MEETING the Fukunishi Family

May 5th. Today is Children's Day in Japan. Everyone living in Japan probably had a nice Golden Week (a week that has 4 public holidays 4/29, 5/3, 5/4, 5/5 is know as Golden Week in Japan). If you were one that had to work during Golden Week, sorry & please keep up the good work. The weather in Osaka has been beautiful during the 3 days since we reached Tannowa. At 8 am, the Ariel sailed out for Kainan City, Wakayama and Hiki-san and I were the only ones on the Aeolus so it felt a little lonely. There was a yacht in the Tannowa Yacht Harbor that was the same type of the Aeolus and the owner of that yacht, Kishida-san came to visit us on the Aeolus. Owners of the same type of yacht quickly become like family and talking about the maintenance of their yachts usually breaks the ice. I've been told that the yachts are like their own children for their owners. I guess it's like talking about your own children.

We were invited to the Melbourne-Osaka Race awards ceremony and celebratory party in the afternoon so we went to Tenmangu. At the awards ceremony, I was given the huge responsibility of handing the award winners their trophies, certificates and souvenirs which made me very nervous. They asked me to give a speech at the party so I expressed my respect for all the racers, regardless of what place they came in, who completed sailing the 5,500 miles which is the equivalent of the distance from Osaka to Fukushima to my final destination of San Diego. I slipped in a little joke saying "I, HIRO, will cross the Pacific to San Diego and be everyone's HERO so please give me your blessings.  Get it? Well, the Australian racers seemed to find it funny so I was glad. As soon as we got back to Tannowa Harbor, I found Fukunishi-san's motor cruiser had traded places with the Ariel. The cruiser's name is Vento Fiore. It means 'wind flower' in Italian. What a beautiful name. And their high school freshman daughter's name is Fuka and uses the kanji (characters) for wind and flower. This boat has a 100 horsepower engine and easily goes up to 10 knots (20km). It's a varnished wooden cruiser boat and you can see the love Fukunishi-san pours over it. When I got into the cabin I was surprised to see how large it seemed to be for a 32 footer. I was served some delicious kimchi hot pot and goya champuru (Okinawan-style stir fried bitter melon) and afterwards we watched Fuka-chan dance to traditional Okinawan music on the played on the sanshin (Okinawan banjo) and enjoyed the evening. Fuka-chan plays the piano too so I think she has a good ear. She practiced English with me and before long perfected her pronunciation. I thought it was very unusual for a high school student to be able to pick it up so quickly. Fuka-chan helps her mother with the chores and is quite the social butterfly so I really hope she will keep up with the good work in school and music. Fukunishi-san, I thank you very much for a wonderful time. I really look forward to seeing you again.

Originally posted by Hiro in Japanese on 5/6/2013
Translated by SWIS Project