Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

This week’s New Yorker cartoon about ocean swimming in offshore waters of Japan reminds us of Adam Walker‘s crossing of the Tsugaru Channel between Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan where massive, unpredictable eddies and a battering of conflicting currents make the 19.5 km channel more difficult than usually anticipated by experienced channel swimmers.

The cartoon plays off of the famous woodblock print by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai called The Great Wave off Kanagawa (神奈川沖浪裏).

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