js30 Yes School

Of course, our main business for being in Japan in the first place was teaching English, and particularly English conversation. The little eikaiwa in Mukogaoka developed a very good reputation, and but for the emergence of the McEnglish giants like Nova, would undoubtedly have had a waiting list But we were happy to get by with a (seasonally-adjusted) average of about 60 students of all ages, which paid the bills and kept everyone in o-sake.

On Tuesdays I went upcountry to Kaibara to take some business English and juku classes and Nadia held the fort in Sanda. On arriving home about 9pm, I was invariably greeted by the sound of laughter wafting from the classroom. The last class of the evening was in full swing. This was Nadia's favourite class, comprising four young woman who were friends and who, over the course of years, became our friends. They enjoyed studying but were, well, funny, and a lightness pervaded the house. I would go in and say hello and bring in a bowl of crisps, CC Lemon or cold tea.

Occasionally the class swelled to five or six, but the core remained consistent- Rika, Akiko, Naoko and Chihiro. The shot above is a bit of a fake really, since we were essentially posing 'in action' for the camera. And Nadia is taking the shot, maybe for publicity. I can't remember.

not black and white

I have a sharp tongue that comes from, well, I'm not quite sure. But the seeds of that sharpness certainly come out of my teens, that period of restless uncertainty, a place of shadows and fitful growth. The taunts and scrapes can have a lifetime impact.

So discovering that you are good at something (in my case, words) means that you have a compensation for all the fears, real or imagined. Or for the circumstances in which you find yourself at the time. A problem emerges when an inferiority complex flips into extroversion. A shy person can appear to be an arrogant egotist, though the truth is really quite different.

I don't mean to use sharp words or sarcasm but it's out of my mouth before the mind has comprehended the deed. That's not an excuse and never can be. Of course, this tendency gets me into trouble fairly regularly and sometimes quite seriously.

There really is no place for hard words when they are directed at the people you love most. I'm sorry that I spoke harshly to Nadia recently and upset her so. It's just not good enough and I have more work to do. A lot more.

from the past

Recently, while going through some old boxes, I found a single sheet of paper with a short typed poem. I thought that it was worth the effort to write it up here, though, as for that, you should be the judge.

I sit, reading again a letter
from you, the lines of black spent
on an old envelope,
reading too, the long passage of absences
between us.

Of course, I understood. Returns are often
harder than goodbyes,
And I, well, I hunch by book and phone,
unable to scan or think, willing your eye,
your hand, your breath.

Long perspectives, no doubt, heal
and bind, balm to those
hurts; heedless actions, thoughts,
seeds of unlived life, ramifying,
unkind.

my hope

Today my dear friend Elaine starts chemotherapy. This is the unhappy moment Nadia and I have waited for, or put to the back of our minds. for 4 years now. That was when Elaine told us she had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph glands. A few weeks ago tests showed that it had started to grow, and chemo was required to shrink it.

Elaine is a wonderful woman. She is pretty much the epitome of all those values that I really cherish. Honesty, selflessness, generosity, kindness, loyalty and forgiveness are rarely all found together in any one person, though I wouldn't baulk from saying that they are found in their entirety in her.

So now she lies with a drip in her arm, and we wait to see the outcome. The prognosis is good even if the treatment is slow.

Get well sweet friend. More than words can say, we love you.

this gentle dawn

Part of me is very excited about the election of Barrack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. That part (it's actually quite a large part really), is idealistic, enthusiastic about the human project, happy to be swept up and carried along by noble-minded, high sounding rhetoric and energized by the call to action on behalf of the future.

The other part, that small, intellectualised compartment that comprises experience and considered opinion, whispers that the resultant actions will never match the words, no matter how hard the effort. That's not always the case, but often.

Obama has a mountain of goodwill, majorities in both houses in Congress and an obvious ability to motivate. Those are huge plusses. I believe him to be sincere also. The other mountains, those requiring the slow climbing, the hardest effort, the worst obstacles, are hoving into view. Global Warming, economic crisis, nuclear proliferation, two difficult to resolve wars, are just the front runners.

It's in all our interests that the new adminintration seriously takes on these challenges. Yes, it is about our children and grandchildren. Yes, it's probably about human survival. Yes, it's certainly worth it.

So good luck to President Obama and his team. I know that I'd prefer to see a gentle dawn, rather than 'the shining daffodil dead/and Orion low in his grave.'

and another thing

This month is the first anniversary of the demise of the Howard Government. My views on that are well known, so I wont bore readers (oh, you have readers?? ed) with further barbs. I only note that the sky hasn't fallen in. Nor have any apocalyptical horsemen ridden into town.

Tuesday, I hope, sees the demise of Republican control of the White House and any other house, for that matter. Now I don't mind John McCain and more's the pity that he didn't win the GOP nomination against Bush a decade ago. He was the worthier of the two by a long shot. But I think that Obama has a real opportunity to break some of the political molds that are holding back real American leadership on the planet, whether it be on climate change, or proliferation or solving the multiple crisis's that dog us all. The US is an important player.

Other than politics, I should explain or perhaps even apologize for the terribly prosaic nature of my scribblings about Japan. My idea, such as it was, was to document in the simplest terms possible my sense of attachment to place, that place being the physical environment of my life in Japan. So details like train lines and parks and shopping centres, often pedantically rendered here, loomed quite large in my daily scheme of things, then. They help me to remember.

It's also partly a grieving process. The years spent in Japan were amongst the happiest and most productive of my life, and they are unlikely to be revisited. The school is sold. We now have a young family. And that's that.

So if I bore you with trivial detail, I will make amends later. And perhaps you will understand.

js29 In Kyoto with student friends

In winter last year, we went with two student friends on a day trip to some temple markets in Kyoto. Eiko and Kazuwe were Nadia's students, though I had taken the class a few times. They were wonderfully eccentric ladies (Eiko had once managed to wedge her car in the entrance of her garage) and Nadia loved the class, which was often hilarious. They were pretty keen on any western style experience, and on this occasion, we went to an excellent middle eastern vegetarian restaurant before the markets. Sort of, Lebanese with a twist. They also seemed quite amazed that westerners like us could so easily navigate the train system, especially where we jumped lines to get a cheaper fare. I think that we have Miwa to thank for that grounding.

So it was that we emerged from Hankyu Kawaramachi Station, which runs underneath a major shopping precinct. You can see the Hankyu Department store in the background. The shot shows us on the way across the bridge on the Kamo River, bearing eastwards in search of the Keihan line. Tom was asleep and the three girls had just burst in laughter. Kazuwe and Eiko found it hilarious that Nadia knew exactly where we were when they didn't have a clue. It was a great day actually and one of the few manageable trips to Kyoto with an infant.

There is a reasonable little map of the district here:

http://www.infomapjapan.com/images/map/Kawaramachi_map_web.pdf

js28 Richard in Kyoto

A few years ago an Australian friend, Richard (foreground of shot) came to visit us in Sanda. Whenever friends or family came to stay, we did a fairly traditional tour circuit- a kind of, best of kansai, adapted to the length of the stay, of course. Richard was a little hard to get motivated at first, though as you can see, we did manage to get to Kyoto with him.

One of the most famous old districts (and a rival to nearby Gion), is that area to the west of the Kamo River known as Pontocho. In essence, it is a long, thin, cobbled and paved lane set in the midst of traditional houses and buildings. These include teahouses (whose verandahs abutt the river), expensive bars and restaurants. On one occasion we caught a glimpse of a maiko (a geisha-in-training) hurrying to an engagement.

Before coming to Japan, Richard had diligently studied Japanese at a night school class. By the time he arrived however, only de gozaimasu remained in his vocabulary, and, polite as it was, it fell short of the expectations he held for it. I think that he hoped that this same simple expression would buy him train tickets, order his lunch and even entitle him to detailed directions whenever needed. But he got by nevertheless.

js27 Miwa in Kyoto

There are not many photos of Miwa in our possession for the simple fact that she didn't like having them taken of her. She felt, probably wrongly, that she looked too full in the face. I think we all have our fears, especially when the shot doesn't match our own inner picture.

Miwa is a friend going back some ten years, and of course, she lived with us on our most recent stay in Japan. On other occasions though, we had to catch up with her through a day trip to Kyoto, with a brief though joyful rendezvous at the Starbucks in Gion. She was usually in between shifts at her ryokan (the rather exclusive Hatanaka) and would come bicycling from her tiny apartment nearby, dispensing an hour or so of happiness.

Even if months separated these occasions, it would seem as if we had hardly been apart, such was the ease of conversation. And something else too - being absolutely comfortable with someone, to the point of knowing their thoughts, delighting in their gestures, anticipating their words.

Exit triumphalism

Today the US Congress voted down the much touted 'rescue package', the measure that the American Administration hoped would stabilize the shaky financial sector. I have done quite a lot of reading up about the apparent causes of the 'crisis', especially the shady home lending, with its extraordinary acronyms (whatever would real ninjas have made of NINJA loans?) and dubious packaging of said loans via securitization. Not being an economist or even a financial planner, it is difficult to unravel the layers of esoteric detail of the situation, but I can think logically if I have to.

So it should come as no surprise that if you give large home loans to people who have no chance of paying them back, or who are likely to default in the near future; if you detach the normal screening process from the lender itself (via non-aligned mortgage brokers) and if you then on-sell these high-risk debts as if they were quite reasonable investments,( and multiply this many times over), then you have the makings of full-blown disaster.

You know, it wouldn't take more than a primary school education to figure this out, but the simple logic has alluded regulators and bankers and brokers and other financial wizards, the very cream, as it were, of US capitalism.

And this is the system that would triumph over all, taking no prisoners and ending history as we know it.

I hope that this is the end of this foolish triumphalism.

Goodbye to my old email address

Way back when the internet was all dialup and innocent, I joined Planet Netcom. a Penrith based internet provider, and logged on for the first time. I remember that I had to write out and insert script into some kind of program and do quite a lot more than the point and click that makes most things fairly easy these days. It was late 1995.

I also received my first email address, which I named after my dog Ruth. ruth@pnc.com.au. I've kept and used it to this day, even after PNC was swallowed by a bigger company, and I've sent and received an awful lot of emails since. They document, at least in part, some important times in my life.

Ruth died two years ago this October and the account has long since been superceded by another companies broadband. Still I paid the monthly fee and kept the old email, because it attached me to something I can't put a finger on right now, and it signified a little of the bond between Ruth and me. It was one of those abiding connections, maybe like an old phone number, or perhaps like a box of old letters.

Today I ended the account and I feel very sad about it. Nadia tells me that I'm being silly and that it was a waste of money, though I'm not too sure what dollar value can be attached to memory. Or trust.

js26 More densha

Trains were a bit of a preoccupation of mine in Japan. Not only could you ride on them and potentially go anywhere on the long archapeligo, but they were pretty much constantly heard. Late at night, JR carriages would be clack-clacking from across the old rice paddies down by the river, while the more metallic rumble of the shintetsu trains was omnipresnet as they shuttled through the suburbs. Not only that, but train companies all had different platform jingles or sounds, from tinny horns to cute tunes, though hearing these from our place would have been a stretch.

In the first pic above, a JR local speeds through the above mentioned rice-fields. In the latter, a shintestsu local enters Yokoyama Station from Flowertown.

js25 Trains 2

The Shintetsu spur line runs parallel Sanda'a kansen up to Woodytown.. Generally speaking, it seems less well patronised than the other lines, possibly because it is more expensive. The trains also seem a little older and noisier. Even though we had a Shintetsu station (Yokoyama) 10 minutes stroll from home, we always preferred to walk to the JR mainline station, and I think the reason was principally cost. It was a lovely walk anyway. Sometimes after Nihongo Salon I would catch a local to Flowertown for shopping, though only if I was pressed for time. A few times Nadia and I caught the Kobe Dentetsu to Shinkaichi Station to the west of Kobe if we were going into Sannomiya, though that entailed a change of trains.

For Christmas 2006 I got a little Olympus digital camera and set out to take a few snaps. It was a cold day but the sun had that crisp deep yellow quality, the kind that throws everything into sharp relief. A local on the Shintestsu line was approaching Yokoyama station (from Sanda Honmachi) so I took the shot.

If you want more information on this train company, someone has kindly set up a page in wikipedia, here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Electric_Railway

or here for the company site (in Japanese)

http://www.shintetsu.co.jp/

js24 Trains 1

Japan is a paradise for train lovers or spotters. Lines run the length and breadth of the nation and going by rail is the best way of seeing the country. You don't have to worry about traffic jams or tolls. You certainly don't have to worry about the bloody parking, which is either expensive or simply unavailable.

As I have said in previous posts, Sanda is served by two lines, the JR Fukuchiyama, and the Kobe Dentetsu (also referred to as the Shintetsu). The former runs into Osaka via Takarasuka and the latter, to Kobe. A spur from the Dentetsu runs uptown through Sanda. If I wanted to be a pedant (and perhaps I do here), there is a a third option, which Nadia and I often used when going into Umeda. If you take JR to Takarasuka, you can change to the wonderful, cheaper and often praised Hankyu line. More about my favourite train company later.

Pictured is a JR Tambaji Rapid at a rail crossing on the approach to Sanda Station, coming from the direction of Sasayama.

And more about the Fukuchiyama line can be found here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuchiyama_Line

js24 Looking up our street

Self-indulgent I know, but here is yet another photo of our street, this one taken from the Sandadani Park end. I could tell you a few anecdotes about this or that neighbour, but perhaps another time. May I draw your attention to the gutters (the principle reason for posting this shot), which are fairly typical in Japan. Yes, pretty much open trenches and an absolute trap for any motorist who might happen to get a little too close. I only ever saw such an accident once, just around the corner, in fact. Once the front wheel went in to the gutter, the car (a van) lurched into the wall. An expensive mistake. On another occasion a new teacher friend of ours walked right into one on a dark night.

So why not cover these vast troughs with a steel grate or the like? Well. you can, but you have to do it yourself. Concrete rectangular blocks cost about 150 yen each and you might need forty to do the front of the property. You can see that the residence on the left of the photo has done this very thing. We had bought and installed a dozen or so outside the school in the critical spots, such as where students parked their cars, and I would have eventually filled the entire area had we not come home.

Apparently this kind of guttering is great for pushing heavy snow into, or so I was told. Though there must really be a better way.

js23 Fukada Park Amphitheatre

All over Sanda City, and no doubt across Japan, are evacuation areas that are solemn reminders that the country is prone to earthquakes, tsunami and typhoons. Fukada Park amphitheatre is a good example of such an area, though it also serves as a performance space, albeit on a rather epic level.

There is a little story which I always associate with this space. When we came to Japan for our sister-city gigs in 1998, Fukada Park was the site of the major performance, a show which included three choirs and a symphony orchestra. It was a wonderful night.

Here I must digress. For the story really begins back in Australia in 1993, when I found a little poster at the local library advertising singing workshops. I tore off the tiny hand-written strip with the contact details. I joined the class (there were only three or four of us) which was run by one Janet Swain. Later that year, Janet formed the choir Crowd Around in her living room, and the rest is (choral) history.

By 1998 we had built a bit of a reputation in the Blue Mountains and Janet applied for (or was asked) to assist with the Sanda-Blue Mountains Sister-City Celebrations. Could we possibly go to Japan for a week of homestay and performance, as representatives of the Blue Mountains? I think you can guess at our answer.

And so we did. And this is what the amphitheatre in Fukada Park always reminds me of. By reading a poster and acting upon an impulse, I ended up living and working in Japan. I also met my wife, who joined Crowd Around in 1998. And we had Tom and began a new journey. You know, I could never have guessed it if you'd asked me 15 years ago.

I'd like to have posted a photo of the choir on stage 10 years ago, but I don't have one handy. So here's a relatively recent shot of the space. It's quiet now but it was buzzing with people and energy then. And so so hot.

js22 Fukada Park

When Nadia and I first went to Japan with our choir Crowd Around in 1998, one of the highlights was an open-air performance at Fukada Park. I wont go into detail about that now. On subsequent stays, barely a day passed when I didn't walk in the park for some reason. It was the kind of place that you could walk through and on top of and about without ever getting bored, and on weekends it was alive with dogs and baseball practice and informal soccer games.

At one end of the park is the Hyogo Museum of Nature and Human Activities, an imposing modernist structure with a vast array of windows, the roof of which acts as a bridge between the Flowertown shopping district and Fujigaoka. At the other end is a children's maze and play area, with the kind of giant slides that are banned in Australia but just fine In Japan.

My attempt at trendy photograhy is an abject failure, but I'm sure you get the idea.

js21 Shimagatani

While most roads in Japan do not have a name, just about every intersection does. I rather like the custom of labeling them, because it immediately identifies a micro-location, a good reference point when trying to give or receive directions.

Our nearest major intersection was Shimagatani, the photo in question taken from adjacent our local hospital, overlooking the multi-lane Kansen. The Kansen winds its way through the heart of Sanda, from the main JR station, past our old chome and up to the 'new towns' of Woodytown and Culturetown. The Shintetsu spur railway line traces the same course.

Follow the arrows (in the enlarged photo) straight ahead and you will be winding your way down to JR Sanda Station. Turn left and you'll end up in the same place, though this way you'll pass a great little Italian restaurant. Make a right and you're heading out to Fujiwaradai and eventually, the spa town of Arima. These of course are just names that have little meaning except maybe to a small band of Sandaphiles, but Nadia and I can readily attach a dozen memories to each direction taken, whether it be to our favourite karaoke box, vegetarian cafe or friend's house.

There is one of these intersections near everyone, everywhere, really.

js20 Nearby Attractions

Most days I walked for about an hour in whatever direction the mood took me. One of the most common walks from our place was past the hospital and down through the apartment blocks of Nishiyama. Our closest temple was Shingetsuin, which we explored on our first stay. I often walked through the graveyard and then along the lines of smooth raked stones. Most often though I walked past the temple entrance on my way to the station or shops, for I particularly liked the curve in the road where a shrine lantern (pictured) stood at the base of some steep stairs. On the lower side was a cute-as-a-button church (such juxtapositions are of no concern to the syncratistic Japanese) while on the upper, a wood mason toiled in his workshop. I loved the smell of the just-cut wood, though less his eternally smoking fire. There are more photos of Shingetsuin posted at this site.

http://www.sanda.gr.jp/Shingetsuin/index.html

js19 Parks 1 Sandadani Koen

Sanda is a garden city and very proud of the fact. We were lucky enough to live very close to a pleasant little park (and baseball ground) called Sandadani Koen and within a short drive of several others. Whenever people told us that their experience in Japan was cheek-by-jowel urban, with grey the default colour, we understood (having spent time in the big cities), but had to admit that Sanda was anything but cramped or uniform.

Sandadani Park was many things to us. It was a regular through-route on the way to Flowertown shops. It was a walking and exercise track. It was a pleasant diversion on a Sunday afternoon when the local baseball team was playing. It was a place to meet people, especially the friendly retirees who sat nattering under shady awnings in summer. It was also our closest cherry blossom viewing site, where we could spread a rug, sip an asahi or two and nibble on inari while the fluorescent sakura danced overhead.

The latter photo shows a line of wintry cherry trees, the path winding in the direction of the entrance to our chome, while the former shows the circular walking track.

js18 Kippy Mall

Adjacent JR Sanda Station is the Hankyu Kippy Mall. Occupying what for a long time was just vacant land (though it must have been something once?) the shopping mall emerged in 2005, in what was supposed to be a major upgrade to the central commercial sector. The intersection of the bus, train and old shopping area was once rather decrepit and i think there"s little doubt the precinct has been improved. But perhaps it came too late, for the huge Aeon on the southern fringe of Sanda (actually North Kobe) has probably stolen a lot of the consumer thunder from Hankyu's venture.

I rather like Kippy Mall. The top floor is entirely dedicated as a community space with meeting rooms, a library and IT facilities. We had Nihongo Salon there, a Christmas concert and a couple of parties also. Downstairs there was good coffee and a great bakery. Nadia could always find a stationary nick-nack or two and it served as a waiting room for getting on and off trains. Oh and there is a great children's wear shop - Starvations!. Would you believe it?

js17 winter joy....hori kotatsu

One of the great innovations (though occurring less and less in new housing) is the hori-kotatsu. Most if not all Japanese homes have at least a kotatsu, which is a low table with a built in heater and a doona or blanket to retain the heat. The hori-kotatsu takes this principle further. There is a boxed hole in the floor, on which a table sits. A blanket slipped under the table and a round of cushions for sitting on completes the ensemble. On sits on the floor, legs danging in the hole, with the table at roughly waist high. There is an electric heater in the base of the hole.

I can't relate the sheer joy of hopping from bed on a wintry morning, popping on the kettle. and then sitting in the hori-kotatsu. Me, with the ubiquitous Daily Yomuiri spread in front, a cup of tea and a cream biscuit.. Or after classes, with a Sapporo or an Asahi, the NHK News At 10, any stresses seeping into the ground. It may well be my favourite thing about the house at Mukogaoka. At the end of winter, the unit packed up neatly and the floor became, well, the floor again.

In the picture, Nadia is sitiing in the hori-kotatsu and the infant Tom is apparently flipping through a book. You can see how his baby chair has been pushed up against the unit. In the background, the dining table has been moved aside, until the spring.

js16 A tale of two Daiei's

Our principal supermarket during our time in Japan was the local Flowertown Daiei. We got to know where everything was, ran into students and Nihongo Salon teachers there, in short, became comfortable with the setup. There was a Minato bank ATM (one of only two in the whole of Sanda!), a food court with an oishii Indian kiosk, a variety store upstairs and later on, a Holly's Cafe, with cheap but good coffee. We went to Christmas concerts, dropped in on local radio station Honey FM and frequented the 100 yen shop.

Of course, the Daiei corporation ran into serious financial trouble a few years ago and underwent a massive restructure, which included the closure of many so-called uneconomic stores, many of which were in Kansai. Flowertown, fortunately, survived.

In restructuring, some bright spark thought a logo change would help with the repositioning of the brand (whatever that means) so the part-eaten orange(my interpretation) became a flower or petal. I guess it worked because I noticed the change, though I preferred the old symbol really. I include two shots which highlight this groundbreaking innovation

js15 Mori san and Tom

During the time we lived and worked in Japan, our strongest support and often best friendships came from the Yes School secretaries. They grounded us in things Japanese, gave us a working knowledge of the fundamentals of life in Japan and opened up their homes and lives to us. I think we would have been much the poorer from not knowing these wonderful women.

Naoko Mori was our last secretary, before the school sold, and the picture shows her with the baby Tom in our front garden. She had taken Tom outside to give us a break as we were flat our cleaning and packing. It was a very stressful time for Nadia and I and her gesture typifies the kindness and thoughtfulness that we so often encountered. Naoko was not only a good secretary, but a great person and friend. And much missed.

js14 Snowy upstreet scene.

I think I mentioned that we had had a fair dump of snow post-Christmas 2006, particularly in the first week of the new year. I had taken a few shots from our upstairs bedroom window, though this is certainly the wintriest. You can see just how close the Takarasuka-Sanda Hospital is - just at the top of the street. A great landmark for anyone searching for our place.

Also the next door neighbour's fairly unkempt (by Japanese standards) garden and environs. We became very quickly tired of their yapping dog, who strangely disappeared in between our tours of duty only to reincarnate into two yapping dogs on our final stay. They seemed like nice people but they did keep to themselves.

And to the extreme left is the house of a kindly neighbour who made a point of trying to communicate with us (his English was much better than my Japanese) and was an avid gardener. With the exception of the hostile man, who was our lower side neighbour, it was pleasant street to live in. We really thought of it as home.

js12 Honmachidori

Our introduction to Sanda (and Japan) was great good luck. Nadia and I were members of a choir that was invited to sing at Sanda's Sister City Celebration Concert in 1998. We had a fantastic week in Sanda in which we were spoilt rotten by our Japanese hosts. Of course, we were also taken on sight seeing tours in and around Sanda.

On one such occasion our hosts took us to 'the oldest street in Sanda' and, of course, we had high expectations of ancient wooden structures mingled with shrines and temples. Needless to say, Honmachidori didn't live up to what we had expected and I think quite a lot of the choir were disappointed.

Since that time I have walked up or crossed this street dozens of times and I always find it appealing. It does have its own charm even if most of the buildings post date WW2. During festivals times it is lined with stalls of all kinds, lanterns are hoisted and crowds jostle. Not today though!

js11 Towards Miwa jinja

Sanda is a small, modern city. For the most part it is planned. meaning suburbs or towns have been created with a specific urban design in mind, rather than in the chaotic fashion often seen in Sydney. The 'new' towns that run up to Woodytown are serviced by a spur railway and good roads. There are parks and gardens and bicycle ways.

Old Sanda is located down by the river and little remains of what the original village must have looked like. Occasionally one gets a hint of this, as in this photo. Only a minutes walk from busy JR Sanda Station, this quaint street heads up to a thronging arterial road (176) and just beyond, the Miwa jinja. Our friend Miwa lived near this shrine in the suburb of Miwa with her family, though I don't think she ever cottoned on to the coincidence until we told her. Then again, we once caught her with a stick in her mouth which she claimed helped her to develop an unconscious smiling capability. This was apparently so that customers at her workplace thought she was eternally contented. No, I'm not joking.

js10 Aeon Comes To Town

Westerners visiting Japan for the first time are often surprised at how similar japanese supermarkets are to the variety back home. Ditto for the new shopping malls that are popping up everywhere Our regular shopping centre for much of our time in Japan was Daie in Flowertown, which was close and cheap. But in 2006 a huge Aeon complex opened in North Kobe, on the very boundary of Sanda.

Now I have my doubts about the wisdom of super malls, particularly when they are sited away from traditional town centres and public transport. The Aeon centre ticks both of these boxes. On the upside, from our point of view, was greater access to western foods such as breakfast cereals, and a much better environment for taking children.

Actually, I found a pretty quick shortcut from Mukogaoka to Aeon which took little more than half an hour on foot (Japanese friends thought I was crazy....'You walked?!') but I enjoyed the challenge of navigating railway lines and green belts. On the occasion of this photo, we had driven the Mitsubishi. Nadia is seen with the infant Tom in the stroller.

js9 Pumpkin Bakery

If I might be a little self-indulgent (that is, beyond that indulgence which comes with posting blogs in the first place), I would like to offer praise to a wonderful bakery in Sanda. Pumpkin. On our first working stay in Japan in 2001, we were introduced to this little gem by some fellow teachers and we never looked back.

Baking bread and cakes in what the Japanese call the French tradition is now fairly widespread and Sanda had perhaps a dozen big and small bakeries when we finally left last year. But Pumpkin was always the closest to our hearts and as the crow flies, the closest to home too. It was also one of the most over-staffed establishments. At the counter, someone would wrap your purchases, then someone else would take your money. Meanwhile, another assistant was re-stocking the shelves, while in the kitchen several bakers laboured by benches and ovens.

I miss the little tray and the tongs, the crisp warm breads and rolls, the croissants and interesting Japanese takes on French pastries. And that curious little round roll with the potato jammed in the top. Oh Pumpkin!

js8 Nadia and the JR Rapid

In our third year in Japan, it became very difficult to do some of the things we had become accustomed to doing on weekends. Gone were the flying visits to Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto. It was just too too difficult with a new baby, logistically.

So we had to take it in turns to (very occasionally) venture out alone, which was much less fun. I missed Nadia's company and all the chatter and mutual reinforcement that comes with going places together. I felt far more 'foreign' on those occasions, something which I can't really explain, except that maybe that it's synonymous with plain old self-consciousness. So I really could identify with the gaijin who looked so lost and alone, the ones we had sighted on previous trips into big cities. And its little wonder that they gathered in such numbers at Starbucks or the many faux UK-themed pubs that dot the likes of Kobe and Osaka. Its hard to blame them really.

So here is a snap of Nadia on one of her out~alone adventures (I think to Kyoto), taken from our Mitsubishi at Sanda Station.

js7 Sanda Station and bus rank.

On my way to Nihongo Salon one Monday morning, I snapped this shop from the Hankyu Department Store (Kippy Mall) adjacent JR Sanda Station. Most of this development is quite new. Where Hankyu is now was for many years just an empty site, and the criss-cross of bridges followed the general upgrade of the entire precinct. I think we always hoped that the Hankyu railway would somehow find a way of extending itself from Takarasuka, or even perhaps organising a buy out of the Kobe Shintestsu. The latter's Sanda terminus is to the right, obscured by the pedestrian bridge. In the background is JR Sanda. The two stations sit side by side.
I simply couldn't count the number of times Nadia and I walked from home to the station to catch a train or go shopping. Even my doctor was located nearby. Hmmm...memories!

js6 Snowy vista

In early January 2007, we had a fair dump of snow. Coming from a non-snowy environment in Australia, it was always a pleasure to wake up to the gentle silence of fresh snow. We would draw the curtains in the lounge room and marvel. I have to say, its not so much fun to live with on a regular basis, especially if I was driving into the countryside for work or trudging off to get groceries. Through the window and across the road is a house that was empty for much of our time in Mukogaoka. We never really knew why though, on the one occasion it was occupied, we had all sorts of headaches with parking.

JS5 Our view from the bedroom

Upstairs we had two bedrooms, one housing a homemade three-quarter bed. It was 10 cms too high, an odd contrast to the futons that customarily graced the other room. The photo looks out to the mountains in the rough direction of Moshi, with the prefectural hospital in the background and the 'new' town of Tomagaoka spilling like ivy down the hillside in its wake.

JS4 Towards Mukogaoka

Often as not, I walked a circuit that claimed to be 5 km's long and was, quite impressively, entirely comprised of foot and cycle ways. Not only that, but I could digress onto any number of paths in a variety of directions if I wanted a change. I suppose this is one of the reasons why Sanda has a reputation as a modern, planned, garden city.

This photo gives yet another perspective on where we lived, this time at the next remove. Walking towards Flowertown and looking back. the large white buildng in the background is Takarasuka-Sanda Hospital which was, as future pics will attest, about 100 metres from our house. The four-laned Sanda kansen is to the right, with a small group of struggling shops in the foreground.

JS3 Walks

I did a lot of walking in my local neighbourhood. Usually by myself though sometimes on our last tour with the infant Tom. Even though Mukogaoka is a 'new' town, it is really quite close to the centre(ie. old part) of Sanda. Its also handy to parks and gardens. We seem to have had the best of both worlds.

Sandadani Park was less than a stone's throw from our house, with a baseball park (doubling as a football ground), gardens. ponds, walking tracks and an evacuation area, just in case. In the late afternoon, senior citizens would meet to chat and stroll. Other times, there were joggers, walkers, dogs and cyclists. Gosh, I miss being there. Honto ni.

some catching up

Well, we have been offline for about three months now, which I find only a minor inconvenience. Moving to the new hoos was far more complicated than I had envisaged and the fact is that we still haven't completely shifted from #11. Maybe a week or two to go. Or a month.

Tom is now two, has more language and a greater understanding of his environment. He has many endearing idiosyncracies, an affection for heavy road implements and a wayward diet.

I have yet to find gainful employment though I am doing a bush gardening course in apparent preparation for the sizeable task of creating a garden at #9. Nadia has just got a position with a local community agency(BMOCS) which looks like being very part-tine.

Anyway, enough of this boring tosh. I will continue my Japanese series shortly. I have so many great memories to write about.