The Hokuriku bullet train line & two interviews from my Kyoto past
This post covers the advantages of the 2024 Tokyo to Kyoto bullet train route (the Hokuriku Shinkansen) and to two key periods in my life in Kyoto (starting out in 1989 in Kyoto, and the birth of my daughter in Kyoto in 2003). The two key periods are also followed by two superb interviews with the former head of the Kyoto Convention Bureau (KCB) and a Kyoto restauranteur who became a good friend. Just so you know, I have been designing and making custom Japan private tours across all of Japan since 1990.
Little Kyoto or Kanazawa City was in the news last year for a serious earthquake on the nearby Noto Peninsula. But did you know that Little Kyoto is just two hours away from Tokyo on the newly completed Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train route. This route will soon reach it's ultimate end point, Kyoto. The Hokuriku Shinkansen was built to have an alternate connection between eastern Japan (Kanto, Tokyo) and western Japan (Kansai, Osaka). And that alternative was deemed key due to the constant possibility of a megaquake. If the main bullet train connection between Tokyo and Osaka is damaged the Hokuriku line will serve equally well. For tourists and Japan private tours, my specialty, the new route via the Hakuba ski resorts, the Snow Monkey, Kurobe Gorge, the Alpine Route and Little Kyoto. And it continues from Kanazawa to almost the north end of Lake Biwa, Japan largest freshwater lake. The south end of the lake is a 35-min drive from Kyoto.
The first interview below is with the head of the Kyoto Convention Bureau (KCB) in June of 2001. I was a volunteer at the Kyoto International Conference center in 1985 at the International Transpersonal Association conference held there. I was privileged to hear a number of world-renowned psychiatrists and others address the audience. And in 1997 I was a few meters away from Mr and Mrs Mikhail Gorbachev planting a tree at the Kyoto Conference or COP3. The parkland south of the super modern but still traditional structure was a playground for my daughter and I between 2004 and 2013; great row boats and forest paths to hidden lookouts!
The second interview dates from the 4 years before my daughter was born. Toshiko Odani entered my personal life in 1999 in Kyoto. She was connected to my Japanese wife (we were wed at Kamigamo Grand Shrine in 1998). She ran an amazing restaurant near Kyoto University. I ate there a lot, alone, with family and with friends. I was also the dog walker for Toki, a Marvel Comics level husky, who died at age 19 or so!
Content by Ian Martin Ropke, owner of Your Japan Private Tours (est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with Japan private tour clients and have worked for all kinds of families, companies, and individuals since 1990. Clients find me mostly via organic search, and I advertise my custom Japan private tours & travel services on www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps in Japan! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip. And thank you for reading my content. I, Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search), am also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!
Kyoto Convention Bureau June 2001 interview
In June 2001, when this interview took place, Mr. Kiyoshi Iwamoto was the head of the Kyoto Convention Bureau. He was born in 1948 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which is the prefecture at the far Western end of Honshu Island. After graduating from university, he worked for Japan Airlines (in Japan, Bangkok, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Vienna) for 30 years. He took over as head of the Kyoto Convention Bureau in 2000. The Kyoto Convention Bureau (KCB) was established in 1990 with six primary member organizations (Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, the Kyoto Prefecture Tourism Federation, the Kyoto Tourism Association, the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce, and the Kyoto International Conference Hall). KCB also has many supporting members (hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, etc.).
Kyoto is one of the biggest venues in Japan for international conferences and big Japanese conferences. I was a volunteer at the 1985 International Transpersonal Association (ITA) conference in Kyoto. Notable speakers included Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (a Swiss-American psychiatrist and a pioneer in near-death studies; she wrote the internationally best-selling book, On Death and Dying); Rusty Schweickart, a NASA engineer and former astronaut, Baker Roshi a California Zen master, and Stanislav Grof a Big Sur psychiatrist.
The 1966 Kyoto International Conference Hall, like Japan's bullet train system, was funded by the Japanese national government. The center has 7 large halls, the largest of which can seat 2,200 people. The Kyoto International Conference Hall was the venue for COP3, the so-called Kyoto Conference, in 1997 (over 9,000 delegates). I was at the opening ceremony and stood very close to Mr and Mrs Mikhail Gorbachev in front of the center, whilst they were planting a tree!
June 2001 interview with Mr Kiyoshi Iwamoto, head of the Kyoto Convention Bureau
YJPT: Compared to 20 or 30 years ago, how many conferences is KCB hosting today?
Mr. Iwamoto: In the 1980’s, when internationalization accelerated rapidly in Japan, Kyoto was hosting an average of 120-140 major international conferences a year. In 1990 and 1991, Kyoto was the number one international conference venue in Japan. Since then, in order to attract more international conferences most major Japanese cities, with local government support, built their own large-scale multi-purpose halls. As a result, Kyoto’s share of international conferences has dropped. All the same, Kyoto consistently hosted 180-200 conferences a year in the 90s.
In 1999, Kyoto ranked 5th (after Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Nagoya) in terms of the number of international conferences hosted. However, in terms of the number of foreigners attending such conferences, Kyoto beat out all other cities except Tokyo. We are very proud of that. And we are absolutely sure that Kyoto never disappoints its international visitors.
YJPT: What is the Kyoto Convention Bureau hoping to achieve over the next 10 years?
Mr. Iwamoto: We are hoping for three things. Naturally, achieving what we hope for isn’t always easy.
First of all, most conventions are organized independent of the lives of local citizens. However, many conventions are, in fact, very much about themes that have a lot to do with the life of local residents. In the future, we are hoping to open some conventions to the general public, as as observers, or, ideally, to exchange views with key speakers from abroad and Japan. In this way, Kyoto would become a convention city that provides advanced conference facilities and directly influences the lives of its citizens.
Secondly, Kyoto often hosts important and large-scale conventions. For some events, participants are seated in a number of different halls, all interconnected by sophisticated IT and AV technology, since the largest hall can only accommodate 2,200 people. We would very much like to have a single facility, complete with the latest conference technologies, which can handle four or five thousand people.
Thirdly, though the primary purpose for conference participants is the convention agenda itself, we would also like to focus more on helping international participants enjoy and experience the rich traditional, cultural and social aspects of Kyoto in greater depth. More of these kinds of experiences would play a valuable role in increasing foreign understanding of contemporary Japan.
YJPT: When the conferences are held in Osaka or Kobe, do the attendees always come to Kyoto for sightseeing?
Mr. Iwamoto: Many conference attendees come to Kyoto after they have attended an event in Osaka, Kobe or even Tokyo. Not many of these people, however, spend the night in Kyoto. And for this reason, we very much encourage participants to spend a night or two in Kyoto, preferably at a Japanese inn [ryokan] or B&B [minshuku]. For those visiting from outside the Kansai region, arranging for their homeward flight from nearby Kansai International Airport would also give them a big advantage in terms of travel convenience and amount of quality time. On the Haruka express train, the airport is just 70 minutes from Kyoto.
YJPT: What kind of suggestions and requests do you get from foreign conference participants?
Some foreign guests say Japan is too expensive, and that there is not enough English guidance in Kyoto. But we also get a lot of comments from people saying how perfect and truly special Kyoto was as a conference venue. Foreigners really enjoy all the things they have access to here: the history, the ancient, yet-still-alive cultural forms, and the abundant greenery.
YJPT: Do you have any special message for our readers?
In the foreign press, images of Japan are always of crowded trains in Tokyo. The news coverage is almost always political or economic in nature. I want people to come to Japan to see how much we have to offer. Indeed, Kyoto was left virtually untouched by WWII, like Prague, and preserved as if it is a living museum of old and contemporary Japan, and for this reason we are respected as one of the finest conference venues in the world.
A conversation with Toshiko Odani, restauranteur
Toshiko Odani entered my personal life in 1999 in Kyoto. My second wife, Japanese, from east Osaka, started eating in Toshiko's restaurant in that year. My wife was working in a small textile objects craft shop close to the Silver Pavilion at the time. And the textile artist owner of the shop was a friend of Toshiko's.
Before long I was eating in Toshiko's restaurant a lot. I would go after work. I would go with my wife. I would go with friends. And I sent Japan private tour clients there on occasion. And I went a lot with my father-in-law, who came up from Osaka often.
Eventually, I became the go-to guy for Toshiko's huge husky, Toki, when she couldn't handle him anymore. It was hard enough for me at age 40! Toki lived until age 19 or 20, an astounding number for any husky or dog for that matter. The lucky wolf reaches 20. And rare super wolves reach almost 30!
Toshiko's husband was a master tempura artist. And her daughter was the 3rd wheel in this bustling joint a few steps east of prestigious Kyoto University. I interviewed her in March of 2001 and she became a local auntie for my daughter when she was born in the a few meters from Toshiko's restaurant in 2003.
YJPT: Where are you from originally?
Odani-san: Though my father is from Okayama, I was born in Otsu and spent the first years of my life there. When the war broke out, we went back to our family in Okayama. The war changed our life tremendously. I had a hard time in Okayama when I returned. I felt isolated, like an alien. The most awful thing was that I had to live with my cousin’s family during those years. They were some of the loneliest years of my life. I especially remember missing my mother while I watched the sun set, waiting for uncle and aunt to come back from the field. Then I had to wait another hour while uncle prayed to the gods. In the summer months, I used to fan him while he prayed. When I think back on all that, I sometimes believe that I was really trying hard to be a good girl.
YJPT: How was your love life?
Odani-san: I was lucky, at least in the beginning, because I experienced first love before I was forced to marry a distant cousin. My first marriage was arranged and loveless. I was only 20. My mother used to say, “Marry first, love later.” My mother, like so many mothers, wanted me to marry the right kind of person: the right social class and the right amount of property. My first husband was quite rich.
But I never thought these kinds of superficial things were very important when choosing a life partner. I was never attracted to rich people. I was attracted to people who didn’t have money, but somehow I couldn’t follow them. I was chasing something. When we were kids, we used to run to the hills and try to find things. I always wanted to be the first person to find what we were looking for.
Anyways, right after our marriage, I was entirely surrounded by my husband’s family. They were not bad people. I used to get scolded by my in-laws for not greeting people in the neighborhood. My explanation, at least now, is that I had very bad eyesight and thus couldn’t tell who passed by. Three months after the wedding, I was pregnant. I never felt that I wanted to make love to my first husband. But I was his wife, and I had no choice. So I suffered. But I loved my children. I felt deeply that I could endure life if I lived for my children.
YJPT: How did you get away from all that?
Odani-san: My next husband was a servant in my household. He and his family were born in Brazil. They went to Brazil in the Taisho period [1912-1926] and returned to Hiroshima 15 years before the war, successful, to give their children a Japanese education. After the war and the destruction of Hiroshima, the family returned to Brazil. One son stayed behind to finish highschool. After he graduated he became very lonely and wild. I guess I used him to get away. I had two children, and I needed someone to help me out. We ran away to Osaka together and stayed in a rooming house.
At first I worked in a night club. But the job wasn’t suited to me, so I soon quit. I wanted a job that was outdoors and involved a lot of movement. So I started a great job as a golf caddy. The wages were quite good. But with two children, it was tough. My days were long. I started the day at three walking to the station with two children in my arms. But the job was great. I worked in a green paradise and was paid to walk two full rounds [36 holes] a day. The customers were all kind and some of them were quite famous, like the founder of National/Panasonic, Konosuke Matsushita. Quite often I got really good tips.
YJPT: What happened then?
Odani-san: Well I had two more children with my second husband, and then he died suddenly of a heart attack. So I went from Osaka to Kyoto, and started working in the restaurant industry. That’s where someone introduced me to my third husband. He was the owner of a small bar. He didn’t really like working though. He had graduated from a good university, which, in my opinion, didn’t really say a lot about life strength. But his mother was very nice to me, even though I had four children. She asked me to take care of her son.
My third husband was a good cook, but not a good businessman. So I decided to take advantage of his cooking and start a restaurant. That was 26 years ago. I asked the manager at a local bank to loan me money to start a business. He turned me down the first time and the second time. On the third try he agreed to extend me a 3 million yen loan [equivalent to about $100,000 today]. It was a difficult time. My relatives in Okayama were still cold to me. They were ashamed of me: too many husbands and too many lives. But their coldness only made me try harder. I’m like that. Some people get weaker when things get tough. I get stronger. My new mother-in-law helped us out though. She sent us many things. I really appreciated that. I cried when her parcels arrived.
YJPT: How did things go in your new business?
Odani-san: We opened in August. Until the middle of September, only a few customers visited. But at the end of September, things suddenly took off. We both worked really hard. Things went so well that we were able to buy a new house three years later. At that time, my eldest daughter, Hiromi, was 15. She helped out in the restaurant, even though she had to study hard for high school.
I am really happy that I started this restaurant, “Chikuwa”. Many people came and talked to me about their difficulties. I told them to think hard! And also told them never forget their parents, but not to live for their parents. All people have different problems. I listened to so many stories. I have always been confident when it comes to personal problems.
YJPT: How was life in Kyoto for you and your children?
Odani-san: My children wanted to go to juku [cram school] or learn swimming. My husband laughed and said that when we were young that we had none of those advantages. I scolded him and said, “You must be joking. You were born in Showa 8 [1933], these children were born after the war and things are different today.” He didn’t understand children, so I decided we should have a child of our own. That was Yohei. I worked in the restaurant until the day Yohei was born. I started working again five days after I gave birth. And I never complained: my life belonged to my children. They had a difficult time in school because of all my marriages. But I went to school and fought for them.
YJPT: What do you think about families today?
Odani-san: I think very few families eat together or do enough together. I really miss doing what we did when I was a kid: like digging for mountain potatoes on Sundays and then cooking them in the bath at night. We did everything together. Now people are isolated from one another, even though they live under the same roof. Pets also help a family bond and get closer. Laughter is also very important. Then, after the kids are all grown up and they have experienced all that togetherness, I think it is important for them to travel around the world and try many different kinds of things before finally settling down.
YJPT: You recently traveled to Shikoku and did part of the Shikoku Ohenro [the 88 temple pilgrimage]. What was that like?
Odani-san: On much of this Shikoku Ohenro Trip, I followed someone else. I realized how easy it was to follow someone else. It was a first for me.
The scenery was beautiful. I walked and walked and walked. And I want to walk more. I love the countryside. I spent some of my best years living in a house north of Kyoto in Miyama. Yohei had asthma and living in the country was ideal for him. I know how to raise vegetables and how to make tsukemono [Japanese pickles]. These things are the most important, in a way. The soil is important. I taught this to my children. The simple wonder of life: the sky, the land and the water. It so nice to walk around at five on a fresh new summer morning in the countryside. The sky and the rivers seem motionless. And you feel that you can almost touch God. What more could one desire?
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Content by Ian Martin Ropke, owner of Your Japan Private Tours (est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with Japan private tour clients and have worked for all kinds of families, companies, and individuals since 1990. Clients find me mostly via organic search, and I advertise my custom Japan private tours & travel services on www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps in Japan! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip. And thank you for reading my content. I, Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search), am also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!