MY BEST DINNER IN MONTREAL

I'll start with those two tropical storms approaching Hawaii.  Both will become serious hurricanes....but largely miss the islands.

• Hurricane Karina, to the east and north, just attained Category 4 strength, but should slowly weaken as she heads on a path that will be just north of the Hawaiian Islands around the time of my birthday, September 6.  Unfortunately, we will board the Silver Whisper on September 3 to Honolulu.
• Lowell will become a hurricane today and move westward, just south of the Big Island of Hawaii.

The Sheraton Le Centre is ideally located in the middle of the Montreal Golden Square Mile.  Around 100 yards  away are three Oriental restaurants.  We went had a Chinese lunch on Thursday, Korean lunch of Saturday, and Japanese dinner on Sunday.

Dinner began with edamame and miso soup with Sapporo Beer and hot sake.

Then a salad.

We shared a Sukiyaki meal.

End of meal with noodles.

Then green tea ice cream.

Throughout the dinner, the background music was Japanese songs from before World War II to the early recovery period in the 1950s.  With Baroque and Disco periods, this genre is among my favorites.  So I thought I would end my posting today by nostagically segueing into this mood.

• The title, and no idea how far back this goes, but, growing up in Honolulu, I somehow remember this song.
• Japanese songs soon after World War II.
• Don't know t
• There is a 1939 Japanese film, Aizen Katsura, with a song of the same name.

• 
  For no reason I can recall, Wakare No Isochidori has been my favorite Japanese song.
• Was popular in Hawaii before it became a hit in Japan in 1952.
• Why?  Written by Hawaii-born Francis Zanami.  He died of a heart attack at the age of 44 in 1949.
• A bittersweet mood of lonely beach plovers (English translation of isochidori) departing (wakare).

• 
  There was a 1954 Japanese film, Twenty-Four Eyes, which features a famous graduation song, Aegeba Toutoshi.  This movie, with Hideko Takamine (she later returns as the singer of Ginza Kan Kan Musum) as the teacher, actually beat Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai for the Golden Globe best Foreign film in 1955, which is my all-time favorite Japanese movie.  You can watch this Kurosawa production on Apple TV for $3.99, but here it is for FREE!!!

• 
  Ginza Kan Kan Musume was the theme of a 1949 movie by the same name, sung by Hideko Takamine.  Rather than a dark lament, the lyrics and energetic delivery portrayed independent, young women getting by with spunk and style despite post-war hardships. [1, 2, 3]

• 
  The most popular singer of this period was Misora Hibari.  She recorded 1200 songs and sold 68 million records.
• Her first song at age 12, Kanashiki Kuchibue, from the 1949 film The Sad Whistle.  Click on that and watch the entire 1 hr 23 min movie, colorized.
• Her Kawa No Nagare No You Ni  was released in 1989 as her final single, for she passed away later in the year.  Voted the Japanese song of all time during a national poll in 1997.  Here is a version by Teresa Teng of Taiwan.  She returns later with a Chinese song.
• 
  Kokoni Sachi Ari is a song especially popular in Hawaii, especially in karaoke bars.
• Originally released by Yoshiko Ootsu in Japan in 1956.
• When I was a senior at McKinley High School in Honolulu, I had a friend who was a junior there.  His name was Teddy Chinen.  When I returned home after graduating from college, his name was Teddy Tanaka, and he had the most popular version in Hawaii, with an English title, Here is Happiness.  He went on to become a popular local singing star.
• 
  Rene Paulo on his piano also that year had a noteworthy release.
• Here is yet another version with early photos.

From Google AI, a noteworthy double album about these old Japanese songs:

The Club Nisei Orchestra features classic Japanese music and island-style covers recorded across albums like Club Nisei: Japanese Music of Hawaii and Encore: Japanese Music of Hawaii. [1, 2, 3]

Popular Tracks from Club Nisei

Otomi-san (feat. Aiko Bingo)
Ohtone Zukiyo (feat. Harold Sasahara)
Tokyo Serenade (feat. Harold Sasahara)
Sina No Yoru (feat. Jane Itai / Jane Yoshino)
Momotaro-san (feat. Sparky Iwamoto)
Ringo Oiwake (feat. Mari Minami)
Sendo Kawai Ya (feat. Alma Shimabukuro)
Machi No Hatoba (feat. Sadame Miyazu)
Tokyo Boogie Woogie (feat. George Shimabukuro)
Tanko Bushi (feat. Itsuo Tokunaga)
Asatoya Yunta (feat. Yukie Tsutsumi)
Hibari No Madorosu-san (feat. Ted Shimabukuro)
Koko Ni Sachi Ari (feat. Errol Nakao) [1, 2]

Popular Tracks from Club Nisei - Encore

Tonko Bushi
Akogare Wa Basha Ni Notte
Musume Sendo-San (feat. Alma Shimabukuro)
Bungawan Solo
Ina No Koi Uta (feat. Aiko Bingo)
Gomen Nasai (feat. Errol Nakao)
Hyo-tan Boogie (feat. Aiko Bingo)
Ringo Mura Kara (feat. Harold Sasahara)
Tokyo Ka-Chin-Ka Musume (feat. Jane Itai)
Oranda Yashiki No Hana / Nagasaki Monogatari (feat. Sparky Iwamoto)
Samisen Madorosu (feat. Haruye Minami)
Sayonara (feat. Tokie Tamaki) [1, 2]

As I'm writing about early songs from the Orient, a Chinese song, Ye Lai Xiang deserves special mention.

• Translated as Frangrance of the Night, composed by Li Jinguang in 1944, Li Xianglan first recorded this song that year.  She changed her name in Japan and became Yoshiko Yamaguchi, rising to movie star status.  Made American films too, as Shirley Yamaguchi
• In the early autumn of 1944, Li Jinguang recorded an aria for Huang Guiqiu, a famous Peking Opera actress. In those days, the studio had no air conditioning and the room was airtight. During the recording break, Li Jinguang went out of the shed to breathe fresh air. At this time, the south wind blew, with bursts of flower fragrance, and nightingales were singing in the distance. What a wonderful time! Li Jinguang’s music thoughts are surging… That night, after returning home, Li Jinguang stayed awake all night. The beautiful scenery at that time constantly flashed in his mind, aroused infinite reverie, and the melody surging in his heart seemed to gush out… In this way, the prototype of a European and American style, rumba rhythm and dance style “Ye Lai Xiang” was born.
• 
  In 1978, Teresa Teng recorded a popular version of Ye Lai Xiang.
• Born in Taiwan in 1953.
• Had a three octave range.

• 
  Never got married.
• First boyfriend in 1971, Lin Zhenfa, a paper tycoon.  However died of a heart attack in 1978.
• Met and dated Jackie Chan in 1978, but their relationship was short-lived.
• In 1982 got engaged to Beau Kuok, son of a billionaire, but turned down a marriage proposal for one condition was for her to give up her career.
• Met French photographer Paul Quilery, dated for five years, got engaged, but died in Chiang Mai in 1995 at the age of 42 a month after getting engaged.

The Korean Kim Sisters.

• Sue and Aija were sisters, while Mia was a cousin, who was adopted by the Kim family.
• They were born in the 40s in South Korea.
• Group started singing in the U.S. from 1953.  Performed more than 20 times on The Ed Sullivan Show.  Also the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas.
• Covered the Coasters' Charlie Brown.  Kim Sisters version.
• Some of their songs.

As the meal that started this posting was sukiyaki, I end with Kyu Sakamoto' Sukiyaki,  which in 1963 became the only Japanese song to ever hit #1 on Billboard.  Read my story of his tragic ending.  You need to scroll down to the final two paragraphs.  The title Sukiyaki was just made up before release in the U.S., and meaning of the song had nothing to do with cuisine.

I was researching my posting of tomorrow and stumbled across this video of the 10 best selling songs of the 1960s.   While only #3, #1 was Elvis' best-selling song of all time....and you'd never correctly guess which one was his best.

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DIS & DAT

Well, President Donald Trump said he will decide today on the potential agreement with Iran.

• However Iran's Foreign Ministry said today that the nuclear issue was not negotiable. Plus, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency indicated what Trump is saying is a mixture of truth and lies.  And what about Lebanon?

• 
  Stock market?

Stocks rose in afternoon trading on Wall Street Friday, adding to the all-time highs they set a day earlier.   The S&P 500 rose 0.2% Friday. The index is coming off six gains in a row and is headed for a ninth straight winning week, which would be the longest such streak since 2023.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Horizon exploded on its pad in Florida yesterday.  

• Watch the explosion.  
• No injuries or deaths, but a costly loss, for their only pad has been destroyed.  
• Amazon was expecting this rocket to take 48 satellites into space on the next launch.  That's now cancelled.  
• Did you know that there are maybe 15,000 satellites up there, with up to 12,000 perhaps actively operating?  

• 
  Elon Musk's SpaceX alone operates over 10,000 Starlink satellites.  You ask, how did he do that?
• Falcon 9 rockets are reusable, and can carry up to 60 satellites per flight.
• Launched multiple batches every month from Florida and California.
• When the Falcon 9 reaches Low Earth Orbit, satellites are released, and each has built-in thrusters  and autonomous tracking to space themselves out into their precise orbital planes.
• Amazing!  10,000 satellites, or more.

“Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard,” he said shortly after the incident.  Musk and Bezos remain direct competitors in the race to return astronauts to the moon in the face of China’s expressed goal of landing astronauts on the moon by 2030. Both companies are developing lunar landers for NASA’s Artemis program.

Congress, with some prodding from the White House, is considering issuing a $250 Donald Trump bill.  Get it?  250th anniversary for the USA this year.  Will this actually happen.  No.  Needs 60% or more of senators to approve.

Something about Southeast Asia, but that current rescue of seven Laotians certainly reminds me of what happened in Thailand in 2018.  Then, twelve members of a soccer team and their coach suffered through a similar rescue from June 23 to July 10, or 18 days.  There were 10,000 rescuers from 20 different countries. All were saved, but two Thai volunteers died.  Ron Howard directed a 2022 film, 13 Lives, which got 85/93 scores from Rotten Tomatoes.

Here are the finalists for the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee.  held in Washington, DC, the first time in 15 years.

• The winner was 14-year old Shrey Parikh from California.  
• Will take home $52,500, the Scripps Cup, a commemorative medal and other prizes.  
• Has had some history here, for he placed third in 2024 and 89th at the age of 10.
• Practiced five hours per day, and said he had an amazing community helping him.

• 
  The winning word was bromocriptine, which is a polypeptide alkaloid.  Some other tough ones were cara sposa and quincke tube.  I'm a PhD biochemical engineer, and never before heard any of them.

• 
  According to Google AI, since 2000, this competition has been won by students whose parents came from India....16 times.  
• The last most recent non-India winner was Zaila Avant-garde in 2021.  Her parents are African American.  She was the first Black winner.

• 
  Katharine Close was the last White American to win....in 2006.
• The Scripps Spelling Bee began in 1925.

How's Caitlin Clark doing?  Well she's not hurt and just became the first WNBA player in history to record 500 career assists and 1000 points in only 59 games.  The next fastest was Sue Bird, who took 82 games to achieve those numbers.

• All top 5 of the league's most-watched games in the last two years have featured Clark.
• Her merchandise sells at the level of top NBA stars like LeBron James.
• However, the Golden State Valkyries don't have a huge star (they do have Kate Martin and Kayla Thornton), but led the league in average attendance last year with 18,064 fans/game, more than the Indiana Fever with 16,560.  The Valkyries still lead the charts this year.  And they beat the Fever 90-88 when Clark set the above record.  WNBA is doing well.  Maybe I'll get a fantasy team next year.

Crystal cruises started building a new ship in Venice, Italy.  

• To be called the Crystal Grace, she is the first new ship for Crystal (now owned by Abercrombie & Kent, as of 2022) in a quarter century.   The 659-passenger ship will make its debut in 2028. 

• 
  I remember cruising a couple of times on their Crystal Harmony, which was built in Nagasaki, Japan in 1990.  Left Crystal in 1990 and renamed the MS Asuka II, which continues to operate as the largest cruise ship in Japan.  

• 
  We have been on the Crystal Symphony a couple of times, and will sail on their Crystal Serenity in the Spring of 2027, from Bali to Thailand, then Hong Kong to Tokyo.

Ocean storm Jangmi becomes a typhoon today.  However, the eye will remain to the east until it weakens and reaches southern Kyushu.  Currently expected to move along the eastern coast of Japan as a tropical storm and move up at sea parallel to Tokyo on June 3.  But that is only a prediction.

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FUKUSHIMA: A NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE

 I just watched on HBO Max, Fukushima:  A Nuclear Nightmare, a 2026 British-American documentary directed by James Jones and Megumi Inman, exploring the 11March2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.  A gripping film.  Too new to be rated by RottenTomatoes.  Read my Huffington Post article on The Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami:  The Aftermath.

The production features Ikuo Izawa, a Tokyo Electric Power Company supervisor at the nuclear site, who deserves an Oscar for his performance.  He was there from Day 1 as one of the Fukushima 50 and worked at the site until help came.  From Wikipedia:

• There were 800 workers at the site when the tsunami struck on 11March2011.
• These 50 volunteered to remain to stabilize the nuclear reactors for the crucial first few days

6 am  Wake up 7–8 am  Meeting at the anti-seismic building 

10 am Breakfast (biscuits about 30 pieces and one bottle of vegetable juice)

About 10 am  Commence tasks at the reactor building and boiler building

About 5 pm  Finish work  

5–8 pm  Supper (retort-packed rice and one canned food)

8–10 pm  Meeting at the antiseismic building

About 10 pm  Sleep, with blanket on the floor, except people who work at night.

• 
  The Fukushima 50 were present when hydrogen explosions occurred at the reactor buildings of units 1, 3, and 4. Five workers were injured in the unit 1 explosion at 15:36 on 12 March. Most of the injuries were not severe. Eleven workers were injured in the unit 3 explosion at 11:01 on 14 March. The explosion at unit 4 at about 6 am on 15 March did not cause injuries. The explosions scattered radioactive concrete debris around the buildings, which made the working conditions on the site more difficult.^[32][33]
• Media outlets lauded the remaining workers' bravery, and called them "heroes", and as a result they have become known in the media as the "Fukushima 50". France 24 called them "Japan's faceless heroes",^[58] British newspaper, The Guardian wrote: "Other nuclear power employees, as well as the wider population, can only look on in admiration".^[59] They have been compared to the Forty-seven Ronin.^[60] 

I was enraptured by the film, for, in a minor way, I felt I also was there, in a chicken little manner.

• I was in Singapore on March 10 and had MY BEST CHINESE LUNCH, EVER.  I then flew to Bangkok.
• You need to go back to my posting of 11March2011 to learn that the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear cataclysm struck.
• On March 12 I got confirmation at 4:30AM that my Thai Air flight to Narita was set to fly at 8AM.  
• So I packed and made it to the airport at 6AM.  

• 
  I flew Royal First Class, which was extraordinary:

First, you don’t stand in line but sit in a lounge area.  Then, a staff member accompanies you through immigration and arranges for a Segway type device with driver to take you to their first class room.  The ride was quite lengthy.  There might have been five passengers for a room that could easily hold a hundred or two, and a staff of a dozen and more.

Various dim sums, soups, rice dishes, etc.  I asked for a chicken fried rice with an egg, which they prepared in a kitchen, and ordered a Bloody Mary and Singha Beer.  Yes, 7AM, but it was already afternoon in Honolulu.  The flight was delayed an hour, so I had a chance to spruce up my Huffington Post Hawaii Tsunami, Again article, and field a few concerned e-mails.

I was accompanied to the plane at 9AM, was served a glass of 2002 Dom Perignon and no more then ten minutes later, it took flight, the plane, not me, yet.  Bet you did not know that Dom Perignon was a Benedictine Monk, born in 1639, who invented champagne?

Early morning departures provide a breakfast, so it was not the usually extravagant meal.  I decided I was eating too much on this trip anyway, so only ordered a boiled rice soup with salmon accompanied by a rice noodle soup.  How’s this for deprivation:

It frankly occurred to me at this point, notwithstanding the immediate above, of my real life fantasy that, while drumming my feet on the floor to the beat of Ravel’s Bolero, I was at the peak of my life.  One wonders when this will be, sort of like Peak Oil, but, no doubt, this was it. Things can only go downhill from here, and certainly will when I land in the chaos of Narita.  But it was an incredible ride and I still think I was (am, yet?) the luckiest person in the history of Humankind.  Finally, I felt a kind of euphoria traveling at the speed of a bullet at 33,000 feet, maybe akin to a prisoner on death row having his last breakfast.  I was mentally prepared for the next stage of my life, the calmness before the catastrophe.

My plane landed at around 4PM after a flight of five hours from Bangkok.  I had four bags with me, one very large, for I'm on a six week trip in hot and cold countries.  After the customs check I looked around for the usual sign with my name.  Saw none, so walked around with my bags and asked questions.  Half an hour later after determining that there were no taxis, no airport limousines, no NEX, and no Tokyo Westin pickup, I tried to call the Westin, but failed.  There was only one option, the slowest JR trains from Narita to Tokyo: 

I finally arrived at the Westin at almost 9PM.  It took me as long to fly from Thailand to Japan as to travel from Narita to the Tokyo Westin.  What an ordeal!

When I balance the good and the bad of the day, and consider that I am actually in Tokyo only a day after their largest earthquake in history, I feel blessed.  Supposedly there have been two 6.0+ aftershocks the past hour (there have been 83 of these in a little more than 24 hours), but I didn't feel anything, and things are quickly coming together in this city.  So catastrophe?  Not really.  Life remains great.

Here is my posting of 13March2011:  THE GREAT SENDAI EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI OF 2011.   To quote:

3.  Oh, by the way, at least one report has radiation already in Tokyo, less than 150 miles from Fukushima.  Whoops, I'm in Tokyo.  I was in D.C. in 1979 when the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, 100 miles away, suffered a meltdown, killing nuclear power construction in the U.S.  So how do you get iodine pills in Tokyo, and what do they do?  Amazon. com  sells it for $13.50 (14 pills), although you get it used for $5.75, plus $4 shipping.

I guess I had two postings on March 13:  THE CHICKEN AND CHICKEN LITTLE SCHOOL OF REPORTAGE.

• What I'm leading to is that, while TIME magazine reporters and CNN staff are trying to get into the Sendai area (and I talked to several of them), I am leaving town, for the second explosion at Fukushimaconvinced me that the French, indeed, must know something.  This is the Chicken and Chicken Little School of Reportage:  take no chances and assume that the sky could fall.
• NOAA sent out a graphic of tsunami heights:

• I had decided to leave Tokyo from Beijing:

I'll keep updating this posting until I board the plane, but this will be my final daily blog for five days, as China and Google are still sparring, and portals like this blog site, You Tube, etc., are blocked.  It is possible, though, that I could sneak articles through the Huffington Post, so you can check there.

I stayed a few days in Beijing, but heard that there was no radiation emanating from Fukushima to Tokyo, so I flew to Seoul to more closely observe what I would do.  

• As this blog site was shut down in China, that photo to the right is just outside of the Forbidden City in Beijing.  I also on this stop walked the Great Wall.

• Spent five days in Seoul (#2, #3 and #4).
• Had a great lunch.  All this turmoil, and I'm mostly eating.
• There were some setbacks in Fukushima.
• I continued to enjoy fine cuisine.

I had my best lunch in Korea, even better than brunch yesterday.  But my experience at Jung Sik-dang today was so fabulous that I rank it among the very best of meals ever.  I now only review lunches, and JSK compares well with Noma (Copenhagen), La Terrazza (Rome) and Konigshof Restaurant (Munich).

• I should mention that this Seoul restaurant now has two Michelin Stars, and so does his establishment in New York City.  He is touted as a pioneer of modern Korean fine dining.

I finally returned to Tokyo after this 11-day escape, and found that the Tokyo Westin only had a 12% occupancy rate.  But across the street was maybe the top international restaurant in Asia, and while this sounds profligate while the country was suffering, my next posting on March 24 was titled:  ROBUCHON IN TOKYO:  My Best French Dinner?

Across the street (view from my room above) from the Tokyo Westin is what was once Taillevent-Rubuchon, but is now only called Robuchon.  He has a dozen restaurants and has more Michelin stars than anyone.  At the age of 28 he was the youngest chef to earn 3 stars.  His only three star restaurants today are in Macao, Las Vegas and the one I went to tonight.  There are 27 Michelin 3-star (no such thing as 4-star) restaurants in Japan, 37 in France and 11 in the USA.  He was named chef of the century in 1989.  He mentored Gordon Ramsay, who you know from TV's Kitchen Nightmares.  Joel Robuchon actually retired 15 years ago at the age of 50 and is coasting, but doing well.

Anyway, the next day, I heard that the accident level at Fukushima increased to 6, so I left Tokyo on a Shinkansen for Fukuoka.

I'm now skipping my escape to the southwest of Japan, but pick up my timeline back to Tokyo, then up north through Fukushima all the way to Sapporo, then back south to Tokyo.

• APRIL FOOL'S DAY
• KYOTO TO TOKYO ON THE SHINKANSEN
• KYOTO TO TOKYO ON THE SHINKANSEN
• *A CHILLY, BUT ENJOYABLE DAY IN TOKYO
• COUNTRY #173: BOTSWANA
• AOMORI TO SAPPORO
• MY WONDERFUL DAY ON HOKKAIDO
• JUST HAD A 7.1 EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN
• FOUR SEASONS MARUNOUCHI
• Park Hyatt Shinjuku
• HAVE YOU EVER HAD A $45 AMERICAN BREAKFAST?
• WHY ARE WE AFRAID OF FUKUSHIMA WHEN NAGASAKI AND H...
• *TOKYO SAKURA
• 
  

My hopping all around Japan finally ended on 10April2011:

• I woke up at 6:47 this morning to another aftershock.  I thought I'd return to Shinjuku Gyoen, so, I thought, what would be a great final meal.  I went down to the buffet and got permission to make a giant sandwich of cold cuts, cheeses and vegetables.  The Tokyo Westin gave me a bottle of Copper's Crossing Cabernet Shiraz, so I poured some of it into a tonic water bottle.  I wanted to test the jacket strategy.
  
  
  
  I caught the Yamanote Line to Shinjuku, and walked to the park.  I noticed a soup stand, so I purchased a bowl of tomato/pork soup.  There were no checkers today, so I simply inserted my 200 yen admittance and walked to the nearest empty bench.  While unpacking, a cherry blossom petal fluttered into the soup:
• Certainly, my most satisfying, and cheapest, meal of the trip.  Said goodbye to Pearl's ashes and took the following photo.
• I then took the limousine bus to the airport.  But at Narita:

...when at 5:16 PM, the room began to shake.  I immediately ran away from the window, and so did everyone else.  I think this latest one was close to that aftershock of 4 days ago.  Early reports were 7.1, so same as the April 7 tremor.  What's the largest earthquake you ever felt?

• After a couple more shakes:

Well, the flight took off almost on time and this was the United First Class that almost deserves the term.  This was a Premium Boeing 777, and the electronic entertainment was excellent, food okay and service terrific.  Not quite the earlier days of Beluga caviar, Johnny Walker Blue Label and Dom Perignon, but a definite improvement.

My flight arrived early and I was home by 8AM.  Nice to be home.

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