Collectibles

As a reward for all the hard work Theo has put in learning to ride his bike, I decided to take the boys on a trip to the Fukuyama Auto and Clock Museum (FACM) on Shūbun no Hi, or Autumnal Equinox Day. The last time we went there was over 2 years ago (I can't believe how fast the time has gone!) and wrote a post about it here. I absolutely love this museum and could spend hours looking on every shelf, corner, nook, and cranny at the random assortment of antiques they contain.

The boys of course love being at a museum where they are actually allowed to touch most things and take the vehicles for a "drive".

And I discovered my dream car: a 1949 Jeepster. It was so comfortable inside and everything was just the right size. I also loved that you had to crawl over the side of the car into the back seat. 

My mother insists that collecting things is a sign of intelligence and that you can add one point to your IQ for every collection you own. If there is any scientific credibility to that at all, the person who owns the FACM must be a genius. I tried to take a photo of every collection he had on display until my camera ran out of batteries. I then switched to taking photos with my phone for the rest of the collections. Now looking at them I realize that there are just far too many to post here so instead here is a list:

Clocks

Clock works

Old cars

Old motorcycles

Wax figures

Player pianos

Gravestone rubbings

Airplanes

Old optometry equipment

Children's party favours and prizes from the 1950's and 60's

Antique gas stoves 

Antique space heaters

Televisions

Radios

Victrolas and Phonographs

Cylinder records

Light bulbs

Typewriters

Cash registers

Telephones

Printing presses and mimeographs

Slide projectors and video recording equipment

Sewing machines

Pre war era metal lunch boxes, kitchen tins, and other kitchen goods

Tea pots

Irons

Carved and decorative light fixtures and lanterns

Oil lamps and gas lanterns

Rocking horses

Guns

Bullets and black powder pouches

Model railroad trains

Metal toy buses and other antique toys

World War II memorabilia and propaganda posters

Cameras

State flags

Sombreros

License plates

Water wheels

Antique vacuum cleaners

Antique coal and electric kotatsu 

And a few photos so you can get a feel for how these things are crammed in willy-nilly into display cases, on walls, shelves, or just stuck into the back of some of the old pick up trucks. 

The man who owns this museum owns a lot of property and business in and around Fukuyama City. As far as I know, the museum is just a display of his hobby and obsession with collecting and preserving the past. Tucked into one corner of the museum is a model of an old Japanese house that you can explore.

A view of the toilet cubicles. There was a sliding door separating the urinal and sink room and the squat toilet.

A close up of the under toilet catch basin. The chute on the left hand side leads from the urinal in the next room. 

 The kitchen area

Next to the toilet room is a rocket stove built into the floor and wall.

set into the space behind the stove was a large metal basin. I am not sure if this was for clothes washing, bathing, or just storing warm water.

Next to that was a washing area with a sink, clothes wringer, and refrigerator.

And lastly, the extremely tiny, 4 tatami size family room.

I found this display especially fascinating. I loved walking through imagining what it would be like to live every day with my family in this tiny space, cooking on the wood stove and cleaning out the little pit under the toilet every day. I can't say I really relish the thought.

After three hours of exploring we left the museum only to spend another 30 minutes wandering around the parking lot where there was a bit of overflow of larger items, like a metal steam engine, a giant waterwheel and koi pond. 

I can't recommend this museum enough to anyone with even a slight love of history or any of the many, many collections that this museum houses. If you live in Fukuyama or ever come to Fukuyama make sure you check it out!

A Stranger in a Strange Land.

This morning we woke up to snow on the ground. For my friends and family who have had more than enough of the white stuff already this winter they are probably saying "so what!" However, for us in Fukuyama snow on the ground is a big deal. I did not realize how big a deal this was though until I began my usual commute to work by bicycle. I was halfway over the bridge when I heard a distinct "chakka chakka" sound coming up from behind me, and as I looked over my shoulder I was shocked. A van had snow chains on its tires. SNOW CHAINS!? Now, when I say we had snow on the ground what I mean to say is the ground had a light half centimeter dusting of snow. And this guy had snow chains on. Sorry, I am still in disbelief.

Once at work I began to relate this, what seemed to me, hilarious story and discovered that I was the odd man out. One teacher had woken up at 5:30 am in order to change over all four tires on his car to winter tires. Another teacher walked to work because, while her husband's car had ice tires on it, hers did not and so he prohibited her from driving out of concern for her safety. WHAT!? Sorry, again with the disbelief.

The whole situation reminded me of a time back in Manitoba: We were about halfway through one of our wonderful 6 month winters, complete with an average of 2 meters of snow, when the city of Toronto got a few centimeters of the fluffy white stuff. In typical over the top Toronto fashion, a state of emergency was declared and the military was called in for assistance.

Here is an example of a winter road where snow chains are probably not needed... and a fairly close approximation of what the roads looked like this morning.

Here is an example of a situation in which snow chains or at the very least ice tires might be a good idea. This was not what the roads looked like this morning.

Auto and Clock Museum

Here is something I should have written about long ago, but it's better late than never. In the end of February, we went to the Fukuyama Auto and Clock museum which is extremely close to our apartment. We bike past it at least once a week and finally decided to stop and take a peek inside.

One of three large rooms stuffed with awesome junk

It turned out to be a fantastic collection of odds and ends which provided a fun afternoon for the whole family. I got the feeling that the museum was started by a highly organized hoarder who decided to justify his obsessions by charging people admission to poke through his assorted junk. There was a collection of player pianos, street organs, rice cookers from the turn of the century to present, dozens and dozens of rocking horses, sombreros, old fashioned toys, WWII memorabilia, wax work figures, old painted squat toilets, old airplanes, and of course a large assortment of automobiles and clocks. 

The best part about it all was that they allowed and encouraged the kids to touch, climb, play, and get into everything. Who am I kidding? I had just as much fun running around exploring. Being surrounded by all that history really made me get a sense of what it would have been like to live in Japan 50 or more years ago. It was a really neat time warp-like sensation.

Trying out the old motorcycle fire engine

 It was surprising to me that a car which looked so tiny from the outside provided more than enough head and leg room.

 Super creepy wax figures of very random famous people.

Giving Theo a ride on a rickshaw

Me and my buddy James Dean

Getting a ride in the '50s  three wheeled motorcycle taxi. 

Speedy Gonzales

I am so glad that the days of the two of them driving around together and getting up to no good are far, far in the distance.

For now, they are happier going for these kinds of rides:

We all had an amazing time at the museum and highly recommend it to anyone traveling in Fukuyama, especially with kids.

The Way We Roll

A very patriotic view of our stroller

When Dustin's predecessor left Japan, he was nice enough to leave his mountain bike behind and Dustin has been able to bike the 25 minutes to and from work everyday. Meanwhile, the kids and I have been stuck walking everywhere, which actually hasn't been that bad since we brought a sit and stand stroller with us from Canada. For those who have never seen a contraption like this (they certainly don't have them in Japan), it has a normal reclining seat in the front for a younger child, and a jump seat and standing platform in the back for an older child. It is great for those times when the walk is just too far for Theo to manage on his own two feet, or if you are in a hurry and need to walk a little bit faster than Theo's usual stop-and-check-out-every-bug-and-flower walking speed. It is not as monstrous as a double stroller, so we are able to stash it away at our little apartment pretty easily. We live within walking distance of virtually everything that we need on a daily basis, so this stroller has seen a lot of use since we have been in Japan.  

The biggest problem we have found with walking everywhere is the time it takes to get from one place to another. Every Sunday, we go to a small church that is a few neighbourhoods south of us. It is only about 3.5 km one way, but it takes us just under an hour to walk there. Sure, the exercise is great, but just getting to and fro steals almost 2 hours out of our day. If I need to do any sort of shopping or bring Theo to a park, it becomes a huge excursion in which I need to prepare the kids for multiple hours in which we will be away from home. So, Dustin and I finally bit the bullet and invested in some family transportation.

William and I out for a ride.
Caption reads mamachari (source)

Everyone seems to ride a bike in Japan. I see old people that I swear must be in their 90's slowly making their way down the street, business men in suits, parents with kids, and everyone in between. It seems that people aren't quite as caught up in certain status symbols, like how large and expensive of a car you have, compared with the West. It also helps that, unlike Manitoba, you can bike all year round without having to worry about ice, snow, and -30 degree winter days.

The typical bike that you see people riding on in Japan is the mamachari. The name comes from mama, of course, and "chari", a slang term for bicycle. They are actually ridden by just about everyone, but are super handy for stay at home mothers because you can put your kids into one or two kid's seats attached to your bike and run all your errands. Typically, they only have about 3 gears, upright handlebars, chain cover, basket, a bike stand, built in wheel lock, and light. 

The double child bike, for much more well
 balanced (or daring) mothers

Dustin and I have been scoping out the mamachari scene since we arrived and finally settled on getting two bikes, one with a older child seat on the back and one with an infant seat on the front. Quite a few mothers here have both child seats mounted on the same bike. I am really impressed that they manage to get around comfortably with a child at each end, but I am pretty sure one, or all of us, would die if I tried to do that. I really don't feel comfortable with my ability to balance me and my brood moving at high speeds. In our situation, at least on evenings, weekends and holidays we can all bike together as a family. I can also bike with William while Theo is at kindergarten, making my life a whole lot more productive.

One great aspect of my bike is the brand name. In my English thinking brain, I scanned the name and thought it said "Firecrackers", which I thought was kind of cute. The next day when I looked again, I realized that my brain was just adding letters to the nonsensical actual brand name, which is "Frackers". It sounds like such a completely vulgar expletive that I have to laugh every time I see it. Maybe I have just watched too much Battlestar Galactica. 

The kids ready to be off on an adventure

One surprise for me was the cost of it all though. All told, these two bikes cost us about 82,000 yen, or just over $1,000 Canadian. There certainly were much more expensive mamachari, but we bought the two cheapest ones we could. This is pretty crazy considering that if we really looked around, we could probably find someone trying to get rid of a car for cheaper. Actually, quite a few English teachers who are moving back home are so desperate to get rid of their car that they either give it away or sell it for a few hundred dollars. At the moment, we have almost no need for a car and I really hope that it stays that way for many, many years. There have been so many benefits to no longer owning a car: our life has been so much simpler, a lot of little (and not so little) costs have disappeared, we get tons of exercise, know the neighbours so much better, and aren't as guilty about our contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.   We are very content with our decision to invest in bicycles that support our lifestyle, regardless of the cost.