Sunny Money

A few posts back I wrote about how Ota City had only one claim to fame--being where the Subaru car company was founded.  I have to make a correction now because that isn't entirely true.  If you run Google searches for Ota City you will probably run across a lot of articles about solar energy.

All of them are several years old and link to the same video:




Apparently I live in the "Solar City of the Future".  Who knew.  For the record, I have no idea where Pal Town or the strawberry fields are.  They must be on the other side of town.  I can confirm that many houses, even in my neighborhood, have solar panels on the roof.  Especially new homes.  Ours does not, but our house is a little older.

So that is the back story to my story.  A couple of months ago a Japanese friend of mine called me to tell me about some "money tickets" being offered by the city.  My friend's English is good but not so good that we didn't have to go around in a few circles to get on the same page about what "money ticket" entailed.  Come to find out, she was talking about coupon books, similar to those that are commonly sold during fund-raising drives in the US.  In my (American) experience, kids sell them door-to-door to raise money for school trips/supplies.  The coupons offer discounts to local businesses.

In this case, the city was selling the books, not to raise money, but to dispense it....albeit in a roundabout manner.  In the video above, they kinda mention government subsidies provided as incentives for using solar energy.  These coupon books are a way to dispense government subsidy money to the populace.  The number of books available is limited so you have to "apply" to receive them.   My friend applied for me as it required sending in a postcard with your name, address and age.  I am happy to say I was "accepted" to receive my requested two books.

Now, some of you might be thinking "yeah, you mean the coupons that wind up unused in your junk drawer because there are so many limitations and exceptions plus you don't even go to half the businesses anyway?". No?  Well, that's what I was thinking, even though I applied for the two books anyway.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that these coupon books don't exactly operate like the American ones.

I had to report to City Hall on a certain day to pick up my books.  My friend wasn't available to go with me so I went by myself but it was a very easy process to pick up the books.

this is Ota City Hall.....it looks like a City Hall

After I got them I was surprised to see that every coupon was exactly the same.  Turns out that each coupon is worth 500 yen (about $5) and can be used at any of the participating local businesses, no strings attached.  My friend had given me list of some of  the local participating shops and they are all places I shop at (part of the reason she called me).  Not only that, but you can use as many tickets at one purchase time as you want.  So basically it's like a book of five dollar bills.  Easy, huh?

So you're probably wondering how much money I'm getting/saving, right?  Well.....turns out that when you do the math you're getting about $15 per book.  Which isn't much, especially for all this work (rather than buying them from a kid on my doorstep) but that's Japan for ya.  Also each book is 10000 yen, which is about $100 so they're expensive on top of all this.

coupon book, aka money tickets.  if you can't make it out, that is a picture of solar panels

They're good for a year, I think?  And I've already used some at my regular supermarket.  Being able to use a bunch at once seems weird but so far I haven't had any trouble with it.  Anyone else out there have an alternative coupon book experience in Japan or another country?
  

Rebuilding Edo Castle Tower

During Golden Week we spent a weekend in Tokyo visiting the Imperial Gardens.  We went to the Gardens once before, a long time ago, but we just kinda walked in, looked at the palace from a distance, and walked out again.  This time we decided to really spend the day there, see as much as possible, and let Cora run around free-range if possible.

The gardens are big, and toddler-active-time has it's limitations so we ended up making a beeline for the ruins of the Edo Castle Tower.  Back in the samurai days (1600's) Tokyo was called Edo and it had a castle.  Initial construction of the castle and grounds were begun in 1457 and were very, very extensive. Over the centuries there has been lots of burning, wars, rebuilding and relocating of the various buildings and architectural features.  Details here.

Now all this is part of the Imperial Palace gardens.  At one end is a stone pedestal where the largest tower of the castle stood.  The tower had five stories and was 51 meters high.  It was the tallest tower in Japan.

the stone pedestal

from on top, looking back down into the gardens

Now, here's where it gets kinda interesting.  There is a group of citizens in Tokyo who believe that it's a shame that Tokyo doesn't have a castle.  Lots of other big cities in Japan have a castle they can show off, but not poor Tokyo.  So they've banded together and formed a committee to raise money and rebuild the main tower to it's original splendor.

We received the flyer below when we entered the gardens.  I didn't pay attention when we were handed the flyer, but I wonder if we were slipped an English one based on our appearance.  My response after reading it was "bless them".  They have a Facebook page and a website but it's all in Japanese.  (And as usual, if you let them be translated by a program, it's little more than gibberish.)  

I hope they can make their dream come true and if I ever see an actual opportunity to donate I'll totally do it.  It would be great to come back to Japan one day far in the future and see a tower here on this pedestal.    

the front: note that it "might" be a great monument....no promises

my favorite line is about them being ordinary people

Tomb Raider Part 2: Return of the King

Last month, during the height of cherry blossom season, I went with some friends to a new (for us) park over in Ashikaga (in fact, it is called Ashikaga Park).  There wasn't much to this park but it happens to be built on and around some more ancient burial mounds.  It was a much nicer experience than my previous trip to see some local random boring hills ancient burial mounds.

There are twelve mounds in the immediate area, two of which have blocked-off passageways.  Not too much to say about them that I didn't say in the previous post about the ones in Ota.  My Japanese friend who was with me informed me that old Japanese "kings" were buried here.

There was also at some point a geocache buried near a shrine in the park.  I went back later to try to find it but no luck.  It hasn't been found in a long time so I think it's defunct.

Anyway, it only took three years and going to a different town, but I finally got my interesting (or at least pretty) burial mounds!

hey, where'd that American kid come from?

I hope this poor thing hasn't been growing since 1945

it's rare to get a pic of the sakura that doesn't also include five hundred people

from the top of a mound---can you see the cardboard laying at the bottom?  kids bring it and "sled" down the hill.
and I was afraid of climbing the other burial mounds because it might be rude.  Ha!

view from the top over Ashikaga