Overview: I've been in Japan for over 10 years. This is my personal blog, covering a mixed bag of topics including Japan, my family, the web, programming, ESL and the occasional rant about politics and the media.

My JapanSoc profile lists all the social networks I belong to, so you can connect with me from there. Check out my Lifestream, too!

Japan — 9 comments
21
Sep 09

Ex-Meitetsu Mino Station

I took the family in the car for a short drive north through Gifu prefecture to Mino, a beautiful city, known as the home of Japanese paper (washi). Reminiscent of Kyoto and Takayama, Mino has streets filled with traditional houses and many shops selling paper lanterns.

As fascinating as all that is, our 2-year-old boy much prefers trains, so off we went to the former Meitestsu Mino Station!

Ex-Meitetsu Mino Station

The Meitetsu Mino line had a history dating back to 1911. When completed, it served over two dozen locations on the  24.8km track between Mino and Gifu City. In 1999, Mino station was closed down and by April, 2005 the entire Mino line was abolished, apparently replaced by Meitetsu buses.

Today, Mino station remains as a popular tourist attraction, with three and a bit “one-man” trains. I say bit, because the train on the far left in the photo below has been cut in half, leaving just the driver’s section.

3 and a half trains

Back in the day

The waiting area at the station is filled with mementos from the line’s past, such as these old photos that hang on the wall or are laid out on tables.

A snowy morning

A new train?

The Meitetsu Mino Line

All aboard!

You can climb on board the three main trains at the station. One of them almost looks track-worthy while the other two have had most their chairs stripped out and some old equipment and memorabilia put on display in their place.

On board one of the trains

On board one of the trains

On board one of the trains

The "cockpit"

Inside the station

The station itself is crammed with photos, Choro-Q trains, old timetables and much more. I was particularly fond of the sofas, which are actually seats from the trains.

The station master's office

Welcome to Mino station!

Inside the station

Inside the station

Odds and ends

Train seats as sofas

On the platform

Our son had a great time at Mino Station, but unfortunately, it wasn’t because of the trains… not the real ones anyway. On the platform, between the trains, was a huge Plarail set which kept Rikuto more than happy. That wasn’t the only strange sight on the platform. There were a couple of go-karts with nowhere to go, gardens growing where the train buffers were, and most surprising, a bullet train nose cone!

Plarail on the platform

A go-kart with nowhere to go

Gardens for train buffers

A bullet train nose cone

More information

We were only there for half an hour before heading off to Mino’s Ogura park to see the peacocks and turkeys, but we had a great time!

Posing in front of the old trains

The Ex-Meitetsu Mino station is free to enter and a must see if you plan to visit Mino. Here’s a Google map of the location. If you can read Japanese, here are some related Wikipedia links to help you find the area and plan other things to do while you’re there:

World Opinion — 6 comments
11
Sep 09

Recent Developments for 9/11 Truth

I don’t expect many of you follow “9-11 truth” quite as much as I do, and since the mainstream media refuses to touch the subject, let me share a few recent developments that add weight to the growing understanding that 9/11 was not what we were led to believe.

  1. Whistleblower – Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, previously gagged by the Bush administration, blew the whistle on government corruption when she testified under oath about former and present congressmen accepting bribes from Turkish lobbyists. She previously claimed that the US maintained ‘intimate relations’ with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, “all the way until that day of September 11.”
  2. Whistleblower – Former FEMA videographer Kurt Sonnenfeld, currently living in exile in Argentina, went public about his persecution at the hands of U.S authorities after he refused to hand in the 29 tapes of “disturbing material” he filmed at Ground Zero.
  3. Scientific evidence – an international team of independent scientists discovered a military-grade explosive, nanothermite, in the dust from the World Trade Center – Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe (.pdf)
  4. Pentagon Eye Witnesses – A 3-year independent investigation into the attack at the Pentagon revealed that the actual flight path of the aircraft was considerably different to the “official” path. Learn why this is significant here.
  5. 800+ Architects and Engineers – The number of architectural and engineering professionals who publicly support the controlled demolition theory has surpassed the 800 mark.
  6. 9/11 Commissioners Admit Stonewalling – Actor Charlie Sheen recently wrote an open letter titled “Twenty Minutes with the President” which described a fictional interview with President Obama. In it, he correctly points out that “60% of the 9/11 commissioners have publicly stated that the government agreed not to tell the truth about 9/11″. Read their individual statements and those of other credible people here.

On this eighth anniversary of 9/11, I support the NYC Coalition for Accountability to get an independent, impartial investigation into the 9/11 attacks, and having read point 6 above, everyone else should, too.

Japan — 12 comments
26
Aug 09

I’m a Programmer – It’s Official

If you were fresh out of school and moving to Japan for 10 years, what would you hope to achieve? No doubt you’d want to travel the country, learn about the culture and indulge in such oddities as Pachinko, Print Club, karaoke boxes and authentic sushi restaurants. But 10 years? You’d probably be keen to learn new skills and advance your career somehow.

Actually, I’m not so sure anyone makes a decision to move to Japan for 10 years. It just kind of happens. Usually, you come  for a year and teach English while experiencing Japanese culture, but when that year is up and you realize you’ve saved no money and haven’t seen or done all you wanted, you choose to stay… just a bit longer.

When I first came here at 21 years of age, I was confident that I’d find a good job in the I.T industry, after all, I had just graduated from university with a degree in Computer Science and expected doors to be open for me. I figured it would take two or three years to learn enough Japanese and then I’d be on my way up the corporate ladder.

How naive.

I studied the language hard for three years, passing JLPT 2, but by that time, I had lost touch with the fast changing pace of the IT industry, had no work experience in computing, and my Japanese was still far from fluent. It was then that I went to Tokyo for an interview with a recruiting company and failed miserably when they gave me a Japanese newspaper and asked me to read an article aloud.

That was a tough time for me, and still reluctant to accept a future as an English conversation teacher, I suddenly found myself as a network marketer in Japan, trying feverishly to sell enough vitamins to get myself out of teaching. Funnily enough, that experience, although a tremendous failure, was a wonderful education, putting me on the road to self-employment.

Fast-forward to 2009 and I’m now a programmer. At least that’s what my alien registration card says after today’s trip to City Hall. Although I’ve been running my own internet business full-time for a year and a half, it’s somewhat rewarding to be officially recognized as something I always wanted to be.

Funnily enough, programming is only a hobby of mine, but try explaining “Adsense Publisher” to the ladies at City Hall and you’ll understand why we settled on “programmer” as a job title.

← Older Entries