NAGANO, JAPAN - 1998 WINTER OLYMPICS

NAGANO. DOWNTOWN

Today we will visit Nagano, Japan - the host of 1998 Olympics. The hockey tournament, even though frustrated for USA and Canada teams, was absolutely unique. It was first time when the NHL players were fully permitted to participated in the main World sport event by having the special break which stopped the NHL schedule during this competition.
All top players from all countries were able to take part representing their countries. Terrific team from Czech Republic went all the way up to gold having Canada beaten at the semis thanks to penalty shorts then Russia in the finals.

I happened beeen to Prague the next summer. The whole city was still decorated with posters and banners honored the Czech team and the sight like "Hasek to President!" were everywhere. So, Enjoy this trip to Nagano!


HASEK STOPS FLEURY's PENALTY SHOT

Nagano, the capital city of Nagano Prefecture, is located in the northern part of the prefecture near the confluence of the Chikuma and the Sai rivers, on the main Japanese island of Honshū.

Nagano is most famous for Zenkō-ji, a 7th century Buddhist temple which overlooks the city. A million tourists visit Nagano annually, the gateway to a variety of sightseeing spots. Nagano was originally a small town in Kamiminochi District built around the hilltop temple, the largest wooden building in eastern Japan, but the city now encompasses locations that were within Sarashina, Hanishina, and Kamitakai districts as well.

The historic site of the Battles of Kawanakajima has been retained as parkland, with a municipal museum of the history of the Zenkoji plain.



Matsushiro, the former castle town of the Sanada clan, is located in the southern part of the city. The town retains an historical atmosphere, preserving many old samurai residences, temples, and gardens of the feudal period, including the remains of the castle and mansion of feudal lord Sanada Jumangoku.

Sporting venues built for the Winter Olympics include the M-Wave speed-skating arena (with the world's largest wooden suspension roof), Big Hat arena, and the Aqua Wing Arena.

To north of the city is the village of Iizuna. A popular destination in both summer and winter, it includes an Olympic ski resort, campsite, onsen, 10 ponds, and a mountain slide ride.

Northeast of the city is Japan's largest ski resort, Shiga Kogen, with the nearby Jigokudani Monkey Park, famous for the wild Japanese Snow Monkeys often found bathing in its hot springs.

Just south of the downtown core, in Shinonoi, Mt. Chausu hosts the Nagano Chausuyama Zoo, an outdoor dinosaur park, botanical garden, and a museum of natural history.

1998 Winter Olympics

In 1998, Nagano hosted the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, the second Winter Olympics ever held in Japan and the first since 1972 when the Winter Games were held in Sapporo, also the site of the first Winter Olympics ever held in Asia.


CZECH TEAM CELEBRATES THE SEMIS WIN

OLOMOUC, CZECH REPUBLIC. THE HOME TOWN OF JIRI HUDLER

Jiri Hudler, the new Czech Republic hockey team captain was shining during the Euro Hockey Tours opener that was held in Karlovy Vary this month.He led his team to the tournament victory scoring the 1-1 goal at 17:30 of the final game against Russia. He tied the game a second time at 57:21 after Russia held a 2-1 lead for most of regulation. A shoot-out decided and the game-winning goal was scored by who else than Hudler.


Jiri Hudler - Czech Team Captain

Jiri Hudler was born January 4, 1984 in Olomouc, Czech Republic. The first choice, 58th overall selection of the Detroit Red Wings in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, Hudler honed his skills in the Czech Republic before making his North American debut in 2003-04. This summer the young czech rejected the Red Wings offer and joint Moscow Dynamo of KHL to play in Russia and be able to join his national team.

He spent his childhood in Olomouc, the Czech beauteful sity which we are about to discover today.

The late barocco sity of Olomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis of Moravia.

Olomouc contains several large squares, the chief of which is adorned with Holy Trinity Column, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The column is 115 ft (35 m) high and was built in 1716–1754.

The most prominent church is the Saint Wenceslas cathedral. In the end of the 19th century it was rebuilt in neo-Gothic style, but it kept many parts from the original church, which had also been rebuilt many times (Romanesque crypt, Gothic cloister, Baroque chapels). The highest of its three spires is 328 ft (100 m) The church neighbours with the Romanesque Bishop’s Palace (often incorrectly called the Přemyslid Palace), a 12th century Romanesque building. (image) The real Přemyslid Palace, i.e. the residence of Olomouc members of the governing Přemyslid Dynasty, used to stand nearby.



The Saint Maurice Church, a fine Gothic building of the 15th century, and the Saint Michael’s Church are also worth mentioning. The Neo-baroque chapel of Saint John Sarkander stands on the place of a former town prison. Catholic priest John Sarkander was imprisoned here in the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. He was accused of collaboration with the enemy and tortured here, but did not reveal anything because of the Seal of Confession, and died. The torturing rack and Sarkander’s gravestone are preserved here. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II during his visit in Olomouc in 1995.

Another place that John Paul II visited here was Svatý Kopeček, a part of Olomouc lying on a hill, with the magnificent Baroque church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary looking down at the city. The Pope promoted the church to Minor Basilica.

The principal secular building is the town hall, completed in the 15th century, flanked on one side by a Gothic chapel, transformed now into a museum. It possesses a tower 250 ft (76 m) high adorned with an astronomical clock.

The old university founded in 1573 and suppressed in 1860, was reopened in 1946 and called Palacký University.

Olomouc is also proud of its six Baroque fountains. The fountains survived in such a number thanks to cautious policy of the city council. While most European cities were removing old fountains after they had built their water supply piping, Olomouc decided to keep them as water reservoirs in case of fire. For their decoration ancient Roman motifs were used. Five of them depict Roman gods Jupiter, Mercury, Triton, Neptune and Hercules, and one depicts Julius Caesar, the legendary founder of the city.



There are few monasteries in Olomouc, including Hradisko Monastery, Convent of Dominican Sisters in Olomouc and others.

Despite its considerable charms, Olomouc has not been discovered by tourists in the same way that Prague, Český Krumlov and Karlovy Vary have. Its inner city is the second-largest historical monuments preserve in the country, after Prague.

One of Olomouc's famous sons was the film-maker Edgar G. Ulmer, who was born in Olomouc in 1904, but who always preferred to give Vienna as his birthplace, as this sounded less provincial. Another notable son of Olomouc is football coach Karel Brückner, formerly head coach of the Czech national team and later head coach of Austria. Now we can added Jiri Hudler to this list of honnor


HC Olomouc (white jersey)

The hockey club of Olomouc (HC Olomouc) was first established in 1929 became a member of Moravian hockey league, but proved itself as a real in 1955 only under name of Sprtak Moravia Olomouc.
Even this club has produced some well known players (as Tomas Kucharchik for example) the most popular is Jiri Dopita who played for Czech national team, Flyers and Oilers. Dopita is a member of the famous 1998 Czech team which won Nagano's Olympic.
But who knows, maybe Jiri Hudler in some years will be same popular his elder friend. He has all opportunities to do it.

TAMPERE. FINLAND - HOCKEY HALL OF FAME AND MUCH MORE TO EXPLORE

Have you ever heard about Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame? No? But there is one located in Tampere, the second large town of Finland.


Tampere. Sity Theatre

Tampere is a city in southern Finland located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Since the two lakes differ in level by 18 metres (59 ft), the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history, most recently for generating electricity. Tampere is dubbed the "Manchester of Finland" for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse" and terms using that such as Manserock.

The Tampere region, called Pirkanmaa, which includes outlying municipalities, had around 470,000 residents, of which 230,000 were employed, and a turnover of 25 billion euros in 2007.


Tampere. Sity Cathederal

Tampere is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of 209,748, with close to 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in Finland, after the Greater Helsinki municipalities of Helsinki and Espoo. Helsinki can be reached in 1.5 hours by train and 2 hours by car. The distance to Turku is approximately the same. Tampere airport is the second-busiest international airport in Finland, with 800,000 passengers annually.

Tampere was founded as a market place on the banks of the Tammerkoski channel in 1775 by Gustav III of Sweden and four years later, 1779, Tampere was granted full city rights in 1779. At this time, it was a rather small town, consisting of only a few square kilometers of land around the Tammerkoski.

Tampere grew as a major market town and industrial centre in the 19th century. During the latter half of 19th century Tampere had almost half of Finland's industrial labour. The town's industrial nature in the 19th and 20th centuries gave it the nickname "Manchester of the North", Manse for short (in Finnish).


Tampere. Finlayson Works

Tampere was the centre of many important political events of Finland in the early 20th century. On November 1, 1905, during the general strike, the famous Red Declaration was proclaimed on the Keskustori, the central square of Tampere, subsequently leading to universal suffrage in Finland and the Tsar of Russia granting larger freedoms to Finns. In 1918, when Finland had recently gained independence, Tampere also played a major role, being one of the strategically important scenes during the Civil War in Finland (January 28–May 15, 1918). Tampere was a red stronghold during the war, with Hugo Salmela in command. White forces captured Tampere, seizing about 10,000 Red prisoners on April 6

Prevalent in Tampere's post-World War II municipal politics was the so called Brothers-in-Arms Axis (aseveliakseli), the alliance of conservatives and social democrats against the communists and Agrarian party. During this era some of the most renowned city managers of Tampere were Erkki Napoleon Lindfors (who was responsible for many ambitious construction projects such as the Näsinneula tower and the construction of the suburb of Hervanta, Tampere's "daughter town"), Pekka Paavola (who gained some notoriety in corruption scandals) and Jarmo Rantanen. From 2007 on, Tampere switched to a new model of having a mayor and four deputy mayors, chosen for a periods of two years. Timo P. Nieminen was elected as the first mayor of Tampere for the years 2007–2009.


Tampere. Daytime

After World War II, Tampere was enlarged by joining some neighbouring areas. Messukylä was incorporated in 1947, Lielahti in 1950, Aitolahti in 1966 and finally Teisko in 1972. Tampere was known for its textile and metal industries, but these have been largely replaced by information technology and telecommunications during the 1990s. The technology centre Hermia in Hervanta is home to many companies in these fields.

Tampere is known for its active cultural life. Some of the most popular writers in Finland, such as Väinö Linna, Kalle Päätalo and Hannu Salama, hail from Tampere. These are all known as writers depicting the lives of working class people. Also from a working class background was the famous poet Lauri Viita of the Pispala district (which is the original home of Hannu Salama too). Tampere also has old theatre traditions, with such established institutions as Tampereen Työväen Teatteri, Tampereen Teatteri and Pyynikin Kesäteatteri, which is an open-air theatre with the oldest revolving auditorium in Europe. Tampereen Teatterikesä or Tampere Theatre Festival is an international theatre festival held in Tampere every August.

Tampere is also known for its Tampere Art Museum, Tampere, Finland which featured American artist Richard Humann in 2004, for his exhibition entitled, Delicate Monster.

Tampere Film Festival, an international short film festival, is held every March. Tammerfest is Tampere's urban rock festival held every July.

Tampere Music Festivals organises three international music events: Tampere Jazz Happening each November, and in alternate years Tampere Vocal Music Festival and Tampere Biennale.

Tampere is home to the television channel YLE TV2, with its studios in the Tohloppi district, known among all for such popular TV comedies as Tankki täyteen, Reinikainen and Kummeli.

A local food speciality is mustamakkara, which resembles black pudding of northern England.


Tampere. Ilves Banners

Tampere's sporting scene is driven by two sports, ice hockey and football. As the first ice hockey match was played in Tampere, on the ice of Näsijärvi, between Ilves and Pyrintö, Tampere is nicknamed the hometown of Finnish hockey. Two notably exceptional ice hockey teams exist in Tampere—Ilves and Tappara. They both have had a great impact on Finnish ice hockey culture and are among the most successful teams in Finland. The Finnish ice hockey museum, and the first ice hockey arena to be built in Finland, the Hakametsä arena, are both located in Tampere. Football, however, is the number one sport in Tampere. Only Ilves have over 4,000 players in their football teams, while Tampere boasts over 100 football teams alone. Tampere United play at the highest level in Finland. The city also hosted two flatwater canoeing world championships, in 1973 and 1983. In 1977, Tampere hosted the Junior World Rowing Championships.


Tampere. Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame

So, back to the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame - the exhibition objects and video clips bring many memorable moments of the Finnish hockey back to the visitor's mind. Also all championship medals won by Team Finland as well as the World Championship Trophy from 1995 are on display in the Museum.

The Museum receives the objects mainly through donations. Admission costs are -Adults: 7 €, Children 7 to 16 and students: 2 €, Children under 7: Free of charge

I hope you will enjoy this trip.

The sources are: Wikipedia and Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame