TTT2019: Day 40--The Emperor Abdicates...Long Live the New Emperor

Today, 85-year old Emperor Akihito abdicates, and tomorrow, his eldest son, 59-year old Crown Prince Naruhito, becomes the new Emperor.  There will not be much ceremony:  nothing for the public today, and a short national address by Naruhito tomorrow.  Then on May 2, we return to Hawaii.  This today and tomorrow thing is complicated, for departure from Tokyo is in the evening of May 2, and arrival into Honolulu the early morning of May 2.  I've had two days of my birthday twice in all my years of returning to Hawaii.  All this happens because we are 1422 miles east of the International Date Line.  As you can see, it is not a straight line.

I saw this graphic in Japan, and wondered, really, who was taller, Akihito or Michiko:

I think the reality is:

Emperor Akihito is almost 5 feet 5 inch tall.  Michiko?  Nothing in the available media provides this information.

However, incoming Empress Masako (she's wearing heels) is an inch taller than new Emperor Naruhito.  Naruhito entered the Gakushuin system at the age of four, and graduated from that university, returning later for a graduate degree in history.  In the interim, he spent three years at Oxford.  Masako speaks six languages, graduated cum laude from Harvard, also studied at Oxford, and received a law degree from Tokyo University.  She has suffered from a miscarriage and some depression.  One particular stressful situation is that they only have a daughter, meaning that the son of his brother Fumihito, or Hisahito, would be next in line.  Wish them all well in the Reiwa Era.

Pomp and circumstance will come, for on October 22 there will be an enthronement ceremony.  Dignitaries from 200 countries are expected.  Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana and U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle were among 2,200 who attended Emperor Akihito's event in 1990.  

A one-time Constitutional exception had to be made for this abdication.  The previous one was in 1817, more than 200 years ago.  Incidentally, there is a sidebar story in The Japan Times indicating that there is some mystery about the record $450 million painting of Jesus by Leonardo da Vinci, which was purchased by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.  da Vinci died 500 years ago in 1519.

As I reported a few days ago, Japan has the oldest monarchy, beginning in 660 BC with Jinmu (right).  Naruhito will become the 126th emperor, in the Reiwa Era.  There have been more than 250 eras because rulers sometimes started new ones to overcome a particularly difficult period.

As old as Japan is, it was the USA, General Douglas MacArthur, who rewrote the current role of the emperor in 1946-7.  Here he is with Emperor Hirohito.  Effectively, Japan was converted from a semi-feudal despotism into a model democracy.  In the process, the emperor became human, or a constitutional monarch.  By doing so, MacArthur kept Hirohito on the throne, avoiding any war crime trial.

Us?  We had breakfast at the Sendai Westin:

Caught the bullet train to Tokyo, and we're now back at the Tokyo Westin.

At the Executive Club, my dinner was alcoholic and light.  I started with Chivas and soda with  peanuts, potato chips, etc.:

A salad with more scotch and red wine:

Followed by a bacon, salmon, won ton and assorted vegetables soup:

Then some cheese with Glenlivet:

What is this?  A spoof on eating?  Nope, this is all I had for dinner, as tomorrow, hopefully the best dining experience on this trip.

Looking outside my room, just below is that mansion housing Robuchon, dinner tomorrow night:

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TTT2019: Day 39--Batteries and Wagyu

Now what could possibly be the connection between batteries and Japanese wagyu beef?  Well, today, nothing.  Two disparate subjects that ended up being the foci of this posting.

Noticed in a recent Japan Times that Elon Musk is fighting Panasonic, supplier of all the lithium-ion batteries Tesla uses.  Why doesn't Musk just make his own batteries?  Well, Panasonic owns the major patents.

This tiff reminds me of the lawsuit Stanford Ovshinsky won over Panasonic, Matsushita and Toyota almost two decades ago regarding his nickel metal hydride battery.  Unfortunately, ECD never was able to significantly cash-in on the NMHi battery, possibly because the American auto industry, especially General Motors, dreaded the coming of battery vehicles, and essentially killed the technology

But Stanford and Iris lived quite a life in Troy, Michigan.  He passed away in 2012 at the age of 89.  More than a third of a century ago, his company wanted to ease him out and asked if he could fill a chair within the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute if they provided the supporting funds.  I tried, but having never even graduated from high school, that did not work out, for universities are so elitist.  We did, however, become close friends.  Stanford was a prolific inventor, with 350 American and International patents.  Iris had a PhD in biochemistry, and they formed a wonderful partnership.  

The one passion Iris and I shared was on our search for blue-colored flowers.  We both felt that the BLUE rose Suntory developed was not blue, but lavender.  Incidentally, it was announced that a blue tulip has been created.  I don't think so.

Incidentally, wonder what will be the next battery?  I'll tell you.  The lithium battery will be the final major version.  Why?  Its place in the chemical table.  There is no other element capable of replacing lithium.  You will read about nanotechnology, nanowires, graphene, liquid electrolytes, and super capacitors.  However, all of them still will use lithium.  Lithium itself cannot be re-cycled, but there should be enough for the next few decades.

However, watch out for the fuel cell, as Japanese motor companies are already investing a lot of time and effort for something that won't come until 2030 or later.  On the basis of size and weight, fuel cells will take a car at least twice as far  as batteries, and probably more.  That graph to the left shows that, on a specific energy basis, hydrogen beats lithium 236 to 1.  The problem is that hydrogen today is too expensive and the platinum electrodes are not ideal.  I still think that the direct methanol fuel cell is the next bridge to the hydrogen economy.  Read my HuffPo of a decade ago.

Well, that's enough education for now.  Today, we caught the bullet train from Morioka to Sendai.  A typical scene as our train whizzed by at almost 200 MPH.  A bit fuzzy, but consider the speed.

In Sendai, we decided to go back to the same wagyu beef restaurant, Iseya, we experienced three weeks ago:

Above, brothers Makoto and Hirotomo Matsuzaka, who run the place.  What a name, for Matsuzaka wagyu is right up there with Miyazaki, although you really couldn't really tell the difference with Sendai wagyu.  Our meal:

You ask, where is Mystery Lady?  Well, she had the same order, and we both agreed that this was the best lunch we had on this trip, although our two meals with those three Seoul Mystery Ladies certainly are up there with the best.

The night before we leave for Hawaii, Robuchon, located across the street from the Tokyo Westin, where we'll stay tomorrow.  Robuchon is a Michelin 3-Star restaurant.  Paris only has nine of them.  Tokyo now has 19 and 230 with at least one star.  

Seems extravagant for a retired person to eat so well, but the fact of the matter is that, if you don't count train bentos, I think I've only paid for six meals in almost forty days of travel.  How so?  The Starwood Hotels I've been staying in all had fabulous breakfast buffets and an executive club with free food and drinks.  Like the Sendai Westin:

That was my entire dinner?  Yes, with a Kir Royale.  You saw my lunch today.

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TTT2019: Day 38--Back to My Original Roots...Akita

While not planned when I made reservations for TTT2019 last year, this Japan phase has become a return to my roots series of nostalgic visits.  A decade ago I dropped by Akita to search for Kenjiro's parents' roots and found, one of his grandmother's gravestone at Ganryuji Temple.  Her name was Nakayama.

So we went to Morioka Station to Shinkansen to Akita.  This is Day 2 of Golden Week, and all seats were taken on the train we wanted.  So we made a reservation on the next train, meaning we had more than a hour to walk around Morioka.  We were guided to a bridge and saw a beautiful sight of Mount Iwate.

Iwate has an elevation of 6686 feet, and is called Nanbu Fuji for its resemblance to Mount Fuji.  This Morioka mountain was a volcano 700,000 years ago.  However, it is still active, with steam and ash emission in 1919 and regular volcanic earthquakes.  What a wonderful sight on a crisp, blue day.

We caught the Komachi bullet train to Akita, unlinking from the Hayabusa Shinkansen, which went on to Shin-Hakodate two minutes later:

A complete brunch, with hamburger stew, fried chicken and duck over Caesar salad, with beer and sake, both from this region:

Turns out that we were lucky to get seats on this train, for people were clogging up all the empty space between trains:

There were, of course, cherry blossoms along the way:

In Akita, I learned that the temple site I was seeking was a one-hour taxi ride away, and we had two hours before our bullet train, so we went to something called Neburi Nagashi Kan at the Folk Performing Arts Heritage Center

The Akita Kanto Festival occurs this year from August 3-5.

So on to the bullet train back to Morioka, with Akita sochu and peanut crackers from Morioka.  Here are some typical sights:

In Morioka, we went back to Iwate Park, where most of the cherry blossom petals had fallen to the ground:

The hanami was sparsely attended:

We couldn't find anything to eat, so walked into town and looked at the line at Pairon, the most popular place for something locally distinctive called jajamen, a flat-type udon served with meat miso, chopped cucumbers, green onions, picked vegetables and grated ginger.  You add grated garlic, hot chili sauce and vinegar to your taste.

However the line was too long, so we walked into town and found another shop:

Good experience that I would highly recommend.  On our way out we noticed a line had formed:

Not much progress on my roots search, but our stay in Morioka was just right.  Tomorrow, back to Sendai for Japanese Wagyu Beef.

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