After work yesterday I went over to the Hankyu department store in Kobe to see a model railroad exhibition that one of my students had set up. His display was on the third floor, so I went up there and found a rather large layout in N gauge. It has been a long, long time since I’ve seen model railroads running, but the basics are the same. They had built small towns, mountains and rivers, and the trains dutifully ran around and around while people watched. The trains were based on actual Japanese trains, and as the Hankyu train line also owns the department store, it was featured prominently.
One thing that was new to me was that they had several trains that had a tiny camera in the front, so while you operated you could enjoy watching a very high quality video image on a TV set in front of you. It was amazing how realistic the view was from the camera, and it really changed the experience of running trains. Great leaps and bounds of technology, I guess.
There weren’t a lot of people there while I was looking at the model railroad layout, probably because most people were still at work. When I was there, a couple of hardcore nerdy guys (I mean, besides me) were watching and talking with the operator, and strangely a girl in a high school student school uniform. When I looked up she was watching me, and then a few minutes later I caught her watching me again. I wasn’t sure what the deal was, but when I left I walked past her and smiled and nodded at her, and she gave me a big smile and a nod back. Somebody I knew before? A total stranger? I guess I’ll never know.
Back home in Okubo I knew Kuniko would be at a concert until late, so I went over to Swaad for the first time in a couple of months. The hot weather doesn’t exactly make me think of Indian food, but as usual they served up a great meal. I was chatting with the waitress and cook, and they were excited to hear that we’re going to India soon. The cook used to work in Delhi – so I hope that is an indication of the kind of food we’ll be eating when we get there….
Kuniko got back home around midnight, exhausted from standing for three and a half hours at the concert. She seemed to enjoy it, though. I’ll have to download the artist’s “Best Of” album for her…
Finally, tomorrow we’re having a party with three other couples at our place. It’ll be fun to see everybody hanging out together, and I hope that they enjoy themselves. I’m looking forward to cooking and cleaning all day tomorrow!
