MY FAVORITE SONG: A Profound Mystery

A Profound Mystery is not a song. Tried You Tube and found one video on the subject. However, not worth your while to click on it. No dictionary even defines Profound Mystery, but that is because it only does this for an individual word. Appropriately enough, as this is Sunday, most of the reference to this term comes from religious sources.

God is a Profound Mystery. So is the Big Bang. Experts dally around the term, but no one can pin down the reality or unreality.

Similarly, I don't know why my favorite song is Wakare No Isochidori. It is distinctly possible that of the 7.6 billion people living on Planet Earth, I am the only person who has it as #1. WNI is the only song that was written and first popular in Hawaii, then gained some fame in Japan. When? Not sure, but probably in the 1930's.

Here is a quote from a posting of a decade ago, when I traveled from Sapporo to Wakkanai, the northern most city on Japan:

I was listening to some Japanese music on my iPod on the return trip back to Sapporo, and just about the point closest to Utashinai (on the map, 12 miles right of Takikawa), Wakare No Isochidori (parting song) came on, and for no explainable reason, tears came to my eyes. This is the only song written by someone from Hawaii that became popular in Japan. The songwriter, Francis Zanami, was born around the time of the birth of Kenjiro's son--my father. Hear the Misora Hibari version by clicking on her name. Another version by Nakamura Mitsuko. And a male rendition followed by his really old Columbia 78. And an instrumental. This can go on an on, for it was a very popular song.

(Interesting that none of those above videos is now made available on You Tube.) Utashinai was the original home of Kenjiro Takahashi, my father's father. Maybe tears came to my eyes because I had chosen not to stop there. That photo to the left was taken when I did return last year.

Zanami's life itself was eerie, for at a relatively young age, he was the leader of the Hawaii Shochiku Orchestra. He is third from the right in the top row from this photo, and the primary voice of this Club Nisei version could be that female to the right, Doris Taketa. He died at either the age of 34 from kidney failure, or 44 of a heart attack.

According to Rev. Hoshu Matsubayashi (born in Olaa, Hawaii):

One of the eight kinds of suffering in Buddhist teaching is: "separation from a loved one." The sentiment of this suffering was expressed in a Japanese popular song, "Wakare no Isochidori (Departure of Beach Plovers)." The song is about separation from a loved one in Hawaii. A line from the song is "Although I know the meeting is the beginning of the separation, the memory remains cherished in my heart..."

Wakare No Isochidori is a sad song, evoking a long journey, homesickness and hope. It still brings tears to my eyes, and I don't know why. Perhaps I identify with it because it represents my past life and the future.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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