Outbound to Gufu + Tokyo Japan, Day 5 of 19, October 8, 2017
Free day with hosts Group 1, Toyota Museum, Noritake, and Nagoya Castle, group 2
Group 1: Free day with hosts
Today for Gifu Group 1, it was a free day to spend with hosts. Each host family did something a little different. The accounts below are from various contributors.By Pat G, Johanna B
Our hosts took us to the downtown shopping area to participate in celebrating the achievements of Oda Nobunaga, a samurai warrior. He tried to unify Japan and used Gifu Castle as his base and contributed to the construction of Gifu City itself.
Featuring locals dressed up as famous generals like Oda Nobunaga and Saito Dosan, Nobunaga’s cavalry unit that is made up of soldiers such as those in his matchlock gun battalion, marching bands and much more, downtown Gifu comes alive to celebrate its founding heroes once every October.
There were also many street and food vendors. One of the most interesting was the Japanese "French fries". Take note of the whole potato.
We also had our "skin age" tested and found we were younger than our actual age by 4-5 years!
Mushrooms come on a tree branch, did you know? (Show mushroom photo)
We also had our "skin age" tested and found we were younger than our actual age by 4-5 years!
Mushrooms come on a tree branch, did you know? (Show mushroom photo)
At lunch time we were the guests of Hideyuki Kakidachi, his wife Yukiko , daughter Yoko Mori and her 2 sons.
Our hosts were also in attendance for a total of 9.
Lunch was an elegant event! Yukiko prepared the entire meal and cooked for 2 days for us according to her husband. We were greeted at the front door with the sign (place sign photo here) and again the dining room.
Following lunch we headed to Mino-Washi paper museum in Mino City where we participated in the experience of making Japanese hand made paper.
Off to The Festival of Lanterns in Mino City where the streets are lined with lanterns made from the Mino Washi paper. This is a competition and many were award winning designs but we did'nt understand the categories.
Finally dinner time was here. We had dinner at a restaurant famous for "Okonomiyaki" a savory Japanese "pancake" which we cooked on a grill in the middle of our table.
A long day and finally home to bed but wouldn't have wanted to miss a thing.
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By Helen F.
Our dinner party group tonight included, Helen F., Monica O, Chris B. and Donna F. We learned how to make sushi.
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Group 2: Toyota, Noritake, and Nagoya castle
By Roz W
Nagoya Castle
Our day started with sunshine and a traditional Japanese breakfast, rice, fried salmon, pickled vegetables, salad, fresh fruits, green tea, rice, soup.
Itadakimasu
We ate a leisurely breakfast, then readied ourselves for the day. Our goal today is to go to three key places in Nagoya: The Toyota Museum, the Noritake china center, and Nagoya Castle.
Our hosts acquired a bus pass for all of us on a hop-on and off type of a bus that had preferred tourist route to the three destinations we wanted to go to. It was crowded on the bus, so we were glad in each instance, we only had one stop to travel between hopping on and hopping off.
The Toyota Commemorative of Commenmorative Museum of Industry and Technology
Our first car was a Volkswagen Bus in 1969. Our second car was a Toyota Corolla in 1973, a Toyota Land Cruiser in 1984, and a Toyota Camry, in 1999. We have loved everyone of our Toyotas,
so it was with great interest that we came here today. We were surprised to learn that long before the Toyoda family started manufacturing cars, their first mechanical genius and expertise had already begun in the early 1900's in the textile industry.
The history of Toyoto Industries is the story of of Sakichi Toyoda and his son Kaiichiro. Sakichi’ aspirations was to “make people happy by enriching the nation and our society”. He also had a passion for detail and perfection in the products he produced.
The father Sakichi revolutionized the textile industry with the development of fully automated spinning and weaving machinery in the early 1900’s. Because Japan at that time lacked many of the industrial resources of the US and Europe he had to create many technologies to develop and manufacture his looms. With his own steel and casting and machine shops he created the fastest and highest quality fully automated looms.
Demonstration of how cotton fibers when pulled create a string
Early looms
Human weavers lost their jobs when the automated looms replaced them. One person could oversee 40 looms working full time.
Incredibly complex looms with a variety of colored threads can weave digital prints, today.
Woven photograph on a blanket
After several trips overseas Mr. Toyoda realized that Japan was behind the rest of the world with many manufacturing technologies. He had a vision to produce cars and trucks like those of Ford in the USA, and his son Kaiichiro convinced him to pursue this goal. Just like the textile company his father created with the many complex machines, Kaiichiro found it necessary when developing cars that Japan did not produce the heavy steel that his company would need to manufacture the vehicles, so they also became involved in creating refined materials from raw materials to make the parts and pieces they needed.
Creating the first prototype with a wooden frame and light weight metal.
In 1936 the first “Toyoto” passenger car rolled off the production line in Nagoya.
You might wonder why the car is not a Toyoda. For the new enterprise Toyoda held a contest to develop a new logo for the company. The winning entry incorporated the letter “d” from the Japanese Katakana alphabet which resembles a stylized “T” in the English alphabet. The “T” became the symbol of the new car company.
Several other factors unique to Japanese culture also led to the adoption of the “T”. The letter in Katakana requires eight brush stokes and 8 is considered a lucky number and the new word “Toyoto” was a break from toyada which mens “fertile rice field” in Japanese, hardly a word to inspire the new car buyer.
Yesterday
The Future ?
The Noritake Factory and Museum
It is always interesting how one thing leads to another.
The Morimura brothers, Ichizaemon and Toyo, had a dream to make Japan an exporting nation. Japan had recently opened to the world in 1859 and had no goods to export other than its’ antiquities.
After visiting England, Ichizaemon wanted to develop, fine "bone china" tableware in Japan. The brothers founded a trading company in 1876 and in 1881 began exporting new porcelain products. The "bone" comes from cremated cow bones. A fine bone china plate is very translucent and strong.
This “fancy wear” became very popular in the US. Today, Noritake is a world leader in high quality ceramic wear and other high tech products that incorporates ceramic materials into solar panels and computer chips.
We were not allowed to photograph inside the art center and factory, but were allowed to photograph in the museum.
The Nagoya Castle
This beautiful castle was built in the early 16th century. It was completely destroyed during the bombing of WW II and rebuilt by the city of Nagoya in 1959.
In many of the other castles we have visited, we have not gone in or seen the living quarters, only the fortress tower part of the castle. Because Nagoya castle was rebuilt and refurbished with period-type doors and paintings, the living areas are quite interesting and gives the visitor a better frame of reference of how the feudal lords lived in their castle homes.
Like many of the castle (fortress towers), today this part of the castle is a museum and has many interesting exhibits.
How Did They Build Those Massive Stone Walls?
We were in the castle fairly late in the day and have noticed throughout our travels in Japan, that visitors are notified that closing time in pending when the instrumental of Auld Lang Syne plays on the loud speaker. It was the first time we were not on the grounds, but inside the building when the tune began to play. The building closes at 5:00 pm. The music started at 4:25 and I thought, okay it's an early warning, but no, everyone starts climbing down the stairs and out the doors, almost like a fire drill.
Between the closing of the castle and our dinner reservations at a restaurant closer to our homestay hosts home, we went to the Kawabe's apartment home in Kachagawa for tea and refreshments. After refreshments we walked to a nearby restaurant where several family style foods were placed in front of us to share.
We enjoyed all of them including the fish. Neither Russ nor I are fond of fish, but we tried everything and we particularly enjoyed the swordfish kabab and the roasted sting ray. Everyone had a wonderful time despite our inability to speak and understand each other's language.
**********
By: Andy Neal
I feel very fortunate to have been hosted by Toshiko and Yonezaburo S. They are a delightful and a very helpful couple with a beautiful house near the center of town.
They treated me to authentic and traditional Japanese food. Toshiko makes the best Miso soup in Japan. They shepherded me everywhere on time.
Toshiko’s niece Iya came with us to practice her English. What a sweet, beautiful girl!
My warmest, heartfelt thanks to this delightful family.
In Friendship and Peace
 |
| Nagoya Castle |
Our day started with sunshine and a traditional Japanese breakfast, rice, fried salmon, pickled vegetables, salad, fresh fruits, green tea, rice, soup.
 |
| Itadakimasu |
We ate a leisurely breakfast, then readied ourselves for the day. Our goal today is to go to three key places in Nagoya: The Toyota Museum, the Noritake china center, and Nagoya Castle.
Our hosts acquired a bus pass for all of us on a hop-on and off type of a bus that had preferred tourist route to the three destinations we wanted to go to. It was crowded on the bus, so we were glad in each instance, we only had one stop to travel between hopping on and hopping off.
The Toyota Commemorative of Commenmorative Museum of Industry and Technology
Our first car was a Volkswagen Bus in 1969. Our second car was a Toyota Corolla in 1973, a Toyota Land Cruiser in 1984, and a Toyota Camry, in 1999. We have loved everyone of our Toyotas,
so it was with great interest that we came here today. We were surprised to learn that long before the Toyoda family started manufacturing cars, their first mechanical genius and expertise had already begun in the early 1900's in the textile industry.
The history of Toyoto Industries is the story of of Sakichi Toyoda and his son Kaiichiro. Sakichi’ aspirations was to “make people happy by enriching the nation and our society”. He also had a passion for detail and perfection in the products he produced.
The father Sakichi revolutionized the textile industry with the development of fully automated spinning and weaving machinery in the early 1900’s. Because Japan at that time lacked many of the industrial resources of the US and Europe he had to create many technologies to develop and manufacture his looms. With his own steel and casting and machine shops he created the fastest and highest quality fully automated looms.
 |
| Demonstration of how cotton fibers when pulled create a string |
 |
| Early looms |
 |
| Human weavers lost their jobs when the automated looms replaced them. One person could oversee 40 looms working full time. |
 |
| Incredibly complex looms with a variety of colored threads can weave digital prints, today. |
 |
| Woven photograph on a blanket |
After several trips overseas Mr. Toyoda realized that Japan was behind the rest of the world with many manufacturing technologies. He had a vision to produce cars and trucks like those of Ford in the USA, and his son Kaiichiro convinced him to pursue this goal. Just like the textile company his father created with the many complex machines, Kaiichiro found it necessary when developing cars that Japan did not produce the heavy steel that his company would need to manufacture the vehicles, so they also became involved in creating refined materials from raw materials to make the parts and pieces they needed.
 |
| Creating the first prototype with a wooden frame and light weight metal. |
In 1936 the first “Toyoto” passenger car rolled off the production line in Nagoya.
You might wonder why the car is not a Toyoda. For the new enterprise Toyoda held a contest to develop a new logo for the company. The winning entry incorporated the letter “d” from the Japanese Katakana alphabet which resembles a stylized “T” in the English alphabet. The “T” became the symbol of the new car company.
Several other factors unique to Japanese culture also led to the adoption of the “T”. The letter in Katakana requires eight brush stokes and 8 is considered a lucky number and the new word “Toyoto” was a break from toyada which mens “fertile rice field” in Japanese, hardly a word to inspire the new car buyer.
 |
| Yesterday |
 |
| The Future ? |
The Noritake Factory and Museum
It is always interesting how one thing leads to another.
The Morimura brothers, Ichizaemon and Toyo, had a dream to make Japan an exporting nation. Japan had recently opened to the world in 1859 and had no goods to export other than its’ antiquities.
After visiting England, Ichizaemon wanted to develop, fine "bone china" tableware in Japan. The brothers founded a trading company in 1876 and in 1881 began exporting new porcelain products. The "bone" comes from cremated cow bones. A fine bone china plate is very translucent and strong.
This “fancy wear” became very popular in the US. Today, Noritake is a world leader in high quality ceramic wear and other high tech products that incorporates ceramic materials into solar panels and computer chips.
We were not allowed to photograph inside the art center and factory, but were allowed to photograph in the museum.
The Nagoya Castle
This beautiful castle was built in the early 16th century. It was completely destroyed during the bombing of WW II and rebuilt by the city of Nagoya in 1959.
In many of the other castles we have visited, we have not gone in or seen the living quarters, only the fortress tower part of the castle. Because Nagoya castle was rebuilt and refurbished with period-type doors and paintings, the living areas are quite interesting and gives the visitor a better frame of reference of how the feudal lords lived in their castle homes.
They treated me to authentic and traditional Japanese food. Toshiko makes the best Miso soup in Japan. They shepherded me everywhere on time.
Like many of the castle (fortress towers), today this part of the castle is a museum and has many interesting exhibits.
 |
 |
| How Did They Build Those Massive Stone Walls? |
We were in the castle fairly late in the day and have noticed throughout our travels in Japan, that visitors are notified that closing time in pending when the instrumental of Auld Lang Syne plays on the loud speaker. It was the first time we were not on the grounds, but inside the building when the tune began to play. The building closes at 5:00 pm. The music started at 4:25 and I thought, okay it's an early warning, but no, everyone starts climbing down the stairs and out the doors, almost like a fire drill.
Between the closing of the castle and our dinner reservations at a restaurant closer to our homestay hosts home, we went to the Kawabe's apartment home in Kachagawa for tea and refreshments. After refreshments we walked to a nearby restaurant where several family style foods were placed in front of us to share.
We enjoyed all of them including the fish. Neither Russ nor I are fond of fish, but we tried everything and we particularly enjoyed the swordfish kabab and the roasted sting ray. Everyone had a wonderful time despite our inability to speak and understand each other's language.
**********
By: Andy Neal
I feel very fortunate to have been hosted by Toshiko and Yonezaburo S. They are a delightful and a very helpful couple with a beautiful house near the center of town.
They treated me to authentic and traditional Japanese food. Toshiko makes the best Miso soup in Japan. They shepherded me everywhere on time.
Toshiko’s niece Iya came with us to practice her English. What a sweet, beautiful girl!
My warmest, heartfelt thanks to this delightful family.
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