Uozu
20 May 2005
Uozu is close to the Japanese Alps, and we happen to have an office there. Luckily I got the chance to visit that office.
It looks a bit like our situation in Nagasaki. Most colleagues live in Toyama, about the same size as Nagasaki, and work in Uozu, about the same size as Isahaya, where we work. The main difference is that you can drop a bomb on Uozu at 8.30am and not hit anybody, what a sleepy town. Every day I took the train to Uozu. Another experience. You get your ticket from a machine, but then there is a guy who stamps your ticket before you get to enter the platform. When you reach your destination there is another guy who collects you ticket. Everybody is greeting with a polite "good morning", accompagnied with a bow.
Then there is another guy on the train, I am not sure what his role is, he probably announces on which stations the train stops. He "patrols" the train and every time he leaves one carriage to move to the next, he turns around, looks into the carriage and bows before he leaves. Nobody pays attention to him, except me of course, I am flabbergasted. The trip was very useful, and I learned something new: patchinko: a Japanese game of skill, so they say. Gambling is illegal in Japan, so they call it a game of skill. I wonder who's fooling who. Officially you cannot win any money with patchinko, but if you are good at the game, you can win a little box. Close to the patchinko place, there is always a little hole in the wall, where you can exchange the box you won for money. All very hush hush. When you are entering the patchinko hall, the noise drives you crasy. The game is played with small metal balls of about 5mm in diameter. You put your money in the machine and the balls get automatically fed to the machine. They only thing you can do it regulate the speed with which the balls enter the game. Needless to say that 99% of the balls disappear without coming back. The balls that end up in the little cup at the bottom of the machine are your winnings. It all goes pretty fast and I don't have to explain that no balls ended up in the little cup, so no box for me to exchange for money.
The weather was beautiful, so I decided to use the Saturday to explore the famous Japanese Alps. I took the triain to Unazuki, in the mountains. It takes some time, before you get there, 1.45hr in the train is not my idea of fun, but it was worth it. From Unazuki I took the tourist train to Keyakidaira, further into the mountains.
That ride was very spectacular, through the Kurobe gorge.Keyakidaira is wonderful place to go on hikes. Safety first, so walking paths galore. Unfortunately..... it was still too early in the year, the paths were still closed because the repairs after the winter were not yet ready. My luck.
Keyakidaira cannot be called a village, there is the station and a few shops, so I took the first train back to Unazuki, where the paths are not closed. I follow the route to the "peace statue", on top of the mountain, so I expect the view to be beautiful. The route is along a narrow road, changes of getting lost are (even for me) non existent.
On the way I tried some alternatives paths, but they didn't look very reliable and I even saw a warning about bears, better stay on the road. The walk was great and the view awesome.Unazuki is a village with hot water springs (onsen), even on the street they have hot footbaths. A group of ladies sat at one of the foot baths, so I took off my shoes, rolled up my jeans and joined them. They thought it was hilarious, me in my rolled up jeans. Unfortunately they didn't speak any English and my Japanese is still limited to hello and goodbye, but we had a good laugh.
Sunday I walked through Toyama center and then it was time to head back to the airport.
Carlos and two colleagues had spent the Sunday shopping in Fukuoka, which means they went into one of the major electronic shops and didn't come out till it was time to come pick me up from the airport. Carlos was looking for a palmtop (with an English menu). This is not easy in Japan. He did find us a pocket size digital camera, so the trip was not for nothing.
It looks a bit like our situation in Nagasaki. Most colleagues live in Toyama, about the same size as Nagasaki, and work in Uozu, about the same size as Isahaya, where we work. The main difference is that you can drop a bomb on Uozu at 8.30am and not hit anybody, what a sleepy town. Every day I took the train to Uozu. Another experience. You get your ticket from a machine, but then there is a guy who stamps your ticket before you get to enter the platform. When you reach your destination there is another guy who collects you ticket. Everybody is greeting with a polite "good morning", accompagnied with a bow.
Then there is another guy on the train, I am not sure what his role is, he probably announces on which stations the train stops. He "patrols" the train and every time he leaves one carriage to move to the next, he turns around, looks into the carriage and bows before he leaves. Nobody pays attention to him, except me of course, I am flabbergasted. The trip was very useful, and I learned something new: patchinko: a Japanese game of skill, so they say. Gambling is illegal in Japan, so they call it a game of skill. I wonder who's fooling who. Officially you cannot win any money with patchinko, but if you are good at the game, you can win a little box. Close to the patchinko place, there is always a little hole in the wall, where you can exchange the box you won for money. All very hush hush. When you are entering the patchinko hall, the noise drives you crasy. The game is played with small metal balls of about 5mm in diameter. You put your money in the machine and the balls get automatically fed to the machine. They only thing you can do it regulate the speed with which the balls enter the game. Needless to say that 99% of the balls disappear without coming back. The balls that end up in the little cup at the bottom of the machine are your winnings. It all goes pretty fast and I don't have to explain that no balls ended up in the little cup, so no box for me to exchange for money.
The weather was beautiful, so I decided to use the Saturday to explore the famous Japanese Alps. I took the triain to Unazuki, in the mountains. It takes some time, before you get there, 1.45hr in the train is not my idea of fun, but it was worth it. From Unazuki I took the tourist train to Keyakidaira, further into the mountains.
That ride was very spectacular, through the Kurobe gorge.Keyakidaira is wonderful place to go on hikes. Safety first, so walking paths galore. Unfortunately..... it was still too early in the year, the paths were still closed because the repairs after the winter were not yet ready. My luck.
Keyakidaira cannot be called a village, there is the station and a few shops, so I took the first train back to Unazuki, where the paths are not closed. I follow the route to the "peace statue", on top of the mountain, so I expect the view to be beautiful. The route is along a narrow road, changes of getting lost are (even for me) non existent.
On the way I tried some alternatives paths, but they didn't look very reliable and I even saw a warning about bears, better stay on the road. The walk was great and the view awesome.Unazuki is a village with hot water springs (onsen), even on the street they have hot footbaths. A group of ladies sat at one of the foot baths, so I took off my shoes, rolled up my jeans and joined them. They thought it was hilarious, me in my rolled up jeans. Unfortunately they didn't speak any English and my Japanese is still limited to hello and goodbye, but we had a good laugh.
Sunday I walked through Toyama center and then it was time to head back to the airport.
Carlos and two colleagues had spent the Sunday shopping in Fukuoka, which means they went into one of the major electronic shops and didn't come out till it was time to come pick me up from the airport. Carlos was looking for a palmtop (with an English menu). This is not easy in Japan. He did find us a pocket size digital camera, so the trip was not for nothing.