I had a four-day break from work last weekend, so I took a trip up to Hirosaki, a medium-sized city near the northern tip of Honshu, the main island of Japan.
To get there, I bought a special ticket called the seishun juuhachi kippu, which is only offered during periods that coincide with student holidays. For about US$100, the ticket gives you five nonconsecutive days of unlimited travel on local trains. Cheap, but slow. Travel between Nagano and Hirosaki took 15 hours each way. But I had time to spare, I love riding trains, and the scenery was great.
I rode on six different trains, taking me through many cities and towns along the way:
Nagano –> Arai
Arai –> Niigata
Niigata –> Murakami
Murakami –> Sakata
Sakata –> Akita
Akita –> Hirosaki
Much of the trip between Niigata and Akita was right along the coast of the Sea of Japan. The weather was spectacular and the views were great as the trains traveled through small coastal villages.
Through the mountains between Nagano and Arai, and then again between Akita and Hirosaki, there was still a lot of snow. In Hirosaki, banks of snow remained, but it was melting quickly in the warm, spring sunshine.
I visited Hirosaki because it’s where my great-grandfather lived in the last years of the 1800s. There is a museum in Hirosaki that contains family photos, letters, diaries and more. My grandmother visited the city in 1991 along with her four children for the dedication of the museum. I’ll be posting more about this part of my visit to Hirosaki soon.
I’ve added two photo albums of the trip:
Local trains to Hirosaki:
I love trains.
Nagano to Hirosaki:
Scenery as seen from many trains, and photos of Hirosaki.
I’ve also added nine video clips taken during the trip.
Category: Entries with Images
Copy Protected CDs In Japan
It seems that most of the new CDs here in Japan are being released with copy protection. I’m wondering whether Japanese consumers are complaining about this?
As far as I can decipher from the labels (the image here is a big sticker on the front of the CD; there’s more detailed usage information on the back), you cannot rip music from these CDs into a digital format of your choice. You can listen to the CD on a computer, but only if you’re using Windows and a media player with digital rights restrictions. You can’t listen to one of these CDs on your computer if you’re using a Macintosh. They also won’t work in DVD players (including Sony’s PlayStation).
At least they’re labeled well — you can’t miss that you’re about to buy music that limits listening options.
There have been several new releases that I’ve wanted to purchase, but I don’t even own a CD player. All of my listening is done on my Mac or with an MP3 player. That means no new CDs for me.
The strange thing about these copy protected CDs appearing in Japan is that there’s a huge market for renting CDs here. At any number of big rental stores, you can grab a CD along with the DVD you rent for the night. I thought I remembered reading once that the Japanese music industry never really complained about this because there was a tax built into either the rentals or the sale of blank CD-Rs, and that money went to compensate for any copying that occurred. Or maybe it was because widespread CD copying didn’t occur until just recently. Anyone know more about this than I do?
We all need to remember that unless consumers complain about these copy protected CDs, the recording industry is going to get away with restricting the lawful rights of fair use. You pay for the music — it’s yours to do with what you want (within the law). Listening to the music you purchased on the device of your choice is not breaking the law.
Stern Man
An extreme close-up of a photo I took of a politician speaking from his soundtruck near the station. Typically, Japanese politicians will stand on top of a large van — with huge speakers pointing in all directions — and disrupt the peace with campaign speeches that no one pays attention to.
The man in this photo is not the politician, but one of his entourage who saw me taking the picture and evidently didn’t like what he saw.
Teaching The Kids About War
While flipping through the channels last Saturday night trying to pick up news on the war, I came across a show that was teaching kids about the conflict. It looks like the show (or segment) is called Kodomo Nyusu (Kid’s News). They were using toy props and cartoons to show a trio of very glum-looking kids what was happening in Iraq. It was too bizzare to pass up, so I grabbed my camera and started snapping photos.
Here’s my report…
Sunset Near Myoko
Had a great trip last weekend. I’ll be posting some words and pictures about my travels in the next couple days. In the meantime, here’s a photo I took from the train on my way back to Nagano on Monday. The sun is setting over the mountains between Arai and Myoko-Kogen, about an hour north of Nagano. This was taken while riding the Shinetsu Line (local), the last leg of my 12 hours on local trains. More soon.
The War Begins
I’d just gotten home from the gym about ten minutes ago when Ria called to say her boyfriend had called her from Florida to tell her President Bush was on television announcing the beginning of the war. I turned on the television and had just enough time to snap this poor picture of Bush before his short speech ended. I had NPR on simulateously via the internet so I could hear Bush, since the Japanese translation made it difficult to hear him on television.
Right now, all I can see are pictures of early morning in Iraq, with flashes of light that look like the beginning of a fireworks show.
KCRW has just broken away from NPR to go to a live CNN report from Iraq.
I have to be at work in 30 minutes, so I won’t be able to follow the live coverage.
America Attacks
I got up this morning and read the news online while drinking my coffee. Was immediately depressed and disheartened that President Bush — after his daring and very brave overseas (well, actually, he didn’t quite make it to Europe) trip to meet with the only two countries he already has on his side — has all but declared that he will invade Iraq this week.
All day, I couldn’t stop thinking of all the things wrong with the situation the world is now facing. After the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001, I’d say most people had an inkling that the world was going to become a much more dangerous and unstable place. How sad it is that the country most responsible for leading us all down that path has been the United States of America. Now we find ourselves teetering on the precipice, and George Bush is getting ready to shove us all over the edge.
Americans seem to be “rallying around the President,” as the irrepressible Cokie Roberts explained today on National Public Radio, citing a Gallup poll showing that Americans now support going to war with Iraq by a margin of 2-1. I’m not even going to bother checking on the veracity of those comments, since most of the rest of America won’t either — so does it really matter if they accurately show the mood of the country? Cokie also explained that the same poll shows Americans now hate the French.
By the way, does anyone know anything about New Zealand’s immigration policy?
At some point today, I flashed back to the beginning of the first Gulf War. I was staying at my dad’s place in Anchorage, on holiday break from college, glued to CNN, of course. I remember being anxious about the conflict in the days before the war started, and in awe of being able to see so much live on television. But I wasn’t anywhere near as deeply pessimistic as I am now.
Although I’m not optimistic, I truly hope America hasn’t really fucked things up. I hope that people and nations who until recently looked to America as a reasonably fair and rational nation will one day soon feel that way again. I hope I’m wrong in my expectations of the consequences of this war, and that somehow, someway, the people prosecuting this conflict will manage to pull a rabbit out of the hat and do right.
Matsumoto Party
Went to Matsumoto last night for a party at a small bar near the station. DJs, dancing and drinking. Caught the 8:40pm local train from Nagano with Rachel. Angelique came north from Shio Jiri, and we met up with Dean in Matsumoto.
Matsumoto Party photos here.
Smoking Girls
This image was on a flyer at the local Japan Railways ticket office. It looks like it’s advertising a gallery exhibit sponsored by JR. Here’s the website. The exhibit is the one called “Kokuren Shonen (UN Boy).”
Hana Anticipation
Spring is just around the corner, and that means the cherry blossoms will soon be spreading across Japan like a pink tide. Starting from the southernmost tip of the country, the progression of blossoms will move steadily northward, followed with rapt attention by the media and a population ready for the annual cherry-blossom viewing parties (a chance to have fun and get drunk outside after the cold, winter season).
Like the ever-lengthening creep of the Christmas season (soon to begin right after Labor Day weekend in America), marketers in Japan appear to be starting the sakura season early.
Suntory has introduced a special flavor to its Super Chi-Hi line of alcoholic drinks called Hana, the Japanese word for flower. Flavored with cherry blossoms (I’m guessing artificial cherry flavor) and lemon, it’s packaged in the lovely pink cans you see above.
Although the cherry blossoms won’t “arrive” here in Nagano for at least another month, the eager folks at the Midori department store just couldn’t wait that long. Earlier this week, they planted two trees in front of the store which were meticulously grafted with plastic cherry blossoms. They looked a little out of place in the falling snow the other day.