From the monthly archives:

August 2010

Tokyo Marathon: The Gauntlet Thrown Down

August 20, 2010

(395 words)

I applied Monday to participate in the annual promenade known as the Tokyo Marathon.  Yes, I, of  slow, encumbered gait, have thrown my hat into the ring, cast my gauntlet to the ground, drawn a line in the sand, and all that.  And, should I receive confirmed entry, hereby declare that I will not only run in said marathon, but shall finish said marathon.

Official notification will follow in October.   This sort of thing takes time, as — and this is really amazing – thousands line up for chance to spend four to six hours running in cold weather.  With any luck come February, I will join them in taking a long, slow jog around Tokyo, swearing at the cold.

Until several weeks ago, the Tokyo Marathon seemed like something I could reasonably do.  I just needed to put in the time training.  Then I managed to sprain my ankle, twist my knee, and jam my hip with one kick of a soccer ball.  It was a beautiful goal, I will, in all modesty, admit: A stunning shot, that rocketed past the amazed goalkeeper’s nose and into the net; a shot that turned the tide in an incredibly important game (parents and kids vs. parents and kids), and that also left its or creator in a heap on the turf, attempting to hide pain and embarrassment.

The goalkeeper, a former college player, approached: Hey, good shot.  How long have you been playing? Uh, wait, are you all right?  What could I say, but the truth? I have less experience in soccer than my 5-year-old son.  And, no, I’m not all right.

More truth: I have even less experience with marathons.  I did at one time run three to five miles a day — at one time, long, long ago — but I am really new to marathons.  Among the questions on the entry form was “Will you have a guide runner?”  I thought about this for a moment: Well, I know a guy who has run the Tokyo Marathon every year.  I guess I could follow him until he disappears over the horizon…. I was about to put his name down, when I figured out what it was actually asking.

But I digress, the challenge had been made: If given the chance, I will complete this ridiculously long race.  I provide the link in case you would like to join me.

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Tokyo’s Loss: The Destruction of the Kabukiza

August 13, 2010

The Kabukiza, March 2010

(384 words)

This is an obituary; a belated one, but an obituary all the same.

This isn’t, however, an obituary for the Kabukiza, but we’ll have to start there:  The Kabukiza had been the emotional heart of kabuki in Tokyo for nearly a century.  The building, conceived in the 1920s, and repaired after the Great Kanto Earthquake (1922) and Allied bombings (1945) was one of the last of the true landmarks in this city.  Despite being named a  “Registered Tangible Cultural Property” in 2002, the Kabukiza was allowed to be demolished because it was too small and, its owner insisted, too weak to withstand earthquakes (What about 1922?).

Good night and good-bye, Kabukiza

The truth is, the property is valuable and it needs to generate more revenue and the way to do that is accommodate more customers, which the new building will do.  The theater company also made a killing last spring as hordes of  aged customers came to pay their final respects to a place that had been a focal point of Japanese culture in the years after the war.

We are promised a “traditional” roof over the front entrance, which will only remind us of what was lost: A boroque Japanese revivalist landmark that had survived a century of earthquakes and war.

I have seen performances twice at the Kabukiza and twice at the National Theater.  Tokyo doesn’t need another modern venue – it already has the National Theater.  What Tokyo does need is more of a sense of place; a visual sense of what is special about Tokyo and living here.  Few modern buildings have risen to that standard: Roppongi Hills is an exhausting, and ultimately defeating maze; Shiodome, a sprawling complexity of caverns and escalators.  Tokyo Midtown, with its open spaces and linear Japanese styling, is the only recent landmark worthy of Tokyo.

Having only a handful of architectural treasures is a remarkable accomplishment for Tokyo, considering the sheer vastness of this metropolis, and proof how little architecture and landscape are valued here.

Isn’t it odd that Tokyo so prides itself in gathering the best things from the world within its boundaries and yet is has preserved so little of its own architecture?  It is the death of this,  Tokyo’s sense of place, that this obituary mourns.  The Kabukiza is just one more nail in the coffin.

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South Africa Security Succeeds at the World Cup

August 3, 2010

Well, the dust has been settled and, setting aside all the on-field tragedies and triumphs, it is safe to say that Johannesburg succeeded where even many of its supports thought it would fail: Security.

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Borehole Battle: The Fight over Kalahari Water

August 3, 2010

Because of my past work with Botswana and Debswana Diamond, a friend on Facebook forwarded to me an item that was posted to the Allafrica.com site. The release was put out by Survival International and concerned a court ruling denying the Bushmen access to a borehole that was created during mining exploration.

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