Hamamatsu, 2009

Farewell New Hampshire. This is Friday, June 5. I didn't know that NH had a wind farm. I found myself already missing my little state, since this is the kind of place that Peter and I would enjoy biking around, assuming you can get close to them.

Detroit may have a lot of woes lately but they have a cool airport.

Change is good: This is Northwest flight 71 to Nagoya.

When your total business travel exceeds 15 hours in length, my company puts you in business class. Nice. You can see Oliver at right checking out the newspaper selection.

Enroute. After takeoff, the flight attendants pass out embarkation cards, customs declarations, and new for 2009: a health questionnaire. This plane load of people will arrive into Japan without incident, but my remaining coworkers, who will arrive 2 days later, will be held up for 75 minutes by quarantine officials who will cope with a business class passenger suspected of being infected with H1N1. Not fun.

Supper time. Course #1: Salad & soup.

Course #2: Beef. Oliver will have the chicken.

Course #4: Dessert.

About 5 hours after dinner, anyone awake on the plane is offered a mid-flight snack. This will be Oliver's least favorite mid-flight snack ever.

About an hour before landing, the lights are turned back on and breakfast is served. I opted for the omelet. Note that it is 3:20 a.m. in Detroit. When we get off the plane, it will be about 5:30 in the evening. Jetlag is real!

Nagoya has a new airport that is astonishingly efficient. From the plane it is a short walk through immigration and customs, then to the bank for currency exchange, and then quickly to the bus. By comparison, getting from Narita (Tokyo International Airport) to Tokyo can be a nightmare to the uninitiated.

The Japanese language includes 4 alphabets, 3 of which are not known to those who have learned only Germanic languages. Luckily, they almost always use standard numerals, so I am able to readily determine the price of things. That helps a lot. This bus ticket cost 3000 yen, which is about $32. It's a two-hour ride to Hamamatsu, where we'll be staying for 2 weeks.

On the bus. Notice that the driver is on the right side. He's in the right lane only because he's passing the black car. Luckily I will not be driving during this trip.

This will be my home for 2 weeks. This room is on the 13th floor (Japan is not so superstitious) of the Hamamatsu Meitetsu Hotel. I took these shots, put my bags down, and crawled into bed. Getting a full night's rest after being awake for so long is the fastest way to get used to the new time zone.

Day 2 begins like all days will begin: Breakfast at the hotel (it's included in our room charge). The breakfast restaurant is their attempt at re-creating a French cafe (it's called "Belle Facade"). It's a buffet offering western and Japanese offerings. On my plate is pancake quarters, fries, corn, really undercooked bacon, boiled ham, and a piece of salmon. I'm also having fruit cocktail, rice, and miso soup. They also serve eggs but they are grossly undercooked (I usually order scrambed hard). Still, a hearty breakfast is a great jetlag cure.

Hamamatsu station is where several train and bus lines converge. This is the fountain near the main entrance. In the background is the Entetsu department store.

Near to Hamamatsu station is Shin-Hamamatsu station where folks head north towards the Mountains. Most commuter traffic runs east-west.

The commuters dress for work; these folks are dressed for play.

Some things are universal: Kids love trains.

We first encountered this nice group of people at the ticket kiosk and noticed that they were speaking perfect English to each other. So we surreptitiously shadowed them and were happy to find that they were going to the same place we were: The Hamakita Kite Festival. We crossed paths with them along their tour of Japan; they are mostly from Australia.

Many local lines have only one track. Thus opposing trains can only cross each other at stations. We observed that trains were not unduly delayed by this method, because trains in Japan always depart on time.

By now Oliver and I have befriended the Australian travelers and are dining at Mos Burger with them before catching our shuttle bus to the festival. Despite the way he's holding it Oliver really does like burgers.

We were pretty sure that the shuttle bus was full when we first boarded, yet the bus made a few more stops to pick up even more festival-goers. That is my forehead in the foreground; this is composition by luck (no cropping needed!)

We've arrived at the festival and Oliver has agreed to photograph our friends with their camera. As always, I sneak in a shot or two with my own.

A rare shot of me taken with my camera.

The Hamakita kite festival is a small affair relative to the one held in Hamamatsu in May. Although I could not read any of the signs or literature for it, it appeared that teams were given a "pit stop" place to build their kite.

When we arrived, several teams were already on the field flying their kites.

Sometimes the kites would get tangled with each other and crash. Although the kites were not damaged, getting the ropes untangled usually took a while.

Several kids were flying their own, much smaller kites nearby.

I sure wish the headless guy wasn't standing right there, looking in that direction.

The festival offered many other things besides kites. A long row of food vendors was end-capped by entertainment, including this dancing troupe.

This girl was not being particularly careful with this tower, yet it did not fall.

The vendors bought treats from each other.

This I had never seen before. Essentially a rotisserie block of chicken or beef, from which the guy carves and scoops. Sadly I was not hungry here and didn't sample this.

Here you can see the sheer length of vending tents, as well as some of the kites in flight.

Very few of the vendors used bullhorns. Although I cannot speak or understand Japanese at all, I'm guessing that this guy is making a point about his wares.

Chocolate covered bananas on a stick. I really regretted not being hungry.

Although normal for the U.S., these hamburger patties are simply enormous by Japanese standards.

At least two of the kite-flying teams will have a bugler to play a little ditty from time to time. This particular bugler is not bad; some teams were not so lucky.

The launching of kites required much less running than I had hoped. Ostensibly, square is the correct shape, not the U.S.'s diamond, since all these folks had to do is release the kite and up it went.