Gotcha, Owen, thanks.
Now that I've got it all wired out, you can see the branch structure when looking inside. And it's kinda like looking back in time. Kind of like an archeologist.
Looking in, most of the branches branch about 2 inches from the trunk. Then they go on a couple or 3 inches inches, then they
branch again into the multitude of crotch branches, all weak, and again about they are 2 to 3 inches long.
So, my take from this: when the tree left Japan, the foliage was at where the first set of branching is. Closest to the trunk. Then, it sat in quarantine for three years with no maintenance. And the branches grew to where the second set of branches start. The ones with all the crotch twigs. And from there, these have elongated slowly over the past 8 years as he sheared back.
What would be interesting would be to see if I could get the canopy reduced back to the way it looked when it left Japan. Or close.
I bet that would be close to Owen's virtual.