Amagi, Kodaira’s Edo Village, and Shinjuku’s Golden Town

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As most of my trips go, this visit to Japan was full of purpose and typically overextended in commitments. Arriving last Tuesday, the first 2 full days were dedicated to business in Tokyo. On Friday, I headed for Tokyo Station with Akasaka-san, one of my work colleagues, to catch a train for Itoh, a small coastal town in the eastern seaboard of Izu Peninsula in Honshu, Japan’s main island. Our ultimate destination was an executive briefing facility that my company uses to host clients and is nested on the highlands region that is part of the Amagi mountain range, overlooking Mount Fuji (or Fuji-san as this famous volcano is respectfully referred to by Japanese nationals).

My company’s Amagi facility is remote enough that we get our clients’ undivided attention during their stay there. It is fully equipped with hotel, restaurant and business facilities and even a few golf holes to make the stay very pleasant. I was the guest speaker that was to open the sessions the following day. I always enjoy participating in events under different cultural environments, but Japanese events are so different to Western standards, that they are even more interesting.

After a half-day conference program, we were given a ½ hour break before we needed to re-assemble for dinner at the facility’s restaurant. Our guests were told that they had the option of wearing yukatas (available in all rooms, in male and female versions) at dinner. Yukatas are informal attire normally worn by Japanese during the warm months of summer. I opted to wear my Western suit to dinner, now knowing how many of the 20+ clients from various large corporations in Japan were going to wear the special attire. To my surprise, 100% of the clients and even a couple of my Japanese colleagues made their appearance for dinner in full yukata attire. Only Magnus, a CEO from a partner company (and the only other westerner, besides me attending the seminar), the rest of my Japanese colleagues and I wore normal western suits.

The meal was delightful and very Japanese. Punctuated here and there with business conversation, there was plenty of social conversation too. Most of the Japanese clients were surprised by my use of the Japanese chopsticks and wondered how I knew how to use them. That conversation led the topic of my two years living and working in Japan prior to and during the Nagano Olympic Games. I got to meet a couple of other people who also worked for the Nagano games; we probably crossed paths before without getting the opportunity to meet personally.

Dinner was followed by an informal gathering with open bar at the facility’s lounge. More conversation followed until 11:00 PM when every one was encouraged to retire for the evening so as to be rested and fresh for the next day’s program.

Upon waking early the next morning, I quickly scanned the still-dark skies outside of my room’s window with the hope of finding signs of another clear and cloudless day as the previous day had been. Though the Amagi facility commands a prime view overlooking Mount Fuji, it is rare the day when natural conditions allow for a clear view of the mountain. This day was not going to be one of them unfortunately. A bit disappointed, I took my camera and went for a quick exploration of the facility grounds nevertheless in search for images representative of the place.

As the group converged at the restaurant for breakfast, the maitre d’ appeared to be concerned with the availability of Western-style breakfast for the two gaijins (foreigners) in the group. I received a couple of surprised stares when I indicated that the Japanese-style breakfast was going to be acceptable for me. Perhaps the most difficult item to accept in Japanese breakfast fare for Westerners is the main fish course (bones and all).

After a short introduction by one my colleagues, the conference opened with my speech who was simultaneously translated as some of our customer guests only spoke Japanese and I am very far from speaking business-level Japanese. I was very grateful that there was lot of interest in my presentation and my Japanese audience was actually very participative and asked many questions.

I stayed at the conference for the rest of the day and as the event closed that afternoon, I accompanied all other guests in a bus ride from the company facility back to the Itoh train station where everyone disbanded and returned home. I discovered that there were a few options for returning to my base in Shinjuku. I opted for a local train to the resort town of Atami, where I could catch a shinkansen (bullet train) all the way to Tokyo station. The seats in the local train from Itoh to Atami had been arranged in a configuration that had never seen before: All seats facing the coast line side of the train had been arranged in “auditorium” formation to allow travelers to enjoy the view from the windows in that side. The seats in the other side of the train (facing the mountains) were only in a single row and were arranged in a more normal way (half facing forward and half facing back).

At Atami, I changed tracks from the local lines to the shinkansen area of the station. To allow for the high-speed of shinkansen trains, their tracks are elevated during most of the route so as to eliminate any ground shifting in their near-zero variability in alignment. For any practical purposes, shinkansen trains feel like wingless planes to travelers.
In less than one hour, I was arriving to Tokyo station where I changed to a local train for Shinjuku.

For my day off on Sunday, I had decided to visit a small Edo-era village that is preserved near Kodaira station (a 40 or so minutes away from Shinjuku). Unfortunately, as I woke up, I realized that it was raining quite hard and with strong winds; my plans to be mostly outside were in considerable jeopardy. Resigned to make the most of the situation, I took my hotel bus shuttle to the Shinjuku station and from there, I walked in the rain (with only a small foldable umbrella) to the private line station a few blocks away where I was going to take the train to Kodaira. To my great surprise, by the middle of the train ride, the skies opened up and the winds appeared to be subsiding. By the time I arrived at Kodaira Station, the day was sunny and with no visible clouds in the sky. I was glad that I did not cancel my plans earlier that morning.

From Kodaira station, I walked in the direction that the train had approached, parallel to the tracks. Shortly after leaving the station, the road turned “green” with several recreation areas accessible from the path. I followed this path for about 15 minutes until I came upon the entrance to this small village, made up of restored or carefully reproduced buildings representing what Japan was like during the Edo period. Aside from the noise of trains passing nearby, the grounds and buildings transport the visitor to the distant past when agriculture was the engine behind all economic activity for Japan.

During one of my walks through the grounds, I stumbled upon an operation that was cooking Japanese Udon noodles within the space of a communal building. A senior cook offered some to me, but at the time, I was more concerned with capturing more images of the buildings than actually sitting down for lunch. A few minutes later, I realized that I had passed on the opportunity to capture perhaps much more interesting images and decided to return to the kitchen area by the old building. After paying 450 yen, I was given a small token that I needed to take with me to the communal building where the meals were being served. As I arrived all the available tables in the tatami’ed area were in use by other patrons, so I used the time to explore the building and captured images of the furnishings and equipment that also represented the same time period of the rest of the buildings. After a while some of the patrons in the dining area left, so I removed my shoes and entered the tatami area to occupy a free table.

Shortly after, the senior cook-server arrived with a generous portion of Udon noodles and some Japanese tea. As I was enjoying my noodles and the cook-server returned to see if everything was OK, I asked permission to take his picture. He agreed and as I did, he offered to take my picture with my camera. I agreed but realized that my Japanese vocabulary was way too limited to be able to provide proper instructions on how to use my camera to take my own picture (I was taking photos only with available light, as I did not have a flash unit with me). Since I was not really concerned with getting a picture of me, I just handed the camera to him and showed him where the shutter button was. He was also asking me something about my camera that my very basic Japanese was not adequate to understand. When he brought me a color brochure of the restaurant with many pictures of people eating there, I realized that he wanted me to take pictures of the other people eating there (Three tables in total). I agreed and proceeded to take several shots of the other patrons and as I did, I realized that I was making many acquaintances that day… All of them inquired where I was from and why I was able to speak a little Japanese. A camera is always an effective device to meet people.

After I left the Edo village, I retraced my steps from the morning and headed back to the Kodaira station, where I took a train back to Shinjuku.

Upon returning to Shinjuku, my only other touring that day was around “Golden Town”. Amid the 21st. Century Shinjuku cityscape, you stumble upon this amazing relic from post-war Japan. Several streets of Omiyas (tiny bars and clubs with sitting limited to only a handful of people - one or two tables per establishment and open to “members only”. Typically “gaijins” (or foreigners) are not welcomed at these places, but since I was visiting around 5:00 PM on a Sunday, the place was deserted and there was still some daylight to capture a couple of images. On a normal weekday evening, when patrons are around, picture taking of any kind is not welcomed; privacy is of the outmost importance.

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[Sergio Estrada]

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I cannot say enough about the photography in this blog. Well done!