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San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge
Happy 75th birthday to the Golden Gate Bridge (金門橋) earlier this week. I went over this bridge at least a hundred times with Japanese tourists back in the early 1990s when I was tour guiding in San Francisco. Those were some good times…
芝大門 with Tokyo Tower in the distance
Once upon a time, Zojoji was a huge, sprawling temple of the Tokugawa family. I think it included all of the land which is now under and around the Tokyo Tower. One of its entrances was Shibadaimon (the grassy big gate), pictured to the right of this image. Now, if you walk from the Hamamatsucho Station to Zojoji you will pass through Shibadaimon several blocks before you get to the formerly inner Zojoji gates which are now the outer Zojoji gates.
Mt. Fuji sunset across Sagami Bay taken from Enoshima
I’m guessing that you won’t find people fishing in the middle of most of the world’s largest cities. In Tokyo however…
Arisugawa no Miya Kinen Koen is a nice oasis in the middle of Tokyo near the Mormon Temple and the Hiroo Station.
Kyokutenho is the oldest to win a sumo tournament in modern times
A rather strange sumo tournament ended in Tokyo this past weekend. Kyokutenho, pictured on the left in the above photo I took a few years ago, won even though he isn’t a Yokozuna or an Ozeki (the two highest ranks). Kyokutenho isn’t even a Sekiwake or a Komusubi (the next two highest ranks). Kyokutenho is currently a mere Maegashira (the lowest rank in the top division). Twenty-four sumo wrestlers were ranked higher than him going into this tournament. 24! With only 15 bouts, you don’t have to wrestle the top 16 sumo wrestlers when you are ranked that low.
Now here is were it gets really weird. If all of the top sumo wrestlers implode, like they did this tournament due to injuries and other factors, a lowly Maegashira like Kyokutenho can win the tournament (merely by posting the best record) even though he didn’t have to face the best sumo wrestlers! Kyokutenho didn’t have to face (the injured) Hakuho, Baruto, Harumafuji, Kisenosato, Kotoshogiku, or even Kakuryu (the new Ozeki). The only Ozeki he went up against in accumulating his 12-3 record was an injured Kotooshu, who pulled out of the tournament the next day due to the severity of his injury.
Let me put this in NFL football terms for those of you from the USA who may not really understand sumo. Imagine a mediocre team like the 2011 Denver Broncos being crowned World Champions even though they never had to play a team with a winning record. No games against the Patriots, Steelers, Packers, Saints, 49ers, etc.–instead, they only have to play teams like the Rams, Colts, Vikings, etc. and since they come out with the best record they win it all. No playoffs–a weak schedule, and lots of injuries to the best teams who would normally win, is all it would take. Such was the lucky fate of Kyokutenho these past two weeks.
Today is the long-awaited opening of the Tokyo Skytree. With the high demand to check out Tokyo from the top, you would have had to have won a lottery months ago to ascend the Skytree this week. Supposedly, you can get a ticket a bit easier beginning in mid-July. In any case, admission isn’t cheap. Look to pay between 2,000 and 3,500 yen (> $40 US) to check out the view from the Tokyo Skytree.
I took today’s photo a couple years before the Skytree was completed from the Rainbow Bridge. You can see the under-construction Skytree to the far right in this pic.