tokyo olympics

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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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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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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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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The Rise (in Rome) and Fall (in Tokyo) of Nikita Khruschev

New York Times, October 16, 1964
New York Times, October 16, 1964

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was at the height of his influence and powers in 1960. At the kickoff of the Olympic Summer Games in Rome, he released a letter to all Olympians that grew feelings of good will towards the Soviet Union.

Rome 1960_MaranissAs David Maraniss wrote in his brilliant book, Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World, “Khrushchev’s message was meant not just for the Soviets but for all athletes gathered in Rome, even if it was boilerplate Soviet rhetoric… ‘The Olympic Games were worthy because they improved brotherly contact among sportsmen of different countries,’ he noted, concluding: ‘I wish all sportsmen taking part the best success in sports as well as in work, studies, and their private lives.’”

Maraniss emphasized that “American diplomats had been frustrated for days by the seeming propaganda coup the Soviets gained when newspapers around the world reported on the message of peace and friendship that Premier Khrushchev sent to the Olympians in Rome.”

Khruschev, in the summer of 1960, was heading to New York City to address the United Nations, and he was at the top of his game.

But four years later, at the end of the first week of the Tokyo Summer Games, the world learned that one of the most powerful men in the world was deposed. As Ron Barak, US gymnast at the 1964 Games related to me, it was all a bit of a mystery.

“The day in the Village began like any other day during that two-week period. Then people began noticing the Soviets were gone. No one had witnessed their departure and until they returned late in the day, no one knew what was behind it. But there

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The Photographer Photographed – Fusanori Nakajima, the Official Sailing Photographer of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

Fusanori Nakajima at Enoshima 3He’s taken pictures of America’s Cup skippers Ted Turner and Dennis Conner, the regatta at the bicentennial birthday party in New York Harbor, as well as the sailing competitions at the Tokyo Summer Games in 1964.

Fusanori Nakajima, who’s lived most of his life in New York, is enjoying life back in Japan. Below are a few of his photographs, which are now on display at the Enoshima Yacht Club, where I caught up with him.

Photograph by Fusanori Nakajima: 5.5 meter competition at 1964 Tokyo Olympics
Photograph by Fusanori Nakajima: 5.5 meter competition at 1964 Tokyo Olympics

Nakajima, who goes by the name “Fred” in the US, recollects being very busy with the Olympic work….taking shots all day in the water, and then driving back home to develop the film, and starting all over the next day. As he was asked by the Japan Olympic Committee to take on this job, he was provided an official JOC car

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Kyu Sakamoto’s Sukiyaki – the First and Only International Hit in Japanese (Yes, you know it. Wait until you hear the melody.)

Kyu Sakamoto, crooner of hit song, Sukiyaki, visiting the Olympic Village in 1964. From the book,
Kyu Sakamoto, crooner of hit song, Sukiyaki, visiting the Olympic Village in 1964. From the book, “Tokyo Olympiad 1964”.
It hit number one on the American Billboard Hot 100 in June, 1963. Number 1. And not a word in English. The title – Sukiyaki – had nothing to do with the song lyrics.

The man who sang this international hit was Kyu Sakamoto, pictured above hanging out with Aussie athletes at the Olympic Village. During the Olympics, Sakamoto performed the song on Swedish television – live – which was a big deal in those days.

The song was first released in the Fall of 1961 under the title, Ue o Muite Aruko (上を向いて歩こう), and enjoyed number 1 status for several months until early 1962. The owner of a British record label heard the song in Japan, and likely due to its catchy melody, thought there would be an audience in England, despite the fact that the song was in Japanese. The record owner’s instincts, including the decision to re-name the song after a popular Japanese dish, were superb as the record hit #6 on the charts in Britain, as well as #1 in countries like Australia, Canada and Norway.

By the time the Summer Games in Tokyo rolled around in 1964, many an Olympian would have been familiar with the song, Sukiyaki.

While Sakamoto travelled the world singing his hit song, appearing on programs like The Ed Sullivan Show, he never climbed beyond one-hit-wonder status. And at the young age of 42, Sakamoto died spectacularly in the deadliest plane crash in Japan’s history, the Japan Airlines Flight 123 that slammed into a mountain side in Gunma, Japan, ending the lives of 505 people on board.

The cheerful title (Look Up and Walk) and melody belies the lyrics, which describe a man smiling and whistling through pain and loss, holding the tears at bay as he contemplates another night alone. Listen to Sakamoto’s syrupy version above. Get uplifted by the cheery melody. You’d never think the song is about pain.

Below is a version of the song in English by Jewel Akens in

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“Live from Tokyo, It’s Saturday Morning Live”

Seattle Times, October 9, 1964
Seattle Times, October 9, 1964

This is a bit of a mystery to me. The above ad states that the Opening Ceremonies of the Tokyo Opening Ceremonies would start at 1 am in Seattle, which would have been 16 hours earlier than Tokyo, or 5pm in Tokyo. That would mean that NBC would have started live coverage two hours after the beginning of the opening ceremonies. Did people stay up late to catch the Opening Ceremonies two hours in? Did they bother to show anything live on the East Coast? So much was made out of NBC’s decision to broadcast the Olympic Games live from Tokyo through the technological magic of the satellite, Syncom III. In the end, the only live coverage was this partial showing of the opening ceremonies. Of course, if you’re living in the US, that’s to be expected with a time difference of 13 hours in the East Coast, and 16 hours in the West Coast.

Syncom III, the satellite that sent live pictures across the world from Japan to America...just once.
Syncom III, the satellite that sent live pictures across the world from Japan to America…just once.

But apparently, NBC’s overall coverage was pretty bad. Wrote one viewer to The Sunday Star TV Magazine, “May I be the first of many (I’m sure) who will register discontent with NBC’s coverage of the Olympics in Tokyo. The first objection I have concerns the time the games are being shown… It seems to me that more could be shown earlier in the evening. The second objection I have is the poor continuity of the clips…. The whole affair seems to lack enthusiasm… I guess I’m just disappointed after the excellent job done by ABC during the Winter Olympics.” According to the US press, NBC was not wholeheartedly invested in showing the Games during prime time, when sponsors pay the big bucks to watch their favorite entertainers. Wrote the TV Writer for The Oregonian on October 23, 1964, “Instead of pretending to ‘cover’ the games on a day to day basis, NBC would have been better advised to save the film and tapes, edit them and

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