Yoshio Otsuka's years of striving to revive a near-extinct strain of turnip known to have been grown some 400 years ago in the Shinagawa district of today's central Tokyo recently struck pay dirt in a most unexpected fashion.
That's because, via a little local celebrity, his efforts at botanical resurrection prompted a bizarre twist of fate, taking him halfway round the world to the small city of Ithaca in the scenic Finger Lakes area of upper New York state — to compete in the 2012 International Rutabaga Curling Championship, no less.
And now the five-day trip he and two other Japanese "athletes" took in late December to the championship venue at Ithaca Farmers Market will be the main feature of a "variety documentary" show, as public broadcaster NHK dubs it, being aired in February.