This page shows archived posts for Gary J. Wolff's blog from
January-March,
2020.
Enjoy...
Cheers,
Gary
Mar. 30,
2020 - 'RONA VIRUS BLUES by Rob Rio
I just LOVE this amazing tune by boogie woogie blues pianist Rob Rio!
Known as the "Boss of the Boogie," Rob Rio has excited audiences around
the world for more than 35 years and was inducted into the Boogie
Woogie Hall Of Fame in 2008. He has appeared and recorded with many of
the most famous musicians like Muddy Waters, Joe Cocker, Paul
Butterfield,
Mick Jagger, and Canned Heat. Go Rob...
'RONA VIRUS BLUES by Rob Rio
(If player above is not visible, you can view video at YouTube here.)
Mar. 26,
2020 - Ernest Benn quote
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere,
diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies."
—Ernest Benn (1875-1954), British writer (also attributed to Groucho
Marx, American comedian and TV star)—
Mar. 23,
2020 - Great John Steinbeck quote
"A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ."
—John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (1902–1968), American author, winner of the
1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, and writer of the Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel The Grapes of
Wrath which has sold over 14 million copies—
Mar. 21,
2020 - Famous Benjamin Franklin quote
"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
—Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), one of the Founding Fathers of the
United States who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the
U.S. Constitution, who is credited as the inventor of the lightning rod
and bifocals, and whose picture appears on the front of the American
$100 bill—
Mar.
19, 2020 - Invasion of the Grocery Snatchers
NOW SHOWING!
Mindlessly emptying shelves of things they don't need!
For reasons they can't explain!
Invasion of the Grocery Snatchers
Mar. 15,
2020 - CONGRATULATIONS to the 2020 Toilet Paper Queen!
Amidst the worldwide coronavirus panic and ensuing hoarding of toilet
paper, then there's THIS!! Ha ha ha...
2020 Toilet Paper Queen
Mar. 11,
2020 - 9-year anniversary of strongest ever Japan earthquake and tsunami
A remarkable 9 years ago today, Mar. 11, 2011, at 2:46 pm, northeastern
Japan was hit hard by the Great East Japan Earthquake (東日本大震災), the strongest
ever Japan earthquake and the 4th
most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began
in 1900.
Sadly the massive, magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake
triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached heights of up to 40.5
meters (133 ft) in Miyako, Iwate and devastated cities & seaports
along a broad swath of the northeastern Japan coastline.
If that weren't enough, the tsunami in turn caused meltdowns at 3
reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex, the
world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, and forced the
evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents.
The triple disaster left 18,428 people dead or missing, and almost a
decade later, several municipalities still remain blocked off...
leaving nearly 48,000 evacuees still waiting to go home.
I was home at the time, and never lost my internet connection, so in
order to keep my many overseas friends and family (who were all BEGGING
me to get the heck outta Dodge) updated on the latest news, I started
blogging immediately, and over the course of the next 101 days after
the triple tragedy, I had posted 467 news updates.
One of the most terrifying videos I saw in those first few days was the
stunning amateur video below of the killer tsunami destroying 95
percent of Minami-Sanriku (南三陸町), a fishing port in Miyagi Prefecture.
To cut to the chase, you can skip the first 2 minutes:
Mar. 11, 2011 tsunami washing away Minami-sanriku (南三陸町), Miyagi
(If player above is not visible, you can view video at YouTube here.)
Mar. 3,
2020 - Panic buying
of toilet paper in Tokyo
One
side effect of the growing coronavirus in Japan is panic-buying of
toilet rolls and tissue paper. As a result of social media posts in the
last week that have spread false rumors that the raw materials used to
make toilet paper can no longer be imported from China due to
coronavirus, people have been urged online to hoard toilet rolls in the
likelihood of nationwide shortages.
Despite industry and government officials' pleas to the public not to
be taken in by the rumors, supermarkets and drugstores in Japan have
not only experienced shortages of toilet paper, but many have
completely sold out every day by noon, leaving empty shelves.
This video below was filmed a couple days ago showing well over a
hundred people lining up to panic purchase toilet paper at the 10 am
opening of a neighborhood drug store in Tokyo. In just those 2 days,
the video has already been viewed over 700 times. WOW!
Panic buying of
toilet paper in Tokyo on Sun. Mar. 1, 2020
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
Below are the first 4 entries in today's long overdue update of my very
LONG "Inspiration
and Hope" webpage on my very OLD original website, first
uploaded in Jan. 1997:
“Trust gets you killed, love gets you hurt, and being real gets you
hated.”
—Johnny Cash (1932-2003)—
*************
"When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices.
When you die, you rejoice, and the world cries."
—Tibetan Buddhist saying—
*************
“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.”
—Pablo Picasso—
*************
"A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of
success combined with constant restlessness."
—Albert Einstein, written on note paper from the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo,
Japan in 1922, and later sold for $1.3 million—
Feb. 26,
2020 - Odawara Plum Blossom Hiking
Last Sunday I had the good fortune of joining Jambo
International for a
nature hike to view the beautiful plum blossoms in the Soga Plum
Blossom Park in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture. Our timing was perfect,
as they were holding the Soga Plum Park Festival at the time.
With an unseasonably warm day and clear blue skies, we were treated to
35,000 plum trees near their peak.
But by far the most amazing part of the entire day was the truly
breathtaking, up-close-and-personal view of Mount Fuji, Japan’s tallest
peak. It was almost as if you could just reach out and touch it.
Without question, it was the most striking, awe-inspiring view I’ve
ever had of Fujisan after nearly 3 decades of living in this beautiful
country.
The hike began at Kouzu Station on the JR Tokaido Line and finished 5
hours later, after quite a few ups and downs through the foothills, at
Shimo Soga Station on the JR Gotemba Line.
This sort of day trip, back-to-nature outdoor activity is just one of
many things that truly warm my heart about living in the Land of the
Rising Sun!
My Saipan video -
Feb. 11-16, 2020
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
0:00 Panorama of the beautiful blue ocean from the Sugar Dock
0:30 Beach panorama at sunset from the Grandvrio Resort
1:27 Panorama of Obyan Beach
2:20 Inside the famous Country House Restaurant (minus the talking
buffalo who sadly bit the dust in 2018 during Typhoon Yutu)
2:42 Sexy Polynesian dancers in the Culture Dinner Show at the Fiesta
Resort
6:16 Panorama of the uninhabited Pau Pau Beach
6:37 Saipan Grotto, famous spot for diving and snorkeling
7:50 Beautiful, colorful rooster at the Saipan Grotto
8:47 Bird Island, as seen from the Bird Island Observatory
9:30 Stunningly beautiful Banzai Cliff, site of the mass suicide during
World War II where sadly hundreds of Japanese civilians and soldiers
jumped off the cliff to their deaths in the ocean and rocks below
10:59 "May Peace Prevail On Earth" pole at Banzai Cliff
11:01 Timelapse sunset #1 from Garapan Public Market pier (Feb. 13,
2020)
11:31 Beautiful white seabirds on Mañagaha Island
12:17 Tiny, cute hermit crap walking in the sand on Mañagaha Island
13:36 Beautiful blue ocean water, as seen from Mañagaha Island boat
13:56 Windsurfers at American Memorial Park
15:24 Timelapse sunset #2 from Garapan Public Market pier (Feb. 15,
2020)
16:00 Airplane takeoff from Saipan airport
18:15 View from plane of Tinian Island, just south of Saipan
18:59 Amazing view of the plane's shadow inside a small rainbow-colored
halo, a fairly rare phenomenon known as a Brocken
spectre
20:13 Airplane landing at Guam airport
In my first visit in over 12 years back to this gorgeous island in the
U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, I still remain
convinced that this place, only a half-hour flight north of Guam, is
God's gift to Planet Earth.
The beauty of the people and the island have touched my soul in a very
profound way. I've never, ever seen ocean water in so many strikingly
beautiful shades of blue. Love that place.
Japanese
have definitely mastered the art of putting on beautiful winter
illumination events, a number of which start in November and last well
into February. My favorite through the years has always been the
Caretta Shiodome illuminations near JR Shinbashi Station. This winter's
Arabian Night theme features songs from the Disney movies Aladdin, Lion
King, and Toy Story 4. If you’ve never heard Can You Feel the Love
Tonight (from 2:32) or A Whole New World (from 6:54) in Japanese, here
is your big chance. To my Tokyoite friends, this free
show continues every night through Valentine’s Day (February 14).
Caretta Shiodome
Illumination - Feb. 8, 2020
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
Feb. 4,
2020 - Tree huggers rule in Japan!
No need to remove the tree on this university campus. Just design the
building AROUND IT!
Tree huggers rule in Japan
Jan. 19,
2020 - Use It or
Lose It!
Use It or Lose It!
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
It’s the same advice I only wish I’d heard a number
of times during my
lifetime. For example, after I spent several years as a youngster
learning how to play the organ, and getting good enough to actually
sometimes substitute for our church organist during Sunday morning
services.
Or in high school when I seriously
studied German to the point that I was inducted into the German
National Honor Society and was able to advance place out of 14 hours of
college credit in the German language at the University of Texas at
Austin.
Or those years in my early 30s when I became so proficient at
playing tennis that I became one of the higher ranked players in my age
bracket at my sports club.
These are just a few select talents and skills that I acquired through
the years that sadly slipped away because I got busy doing other stuff
and didn’t continue to protect the investment of ALL the time that I'd
spent getting good at those things.
The speech above is one that I often like to give at the end of the
school year to my university English language students, encouraging
them to never
stop improving upon the language skills they have worked so hard to
learn in our classroom.
We only get one chance in life, and so we might as well make the most
of it. Use it or lose it!
Jan. 13,
2020 - The "Ford v Ferrari" movie - a must-see!
“There’s
a point at 7,000 RPMs where everything fades. The machine becomes
weightless. It disappears. All that’s left, a body moving through
space, and time. At 7,000 RPM, that’s where you meet it. That’s where
it waits for you.”
—the quote heard both at the beginning and end of the "Ford v Ferrari"
movie—
I grew up in a car racing family. Two of my cousins, the King brothers,
built and raced their own stock cars at Houston’s quarter-mile dirt
oval race track, Almeda Speedway (*). My Grandpa Wolff often used to
take
me and another cousin to see the stock car races at the half-mile paved
oval track, Meyer Speedway.
My dad‘s brother owned a midget race car and was personal friends with
Houston's A.J. Foyt, the 4-time winner of the famous Indianapolis 500,
the world's oldest currently operational automobile race.
So it was no big surprise that I was absolutely thrilled to see the
movie "Ford v Ferrari" which just opened in Tokyo on Friday. It
chronicles the true story of the Ford Motor Company taking on the
challenge of beating the dominating Italian Ferrari team at the 24
hours of Le Mans, France race in 1966.
I was on the edge of my seat the entire movie, and whenever I heard
that high-pitched revving sound of the race cars, my adrenaline was
flowing just as fast as those 200-mph race cars speeding around the
track.
The movie's magic was made possible by the absolutely superb
performances put in by Academy Award-winning actors Matt Damon and
Christian Bale in the lead roles. Even if you don’t have racing in your
blood like I do, this movie is a must see for all thrill seekers!
Matt Damon and Christian Bale in "Ford v Ferrari"
(photo credit: Merrick
Morton/Fox)
Jan.
3, 2020 - Ikspiari New Year's Eve 2019 Countdown Party & Fireworks
Here's how the advent of the Roaring Twenty-Twenties was celebrated at
Tokyo Disney Resort on New Year's Eve. Don't miss the final 10-second
countdown, of course, in JAPANESE!!
Ikspiari New Year's
Eve 2019 Countdown Party & Fireworks
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
Ikspiari is located at the gateway to Tokyo Disney Resort, which
includes Tokyo Disneyland & Tokyo Disney Sea, and is a commercial
facility with around 140 establishments including shops, restaurants,
and a cinema complex.
This American felt right at home there, seeing shops like the Outback
Steakhouse, Red Lobster, TGI Friday's, The Body Shop, Krispy Kreme
Donuts, Starbucks, & Kua Aina Burgers. YEAH!
Hi Gary, I love your site as it is so informative. On August 1st, 3 of us will be attempting to climb Mount Fuji. My husband and I are comparatively fit
Hi, I have some questions about reserving a hut on Mt. Fuji. I'll be in Tokyo a few days before climbing season and am attempting to climb on July 1st.
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