Walk Like A Niigatan

~Today I once again made the journey to Niigata by bullet train. This time, it was to sort out an immigration issue; apparently, there's a one-week gap between the time my visa expires and the time I'll be in Japan. The solution was to visit the immigration office at Niigata International Airport and get an extension. I should note that this was not an isolated case; every single foreign teacher at my company has to go through this.

The silver lining was company-paid transportation by bullet train, so I made the most of it. Before taking the train back, I wandered around the city and came across some interesting sights:

^ I certainly didn't expect to find an Egyptian frieze. Nevertheless, I spotted this unusual wall art just outside of Niigata Station. I thought it might be a sign for an Egyptian-themed restaurant or shop, but the building it was attached to contained only offices and a mundane-looking hotel. It's a mystery, but perhaps one that can be deciphered. Or perhaps not:

^ My ancient Egyptian is a bit rusty, but with some help from omniglot I was able to create a rudimentary phonetic translation. Because the human characters are facing left, the script is read left-to-right and top-to-bottom when applicable. Click on the picture for a larger view.

Beyond the sounds, I can't make heads or tails of the writing. I don't know if the hieroglyph combinations have any actual meaning, be it Egyptian, English, Japanese, or something else. Is it supposed to be a reproduction of an actual Ancient Egyptian carving? Perhaps it's just a collection of meaningless symbols that look cool (Japgyptian?). Does anyone care to speculate on the meaning of the hieroglyphs?

^ After examining the Egyptian writing, I found a small, empty park. The pool was closed for the winter, and a recent rain had left the sandy ground full of puddles. The park was devoid of people...but this frog guardian doesn't care, and is always smiling. He reminds of of a Fishkill Frog.

^ Inside the park was this gazebo-like tower. I had to tread lightly when I went to the top. After all, gazebos can be dangerous, and I didn't want this one to wake up and attack me.

^ In the back of the park was this beautiful flower. The El Niño phenomenon has created an abnormally warm and snow-less winter across most of Japan, which is having some unusual ecological effects. For example, there have been numerous reports of bears that are confused about when to hibernate, which causes them to wander into human-inhabited areas in search of food (with predictably disastrous effects). Plants such as the above flower have decided that it's spring already and have begun to grow and bloom.

On the economic side, ski resorts have been doing very poorly, but golf courses are raking in cash. I've read about the huge ice storms in the central U.S. that have killed off much of the citrus fruit crop. Fortunately, the rest of the country is much warmer than usual, which is driving down the price of oil. Take that, OPEC!

^ I found this brand logo on one of those metal ramps that are placed against a street curb so cars can drive up. I wonder if the car feels joy at having breached the confinement of the road. How uplifting it must feel to break free of the road of fate, and create your own destiny off-road! OK, I'll stop now.

Near the park, I saw a large number of cars and vans parked by the side of the road. Most of them had people inside, all of whom were napping. I see that a lot in Japan; I think it has something to do with construction companies being subsidized to hire unemployed workers, who then don't have much to do. On the other hand, maybe they were all just pretending to be asleep, and were tracking my every move...

^ Yes, that's a boat, on top of a building. It's not a flat sign, but a three-dimensional boat, or at least a model of one. The writing below it, both English and katakana, reads either "Fashion Musuwa Hotel" or "Fashion Musuku Hotel". I can't tell if the last of the three symbols is a WA ( ワ ) or a stylized KU ( ク ).

^ These beautiful bird-signs are located at the main Niigata post office. More specifically, they're above the entrance to the garage that houses the mail cars and underground parking. Again, I'm not sure what they're supposed to represent. Perhaps the birds are designed to look like Japanese writing, or perhaps they're just there to look interesting.

Finally, I conclude with some quasi-Japanglish, found outside of a restaurant:

^ "A Concept is Rice". Indeed!!! I can imagine a Zen master who meditates in silence for decades, searching the innermost recesses of his mind for the great truths of existence, and then one day he speaks, for the first time in years, announcing his new concept. The students are awed by this revelation and quickly spread the concept of rice all over Japan, or at least the Western half of the nation. Hence, everyone here now eats rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. ~Oyasumi!