Back Here Again, yo-yo-YOKKAICHI!

There are many swirling undercurrents surrounding the crazy business world of why and how I end up in Yokkaichi, Japan (Mie Prefecture) from time to time.  There are also many crazy swirling ideas and opinions about what I am supposed to get done while I’m here in Yokkaichi from time to time.  But NONE of those will be discussed in this blog! Ask me in person and off the record if you want to hear some of my impressions about those crazy swirling undercurrents.  And be forewarned that anything you would hear from me on such an occasion would probably be wrong.

Anyway, I’m Back Here Again and I think I’m prepared for the usual happenings, which is something new for me.  But…  I had time on my hands today and Katie had suggested that I “go for a walk” so that’s what I did!

I looked on the internet map and noticed that there is actually some kind of a Memorial Park at the Yokkaichi Port a little over 1km away from the hotel I am staying at.  So that was that, it needed to be visited.

Inabao Memorial Park

http://www.city.yokkaichi.mie.jp/ryokuchi/inaba/index.html

What is weird is that the Yokkaichi Port has a reputation (at least for us foreign visitors) of being very utilitarian and industrial in nature.  Here’s a nice photo of a typical expected view, it doesn’t look very much pedestrian friendly.  You can read the web site that the photo came from to get an idea of what kinds of things (hint:  they aren’t good things) Yokkaichi Harbor became famous for in past decades.

https://ejatlas.org/conflict/yokkaichi-asthma-japan

So anyway, what the heck… a PARK? an HISTORICAL PARK?

Sorry, weird sidetrack…  look at this sky view of that park from <Big Internet Site> maps site and tell me if those are sunken vessels in the water or just ghost photography artifacts.  Weird.

That’s over, now back to the blog.

Yeah so I had to go.  Of course I forgot how early it gets dark here and how long it would take me to walk there so I left a little late and enjoyed the sunset golden hour atmosphere on the walk through town down to the waterfront.  It actually wasn’t that far, and there were business and houses and sidewalks and crosswalks and one sky-crossing over the busy street along the way.  Pretty good stuff.

I can’t easily find anything about that park in English, or anything in Japanese that translates well, but what I think happened here is some guy in the past decided to build a breakwater that calmed a lot of the wave action which previously made life a little more difficult at the harbor.  He may have used some local concrete but he definitely had some kind of “perforated” design that calmed the wave but didn’t have to take all of its force.  Or something.  Anyway, it’s historical now!

 

http://www.city.yokkaichi.mie.jp/ryokuchi/inaba/index.html

So the walk there was fun, the park itself is kind of cool, and it is certainly off of the tourist trail.  There are monuments to some nautical-themed things (perhaps the breakwater…) and some nice working boats and some industry and some houses to look at.  It was definitely worth the walk.

Nearby is at least 1 Buddhist Temple and at least 1 Shinto Shrine.  And a Sea-Man’s Hall hotel/restaurant that looks like a very interesting place to stay!  I’m not sure, but you may have to be an actual Sea-Man or similar to stay here, but the dining hall may be open to the general public during part of the day.

http://y-seninkaikan.com/daiichi/

I continued my walk on the sea-side of the sea-wall which effectively limited my passing-by the Temple, Shrine, and Sea-Man’s Hall because they were on the NON-Sea-side of that wall…. saved for next time!

On the way back, I went past some factories and was stopped at the JR Tracks by two trains — one freight and one little 1-car transit thing going the other way on the same track.  Very interesting!

Photos are below, I may do this walk again in the daylight if I have time.

It is strange that other colleagues who come to visit and stay in Yokkaichi usually don’t do these same things that I sometimes do.