Here in Japan, Good Friday is a normal working day. The Christian commemoration of Easter is not widely observed here and is over by the end of March. There are no public holidays until Golden Week at the end of April, which is one of the reasons for the scheduling of the Osaka Cup at this time.
So, today, on Good Friday, we harnessed the goodwill of Anchan, the Hokko Director, to visit the OHYC’s Melbourne House. Lost in translation, we ended up driving past the World Expo site on Yumeshima to the temporary marina. On the way, we passed kilometres of buses and witnessed a football field of crowds waiting in anticipation for entry to the Expo Pavilion. We skirted around a multitude of police, event officials and traffic management teams to find ourselves on a badly corrugated track reminiscent of outback Queensland (minus the red dust). Some bumpy kilometres later, in Anchan’s Mini Cooper, we arrived at the temporary marina – The Dakar rally comes to mind.
As the wave wall came into view, the first thing we noticed was the rather incongruous new toilet facility, installed thanks to Rotary Japan and the Angel Wings project. We were pleased to note that power and water will be connected to the marina, although the reclamation program on Osaka Bay does appear to have disturbed the natural flow of water and the surge from passing ships is quite evident on the mostly empty pontoons The ’stinky’ fish are still in abundance in Osaka Bay, jumping out of the water everywhere.
On our return, we stopped at a specially set-up cleaning station to clean off the dust of Yumeshima and hurry back for Trekkee’s imminent arrival. The activity at Race Central is picking up pace.
Meanwhile, out on the race track, there is the smell of hot cross buns and bread things baking right across the Pacific as the remaining fleet continue their passage to Osaka.
Photo Top : Thank you to Rotary for the installation of amenties at the temporary marina.