May 8th
Our first visit went significatively to this hi-tech show room. Computers, television sets and all other electrical equipment you could think of were exhibited. Unfortunately the visit was very short and without any expert guidance.
A place where 600,000 people pass every day to travel or do some shopping. Here it was explained to us how the city worked in means of transport. In five levels people and vehicles pass by. At the top, above ground level, you find the highway and the monorail. At the second, ground level, there is a common network of roads. Below earth there are three levels. First shopping floor then service tunnels and at the bottom the subway system. This was an interesting afternoon for us from "the countryside", and well planned at the beginning of our stay.
May 9th
We were taken high up in the Crystal Tower, where Keihan Electric Railway resides. The view of Osaka-jo was magnificent through the big windows in the conference room. Mr. Ito first welcomed us and then introduced us to Mr. Miyashita, who is president of the company. After some "questions and answers" over a cup of Japanese tea, we all gathered around the president and had some pictures taken. One of the photos later ended up in "Keihan News", with an explanatory text about the Swedish GSE-team.
A very well prepared information followed. Mr. Furutsugi had put together a comparison between Sweden and Japan in terms of population and land area. The history of the railway in Japan, with Japan National Railway, JNR, turning into JR and then again divided into 6 parts and made privately owned, gave some explanation to today's multitude of railway companies. There are a total 186 companies and 165 of them are private. Because the different lines go practically parallel sometimes, the competition for customers is very hard. The factors used for competing are speed, comfort and of course the train fare. Facility improvements for handicapped people are an important issue for Keihan Electric Railway. Also keeping a high safety standard is crucial these days. After the Kobe disaster in early 1995, the standards will now be renewed. High investments like this limits ordinary business for a railway company. However, companies cannot afford to let their customers down, or else they will choose another company which is safer. Keihan Electric Railway uses pillars which are stronger and bigger than the competitors.
For a company like Keihan Electric Railway to survive, it's necessary to have other sources of income along with railway traffic. The number of passengers has decreased. The low birthrate, the economic situation and the 5 day-system (2 holidays a week) has forced the companies to have subsidiary companies dealing with retail (supermarket, shopping malls), real estate, amusement parks and sports clubs. The railway stands for just over 50% in the case of Keihan Electric Railway.
The Rotary lunch meeting this day was hosted by Osaka-Tsurumi Rotary Club. After presentation of our program, we had a talk with the club members. We enjoyed answering to questions about Sweden and about the Swedish way of looking at things. Mr Toshikazu Satoh showed a great interest in us and asked us some good questions. Mr. Junichiro Suda, besides from driving a Volvo, had made the effort of retrieving interesting facts about Sweden from a guide book he had bought. He entertained both his fellow Rotarians and the Swedish GSE-team with facts and figures as well as with some Swedish sentences. That was most appreciated by us and very impressive too.
After lunch we were ready for the visit to Osaka castle. This castle is a must for anyone visiting Osaka city. It was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the war lord who pacified Japan after the age of wars some 400 years ago. His son and the Tokugawas, shoguns that later ruled Japan for centuries, fought in a war that put Osaka castle into ashes. Then Tokugawas rebuilt the castle and they also put the large stones in the mighty wall. Without having the aid of modern machines and tools, it's impossible to imagine how they actually made it, 3 and a half centuries ago!
Once again the castle was burnt by lightning fire. The present day Osaka castle tower is a replica, built by public donation from Osaka citizen 60 or 70 years ago. We went up the tower with an elevator. From the tower we had a magnificent view of Osaka Business Park. It was interesting to be able to look at Crystal Tower and Keihan Electric Railway, Co., where we had visited earlier the same day. We could also see the Hotel New Otani, which was our accommodation for the weekends. Interesting historical artifacts were displayed in the tower and we had very skilful guiding by Osaka-Tsurumi RC during this visit.
After that, we enjoyed cool drinks and we relaxed for a while. Before leaving the castle, we took some pictures of us sitting on the beautiful stone bridge, with the castle rising up in the background.
May 10th
The Osaka Aquarium has been open for 5 years now and it's one of the largest aquariums in the world. The aquarium presents the environment found in the Ring of Fire, the seismic and volcanic belt along the rim of the Pacific Ocean that stretches from Japan to North America, down along Central and South America, across to New Zealand and Australia, and back up to Japan. In the middle of the aquarium building there is a big tank with 5,400 tons of water. The walkway is around this huge tank like a decreasing spiral. Here we could see marine life in simulated natural environments of the frigid, temperate and tropical zones. The most amazing was the big whale shark. Five years ago when it came to the aquarium it was 4 m long, now grown to 6 m. The whale shark is always swimming, all day and night. They caught it in the south of Japan and it took 48 h to bring it to the aquarium. They had to transport it in a container with a constant waterflow all the time, so it could stay alive.
To keep all this amount of water clean and fresh they need a lot of power. A blackout in the power system would be a disaster. To prevent this they have their own gas turbine generators that constantly are operating to provide power. They have a method where they use ozone to sterilize the water. It takes two and a half hour to change all the water in the big tank.
It was a very nice visit and interesting to see whale shark, otters, seals, penguins, tunas, squirrel monkeys etc.
At this private television company we were shown around. When we came in to one of the studios they were just going to send a program direct. It was a program where they were making food, the famous Mr. Kandagawa was the principal figure. Behind him there were a lot of women who were supposed to try the food. They wanted the female members of our team to participate. So Lena, Ulrika and Christina were on Japanese TV!
May 11th
Thursday May 11 th was a comprehensive day. In the morning we were shown the Osaka City Hall. The members were placed according to party in a session hall and the biggest party in the middle of the hall. The oldest members are sitting longest time and from tradition they are addressed with a number. The new City Hall was completed in 1986. Osaka city council consists of 90 councilmen elected by the citizens. Their term is 4 years. At present, Osaka city council has 6 factions. The biggest party is the Liberal Democratic party which has about one third of all the members. We also had the great honor of meeting the mayor of Osaka City, Mr. Nishio. Together with his closest collaborators he welcomed us warmly to Osaka and informed us about the plans for the future for Osaka. We received beautiful gifts from Mr. Nishio and we promised him to carry the badge, which shows that Osaka will come forward as a candidate for the arrangement of the Olympic games in 2008.
In the afternoon we made three very interesting visits. The company Mizuno, which produces many different sporting articles and clothes, was introduced by means of a first rate video and in addition to this a tour of the company. The firm, founded in 1906, is an universally leading company making great efforts on product development and tests of tools, articles and equipment.
WTCOsaka World Trade Center. This enormous building has recently been opened. It is the highest building in western Japan252 meters highand the top you can reach by elevator passing 51 floors and then a couple of escalators. Here you can get fine offers like exhibition halls for firms newly established.
The last visit this day was made at ATCAsia Pacific Trade Center. This building was opened in April 1994 and had during the first summer more than 5 million visitors. On the different floors you can find ATC Design Center, International SportsLeisure and Gift chart, International Fashion chart and International Gems and Jewelry chart.
May 12th
The big rain was pouring down when we visited the OAPproject which is a big building project under construction in the center of the city. It contains hotel, offices and apartments. This day's RC lunch was held at the Royal Hotel. The host, Osaka RC, is the oldest and biggest club in the district. The speaker of the day was introducing another large project in the Bay areaa combination of film studios and adventure park. Since there was no time for our program, we were just introduced to the members.
In the north east part of Osaka we visited Tsurumi Ryokuchi, one of the four big green parks surrounding the city. The master plan was decided in 1941, aiming to change former farming area into a huge park. A growing city needed recreational environment for its citizens and in 1970 the construction work began. Since then, millions of m3 of waste and remnants from public constructions has been put inside the park area, thus creating a new topography with mountains reaching 20~45 m above ground. Because the new land was built on "trash", a method called "the Sandwich Method" was used. The waste disposal is being put in layers with good quality soil poured on top. Layers of clay are used to keep the waste in place, ventilation ducts and incinerators were built. The generated gas, from organic material, has been decreasing as the years have passed.
In 1990, the "International Expo-90" was held here in this area. During six months 82 countries, more than 50 international organizations and 22 million people visited this flower and greenery exhibition. Also during the Japanese holidays called "the Golden Week", held in the end of April, the park is a very popular resort.
Even though the weather wasn't good, we had a very pleasant walk through the park. Gardens, representing different countries from all over the world, allowed you to travel while just walking. And we were in for a big surprise! Something we never could have anticipated in advance; we were honored with a newly planted tree, a tree of friendship. The Swedish members officially planted and irrigated the tree, while pictures were taken to preserve the occasion. Besides the planting of the tree, we were presented a stone wherein our names were engraved! That was indeed a touching experience and another good reason for coming back to Osaka one day.
May 13th
This must be a very pedagogical way to understand physics if you know Japanese. Even with good interpreters it was difficult for us to make use of this somewhat complicated information.
May 15th
What a contrast to Osaka's city life! ! !Those large, green temple parks, which in their wet condition offered (it was raining that day), except their mighty beauty, a delightful scent. Of course, the temples were very interesting to experience too Horyu-ji, with it's incredibly old constructions and Todai-ji with it's Great Buddha.
Osaka Kashiwara RC members who were guiding us this day took us also to an exclusive Japanese restaurant in one of the parks. We were served the most beautiful and delicious lunch in a room with an open wall towards the verdure and rain. Some hours and many laughs later we had to leave there were more visits to pay.
The President of Kashiwara RC arranged a visit to the sacred rooms of the Kasuga Taisha a very well known Shrine in Nara. We got an introduction to the Shinto religion and also the Priest's blessing. We returned to Osaka with pure minds. This was a very fruitful, peaceful and instructive day.
May 17th
On May 17th we made an interesting visit to a bakery making cakes and sweets from vegetables. There were quite a lot of modern packing machines but a lot of the work was still made manually, which seemed to make it monotonous. We had lunch with our program at Yao RC and then we had a pleasant time together with time for questions. The questions we got concerned among other things correctional system, our preparations in case of an earthquake, cancer-treatment, what knowledge our school-children have of Japan, the view the girls have of Japanese men and some about the caring for old people. We also visited Yao City Hall (one year old) and met the recently appointed mayor. In the evening Anders and Lars participated in Yao Area Banquet a very nice entertainment with about 60 guests.
May 19th
Kakutani is a family business and they make special teapots of iron. They use a technique where they have two shells of clay. They put these two shells together and pour melted iron in between them. On the outer clay shell they have made different patterns and each pot is signed by the designer. There have been three generation in this family business and we met the youngest
Mr. Kakutani. His father is now 90 years old but is still doing some work. His father has been nominated a national human treasure. He has also been invited to an exhibition in Paris but he didn't go there. He sent some teapots to Paris and the journalists came to Osaka! The teapots were very beautiful and very expensive. A rather big one cost 3,000,000 yen.
During the afternoon we participated in a tea ceremony in one of the Rotarians house, Mr. Mano. We started outside the house. We were wearing typical Japanese shoes and in a small pond with pouring water we had to clean our hands. After the cleaning we entered the house through a hole in the wall and then we went up to the tea room that was specially decorated with flowers and pictures for us. Before the tea we had special Japanese cookies which were made out of different herbs and flowers. Then it was time for the green and bitter tea. Every person got a special cup to admire and drink out of. Before we drank the tea we had to turn the cup three times in our hands. We took three and a half draughts and the last one was supposed to be drunken noisily.
The day ended with a big garden party in the garden of Mr. Masui. All the Rotarians who had been participated this week were there with their wives. The men were cooking which was very unusual! We had good Japanese food and everybody enjoyed it a lot. The most different for us was the Japanese habit of having party during certain hours. Because at 20:30 the party was finished by a speech and everybody went home!
May 22nd
This was a project to connect the area of Kyoto, Osaka and Nara in research in various fields. Industry, universities and governments collaborated in mostly basic research in molecular biology, engineering and computer science.
After a splendid lunch the afternoon was spent in to areas in the research park. First at the Sekisui House, where housing was developed. Examples of sound isolation techniques and building earthquake safe skyscrapers were interesting to watch. Finally BBCC where new communication methods were tested. Practical applications like information networks. super highways in computer communication and transmission of X-ray pictures between hospitals were shown. Difficult technology but very good presentations made it understandable to laymen.
May 23rd
Kyoto was the capital of Japan from 794 up until 1868. The name Kyoto means capital city. There are a lot of temples, places and gardens to see in Kyoto as well as historic arts and crafts. This was our day of beautiful temples.
We started in the morning with Kinkaku-ji TempleTemple of the Golden Pavilion. The pavilion of the temple is covered with gold leafs. The pavilion is situated beside a large pond in which it is reflected. The elegant, harmonious building consists of three types of architecture. The 1st floor is built in the palace style, the 2nd in samurai style and the 3rd in Zen temple style.
Next was the Ryoan-ji Temple. This temple is known for its rock garden. It's a small (30xl0m) garden consisting of white sand and fifteen rocks, laid out at the end of the 15th century. Its simple beauty will inspire philosophical meditation. It's up to each visitor to find out for himself what this garden signifies. We had a nice and relaxing time when we sat and admired this beautiful garden. Nijo-jo Castle was built for the first Tokugawa Shogun Ieyasu and it was completed by the third Shogun Iemitsu. It served as a symbol of the power and authority of the Tokugawa military government. There were a lot of architectural details of the huge Ninomaru palace. Inside there was a special floor that chirps when people walk on it. It was a way to hear people coming. Around the temple there is a beautiful garden.
Kiyomizu Temple is built on a steep slope. It stands on large platform constructed with wooden beams (50 meters high), put together without a single nail. This temple are surrounded with lovely green trees. In Kyoto we also got the possibility to visit Nishijin Textile Center. We just arrived when they started a kimono show, very beautiful. Afterwards we could look at all the traditional things Japanese women wear with their kimonos. This was an excellent day full of tradition, history and culture.
May 24th
The morning was set aside for vocational studies and we met at the Prince Hotel for lunch and Rotary meeting. The afternoon contained a visit to Daicolo Co.a company which, among other things, produces school yearbooks. The company has also interests in boats and aircraft. We got a guided tour through the photographingand printing process and it was completed with a try in a machine making self portrait photos used for name cards among other things. You see yourself on a TV monitor and freeze the picture when you find yourself handsome. And of course we were all good looking on the cards that were offered us in a big quantity one week later.
May 26th
Where do you go if you want to see high technology at the front-line? Well. Japan is a good choice and as we happened to be in Osaka we were fortunate enough to visit Sanyo Electric Research Center in Hirakata Area. The name "Sanyo" means "three oceans", namely the Pacific, the Indian and the Atlantic ocean. The number of employees all over the world is 25,000. "Saving the earth and serving its people" is the company's motto. In order to do so, they focus on four technical fields; Earth-Friendly Soft Energy; Clean Cooling and Heating Systems; New Audio, Video and Computer Communications; Optoelectronic and Semiconductor Technologies.
We were told about a new generation of chemical batteries such as high energy batteries and ultra-thin batteries. Voice technology and CFC-free refrigeration technology are other interesting fields, which we were able to see at Sanyo. Compact three-dimensional LCD units, direct-viewing without special glasses, is an incredible invention and was perhaps the highlight of our visit to Sanyo. Solar cell systems is something that the company is very good at. Sanyo is a world leader in this technology. We were shown some different ways of generating solar cell power and how a system could be working in an ordinary home. Even a smaller system can very well provide electricity for air-condition and lighting. Roof tiles, for example, can function both as solar cells and conventional protection of the roof at the same time. Desalination systems in Western Africa runs on Sanyo solar cell power. In Africa, the sun is an inexhaustible supply of energy. The" Genesis Project" is an attempt to solve the energy problem. Huge land areas in the deserts could be filled with solar cells, to provide the world with inexpensive electricity. It's an interesting idea, because the loss of energy during transition is small enough to make such a project a possible success.
In the afternoon the same day, we visited Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. The company is using four different trademarks, depending on where the market is. "National" is used on home electric appliances and housing-related products in Japan, and on major products in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. "Panasonic" is used on products such as audio and video products, information and communication equipment and factory automation equipment in Japan. In the Americas, Europe, Oceania and South Africa, it is used on all the products. Furthermore, "Technics" is currently used on Hi-fi audio products and electronic musical instruments throughout the world. "Quasar" has been used on TV-sets mostly in North America.
The excellent guide showed us one Hi-Tech application after the other. Video games, Hi-fi audio equipments, HDTV (TV with incredibly high picture quality) and handicap aid products were some fields of their technology we enjoyed studying.
The "House of history" displayed the story of Konosuke Matsushita's life (the founder) and how the technology developed during his years.
May 29th
Today we were picked up by Suita-Esaka RC in a big bus. They took us to Osaka Gas Museum, which is situated at the Expo 70 area. We got a guided tour through the museum which displays different ways of using the gas. It was a very noisy place because many videos and machines were on and our guide had some problem with her English. So it was a little bit difficult to understand the presentation. We went on in our big bus to the National Museum of Ethnology. This building is an overthrowing exhibition of modern architecturea cover in big contrast to its contents. The museum is giganticthe collection likewise. It is presented in an exquisite and elegant way.
In the Expo 70 park there is also a Japanese Garden where we had some time for a walk. This garden was in much better condition than one in Tsurumi Park and it was very nice to enjoy stones, trees, water and plants for a while. We finished the day by taking part of the Suita Nishi RC's 15th Anniversary. To the very last minute there was some doubt whether we were going to have our program or not. But it turned out to be a short presentation. Finally a delicious buffet was served which we unfortunately had to rush through, because our host families were waiting for us.
May 31st
It was with a feeling of humbleness, sadness and curiosity we visited the city that, less than six months earlier, was struck by a disaster. On January 17th, at 5:46 a.m., an earthquake with the magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter Scale, hit the Hanshin area. The epicenter was 3 km north-east of Awaji Island. The number of casualties, houses collapsed and deaths was almost impossible for us to grasp. People we met in Osaka would sometimes ask us whether we'd heard about this tragedy or not? The question puzzled us and made us very surprised. For many weeks, in Swedish television, and without doubt all over the world, people didn't talk about anything else! Maybe this was the Japanese way of being polite? We met Rotarians in District 2660 who had been affected by the earthquake in one way or another. The way that they still kept an optimistic attitude was impressive! Perhaps that's the only way to go?
The Sanno-miya area was badly hit. Not many buildings were unaffected. Fires destroyed much what was left after the quake. Ruins of destroyed buildings had been torn down. In the harbor area the ground was in big disorder. Flakes of pavement and concrete were tilted. The result of the earthquake was in front of our eyes to see. Nevertheless, it was difficult to image what really did happen some months earlier. Our sympathy is with the people in Kobe who lost their lives. Also with all who lost their friends and families, houses and possessions.
Our neighbors in Denmark are constructing a suspension bridge that will be the longest in the world. But not for very long! We had the pleasure of visiting the construction site of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge. From Kobe side to Awaji Island side the distance is about 4 km. The bridge consists of two towers, each 283 m high and the cable construction, which is then secured in the anchorages on each side of the waterway. At the time of our visit, the cables between the towers were already there and the hanger rope for the highway was also placed in position. The cable stringing project was the most complicated, using helicopters, among other things. The actual road surface wasn't there yet. But in the visitor center nearby, we could see the final result in models on display. Low viscosity concrete was used to make the substructure for the towers under water! The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is estimated to be open for traffic in 1998. The center span, 65 m high, will reach the length of 1,990 m and will be the longest suspension bridge in the world! The bridge, being located as it is, was designed to withstand severe earthquake of 8.5 on the Richter scale. When the Hanshin earthquake occurred, the bridge wasn't finished, of course. Even so, the damages were not severe. The foundations in the construction moved however, about 1.5 m from the original position!
June 1st
On Thursday June 1st we visited the airport KIX (Kansai International Airport). This airport is Japan's first full-fledged 24-hour offshore international airport. It's constructed to accommodate increased air traffic and movement of people, goods and information on a global scale. It was opened in September 1994 and is located as an island in the sea. The airport is situated about 50 kilometers from Osaka Center and it takes about one hour by car. You can also go by train or hydrofoil. The complete project will consist of an area of 1,200 hectares, two main runways of 4000 m, one auxiliary runway of 3,400 m and 260,000 take-offs and landings per year. The capacity will be more than 30 millions of passengers/year. The airport is an incredible establishment which is of great importance to the area. The establishment is very efficient. It is beautiful and one has all the reason to be proud of it.
June 6th
In the morning on June 6ththe national commemoration day of Swedenwe visited Den-Den Town together with members from the Osaka-Minami RC. This area in Nipponbashi is a center for electrical goods. There are nearly 300 specialty shops selling a great variety of television sets, air conditioners, computer hard and soft wares, audio and video appliances etc. In connection with lunch at Osaka-Minami RC we presented our program. The afternoon was devoted among other things to a visit to Shinsaibashi street. This is one of the most famous of all arcade shopping streets. Here we found an almost never ending row of modern department stores, specialty boutiques and long established shops of prestige and repute.
June 7th
The Umeda Sky Building was a special building with a big hole in the middle. Crossing this hole and between the blocks there were escalators in glass tubes. From the roof of the building we had an excellent view over Osaka.
Sonezaki Rotary Club has 65 members and 50 of them are women. This club had a lot of guests, especially men. Maybe they were there because they were curious and they had to check so this club made the meeting in a correct way! Everybody was interested in our program and we felt very welcome.
June 8th
A flagship of hospitals with 1,000 beds, 40 departments and 200 physicians. A result of a fusion of smaller hospitals in the area dedicated 1993. The president of the obstetric dept. showed us beautiful wards with maximum 4 patients in each room. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was well equipped and we were happy to make acquaintance with a little boy of 500g who managed to breath without technical assistance! Further on the Pediatric Dept. including a school of 5 levels. Unlike the Swedish custom, parents did not sleep at the hospital if their children were admitted.
A modern broadcasting company with non-commercial radio and television. The latest innovation, Hi-Vision with fantastic quality was shown.
A telegraph and telephone company with plans to distribute products as "video-on-demand" via optical fibers to their customers in the near future. The exchange rooms were huge and impressive. SAYONARA !
