Nagoya

I returned earlier this evening to Aizuwakamatsu from Nagoya after a short three days. I was unable to do any sightseeing because of the crappy weather and some proofreading work I had to do for a member in my lab. Still, I managed to enjoy myself during my trip to Nagoya.

The trips both there and back were completely uneventful. And by uneventful, I mean that I was going stir-crazy. I spent a total of about 14 hours travelling over the past three days, on the shinkansen, express trains, local trains, and subways. Sure, I had my phone and the Internet to keep me company, but even that gets you so far. It's another reason why I wanted to take the car. Even if I spent an extra hour in each direction travelling, I would at least be keeping myself busy by actually driving. Unfortunately, with Tackawanna in the shop and a mother almost-hyperventilating at the thought, the train was the method of travel that I had to choose.

In front of Nagoya Station

Nagoya is like a more laid-back version of Tokyo. There isn't the sense of urgency that you'd feel in Tokyo. People still moved, but I felt an underlying steady pace. Despite the public transport, Nagoya is a car city. The city center, where I was staying, was laid out for maximum lane usage. In fact, a few blocks away from my hotel was a "park" that was wedged in between two single-lane roads. It had green grass and statues and walkways, but it was a very narrow park nevertheless.

I ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut on Tuesday, the night I checked in. There are Pizza Huts here in Japan, but not near where I live, and the pizza prices are outrageous. My medium pizza was what you'd consider to be a small back in the states, and it was three times the American prices, too. That's another reason I don't usually eat out in Japan; prices can creep up on you.

Barges waiting to load vehicles for export

Exposition ribbon cutting ceremony

Wednesday was the convention itself. It was the 2016 Automotive Engineering Exposition, held at a convention center in the southern portion of the city. I decided to wear a suit for the occassion in the interest of looking professional. Wow, was that a mistake. I was getting hot and sweaty to the point where I blew over 500 yen on a handkerchief just to wipe myself off from all the sweat. Not even staying hydrated helped with all the sweating. And the other students at the convention center came dressed in regular clothes. Thankfully, the train from Nagoya Station to the convention center had air conditioning and a low density of people, so it wasn't entirely suffering for that portion of the trip. But I was dripping by the time I got back, which was truly a first.

The convention center

I spent a total of about four hours at the convention hall. That's because automotive cybersecurity, my research field, has just started receiving attention and hasn't fully penetrated the market yet. The first representative that I talked to, a British expat working for a company that was acquired by a Japanese company, said that the company had only been in the automotive cybersecurity field for about 18 months. So while it's a shame that I didn't see as much interest, I've started my research just in time, when it's starting to pick up.

Example of a wiring network in a car

Isuzu commercial natural gas engine. 9.8L of existence

Subaru Impreza WRX S4

Never heard of this car before

City vehicles. Take a guess as to which one I fit in the best.

But even though I was there for what seems like a short period of time, I managed to talk to quite a few people regarding their research and what they have been up to in trying to address the problem. Some of the representatives were Japanese, and some were foreigners. I left with a bunch of pamphlets and other information, and I even got to talk tech with some of the staff to get a better idea of certain protocols and methods to look out for. (There was one representative, a foreigner, who was like a walking dictionary when it came to this topic. I wish I could've compressed that knowledge and brought it back with me.) I now also have a series of companies to turn to when finding a job in the future. Some of the companies even have American branches.

There was also a test driving event for some of the newer cars on the market. I was interested in getting behind the wheel of some of them, but I left my IDP and passport in Tackawanna. Thankfully, I had digital copies on my computer from when I had to send info to my insurance company, so I asked one of the staff members to see if this would be acceptable. Unfortunately, it wasn't, but not because it was only a copy. I had to have an actual Japanese driver's license to test drive the cars. Tough luck.

Later that evening, I used the Google to find some nearby restaurants to go to. One of them was a Hooters. Apparently, there are only six Hooters branches in Japan. Four of them are in Tokyo, and the fifth one is in Kyoto. Not imagining another chance to go, I walked the mile or so to the restaurant, which was on the second floor of the building that it was in.

Hooters Japan offers the same kind of foods as in America. I helped myself to some boneless barbecue chicken wings, tater tots, and two glasses of Jack and Coke. (livin' on the edge, huh?) The girls were pretty, too, and I didn't have the confidence to ask them for a picture. However, I did learn that every once in a while, they'll stop what they're doing, spread out in the restaurant, and start dancing. I've never seen this at the Hooters in America, so that was something different for sure. Dinner was about $50. (Again, I don't eat out often.)

Nagoya is pretty nice at night. Sections of the main road would have special street lights and ornaments. Entrances to some areas would be met with gateway signs bearing the name of the area. Student dance groups assembled in front of commercial buildings as night fell to work on their routines. People hung out in the side streets outside restaurants and bars. It was very lively and cozy. I want to go back to Nagoya before my time in Japan is done. (I'm driving back next time, though.)

After some more proofreading, I treated myself to a soak in the bathhouse on the top floor of the hotel. I still have yet to get used to the bathhouses here, because the water is extremely hot. It took me about 25 minutes to get adjusted to the water, after which I only stayed submerged for about 10 minutes. I was honestly scared of getting first-degree burns from this water.

The one thing that I really wanted to get but couldn't find was a postcard. They didn't sell them at the convenience stores, or at the train station store where I bought some omiyage (food gifts for friends and colleagues). I was going to send one for my second cousin, who is currently at summer camp. I guess I'll have to find a postcard here to send to her.

Tackawanna was fixed on Tuesday, and I picked her back up today as soon as I got back. I'll make a post about that process tomorrow, and this weekend we shall continue our expeditions together into the beautiful mountains of Fukushima.

-wp

Quick update and trip to Nagoya

It's been a busy few weeks for me. Tackawanna is currently in the shop for repairs (will make a post about that later), so I've basically been here at the university. My research has been coming along well, and I've recently come across a few theses directly related to my research, which will be good for helping to finalize my research plans. Socially, I participated with the university's wind ensemble at a "day service" facility two weeks ago, and we have another concert planned for July.

Tomorrow, I will be taking a train (booooooooo!) to Nagoya, a city between Tokyo and Kyoto. The region that Nagoya is in is like Michigan; lots of major automotive companies are there. That's especially fitting, because I'm going to a conference on automotive technology. There, I can learn more about what the industry has [or hasn't] been doing to address automotive security. I'll be travelling there on Tuesday, attending the conference on Wednesday, and returning to Aizu on Thursday.

I'll try to do some posting while I'm there, so 楽しみに! In the meantime, here's some "Engrish" to hold you over. This one was from about a month ago on a dresser at the local recycle shop.

-wp

Travels with Tackawanna 4: Route 325

Today was a scorching 32 degrees Celcius (~90 degrees Fahrenheit) in Aizuwakamatsu. But even with the heat, it was definitely top-down weather. By now, putting on sunscreen has become a ritual for me, and it's been keeping the tan from getting any worse.

This time, I travelled the enterity (or at least what was accessible by car) of Fukushima Prefecture Route 325. The starting point for the route was right at the corner where the Japan Post branch is located, where I need to stop at anyways so that I could go to the ATM. I followed the route all the way down to where some overturned signs prevented me going further. As the route map shows, the road keeps going even after the turn onto the road with the tunnel, but it was mostly overgrown and not maintained by the city or the prefecture.

 

If you've seen the dashcam footage from the first TWT post, you'll probably recognize a certain portion of the road. Route 325 was part of the road that I took to get to Route 374. However, instead of turning left onto Route 374, I kept going, deep into the heart of the Higashiyama section of Aizuwakamatsu. A lot of onsen hotels are nestled in between the mountain valleys here.

Man, what a road. Not only was it beautiful, it was also risky. You did not want to speed on this one, because the corners were that tight and narrow. There were quite a few portions where the road was reduced to one car width. It was a good thing that there were plenty of spaces allotted to pull over in the case of running into another car, and even better that I didn't have to use them. And even though this mountain road seemingly runs to nowhere, there were plenty of work zones, and one of them even had a construction crew on duty. It takes a lot of effort to keep these roads open.

The road that I turned onto had a relatively long tunnel. It was here that I dropped it down into second and put my foot down to hear the exhaust note. Needless to say, it put a large smile on my face. The road itself technically continued to Route 294, which I had already travelled on my first adventure, so I decided to go back the way I came and make that left turn. To save time and prevent reduncancy, I did not record my return trip. Along the way, you may notice a brown and white temple situated along a cliff on a mountain. I was not aware that that existed, and I was interested in seeing it, so I'll save that trip for another post, and I'll post pictures here, too.

As for Tackawanna herself, I've done some more research and have determined that it is not the starter the could be the problem, but the fuel pump. That would explain the whole "only sputters to life on a cold engine and starts fine otherwise" issue that I've been having. The issue was especially pronounced as the fuel reading in my tank reached half-full. There probably isn't enough voltage going across the pump, and the fuel pump in there now is probably original to the car. Therefore, I've ordered a Walbro fuel pump from the states, and when it comes, I'll install it myself. It isn't like my Blazer's fuel pump where a mechanic had to get under the car. The fuel tank is right behind the seats, under the trim, and the swap requires no splicing. Even with the shipping, I'm still paying less than half the price of when I purchased my new car battery. I'll be doing the fuel pump swap myself to save even more money.

I'd like to close this post by saying that the dashcam scenery that you saw today is one of many sceneries that Japan has to offer. This road was especially home to many different climbing trails and scenic overlooks. If you are an outdoors person, and you have the finances available, I suggest you come to Japan, and especially come to Aizuwakamatsu, and see the scenery for yourself. It's pretty damn awesome. I've been here for almost three months already, and I'm still floored by the beauty here. Even if you don't want to go to Tokyo, and you don't have a car, there are a lot of places to explore, especially like what I saw today.

Because of Tackawanna's issue, I'm not going to go out on an adventure tomorrow. Hopefully the part will come this week or early next week.

-wp

Travels with Tackawanna 3: Ouchi Dam

I did it again.

I made plans to go south of Aizuwakamatsu on National Route 118, and then head west on Fukushima Prefecture Route 329, up north on Fukushima Prefecture Route 131, and then go up Fukushima Prefecture Routes 23 and 72. (Here's the route in question, by the way.) However, I got confused over the route numbers and missed the turn to Route 329, instead going further south on National Route 121. By the time I had realized my mistake, I had to pull over at the nearest Seven-Eleven and check the maps. (Here's the route for that.)

So this is what I've done. I've divided up the dash cam into two parts. The first part is the route that I took from outside central Aizuwakamatsu to the Seven-Eleven in Minamiaizu. The second part is the actual mountain roads that I took. (I had to edit out a quick two-minute stop of me taking a photo of the car.) Here's part one:

And here's part two:

As it turns out, driving in the evening is pretty nice. Less sun beating down on me, and way more breeze. You'll notice that it's a bit darker during the time I was filming compared to how dark it would be back home. Apparently that's a daylight savings time thing, which Japan does not recognize.

During my drive yesterday, I managed to get some sun on my scalp, which had been recently been liberated by a haircut earlier that morning. In order to prevent any more from getting on, I've researched a way to get sunblock on my hair without getting my hair all sticky. I mixed a teaspoon of sunblock into half a cup of water and rubbed it into my scalp. (I did not dry off my hair; I just let it sit and evaporate.) It didn't make the sunburn worse, so I guess that it works. I'll probably test it for real next weekend.

I finally have a nice picture of Tackawanna. Here she is at a scenic parking lot right next to the reservoir for Ouchi Dam.

Headlights go up for this photo

Still can't get over my love this car. It's a blast to drive, especially around here.

Now that classes for the first quarter are over, I have to catch up on my TAing, and then it's mainly research project work for the rest of the quarter. This week I'll also have to get the ETC card reader installed so that I won't have to pay for cash when using the toll roads. Then, next weekend I'll be going on another adventure. Maybe I'll go north this time...

-wp

Travels with Tackawanna 2: Yanaizu

Today Tackawanna and I headed out on another adventure. The goal today was to tackle Fukushima Prefecture Routes 53, 59, and 32, and then finish by going up National Route 252 to National Route 49 to head back to Aizuwakamatsu. However, I missed a critical turn for my route, so instead of turning back onto Route 59, I stayed on Route 53 instead, and wound up being injected into the heart of Yanaizu. The below video is the dashcam for this route, and here is the rough path that I followed. Unfortunately, comments on the video itself are disabled and will be for future videos, because apparently, posting anything with the word Fukushima in it, but not giving any mention to DA NOOKS, will give you hate comments. It's a shame that I had to learn that from experience.

I usually don't fully plan my routes. I do some Googling, pick some road numbers, and then go. If I need a reference, I wait until a light or a stop sign to check my phone and find out where I am. Actual planning may have helped me here. But in my defense, once you get out into real mountain road territory, there are very few signs around to tell you where you are, or where you're going. For much of the route, it was straight up road. No street lights, few lane dividers, overgrowth everywhere. This, however, may be a surprise to you if you caught the first few minutes of the video.

Back in the states, there were two types of roads: national routes (think Route 1 or 66), and then state roads (in Connecticut, I'm thinking Route 154 or 166). You can probably determine the comparison with Japanese roads. What is strikingly different, however, are the layouts of the roads themselves. And I'm not just talking about the whole "wrong side of the road" aspect. In Fukushima Prefecture, if not for every prefecture in Japan, the zoning laws encourage building as close to the road as possible to save space. This is especially obvious as I turned onto Route 53. The road was a [relatively] wide two-lane road for about a mile, and then there was a residential zone with a route sign above it. The route sign basically said that going straight on that road will mean that you are still on Route 53. Surely, this baffled me.

I was now in the middle of a residental zone, with a road that could fit a car and a third if you tried. After not one, but two close calls involving blind corners, I ended up having just putting the car in second and staying slower than 20 MPH until I was well away from that neighborhood. If you've been on a country road back in the states, and your road passes through the heart of a rural residential zone, you have probably benefitted from a wider, straighter road. That is absolutely not the case here in Japan. When you are driving through a neighborhood, you are driving through the neighborhood.

Before I was to turn onto Route 53, the road narrowed to one driveway-wide lane. A few farm houses were situated right before the junction. Unfortunately, because of their seclusion, this allowed the farmers to just congregate on the road if they ever needed to and not worry about passing cars. Which is exactly what they were doing when I pulled into their realm. One of their friends (?) was parked in the middle of the road in his black Toyota station wagon, and had to leave as soon as I pulled up to the area. The farmer gave a friendly hello. His wife said nothing.

At one point, when turning into Yanaizu's center, I wound up having to stop at what seemed like every manual transmission driver's worst nightmare: a sudden "hump" up onto the main road, with the corner of the curb right at the point where if you are not immediately moving forward after releasing the brakes, you are moving backwards. Therefore, I ended up overcompensating on the throttle when trying to move from a stop. Because Tackawanna has no traction control, I ended up spinning quite a bit, but it was entirely controllable.

The center of Yanaizu was like the earlier neighborhood that I first went through; everything was right next to everything and up against the road. Shops were so close to the road that I could see what they were selling towards the back from my car. Again, space is a premium here in Japan. Still, it was nice getting to drive through Yanaizu, and there were some nice shops around. I'll definitely have to go back someday.

Because the ride was relatively short today, I may do another one tomorrow. I'll have to be careful, however; if I start up Tackawanna for the first time in the morning, I get a rather rough start. I have to crank for about four seconds, and then she'll spur herself to life. But when she gets up to a higher temperature, she'll start up without issue. I checked with the others in the Miata forum that I'm a part of, and they are suggesting, much to my fears, that it's the starter motor on its way out. I'll need to find a starter, which is actually way cheaper compared to a car battery, and then install it myself. The installation is simple, but I don't have any jack stands or a jack, and one of the front wheels has to come off to get to the starter. I've been thinking on asking the local dealer that couldn't help me earlier if I could work in his shop. It would give me a local connection not related to the University, and if there was something that I really needed done to Tackawanna, I'll have someone to turn to that I can trust.

Speak of the devil, I spotted the Ford Excursion that either he or one of his employees owns on my way to the route today.

Probably worth $40k in this section of the world

It's the gas engine, but seeing one of those things here, especially when lifted, put a smile on my face. Plenty of love for USDM here.

-wp