Fast update

Thu 15 Sep 2011 by mskala Tags used: travel

Full report later, but I had a good time visiting Keta Taisha and the space museum in the Hakui area, and didn't get lost nor abducted by space aliens despite nobody in the town understanding any English at all. I bought a charm labelled 「心むすび」 and am about 95% sure it's the one I wanted, rather than "protection from hemorrhoids" or something, though I'm sure they were selling charms for that too. The food is good in Kanazawa.

My office computer in Winnipeg, which I was using in place of the home computer that crashed, now seems to have crashed also. At least this one has other people with access to the room who can go reboot it if that's what it needs. An email has been sent; and even if that doesn't get fixed, I have further backup options. On the plus side, I tried my debit card in another bank machine and it worked, so maybe it wasn't locked out after all, or they unlocked it.

Twilight Express sleeper train

JR Hokuriku Line sign, Osaka Station

First line of LEDs says that the Super Hakuto 4 is running three minutes late (which is a rare sight). My train is the Thunderbird (Sandaabaado) 17, bottom line. This sign actually alternates between displaying Japanese and English every few seconds, but I thought the Japanese made a better picture.

Let's Vitamin! MATCH

Chiji train station interior

Dig the ticket vending machine at left. Unlike the ones in bigger, more modern stations, this one lacks a video display.

Chiji train station

At a bigger station there would be a multifunction turnstile ticket gate: getting on, you put in your ticket and the gate cancels it and gives it back, recording where (and the fact that) you got on, and getting off you put your ticket in the gate, if the ticket was for enough fare to cover the distance from where you got on then the gate swallows the ticket and lets you through, and if the ticket wasn't for enough, it locks, and you have to go use the fare adjustment machine to top up the ticket. At Chiji, what they have instead is the box at lower right. Getting on, you just get on (there may be a conductor on the train to punch your ticket), and getting off, you leave your ticket in the box (the conductor may have already checked it onboard to see that it was enough).

bicycle parking at Chiji

dragonflies

At the time I shot the photo I thought they were mating, but now that I look closely I count three sets of wings, so either it's a menage a trois, or something else entirely (such as moulting an exoskeleton).

train with UFO livery

Tokinodai Country Club

I think this sign advertises the health benefits of walking the 4.8km route around the shrine: you can burn 240 or 190 calories depending on whether you are a man or a woman. I'm not sure if that's with or without also being (as illustrated) an amputee.

ema, Keta Taisha

I hope Y's wish comes true, and wish the same for myself.

The last column of text on the sign at right is washed out, but I think it's advertising a special event every month (毎月) on the first of the month (１日): the lover's knot festival, 「心むすび祭」.

just part of the selection of charms and amulets sold at Keta Taisha

The bins with the pink signs at both ends of the counter are "love omikuji."

Keta Taisha left, post office right

Daikokuten

This is actually a digital-camera photo of a moving video projected on a screen, and it came out better than most of my photos of physical objects in the same museum. Dig that old-school computer equipment in the background.