Monthly Archives: May 2008

The Lakers

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(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

As I wrote a few days ago, I’m a big big Lakers fan. Most of my friends don’t follow sports so they couldn’t care less. Or if they follow sports, they dislike the Lakers because some consider them the Yankees or Manchester United of basketball.

Well, if you’re not interested in watching the best athletes in the world move fluidly in an exciting fast-paced improvised choreography, then how about the stories of the people involved in the performance?

Why You Should Watch the Lakers

First there’s the partying owner, Jerry Buss, who’s probably the only owner of a sports team who has a PhD (in chemistry).

Then there’s the head coach, Phil Jackson. He’s referred to in the media as the Zen Master because he’s not afraid to blend his spirituality into the game. He does such things as drumming before big games to call the players to practice, having the team meditate together, and giving out specially selected books to his players. Only one other NBA coach has won as many championships.

Also on the coaching staff is the legendary Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Not only is he probably the most accomplished basketball player in history (he’s scored the most points, among numerous other records), he’s also a thoughtful writer, historian and activist. His most recent book, On the Shoulders of Giants, is about the importance of the Harlem Renaissance in American culture. I can’t say enough about this man. He has also acted extensively. Most notably he was also a good friend of Bruce Lee and appeared in one of his movies.

Kareem isn’t the only activist on the team. Ira Newble has been very active in raising awareness about the atrocities in Darfur, trying to get other players involved in pressuring the Chinese government to stop vetoing United Nations involvement in the region.

The team is a cosmopolitan blend of players representing 10 countries and 10 languages. There’s the Serbian sharpshooter, Vladimir Radmanovic. The floppy-haired Slovenian, Sasha Vujacic. The silky smooth Colombian, Trevor Ariza. And the 2006 World Championship MVP, the Spanish Catalonian, Pau Gasol.

One of the leaders of this team is the highly respected Derek Fisher. He sacrificed a part of his career so he could provide better care for his daughter who has eye cancer. But he’s more fortunate than Lamar Odom, whose infant child and grandmother died on the same day. For a real hard life, look no further than DJ Mbenga, who was a captive of warring militias during his childhood in the Congo, before he escaped to Belgium.

There are a lot of survivors on the team. Coby Karl has undergone two surgeries for cancer. The infectiously enthusiastic, Ronny Turiaf, from Martinique and France, suffered through open-heart surgery. You can see him constantly dancing during the game.

And if that doesn’t draw you into the Lakers, then you might be interested to know that every big Hollywood star clamors to attend the show. Jack Nicholson, who has been attending games since the 1970’s, is practically the Lakers mascot. Denzel Washington and Leonardo DiCaprio are regulars. And recent notables range from celebrities only there for the publicity like Paris Hilton, to sports superstars like Beckham and Pete Sampras, to musicians like Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake.

Still, the number one reason to watch is no. 24, the superstar of the team, Kobe Bryant. He spent most of his childhood in Italy and speaks Italian fluently, so that makes him pretty cool. All you need to know about him is that he was voted, by a landslide, the most feared and the best player in the league by his peers. And the man can jump over moving cars, and pools of snakes!

(Photo by Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

What is a Quilting Sword?

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still life in angkor wat

My father, an astute and thoughtful man, asked me two great questions.

What is a quilting sword?
What are you meditating about in all those Meditating Wind photos.

Today I’ll answer the first question. But I’ll let you decide which you think is true, multiple choice style.

A. A quilting sword is a curved needle made of hummingbird bone used by Turkish women to embroider their rugs. The designs are usually illustrations of their dreams, often of flying farm animals over fields of opium poppies..

B. A quilting sword is a long dagger wielded by bodyguards of the Dalai Lama. The swords are discreetly hidden under their robes. They are primarily used ceremonially to draw patterns on sand mandalas. And to peel fruit for altars.

C. A quilting sword is a term used in chaos theory to describe how folds of space are stitched violently together during a supernova explosion.

D. It comes from an old Korean saying, “Even in war, a sword is more useful when making quilts.”

Guessed yet? The answer lies after the break. Continue reading →

The Sports Exile

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I haven’t blogged much this past week because I’ve been following the NBA playoffs. The NBA is the U.S. professional basketball organization. Basketball is my favorite sport. And the Los Angeles Lakers, my favorite team, is one of four teams left playing for a championship. But more on them later.

I got to thinking about the role of sports in my life. And how complex it has become to maintain an American sports identity. In the US, sports consist of football, baseball, and basketball. Golf and Nascar are also up there. Sports allegiances are based on cities where you grew up, and where you attended university. I grew up in Los Angeles but haven’t lived there in a very long time. Yet, I’m still a diehard Lakers fan.

If you live in a small town, the local university team becomes your city team. Like the University of Oregon team represented the city of Eugene. I never attended the university but I attended games and supported the basketball and football teams. A team like the Portland Trailblazers can be supported regionally, in this case the state of Oregon, even if you’ve never lived in Portland.

In Europe and in East Asia, the emphasis is on national teams. There are more international tournaments, and rivals between countries are more pronounced. To us Americans, our attention on international sporting events occur sporadically and without the kind of passion found in other countries. It’s not good or bad. It’s geographic reality.

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When I was a kid I followed baseball religiously. But once Rupert Murdoch, evil corporate media demon (he owns Fox), bought the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team I grew up with, I drifted away from the game. He proceeded to fire or force retire all the managers and front office staff who had been with the organization for decades and installed idiotic sycophants from hockey and investment banking who traded away the best players on the team. It was gut-wrenching and I haven’t been back to the Major Leagues since, even though the team has been sold again to a less evil corporate entity.

British Ball
It’s been a struggle to follow basketball from overseas, in a world where soccer is number one. The closest I got in the UK to watching the NBA is following the US Olympic team fall to an embarrassing third place. I was in a pub with some of my Spanish friends when the American team lost to Spain. There’s nothing worse than bearing the brunt of smack talk in both Spanish and English by people who know nothing about the sport and had watched a basketball game maybe twice in their entire lives. Other than that, I was forced to try to get into soccer, rugby, and cricket.

Rugby was alright since it resembled American football, but whenever I tried to apply football rules and strategies I found myself befuddled.

I got into soccer during the Euro Cup because the nationalistic angle of the tournament was mesmerizing. It was the one event that riveted all of Europe, more so than the World Cup, because there are more European nations represented. The racial make-up of the teams, the styles of play, the nationalist discourses, the racist chants. And the sport played at the highest levels. The best way to describe the frenzy it aroused is to compare it to March Madness, the college basketball tournament in the US, but multiplied by a thousand. It deserves a blog post all its own.

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I tried to give cricket a try. Here was an ancestral form of baseball. There’s a bat and small hard ball, some mitts and a couple of bases. Sounds pretty good so far. But here’s what I couldn’t get over. The batting team was drinking tea from fine porcelain and eating crumpets. There was not one dirt stain on their pristine white uniforms. And the score was 198 to 0. And this was just the first day of a three day match. What the hell? Once you break out the fine china, it ceases to be a sport and irrevocably enters the world of tea parties. I swept this ‘sport’ into the cardboard box where I keep my curling equipment.

Sports in Japan
Soccer is also big in Japan but it’s second to baseball. Next might be Sumo. Then there are lots of other sports that get a lot of media exposure, especially synchronized swimming, golf, and women’s volleyball.

I’m good with soccer, but I continue to follow only the international tournaments, especially the regional Asian contests.

Baseball, of course, is something I’m comfortable with. I’ll watch a Yomiuri Giants game on TV now and then, and attend a game on occasion. It’s played and watched in a completely different way than in the US. It reminds me of the disciplined strategic way baseball used to be played back home. The fans have songs and chants for each player. It’s more entertaining to watch the organized cheering section than the game itself.

Again, I really am fascinated by the international events more than the club teams. I thought the World Baseball Championships last year were brilliant. Korea’s run was amazing, beating Japan twice, and the US once. The system was flawed though when Japan took the crown after finally being able to beat Korea on the third try.

I was in a pub in Shibuya watching that game, amidst a very raucous Japanese crowd. It was surprising to observe a normally reserved people burst into a loud patriotic furor, and I sensed a frustrated national pride able to express itself. I admit I was a little taken aback. But I suppose it’s the kind of nationalist bravado that I’ve observed everywhere around the world in one form or another.

The most compelling baseball in Japan is the Koshien. The best high school teams from all over Japan compete in Osaka every year in a single elimination tournament. Like March Madness, there are perennial powers and scrappy underdogs and cinderellas. Whole villages travel to attend the games. The players cry after a loss. Folk heroes are created. And each player always takes a bit of the dirt from the field.

Sumo, as I’ve blogged before, is something I immediately enjoyed. It’s got pageantry, ritual, and enormous, surprisingly quick, powerful men pounding or throwing each other into submission. Now that’s a sport. It’s the anti-cricket.

So that’s what my sports world has become. International events that come every few years, like the World Cup and the Olympics. Sumo matches on occasion. A stray baseball game. And every morsel of the NBA that I can scavenge from the internet. So in my next post, I’ll write about what makes basketball so damn tasty.

Firefoxes in the Tama Zoo

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consultation

Yesterday, one of my students, who’s a reporter, told me her most recent article was about the sharp rise in zoo visitors in Japan. There were a whopping 40 million visitors to zoos in 2007, up from a few hundred thousand, ten years ago. That’s a huge increase. And that’s a third of the entire Japanese population. We discussed what factors might have contributed to the sharp increase. She speculated that it was because zoos have been trying to be more innovative and interactive. Whatever the reason, I happen to have contributed to that number since I’ve gone to a zoo 4 times in the last year.

On the one hand, I have deep reservations about confining animals for human pleasure. On the other hand, I love to be among wildlife and look at animals. So while I feel awe at the wondrous variety of living creatures, I also leave feeling a little depressed at the conditions of some of the cages. Some zoos are active in conservation efforts and others are just props for human recreation. Most are a blend of the two.

silver buck

Tama Zoological Park
There are three zoos in the Tokyo area. There’s the Inokashira Zoo, which I’ve written about previously, lies on the props for human recreation end of the spectrum. The Ueno Zoo is the largest and most well-known. The best zoo is the Tama Zoological Park. Unlike the other two zoos, the Tama Zoo is in the suburbs. It takes almost an hour to get there from central Tokyo. But it’s well worth the trip.

Also unlike the other two zoos, the Tama Zoo tries to do away with traditional cages. Instead, its animals are placed in large open areas that mimic their natural habitats. It’s far from perfect. Some of the habitats are much smaller than what they would experience in the wild. But as far as zoos go, the creatures could run around a bit, as opposed to pacing back and forth behind bars, like they do in most other zoos. And they can hang out among trees and dirt, instead of plaster and concrete.

The zoo is ensconced at the foot of some small mountains, and most of it is like a big park, where you can get a decent workout hiking around between the exhibits. The zoo is separated into four zones.

The Australian Garden is the smallest, and consists mostly of nocturnal creatures that were difficult to see, and koalas, who are about as exciting to observe as sleeping homeless men. You can also enter the kangaroo habitat and be among the curious joeys.

The Asiatic Garden and the African Garden were the largest and most varied zones. Many of the herding animals were placed in one big area. The lions are in a large crater-like pit, where shuttle buses drive visitors among them. Mostly, the lions slept and kept a wary eye on the gawkers. An unusual feature is the Orangutan Skywalk. Ropes and cables that span a section of the zoo connect two enclosures and orangutans move between them.

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I’m a big bird fan. And raptors, or birds of prey, are my favorite. There were species I’d never seen up close, like the intimidating harpy eagle, and the fluffy but sizable snow owl. Most of them were kept in a spacious netted cage where they had enough room to glide around. That was cool.
Among the mammals, I loved watching the red pandas. I’d never heard of them before I saw them in Ueno Zoo. They’re active and, (maybe I’ve been in Japan too long), so damn cute. I even broke down and bought a red panda stuffed doll. I originally planned on giving it to my nephew, but sorry JJ, I think I’ll keep it for myself. I learned that this was the original panda, sharing habitat with the giant pandas. Although they are unrelated species. And among locals they were known as firefoxes, which is a way cooler name. The picture is from Wikipedia.

insectarium

T liked the more fearsome snow leopards and cheetahs. Yet she was more than a little freaked out by the tiny, mostly harmless, insects in the Insectarium. This is by far the best display of insects I’ve ever seen. There are two main parts. One had endless terraniums of all kinds of varieties of bugs. And then there was the Butterfly Garden, a cathedral-size glass enclosure where thousands of butterflies fluttered amok. It was magical to wander among them. The zoo is worth the visit just for this feature.

Directions

The zoo is closed on Wednesdays. The official website’s directions aren’t so good, so here’s my version. To get there, take the Keio Line Express from Shinjuku Station to Takahata-Fudo Station. Then take the Tama Dobutsuen Line to Tama Dobutsu-koen Station, which is a 4 minute ride. You could also take the monorail from Takahata-Fudo, but it costs a little extra. It takes 40 minutes total.

Since this is the 50th anniversary of the zoo, there were new exhibits that were being worked on when we were there. They should be completed now. This is a great excursion out of the urban center.

Top photo by T. Funada. Red Pandas from Wikipedia commons.

St. Mary’s Cathedral

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St. Mary's Cathedral

Japan’s most important architect is the late Kenzo Tange. Previously I wrote about visiting one of his works, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. And I also wrote about one of his works being featured in an exhibit about architectural photography. I visited this structure, St. Mary’s Cathedral. Built in 1963, the cathedral, which is the seat of the Catholic Church in Japan, is a striking building, gleaming like a futuristic space station. The design is decades ahead of its time, using dramatic vaults that dip in the center. From the sky, you can see the traditional shape of the cross.

let there be light

While the exterior is lined with metal siding, the interior is bare concrete, presaging the current popularity of this look. The cavernous interior hearkens to the echoing spaces of traditional cathedrals. The spine of the vault consists of a long line of skylights. Inside there were numerous modern art elements such as the cubist baptismal.

baptismal

I like this quote that I found by Tange:

Architectural creation is a special form of comprehending reality….This understanding of reality which takes place through architectural creation requires that the anatomy of reality, its substantial and spiritual structure, be grasped as a whole…

— Kenzo Tange

Because the cathedral is far form any train or subway station, there was only a trickle of tourists on the grounds. When I was inside, there was no one. It was eerie. Outside, the bell tower is a sharp white needle that seems to disappear into the sky. It was a nice contrast to the billowy cathedral.

eaves and bell towers

Directions.

To get to the cathedral, take the Yamanote Line to Mejiro statioin. Turn right on the street in front of the station and walk for about 20 minutes. You can take a bus but I prefer walking. On the way I passed Gakushuin University, where the Japanese royal family attends, Tokyo Women’s University and the Kodansha Museum, which was closed on a Wednesday.

hobby horse

Near the cathedral I chanced upon the Humpty Café, which is a small cozy restaurant with lots of interesting objects throughout. The main theme appeared to be children’s books. The only dishes offered were curry. It was ok. The coffee was quite good though. Then across the street from the cathedral was a wholesale nursery and it was fun looking at a lot of very cheap plants, which I didn’t want to buy and carry back.

Other than that, there really isn’t much in the neighborhood. But if you want to see one of Tokyo’s most unique buildings, and experience a rare quiet religious moment, it’s well worth the trek.