We caught the Super Hokuto from Sapporo to Shin-Hakodate. My bento on the train:
Bought a full brunch before getting to the platform, but right there was a stand making noodles. So I got exactly the same soba with egg and tempura I had for lunch yesterday to add to the pork and beef plates. One of my better train meals on this trip.
Saw more snow, but what caught my eye was all those plastic fishnet floats:
In the current issue of Hawaiian Airline's Hana Hou, there is an article by Rosemary Camozzi entitled Sphere Joy. It reported on people like Amos Wood, who wrote in 1967, Beachcombing for Japanese Glass Floats. You can get a copy from Amazon for $74.
How many glass balls were produced? Just in 1966, 6 million. He estimated that around the time of his book, 10 million glass balls were circulating. He described how these glass balls travel mostly in a clockwise pattern around the North Pacific Ocean. It takes a little more than six years for half of them to make a complete cycle, and half reach land or break each time.
He calculated that 100 million glass balls escaped into the ocean, so that after 6.3 years, half would remain....leading to, perhaps, millions out there today even though the fishermen converted to plastic floats half a century ago. The last glass ball might be found as far into the future as 2177. So go out there and beachcomb for them.
Back to 2019, in Shin-Hakodate we transferred to the Hayabusa (peregrine falcon), the bullet train to Tokyo. This section began operation in 2016 and passes through the Seikan Tunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world at 33.5 miles.
Bought a full brunch before getting to the platform, but right there was a stand making noodles. So I got exactly the same soba with egg and tempura I had for lunch yesterday to add to the pork and beef plates. One of my better train meals on this trip.
Saw more snow, but what caught my eye was all those plastic fishnet floats:
There were thousands, several on every beach. No one picks them up. They're all about the size of a volleyball.
I recall so fondly back in my Kauai days in the early to mid-1960's when my wife I strolled along its northern beaches and picked up fishnet balls made of glass. Many softball size, but occasional volleyball and basketball size. We found one one day that was even larger. All usually greenish color. Not sure what I did with them.
In the current issue of Hawaiian Airline's Hana Hou, there is an article by Rosemary Camozzi entitled Sphere Joy. It reported on people like Amos Wood, who wrote in 1967, Beachcombing for Japanese Glass Floats. You can get a copy from Amazon for $74.
How many glass balls were produced? Just in 1966, 6 million. He estimated that around the time of his book, 10 million glass balls were circulating. He described how these glass balls travel mostly in a clockwise pattern around the North Pacific Ocean. It takes a little more than six years for half of them to make a complete cycle, and half reach land or break each time.
Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer is now the world authority with his book: Flotsametrics and the Floating World. You can get a Kindle version for $6.99.
He calculated that 100 million glass balls escaped into the ocean, so that after 6.3 years, half would remain....leading to, perhaps, millions out there today even though the fishermen converted to plastic floats half a century ago. The last glass ball might be found as far into the future as 2177. So go out there and beachcomb for them.
Back to 2019, in Shin-Hakodate we transferred to the Hayabusa (peregrine falcon), the bullet train to Tokyo. This section began operation in 2016 and passes through the Seikan Tunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world at 33.5 miles.
We got off at Morioka and checked into the Morioka Grand Hotel Annex, ideally located close to cherry blossoms. My interest was in the Rock-Splitting Cherry Tree, Ishiwari Sakura, located a block from our hotel. It is 360 years old and growing out of a crack in a granite boulder in front of the district courthouse. It was proclaimed a national treasure in 1923:
Just another block away is Morioka Castle / Iwate Park. No Blue-Bars, but a lot of crows:
Mind you, there were other flowers:
Across the street was Hinoya Curry, where we had our dinner:
A very relaxing day. Tomorrow? Don't know.
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