I was up again at 6 AM, still taking advantage of the morning part of jet lag. I decided to take a look around the Aiichi Health Center. This is actually more like an exercise spa and recreation facility that also has a hotel attached. There is a Japanese spa, swimming pools, weight lifting rooms, baseball field, soccer field, tennis courts, children's playgrounds, and a rehabilitative medicine center.















The grounds are something like 190 acres, with four planned walking trails, the longest of which is a little under three miles. It looked like I had plenty of time before Mr. Tsuzuki was to pick me up for the day's sight seeing, and I wanted to see as much of the center as possible, so I started out on the long trail. All of the grounds are manicured and the entire facility looks almost like a botanical garden. There are sculptures and very nicely designed towers and bridges throughout, and the children's play areas are well past the level of the welded swing sets and railroad ties that are common in US parks and playgrounds.
There were quite a few people out on the grounds, walking and getting exercises, and the grounds seem to be open to the public. There were people of all ages getting their morning exercise, but it wasn't crowded by any means.
There were even some displays of native plants.
My walk ran a little long, and I ended up rushing the end to get back to my room, pack, and check out of my room.

Mr. Tsuzuki was a few minutes late, I had a chance to take a couple pictures of the front of the main building and they appeared to be setting up for a bridal convention in the front lobby.
When Mr. Tsuzuki arrived, we went to the Gusto international style restaurant for breakfast. Gusto is one of the more common chain restaurants in Japan like Dennys is in the US. We ate at these a lot. Again, it seems that international style leans more toward British than American, with the hotdog like "banger" sausages and other little details. And their version of a "stack of pancakes" is a little more novelty and a little less quantity, because the "Pancake Setto" consists of three silver dollar sized pancakes on a small plate.

Niimi Nankichi Memorial Museum

Our first stop was in Hanada, south of Nagoya, at the Niimi Nankichi Memorial Museum. Niimi Nankichi was the most famous children's and fairy tale writer in Japan, with a status something like Dr. Seus and the Brothers Grimm are in America and the English speaking world. His most famous work is a story called "Gon The Little Fox", a fox who plays tricks on people. A few days after playing a trick on a farmer and freeing the eels the farmer had caught for his family's meal, the little fox sees the funeral procession for the farmer's mother. The fox feels guilty and begins steeling from the other villagers and giving what he has stolen to the farmer. The other villagers believe that the farmer is stealing from them, and beats him up. The little fox goes to the farmer to apologize for all the trouble he has caused by trying to help, but the farmer doesn't understand, kills the fox, and then sees that the fox has brought another gift. The farmer realizes that he has accidentally killed someone who was trying to help him.





The museum is below ground, built into and meant to accent the rolling surface of the hills around it.





The roofs, ceilings, walkways, staircases, and even the floors, all take a wave form and gradually slope up and down throughout the museum. We would never be allowed to build anything like this in the US due to the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires all public buildings to be accessible to people who are in wheel chairs. The uneven stairs and the sloping floors would not be allowed. But the sculptural form of the building is beautiful, and shows a little of what we are without in the US due to government regulations.










The galleries are full of little dioramas which illustrate the stories of Niimi Nankichi, and the descriptions and explanations are thankfully written in English, so I could appreciate the author's works. There were several stories about foxes, and quite a few stories about musicians and villagers. Most of the stories appeared to involve the death of a character and a recurring theme was the main character realizing the value of something or someone after it or they are gone.

Handa City Library and Museum

Our second stop was at the Handa City Library and Museum. It is really a cultural history museum that tells the story of development in and around Aiichi through displays of both art and architectural pieces as well as common things such as tools, etc.





An unexpected treat, right inside the entrance was a photo display containing a photograph of a lantern, that had a 1981 Isuzu Piazza parked next to it.










Displays included rice farming implements, tomb stones, religious iconography, and large scale pottery.





There was a large room full of festival items, including a large, two story tall mobile shrine, that would have been carried in a parade or procession as part of these festivals.





There was a large display about food and food preparation, including the making of soy sauce, with dioramas showing the process, and display cases full of many antique old bottles.
There was a display of sake making, with huge stoneware vats that had to be 12 to 15 feet tall, but they were so large that it was impossible to get a decent picture of them.





One of the last displays we saw was carpentry and wood working, with a complete wall display of antique planes, hammers, drills, and files.

Shiho Doll Museum

Our next stop was the Shiho Doll Museum, next to the Yoshihama Doll headquarters and factory in Takahama. This area is considered the "birthplace of Japanese doll making" and the museum not only presents the history of doll making, but also uses the medium of dolls and dioramas to present the history of many aspects of Japanese life.
I am not a doll expert, but it seems that the clothing is a little more important than the doll that wears the clothing, and the wardrobe and costume work in this museum was second to none.










On the first floor, there is a large display depicting Japanese festivals, with dolls on turntables and attached to moving chains in the floor of the display, giving the appearance that the dolls are dancing in circles and marching in processions.










Dioramas depict historic battles, the life of the imperial family, and daily life of everyday people, through various eras of Japanese history.










They seemed to spend quite a bit of time covering the topic of the public bath.





One of the larger displays depicted the building of the Daibutsu Giant Buddha in Nara, which I had visited in 2002. The Buddha and scaffolding is on a turntable so that the detail on all sides can be seen and appreciated.
There were some life sized dolls on display, wearing full sized costumes and clothing.










One two story tall room had a festival parade theme, with a tall rolling mobile shrine in the middle. Around the walls and across the balcony of the second floor the parade onlookers were depicted, even showing dignitaries watching from their private viewing boxes.
The museum is arranged so that the visitor starts on the ground floor and proceeds up through each floor of the building. One of the upper floors was dedicated almost completely to displays of antique dolls.





And the top floor has a full scale reproduction of a royal wedding complete with a reproduction of the interior of one of the rooms from the imperial palace.









We left the Doll Museum and went across the street to another smaller museum related to the doll theme, this one was only one floor, and had tall glass cases around three walls of the main room containing full sized mannequins dressed in kimonos, Japanese armor, and costumes. The odd part was that the rest of the room was filled with tables stacked high with tourist souvenirs for sale.

Denpark

Our last touristy stop of the day was at Denpark, a theme park with the theme of Denmark, in the city of Anjo. Japan has a lot of theme parks, and they range from the huge size of the US Walt Disney World and Land in California and Florida, and the familiar Six Flags amusement parks located around the US, to very small size like store fronts in shopping malls. There are theme parks based on popular cartoon characters, popular literary themes, video games, popular toys, types of food, and every conceivable topic.




Denpark's theme was tulips, flowers, and Danish style landscaping and buildings such as windmills. I suppose it was meant to be like a botanical garden, and there were plenty of very intricate topiary bushes and elaborate flower beds. There were no roller coasters or thrill rides. But I had the feeling that I was really missing the point, like when someone waves their hand over your head and makes that "whooosh" sound to indicate that you just don't understand and that an idea or concept is just over your head. I really didn't understand why there was a Danish themed amusement park and why people would go to such a place.
According to the little pamphlet, the park is supposed to be an escape from urban surroundings and an opportunity to "nurture the same sense of affinity with plants, trees, the soil, and other elements of nature that rural residents know so well.". It goes on to explain that there are horticultural classes and an area where people can rent a little plot of garden space and grow their own plants. OK, fair enough, an opportunity for people to get close to nature, even if it is in a hyper real synthetic and overly manicured format. But why does it necessarily have to be about Denmark?

Well, it seemed like we were really there for lunch, and we headed straight for the Furusato-kan Restaurant, which, strangely enough, did not serve Danish food, but rather specialized in home cooked style Japanese food. I ordered the Guidon (beef bowl), the traditional, inexpensive, salaryman's meal. I had not quite gotten a clear understanding that every piece of beef in Japan seems to be befouled by an egg, and this was probably the event that really pounded home this message, because my bowl of rice with beef on top was delivered with what had to be a half dozen scrambled eggs on top. Being a trooper, I worked around the egg and ate almost all of the beef and rice, but Mr. Tsuzuki seemed upset and believed I had not eaten much because I left the big mound of eggs in the bowl.










Once we were finished with lunch, we walked over to the other side of the park to the Floral Palace. This seemed to be the main building with a cafeteria restaurant, gift shop with lots of Danish themed foods and gardening supplies, and a large, modern green house with a mix of touristy shops and floral gardens, complete with sculptures and gingerbread architecture.
We had to cut our visit short, and missed visiting things like the Micro Brewery, because we were going to be late meeting with the Front Row club members to help setup for Sunday's show.

Setting Up For The Show

We drove for quite a while through a more rural and suburban area to Okazaki. We met about fifteen Front Row club members at the Okazaki city works facility. The Front Row Club puts on the Gemini Owners Meeting (sometimes called the All Of Japan Isuzu Meeting).
In the US, the IsuzuWeb more or less picks a regional car show, arranges to attend as a group and rents tents, tables, and chairs, and though it is a lot of work to organize a group, arrange hotel accommodations, and plan activities for the group before and after the show, the work of setting up and putting on the show itself, and all of the needed facilities and aspects of the show itself are always taken care of by the show promoters. Even the club tent is already set up for us on sight.
Well, the Gemini Front Row Club puts their show on themselves, and they are responsible for everything from renting the park to have the show in, to renting, transporting, and setting up tents for show car registration, to checking cars in at the gate and getting them parked, and everything else in between.










This evening the club members were loading tents, tables, and chairs, transporting them to the park, and setting them up for the show that would take place the following day. Japan doesn't have pickup trucks, instead, they have these tiny little flat nose delivery trucks, that look like oversized carts. These are actually licensed as regular cars. They are more convenient for the narrow streets and tight spaces in Japan, but it seems like they would have to make a lot more trips to deliver what would fit on one normal sized truck...










I was between trying to stay out of the way and trying to pitch in and help, but I really didn't want to break or drop anything, and they were barking orders in Japanese, so unless someone was moving a large pile of something from one place to another, I didn't get much of an opportunity to lend a hand. So I shot a few pictures. This must have looked really stupid, they might have thought something like "what is this foreigner doing, he travels halfway around the world so he can take pictures of us loading tables and tents into the back of a truck...".

On the way to the park, Mr. Tsuzuki and I put up signs at a couple of intersections along the highway to direct club members to the park for the show. I was surprised, the area really looked like a typical Midwest suburban area, with strip malls scattered all over.

We arrived at the Kuragari Valley, most often referred to as the "Ravine", unloaded the chairs and tables, and partially set up the tents for the show registration and administration area.





Then Mr. Yoshiyuki gave the group a speech about how things were going to be organized the next day, and we were done setting up.

Barbecue

This year, I had been invited to the Welcome Barbecue to be held at a cabin at the sight of the show. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, I think I was picturing this would be similar to a kids summer camp cabin, I was just hoping to avoid anything close to a tent, because it had been drizzling all week long.
The group all walked up the hill from the Ravine parking lot area to the cabin, there were actually two cabins, and another group had rented the lower cabin. We were at the upper cabin. The cabin had sort of a hillside chalet look to it. All timber construction, it looked like it was 1 1/2 stories tall, had a little balcony, and a big barbecue pit area around back. Inside, it is actually two stories. The first floor is mostly a large, open space with a modern bathroom to the side past a kitchenette. In the open space, there was a square, knee high table, and a staircase on the other side of the room that lead up to a couple small sleeping rooms. There were no chairs anywhere, it was Japanese style, everyone sits on the floor.
The group set down their personal bags and went straight to unloading food and setting up to cook at the barbecue pit. If my expectations of the cabin were a little off toward the tame end of the spectrum, my expectations of the barbecue were equally off. I was expecting sitting around, cooking a little food, and not much entertainment. I was way off. They unloaded a couple coolers of beer, and someone proudly displayed a couple bottles of whiskey. It quickly became evident that this was going to turn into one hell of a party. Someone was even nice enough to make sure there was a good supply of canned chuhai for me. Several people even marvelled that the foreigner liked chuhai, shochu, and sake, but didn't care for beer, so I guess I was responsible for living outside some of the stereotypes expected of an American.
Then came the food. They started out with yakiniku. This is thinly sliced beef, grilled, and then dipped in a bowl of soy sauce and eaten. Finally, beef that isn't ruined with egg! Yakiniku also includes grilled vegetables, and they had those covered also, with carrots, onions, green peppers, and sliced pumpkin.





We were all introduced, as the eating began. Mr. Tsuzuki and Mr. Yamagishi were there, and so was Mr. Hiroshi Oyama. Many of the rest were people I had met briefly in 2002. These were Mr. Koji Matsumoto, Mr. Takahiro Niwa, Mr. Takashi Yokota, Mr. Takeshi Okanishi, Mr. Nito, Mr. Tanahashi, and Ms. Yumi Nakamura. Mr. Ojino Masayoshi and Mr. Eiichi Nakaoka arrived a little later. Mr. Masayoshi had been locating a cooking grille, someone had forgotten to bring one, and Mr. Nakaoka was delayed by work.
After breaking out the yakiniku ingredients, they started grilling some other foods, including pork shishkabobs, those little hot dog like "banger" sausages, and half ears of corn on the cob.





Something I had not mentioned about yakiniku is that each person is responsible for cooking their own piece of meat or vegetable, and this is all done using chop sticks, there are no tongs, forks, or the other typical tools of the American backyard barbecue grille. However, yakiniku is usually cooked over a hibachi or a small grill, not usually over a campsite type fire pit. A lot of the club members were complaining of the excessive heat, "Atsui, hot!". I tried to play the big, tough foreigner, muttered a few sentences about them being pansies, gritted my teeth and retrieved a few pieces of meat and vegetables without yelling it was too hot, but it really was. They didn't quite catch on to the humor of it though.
Then Mr. Yamagishi asked me if I wanted some of the corn on the cob. I said yes, thanked him, and asked where the butter and salt was. In the US, corn on the cob is eaten with butter and salt. I was about to learn that things are slightly different in Japan, as Mr. Yamagishi announced to the group that I was asking for butter and salt to go with my little half cob of corn. This was quickly followed by the question "Why do you want butter and salt?", and puzzled looks from everyone. They then went on to explain that in Japan, corn on the cob is eaten with soy sauce, you just dip the little cob into the same bowl you use for the yakiniku. In fact, it looked like everything was to be dipped in the soy sauce.










But the cooking was not over yet. They set up a griddle style grille and began cooking yakisoba (noodles, meat, and vegetables fried into something like a pancake). It didn't end up in cake form, but more like stir fried noodles, vegetables, and meat, but it was very good. They got out the mayonnaise, the standard topping for yakisoba, which I again passed on, preferring just soy sauce.
The food was all very delicious, and everyone ate until they were stuffed, talked and joked around, drank, and then ate more.




Mr. Tsuzuki had asked me to write out a speech to give in front of all the people at the car show on Sunday. I was supposed to explain who I am and where I am from, what Isuzu cars I own, my experience of drag racing and autocrossing, and my work designing racing parts. Mr. Oyama was drafted to help, because he was one of the more fluent English speakers among the group. I devised a plan to finish the task as quickly as possible, I broke out my laptop computer, typed out my speech in English in a word processing program, and pasted it into the translation program. OK, this is cheating, and not terribly accurate, but I couldn't take hours away from the party to conjugate verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. With the rough translation work done by the computer, Mr. Oyama read the Japanese text and wrote it out by hand in Romanji, so I would be able to read it.
Ms. Nakamura sat close by, fascinated by the translation program, helping work out some of the rough spots in the speech. Mr. Oyama ended up flipping back and forth between the English text and the machine translation, and asking me to explain lots of car related terms. I had to make several trips back outside to the barbecue bringing food and beverages back for the group.
Mr. Yamagishi was having a very good time and came in to see what we were doing.

I had made reference before to Japanese people "turning pink" when I talked about drinking alcoholic beverages. For the uninitiated, I should probably explain this. Somewhere on the internet there is a really detailed explanation, but the short version is that Japanese people lack an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol, and because of this, alcohol has a little greater affect on them than people of European descent, and their skin turns pink right about the point that they are starting to feel a good buzz.





I had also mentioned that Mr. Yamagishi is sort of a jokester with a very healthy sense of humor. Well, he really lights up at a party. He wasn't to the point of being annoying, like the proverbial "guy wearing a lamp shade", but he was a few beers past quiet happy and well into noisy happy, and it was really funny watching the other club members chasing him around, trying to keep him out of trouble.




A little later, after everyone was too full to eat any more yakiniku and yakisoba, the party moved inside, and we all sat around the little table.
They chased Mr. Yamagishi around a little more.
And things kind of wound down to the end of the evening.





I don't actually remember anyone taking this picture. Someone said I passed out shortly after it was taken. I put mosaics over the faces of some of the Japanese people, there is a cultural norm in Japan concerning privacy rights and taking pictures of people doing embarrassing things, including being a little tipsy. I don't suffer from the same thing. But one thing this picture does illustrate (before pixilation) is that Japanese do not suffer from red eye caused by a camera flash, this seems to only be a gaijin problem.