MY FAMILY, Part 6 Return to Akita

Election day:

• Brazil.
• October 25.
• Flavio Bolsonaro (left) and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

• 
  Bolsonaro holds a slight lead in polls with 50.9% of the vote.  
• It was Flavio's father who was jailed for an attempted coup to hold onto power.
• Lula represents the left-wing camp, while Bolsonaro the right.

• 
  The history is too much to totally comprehend, because Jair Bolsonaro (father of Flavio) gained nationwide recognition during the 2016 impeachment proceedings against Lula's protegee, then-President Dilma Rousseff.  Bolsonaro went on to win the 2118 election while Lula was serving a prison sentence on corruption charges.  But Lula's conviction was overturned, and he made this comeback.  In the meantime, Jair Bolsonaro was convicted by Brazil's Supreme Court over a 2022 election conspiracy case.  Following all this?
• Flavio is a toned-down version of his father Jair.
• Who should you root for?
• Well, Donald Trump shares a close personal alliance with Jair Bolsonaro.
• 
  Trump does not support Lula.
• But Lula met Trump in the White House in May of this year and they exchanged public compliments.
• And, three weeks later met with Flavio Bolsonaro in the Oval Office.

• I was confused, so asked Google AI, which person would be better for future relations with the USA?

Determining whether a victory for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro or incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil's October 25, 2026, runoff election is better for the United States depends on how U.S. policymakers weigh competing economic, security, and diplomatic priorities. Foreign policy analysts from organizations like the Hudson Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations observe that each candidate presents distinct trade-offs for Washington. [1, 2, 3]

• 
  Oh well, what about Israel's elections on October 27?
• This is run a bit differently.  These will be parliamentary elections, and which party best able to form a coalition government in the Knesset of at least 61 votes determines who becomes president.  Netanyahu's party is Likud.  But they don't necessarily need to win the most votes.  There are 10-12 parties in the Knesset.  See the difficulty?

• 
  President Trump supports Benjamin Netanyahu.  
• Vice President Vance declined to endorse Netanyahu.
• I asked Google AI, about these elections.

Whether a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the October 27 Knesset elections is "better" or "worse" for the United States depends on differing political, strategic, and regional perspectives.

• 
  Finally, the U.S. midterm elections on November 3.  I'll come back to this some other day.  I still am worried if these will be held.

Tuesday is nostalgia day for this blog site, so today I continue my series on searching for my roots.  In September of 2009:

• ANOTHER JOURNEY BEGINS
• THAILAND: LAND OF THE NICE
• IF IT’S THURSDAY, I MUST BE IN SAIGON
• I MADE IT TO VIETNAM
• HO CHI MINH CITY
• HONG KONG
• KOREA
• SOME FACTOIDS FROM THE ORIENT
• FROM TOKYO TO NIIGATA ON THE SHINKANSEN
• NIIGATA: #1 IN RICE AND SAKE
• CONTINUED ROOTS SEARCH IN AKITA

Today, my first stop was to the Ganryuji Temple near Kariwano in Akita Prefecturewhere I learned that the priest we only met with in April recently passed away.  I’ll need to return and talk to his son, who is now the new priest, something like the 14^th generation. Both great-great-grandmothers probably lived in this region around Daisen City soon after 1800. Interesting that this Nakayama (Kenjiro's mother side) gravestone looks very similar to Kenjiro's on the island of Kauai. Most of them in this graveyard look different. By the way, there seems to be a lot of Takahashis in this part of the Japan.

A year later, in September of 2010, I began another World Odyssey.

• FALL 2010 WORLD ODYSSEY: Honolulu to Tokyo
• The Tuvalu Renewable Hydrogen Mission
• THE BLUE REVOLUTION AND THE JAPAN MARINE TECHNOLOG...

• BACK TO MY ROOTS

• *CRUISING TO HOKKAIDO
• MY JOURNEY TO WAKKANAI

  What I was doing was re-tracing the journey Kenjiro's (he is my father's father, or my grandfather after whom I was named) parents took through a government policy to fend of Russia from Hokkaido.  My effort began in Akita.  This Japan portion was only the beginning of a monumental world trip.  Went next  on to Seoul. The total global journey:

  South Korea

  China

  Switzerland

  Kenya

  Tanzania

  Qatar

  Norway

  Netherlands

  Italy

  USA

  DC

  Austin

  Las Vegas

  Honolulu

But back to my roots search.

• About 156 years ago, or around the year 1870, Kenjiro's parents caught a ship from Akita to Otaru.
• So I did the same in 2010.
• Lunch was served in my cabin.
•  About a dozen small Japanese dishes arrived with a Sapporo beer, and I thought that was it.  But no, then came ikura/rice, miso soup and a fancy tsukemono:

• As I mentioned earlier, Kenjiro was born in Otaru.  His family eventually found their way to Sapporo, then up to Utashinai.
• My next roots posting will continue my quest.
• On this trip I had dinner with two old friends, ocean engineering professors at Nihon University.  Hiromi was the person who accompanied my wife and I in the April 2009 roots search.

Let me first describe a very fine Italian dinner I had with Yayoi/Takeo Kondo and Hiromi/Kenji Hotta, two ocean technology professors from Nihon University. After all, this is a crusade for the Blue Revolution, and Nihon University will be at the front with the original partners.

I'll end this series later with my visits to the home of Kenjiro Takahashi, Utashinai on Hokkaido.  It is the city with smallest population in Japan.  Why those tall lights?  In the winter there is so much snow that that snowplows pushing snow to the side can reach banks of 10 feet and higher.

Super Typhoon Champi is getting more dangerous.

• Yesterday, the eye was at 160 MPH.
• But weakened to 150 MPH earlier today.
• However, at last check, jumped to 180 MPH.

• 
  The path is now closer to Ishigaki Island.
• Has a population of 48,816.
• There is a new airport.
• Kind of like Hawaii of the past, with economy of pineapple and sugar, plus tourism.
• Sister island of Kauai.

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MY FAMILY, Part 5 Akita

Nothing much happening about wars in Iran and Ukraine, but as messy as the world economy might be, the U.S. stock markets are continuing to BREAK ALL-TIME RECORDS.  To the right, Peter Tuchman, the Einstein of Wall Street.

• The S&P 500 added 0.6% to close at 7819, hitting an intraday high of 7844.  This was its 28th record close just in 2026.

• 
  The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.45% to a record 27,600, with an intraday high of 27,723.  NVIDIA went up to a new high, opening at $242/share, and ended at $239.24, just below its all-time high.

• NVIDIA was only 185.54/share a year ago.
• Ten years ago?  $1.78/share.
• If you bought $1000 worth of NVIDIA stock at the 1999 IPO, this would  be worth $6,369,667 today!!!
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 0.5% to 51,527.  The all-time closing high on 5August2026 is 54,340, after rising to an intraday high of 54,744.

The USA is exactly four weeks away from 3November2026, the day of the mid-term elections.

• Can President Donald Trump postpone these elections?  Well, according to Federal law mandates, only an act of Congress can change the date.

• 
  However, keep in mind that neither the U.S. Congress nor U.S. Supreme Court has any enforcement power.  
• Our Constitution is flawed.  
• The President controls the Department of Defense, Department Justice and all the national guard units.

Heard of Skydance Corporation?  Asked Google AI:

Skydance has officially created a tech-driven Hollywood behemoth. Following the massive, blockbuster $110 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, the newly consolidated entertainment giant is moving fast to restructure its executive leadership with top Silicon Valley talent—including a significant influx of former Google AI and product veterans. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

• From Wikipedia:

The company combines the assets of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. Its portfolio includes the company's flagship film studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, broadcast and news networks CBS and CNN, subscription video and on-demand services Paramount+, Pluto TV, HBO Max, and Discovery+, children's cable networks Nickelodeonand Cartoon Network, and other major cable networks like Comedy Central, MTV, TBS, and TNT.^[4]

• 
  Led by David Ellison, who is a close ally of President Donald Trump.  Steve Jobs, a friend of David's father, Larry, had an early influence.
• Why graduate from college?
• Larry dropped out of the University of Illinois while in pre-med, University of Chicago, while studying physics math and computer design, and Cal Berkeley, where he left as a budding computer programmer.  

• 
  Founded Oracle.
• Married 6 times and has seven children.
• Has a net worth just above $200 billion.  
• Forbes ranked him as the richest Californian in 2006, and was briefly the wealthiest person in the world on 10September2025.
• He owns 98% of the island of Lanai in Hawaii, which he bought in 2012 for what is now worth $700 million.

• 
  Has $19 billion invested in Tesla.
• Owns four Van Goghs.
• I focused on Larry Ellison in my 20August2026 posting, reporting on his life extension efforts.
• Has controlling influence over Skydance Corporation, and his son runs the company.
• CBS has already been compromised.
• CNN next?

I left you in Part 3 focused on my roots search in Sapporo, with a mention about Otaru, then in Part 4 about Japan in general.  From Hokkaido, we caught the Shinkansen to Morioka, and transferred to Akita.

• We went to the Sakigake Shimpo (local newspaper) and was interviewed by Yuya Hatanaka.

• 
  He was sufficiently intrigued that he drove us to the oldest temple in the area.  We learned two important things.
• Shinto shrines have no records, while Buddhist temples keep track of deaths.
• The priest there called various Buddhist temples, and found one, Ganryuji, that showed promise to have the records (koseki) for Fuka Nakayama, the mother of Kenjiro Takahashi.

• 
  Went to Ganryuji and met with the Chief Priest, Ryo Sen Hino and his son, who will be the next, his son, who will be the next.  The family had governed this Buddhist temple for 415 years.  Kenichi will become the #19 priest there.  They found some information about the Nakayama family,  This is the headstone for the Nakayama family.

• 
  Learned one more important bit of information.  City offices only retain records for 80 years.  Certainly, there will be no records of Kenjiro's grandmothers, for they were born 200 years ago.
• I have concluded that both of Kenjiro's grandmothers never made it to Sapporo, but lived in Akita and/or nearby Senboku/Daisen Cities, or Kariwano. There is also a tale of Tatsuko, the Dragon Princess of Lake Tazawa, a short distance from Akita. That could be a future search target. We are gaining the counsel of Professors Ikuko Iwasaki and Hideharu Takahashi, both of Akita Prefectural University. Pictured below is a photo of the group having an aloha dinner at a traditional, but modern, Japanese restaurant, called I Enjoy.

My conclusion from our roots search to Otaru, Sapporo and Akita.

1. A good, quick history of Hokkaido can be found by clicking here. Essentially, very, very few lived on this island except for Ainu in the timeframe of Kenjiro’s grandmothers. For example, Sapporo had a population of 13 in 1870. Thus, the search is now focusing on the Akita area.

2. Akita is known for good rice and, yes, the dog. However, I don’t think I’ve yet to see a real Akita dog. Pearl pointed one out, but it looked to me as too small. Another thing about pet dogs in Japan is that most of them have very short legs, sort of like small dachsunds, but of varied species.

3. There must be billions of toothpicks all over the ground in Japan, for every time you open up a chopstick, one falls to the floor.

4. We have been to a whole host of Japanese restaurants on this trip, some very traditional and expensive, and some not. However, save for one, they all played either American or Beatles music. The preferred background sound is soft jazz.

5. Japan toilets, almost all Toto, are fantastic.  Watch this video.  Warm seats and a bottom shower.  I have installed one at my 15 Craigside apartment.

Part 6 will be my return to Akita.

A lot of national days today.

National Taco Day: Celebrate with your favorite tacos. [1]
National Noodle Day: Enjoy a bowl of pasta or noodles. [1]
National Coaches Day: Thank a coach who made a difference. [1]
National Mad Hatter Day: Embrace your creativity and wear a silly hat. [1, 2]

National German-American Day: Honor German heritage and culture. [1, 2]
National Plus Size Appreciation Day: Promote body positivity. [1, 2]

National Orange Wine Day: Try a skin-contact white wine. [1, 2]
No Oranges Used: Orange wine is made entirely from white wine grapes.
Skin Contact: The white grape juice ferments with its skins and seeds still attached, much like the process for red wine.
Color and Flavor: This extended contact gives the wine an amber, golden, or auburn shade, alongside a richer texture, bolder flavor, and natural tannins.
National Fruit at Work Day: Snack on healthy fruit at your desk.

So I took today seriously.  Went out to get a taco for lunch.  I will have Japanese soba and tuna sashimi for dinner.

I close with CHEER UP, Wilbur.

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