My town

So, now that I've been here in Eniwa for about three months, I feel I've got a pretty good feel for the town, at least in some ways. Enough to paint a basic picture of where I live.

Eniwa, yet another Ainu derived name in Hokkaido*, is a town just outside of Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido. As such, much of Eniwa has a very suburban feel to it. We have our share of strip malls and planned communities. We also have 4 train stations in a city of fewer than 70,000 people. There is legitimate reason, as there are three distinct parts of the town. There's old Eniwa, which was originally known as Isari, which is between the old route of the national highway and the newer bypass version of the same highway. There's also Shimamatsu, which was a separate village once upon a time. Isari and Shimamatsu were always rather close, but that's normal for Japan. Towns and villages are not far from one another. The two villages merged into Eniwa in 1897. So, all of that is to say that the older parts of town are, well, at least a little bit old, by Hokkaido standards, at any rate.

Shimamatsu and the former Isari (central Eniwa) account for two of the stations, with a third serving the Megumino district. This is a much more newly developed area of town, and it bridges the area between Shimamatsu and central Eniwa. Megumino is the home of my school, as well as being a very typical bedroom community, serving as a suburban commuter community for Sapporo. There is very little in the Megumino district other than residential areas. The area immediately around the station has a few shops and restaurants, but not much to speak of. The fourth and final station serves the major Sapporo Brewery here in town. Sapporo** is, of course, one of Japan's big 4 beer brewers, and one of it's 5 breweries in Japan is located here in Eniwa. You can go on tours and stop at the restaurant for grilled lamb, a Hokkaido specialty.

There are also quite a few major factories in town, including the above mentioned Sapporo Beer brewery. There are a couple of bread companies, a kimchi factory, and other more mecahnical oriented factories, mostly on the south side of town. Japan didn't follow the same pattern as the States, in that the suburbs aren't exclusively bedroom communities. In fact, the corridor running south from Sapporo all the way down to Tomakomai (on the southern coast of Hokkaido) is fairly industrial.

The city is flanked on the west by a small volcanic mountain range, centered around Lake Shikotsu, the caldera lake about 30km from my place here in town. To the east is farm land, lots of farm land. In the distance to the east is another small outcrop of mountains - large hills really. Here in town proper, everything is quite flat. Which makes it somewhat different from the other two places I have lived here in Japan. The Isari River runs from the mountains in the west into the Chitose River, and, after joining other rivers, finally empties into the sea.



Eniwa, besides being the home to a major brewery, a kimchi processing plant and assundry heavier industries, is also the home to three post secondary learning institutions of various stripes. Of course, Hokkaido High Technology/Eco Communication College, where I teach, offers many different vocational training courses. Besides my school, there is also a school that trains future pysical therapists and rehabilitaion specialists. And then there is Hokkaido Bunkyo University, which offers both two and four year degrees. While none of the schools are incredibly large - they are all smaller than my high school*** - it does mean that there is a noticable population of young adults here in Eniwa. Or at least they are noticable where I live, which is just outside of Megumino, and near a lot of apartments, which house many students from the various institutions.

The other noticable population group in Eniwa is the Jieitai, or Self Defence Force (SDF) members. The SDF is more or less the Japanese army. Japan is not allowed, constitutionally, to maintain an actual army. One of the lasting legacies of WWII is Japan's constitutionally enshrined pacifism. The constitution, drafted in large part by the occupying Americans but now embraced by the majority of Japanese people, renounces the right to declare war. It also prohibits Japan from fielding an army. Even the SDF is considered by a few to be unconstitutional. An emphasis on few. The SDF serves in support and humanitarian roles, strictly non-combat. It was a big deal when, a few years ago, the diet (parliament) approved the idea of mutual self-defence. That is, the right to discharge their weapons to act in defense of an ally. This is because Japanese SDF troops were serving in a technical/rebuilding function in Iraq. Before the diet approved the mutual self-defense, if US or UK troops - Japanese allies - were being attacked, SDF units were not allowed to defend the allied units. Only if Japanese units came under fire were they allowed to return fire.

Which is all only tangentially related to the point that Eniwa has a lot of SDF members here in town. He happen to have two bases of some description within the city limits. Two of my neighbors count among the ranks of the SDF. Combined with the air SDF base in Chitose, the city immediately south of here, we always have military vehicles of various shapes and sizes driving down the highway.

The one other segment of the population I feel is worth mentioning is the car guys. Now, having lived in Aurora, Illinois for a good decade, I am well acquainted with car guys. I don't mean simple motorheads. I mean the low-rider crowd. The ones who deck out their cars with all kinds of goofy shit. Certanly, the cars with their hydraulics are amusing and entertaining in the local Labor Day parade, but I'm just not much of a car guy. Hell, I haven't ever washed my current car. Seriously. In 4 plus years, a sponge has never touched my car. Neither have the water jets of the carwash. My bicycle gets much better care.

But here in Eniwa, as back in Aurora, there are plenty of folks who was their cars nearly every week, I have to assume. It's not so much with the old Lincoln Continental or Chevy Impala style cars here. Rather, there are two categories of car that get majorly accessorized: the sports cars and the mini-vans. That's right, the mini-vans. The sports cars are perfectly understandable. It's the mini-vans that are slightly mind boggling. By no means, is it Eniwa alone that has this phenomenon. It's a Japan thing. Eniwa has more than it's fair share of decked out mini-vans and cars with the obnoxiously loud fart-cannon tailpipes. And lots of neon trim.

Another interesting facet of life here is that there is no proper police station in town. We only have what are known as police boxes here in town. A police box is basically a tiny little building with a few officers assigned to it. One of the police boxes is about the size of a large American bedroom, while the other one I have seen is closer in size to a double wide. I'm not sure if that speaks to the lack of funding for police in the area, or, more likely, the relative lack of need for a major police presence here in Eniwa. The nearest police station proper is down in Chitose.

Supposedly, Eniwa is noted for it's flowers, which I have to take on faith, as I know very little about flowers and honestly have very little interest in them. But that seems to be one of the selling points of the town. Particularly Megumino. The michi-no-eki (kind of a Japanese travel oasis along a major highway) is called Flower Road. And there are many maps indicating the best places for different flowers.

One thing I do know and can attest to is that Eniwa has many parks, which is never a bad thing. My route to and from shool takes me through a long narrow park that runs most of the breadth of Megumino and has a man-made stream running through it. My apartment fronts onto another nice park, this one along the Isari River. There is also Eniwa Park on the far side of town, and Furusato Park, near Eniwa Station. All of which makes Eniwa, while a bit quiet, at the very least pleasant.

Well, that's a rough idea of what this town is about and what it's like. While it's a bit long winded and rambly, I hope that gives those who are planning on visiting at some point an idea of what to expect, and for those unlikely to visit a mental image of where I am spending my time, hopefully for a few years at the very least. Moving, while exciting, is exhausting.

*It means Pointy Moutain. The name originally applied to the nearby mountain. It later was appropriated as the name of the village (later city) as well.

**The company, not the city. Though the former is named for the latter.

***Admittedly, my high school had 2500 students when I attended.