered 500 kilometers in length and 200 kilometers in width. Thousands of people are missing, 380,000 people are reported in temporary shelters.

It is northeast Japan that was hardest hit and turned into wastelands of debris when the area was inundated with 30-foot waves. Houses, autos, planes and ships were all tossed around like toys and were bulldozed. Simply awed by the power of nature, we sat watching transfixed over and over unable to turn away from these images. Except this was no Hollywood movie. It was real and gobbled up in the muddy swirls were powerless humans. I saw Sendai airport completely isolated in the water, and the civilized city of Sendai, a population of one million, is suffering in flood and blazes. I'm watching Sendai people line up for water, gas, and foods. They desperately need our helping hands. My heart goes out to the people who lost loved ones and all the displaced families.

I remember it was Torahiko Terada (1878-1935) and Uchichiro Nakatani (1900-1962), both scientists and essayists, who said "A natural disaster strikes when people lose their memories of the previous one." Well, I certainly do not forget Kobe Earthquake of 1995, the Magnitude 8 earthquake that awaited my return from the U.S. We just had the 15th Memorial Service in January this year. We know it strikes cyclically and perhaps we should have been better prepared for it. How does one or how does society prepare for something of this magnitude?

One of my friends fluent in French inquired today if the intended use of my email address "eberger" meant shelter. No, I use it simply as "Villanueva", the Spanish translation of my name, "Villa-E." I welcome his interpretation and I actually like it very much.

I live in Kyushu, southernmost island of Japan. We are lucky we have not suffered much damage from earthquakes. It is not natural disaster-free, however, as the city of Fukuoka had a minor one a few years ago while I was traveling in Eastern Europe. Genkaijima, off Fukuoka Bay sustained quite a bit of damage from that one. My wife telephoned and I was quite upset then.

Southern Kyushu has three active volcanoes now - Sakurajima, Kagoshima City; Mt. Aso near Kumamoto; and Shin-Moedake near the city of Kobayashi. The Shin-Moedake erupted this January, lava and ash falls followed. It's true we live in the danger zone, in the Ring of Fire. At least three plates come together where our country sits. Such is our fate. Let us wish for the best and get through this disaster.

Japanese Drifters to Mexico

2011-03-05T15:24:00.005+09:00

Captain Jukichi’s Diary led me to the tale of Zensuke, another sea captain of the ship Eijyumaru, a vessel boastfully designated as “Sengokubune”, or One Thousand Koku boat (see previous post "Trip to Discover Kyoto History" regarding definition of “Koku,” a unit of volume), measuring roughly 15 meters long, single-masted, capable of carrying 150 tons of rice and other cargo. However, the term 1000 Koku was loosely used. The English translation of Sengokubune was large junk-style ship. So chances were slim that this not-so-first-class Sengokubune could ride out a storm once out on the rough open ocean. Eijyumaru got shipwrecked in October 1841, off of Cape Inubozaki, Choshi during the voyage north to Sanriku Coast.

Zensuke and his 15 crew members drifted in the Pacific Ocean until they were rescued by a Spanish vessel. The ship landed at Cabo San Lucas in Baja California and the rescued crew eventually ended up in Mazatlan.

That reminds me of a chilling experience I had when I visited Mexico ten years ago. It was inside a Franciscan cathedral in Cuernavaca, about 200 miles (300km) inland from Acapulco, where I saw a narrative fresco mural of 27 martyrs crucified in Nagasaki, Japan. You have to adjust your sun-exposed eyes coming into the candle-lit chapel, so that the mural emerges slowly, sending a chill up your spine as you realize what it is about. It depicted Christians caught, bound, and heavily guarded traveling from Kyoto to Nagasaki to die on the scaffold. The mural chronicled their plight. Cuernavaca has many historical landmarks related to Conquistador Hernando Cortez (1485 – 1547) and Maximilian I (1832-1867).

Who painted the mural and when? Perhaps it was some years after the day of the mass crucifixion in 1579. Legend has it that it might have been a Filipino who sailed with the Spaniards. He most likely witnessed the cruel scenes with consternation and wanted to bequeath what he saw.

I was surprised to find the inscription “Emperador-Taycosama” perhaps referring to Hideyoshi (1526 –1598) in the mural, the honorific use of tycoon, to indicate the awe and respect felt toward Hideyoshi.

I heard the wall had been covered over many times over the years where the mural remained hidden. Plastering over or replastering the wall signified the worshippers' wish to cure local epidemics. The mural was discovered only when the church went through some renovations. It was a remarkable discovery. The muralist’s will to convey what happened back then finally reached me covering the span of 500 years in an instant as I looked at the wall. I was not so far removed from the person who traversed the Pacific Ocean and saw our ancestors as pagans.

Zensuke and four other crew members returned to Japan four years later in 1845 to Nagasaki back from Macao under Portugal. The other eight did not return.

The Nikkei Newspaper had a short article more than ten years ago of Mr. Yoshikazu Sano, TV producer, who explored what happened to the eight, who preferred to remain in Mexico, and televised what he found. In Mazatlan, he found Juan Machado and his descendents. Juan Machado was reported to have helped five of them in finding shelters and work, while they stayed there and waited for a boat to return to Asia. In Cabo, Mr. Sano wrote he found the tomb of Tomas Lichie, the name recorded in the Magistrate depositions. Sano was not able to track down descendents of the crew left behind, but he was happy to build a bridge and establish some goodwill between Japan and Mexico.

A Captain's Diary

2011-02-20T14:09:00.005+09:00

"Beachcombers found an exotic coconut seed
from an unknown South Sea Island
I wonder how far it has traveled and how long been adrift?"
- From a poem sung by Toson Shimazaki (1872-1943)

We were taught at school that the tropical coconuts traveled on the black current (Kuroshio) drifting up north towards Formosa and Japan. Smithsonian Magazine reported on an experiment conducted by the girls of the Natural Science Club in Choshi, Japan. They threw 750 bottles into the Kuroshio in October 1984 and 1985. By 1998, beachcombers had recovered 49 of them - 7 along North America, 9 in the Hawaiian Islands, 13 in the Philippines and 16 in the vicinity of Japan, percentages remarkably similar to those of the known Hyoryubutsu or sea scruff. Back in the 19th Century, there were reportedly two Japanese shipwrecks every year. You can imagine the debris drifting away from the coastlines at the mercy of the wind and current.

My friend, a marine accident investigator, who traveled around the globe on a boat in his prime, left with me A Captain’s Diary from the 19th Century. History recorded many castaways off the Japanese seashores during the Tokugawa Shogunate, most notably John Manjiro (1827-1898) and Joseph Heco (1837-1897). John Manjiro served as the Shogunate interpreter when U.S. Commodore Perry opened up the doggedly closed border policy of the Japanese seclusion. Joseph Heco was the first Japanese immigrant to the U.S. and reportedly was introduced to President Abraham Lincoln through California Senator Bill Gwin, to whom Heco served as a secretary in Washington DC. Both were rescued by American boats and taken to the U.S.

The subtitle of A Captain’s Diary is “Jukichi’s Four Year (1813-1817) Odyssey Across the Pacific, through California, Alaska, Kamchatka, and back to Japan,” which was translated to English by Richard Sczippl, professor of Nanzan University in Nagoya. I saw many other names credited in the book as contributors, annotators and researchers. The original Japanese text was written in 1822 by Hirochika Ikeda, a scholar and a vassal of Lord Suganuma. I saw the names of father and son, Taichi and Yasuhiko Suzuki, as the discoverer of the author Ikeda’s book and the annotators. I saw also the name Katherine Plummer, a Californian, residing in Japan as a YMCA English teacher. She was a dedicated researcher of Japanese castaways. In the appendix was Plummer's gallant discovery in Boston of a letter written by Captain William Pigot who rescued the surviving crew of the shipwrecked Tokujo-Maru, including Jukichi, which verified that it was a true story. Yes, Jukichi landed at Refugio Beach in 1813, accompanied by Captain Pigot of the British ship “Forester” which precedes landing records of all other Japanese.

Today, this very place is a California State Beach that belongs to the City of Goleta, just 15 miles west of the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara where my daughter works. It is a very scenic and open beach to the Point of Conception, with the Santa Rosa Mountains in the background. Mission Santa Barbara was dedicated in the l780’s, so Jukichi’s landing was about 30 years after the dedication. Jukichi rode double-up on a horse and visited Ortega Ranch. He was advised that he was in New Spain. The next port of call seemed to be Bodega Bay to the north, but Jukichi met Russians there.

The ship Forestor sailed all the way up to Kamchatka via Sitka, Alaska and Jukichi knew that Captain Pigot arranged with the Russians his return route to Japan through Etrofu, one of the Kurile Islands. The friendship that developed between Captain Pigot and Jukichi is beautifully written.

I questioned why Jukichi had not written about his adventures himself, since both John Manjiro and Joseph Heco had authored their own memoirs. Since both John and Joseph secured Samurai status, they had the freedom to publish. Like all others in similar situations, Jukichi was banned from disclosing what he saw overseas after the magistrate officers took his depositions. Depositions by Jukichi and others often turned up in the underground as the hidden sellers reportedly dealt with some low-paid Samurais who wanted to add to their income.

The Ides of March, 1945

2011-02-13T04:03:00.005+09:00

The Japanese proverb '2-gatsu wa nigeru 3-gatsu wa saru', (February slips away, March departs) hints that both months are scurrying months; the issues we face are how to seize days. The Ides of March per Roman calendar is March 15, the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. My favorite author, Thornton Wilder, wrote a masterpiece of the same name as a novel in letters, creating imagined documents, including Caesar's journal. I don't deny the somber mood these days may brew. Another Ides of March 2011 will soon be upon us be it good or bad.

The following is the story of the Ides of March, 1945. The US Library of Congress Cat No. 83-90348 “King Of the Heavies” by Glenn R. Horton, has an account on Pages 84/85 by the Navigator Lt. Harry Hagen, of Lt. Carl Ortman’s crew of the 528th Squadron, 380th Bomb Group revealing his experience of March 15. Lt. Hagen's flight had been on a weather recon, heading up to Formosa. The flight had left its base in Mindora, Philippines at 3:00 AM, flew to Formosa and probably searched for an hour before checking in with the weather data. At this point, the plane started developing engine problems on the return trip. The problems kept getting worse until it became quite serious and the pilot ordered to abandon the plane. This location was about one hour flying time from Formosa. Lt. Hagen thought that he had been in the water for nine and a half hours before he had an opportunity to signal a search plane. To his relief, the search plane spotted him and dropped a life raft.

Yes, Lt. Hagen and other crew members were all rescued. Who rescued them? It was Raymond Warner II, with whom I share our granddaughter and grandson (Raymond IV). He had his own version of the story. He was not on the search mission but miraculously flew over the drifters. Raymond IV, now 8 years old, calls him Grandpa Ray and me Grandpa Rio.

Ray, the B-25 navigator, 822nd Bomb Squadron, 38th Bomb Group, took off from Lingayen, Luzon on March 15 with fighter escorts gleaming in the sunshine toward the northwest destination where the Japanese convoys had been reported. However, the weather was beginning to change and up ahead, a definite line of a fog bank could be seen from the southern tip of Formosa out to the west past Pratas Island on over toward the coast of China. Approaching the designated target area the weather got even worse and it became even more difficult to see the wing tips. The order was issued to proceed to a secondary target to the west coast of Borneo.

Ray wrote in his memoir that "we were offshore quite a distance, about hundred and twenty miles, when we made our turn. We were flying at 3,000 ft. once again. Ten minutes after we made the turn I saw a flash from the surface of water. It appeared to be the reflection of the sun from a mirror directed at us. I immediately notified Tate who contacted the Squadron commander, we asked permission to go down and investigate. Permission was granted and we descended closer to the surface of the water. Floating in a Mae West inflated vest was a man trying to get our attention. Air Sea Rescue was contacted and another B-25 from our base back at Lingayan was sent out to relieve us".

Ray volunteered to fly again as an air-rescue member to make sure everyone in the wild ocean drifting further apart was picked up by sea-rescue teams.

Ray recalls, he had observed a few weeks before, another "Bail Out" B-25 crew, looking safe in a life raft, waiting for air-sea rescue. Sadly this crew became MIAs, as the search encountered weather problems and were unable to spot the drifting raft. He promised himself that he would react more aggressively and ensure rescue at all costs. He seized, subconsciously, the momentous flash of light and made sure they were survivors instead of MIAs on the Ides of March, 1945.

I am very proud of "Grandpa Ray" and look forward to seeing him again soon, surrounded by immediate families on my next visit to the U.S.
Ray II far left with his children and the Imamura in-laws
Photo was taken at the March Air Force Base, Nov. 5, 1999

"Notebook"

2011-01-26T17:13:00.009+09:00

I've read a short story titled "Notebook" by Agoto Kristof (1935-), a Hungarian writer. It was a Japanese translation. The book was originally written in 1986 in French with the title “Le Grand Cahier”, translated as the big notebook.

At first, I mistook her name as Agatha Christie. Agoto Kristof received the European prize for French literature for "Notebook" the year it was printed, won the 2001 Gottfried Kellear Award in Switzerland and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2008. A sudden arrival of a star writer!

The book is now translated into more than 30 languages. The Japanese edition is titled "A Diary of Mischievous Boys" and I thought it was a good title after I’ve read it. I looked up its Spanish edition and lo and behold, it is titled “Claus and Lucas”. There were no such names in the book. They were simply referred to as “we.” I wondered how they got the names. I found out that the book had two sequels, making up a trilogy. It seems those names were introduced in the sequels.

The book dealt with a twin brother left with their “grandma” in the country by their mother during World War II. Their father was sent to the front as a war correspondent. Grandma, widowed and living alone, illiterate and filthy, had farms and livestock to care for. “I’ll put you to work, so don’t fret. Food isn’t free here either.” She was harsh and merciless to the twins. Here the twins learned life’s most precious skills for survival – to lie, steal, fight, beg and blackmail, but most of all, endure.

I compared the "Notebook" story to Seita (14-years old) and Setsuko (4-years old), a brother and sister story of The Grave of the Fireflies by Akiyuki Nosaka (1930-) which I introduced in an earlier blog post. Their father was drafted into the navy when the war started. When Kobe was bombed, they lost their mother and home. They were taken care of by their mother’s cousin, but after the war ended, they chose to live by themselves rather than being mistreated and uncomfortable. They lived in a cave used for a bomb shelter but they didn’t know how to get food. Setsuko died first, Seita next. They were honest and naive, weak and inexperienced.

I understand Nosaka wrote the story from his own experience. It was similar with Agoto, who later published her autobiographical story. Agoto was invited to Japan to speak in 1995, the year I returned to Japan from the U.S. Her speech in Japan was transcribed as “Illiterate", her autobiography.

She was born in Csikvand, western Hungary, near Csorna or Gyor, midpoint between Budapest and Vienna. Her mother’s native tongue was Hungarian, but as the war progressed, she fled close to the Austro-Hungarian border and spoke German. Then everyone had to learn Russian under their rule but she wrote she and her teachers all sabotaged in protest. She fled to Austria with her baby, and at each stop she begged in German for milk for her baby. Eventually she settled in Switzerland and started learning French at the age of 25. She thought she was totally illiterate in French. Even now, she cannot speak and write as a French native, but does the best she can. She was very happy when she was welcomed in Japan. Many Japanese have been inspired to learn and write French because of her.

The Changing Nature of Dear Miss Breed’s Popularity

2011-01-18T16:12:00.005+09:00

Three years after its publication, there has been a definite change in how the Japanese translation of Dear Miss Breed is being received by the public. The translation was published by Kashiwa Shobo in mid-2008. During the first year, I remember, reviewers were all syndicated professionals. They mostly gave very favorable comments which seemed to trigger a chain reaction of similar reviews. Mr. Seinosuke Nakashima, an art historian and essayist, highly recommended the book for young people, which I very much appreciated. I also received a personal thank-you from a reader for my translation effort.

Dear Miss Breed, the original English book by Joanne Oppenheim may have been first introduced to the Japanese in 2007 in an article written by Dr. Keiichi Ogawa for the Kanagawa Newspaper prior to the release of my translation. Dr. Ogawa, a Yokohama City Library Headmaster, visited San Diego City Library in early 2007. (San Diego is the sister city of Yokohama.) His visit happened to coincide with Clara Breed’s 100th birthday and was presented with Joanne’s book. He raced through the book on his return flight to Japan and was very impressed. He submitted his book review to a local newspaper. I was working hard on the translation at the time not knowing about Dr. Ogawa’s review. Unintentionally, I did a search on Dear Miss Breed online and found a fervent plea from one of the readers of the Kanagawa paper who commented,“Can someone please translate the book for me?” I was surprised and intrigued. I contacted Dr. Ogawa to inquire about the background of his introduction while speeding up the translation process. I got a personal thank-you from that young reader in Kanagawa when the translation was finally published.

The new trends I mentioned at the outset are l) the book is now being read by young children and 2) Miss Breed has become a role model for librarians.

l) I'm happy to see my translation being classified as a “non-fiction picture book." A monthly magazine called "Bookshelves for Children" and a research firm, "Books for Japanese Children," both named Dear Miss Breed as their top selection. My original intent was to target children even though I received many comments that the subject matter may be a little too harsh for children.

2) Librarians from major cities including Yokohama, Shizuoka, Fukuoka and others created a traveling "Tamashii Juku" or "Tamashii School" training Symposium. The first symposium was held in Shizuoka and I heard they used "Clara Breed" as a role model and used my translation as the textbook. I heard many public libraries are equally enthused and are following the lead of Yokohama and Shizuoka librarians. A book called Librarian, the Sorceress was published recently.

Love Conquers All - Part 2

2011-01-06T14:22:00.006+09:00

"In 1999, a big sculpture 'Hopes of Hungary' by a Japanese artist was unveiled in the central park of Szekesfehervar, attended by many Hungarians, including the city’s mayor. Szekesfehervar, an old historical town, is 60 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Budapest. In 2001, about 1,000 Hungarians celebrated the induction ceremony of the "Garden of Philosophy" consisting of eight statues built on Gellert Hill, Budapest, by the same sculptor. In 2005, another sculpture by the same Japanese artist was erected in Oradea, Romania, and both Hungarians and Romanians gathered to commemorate the friendly reconciliation between the two nations."

"These three events, however, were not reported by any Japanese news media. Many Japanese tourists head for Fishermen's Bastion, dismissing the Garden of Philosophy, which is within 100 meters from the Fishermen's Bastion. The Japanese travel agency had never guided the tours to the above sculptures."

The above two paragraphs are from the preface of the book "Cries of Danube", the second paragraph sounding a little harsh. The photo of the "Hopes of Hungary" statue itself is really awesome and astounding, embodying Nandor's incarnation of an anti-war motif and cries from the heart!

Toru-san was right in calling Nandor Wagner a Japanese artist because he was naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 1975. My trip to Budapest was in 2005 and had I known about it, I would have visited the Garden of Philosophy. But the distance from the said Fishermen's Bastion must be more than two kilometers and the roads very hilly. I was at the Gellert Hotel and hot springs and circled around the nearby citadel on foot on Gellert Hill. I found on the map the name of Orom utca, close to the said garden, but it needs to be annotated better or you need a good guide.

More time is needed for the information to be disseminated or there needs to be better publicity. I checked the official Wagner website.* As of August 17, 2010, I counted 1,000 visitors consisting of 700 Japanese, 165 Hungarians, 67 Americans, and 36 Swedes. All other nationalities were ones and twos.

What makes it difficult, in my opinion, is the name of the organization taking care of Nandor's 30 years of labor in Japan. It is called Tao Research Institute of World Culture & Development. Nandor himself was reported to have said it would take a century or more for his Garden of Philosophy concept to be understood.

Five figures stand around the center of the garden. They are Abraham, Echnaton, Jesus, Buddha and Lao Tse, which symbolizes different cultures and religions of the world. They are surrounded by three rings of statues, which represent religious (Kamisama, Hotokesama, Isten or Allah), philosophical (Gahdhi, Darma, St. Francis) and judicial (Hamurabi, Justinianus, Shotoku-Taishi) worlds.

Nandor conceived three complete sets of the Garden of Philosophy, one to be built in Japan (completed), one in Hungary (completed), and one in the U.S.A.(in progress).

Notes:
l) Official Nanor Wagner website
2) An English written book Wagner Nandor (2006) by Tibor Wehner, (art historian) available from Holnap Kiado, Budapest, Hungary
3) Cries of Donau, (2008) by Toru Shimomura, Gentosha, Tokyo. Toru's father is Kojin Shimomura (1884-1955), who wrote The Story of Jiro and A Book of Heaven and Earth - stories from Confucian Analects.

Love Conquers All - Part 1

2011-01-02T10:08:00.010+09:00

Happy New Year to all my Readers and Followers. Wanted to start the New Year with a two-parter...

*****

When I go into the city library, I usually first sit to check books I want, indexing by author, title, publisher, etc. and get it printed before proceeding into the racks. This day was different. Maybe there were too many people ahead of me occupying the reference desk. I was standing at the art section rack with books on artists, architects and sculptors. Then my eyes caught this book – Cries of Danube. And the author was – Toru S. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He’s my old friend. I double checked his name. Correct! He might be embarrassed if I call him my big brother. But he was practically that upon my first arrival in New York City in the early 1960's. Toru-san helped me get my feet wet.

The non-fiction book was about a Hungarian sculptor, named Nandor Wagner (1922 -1997), who resided and died in Japan as his adopted country, married to a Japanese woman who was his art student in Sweden. Otto Wagner (1841-1918), the famous Austrian architect was the brother of his grandfather, Wilhelm Wager. Yes, I visited a number of buildings Otto designed when I visited Vienna after Budapest.

Grandfather Wilhelm had served as an aide de camp for Franz Joseph, the Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary. Nandor's father was a dentist in Oradea, Romania in Transylvania, closer to the Hungarian border. Nandor was born endowed with artistic talents and had surprised friends, as well as teachers, in school, but became a frequent target of bullying as a minority Hungarian. He rebelled against his father and pursued art instead of an expected dental career. He became a self-supporting student at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest. About the time to graduate, however, he chose to enter the military academy and went to war. He was assigned to the Transylvania Mountains where he fought a heroic battle and suffered defeats and injuries. Luckily the war ended when he was hospitalized on Margaret Island, Budapest, which was occupied by British forces.

War was over, but he went through chaotic times resisting the communist Government and even returned home beyond the border, as an enemy. He was saved by help from friends out of Oradea prison, and escaped arrest as one of the key leaders of the 1956 Uprising in Budapest. He fled to Sweden with his first wife, Dora, and children, and had to start life all over again. Dora was depicted as a squatter tenant, threatening suicide if refused. There wasn’t much romance. And it was Dora who got a teacher’s job as the family's bread earner in Sweden. Nandor had to rent an atelier separately to work as an artist. The student he was introduced by a friend to tutor was Chie Gondo, a Japanese wife of an expatriate Japanese scientist.

I have to skip details of how they fell in love and conquered all the complexities of two divorces. I can imagine how Chie had met oppositions from her parents, in view of their social standing and moral traditions. Nandor didn’t even own any nationality to claim, a prerequisite to enter Japan.

In 1966, Chie and Nandor got formally married in Oskarshamn, Sweden. Chie was 36, and Nandor was 44. Three years later, they immigrated to Japan and settled in Mashiko-cho, a suburb in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture. (Mashiko-cho is best known for Mashiko ceramic ware, 20 kilometers away from Utsunomiya, the Capital of Tochigi Prefecture). Utsunomiya has a population of half a million and is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Tokyo.

Notes:
l) Official Nanor Wagner website
2) An English written book Wagner Nandor (2006) by Tibor Wehner, (art historian) available from Holnap Kiado, Budapest, Hungary
3) Cries of Donau, (2008) by Toru Shimomura, Gentosha, Tokyo. Toru's father is Kojin Shimomura (1884-1955), who wrote The Story of Jiro and A Book of Heaven and Earth - stories from Confucian Analects.

World War I POW Camp in Japan

2010-12-28T10:48:00.009+09:00

I never thought I'd be researching World War I prisoners sent from Qindao, China to Japan during that war to write a blog about Hungary. Because of the German alliance with Austria, and Hungary, these 4,700 prisoners from Qindao consisted of not only soldiers from these three nations, but also Czechs, Slovakians, Poles, Yugoslavians, some northern Italians and even Russians. Initially, they were divided into 16 camps throughout Japan, but were gradually consolidated to those from allied countries. Russians prisoners who falsified their nationality as Swedes working for the German Qindao were released earlier than the other prisoners.

The German Navy was trying to establish a naval base in the East in the late 1890’s as did the Russians when they secured Vlasdivostok. They thought Qindao would be an ideal location and saw an opportunity to colonize it when their missionaries sent there were killed by the Chinese.

Despite internal opposition, Japan honored a 1902 treaty with Britain and declared war on Imperial Germany in 1914. Japan sent troops to Qindao and a siege ensued culminating in an attack in October. The German troops surrendered a week later.

The German East-Asian Fleet had a fleet of ships such as the SMS Emden, Nurnberg, Leipzig, Kaiserin Elizabeth, Sharnhorst, Gneisenau. Most of them were light cruisers that patrolled the Pacific to guard the Marshall Islands, Samoa, etc. then under German control. The captured crews must have been sent to Japan as well, if they survived the sea battles and the Spanish flu.

After the end of the war, it was reported that 230 Austrian-Hungarian soldiers were being held in Aonogahara Camp near Ono in Hyogo Prefecture, along with about 250 German soldiers, and there were constant disputes between the two groups to justify their eventual separation.

The German solders were sent to Bando Prisoner Camp in Naruto, Tokushima and to Matsuyama Camp. The Bando Camp became one of the largest of these camps with up to 1,000 prisoners of war. The camp also became famous as the site of the very first performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony "Ode an die Freude" in Japan, which was played and sung by a chorus of prisoners in 1918.

A movie was made in 2006 to show how camp life was under Lieutenant Colonel Matsue, a humanitarian who ran the camp. Matsue secured 2,300 square meters of land for the prisoners. The land became farms to raise vegetables and pigs, as well as a multi-purpose sporting complex with tennis courts, fields for soccer, schlagball, faustball and turnen training. The prisoners had matches with local school students, and demonstrated turnen to them. Some prisoners were experts in ham and sausage making. Others tried to build stone bridges for the village. They had active exchanges with local residents, performing musical concerts, Shakespearean plays and selling ham, breads and cakes, handmade crafts,… etc. The weekly paper "Die Baracke" (in German) was printed continuously for two years inside Bando camp.

When the camp closed around 1920, over 500 prisoners did not want to return to Europe, which was in chaos at the time. Approximately 150 left for Qindao, 250 for Indonesia, and 170 stayed in Japan. I was amazed that these reports were available from a research group made up of volunteers.

I visited the original Bando Camp recently, on the weekend of Decebmer 21, 2010 accompanied by my Tokushima friend M. Ogata, a returnee from Brazil and a business executive. Ogata-san invited his Naruto friend K. Hayashi who wrote the book “the Japanese Town where the Beethoven No. 9 played for the first time in Japan” (Heimat der 9 Sinfonie). To commemorate the German prisoners' activities, the first German House was opened in 1972. The new German House opened in October 1993. Anja Hankel, a German docent joined us during the German House Museum tour. She spoke fluent Japanese.

Young bo-trees or linden-trees donated by the Studientwerk für Deutsch-Japanischen Kulturaustausch in NRW (Nordrhein-Westfalen) e.V. grew deep roots here in the hills of German Village Park next to the cherry orchard, overlooking the lakes the prisoners reportedly swam in the summer.

For more information:
Article about Bando POW Camp in Japan Times

Pat Johnson, Toastmasters International President, visits Kumamoto, Kyushu

2010-11-23T14:08:00.005+09:00

Japan, District 76 was honored with a visit from Pat Johnson, a few months after she assumed her position as International President. This is unprecedented in my 15 year Toastmasters career to see and listen to such a high level Toastmaster's official in Japan in person and, in particular, just a few hours travel from where I live. It was a once in a lifetime experience and it was most rewarding.

Pat's speech was adeptly titled "You Raise Me Up" and she beautifully sang and charmed the hearts of all the participants, right from the beginning:

“You raise me up as I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up ... to more than I can be.”

The song, I remembered, was sung at the Super Bowl in 2004 in Houston Texas, to honor the one year anniversary of the NASA Shuttle Columbia disaster. The Japanese, in particular, can mostly remember the song as it was used by their native daughter skater Shizuka Arakawa as the background music in her relentless road to Olympic championship. Why Shizuka chose it? I surmise she sensed an inspiration and compassion in its Irish rhythm and tunes quite intimate and familiar to her and all the Japanese people.

The lyricist is Brendan Graham (1945 - ) born in the County of Tipperary. He is also the author of The Whitest Flower (1998), The Element of Fire (2001) and The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night (2004). I haven't read any of them yet, but a search on Google reveals they are Irish epics that document the stories of surviving women since the days of the great famine in Ireland, leaving Ireland for Australia, Canada and the U.S. for a better life. Brendan admitted that the song embodied the feeling of all the novels.

I learned also from the official web site for "You Raise Me Up" that the song persisted, had a life of its own. It was composed by Rolf Lovland of northern Norway and performed by Fionnuala Sherry, an Irish violinist - the duo that make up the Secret Garden. It was a miracle similar to that of the beautiful song Amazing Grace. It's now sung and played everywhere throughout the world from the London Community Gospel to an African children choir.

Economically and geopolitically, Japan has been in a downward trend for two decades among the neighboring powers. Like Ireland, we desperately need decisive turnaround with positive will power and encouragement and help from worldwide friends.

Pat Johnson inspired Japanese Toastmasters with a magic to go all out
for it. Thank you, President, for sharing your wonderful message with us, bringing much pride in ourselves for our practice of being dedicated Toastmasters.

Beautiful Jacaranda Tree

2010-11-09T14:18:00.004+09:00

One of three tropical/subtropical tree flowers is the jacaranda, which should be in full bloom right now in the southern hemisphere. I visited Grafton, Queensland, Australia, a little above south latitude of 30 degrees during the hilarious Jacaranda Week. Rows of jacaranda trees, specifically on Pound Street, has an imposing grandeur. The jacaranda float procession lasts over a few hours, smaller but quite beautiful than what I've seen in the U.S., like the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City, New Year's Rose Parade in Pasadena, or the Cinco de Mayo Parade in San Diego. The festival starts with the jacaranda queen, followed by the princess beauty competitions and ending with the crowning ceremony.

The various local arts and crafts group exhibitions are held throughout the week. I traveled down the Mighty Clarence River to the Pacific Ocean and the beach. Thanks to the foresight of the city founders well over a century ago, Grafton is blessed with more than 6500 trees providing shade and 24 carefully maintained, beautiful parks, which is adjacent to the Clock Tower ornament, a great spot for lunch and the focus of many jacaranda activities.

Back in Japan in the mid 1990s, I met my neighboring couple who returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa. They were in the mining business and spent some years in Lubumbashi, formerly called Elizabethville, a town bordering Zambia. I found the location is a little below south latitude of 10 degrees but the couple mentioned how they miss the purple hills veiled in purple mist of jacaranda flowers. I learned the city of Lubumbashi is a highland between 1000 to 2000 meters and that explains the tree acclimatization.

Now another friend of mine, after his visit with his son who had been stationed in Pretoria, South Africa, told me that the city of Pretoria is familiarly known as Jacaranda City. I found Pretoria is just in between south latitude of 20 and 30 degrees, about the same latitude as Grafton, Australia. However, the jacaranda was not native to Pretoria; several horticulturalists, since the late 1800s, imported the trees from Brazil and Australia to Cape Town, Sunnyside, Groenkloof and Pretoria and in due course, jacaranda became so popular and were extensively planted that Pretoria, in particular, became known as the jacaranda city. As a matter of fact, about 50,000 jacaranda trees were reported lined inside the 250 miles of streets in and around Pretoria in the official guidebook. Probably a similar thing happened with jacarandas in Lumumbashi. The tree is regarded as an invader tree, as it grows in poor soil, and is drought tolerant.

Nelson Mandela, Nobel Laureate and ex-President of South Africa, referred to the jacaranda tree in his inaugural speech:

"To my compatriots, I have no hesitation in saying that each one of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld. Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of personal renewal. The national mood changes as the seasons change. We are moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration when the grass turns green and the flowers bloom..."

My Brazilian friend sent me his jacaranda photos from the famous Ibirapuera City Park of Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the jacaranda tree originated. In the northern hemisphere, I'm pleased to list many places of jacaranda cities along the north 30 degree latitude, starting with Mexico, California, Florida, Mediterranean coast cities, Egypt, India, Bhutan, …, etc. It is in the month of May they blossom, instead of November. My memories of Cuernavaca, Mexico and Okinawa, Japan are still vivid with jacaranda purple and the burning flam trees and spathodea, two other great tropical trees.

Update on "Love of 99 Years"

2010-11-02T13:42:00.001+09:00

TBS reinvigorated its 50 year commemorative TV program campaign of "Love of 99 Years - Japanese Americans" on Wednesday night, Nov 3. It opened with a write-in forum for those people showing interest and I saw 40 pages of write-ins in a day or two by the impatient fans saying they couldn't wait to see the star "Tsuyoshi Kusanagi" who takes on the dual roles of Issei immigrant Chokichi and his son Ichiro.

Kusangai, 36 years old, is an actor, singer and a member of the popular Japanese idol group, SMAP. He had a foolish act last year under the influence of alcohol that lead to a police arrest and showed his penitence for a short time. Probably it was a good opportunity to show who he is, as the part was written specifically with him in mind by Sugako Hashida, the screen writer.

Here's what Kusanagi told an interviewer that appeared in the paper.

"Chokichi, the father, picks up and holds his newly born baby Ichiro in his arms. I had a strange and mixed feeling that I have to play gown-up Ichiro."

The shooting location was in the U.S. He said it was a tight and hard itinerary, starting work as the sun rose and filming as much as possible during daylight.

"One time, a hurricane was approaching. We had to run to a shelter as soon as the director yelled 'cut'. I actually engaged in farm labor and participated in military drills when in the story, I was drafted into the army. I gained a lot of muscle by the time I returned to Japan. I think I learned about the relentless spirit of immigrants, their strong family bond and their aspiration for peace. It really changed the way I look at life.”

Land of Thermal Baths

2010-10-11T06:32:00.007+09:00

“According to a Colgate-Palmolive survey, Americans average about 11 minutes in the shower and spend about 20 minutes in a typical bath, hardly time for an in-depth cleaning. The Japanese, who take much longer baths, are certainly far more fastidious than the Americans. But Americans and Japanese are all barbarians by the standards of the Romans, who sweated, soaked and were rubbed, scrubbed and strigiled clean.” (Jay Stuller, quoted from Smithsonian Magazine 1991)

It was Romans who, in the first century, built the Aquincum in the current Budapest area. The Latin expression "aqua quinque" was the origin of the Aquincum, which means “five waters”. Budapest apparently followed a similar path as the British city Bath, but with much more turbulence because of frequent changes by occupants Romans, Turks, King Matthias Corvinus, Habsburgs, etc. Budapest had over 50 such facilities. Best known are Gellert, Lukacs, Rudas, Szechenyi, with the gorgeous buildings. I read that the geological features of the Carpathian Basin are such that the Earth’s crust is very thin, so water rises easily to the surface. It is not an exaggeration when one says that you could push a stick into the ground anywhere and up would come thermal water.

Hungary is a land of more than 1,000 hot springs and has enough spa facilities to accommodate 300,000 people at the same time. These spas are located in big cities, Eger, Gyor, Harkány Mako, and Szeged as well as smaller towns throughout the country. Even smaller places like Hévíz, Hajdúszoboszló, Bükkfürdö, and Zalakaros are the destination of not just European tourists but also the locals.

Lately, I was surprised to see a super modern resort hotel with a huge swimming pool, sauna and spa at Salt Hill Spawil at Egerszalok, northeastern Hungary, 80 kilometers from Budapest near the Slovakian border. A fancy ad is on the Internet written in Japanese. The wellness / fitness spa tourism seems to be booming in Hungary.

In Japan, there are about 3,000 hot springs and hotels and inns associated with them number over 20,000. However, bathing culture and customs are quite different between Hungary and Japan, so comparison is not easy. For instance, hot springs in Japan is not meant primarily for swimming. But, we certainly share the benefits of medicinal and healing properties the earth made available for us.

Love of 99 Years - Japanese Americans

2010-10-03T09:20:00.005+09:00

TBS, one of the prestigious TV broadcasters in Tokyo, plans a new program titled “Love of 99 Years – Japanese Americans” as its 60th year anniversary project, for a series of 5 consecutive nights, November 3 through November 7 at 9-10 PM. Based on Sugako Hashida's (1925 - ) screenplay, Katsuaki Setoguchi and Katsuo Fukuzawa are Producer and Director respectively. It is rumored that this is the last script by Sugako Hashida so she has done it with her heart and soul. The gorgeous cast includes Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Yukie Nakama, Pinko Izumi, Keiko Kishi, Kaoru Yachigusa, Tsunehiko Kamijyo and others.

The story follows a family of Japanese immigrants who relocated to America 99 years ago. Kusanagi plays both the young Hiramatsu Chokichi (later taken over by Nakai) and his son, Ichiro. When the war breaks out, Japanese immigrants face racism and segregation. Chokichi is sent to prison, and all family members are sent to concentration camps. Ichiro pledges his alliance to America and gets sent to Europe. Second son Jiro stays back with Ichiro's beloved Shinobu (who he is in love with) and tries to protect his parent's farm. Their two sisters, Shizu and Sachie, are sent back to Japan and have to experience the horrors of war, one in Hiroshima, the atomic bomb, and the other in Okinawa, the bloodiest battleground of the Pacific.

It’s a great opportunity for all of us to reflect on what happened to Japanese Americans for the past 99 years, along with the great read of “Dear Miss Breed” book, where you find Miss Breed's affection, assurance and love for the captive Japanese children in concentration camps.

Dear Miss Breed Extra

2010-10-01T23:41:00.007+09:00

Dear Readers,

I need your help. I am reaching out to people to see if they know someone who could use a copy or two of the Japanese (i.e. translated) version of Dear Miss Breed by Joanne Oppenheim.

With great support from a few of my friends in California, I am starting a campaign to save the Japanese version of Dear Miss Breed from the shredders on October l that will run through October 31.

The company in Tokyo that published the translated book approached me, since I was the translator, to get me to agree to destroy the remaining inventory of the book. The initial print was 6,000 copies and after three years of sales, the book sold a little shy of 5,000.

Because book sales have slowed, they were concerned about the financial burden of carrying the inventory considering the publishers' cash flow and the interests and taxes that would continue to incur.

Regardless of what I think about the amount of marketing that was spent promoting the book, I understand their predicament. However, I am horrified at the thought of shredding all these books. When I mentioned the situation to my friends in the U.S., they came to the rescue by saying they would ask their friends who can read Japanese to purchase the books. I am deeply grateful to all who provided support and took action toward this campaign.

I tried to research what the norm was for Japanese book publishing. How many they print initially seems to be a big trade secret. The general practice has been to print a few thousand copies for unknown works, unless it was the latest from proven, well-known authors.

The book reviews that come out after publication often determine the amount of sales. The publisher will do a second print only when sales soar. I got the impression that five thousand copies was generally the first target. The next level up is 10,000. If the book sells over that amount, the project is deemed to be a real success.

I would appreciate it very much if you could help spread the word about this campaign. Attached is a copy of the advertisement that will run in the October 1st issue of San Diego YuYu newspaper. The book publisher is offering the book at a special discounted price during the month of October. Please click on the ad for a larger view.

Thank you very much for your kind support and help.

Rio

Millennium Subway

2010-09-28T02:04:00.002+09:00

A subway is much easier to ride than a bus when foreigners try to scramble around an unfamiliar country. Taipei became friendlier to me when its MRT System opened in the late 1990s. I could go north or south, east or west as I pleased without any help from local friends. I look forward to doing the same in Kaohsiung on my next visit as a new KMRT System opened in late 2008. I happened to be in Montreal and was honored with a free ride when it opened its French rubber tire metro system in 1966.

I was excited when Edit, my Hungarian friend, told me that Budapest has one of the oldest subway systems in the world - the Millennium Subway. The decision to have a subway was made when three cities, Buda, Obuda and Pest merged into one in 1873 in commemoration of the 1,000th anniversary of Magyarok by Emperor Franz Joseph. It seemed Budapest was then competing with its rival city Vienna. Coincidentally, cities like London, New York and Chicago were all planning underground railways, but using steam locomotives. The change from locomotives to electric vehicles came after 1900, London in 1902, and New York 1904 (Interborough Rapid Transit – 9th Ave line).

For Hungarian metro, two local firms and German Siemens & Halske AG worked together to build the line entirely from the surface using a cut and cover method. Called Franz Joseph Line, the length of line is 3.68 kilometers of which 3.22 kiloneters ran underground. The service started on May 2, 1896. Therefore this line subway is petty shallow, just about 5 meters deep. You can jump into a car in under 10 seconds if you so desire.

Today, the subway system has 3 lines totaling 32 kilometers, color coded in yellow (Millennium line), blue (opened 1976, north to south), red (opened in 1970, east to west) and one line under construction scheduled to open in 2012. Daily users total 1.3 million people.

In 2002, this Millennium line, along with the Andrassy ut running on top of the subway got the World Heritage designation. Andrassy ut is an iconic boulevard, compared with Paris’ Chanselise, linked with notable spots like Opera House, the House of Terror, Memorial Houses of Franz Liszt and Lolton Kadraly, Heroe’s and Elizabeth Squares.

There's a subway museum you can visit near the Deak Frerenc Station where you can view some of the original cars.

"It's not only enough to be Hungarian. One must also have talent"

2010-09-24T13:38:00.003+09:00

The name Bartok struck me when I was listening to the music tape sent from my New York friend. I loved his Violin Concertos which are unique and different and wondered where he was born. He was a Hungarian, although he immigrated to the U.S.

I saw photographs of Robert Capa. His real name was Friedmann, a Hungarian. Then one day I saw Andrew Grove, President of Intel in San Diego. I read his memoir Swimming Across and found he was Grof Andras Istvan, a Hungarian. Upon returning to Japan, I had a chance to listen to Peter Frankl, a genius mathematician and a professional road juggler, a Hungarian now residing in Japan. He wrote many books in Japanese, including his autobiography Why I speak 11 languages.

Over a dozen Hungarian scientists are listed as Nobel Laureates, including Eugene Wigner, who was involved in the Manhattan Project; Rubik Erno, who established the International Rubik Foundation; George Soros, CEO of Soros Fund Management; Biro Laszlo, an inventor of ball point pens; and Neumann Janos, mathematician / physicist best known for his game theory. In 2002, Imre Kertesz joined as the first Hungarian writer to win the Nobel prize for literature. He wrote his semi-autobiographical novel Fateless dealing with the Holocaust.

According to Peter Frankl, who serves on the Hungarian Academy of Science as an adviser, research conducted on the Hungarian genes did not reveal any uniqueness compared to neighboring nationalities of Serbians, Romanians, ...,etc. Hence the teaching "not only to be Hungarian, he has to have a talent." The same applies to the Japanese as well, all the more.

I had a friend in Budapest, who studied Japanese in Kitakyushu. Her Japanese is excellent. To speak Japanese that fluently, one would have had to spend at least a couple of years in Japan. Her English is also superb, as she had studied in Australia. During my trip there, her boyfriend, who was also a friend of mine, visited Budapest from Mexico. We got together for a little reunion. What a combination between Hungarian and Mexican! They met in Kitakyushu. She was applying for a job with a Japanese manufacturer and she was told her interview went well. In a cafe, we toasted to her success.

I stayed in a Buda side hotel, by the Deli Station for 5 days because of its proximity to the Gellert and Castle Hills and the hotel where the Hungarian Toastmasters met. I moved to the Pest side hotel one day before leaving for Vienna from Keleti Station. I took a day trip by train to rustic Szentendre on the Danube Bend, and a boat ride coming back. It was a wonderful sunny afternoon to view the Chain Bridge and the Royal Palace. The waltz "Blue Danube" was written by Johann Strauss for his Hungarian friend / writer Carl Beck.

Regina Lantern Fest

2010-09-18T11:30:00.004+09:00

It was a strange parade!

Halloween? No, a little too early. Chinese Dragon Festival? No. No snake dragons and no drums. Japanese Bon Festival? No. No dancing and no drums.

The twilight veil crept in over the Wascana Lake in Regina, Saskatchewan one summer night in 2001. Autos arrived and unloaded people from everywhere. They flocked together along the lake and divided into two groups. The first group carried lanterns and formed a line. The second group joined the onlookers, away from the formed lines.

Verna, my Regina friend, her two children, and I waited for her husband, Ramon, who went to park the car. We waited under the well-lit park lights. The children needed to use the porta-potties, which were neatly set up along the edge of the park. Ramon soon joined us and we sat on the shore rocks, along with the other onlookers. This man-made lake has white sands on the beach.

The parade started moving as darkness fell. No music. No announcement. Silent, slow, but a steady parade. It moved clockwise along the lake. Lanterns waved between the trees. Across the lake, two boats sailed counterclockwise with three lanterns hung on each side of the boats as they circled the lake. As they sailed in front of us, I recognized that they were the dragon boats that I had seen the other day on the lake. Rowers paddled in silhouette without sounds.

The parade came to a stop when it made a half circle of the lake. The onlookers dispersed in twos and threes. Everyone remained silent.

What kind of parade is this? I went to the library before leaving Regina. After searching for half an hour, I found a microfilmed local paper dated May 2000. "Based on the success of last year's Lanterns on the Lake, we expect about 10,000 people to show up, enjoy the cool summer night and kick off the Art Festival in the fall. Kits of star-shaped lanterns are on sale for $5.00 each

Note:
Regina has more parks and greenspace per capita than any major city in Canada. Wascana Centre is a huge 9.3 square kilometre (2300 acre) park that is built around the shores of Wascana Lake, a man made lake in the heart of Regina. It is one of North America's largest urban parks, and has several attractions such as several walking and bicycle paths, the Saskatchewan Science Centre, an outdoor pool, a marina with boat rentals, the Saskatchewan Legislative building, and the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts.

Visit to Curitiba Part II

2010-08-22T14:19:00.008+09:00

In the 2006 book titled Revolutionary Wealth written by the futurists/writers Alvin & Heidi Toffler, there is a passage about a street in Curitiba.

“One midnight we accompanied its former mayor, Jaime Lerner, an urban planner by training, on a visit to its ‘24 Hour Street’, a block glistening with new coffee shops and restaurants jammed with young couples who smile, wave and call out ‘Jaime!’ The next street was designed to house twenty-four-hour professional services – doctors, dentists and lawyers. The next one was planned to hold twenty-four-municipal offices where individuals can get permits or licenses and take care of other city business at any hour.”

I was sorry that I didn’t visit the area described on my 2001 Curitiba trip and only saw the photographs. I read that the ex-mayor got the hint for the 24 Hour Street when he visited Sannomiya, Kobe. I recently asked my Facebook friend in Curitiba how is the street now and the answer was not something I expected. Currently the street is closed until further notice. It seems the plan highly acclaimed as futuristic by Tofflers encountered some glitches. However, my friend emphasized that Curitiba was the first Brazilian city where trucks started picking up house garbage for recycling at least twice a week. I read in a book the initial incentive used by the city was aimed at students. In exchange for bringing in house recyclables, they were offered either stationary or lunch coupons. When the roads were open only for pedestrian traffic, shop owners were against the city ordinance. When business picked up from foot traffic, they hailed the ordinance.

According to history, Jaime Lerner, a Curitiba native and student civil engineer, won the city master plan contest in 1964, in which he was deeply involved. Upon his graduation, he lead the Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano de Curitiba (IPPUC), the official organization to promote city master plans, including zoning, traffic controls, road management, public services,…, etc. Lerner served as Mayor for three terms before being elected to State Governor of Parana. Lerner was succeeded by a number of Japanese Nisei Brazilians who served as mayor, as well as IPPUC director, like Lerner, including Cassio Taniguchi. Their continuous and cumulative endeavors for the past 40 years made Curitiba a vanguard of modern city urbanization.

Lerner was honored as a keynote speaker at the world’s architect UIA Conference in Chicago in 1992. What made the mayor/governor and his followers achieve so much success? I believe their fresh foresight, relentless entrepreneurship and follow-through as a team were the reasons and I salute them.

While in Curitba, I visited, as a plant lover, most of the urban and suburban parks, Jardim Botanico (Botanical Garden, 240 square kilometers), Opera de Arame (Wire Opera House built on two former quarries, 235 square kilometers), Parque Tangua, Bosque Alemano, the German woods and Parque Tingui, the Ukranian Immigration memorial and of course, Praca do Japao. This is why I missed visiting the 24 hour street downtown.

Visit to Curitiba Part I

2010-08-21T12:00:00.007+09:00

Olha
que
coisa
mas
linda

Mais
cheira
de
graca

So goes my favorite song, “Garota de Ipanema”. It’s a whisper to a passing girl by a shy and naïve garoto on the beach. The Bossa Nova born in Rio de Janeiro set New York on fire in the ‘60s until the Beatles took over later. I arrived in NY in 1961, one year after the Brazilian capital moved from Rio to Brazilia.

After 50 years of geopolitical power deprivation, Rio de Janeiro was crowned to host the world’s lst Olympiad del Sur. In 2016, thousands of Olympic visitors and athletes will invade breathtaking Rio of much urban diversity, with beaches, mountains, skyscrapers, and the omnipresent favelas all woven into the fabric of dream landscapes. Most likely everyone will not fail to trek and see the splendor of Iguacu Falls in Parana. What wonderful news!

I missed seeing Rio de Janeiro following a friend's advice to skip it on my solo trip in 2001. I had no intention to visit the favelas, but was warned nevertheless that they are outside the control of the police and neither tour company nor the city police can guarantee safety when entering favelas. It was a hard choice not to include Rio on my itinerary. Thus the last travel week after Buenos Aires and Iguacu was split into Sao Paulo and Curitiba equally. Curitiba was highly recommended by the same friend who had spent years in Sao Paulo.

Curitiba, "Pine Nut Land", however, was a happy surprise, thanks to the excellent advice from my friend. I was awarded with the winning choice. Kitakyushu, the city where I live, and Curitiba, have one thing in common. Both cities were recognized for the “UN Local Government Honors” in the “Earth Summit”, of the UN Conference on Environment & Development held in RJ in 1992. Yes, remember that? That's the Summit where a Canadian Japanese teenager Severn Suzuki delivered a legendary speech that embarrassed all grownups.

Kitakyushu had spearheaded and succeeded in regaining the beauty of water and set to help Asian nations with its anti-pollution control technology through training and exchange of engineers. Curitiba enjoyed international recognition for its excellent urban planning, now followed by cities like Bogota, Seoul, Portland, San Jose, Obihiro and others. I’ll write about my Curitiba visit next time.

Taste of Summer

2010-08-16T02:03:00.006+09:00

Banana Yoshimoto coined the phrase, “watermelon, the synonym of summer as the summer without watermelon is improbable” in her novel Thrush. Many are the number of Haikus I found which dealt with watermelons. Listed below are five of my translations, randomly picked.

"Summer lassitude! Bananas and watermelons are so tasty"

"Tapped and patted watermelon head that replied with ok sounds "

"'Monopoly', the fridge complaining of space occupied by watermelon"

"Watermelon “split”! Strange my arms and limbs benumbed and frozen"

"Watermelon “split” is a summer feat with shouts of joys and chuckles"

Yes, watermelon is the king of summer fruits, though some people might object that it is a veggie and not a fruit. No other fruit is like the subtly crunchy, throat quenching watermelon. It is originally from southern Africa. In Egypt, the cultivation was as early as the 2nd millennium BC, as evidenced by wall paintings and the discovery of numerous watermelon seeds recovered from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Greeks and Romans had it 2000 years ago. In the 11th century, it went to China through Turkey and the Silk Road. Moorish invaders introduced it to Europe. In the 17th century, European immigrants carried it to North America.

Here are a few assumptions about watermelon in Japan:
1) Watermelon seeds were found in the prehistoric Yayoi remains in the Okayama area.
2) Chinese Rev. Yinyuan (1592-1673) brought it from China.
3) In 1579, the Portuguese brought it to Nagasaki, together with pumpkins.

Is watermelon good for health? “What an insult!,” a watermelon would protest if it could speak. A Japanese agronomist, Yasusada Miyazaki (1623-1697), who served the Fukuoka Clan, wrote almost 300 years ago in his Compendium of Agriculture that the watermelon not only can beat the summer heat and curb thirst but cures various kinds of illness, including diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Let me list the virtues, in view of the calories, vitamins, antioxidants, diuretic features of watermelons.

1. Slows down aging
2. Prevents heart attack and stroke
3. Reduces the risk of cancer
4. Boosts energy production

It is definitely a summer delight for everyone, young and old, family get-togethers or outdoor group events; with minimal costs.

After a quick search on Google, I found the world's first Watermelon Museum (4,000 square meter building on 22,000 square meter property) built in China in 2008. It's in sourthern suburban Beijing just inside the Beijing boundary, called Daxing District, reachable in an hour by a minivan tour. I read the visitors' reports that the museum exhibits include 900 illustrated panels, 140 watermelon displays, and a collection of 200 seed samples. After an hour tour of the museum, they were taken to nearby fields to choose a watermelon of their choice, then to a nearby restaurant that features watermelon dishes.
Watermelon Museum in China

Den-emon Itoh, a Chikuho Hero

2010-08-06T13:29:00.007+09:00

Iizuka, Tagawa, and Nogata are the three major cities inside Chikuho, which once thrived as coal mining zones with heaps of slag. They produced a number of coal tycoon families, including Aso, Kaijima, Yaskawa, Itoh, etc.

The Onga River runs through Chikuho. It once carried coal-filled barges out to Kitakyushu, a blue collar town with giant steel mills, and fed the entire town. With the shutdown of the coal mines in the ‘60s, the cities of Chikuho were thrust into a pitiful plight for survival.

Iizuka aggressively wooed the information technology industry, inviting research and educational institutions; developed 50 hectare (370 acres) of leisure and recreational parks; and promoted local sightseeing. One of them was a traditional theatrical venture. The traditional wooden theater, Kaho Theater, built in 1921 had mats rather than seats to sit in - perhaps the last of its kind found in Japan. This theater was underwater when Onga River flooded a few years ago. They refurbished it all with help from citizen volunteers. Iizuka is trying to maintain it for continuous shows.

Another heavily promoted local attraction was the palatial home of coal tycoon Den-emon Itoh (see the photo above). The history of this home is mixed with romance and scandal. The site is 7,570 square meters in size (2,300 tsubo, or about 2 acres) and the building itself has an area of 1,020 square meters (300 tsubo or 11,000 square feet).

The highlights of the tour are the three western rooms of the house: a drawing room, a study, and a dining room. The drawing room boasts a Victorian and Art Nouveau style usually seen in the opulent mansions of the Meiji / Taisho era, and has a mantle fireplace made of Italian marble. There are wide crossbeams on the ceiling, diamond-design stained glass in the upper windows, and a chandelier. Built-in benches nestle in one corner - a novel concept at the time. The dining room is of modest size, accommodating a dozen guests at most, and overlooks a garden and atrium.

Den-emon Itoh was born in 1860, during the time of Lord Naosuke Ii, the Chief Minister of the Tokugawa Shogunate who was assassinated 7 years prior to the Meiji Restoration. Den-roku, Den-emon's father was a boatman and fish peddler. While traversing Chikuho, peddling his fish, Denroku may well have spotted traces of gleaming coal that had surfaced from beneath the ground. Later on, his keen eye for glittering coal may have contributed much to the success of his business ventures with his son Den-emon.

Father and son started their coal venture together and had the good fortune to hit the jackpot, a high quality coal lode. Den-emon's business expanded to include machinery, a foundry, a power company and banking operations. At one time Kobukuro Works, the main electric machine plant, had over a thousand employees, plus a vocational school. He also endowed a county girl’s school as a service to the community.

Den-emon lost his father in 1899 and his wife Haruko in 1910. He served as a congressman from 1903 to 1908. His accomplishments include the enactment of the Mining Industry Law, and the completion of flood control and irrigation projects along 60 kilometers of the Onga River. You can observe these works today as you drive along the river banks.

Eventually a marriage proposal came to Den-emon from among the peerage, based on political convenience. The son of Count Yanagiwara wanted to run for the House of Peers, which is now the Upper House. He needed campaign funds, and sought money from Den-emon in exchange for marriage with his sister Akiko, cousin to the Emperor Taisho. Akiko was reputed to be one of the three great beauties from the Taisho days, and had been married to a Viscount's son, but was now divorced and back at the home of the Count. Because her mother was a geisha, Akiko had not been treated with much respect.

Den-emon must have been stunned by the marriage proposal from the peerage and the opportunity to wed the fairest of the fair. To welcome his bride to Chikuho, Den-emon rebuilt his house to accommodate her with every luxury. When Akiko moved in, she was assigned to the newly added 2nd floor suite. Her quarters overlooked an enormous rock garden with an arching stone bridge and a man-made hill topped with a gazebo. The elaborate wedding lasted for three full days. Den-emon was 50 and his bride was 25. The house, now encroached upon by the surrounding neighborhood, probably had quite view of the Onga River back in 1911.

Although Den-emon allowed Akiko to live her own life, she found the Chikuho dialect and traditions unbearable, and she retreated to a fantasy world where she sang plaintive poems that sprang from her unsatisfied heart. However, Den-emon lavishly provided Akiko with a second and a third house, equally gorgeous, in Fukuoka and Oita, and even a fourth home in Tokyo. These residences became literary salons run by Akiko. To top it off, Den-emon helped Akiko publish many of her poems.

One day, Akiko met Ryusuke Miyazaki, a young graduate of Tokyo University, who majored in law. He was a magazine editor who had come to interview her. When Akiko and Ryusuke fell in love, their romance startled the entire country because Akiko declared separation on paper, similar to Ibsen's character Nora in "A Doll's House". This public declaration appears to have been a scheme devised by Ryusuke's friends as a last resort to escape conviction for the crime of adultery. According to Mariko Hayashi, the author of Akiko's biography (see Note 2 below), the declaration was not in Akiko's original handwriting.

Den-emon could have punished Akiko for adultery, but he did not. He calmed his angry followers and let the issue drop. Akiko was not financially well off in her life with Ryusuke, and Den-emon offered help from time to time. People wondered if Den-emon was an unusually generous elder, or simply a cuckold and a damn fool.

The following children's song is said to have been written in reference to Akiko, but the allusion to Akiko is no longer generally recognized today.

"Why tears? The bride born in purple. She is clad in the world's best gold brocade kimono with a silk sash belt."

Notes:
1. Den-emon's house was opened to the public on April 28, 2007. During the first year, there were reportedly 250,000 visitors.

2. Akiko suffered from cataracts in 1961, and lost her sight in both eyes. Under Ryusuke's tender care, she continued to sing poems until her death in 1967, according to her biography "Byakuren Ren-Ren" (1994) by Mariko Hayashi.

Den-emon, Rescuer of the Ryoanji Treasures

2010-07-30T14:48:00.007+09:00

"The Ryōan-ji garden is famous for its simplicity. The longer you sit, the more the garden fascinates. The fifteen rocks are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above), only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder." (Source)

With the 1994 UNESCO designation, Ryoanji should have been one of the most visited temples in Kyoto. I worry that visitors cannot find space to sit and meditate among the crowds. I heard it is one of the few temples that accommodates blind visitors, allowing them to touch the rocks and stones.

Can any visitor imagine that this same temple went through a dark period lingering on the brink of collapse? Probably not. The slogan of the Meiji Restoration (1868) was "Restore the Monarchy" and anything related to the cultural habits and institutions from the Tokugawa era was either neglected and/or destroyed. Buddhism did not escape. There was a rage unchecked and many temples were demolished or left to decay.

Ryoanji apparently did everything to survive, selling a hoard of treasures, including 71 slide door paintings of the abbott from the 17th century, which overlooks the dry garden of 15 rocks.

The rescuer of the paintings was Den-emon Itoh (1861-1947), the coal mining king of Chikuho, now the city of Iizuka in Fukuoka Prefecture. Den-emon, helped his father Den-roku succeed in developing a coal mining enterprise and used that as a foothold to serve as a congressman in the early 1900's.

Portrait of Den-emon Itoh
from the old Iizuka Chamber of Commerce magazine
The arranged marriage to Akiko Yanagiwara (1885-1967), later known by her pen name Byakuren, came in l911, for political reasons, after Den-emon lost his first wife. In 1933, Den-emon, in commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the construction of Osaka Castle, exhibited the 71 slide door paintings of Ryoanji at the so-called Kii Palace, inside the Osaka Castle compound (destroyed by fire in 1947 during the GHQ occupation). It was known publicly that the Ryoanji treasure was the possession of Den-emon.

It was the last showing of the Ryoanji treasures as a complete unit. The death of Den-emon Ito and the misfortunes as a consequence of the arranged marriage scattered the collection.

The Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAM) toured Tokyo, Kobe, Yamanashi, Shizuoka and Fukuoka since Sept 2009 with its "Luminous Jewels Masterpieces". I attended the exhibit at the Fukuoka Art Museum on the last day (July 19, 2010) to see a Kano School "A Game of Go", from the Four Elegant Accomplishments, once owned by Den-emon and now part of the SAM collection. They were originally inside Ryoanji Temple’s abbot's room, directly facing the zen garden.

NOTE:
The Metropolitan Museum in New York reportedly owns the "Flying Liezi”, from the Chinese immortals, which was in the central room of the abbot also directly facing the Ryoanji zen garden.

Presenting Dear Miss Breed

2010-07-19T05:33:00.013+09:00

On July 15, I had a serendipitous chance to talk about the book I translated Dear Miss Breed to the English Department students of Seinan Jogakuin University, a Baptist Women’s University in Kitakyushu, where I live.

I spent some weeks to prepare for an hour speech, visual presentation materials and table displays, as well as the questionnaire to see how my talk would be received by the students.

I’m glad to report today how the talk went through the analysis of the collected questionnaires.

There were a total of 100 attendees consisting of 80 students, 10 faculty members and 10 participating Kitakyushu citizens. 70 questionnaires were collected from the students.

Here are the results.

Q: Were you aware that the U.S. Gov. had imprisoned its Nikkei citizens
during WWII?
24% replied YES and 76% NO.

Q: Have you heard or read about the book "Dear Miss Breed"?
All answered NO.

Q: Was the pace of the talk too fast, too slow or about right?
3% replied too slow, 9% too fast and 87% about right.

Other questions were:
Q: What was your overall response to today's talk?
Q: How might the talk be improved?
Q: Any additional comments or questions?

Some people answered in Japanese as I told them it was okay beforehand. I have combined the responses to these three questions. They are as follows in no particular order.

1. Visual presentation was helpful to understand the talk.
2. Pictures shown were beautiful.
3. The short DVD presentation with music was wonderful.
4. Letters were too small. Unable to read.
5. Good speech. Learned things I wasn't aware of.
6. Enjoyed the whole show, talk and presentation.
7. Difficult to hear sometimes.
8. Partially unable to understand.
9. It was an interesting talk.
10. Good talk, easy to understand
11. I'd like to listen in Japanese as well
12. Did not know anything about what happened with the Japanese-Americans during the WWII.
13. Great chance to learn new experience
14. Wishing the world no more wars – War is horrible, full of sorrow.
15. War shall never re-occur.
16. War is a heavy theme. Need more time to delve into.
17. The talk opened a new road to explore.
18. We shall not forget WWII.
19. Given a good chance to learn history never taught.
20. Learned importance of learning history.
21. Surprised about the internment camp of the Japanese-Americans.
22. Internment camp scenes were touching.
23. I'm surprised there are Japanese gardens in foreign countries.
24. Learned U.S. through the history of Japanese-Americans.
25. Miss Breed is a humane person.
26. Saw a movie about Japanese-Americans but heard a real story of Japanese-Americans for the first time.
27. Now I know there are people like Miss Breed even in the country we were fighting against.
28. Feel more people should know about Miss Breed.
29. I was very surprised about the history of Nikkei citizens in the U.S.
30. It's great to see foreigners can appreciate Japanese culture.
31. I'll go buy a book of "Dear Miss Breed" to read and recommend it to others.
32. I think foreigners in Japan can get along each other.
33. Enjoyed understandable English
34. Impressed with the speaker's sincere way of English talking.
35. Not much body gestures.

It is great feedback to have, which will help me improve my next presentation. Thanks to all attendees!

NOTE: A lecture report is available from the SeiJo English Web site.

Hawthorne Marathon on July 4th

2010-07-06T13:18:00.007+09:00

Summer time! People should be on vacation. Today, Sunday, July 4th, in rain forecasted Kitakyushu, we celebrated U.S. Independence Day and the 206th birthday of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) in a most unique way. While living in New York City, I visited the House of the Seven Gables, in Salem, Massachusetts which inspired Hawthorne to write his masterpiece, bearing the same name.

About 80 plus English speaking volunteers participated in the reading marathon of another of Hawthorne’s masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter. The reading started at 9:00 AM and went on until late at night, close to 11:00 PM. The 230 page book was read by 80 people in turns. On the average, each person read 2-3 pages. I read four pages during my turn.

As an annual event of the Kyushu Salon, serving the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society of Japan, the program was designed jointly by Professor Emeritus Shinichiro Noriguchi of Kitakyushu City University and the marathon chair Mariko Takashima, professor of the Kagoshima Women's Junior College. Most of the volunteers, including scholars, teachers, young students, businessmen, and retirees like myself, were Kitakyushu residents. There were also visitors from Hiroshima, Kagoshima and Fukuoka.

Reading Marathon Chair Mariko Takashima &
Vice Chair Kimiko Murata
Reading marathons in the U.S. are mostly practiced in churches and universities for special occasions. Popular readings are for the Bible, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Mark Twain’s stories, etc. I’m happy to see Japan is following suit and Kitakyushu blazing the trail.

Professor Noriguchi was quoted in the Asahi Newspaper saying, "Hawthorne voice-rehearsed his writing more than 30 times before he put it in black and white". It was a surprise to me because I do my voice reading rehearsals, but less than 30 times.

My turn in reading started like this:

“It may seem marvellous that, with the world before her - kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement, so remote obscure – free to return to her birthplace or any other European land, and there hide her character and identity under a new exterior, as completely as if emerging into another state of being - and having also the passes of the dark, inscrutable forest open to her, where the wildness of her nature might assimilate itself with a people whose customs and life were alien from the law that had condemned her - it may seem marvelous that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs to be the type of shame.”

This is one sentence. First time I read it, I counted 4 hyphens and had to weigh which hyphenated clauses are heaviest, then heavier and which is lighter. The three hyphenated clauses (between the repetition of "It may seem marvellous") are syntactically equivalent but are not equal ideas. The first ("kept by no . . . Puritan settlement") is a condition of her liberty, the second and third ("free to return to her birthplace . . ." and having also . . . the forest open to her") are liberty's possible destinations. The syntax hides that relationship between the three places (Puritan settlement, Europe, and forest), instead of clarifying or amplifying it.

After repeated training, I thought I understood what Hawthorne wanted to say and even found sophisticated beauty in rehearsing.

Let me quote Hawthorne on where his writing came from:

1) Easy reading is damn hard writing.
2) Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a Dictionary, how potent the good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

I brought my umbrella to the venue of the marathon reading. Fortunately I missed the rain but wondered if the rain spoiled the evening of the late night participants.

Hydrangea, Solace During The Rainy Season

2010-06-28T14:00:00.010+09:00

The languor of the rainy season is offset by the barrage of hydrangea in the neighborhood, the native plant of Japan. It is now adored worldwide with new fancy specimens created through crossbreeding.

I was a long time absentee house/landowner in Hino, Tokyo, because of my work assignment abroad. However, after returning to Japan, I have frequented, by bicycle, the Takahata City library where the local English book reading club members met twice a month, including exchange English professors at a nearby university. On my way to the library is the Takahata Fudo-son Temple, counted among Tokyo region’s three major temples dedicated to Fudo Myoo (Acala Vidyaraja). The temple contains a lot of cultural assets, some of which are designated as "Important Cultural Assets", including the five-story pagoda. I used to drop in to pray for my family, as the temple deity is a guardian of fire defense and traffic safety (see hydrangea by the Takahata Pagoda).

Many Temple festivals such as Bean Throwing and Dharma Marketing, the Hydrangea Festival attracts thousands of visitors from June to July, featuring 7,500 Ajisai flowers blooming peacefully under the rainy season sky. The English book reading club members often visited there, finishing the class early. We sometimes had bus trips to Kamakura to see hydrangea at Tookeiji, Myogetsuin, etc., known as the hydranga temples.

Regarding Japanese/Chinese characters of hydrangea, I found some controversial legends. One is Bai Juyi (772-846), the mid Tang Dynasty poet, who had influenced the Japanese, once sang this poem when he was stationed in Hang Zhou as an administrator.

"Since when and where this cute plant came
to this remote temple hermitage flower bed
Nobody could tell me and its name either.
So I am privileged to name you
Purple Sun-shining flower"

Some people say that the plant was brought by a Japanese Mission to Tang. Some people claim that the plant he saw was not the hydrangea, but the lilac. It was Minamotono Shitagou who wrongly interpreted and applied Bai Juyi’s naming to the Japanese Ajisai. There’s no photos or pictures to prove what Bai Juyi saw, so I say just let people believe what they believe.

Bai Juyi’s poems are my favorite, particularly “Everlasting Sorrow", a longer narrative ballad he sang for Yang Guifei and the pond she loved.
I visited the pond in Xian a few years ago.

Another controversy is the hydrangea species named “Otaksa” by Dr. Phillip Franz von Siebolt(1796-1866) and rejected by Dr. Tomitaro Makino (1862-1957), father of Japanese botany. Otaksa by Siebolt was named after his mistress “Otaku-san”. Dr. Makino preferred the more conventional Hydrangea Macrophylla used by the famous Carl von Linne (1707-1778), father of modern taxonomy and founder of binominal nomenclature, and Carl Peter Thunberg(1743-1828), author of Flora Japonica. Thunberg (50 years ahead of Siebolt) and Siebolt visited secluded Japan through Nagasaki, both as doctors sent from the Dutch East India Company, and found hydrangea impressively strange and marvelous, changing into multi-colors. It is puzzling why we do not see paintings of hydrangeas by Cezanne or Renoir.

*Top photo courtesy of Haruo Toda, Hachioji
*2nd photo courtesy of Joanne Oppenheim, West Hampton

Mexico Memoirs: Part 2

2010-06-20T14:15:00.016+09:00

MORELIA
Morelia is a very well preserved colonial city and the capital of the state of Michoacan where the famous Monarch butterfly Mariposa Sanctuary had been established close to the State of Mexico, east of Morelia. The mountains there are covered with coniferous forests, mainly of pines and oaks, making a perfect place for the butterflies to live during winter. The monarch butterfly migration, which covers more than 3000 miles north, is an amazing feat. I know I was close to the Reserve but I headed west as my travel destinations were all to the west. I was told by my friend in Morelia that Monarch is the name of the Morelia football team.

PATZCUARO
About 50 kilometers southwest of Moleria is Lake Patzcuaro (1,000 square kilometers), where powerful Tarascan Indians settled and had rivaled the Azteca Indians. Tzintzuntan, the ancient capital, now a quiescent little village on the lake, boasts itself as the home of hummingbirds as well as the comic indigenous dancing "Danza de Los Viejitos," literally meaning dance of the old men, with masks and canes. This lake is Mexico’s highest lake.

URUAPAN
Another 50 kilometers southwest of Patzcuaro is Uruapan, the city I enjoyed the most on this second trip. Uruapan (pronounced ooh-ru-AH-pan), meaning "a river that sings," was founded by the Franciscans in the early days of Spanish exploration. It served as an administrative center for the area's sugar cane haciendas. In the late-20th century sugar cane dwindled in importance. Today, the avocado is king. So now, Uruapan is known as the avocado capital of Mexico. The coolest thing was the Parque Nacional Barranca de Cuptatizio, formerly (when I visited) Parque Nacional Eduardo Ruiz. In this serene park of 20 hectares (50 acres) with the tropical lushness, I spent a full day together watching the local children playing and splashing in the gushing water. At the northern tip of the park was the legendary fountain where a pool of clear water was burbling out, called "El Rodillo del Diablo," Devil's Knees.

TAXCO
The night train left Uruapan with few passengers in the evening, arriving at Toluca in the morning fully packed with passengers and chickens in cages and all kinds of Mexican merchandise for the Toluca open air market. I changed trains going south to Taxco, a colonial silver mining town. I learned a lot about silver. "Real silver, defined as 0.925 pure, must be stamped on the item with the number 925."

CUERNAVACA
The Aztecs called it Cuauhnahuac, the edge of the forest; Spaniards called it Cow Horns for some reason. But Cuernavaca has been known for the famed eternal spring, thus an ideal weekend exodus for Mexico City residents. I had known Japanese florists there after WWII. Actually, Conqueror Cortez built his castle here, and Emperor Maximilian and Muralist Siquieros their second homes. I enjoyed a week stay here visiting historical buildings and gardens. The trees were all in bloom in various colors and with fragrance. Jardin Borda, built by the Silver Magnate Borda family, became the summer residence of Maximilian. I visited the garden twice, as it was a great place to relax.

Close to Jardin Borda stands the Cathedral protected by large high-walls. The Templo de la Asuncion de Maria inside originally served as the church for a Franciscan monastery founded in 1526. It then became the Cathedral for Cuernavaca in 1891.

In 1959, when a crew was refurbishing the church, a fresco was found. The narrative fresco showed Missionary San Felipe de Jesus, originally from Mexico, martyred in Nagasaki together with 20 Japanese converts to Christianity by the order of Hideyoshi. I read the name "Taiko Hideyoshi" on the darkened Fresco and I couldn't believe my eyes.

TEPOZTLAN
About 25 kilometers northeast of Cuernavaca, Tepoztlan has the ex-Convent of Dominico de la Navidad as the UNESCO World Heritage building. It is a picturesque sleepy village, at the foot of spectacular El Tepozteco National Park (2,100 meters) and another retreat of Emperor Maximilian. "The climb to the top is just about an hour" I was told, but I had to quit near the top, as I was exhausted and breathless. Tepoztlan means "a copper axe above the hill."

Mexico Memoirs

2010-06-20T01:23:00.009+09:00

I split my trips to Central Mexico into two parts - l) Bajio area, relative lowlands and plains, known as the breadbasket country, including Leon, Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Queretaro and, 2) primarily Michiocan State cities, such as Morelia, the state capital, Patzcuaro, Uruapan, then Taxco, Cuernavaca and Tepoztlan. I've been to Mexico City many times in my younger days. One time I stayed for over a month for trade shows in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City. I chose Guadalajara for the last city to visit on my first trip and Mexico City on the second trip, both times arriving back at the Tijuana International Airport, via the convenient U.S.-Mexico border cross-walk to San Diego, where I once lived. These trips were made after my retirement but before returning to Japan, almost 10 years ago. I want to record these adventures before my memories fade away.

Part 1

LEON
As sister city of San Diego, Leon is a growing industrial city. I saw a GM plant near the airport. It's famous for leather goods, as the world's shoe center. I remember a striking municipal palace and a street arch with a bronze Lion atop, the proud symbol of Club Leon, the city's football team.

GUANAJUATO
Guanajuato, nicknamed Kyoto of Mexico and designated UNESCO's World Heritage Zone, is the most beautiful city in Mexico. It is a former silver mining boom town that has transformed itself into a college town and living museum. I visited the university, recommended by my friend who taught English there. The birth place of Diego Rivera, one of a trio of great mural artists, is now a museum. I walked up to El Pipila for the panoramic view over the city and saw the monument of Hidalgo heroes who won the first victory of Mexican independence (1810). Unless accompanied by a guide, it is easy to get lost among the maze of serpentine alleys. Downtown, the car traffic goes underground, using tunnels that were dug for mining or diverted water ways.
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE
San Miguel de Allende is a mini Santa Fe, New Mexico minus the snow. With the mild climate all year round, it is a charming colonial town, another Mecca for artists and writers, galleries, boutiques, art schools. San Miguel was founded in mid 1500’s and the name Allende was added in honor of the independence patriot born there. His statue riding on a horse stands in the Plaza Civica.

QUERETARO
Although less spectacular than Guanajuato in monumental and colonial buildings, Queretaro shines as a cradle of Mexican Independence and the site where the Constitution was signed and the city where Emperor Maximilian was executed. The city serves as a very important hub, being situated in the navel position of Mexico, 200 kilometers away from Mexico City.

GUADALAJARA
The No. 2 megalopolis of Mexico, with impressive spacious plazas and squares in central Guadalajara, including the massive UNESCO World Heritage Cabanas Orphanage, now called "Institute Cultural Cabanas". Facing Cabanas stands a sculpture of the State of Jalisco's symbol of two bronze lions supporting a tree, the state coat of arms. Some Mexicans say that Jalisco is both the heart and soul of Mexico. Many things that are considered as typically Mexican, such as mariachi music, charreadas (rodeos), the Mexican Hat Dance, tequila, and the broad-rimmed sombrero hat, originated from this area, which had been the site of many civil wars and many battles in the past. In spite of these ongoing conflicts, the spirit of the people of Jalisco has endured. I saw many modern shopping malls. I also learned Guadalajara has the most competitive football team, called Chivas, the goats.

A Portuguese Hero starring in a Tokushima Puppet Show

2010-05-31T14:39:00.015+09:00

I was planning to attend the Toastmasters Spring Conference and Speech Contest sponsored by Tokushima Toastmasters Club. From Kitakyushu, where I live, to Tokushima by rail is about 500 kilometers (310 miles), which includes the Great Seto Bridge that spans the Seto Inland Sea built in 1988. It is the world’s longest (13 km) two-tiered bridge serving both railroad and automobile traffic.

After you take the bullet train to Okayama, you have to change local trains twice making the trip wearisome. I settled for a slower ferry boat ride on the way there and multiple train rides back. Luckily, I found a ferry service from Kitakyushu to Tokyo with a stop at Tokushima. My idea was to get a good night’s sleep in the ferry to be ready for a full schedule the next day.

There were about 40-50 passengers, mostly with their automobiles on the ferry. We left Kitakyushu’s New Moji Port at 7 PM and arrived at Tokushima Port at 9:30 AM. Despite my best laid plans, I had some trouble sleeping because of the beat of the Diesel engine. I woke up early at 5:30 AM and was able to watch the ferry go around Muroto Cape, the southernmost tip of Shikoku as the sun came up.

Immediately after hotel check-in, I went up Mt. Bizan by ropeway. I’ve been there on a previous visit, but without a camera. The altitude of this eyebrow shaped mountain is 350 meters (ll40 ft) and is a symbol of the city, densely forested. Along the ropeway slope exit stands the white Moraes Museum. The museum building was built in 1972 in honor of Wenceslaus Jose Moraes de Sousa (1854-1929) recreating his tatami living room on the second floor. Moraes' house used to be at the foot of Mt. Bizan.

Moraes was a Portuguese naval officer turned Consul General in Kobe, and after retiring, he came to live in Tokushima during his autumn years, as a writer / reporter for Portuguese papers, including Comercio de Porto of Portugal, for over 15 years. They were all written in Portuguese, a language most Japanese cannot read. Tokushma people likened him to Lafcadio Hearn of Izumo.

It was a 15 minute trek down from the top to find Moraes Square with the guide map where the sky gazing bronze statue of Moraes with chin whiskers and his dog stood. The stone epitaph read “Saudade” (homesick). Here I was told that visitors from the Portuguese Sister City Leiria (near Lisbon) came and exchanged gifts and had a ceremony in front of the statue. I saw a photo of the planting of Jacaranda trees by the same group at the botanical garden of Tokushima.

Back at the foot of the Bizan, I found Moraes Street where Moraes house originally stood. There was another statue at one of the street corners. The area has many small temples and shrines, which Moraes most likely dropped in while strolling. At the authentic looking Zen Temple called Zuiganji, people were bottling water. The women hollered "Tastes good. Drink it!" I was thirsty after walking so scooped up a cup and drank.

Why did Moraes decided to settle down here and die? A Tokushima native Jakucho Setouchi (1922-), a Buddhist nun and writer, who won the Kan Kikuchi Award, a prestigious literary honor, published Moraes’ Love Pilgrimage a few years ago. Seemingly the book was written to be dramatized by the local ballad drama troupe using life-size puppets, called Bunraku or Ningyo-Joruri accompanied by Shamisen music. The first performance took place in Tokushima in 2007. Tokushima is famous for the traditional classic love and hate shows since the Edo period.

Moraes had sired two sons while stationed in Macao with a Chinese lover. In Japan, Moraes married two women, first with Yone (1900-1912) in Kobe and after her death, with Koharu (1913-1918), a niece of Yone, in Tokushima. Moraes visited Tokushima, hometown of Yone, to bury her there. The place must have had some appeal for him to settle down there, instead of his plan to live in Izumo with another girl friend. Koharu perhaps reminded him of Yone.

Koharu delivered a still born baby after marriage. She gave another birth of questionable fatherhood, when Moraes angrily let her return home to Yone’s sister. These incidents are dealt with in the “Moraes' Love Pilgrimage” by Setouchi through the eyes of the local temple priest, whom Moraes befriended from his frequent visits to Yone’s grave. Koharu also passed away soon afterward in spite of Moraes’ effort to save her at the hospital. Moraes’ book Yone and Koharu is reportedly a hit in Portugal.

Wisteria Follows Cherry Blossoms

2010-05-20T13:40:00.010+09:00

“How graceful is the wisteria as its branches bend down covered
with whorls of delicately colored petals!”
from The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon (966-1017)
(translated and edited by Ivan Morris, Penguin Classics)

“Fatigued, time to beg
for night lodging
Blooming Wisteria”
Basho (1644-1694)

“Wisteria in bloom
Voices of pilgrims
Voices of birds”
Issa ( 1763-1828)

Byoudoin Temple in Uji, Kyoto, is a conversion of the glorious villa owned by the Fujiwara Clan. The Amidado, commonly known as Hoo-oo-do (Fenghuang in Chinese or Phoenix in English, the mythical bird revered and meant to protect Buddha) Hall was built in 1053. It is a real wonder how the beautiful Heian Period building survived wars and fires throughout history. I was lucky enough to see wisteria in full bloom when I visited this past April.

I also visited Kisshoji Temple decorated with a famous local (Kitakyushu) wisteria garden, founded by the Reverend Chinzei as his ancestral Katsuki Clan Botai temple.

Wisteria in Japanese is Fuji. The Chinese characters for the flower Fuji is not the one used for Mt. Fuji. Instead, the character is the one used in the Fujiwara Clan. Yes, that's right. The family crest of Fujiwara uses wisteria as its symbol. The dominant Fujiwara names split and spread as descendents with such derivative names as Ito, Kato, Kondo, Goto, Sato, ..., etc. Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything says Caspar Wister gained a certain unexpected immortality when the botanist Thomas Nuttall named a delightful climbing shrub after him (1818). Belonging to the pea family, wisteria vines entwine around any available support, usually a trellis.

Now, I’d like to offer a bit of intro to the Kabuki Play “Fuji Musume" for blog readers overseas. It is a visual climax of a Kabuki show, in which the dancer performing the role of a wisteria maiden. She changes her Kimonos four times and dances against the gorgeous backdrop of clusters of mauve and purple wisteria flowers, as well as giant trunk of green pine tree. Pine stands for man, wisteria for woman. Accompanied by Nagauta chanting “Wisteria whorls colored delicately purple and extended longer”, the dancer expresses feelings and emotions related to love in the manner of the Edo period by holding a wisteria twig with her coquettish and adorable gestures, twirling around the pine tree. Eventually, sadness and despair take over the maiden. Heartbroken and drunk on Sake, she does a most beautifully frenzied and tortured dance of unrequited love.

Trip to Rediscover History

2010-05-15T12:57:00.012+09:00

I was elated with my recent Fushimi/Kyoto trip which indulged my appetite as a history buff. It was for the reunion of an expatriate group I joined while assigned in and around the vicinities of San Diego/Tijuana, Southern California. The group consists of businessmen, lawyers, bankers, scientists, engineers including a few spouses. They are mostly retired. The reunion was a success, getting the highest attendance ever recorded. We took a sightseeing boat cruise on a flat boat with a roof, used and flourished during the Edo period. The boat cruised along the vintage Sake Brewers and cellars. We had a luncheon in the brewery turned Izakaya style restaurant. Then we visited the famous Teradaya Riverside Inn, where sword fighting and bloodshed occurred frequently before the Meiji Restoration.

Historical remnants were visible everywhere we went. You could see the influence of Taiko Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Shogunate on city urbanization and their promotion of industry and trade. The areas were designated to groups by trade and businesses competed in producing quality goods. Both Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu encouraged river navigation to transport farm produce and constructed the necessary embankment to protect them from the flooding rivers. The area included Biwa Lake down to Kyoto and Osaka, and there used to be a lake in Fuhsimi called Ogura (about an 800 hectare lake now totally gone). No wonder there is still a railroad station called "Chushojima", the island of "Chusho" (name of the ancient government post) where our reunion took place.

It is said that the lake had over 20 small islands in all and Fushimi had a port. I can't believe that there were at one time about 1500 boats (700 Kasho bune, 500 Yodo bune, 200 Fushimi bune, and 100 Takasebune) criss-crossing the connecting rivers, Yodo, Uji, and canals loaded with bales of rice and passengers. Our boat modeled after 30 "Koku" Bune (see Note below) accommodated our 30 member party comfortably. Apparently, Fushimi prospered as a port town, Sake town, and castle town, under Taiko Hideyoshi who built Fushimi Momoyama Castle. Even after defeating Hideyoshi's son and winning a fateful war, Iyesasu Tokugawa used the castle until his reign was cemented, then retreated to his home Sunpu castle in 1623 and the original Fuhsimi Momoyama castle was demolished.

While group trekking in Fushimi, we came upon another historical remnant, a statue of Ryoi Suminokura (1554-1614) who helped develop the Takase River, a man-made canal running along the Kamo River of Kyoto. Ogai Mori (1862-1922), a physician/writer, wrote a short novel Takasebune, a milestone book which became a school text book. It is about a criminal exiled on an island on a night sailing Takasebune.

I Googled Ryoi and found he was quite a man. Ryoi made 18 voyages to Vietnam (e.g. Cochinchina) on the Taiko licensed trade vessels. After foreign trade was banned, he busied himself in promoting river navigation, Takasegawa was one and Hozu River was another, working for Kyoto, entrusted by Iyesasu Tokugawa. Hozu is famous for the rapids and Ryoi contrived to widen narrow gorges, pouring in his own money. I have sailed along the Hozu one summer, so I can appreciate what he did. What impressed me was the extent of his contribution, from eastern to western Japan, probably in an advisory position. I suspect his expertise came from the Mekong or Red River Delta, where life there revolves much around the rivers and canals.

Note:
A "Koku" is a unit of volume. One "koku" is about 280 liters.
A koku of rice is enough to feed one person for one year.
It weighs about 150 kilograms or 330 pounds.

UK Travels Part 3

2010-05-09T00:09:00.008+09:00

Edinburgh

If you go visit Edinburgh, make sure to include Forth Bridges Visitor Center Trust along with Edinburgh Castle, Carton Hill and Holyrood Palace. At the Visitor Center Trust, you will see two bridges: 1) Victorian Firth of Forth Rail Bridge (UNESCO Heritage) and 2) a modern Firth of Forth toll road bridge, which is longer than the rail bridge and a much lighter suspension bridge, running close to each other almost in parallel. I was struck by the beauty of the old and new bridges. The water underneath and in between became the playground for wind surfers with their flapping colorful sails in the afternoon. I was just lucky to stay at a hotel overlooking all this. Honestly, however, I searched for a hotel with a competitive rate without realizing the venue was far away from central Edinburgh. I spent a restful day, sketching what I saw.

The rail bridge has quite a history. Sir Thomas Bouch (1822- 1880), who built the Tay River Bridge, was sought again, but he died worrying over the previously collapsed bridge and its victims. The new design team had to build it stronger. The cantilever system was adopted to allow vessels to sail underneath. The British National Museum of Science and Industry brought mobile exhibits to various cities in Japan, including Kitakyushu, I saw an old photo of three men sitting and experimenting on the cantilever models, next to the miniature Firth Bridge. The man in the center was Kaichi Watanabe (1858-1932) whom I found afterward, was a foreman of the construction site, a job he took right after his graduation from Glasgow University, and later became the first president of Toyo Electric Company.

Bath
Royal Crescent
Surprisingly Bath, Somerset, around 1800 was one of the larger cities in Britain. It was once the wool and cloth commercial and fashion center around the 1500's and known for the off and on again operations of baths (geothermal) that the Romans loved and left. Bath prospered as a resort for wealthy British with great examples of Georgian architecture such as the Royal Crescent. It is comprised of 30 houses like a half Colosseum, with Ionic columns on high bases. The whole city was designated as the UNESCO World Heritage site. The city is well compared to Italian Florence (Firenze) and I’m glad that I dropped by, attracted there by the Canterbury Tales.

Stratford von Avon

Stratford von Avon, Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) birthplace, the world mecca for literary pilgrims. After hotel check-in, I hurried to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre to secure my seat of any play currently being performed. Measure for Measure, probably not ranking at the top, but not at the bottom either, was the one I got.

I vaguely remembered that the play was about power harassment, which dealth with gender concerns of the audience. Justice, truth, and hypocrisy are the issues and their relationship to pride and humanity. The finale was the revelation of tricks by the overriding Duke of Vienna that was seen both as comedy and tragedy. Amazingly Shakespeare’s birthplace built by his father was intact, almost the same as it was 400 years ago. However, the “New Place” house Shakespeare himself had built was gone.

UK Travels Part 2

2010-05-01T13:27:00.004+09:00

Glencoe

Glencoe is infamous as a massacre site. Sounds bloody and awful! On the contrary, it’s a designated scenic area of Ben Nevis (highest mountain in UK, 1344 meters or 4,400 ft, simply known as the “Ben”) and Glencoe, owned by the National Trust of Scotland. Loch Leven, along which I walked from Glencoe to Ballachulish*, is a salt water loch connected to the sea via Loch Linhe, a sea loch. Fort William, known as a garrison as well as gateway town to the isles, is 14 miles north. The glen, a U-shaped valley, was formed by Ice Age glaciation. It is about 16 km (10 miles) long with the valley floor less than 700m (0.4 miles) wide with towering mountains rising sharply from the valley floor to heights of around 900m (3,000 ft). Awesome scenery! I’m surprised we can enjoy the Glencoe car drive on YouTube. The brunch I had at the Glencoe Hotel cost 6.50 Pounds.

Oh, the massacre in February 1692! MacDonald’s clan belated allegiance to the king brought the Campbell clans to the MacDonald’s village with the King’s order to “put all the swords under 70 years of age”. Thirty-seven MacDonalds out of 200 were murdered during the morning raid and the village was destroyed by fire. Sir Walter Scott’s “Rob Roy” dealt and romanticized the similar historic battles and I know the filming took place in Glencoe. Likewise, part of the Harry Potter “the Prisoner of Azkaban” was filmed on location in Glencoe.

*Ballachulish -- an old slate quarry town. I saw gorse flowers in Inteverness and here again in Ballachulish.

Aberdeen

Two words, aber, meaning confluence and deen, two rivers don and dee , describe Aberdeen; today’s oil capital of the North, or granite city, because it quarried grey granite, or silver city, because the granite mica sparkles like silver. It is the third most populous (over 200,000) city with a commercial center and sea port. I woke up around 5AM and walked from the hotel all the way to the fish market through the Aberdeen Station, following the map drawn by a pub server on the previous night. I was at the Fish Market at 6:00 AM. The market officially opens at 7:30 AM but I was allowed in to take photos of haddocks and halibuts in thousand of boxes. I was taught the name of longer ones is coley. UK fought fierce cod wars against Iceland from 1958 until 1976 with EEC intervention after Iceland threatened to close a major NATO base in retaliation for Britain’s deployment of naval vessels within the disputed 200 nautical mile (370km) limit. UK conceded and agreed that the British vessels would not fish within the previously disputed area. The UK annual cod fishing was reduced to 50,000 tons. The result was 1500 jobless people in the fishing industry.

UK Travels Part 1

2010-04-25T12:50:00.009+09:00

"I traveled among unknown men,
In hands beyond the sea;
Nor, England! Did I know till then
What love I bore to thee"
(from the "Borderers" by William Wordsworth)

Dover

Professor Kohmoto's (1911-1986) Outline of English Literature begins with a beautiful portrayal of the white cliffs of Dover that drew irresistible attention from the opposite shore, and eventually invited Roman invasion into the 'Albion'. As a student, I was fascinated when I listened to his lecture in the early 1950's and dreamt that someday I would be there. I was not alone. Like minds think alike. Classmate Hideo Iwasaki reported that he finally made a visit to the Isle of Skye last summer (2009). It took him 50 years to accomplish it. I stood at Dover in the springtime of 1998, a bit younger than he was. I walked to the point of the pier to look back at the shore, past the anchored Channel Ferries. I recognized some white spots with the rising sun, but I knew I had to sail further north to see the bona fide Albion (white cliffs). Today, the Eurotunnel, or the Chunnel is recognized as one of the 7 wonders of the Modern World, boasting the longest tunnel 40 kilometers or 24 miles, which surfaces at Dover on the UK-side.

Canterbury

My second stop was Canterbury Cathedral in Kent. After Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170, pilgrims from all parts of Christendom came to visit his shrine. This pilgrimage provided the framework for Geoffrey Chaucer's (1343-1400) 14th Century collection of stories, The Canterbury Tales, written predominantly in rhyming couplets. After serving as comptroller of customs, and traveling often to Europe himself, Chaucer finally started work on this great poem anthology, which sadly remained unfinished. A company of pilgrim travelers with a variety of professions (knight, friar, merchant, miller, etc.) and rank competed in their story-telling contests at roadway taverns. One of them, "The Wife of Bath's Tale", eventually led me toward the City of Bath.

Chartwell

While still in Kent, I had two choices for my next stop. Which house to visit - Charles Darwin's (1809-1882) or Sir Winston Churchill's (1874-1965)? Darwin's house is in Downy and Churchill's is in Chartwell, near Sevenoaks, which meant traveling by train was not so easy. I only read the abstract of Darwin's Voyage of The Beagle (1839) but I have completed Churchill's History of WWII in six volumes. That settled the short debate. I stayed at the nearby middle-aged couple's room and board house overnight that proved to be a pleasant breather away from the busy streets. The husband directed me to Churchill's house in the morning after a beautiful breakfast. Churchill moved to Chartwell in the 1920's and spent much of his retirement years there until his death. Here, he drew inspiration for his writings and paintings. He said "Beauty is to Art, as Honesty is to Honour." He was awarded the Nobel Prize in l953. The estate is huge, commanding a magnificent view over Kent and Sussex with a lake in front and Lady Churchill's rose garden. It is now managed by the National Trust.

Copper Canyon, Mexico

2010-04-07T13:59:00.007+09:00

While residing in San Diego, I befriended a Nisei Japanese American who lived in Los Angeles, but was born in Imperial County, the easternmost part of California that faces Arizona. He was very familiar not only with De Anza Borrego Springs, Ocotillo Wells, but also Sonora, Chihuahua, States of Mexico. He said he owned a piece of land in New Mexico near the famous 650 ft (200 meter) “Gorge Bridge” crossing the Rio Grande, not far from Taos (the Pueblo Indian village with Hispanic and Latino influences). His dream is to build his house there that is completely solar-powered and I sent him my employer’s catalogs of photovoltaic products. I envied his ability to speak excellent Spanish.

In 1981, when spring brought the flowering season to Borrego Springs, he invited me to join him on a visit to Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico. I had heard about the canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of Mexico and I jumped at the chance. He rode a train from Los Angeles and I was to join him at Mexicali Station. On Friday evening, I parked my car inside Calexico (U.S.) and walked to the border through customs to Mexicali and waited for the train. A couple of days before our departure, there was an earthquake near El Centro, in a town called Westmorland, and I saw damaged brick fences on both sides of the border.

I met my Nisei friend without incident and he introduced me to a few passengers with him. Since the train was not on a regular schedule, it took a while before we left Mexicali. To my disappointment, I was not able to take day- time photos of Cerro Prieto Geothermal plants when we passed it. The train ran by the well lit electric plant complex with lots of steam rising from it. It is built directly on the Baja California fault. It is one of the most studied geothermal field in the world. I had a special tour invitation from San Diego Gas & Electric, which ran it as a joint venture with Mexico since the 1970‘s. I could not make the tour, but I’m glad I had at least a glimpse of the shoreline site, about 20 kilometers south of Mexicali.

When we woke up the following morning we were at the Los Mochis Station, about 1000 kilometers (600 miles) south of the Mexican Border, the gateway station to go up the rugged Sierra Tarahumara. For the next 600 kilometers we would hug the sides of Copper Canyon along the River Septentrion, zig-zagging and tunneling through the mountains. Los Mochis is noted for sugar plantations. The name means the place of the land turtle, a Tarahumara Indian word. We were stopped here for a little while and we learned that two local young Mexicans were hired as cooks. My friends and I welcomed the news as we both like Mexican dishes. There was an announcement that passengers were to take turns going into the dining car after relaying information about the Saturday and Sunday jaunts.

It was a very scenic journey, except for the soot coming from the front locomotive. Divisadero was our destination. Upon our arrival, we were taken to the viewpoint to see the Canyon 1,760 meters deep and Rio Urique. Honestly speaking, I liked Grand Canyon better than Copper Canyon. Probably the color made the big difference. Before dark, our group checked in to a warm cottage with hot showers and had a good sleep after a Mexican fiesta, a lot of cervesas and guitar music.

Sunday morning we started the day by visiting caves of the Tarahumara Indians. We had seen some Indians selling their handicrafts in the town of Creel and at the Divisadero Station. These Indians had a reputation of being excellent long distance runners, as good as the Tarascan Indians to the south.

I had a chance to hear Victor Villasenor, a Mexican-American writer, speak. He lives in North County San Diego. He wrote “Rain of Gold” and “Walking Stars” both of which I want to translate into Japanese someday. "Rain of Gold" is the story of three generations of the author's family migrating from revolutionary Mexico in the 20th century to California. It is a really thick book and an excellent read. I suspect his family covered some of the same ground I passed through. I want to relate here one of his stories, “Toreando el Tren” or “Bullfighting the Train", which is full of the Tarahumaran spirit.

In the story, the family of Juan (Victor’s grandfather) was among the migrants on the train heading north. At one of the stations where their train had stopped, the boys gathered to bet on the train bullfighting game. They were to chase the train after it has started down the tracks. The most confident runner waits longer than the others before starting to chase the train. The object of the game is for the confident runner to catch the moving train. Well, Juan was the "confident" runner, but he did not catch the train. He ended up chasing the train alone in the hot desert, running on the tracks for two-days with burning feet, even fending off a mountain lion attack. Luckily, he finally caught up to see his family at the next stop.

Sakura, Cherry Blossoms!

2010-03-31T12:25:00.007+09:00

"Sakura" flowering front lines should have gone further north than 38 degrees latitude. This is the week the cherry trees burst their buds in grand style worldwide. Just a few days ago, the Washington Post featured a historical presentation ceremony of the Potomac Bank cherry trees with the photograph of First Lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Chinda, the wife of the then Japanese Ambassador.

Sakuras in Washington were gifts from the Capital of Tokyo, or Edo, the old name under the Tokugawa Shogunate. Yoshimune Tokugawa (1716-1745 ), the 8th Shogun had cherry trees planted as one of the city beautification projects along the River Sumida so that visitors to the bank could enjoy a picnic and boat rides in the Spring. The scenes were drawn as Ukiyoe by famous artists of the day. However, a shrewd guess is that the increased unemployment in Edo was the real motive that made Yoshimune decide on this public undertaking, thus succeeding in killing two birds with one stone.According to one of the oldest chronicles of Japan, Emperor Saga (786-842) had a cherry blossom viewing in the year 812, inviting poets, singers and aristocrats. This was the first cherry blossom viewing that was recorded in Japan. We see poems about plum blossoms imported from China rather than the cherry blossoms in the the oldest Manyo Anthology (Collections of Ten Thousand Leaves). The number of poems about cherry blossoms increase in the later Kokin Anthology.

Feasting under blooming cherry trees is humble and modest in its origin. It was more like an offering with prayers by village farmers living and toiling under the mountain cherry blossoms. In our neighboring countries, such as China and Korea, the viewing of plums, peaches and peonies are popular but seemingly without the picnic or dinner banquet.

We owe the ingenuity of "Ihei Ito", a horticultural pioneer, in creating today’s Somei Yoshino , a special kind of cherry tree species that can flourish by easy grafting. Somei is the name of the district in Tokyo (today’s Komagome in Toshima Ward) where Ito resided. The name Yoshino was taken from Mt. Yoshino in Nara, a famous location of magnificent cherry trees. Somei Yoshino is a cross-breed of two species, Oshima Sakura and Edo Higan. Today Somei Yoshino has a variety of 400 species.

Sakura now enjoys worldwide popularity , pleasing people with its fragrance and beauty. It is also a symbol of peace and friendship.

Showa -- Days of the Enlightened Peace

2010-03-28T09:05:00.007+09:00

My old friend Todasan, who lives in Hachioji (Eight Prince City), Tokyo, drove me to his neighboring Musashino Imperial Mausolea, about a few kilometers from the JR Nishihachioji Station. These Mausolea were familiarly known to the old timers as Tama Mausolea where the Emperor Taisho (1879-1926) and the Empress Teimei (1884-1957) were buried. Apparently the name has been changed after adding Mausolea of the Emperor Showa (1901 -1989) and Empress Kojun (1903-2000).

The wooded site was the ancient battlefield where Hojo Clans fought against those of Takeda Clans 400 years ago and Tokugawa Shogunate possessed it for a long time. The local magistrate, named Egawa, promoted planting a special root spreading cypress from nearby Mt. Takao, known today by his surname. After Meiji Restoration, the estate was under the custody of the Imperial Household Agency. When Emperor Taisho died, the Agency constructed the Mausoleum there, modeling it after Momoyama Mausolea in Kyoto.

Four Mausolea sit today in about a little over 100 acres (460,000 square meters). All of them face south , and are shaped round in the upper part and square in the lower part. Before and after reaching the guarded gate, visitors enjoy Zelkova and Egawa cedar lined approaches (plenty of ballasts laid inside the entrance). I found the Tama Forest Science Garden I had visited before for cherry blossoms, bordering the Mausolea. What a shame that I didn't visit the Mausolea when I resided in Tokyo.

My mind flashed back - about 35 years ago, when Showa Emperor and Empress visited the U.S., invited to Washington by President Ford. On their way home, they visited two oceanography research centers, one in Woods Hole, Mass, the other in La Jolla, California. I was residing in San Diego then, and through the Japanese Consulate Office in Los Angeles, about half a dozen local Japanese expatriate volunteers were assigned to escort the Imperial Household staff accompanying His and Her Majesties. I was one of them. I escorted a chamberlain (not the Grand Chamberlain "Irie") and a court lady. Upon their arrival, the party split into two, one to visit the San Diego Zoo, including the Majesties, and the other to set up resting quarters during a day stop at the Sea Lodge(now the La Jolla Shores Hotel) in La Jolla. I was in the latter party.

The Emperor, after the zoo, hurried to Scripps Institute of Oceanography as soon as he arrived at the Sea Lodge without resting. Showa Emperor's enthusiasm for marine biology was a sure manifest of his love of nature and respect for all living things and I had difficulty in distinguishing his war-time authority from his scholastic image. I didn't see him at all, although I was very close to him at the Sea Lodge. Instead I saw Empress Kojun strolling away to the beach to watch scuba divers practice . All the escorts and press followed her and Takeo Fukuda, then Vice Prime Minster, heading the mission, was sitting alone by the swimming pool by himself. I walked up to him and introduced myself and he accepted me for a casual chat for a while until the Empress party returned. The moment remains a very fond memory of mine. Fukuda later became Prime Minister of Japan.

It was at one of the San Diego Japanese expatriates' family picnic day in the late 1980s, that Showa Emperor was reported in critical condition and I remember we refrained ourselves from any alcoholic drinks for the day. We saw his obituary soon afterwards, which confirmed that he was only human as he declared in his 1946 Humanity Declaration.

Visit to the Salt Caves of Colombia, the Country with the El Dorado Obsession

2010-03-15T03:11:00.009+09:00

(from Chris Brogan's blog)
Included in my 1960s jaunts to South America was Bogota, Colombia. Although labeled today as a dangerous destination, there was no cocaine trafficking or guerilla threats at that time. Bogota sits as high as Mexico City at the elevation of 2,600 meters and has a population of close to 8 million, competing as the 5th largest city with Lima, Peru. By coincidence, I saw the latest bird's eye photo of Bogota taken from Montserrate by Chris Brogan, an American social media promoter, whose blogs I've followed for some time. He challenged readers that "most everything you know about Bogota is outdated. It's a city on the rise. The streets are filled with people pursuing their dreams." Yes, certainly, that's the hope of all young people around the world including Asians; youths of India, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, etc. The digital world has inspired the hopes and dreams of what comes next, creative people working hard, while we remember the stereotypes of the past. This is the time Colombians can break the spell and get freed from the long gold obsession, as well as severing themselves from the cocaine business.

My Japanese Colombian friend accompanied me to a deep salt cave one weekend, together with another visitor from the NTT, about 50 kilometers north of Bogota, called Zipaquira. The salt mines date back to the Muisca period (700-1600) and have been extensively exploited, but they still contain vast reserves. They tap into virtually huge mountains of rock salt. In the heart of the mountain, an underground salt cathedral has been carved out and was opened to the public in 1954. When we visited, the cave was 5,500 square meters wide (2 acres) and had the capacity of accommodating 8,000 people. I heard that a new cathedral was built 60 meters deeper below the old one and reopened in the mid-1990s with high tech lighting and acoustics.

I remember the wall glittered, reflecting the salt crystal (85 percent sodium chloride and 15 percent carbonized), which gave us an austere sensation. It was a surreal and amazing experience. The photo shows the new cathedral with a cross.

We didn't make it to Laguna de Guatavita, a meteor created circular lake, 70 km northeast of Bogota. I think we were very close to this sacred lake from Zipaquira. The lake was one of the ritual centers of the Muisca Indians. Like the Aztecs and Mayans in Mexico, the Incas in Peru, the Aymaras in Bolivia, the Muiscas thrived in the Colombian highland savannahs and cultivated Muisca or Chibchan culture before the Spaniards conquered them. The Muisca culture is regarded as the most advanced pre-Colombian civilizations. The Muiscas used "Queske" (estolicas or sharpened wooden darts) as their primary weapon against the enemy. It seems they preferred throwing darts to using bows and arrows. The internal troubles among the Muiscas aided the Conquistadores.There is a legend that the Spaniards saw the ritual at this lake where the Muiscas offered gold, emeralds and foods into the lake in their prayers to ensure abundant crops and God's protection against misfortunes. Muiscas interpreted the meteor as the arrival of god, living there at the bottom of the lake. This legend motivated many goldmongers to hunt El Dorado, the buried treasures in the lake. There were many attempts reported of digging, draining, pumping, siphoning and even diving since the 16th century, which included efforts by Colombians, British-Colombians, US-Colombians, but to no avail. Upon the failure of the US-Colombian project in the 1960s, the government finally banned further exploration and the laguna has remained in peace. Some pieces of gold were found, the most famous being the Balsa (raft) Muisca, found in 1856 and is now displayed at the Bogota Gold Museum.
I understand that the Muisca Indians used coca leaves as an all-around medicine, as pain relievers, anti-inflammation lotions, revitalizing and rehydrating drinks, etc. I found it surprising that coca leaves were sold legitimately in the pharmacies in Bogota until the mid-20th century. I wonder if the Colombians inherited the custom of the Muisca's?

Lastly, re Simon Bolivar (1783-1830), the Godfather Liberator of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Panama from Spain. He said: "Colombians! my last wishes are for the welfare of the fatherland. If my death contributes to the cessation of party strife, and to the consolidation of the Union, I shall descend in peace to the grave." He had a special attachment to Colombians.