This bridge connects the great city of Kobe with the sleepy island of Shikoku. From what I understand of it from reading about it, Kobe (the city) is a very interesting place. Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers certainly has a 'worthy' namesake. I am very pleased to sit with this diagram of the settlements of Hyogo Prefecture and muse upon my life and the future of the world.

Hyogo Prefecture

0 兵庫県の自治体等
1 神戸市: 東灘区 | 灘区 | 兵庫区 | 長田区 | 須磨区 | 垂水区 | 北区 | 中央区 | 西区
2 その他市部: 姫路市 | 尼崎市 | 明石市 | 西宮市 | 洲本市 | 芦屋市 | 伊丹市 | 相生市 | 豊岡市 | 加古川市 | 赤穂市 | 西脇市 | 宝塚市 | 三木市 | 高砂市 | 川西市 | 小野市 | 三田市 | 加西市 | 篠山市 | 養父市 | 丹波市 | 南あわじ市 | 朝来市 | 淡路市 | 宍粟市 | たつの市 | 加東市
3 川辺郡: 猪名川町
4 多可郡: 多可町
5 加古郡: 稲美町 | 播磨町
6 神崎郡: 市川町 | 福崎町 | 神河町
7 揖保郡: 太子町
8 赤穂郡: 上郡町
9 佐用郡: 佐用町
10 美方郡: 香美町 | 新温泉町

1 - The city of Kobe has 9 regions. 2 - Hyogo Prefecture has 28 cities. 3 - 8 - Hyogo has 6 more suburban regions. It's area is over 8,000 sqkm, or 2 x Rhode Island. It has big shores on the Pacific side and on the Asia side of Japan. There are 5.5 mm people, almost as many as Massachusetts. The population density is similar to New England, then.

Sometimes it gets to be a competition, to organize one's geopolitical area in a pleasing way.

Let's find analogies to known quantities even though it's a boring exercise:

Queens, Fenway, Daytona, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace + Himeji
the Bronx, the Pack, Tampa Bucs, the late "Fatty" from Hong Kong, Lily Tomlin, Coach + 明石市
parts of Jersey, Minnesota Vikings, A-Rod + 西脇市
Greenwich, A-Rod, Swiper the Fox + 川辺郡: 猪名川町
Burlington, Illinois, Amsterdam, Po Valley + 多可郡: 多可町
Hartford, Dallas, pizza + 赤穂郡: 上郡町
Mass + Hyogo City Area of Kobe
The Inland Empire + 加古郡: 稲美町 | 播磨町
Beverly Hills + 美方郡: 香美町 | 新温泉町
Venice area + 神崎郡:
Dazed and Confused; Goodfellas, Sucker Duck attitudes towards Boston sports teams; Hollywood Knights; the Tenderloin, J.G. Ballard + 丹波市
Marlins beat Braves + 佐用郡: 佐用町

This exercise is definitely getting boring for those who can't read.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

This is nice; it's Niigata Prefecture on the north shore of Japan. My student was from Niigata; like continental Northeast Asia, there is a lot of snow. The northerly winds get all snown out as they cross the Alps and during the winter Tokyo and the South Shore is very dry, winter in Tokyo is 5 / 40F degrees in the daytime. In the Tokyo summer there is an onshore wind and it rains a lot, then there is rainy season, and then it rains for 10 weeks more.

Niigata Prefecture

0 新潟県の自治体等
1 新潟市: 北区 | 東区 | 中央区 | 江南区 | 秋葉区 | 南区 | 西区 | 西蒲区
2 その他市部: 長岡市 | 三条市 | 柏崎市 | 新発田市 | 小千谷市 | 加茂市 | 十日町市 | 見附市 | 村上市 | 燕市 | 糸魚川市 | 妙高市 | 五泉市 | 上越市 | 阿賀野市 | 佐渡市 | 魚沼市 | 南魚沼市 | 胎内市
3 北蒲原郡: 聖籠町
4 西蒲原郡: 弥彦村
5 南蒲原郡: 田上町
6 東蒲原郡: 阿賀町
7 三島郡: 出雲崎町
8 北魚沼郡: 川口町
9 南魚沼郡: 湯沢町
10 中魚沼郡: 津南町
11 刈羽郡: 刈羽村
12 岩船郡: 関川村 | 荒川町 | 神林村 | 朝日村 | 山北町 | 粟島浦村

1 - The city of Niigata has 8 zones, "Autumn World" is highlighted. Harvest is a busy season and there is nothing like bringing in the sheaves, knowing that 3 or 4 months of cozy rest and work in the mainenance barn awaits one, along with regular visits to the inn to catch up on one's winter drinking. Autumn World, trending into Winter World, nature's cycle of productivity and rehabilitation.

6 - The origin of rest, sitting there with $800 in your pocket and nothing to buy, lying up late so late at night thinking after sleeping so heavily during work season, plenty of time to get right again with all that went past us during work season.
4 - The origin of walking to the inn and recovering from the hard labor of summer and fall, feeling like a clown again, again after seriously driving the combine and getting the harvest done right.
5 - The origin of catching up on one's reading; this book is so interesting. Miss Marple is such an interesting personality!
3 - The feeling of accomplishment and watching winter sports, those dogs sure can play.
8 - How 'easy' it is to catch a hungry pike in winter, how amazing that one is capable of watching up to 100 hours of ESPN per week while surfing the web.
9 - It's pickle season and canned food season, those sun-dried tomatoes, all those crackers and cheese.
10 - And how great is it to stretch and look forward to the next spring while preparing for the renewal of life.
11 - More spring practice.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Considering how easy it is to muse on stuff while reading through these Niigata values, which of course now look like American values, it's quite different from trying to muse on stuff while reading through Kumamoto values, where the miracle of life is so unavoidable.

It's common knowledge in America that Southern Japan including the Kumamoto area, which faces China, and the Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe area a few 100 km north, traditionally served as defense against China.

The Chinese language was adopted in Japan between 200 and 400 AD, by the time the Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe area had developed a short time later, it was such an astounding accomplishment, doing as well or better than the Chinese had ever done, like New York and Washington surpassing Paris and London. It's a perfectly amazing city area, maybe like Moscow and or Athens.

Which more or less puts the rawer, happier regions like Kumamoto, Oita and eastward-facing Miyazaki Prefectures in a category with the Runnin' Rebels of UNLV, the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest, the Blue Devils of Duke and the Rainbow Warriors of Hawaii.

.
.
.

Q: So who's defending against China?
A: I'm not sure.

%%%%%%%%%%

Well, I've gone as far as I can go with this travelogue for the time being.