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SENDAI

We did nothing today but rest, for the weather was threatening.  It's Tuesday in Japan, so this will become a nostalgic day to look back to what we did the last time we were in Sendai, when we also cruised on the Diamond Princess:

  • On 23November 2019, Sendai was just nearing it's Fall color peak.  The map that year showed.
  • Unfortunately, today is November 13, so we missed by one week.  So how have the subsequent years changed the peak?
  • Thus, because of global warming, Sendai's peak is predicted for November 30.  So we arrived more than two weeks too early.
  • Today is November 13, and the peak for Sapporo is November 13, where we will stop over for two days beginning tomorrow.  Thus, while we have been too early for the colors so far in Japan, tomorrow should be terrific.  Except for one problem.  Hokkaido has been snowing the past couple of days, which will continue tomorrow.
  • Returning to my posting of four years ago, I said:
Recall that The Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami were on  11March2011.  I was in Bangkok, with a flight scheduled for Narita Airport (that photo to the right is of the Sendai Airport after their tsunami) the next day.  Although there was chaos and huge uncertainty about my Thai Air plane being able to land in Japan, I went.  That was one of the toughest days of my life.
  • Further:
Interestingly enough, the Japanese media then were calling the calamity The Great SendaiEarthquake and Tsunami of 2011.  I was actually reporting on this event for The Huffington Post, but I took THE CHICKEN AND CHICKEN LITTLE SCHOOL OF REPORTAGE.  My HuffPo provided regular updates to The Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami.  What you see in that article is the totality of all the continuities.
  • I said this earthquake created these wave heights

Tsunami:  Sendai              33 feet
                 Maui                 6 feet
                 Crescent City    7 feet

Here is some colorful input from NOAA regarding tsunami heights:
  • Those heights are imposing, but in parts of Japan the height reached 131 feet high.  Here is Miyako City in Iwate, which was about the worse struck.  Yet, 131 feet would be at least twice this amplitude.  The second photo is a little bit more detailed,
Continuing with my blog of 4 years ago:


While the general area of Tohoku dropped by nearly 50,000 since the Great Earthquake of 11March11, the population of Sendai actually increased.  With about a million people, this is the largest city in Tohoku.  Founded in 1600, it is known as the City of Trees.
I kept coming back:

Three years later I found myself again staying at the Westin Sendai and paid only $45/night.  Maybe people stopped coming to this "radiated" area.   The price today is five times higher, and, while parts of the Fukushima area remain blocked off, Sendai looks normal.

The exchange rate four years ago was around 110 yen/dollar, and was all the way down to 80 yen/dollar a decade ago.  So today is when you want to visit Japan, for your dollar is worth 1.5 times more today than in 2013.
Ever wonder what the most popular song from Japan was in the USA?  Many who are younger than me might say Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi or Mayonaka no Door:  Stay with Me by Miki Matsubara.  Nope, they are not even in the top 7.
  • #3  Subete no Hito no Kodoro ni Hana wo, or Flowers for your Heart by Shoukichi Kina and Champloose,
  • #2  Kiss in the Dark by Pink Lady.  Next to the #1 song, this one was the only other to break into the top 40 in America, hitting #37 in 1979.  Yikes, that was 44 years ago.  On the B-side was The Left Banke's Walk Away Renee.
  • Of course, #1 was 60 years ago, Kyu Sakamoto's Ue o Muite Arukou...or SUKIYAKI.
    • In 1963 there were a lot of protests about the continued American presence in Japan.
    • This song was written by Rokusuke Ei after a failed student protest.
    • The music came from Hachidai Nakamura.
    • Sukiyaki hit #1 on Billboard in 1963.  BTS also reached #1 with Dynamite in 2020.
    • Sukiyaki sold 13 million copies.
    • Here is Snoop Dogg's version.
    • Or a Taste of Honey's rendition.
  • I have a story about Sakamoto.  In 1945 a Japanese friend of mine rushed to the airport and just missed Japan Air Lines flight 123 from Tokyo to Osaka. He was so irate that sitting just outside the boarding area he hand wrote a scathing letter to the airline.  He kept it and showed it to me.  The plane crashed into Mount Tamagahara in Ueno, Gunma, killing 520, including Sakamoto, who was 43-years old.  This remains the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history
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