What I'll Miss

What's that?  You're surprised that I'm actually going to miss something?  What with all the complaining I've done over the past (almost) four years?  Well, it's true....it's hard for me to think about now as I'm deep into anticipating American food preparing to go back to the US but I can come up with a few things....(sorry no pics, hope you can make it through!)

1. I know I'm going to be asked a lot over the coming year(s) what I miss most about Japan....my answer is probably going to be the people.  Being here has certainly made me see that people are basically the same the world over.  But I do think that Japanese people IN GENERAL are a little more quiet and thoughtful and less reactionary and proselytistic than Americans IN GENERAL.  The vast majority of the people I've interacted with have been lovely.  I have not had a single truly negative experience.  I've had a few shop clerks avoid my eyes (in hopes I didn't need help) and I usually get ignored by the people who hand out flyers by kiosks in the mall (I consider that a perk) but that is really the worst I can come up with.  I've been giggled at by a few teenage waiters.  I've been stared at creepily by a few old guys. (For the record, these last two would totally happen in the US too.)   But so many times I have asked for help or initiated a conversation (in my shamefully terrible Japanese) and have had the person try their hardest to figure out what I needed.  Other moms are so very welcoming in the playground and parks we go to. Everyone loves Cora....people around here are  used to adult foreigners but a foreign baby/toddler is still a pretty big draw.  I think when we move back home she's probably going to be offended that she isn't getting fawned over and "kawaii'ed" constantly.  So that makes me a little sad.....I may do a separate post about being an "outsider" in a homogeneous culture but even that hasn't been negative at all for me personally.  
2. I have pumped gas--no kidding--one (1) time in (almost) four years.  It was on a trip home to the US.  I have a lovely full-service place I go to maybe once every couple of months....because I rarely drive more than a few miles from my house.  At the full service place the nice workers will wipe my windshield/mirrors/windows down and give me a damp cloth to wipe my interior.  My dash and steering wheel have stayed astonishingly clean.  Back in America I DREADED pumping gas and my dash was filthy.  And there may be a full service place somewhere in Greenville, but I sure don't know where it is.  Or how much it will cost. And to all you reading from the states that don't allow you to pump your own gas ---- pphhht!!
3. Believe it or not, there are a few food items I'll miss.  Milk tea is probably #1.  I like a little gyudon (beef and rice dish) from Sukiya.  Tonkatsu (breaded sauced pork) from our local bento place is tasty.  You can get really good pre-made frozen dumplings to fry up.  I am going to miss making a lunch off of soft boiled eggs and tuna-mayo onigiri (rice balls) from 7-Eleven.  I realize that last one probably sounds gross but you'll just have to believe me that it's delicious.  However, any time I get a craving I feel sure that I can help it pass by getting a hotdog or a burrito.  Also, I'm looking forward to visiting the tiny Japanese grocery in Greenville.  Fingers crossed they carry milk tea!!
4. Speaking of food, what I"m really, really, really going to miss are Japanese vending machines.  I've blogged about them before but they need to be on this list.  Not only do they have cold and hot selections (cocoa, hot milk tea!) but there is always a wonderful, ever-changing selection of juice, tea and flavored water.  I don't drink a lot of soft drinks.  I never drink diet drinks and rarely drink caffeine (weird, I know).  I am not looking forward to returning to the land of Diet Coke and Mountain Dew. :(
5. I can't leave out Japanese-style service.  My particular favorite is how the grocery store cart and bagging process works.  When we first got here it bugged me but I've come to love it.  For starters, you don't leave items loose, you have to put them into shopping baskets inside your cart.  And then the cashier will move them into an empty basket as he/she scans them.   Whenever I've grocery shopped on trips home I always feel so rebellious and slovenly just chucking stuff down in the cart.  If you really want to be Japanese about it you'll carefully arrange all your food Tetris-style.  But you won't be as good at it as the checkout person, so don't even try. (I have absolutely stopped on my way to the checkout just to rearrange my items in a neater manner.)  Reusable bags are much more popular here and are easier to use, in a way, because you bag your own groceries.  And you should also do that in a careful and Tetris-style manner.  I really want to keep using my reusable bags.  In general, I expect to be kind of a weirdo in the US grocery store for a while.  If you see me out, watch carefully and enjoy whatever obsessive-compulsive-grocery-arranging-bag meltdown I'm having.   And also listen for me to say "excuse me" to everyone in Japanese. :)
6. I am going to miss my house!  Wait, what?  OK, so I'm not going to miss my Japanese house except for one small part---the entryway.  Because of the whole take-your-shoes-off thing, Japanese houses almost always have really nice big entryways that function as what we would call a mudroom in the US.  As I've started looking online at houses (as we will need to purchase one pretty quickly) I am really disappointed in the lack of a mudroom in most.  It's really nice to have a place for shoes, coats, hats, stroller etc.  Plus bags, keys, mail, a mirror....the US really needs to step it up in the entryway department.  However, if I don't end up with one and I get frustrated I'll just go lovingly stroke my thermostat or run something through my garbage disposal and hopefully the feeling will pass. 
7. Japanese clothes.....O, how I shall miss ye.  I have been running around the past few weeks frantically buying up pants and jackets.  Clothing here is more well-made and better quality than in the US. You're much more likely to find linings, pockets, etc.  And I'm talking about just your typical department store clothes.  Nothing designer or super expensive.  And it's all cut for short, narrow-ish people.  I bought a blazer the other day that fit perfectly off the rack.  I swear I heard a chorus of angels sing when I put it on.  Usually I have to have almost everything, but particularly "work clothing", tailored down so I don't look like I'm playing dress-up in my mother's clothes.   A special shout-out to Uniglo and Muji, both of which I am going to miss dreadfully.  I think both have stores in the US but none close to Greenville.  And I have a feeling the clothing is probably cut differently.  If anyone has ever been to an American one, please let me know!

That's all for now, maybe once we get back I'll update this post with more things I miss!

Play Halls

I can't ride off into the sunset without a word or two about the "children's play halls" (jidoukan, 児童館) that you can find here in Japan. These are indoor / outdoor play places to which you can bring your kid (s). Here's the thing though --- they're free . I know there are places like this in the US, but I don't know about any of this caliber that are totally free.

All you (typically) have to do is sign in with your kid's name and age (I assume so they have an idea of ​​who all is there in an emergency) and then play as long as you want. I will say that most of them have the slightly worn air of a public school. The toys and stuff are pretty "well-loved".

But I will also say that there are a few local ones that have saved my sanity more than once, particularly on rainy days. They have staff to supervise but you can't usually just leave your kid there. I think some may offer short term babysitting, but that may have a fee involved.  

Most offer "mommy & me" type classes like dance or arts & crafts that can also be totally free. They are a fantastic way to find other kids to play with if you are a stay-at-home mom and they can keep you from having to buy new toys to keep your kid entertained.  

To find your local ones you can talk to other moms (how I learned about them), call your city office or even try typing the kanji I gave above into GoogleMaps. You might get lucky. Also, if you can find one play hall they may have information (maps etc.) on others in your prefecture.

Now some pictures! These were all taken at one particular play hall here in Ota but we have been to a few. There is another one located at the Gunma Children's Castle park which I wrote about here.

outside

new toys!

slides and light-up walls

bins and bins of toys, cars, houses .....

 a strictly supervised trampoline (one person at a time only!) that is
still a little terrifying for this mama

big kids playing ping-pong

a library, all Japanese of course

I found a funny set of encyclopedia, written in an odd mash-up
of English and Japanese. the entries were funny to me.

I find myself at a bit of a disadvantage in terms of knowing what kinds of entertainment options are available for kids in the US.  After all, I've never been a parent there except for a week or two here and there!  If there are any places similar to this (and free!) that I don't know about please comment!

Cute Cars Redux

This post is just to share photos I've collected of a fun Japanese trend.  It's popular  (more so than in the US) to decorate the inside of your car with stuffed animals, trinkets etc.  It's something that really stood out to me when we first arrived but now I don't notice it so much.  But I still have a few pics!

And FYI, the title is a reference to a post I did long ago about the cute little pastel compact cars they have here.  I think you can see a couple of the cars below are pastel pink.  It really adds to the overall effect.  Very kawaii!!!

tweet tweet (and I wonder how this person sees to drive)

furry

themes, like this Minnie one, are common

I think this cat is from Disney's The Aristocats?

I would not want to be a passenger in this car

Bento Bonanza

If you have a Pinterest account, you most likely know to what "bento" refers.  For anyone unfamiliar, they're the little Japanese lunch boxes with food arranged in an artistic or cute design.  They've gotten kind of popular in the US, mainly with the types of people who spend way too much time on Pinterest (myself included).  Way back in the day, I did a post about a nearby take-out bento place.  I can report that we ate there last night and it is much the same as it was then.  It's fun for me to read that post now.....oh, the days when everything was exciting and new....

Anyway, this post is going to be specifically about the basic bento-making supplies available here.  When I found myself with a toddler I became a little bit more interested in the idea of making bento-type lunch presentations.  In my opinion, bento-style lunches and toddlers go really well together.  I don't get too crazy with the artistic presentation but I did go on a search (at the local department/dollar stores) for tiny cookie cutters.

Imagine my fascination when I found the following....

a kit to turn your rice into penguins

a fancy gizmo to cut the bread off of  sandwiches

millions of cute skewers

elaborate kits to put faces on rice balls

picks, tweezers, punches, oh my....

more skewers

my personal favorite....turn your rice into
the Shinkansen

turn your wienies into sea creatures

tiny, oh so tiny, sauce bottles

Folks, this is just a small selection.  I like to imagine how excited American bento-Pinteresters would be if they could get their hands on this stuff.  And then I like to imagine what many American moms would do if they were expected to make penguin-train-octopus masterpieces every morning....yikes.

Anyone ever seen bento-making supplies anywhere in the US?  Other than cookie cutters?

Blog Update

Hi everyone!  Long time no see!  If you've actually come to read this, thank you for your patience.  I don't have much of an excuse for why I haven't posted much over the last six months.  Mostly just that I ran out of things that I thought were interesting enough to write about.  After you've been here for so long you just get used to all the "different" stuff and it becomes difficult to identify what might be interesting to someone who had never been here before.

Anyway, I have some news!  As many of my most regular readers will know by now, we are moving back to America soon!  While we're excited, that does mean that I will be closing the doors on this little blog.  I will leave it up as an archive, of course, I just won't post anymore.

But before that happens I DO have a few last hurrahs planned.  I have a few regular posts I've had on the way, way, way back-burner that I will try to get out soon.  I also plan to do some "leaving Japan" posts as we're on our way out the door.  Topics to include:

• What To Do If You're Moving to Japan
• What I'll Miss About Japan
• How Japan Has Changed Me

And then I may finish with some posts about the "reverse culture-shock" I experience after we are back in the US.

Stay warm and stay tuned!

Wicket Games

Lately our schedule involves a lot of going to parks before lunch.  In doing so we often run into seniors playing what I always thought was croquet.   However, research prior to writing this indicates that it may be a Japanese variation of croquet called gateball.

Here's what I can tell you for sure:  the old folks around these parts love it, whatever you call it.  They're in every park with their mallets and wickets, whacking away.  Way back when we first got here I saw some people playing it in the local community center and thought it was mildly interesting that croquet was played here.  But now that I spend all my time in parks I'm a little taken aback by the local fervor for the game. You hear a lot about how Japan has an aging population---I'm inclined to agree based solely on how much time I spend chasing Cora away from croquet balls.

We walk to our neighborhood park at least two mornings every week and hang out with the neighborhood croquet players.  There are usually about 20 or so there on a few teams. It seems to be a fairly informal, easy-going game---I don't know much about the rules but I'm pretty sure that putting one guy past the wicket whose job is to stop the ball from going too far off course is technically cheating.  They're very nice about Cora occasionally trying to steal their equipment.

a team around a wicket 

an overview of several teams (from the playground area)  

On another topic entirely, go back to the first picture and notice what the people are wearing.  It was at least 85 degrees (Fahrenheit) that particular day.  Notice the long sleeves?  Totally typical Japanese summertime attire.

I get some odd looks sometimes in the parks because I'm usually there in running shorts, T-shirt and baseball cap.  All the other moms and the seniors are completely covered up.  It's not an issue of modesty, it's completely an issue of sun protection and the desire for pale skin.  On the same day that I took the croquet photos above an elderly lady literally stopped me on the street and started stroking my bare arms and jabbering at me.  I couldn't really catch much of it but I gathered she was telling me I needed to protect my skin.  She was in a typical Japanese elderly lady outdoor costume that reminds me of a beekeeper outfit.  In fact, I confess to occasionally referring to these ladies as "beekeepers" in private conversation.

yes, they are even wearing gloves (this was another 85+ degree day)

Even the other kids are usually more covered up than Cora in her shorts and T-shirt.  Of course, we are covered in sunscreen which we have to bring back from the US.  Not because they don't have it here, but because it only comes in tiny bottles (think sample size).  They just prefer sun protection in the form of clothes.

One good thing about all this is you can find an awesome array of sheer, gauzy layering clothes in the stores in the summer.  Particularly cardigans.  Great for if you need something to go over a sundress.  I'm really going to miss the cardigan selection here when we go home.  I feel like the hat selection is better here too.

So, the takeaway is, if you are coming to Japan in the summer, prepare to feel a little under dressed and try to pick up some cardigans. :D


(And please excuse the post title, I couldn't help myself.:D)

Rainy Season

It's the rainy season here which can make for some boring days inside.  But if you can manage to get outside during a break in the rain, you can see some beautiful Japanese countryside.  The rain has cleared the air so you can see all the way to the mountains over the new fields of rice.  Here are some shots I took recently on a walk (but they don't do it justice).

Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago I took Cora to a local chain photo studio called Studio Alice.  Studio Alice is a popular chain with many, many locations all over Japan (the website is all in Japanese).   It was fairly similar to a kid/family photo studio in the US but there are a few differences here and there.  

Studio Alice caters mainly to child photo shoots, but can accommodate taking portraits of entire families.  You can bring your child with their own regular dress clothes (suit, tie, frilly dress etc.) but a very popular thing to do is take your kid and dress them up in Studio Alice's elaborate costumes including fake hair and makeup if you so choose.  (It reminds me a bit of those old Glamour Shot setups that were so popular when I was in middle school.)  The costumes range from Disney princess dresses, Halloween-type characters and traditional Japanese kimonos.  As mentioned in my previous post, this is also a popular place to bring your child for their Shichi-Go-San photos.

Of course, I wanted to have Cora's photos taken in a little kimono because, well, when in Rome, right?  It's an opportunity that can't be passed up while we're here.  When they presented me with the options for fake hair I was so enormously entertained that I make the foolish mistake of letting them put some on her.  It was funny, but so not worth the time and effort.  If you're ever in the same situation, be smarter than me and don't try to put fake hair on a squirmy almost-two year old.  I was there with an American friend and we took some shots her kids while wearing the fake hair but none of them turned out so great.  Multiple tiny kids and elaborate fake hairdos?  I have no idea what we were thinking.  ;)

Disclaimer: Studio Alice doesn't allow you to take photos inside the store for obvious reasons but you can take video.  So the shots below are mostly stills from videos we took, which is why they aren't that great. 

I grabbed this shot of the walls of costumery that greets you when you walk in

The photos below are stills from when we were getting Cora ready.  You can see some of the fake hair if you look closely.  Note that my iPhone is the only thing keeping her still for the hair-fixing.  And in the dressing photo she is actively trying to run away.  Photo shoots are not her thing, unsurprisingly.

 Below she is waiting somewhat patiently in the play area.  The fake hair is blessedly gone by this point.

 And finally, below is the best shot we got.  All in all, I'm pretty happy with it.  Note that she isn't wearing shoes because she was having no part whatsoever of the matching geta, which are those Japanese-style wooden flip-flops.  It's also a little blurry but I'm going to tell everyone that it was an artistic choice and not because my kid won't sit still for more than five seconds at a time.  And as for what she is looking up at, it was me jumping around and singing off-key like an absolute idiot in an attempt to distract her into being still.  I have heard many interpretations of that expression but I know for a fact that she's thinking " OMG, Mama's lost her mind!".

After we took the photos we sat down to review them and pick a package.  The packaging and pricing was fairly comparable to what you would see in the US but they would not sell me digital copies now.  After one year I can go get them on a CD for a nominal fee.  Not a big fan of that but whatever.  So I took the copies they gave me and scanned them.

Although it was not the most relaxing day I've ever had, I'm really glad we did it and I know that one day far in the future we'll look at them and remember that crazy time when we lived in Japan.  :D

7-5-3

You might be thinking "What kind of post title is that?  Did she forget to proofread?"  No, I did not. ;)  

It refers to a Japanese tradition called "Shichi-Go-San" which is the subject of today's post. Shichi-Go-San translates to "seven-five-three".  The tradition, in a nutshell, involves dressing your 3, 5 and 7 year old kids up to go take pictures of them, visit a shrine and/or have a party.  Traditionally the day to do this is November 15th, but since it isn't a national holiday most families do it on the closest weekend.  The tradition goes back as far as 800 A.D but changed a good bit around the 1800's and has stayed basically the same since.

I have an American friend here who has a 2 1/2 year old daughter.  She, in turn, is friends with a Japanese family who was kind enough to offer to do Shichi-Go-San with her daughter (I'll call my friend "M" and her daughter "R" in order to somewhat protect their identity). I was fortunate enough to be invited as the official photographer/blogger of the event.

This Japanese family actually has their own "family kimono" that has been passed down through three generations. So R was the fourth to get to wear it.  Not all families have their own real family kimono these days.  Many families will rent them for dress-up occasions as they are rather expensive.  

You may be wondering why I'm posting about this now as it isn't November.  Well, (and this is information that I could find nowhere else on the Internet but I have it on authority from actual Japanese people) if you have your own family kimono (or even if you rent, I suppose) you can opt to also do a kind of "preview" Shichi-Go-San in the spring.  This is for two reasons: 1) you can get pictures outdoors with the spring flowers and 2) you can get pictures of the kids before they get their summer tan.

You also may be wondering why we are doing this when R is only 2 1/2 years old.  It's traditional to do it all in the year the child turns three, even if their birthday hasn't passed yet.  Alternately, some families may choose to use the East Asian method of calculating age, in which a child is one year old at birth and gains a year on each lunar new year.

We started at a hair salon near the home of our host family (run by a family friend), where R was given a fancy updo.

We moved into a side room in the hair salon where the stylist (who is also known as a "kimono master") proceeded to dress R up in the many layers of a three-year-old's kimono.  I'll stop here and praise R, because she was extremely patient and well-behaved during all this.  I couldn't help but think of my own child, who wouldn't have stood for it, no way, no how (and I know this for a fact, but more on that in a later post).

After she was finished, we took a trip to a local shrine where we took family photos.  And then we went to a local park for more photos.  Below is one of my personal favorites.

Many thanks to M and her family for inviting me to see a Shichi-Go-San and for allowing me to blog about it!

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

Claim to Fame

So most of you probably know that we live in a little town called Ota.  To be honest, there isn't a lot going on here but Ota does have one claim to fame.  It's where the Subaru car company was born.  It's hard to miss this, since there's an enormous Subaru factory right in the middle of town.

According to my research, a local guy named Chikuhei Nakajima founded the Nakajima Aircraft Company in 1917.  It became a prominent aircraft manufacturer for Japan during WWII.  From what I read, the factory here in town (or it's predecessor) was heavily bombed during WWII.  As you can imagine, after the war they were no longer allowed to make aircraft.  So they started using  leftover airplane parts to make scooters and.....cars.  The umbrella company is now called Fuji Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Subaru is just a division within it.  If you're at all interested in auto-manufacturer history this link and the one above re Nakajima lead to some good reading on Wikipedia.

I took a special trip downtown to take some pictures of the factory but they don't do justice to the enormity of it.  Seriously it's acres and acres of car plant.  And it's quite the bustling area, with lots of trucks---not the best place to be trying to take photos from a moving car.  I tried to pull over in a side parking lot at one point only to be honked at by a semi who wanted me to move so he could pull in too.

There are lots of Subaru dealers around this area and a lot of people drive them, including Chad.  The big semis that carry lots of stacked cars are a common sight here in town too.

the entrance, right before I was nearly mowed down by the semi

driving by, you can barely see a red/white airplane out front.
I can only assume it's in reference to the company's beginning

employee parking?  I assume it's a major employer in the area