Moto GP

We arrived to the sight of the motorcycles doing jumps, spins and tricks while above us a Red Bull stunt plane barrel rolled. And, this was just the pre-race entertainment while the three classes of motorocycles warmed up around the track. Friday and Saturday were qualifying race days, earning the riders positions in the final "grid" or starting positions.

 

 

 

Moto3 started at 11. These racers ride 250cc four-stroke, one-cylinder motorcyles. Even watching these small bikes, earplugs were a welcome sound dampener. We sat along turn 15, watching the racers come off the long straight away and then executing three turns in quick succession. After approximately 10 laps, the workers around the track started waving red flags, calling all racers to stop. A racer had crashed and looked to be injured critically. The leaders started to celebrate, thinking they had won the race. However, the injured racer was cleared quickly from the racetrack; and, the remaining racers were called on to race five more laps. Celebrations ceased and the Moto3 riders took a warm up lap to warm up their tires again. The starting grid set-up matched their current positions after the last clocked lap. Strategically, the front-runner took his time riding his warm-up lap, so that he would be one of the last to arrive at the grid and would have less wait until the start. The wait cools tires. During these last five laps, we saw several examples of the "slipstream effect", where a motorcycle riding closely behind another catches the "slipstream", which pulls it in front of the other motorcycle. The front-runners at the end of the first 10 laps had been numbers 42, 25 and 39. During the beginning of the five laps, 25 slid to 6th place but managed to regain 2nd by the finish line. A very exciting race!

 

By this time, the sun was getting quite warm on the grandstand. There is no shade and no umbrellas are allowed (except for the racers, who have umbrella girls to shade them while they wait in the grid). Thankfully, we had access to a shaded area where I was able to get a seat during the Moto2 race. Moto2 motorcycles have 600cc, 4-stroke engines. These racers completed a total of 18 laps.

 

Finally, at 2 pm, the main event, the Moto GP! These motorcycles have a maximum total engine displacement of 1000cc. For the technical details on these motorcycles, check here: http://www.motogp.com/en/MotoGP+Basics/bikes. These bikes were fast, with the fastest lap clocked at 159.7 Km/h. Now all the names and numbers made sense on the spectators hats and jerseys, they were sporting MotoGP racers. #26 Pedrosa and #46 Rossi both had fans in our section. Pedrosa and his teammate Marquez pulled ahead at the beginning of the race. Pedrosa lead for the first half of the race. But, then, Marquez slipped ahead and continued to increase his lead until the end. With Marquez's win, he became the youngest racer to ever win the MotoGP. How old is the youngest racer? Only 20.

 

More info on MotoGP: http://www.motogp.com/en

More info on the venue, Circuite of the Americas: http://cotaexperiences.com/2013-motogp-championship

 



 

 

East Austin Tour guided by Harrison Eppright

A brief background on historic East Austin African American Cultural Heritage District: after the Civil War, freed slaves, also known as freedmen, established communities around Austin. The oldest freedom town west of the Mississippi is located in Austin and named Clarksville after freed slave Charles Clark who settled there in 1871. However, in 1928, they city of Austin rolled out a Master Plan to move all African American residents to the east side of Austin. The city denied basic services to all African Americans living outside of East Austin in an attempt to force migration to the east side.

Our tour started on 11th Street, just east of Hwy 35 and Franklin BBQ, in the parking lot next to the Texas Music Museum (open weekdays), behind Ebenezer Baptist Church. This area is called Robertson Hill, from the Robertsons who moved into the French Legation in the 1850s. Across the street, closer to Franklin BBQ, is a small yellow house, which will become the visitor center for the African American Cultural & Heritage Facility. The land was purchased by Mr. Dedrick, a freed slave, who built the yellow house still on the property in 1879 or 1880. Ebenezer Baptist Church was started in 1874 by a freed woman singing spirituals from her porch. Originally named 3rd Baptist Church (Colored), it's first building was in stone in 1885, then stucco in 1915 and the imposing gothic brick structure there today was built in the 1950s.

We walk west up 11th street to a small square dedicated to Dr. Charles E. Urdy, a community activitist for the revitalization of East Austin. The square has a beautiful mural by Professor John Yancey.

As we continue up 11th street, we pass the St. Joseph Masonic Lodge. Masonic Lodges were also segregated when this one was built in 1949.

Across from the lodge, we see the Victory Grill, opened on VJ day, Victory over Japan Day, in 1945. Johnny Holmes started the music venue at a time when Austin was still segregated. Victory Grill hosted many African American musicians as a stop on the Chitlin' Circuit, including Ike & Tina Turner. Today, it is only open for special events.

On this tour, we passed several churches, both African American and Mexican American. Interestingly, East Austin was settled by several different communities, from freed slaves to Swedes, Mexicans to Jews. After the 1928 Master Plan, East Austin split at 7th street, with the Mexican American community living south of 7th and the African American community living north of 7th street. Almost all of the churches we passed (African Methodist Episcopal, Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic, Wesley United Methodist), were originally located in downtown Austin but were subsequently relocated to East Austin.

We continue west on 11th street and pass Hillside Farmacy, now a sandwich shop, originally Hillside Drugs, a drugstore from 1929-1980s.

At Angelina, we turn left (north) and walk to the George Washington Carver Library. Just north of the current library is the original library, now the George Washington Carver Museum. Underneath the brick structure is the wooden frame building that was originally the Central Library (segregated) located downtown. When the new library (whites only) was built downtown, the old building was moved here, bricked over, and became the first branch library in Austin. The Austin Public Library wasn't desegragated until 1951.

We turn left at Hackberry and walk down to San Bernard Street. As the Austin Master Plan in 1928 rolled out, there was also emigration of current residents from East Austin. The nicest houses were on San Bernard Street, which become the place to live among African Americans of means. San Bernard is still a comparitively wide street today. It also boasts the first Austin church designed by an African American architect, John S. Chase.

And so ended our official tour. However, I wanted to check out a few other places that Harrison mentioned. He talked about the Doris Miller Auditorium, a log cabin and the first ever public project housing in the United States, Rosewood Courts. While I didn't make it all the way across Pleasant Valley to Rosewood Courts, the Doris Miller Auditorium was only about a mile away. The Auditorium is named for the navy messman who shot down two Japanese planes during Pearl Harbor (played by Cuba Gooding Jr in the movie Pearl Harbor). The park contains a log cabin built in 1863 by a freedman, Henry Madison and relocated to Rosewood Park during the 1960s.

Harrison Eppright is a certified Austin Tour Guide. He works at the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau. He leads walking tours of East Austin, the Driskill and downtown. http://austintourguides.org/members/151/harrison-eppright/

Austin Marathon 2013

Last Sunday was the culmination of months of training. Responsibly tucking myself in early on Friday nights so that I could get up for 7 am runs; cutting out some sweets and caffeine; drinking as much water as I probably should; training sessions before and after work. Yet, with all that training, almost a month ago, old pains returned and new pains surfaced. It was too late to take a serious recovery break and heal. But, I was too committed to call it quits. After encouragement from family and friends, I took it easier on the training while hoping that the time invested in the past months would pay off.

Sunday morning was a beautiful 50 degrees. I started off slowly jogging flat stretches and uphills but saving my knees by walking the downhills. Then, the thing that I couldn’t train for happened. My left foot slipped off the side of a curb; and, I twisted my ankle. Thankfully, I could still walk on it. After about a half block walking, I started running on it. I kept running. A friend met me at mile 10 and generously applied Biofreeze. Yet, that only helped me another mile before I had to start walking. Even though I had reassured my family and friends that I would walk if I had to, the realization that I had to was depressing. Tears threatened to spill. Somehow, I kept my head up and walked.

This was the last race of a six race series that we had started back in October. The Distance Challenge starts with shorter distances – a 10K, then a 10 mile, a couple of half marathons, then, the 30K, where all the pains started. The Austin Marathon is the final race in the Distance Challenge. Only finishers of all six races receive the Distance Challenge finisher jacket. One incomplete disqualifies the registrant. I wasn’t about to stop now during the final race!

However, without friends’ support, it would have been very tough to actually follow through. Just as I would begin internally questioning if I could really walk the whole way, there would be another friend texting that they were waiting for me, another friend on the sideline cheering me on, another friend waiting for me at the finish. And as walkers passed me by, two friends met me at mile 25 and walked me the final 1.2 miles to the finish line, where more friends were waiting for me. My first marathon completed in 6 hours and 45 minutes.

Japan Day 8 - Nara and Osaka!

It was tough to get out of the warm, comfortable bed this morning, even though I knew that there would be a wonderful breakfast awaiting me at Inoue's home. For breakfast, I even tried nato, which is fermented soybeans. First, one adds a little mustard and soy sauce, then, mixes, mixes and mixes the fermented soybeans, which are coated in a gooey, sap-like substance. I tried several bites; but, nato is not my favorite food.

After breakfast, Chihiro, her parents and I toured the sites in Nara, the capital before Kyoto. Since legend has it that one of the gods arrived in Nara on a white deer, the shika deer are protected in Nara Park. Before we arrived, I was looking forward to purchasing deer crackers to feed the deer. However, upon arrival, the deer would come right up to us, without having any food in our hands. In fact, those who gave the deer crackers soon had a horde following them and nibbling at their jackets.

Our first stop was at Todai-ji, a Buddhist temple hosting a giant seated Buddha (Daibatsu). Built into the sides of the large gate the Todai-ji were two large, frightening, wooden statues. Their expressions were mouthing the first and last letter of the alphabet (a reference to covering everything from beginning to the end), protecting the main gate from everything. This is also where I was stopped by my first group of school children, intent on completing their field trip assignment of talking to an English speaker. We passed through the main gate and thru the secondary gate (all temple gates face south); and, we were standing in front of a breath-taking temple. Even though the current building is smaller than the original built in the 8th century, it is still one of the largest wooden buildings in the world. We entered the temple; and, almost the entire space was taken up by the giant bronze Buddha seated on lotus petals. In order to showcase the sheer size of the Buddha statue, there is a hole drilled through one of the wooden supporting posts of the temple. This hole is the size of the nostril of the Buddha; and, one can try to shimmy through it's narrow opening.

From Todai-ji, we walked stone lantern lined pathways. During special festivals, all of the lanterns are filled with candles; and, the four side openings are pasted over with paper. Our walk took us to a Shinto Shrine. There is a yearly fire festival here where a fiery torch is waved over the crowd from a second story balcony. The gathers early on the grass below in order to be close enough to have embers of this fire land on them, which brings good luck. The second story balcony offered a very picturesque view of Nara. Even the rest area in this shrine was unique, as it had self serve green tea, requesting tea drinkers to wash their glasses in the sink after use.

Soon, we had to take the train to Osaka to catch our flight back to Tokyo. Osaka was very bright and very loud. After the quiet tranquility of Nara, Osaka felt more cramped, crowded, over-lit, and loud than Vegas itself. However, it had it's own perks, namely takoyaki (octopus dumplings). We tried with sauce and mayonnaise and with salt. Then, it was off to the airport. We didn't have to take off our shoes. And, for those few who did, slippers were provided to walk through the security. Wishful thinking on my part that our US airports could be as courteous as Osaka airport!

On our return to Tokyo, I was able to experience my first real crowded train experience (although, really, not that bad, according to the locals. e.g. there were no pushers pushing us into the cars). This was the last train on a Friday night; and, it held both salarymen leaving work and those who had been partying all evening.

Japan Day 7 - Kyoto and Fushimi!

The drumming started at 6:30 am, calling the faithful to morning Zen meditation. I rolled over on the futon and tried to keep sleeping. However, by 7:30, we were up. We took a quick look at the Myorenji gardens before heading to a Zen meditation in English at Myoshinin Temple. We were joined by two women from Seattle and one guy from France. The monk who led the meditation was apparently not a traditional monk. He spoke of meditation, religion and neuroscience. After meditation, we viewed the rock garden as well as several painted panels that were 200 years old.

The most well-known tourist attraction in Kyoto is Kinkakuji, the Golden Temple. The current temple was rebuilt and regilded in gold in 1960, after a young monk burned it down (according to the book 'the temple of the golden pavilion' by yukio mishima).

Next, we headed to the town of Fushimi, famous for its' sake factories. We took a tour of the Geikkekan sake factory. There was a brochure in English; however, the tour was completely in Japanese. However, the museum had many English translations. We finished our tour by sampling two sakes and a plum wine (interestingly, most of the plum wine is exported to the USA). Our tour included one take home can of sake. Overall, well worth the tour cost of 400 yen.

Fushimi has a famous Shinto shrine called Fushimi Inari. Originally founded in 711, it has pathways lined with thousands of reddish-orange gates called torii. These torii have been donated by individuals and businesses; and, it appears that one can donate torii still today. inari.jp
For dinner tonight, we headed back into Kyoto for conveyor belt sushi! The place was packed but efficient. We didn't have to wait long before getting seats along the conveyor belt. The sushi chefs quickly served up some of the best sushi I had ever eaten, with a much wider variety of sushi than I had previously been exposed to. Some of the more unusual ones that I tasted were crab guts, horse, cuttlefish and nato (fermented soybeans). We ate until there was a stack of plates in front of each of us. The bill was simply the number of plates times a flat fee per plate. Green tea was included for free.

Our night ended at a small bar in a back alley run by Ray, who speaks fluent English and Japanese (and caters to expats as well as locals). In addition to the sake and beer we ordered, Ray provided sweets, including homemade green tea bite size candies. It was a relaxing end to a busy day.

Japan Day 5 - Tokyo to Nara!

This morning was dreary with a light drizzle. However, that didn't phase those on bicycles, who rode with one hand and carried an umbrella with the other.

For lunch today, I finally ate udon, a Japanese noodle soup. The udon was delicious! However, I ate too slowly; and, the udon expanded in the broth over time.

Today, my friend Chihiro and I traveled to her parents' home in Nara. For dinner, her mom served us sukiyaki. A hot plate was in the center of the table, on which mushrooms, carrots, chrysanthemum leaves and slices of beef were fried. We used our chopsticks to move fried items from the hot plate to a bowl with raw egg, then ate the tasty mouthfuls.

Japan Day 6 - Kyoto!

This morning, we took the train to the the home of Nintendo's headquarters, Kyoto. Unlike Tokyo's system of trains and subways, in Kyoto, we spent the majority of our public transportation time on busses, all of which are a flat fee (either 100 or 220 yen).  We visited the Philosopher's Way and ate lunch at a temple along the path. The setting was peaceful as we enjoyed the beginning of the fall colors. We continued our day by walking to and around Nanzenji Temple. It is an enormous complex, opening with a large wooden gate. We followed the ritual protocol of hand and mouth washing before walking to the altar, throwing in a coin, ringing a bell, making a wish, bowing twice and clapping twice. The Nanzenji complex was a peaceful, garden retreat.

Next, we attended a traditional geisha performance. The performers were both maiko (geisha in training) and geisha. Kyoto still has a geisha tradition, including the teahouses and places to rent geisha kimonos. We were first shown to a small sitting room, where we were served sweets and matcha green tea. Then, we moved to the auditorium for the performance. The geisha and maiko acted out five scenes, including traditional dances. They were accompanied by shamisen and three vocalists. They even played a version of 'rock, paper, scissors', with 'samurai, mother, tiger'.

Since the temple where we were staying (Myorenji) didn't have a bath or shower, they provided us with coupons to the public bath. Public bathing is something that I haven't done since the awkward junior high and high school years after gym class. However, the public bath in Japan is an experience that one shouldn't miss. These baths are still frequented in the older neighborhoods, where when the homes were built, there was either not enough space or money to include a private bath. Men and women have separate locker rooms and bathing facilities. First one soaps and rinses at the shower heads. Then, one moves into the large hot-tub. It was a wonderfully relaxing experience.
We rushed back to Myorenji Temple past our 9 pm curfew. However, the friendly manager led us to our room while his young son entertained us with his antics. The room was covered in tatami mats. The only furniture was a low table with hot water for tea. We unfolded our futons and slept soundly.