Clouds mostly cover Japan's 1st solar eclipse in 46 years+

KAGOSHIMA, Japan, July 22 Kyodo -
A total eclipse of the sun was observed Wednesday on and around Iwoto Island,
and a partial eclipse delighted many in western Japan, but most other people in
Japan were disappointed as weather prevented them from witnessing the first
such event in decades.

On Iwoto Island, about 1,200 kilometers south of Tokyo, the National
Astronomical Observatory of Japan successfully observed the first total solar
eclipse visible on Japanese soil in 46 years and public broadcaster NHK showed
it live.
On a passenger ferry off Iwoto, scientists and others were also treated to the
spectacular astronomical event associated with dazzles called diamond rings
before and after the moon fully hid the sun.
However, people from amateur stargazers to tourists gathering at improvised
observation spots on the Akuseki and Amami Oshima southwestern Japan islands
were unable to witness the phenomenon due to rain and clouds.
The National Astronomical Observatory said it observed the total solar eclipse
from Iwoto Island shortly past 11:25 a.m. The observatory had said the longest
total solar eclipse of the century, lasting six minutes and 44 seconds, would
be able to be seen from a location near the island.
Landing on Iwoto is basically banned as the entire island serves as an air base
for the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Aboard the ferry Fuji Maru, some 100 people applauded and shouted ''banzai'' as
they observed from the deck a diamond ring around 11:26 a.m. and a total solar
eclipse for about six and a half minutes.
With 515 passengers and crew members aboard, the ferry sailed off Himeji port
on Monday afternoon to reach the waters off Kita-Iwoto Island, an uninhibited
island north of Iwoto.
On Akuseki Island in the southern Japanese island chain of Tokara, the sun was
hidden by clouds at 9:35 a.m. when it started darkening for a total eclipse of
six minutes and 25 seconds -- a span which would have been the longest visible
from a residential area in Japan.
Citing the possibility that intensifying wind and rain may develop into a
tornado, Kinki Nippon Tourist Co., which organized observation tours to the
island, called on the some 300 visitors waiting for the event at a local school
to take temporary shelter at a gymnasium and other places indoors.
The time in which an eclipse was to be observed came to an end before 11 a.m.
with the sky staying covered by rain and clouds.
On Amami Oshima Island, the sun was seen waning occasionally through the rifts
in the clouds but its total eclipse was hardly visible during the three minutes
and 32 seconds it stayed behind the moon from 9:55 a.m.
Still, spectators visiting the islands from across Japan enjoyed the mysterious
atmosphere and squealed with delight.
''I was excited to actually see the sun wane,'' said Yuki Koyatsu, a
27-year-old company employee from Chiba Prefecture, after witnessing the
eclipse begin on Amami Oshima.
People taking shelter at an Akuseki school let out a cheer and jumped outdoors
in the dark caused by the total eclipse, and burst into applause when the sky
began getting light again.
Miyabi Arikawa, a 7-year-old girl living on Akuseki, said, ''It's a pity I
couldn't see a corona. It was amazing the sky suddenly turned dark and then
lightened.''
About 40 researchers and students aboard the training ship Kagoshima Maru for
an offshore observation in the Pacific could not help but sigh as thick clouds
blocked them from observing the total eclipse just before it began shortly past
11 a.m.
The natural phenomenon in which the sun disappears fully behind the moon was
last observed ashore in Japan on July 21, 1963, from Hokkaido in the north.
Elsewhere in Japan, partial eclipses were observed in some southwestern regions
but not in cloudy eastern parts, such as in Tokyo where an eclipse of up to 75
percent had been expected.
At a park in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, where more than 300 people including
children gathered, an eclipsing sun was visible through thin clouds enough to
excite 7-year-old Kan Irei to shout, ''Great!''
Lights for night games were turned on at a stadium in Saga City for a
preliminary game of the senior high school baseball tournament that began at 10
a.m., preventing the game from being disrupted by twilight of the eclipse.
An observation event planned at the 240-meter-high deck of a Roppongi Hills
tower in central Tokyo was canceled due to rain, forcing Hatsuho Uchida, 10, to
return home in disappointment after waking up at 5:30 a.m. to come to the event
from Tochigi Prefecture with her mother and sister.
The zone in which Wednesday's eclipse was visible started with the coming of
dawn in India and moved across other Asian countries including Nepal and China
before hitting the Pacific.
The next time a total eclipse will be visible in Japan is in September 2035
from locations in the Hokuriku and northern Kanto regions.
In 2012, an annular solar eclipse will also be seen from areas such as the
southern Kyushu, Shikoku and Kanto regions.
==Kyodo