The Amazing Bullet Train – Still the Best at 50

shinkansen_1October1964

We waited on the platform for the arrival of the Shinkansen Nozomi #130 to pull in, and for the cleaning crew to do their magic. The train, as scheduled, pulled in at 16:53. The doors opened, the passengers walked out, and the 56 members of the Central JR Tokaido-sen cleaning crew, clad in pink, streamed into the 16-car bullet train. The train was to depart at 17:10, 17 minutes after arrival, but they had to complete the clean up in 12 minutes.

Nozomi Shikansen_Cleaning crew

First they had to forcefully rotate the sets of seats so that they faced the other direction, as the train was now going to head West. Next they had to gather the newspapers and drink cans, sweep up the floor, replace the headrest coverings, check the overhead racks for items left behind, and check the seats for moisture (ie: spilled drinks, excessive sweat, who knows what). On the day I was there, a seat actually had to be replaced as it was too damp.

And then, they’re done and out of the train. a few moments later, after the head of the cleaning crew gives the go ahead, the passengers for Western Japan are allowed on board the renamed Nozomi #53, bound for Hakata. 12 minutes. Done.

On October 1, 1964, 9 days before the beginning of the Tokyo Olympics, Japan commenced operations of the fastest train in the world, The Shinkansen, also known as The Bullet Train. As much as the Olympics did, the Shinkansen symbolized Japan’s impressive recovery from bombed-out and destroyed to world class.

In 1964, the Shinkansen ran at a top speed of 210 km per hour and made it from Tokyo to Osaka in four hours. Today, the top speed is now

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Mark Spitz puts Michael Phelps’ career in perspective

One swimming legend talking about another.  “I’m going to get run over by his success.” http://olympictalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/22/mark-spitz-2016-olympics-rio-swimming-michael-phelps/

Thrills and Spills – One Hurdle Too High for Marion Snider

From
From “A Picture History of the Olympics”, by James Coote

The women’s 80 meters hurdles race in Tokyo in 1964 had one of the tightest finishes you will see, with three women finishing in a near virtual tie. But I’m not here to talk about the thrill of victory, but instead, the agony of defeat.

The very best athletes in the world come to the Olympic Games with every intention to go to their very limits. That effort has risk. Marion Snider, 200-meter champion from Canada, hit a hurdle and landed hard on the cinder track, going limp as other runners zipped by her. The 22-year-old from Toronto was carried off on a stretcher.

Olympians train and prepare hard every day waiting for this moment. Snider’s was in her first and only race in Tokyo. Here is a picture of her before

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Coming From Way Behind in Tokyo, Vyacheslav Nikolayevich Ivanov Wins Again

From the book,
From the book, “XVIII Olympiad Tokyo 1964”, Asahi Shinbun

One of the greatest rowers in Olympic history, Vyacheslav Ivanov, was famous for coming from behind and winning with a super-human push. In fact, Ivanov was behind by 7 seconds with 500 meters to go in his 2,000 meter single sculls competition in Tokyo, and won the gold going away.

And yet, Ivanov must have thought his string of Olympic champions, including Melbourne in 1956 and Rome in 1960, was ending even before he could even start.

AP, October 11, 1964
AP, October 11, 1964

How he must have felt when he saw two big cracks in the hull of his new scull on October 8, just arriving in Yokohama from Tokyo. How his vessel got damaged on the Russian passenger liner is unclear. What was clear was that he had to get it repaired.

But as fortune would have it, he was in Yokohama, a port city where ship repairers were in abundance, and he was in Japan, where quality and conscientiousness are of the highest levels. His scull was

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Baseball, softball among finalist sports to be added for Tokyo 2020 Olympics

No chess? Darn!!

The Beauty of the Opening Ceremonies – Watch this Commerical from Eneos

Some beautiful footage of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, particularly the opening ceremonies, in the commercial from energy company, Eneos, which is currently airing.

The launch of the balloons is beautiful. The release of the pigeons around a huge cauldron of fire is scary. But I understand fried pigeon tastes like chicken. 

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Paris 2024 Olympic bid set to be announced

Well, this should take the pressure off of Boston, which clearly doesn’t want this.

Ron Clarke, Tokyo Olympian and Bronze Medalist, Dies at 78

Ron Clarke at Melbourne OlympicsAt the tender age of 18, Ron Clarke carried the Olympic torch through the Melbourne Cricket Ground up the steps to light the Olympic cauldron. Clarke would go on to break 17 world records in middle distance running, as well as take the bronze medal in the 10,000 meter race in Tokyo in 1964.

The self-described “accountant who also runs”, had a reputation for being a sportsman, and would go on to become the mayor of Queensland’s Gold Coast.

Here is a film clip of Ron Clarke showing his training routine as he prepared for competition in Europe before flying over to Tokyo for the 1964 Games, where he would captain the Australian athletics team.

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Lost and Alone, 16-Year Old Equestrian Christilot Hanson-Boylen Finds Her Way to Japan and the Tokyo Olympics (and then 5 More Olympic Games)

Christilot Boylen at 11.
Christilot Boylen at 11.

Born in Jakarta, Indonesia to a Chinese-Dutch-French-Indonesian mother and Australian father, and living in Singapore before settling in Canada as 3 year old, Christilot Hanson-Boylen was already a seasoned traveler.

At 16, when she entered the Tokyo Summer Games as the youngest Olympic equestrian in Dressage, she and her horse, Bonheur, had already competed in Germany and the US. But Japan was a completely different destination. During a time when equestrian athletes got little to no organizational or national support, Hanson-Boylen traveled alone from Canada to Japan. She related her experience to me, described below.

In those days, there were no trainers, no managers, no back up. I was sent by myself. It started strangely as I was sent to Paris first. I had to stay overnight in Paris at the Hotel Claridge. They said the rooms were all booked. I had this coupon, but all they said they could do was put a cot in the bathroom. I still thought the bathroom was marvelous. They put a cot in there and I was just too stupid to complain. People kept rattling on the door all night.

Christilot Boylen at 16, in Tokyo.
Christilot Boylen at 16, in Tokyo.

I get to the airport and I saw one of the famous jump riders Nelson Pessoa of Brazil. I followed him, thinking “he’s going to Japan. He knows the way.” I was feeling a little scared, so I Introduced myself. He said, “Stick by me.” Sure enough he picks the wrong plane. We land in Calcutta.”

Hanson-Boylen eventually made it to Japan, commencing a life of Dressage competition in 6 Olympic Games from 1964 to 1992.

To see what dressage looks like,

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The Gai-jin Treatment – Then and Now

I am American, but of Japanese ancestry, so when I’m in Japan, I don’t get the “gai-jin” treatment – gawked at, overly praised for rudimentary Japanese, etc.

When Syd Hoare moved from England to Japan to train in judo in the early 1960s, he found the “constant attention” irritating. As he related in his book, A Slow Boat to Yokohama, “Wherever I went I was stared at, which was not that surprising since gaijin were bigger on average, with different color of hair, eyes, and skin.”

Hoare went on to tell this strange-but-true phenomenon where certain Japanese are so un-used to dealing with foreigners that they can’t quite rationalize one who speaks Japanese. Even though Hoare describes an incident from the early 1960s, as you can see in the above video, this brain cramping still occurs with certain Japanese. Both the story below and the video above are hysterical.

One time, when I was in Kyoto, an old shortsighted couple came up to me. The man asked me in Japanese where the Kiyomizu Temple was. Just as he neared the end of his question, his wife noticed that I was a foreigner and began badgering him. ‘Gaikoku no kata desu yo’. (‘He is a foreigner.’) By that time I had told him in Japanese exactly where the temple was. He was trapped between the information I had given him and the warning from his wife. The problem was that one part of his brain was telling him that he did not speak English, while the other half was telling him that gaijin cannot speak Japanese. I repeated the directions and walked on.

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