UJI-turn

I came across a couple of interesting new words for me at work yesterday.
U-turn, J-turn and I-turn... The UJI-turn phenomenon. They wanted me to translate it for a small button for their webpage and as you can imagine, I had no idea what this was all about. The thing about Japan, and the Japanese language is that this country is very happy with adapting certain foreign ideas for their own, and then claiming that they are originally Japanese. Very proud if it in fact. And sometimes, they'd take a Japanese idea or process, give it a foreign word or name and after a while, many just simply believe that it was originally a foreign idea. Trust me, it's not just confusing for you and me. It gets most of the locals here in Japan as well.

Well for starters, lets begin with where this whole UJI-turn thing came from. Back in 1957... naw,.. I'm just making that up. In anycase, the term U-turn... or actually yet, U-turn people, or U-turn citizen is a term that was created to decribe the movement of people within the urban/rural population. A big concern for rural areas where the general population has been dwindling for a over a decade, but the remaining population is getting older and older.
*By the way, the examples will be based on Canada.

U-turn = A person whom grew up in the countryside, but after highschool, (or whatever age) left for the big city. Tried life inthe big city, but after a while returns home to where they originally grew up. Reasons being many things like, couldn't make it in the big cheese, or keep up with the rat race, taking on the family business, wanting to be closer to home, family friends to family sorta forcing you home. A great phenomenon for the countryside as the person tends to return with valuable city life experience and the small & medium sized businesses of the rural area have less to worry about going out of business or not having to worry about the next generation of farmers/fishermen etc.
ie: A person from Mabou, NS goes to Halifax, NS but returns back to Mabou.

J-turn = A person whom grew up in the countryside, went off to the big city and once again similar to a U-turn person... after a while leaves the big city. But instead of heading back home, they end up settling down somewhere else. Reasons being transfered due to work, settling down where the person's spouse grew up etc, or settling down in the region of their childhood home but not exactly home.
ie1: A person from St. Catherines, ON heads off to Toronto but ends up settling down in Niagara.
ie2: A person from Tofino (Vancouver Island), BC heads off to Vancouver but settles down in Victoria (Vancouver Island)

I-turn = A person whom moves to an area which is unrelated to their childhood home. Reasons being anything from work placement, drawn to the city/countryside, nature, citylife, etc. Most reasons is due to employment and financial reward. A harsh reality for the rural area as many do not find farming, forestry, fishing and other agricultural work very appealing.
ie: A person from Hamilton, ON moves to Montreal, PQ.

I wonder what I should classify myself as. A W-turn phenomenon? Since I move about everywhere?

Just a few more image of the earthquake aftermath in Kashiwazaki, Niigata. I believe that this tall structure is the chimney to the incineration plant. But as you can see, the chimney is slightly tilting, and there's a huge crack by the base of the chimney. I wonder if they are able to repair this, or is it coming down with a crash? Man-made structures in a earthquake don't really stand a chance do they?

In anycase, there are plenty of flattened homes in Kashiwazaki, Kariya, and a few in Nishiyama. Most of the damage are to older wooden structures. Some of them even spreading off on to the street. And the streets themselves are full of cracks, and waves. Even today there was a small earthquake 4.2 rippling through while Iwas having breakfast. No longer an aftershock... The people of Japan can only keep their fingers crossed and hope that the BIG one doesn't hit during our lifetime... heck, in any life time...

A slightly toppled over home.

Older buildings aren't doing well.

A shop that has spilled on to the street.

Wavy roads, what can they do?

Nagano & Earthquake

Well, I took a week off work to go hiking out in the northern Alps of Nagano prefecture. But unfortunately the weather was not really cooperating with my needs. Cloudy, foggy, and rain.... . My original plan was to hike from Shirouma-take to Oogisawa, the eastern range of the northern Alps,... just east of Tateyama. But, after a halfday hike up, I could no longer see the point in continuing. As I could pretty much see, nothing... After consulting past weather patterns, I was told that the Japanese "tsuyu" (East Asian rainy season) should be over in the Nagano region by the beginning of July. But unfortunately due to adverse weather patterns which seem to be synonymous with today, the tsuyu season has reached Japan quite late this year. Oh well,... I guess that I'll have to wait until autumn for my next hiking trek.

Anyways, on the way back I stopped by the Hokusai museum. Know who Hokusai is? Have you ever seen those famous traditional Japanese wood print blocks of mount Fuji, a huge wave... etc? The "Red Fuji", "Great wave off Kanagawa"? Then they're probably Hokusai prints. Hokusai spent the later part of his life in Obuse, Nagano and instead of wood block prints, he worked on his calligraphy and painting skills. I've always been a fan of his work, and sorta spoiled myself by purchasing a framed print. Of course, it's not an original but a copy. Still, in anycase I'm proud of it... still a bit costy. Also, I was impressed with a two other images which I've never seen before. Two paintings he made for the ceiling of a local festival float. Two waves, one representing a male, and the other a female wave. I just love the expression of the waves.

Oonami - Masculine Waves

Menami - Feminine Waves

Actully, I felt the 2007 Chuetsu Kashiwazaki earthquake while I was in the loo at the Hokusai museum. First I thought that I was slightly tired and faint as I lost my balance... "Oh my... I must be tired as my legs sorta gave way..." and after standing back up straight, then a couple of more shakes came around, and the dude in the stall freaked out "Eek!"... Hmmm, may be i'm just a bit too dense to realise how big of a shake this was. Hmmm, quite disorientating for one whom has experienced a few shakes in their lives. Heck, I'm one of those people whom goes to work the next day, and while everybody is talking about how they were woken up during the night from the quake and I myself was actually still awake but didn't feel a thing...

After visiting the Hokusai museum, I took myself to Zenkoji temple which is Nagano's main temple. Unfortunately, the main gates to the temple, "Sanmon" was under repairs... well, it'll remain under reconstruction for the 5 years, and should be completed by the end of the year, Dec 31st 2007. The main strip was quite busy due to the bank holiday weekend. A bit touristy, but the slightly older look of the main drag was quite nice for a change. Unfortunately much of the items being sold were a bit cheesy and plastic looking. Not much quite different from what you can find on the main path, on your way to the Asakusa main temple. What you can get here is pretty much the same as anywhere else in Japan...

main strip in front of the temple

Well, while on my turn back to Niigata, as the weather wasn't holding up in the mountains. Back down in the lower elevation things looked alright, mind you the cloud cover. In anycase, the expressway open for much of the drive back, except for a small portion. From Kakizaki to Yoneyama. Honestly, I was quite impressed at how quickly the road construction folks were out there, fixing up as much as possible. I was on the expressway less than 24 hours after the quake, and much of the cracks and roads were being paved to make it a level drive. The drive over bridges were surprising as, the difference in elevation between the road and bridge surface was quite obvious.

There were plenty of road works going on, plenty of military disaster support vehicles around doing their thing. In anycase, here's just a few things I saw on the road. The worst parts where closed off.

Earthquake, 50km/h restriction

cracks everywhere

crieky!

hmmm, that'll do a number on your suspension

disaster military support coming in

can you see how the road is slightly wavy and it slopes?