What the heck is this?

Two years, two months, and six days ago I packed away my beloved pipes, against the day when some doctor will tell me I have less than three months to live. (Gives me something to look forward to.) As one might expect, my weight has taken a pretty big jump in the wrong direction. My latest physical exam showed me flirting with diabetes. As I'm determined to avoid if I can another prescription and another routine medical appointment, I've determined to shed the weight of a couple of boxes of wine. To that end, I'm watching my diet (Eating a lot of oatmeal, Frank, of which Samuel Johnson said, "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." -- And Boswell recorded someone's retort, "Yes, and where else will you see such horses and such men?") And I'm taking lots of longish bicycle rides.

Today, as usual, I mapped my route, and because I think the 3D imagery is so cool, I recorded the tour. As I watched it, I saw that this morning I passed by a huge round hole. It looks a lot like the tunnel entrance when they were building the drainage tunnel for Interstate 10 as it passed under Hance Park in Phoenix. I doubt if it's that. Two km to the NE is a very large water catchment, design to bleed off flood waters when necessary, and besides, according to GE, the elevation at this site is only 8 meters, which doesn't leave much more down to flow to. The nearest subway runs east-west, 2½ km north of the site, so I doubt that it's related to any kind of a tunnel. The historical imagery reveals that it's now covered with a building. I don't see anything written on any maps I looked at. I suppose I could just find someone to ask, but until I do, here's a little conundrum to tease your guesser.

Attachments:

What the heck is this.kmz (1.01 KB)

Washi - First, congratulations on your new bike-riding hobby. Second, well, that's a round hole covered by a square building.   But, since by comparing the 3/10/2014 hole with the 11/29/2015 building I see that it's off-center from the hole. Also, the street-level entrance (or whatever that is) has changed. I'm guessing it's underground storage of something. In the 2012 image, the mechanisms on top of the hole remind me of water treatment, less delicately known as sewage treatment. Japan has WAY less real estate to devote to this sort of thing, so it makes sense they've come up with a clever way to condense the process. Here is a big-city one in the US:
Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Plant.kmz (738 B)

This is all completely off the top of my head. No actual research was harmed in making this reply.

The bicycle riding is not new. The new wrinkle is riding 10 to 20 km every day.



I certainly am impressed with the Oceanside Water Treatment Plant you placemarked. (You attached it twice, but not the one where you live.) That sunken design make it virtually invisible, and perhaps makes extra protection against accidental spills.



The sewage settlement pond in LaGrande (Oregon, if anybody but you reads this) was built when I worked part time at the post office. The RFD carrier in that area, who was an avid bird hunter, and who made frequent reports about construction progress, came in for a lot of teasing about the fat game that would be taken at Zumwalt's (his name) Duck Pond. But it never smelled a bit bad, unlike Hot Lake, 4⅓ miles due southeast.



Before the Japanese garden in Phoenix opened, a few of us on the committee went to California to visit some of the gardens there, check out routine operations and see if we could spot unforeseen preparations we needed to make before we welcomed our first visitors. One of the gardens we visited was Sui Hō En in Van Nuys. This garden is operated in conjunction with a treatment plant, and it smells pretty good. In fact 水芳園 means "Water Good-smell Garden".



When I read your reply, I actually chuckled, because I was planning to visit a place that very day that had been on my list since I discovered in the 3D imagery, but put it off because of the rain. It's the park located above the sewage treatment plant for the eastern portion of Osaka Prefecture. The first name on the placemark is my own little joke, taken from the word my first grade English students used to use. (The population of Osaka-fu is about 9 million, and my guess is that Kawachi is about one third of that.)



As regards the big hole in the ground, that's still a bit of a puzzle. I'm sure it has nothing to do with sewage, because of what the Sky Land guy said, and because sewage is always 下水 gesui "down water," clearly labeled on manhole covers, as opposed to 水道 suidō "water roads" which always carry clean water. I couldn't think who to ask, so I figured the people in the neighborhood might know. I tempted my wife with a 1-coin lunch at the cheapo revolving sushi joint two buildings down. (The dollar-yen exchange rate has gone seriously south since the first of the year, and 5 bucks is about the limit of our dining-out budget these days.) The people at the restaurant recognized my pictures, but had no idea what it was. Ditto the supermarket. I asked a half dozen people on the street, and only one woman ventured to guess, "Something to do with 'suidō'." There's a white box attached to the power pole by the locked gate. You can see it if you zoom in in Street View. It's obviously some kind of gauge, I think for measuring electrical consumption. Written on it is:

玉串立坑引込開閉器盤



玉串 【Tama Kushi】the name of the river nearby, the ancient village site in the modern ward of Higashi Osaka City of the same name where this place is located.



立坑【tatekō】 (n) shaft (e.g. in a mine); pit.



引込【hikikomi】 (io) (v5m,vt) (1) to pull into; to draw in; to bring in; (2) to win over.



開閉器【kaiseiki】 (n) a switch.



盤【ban】 (n,n-suf) (1) disk; disc; record; clock face; (2) tray; shallow bowl; (3) grid; board (e.g. in shogi); (P).



Beneath the label are two sets of numbers, one labeled 動力【dōryoku】 (n,adj-f) power; motive power; dynamic force; (P). and 電灯【dentō】 (n) electric light; (P)., which I'm guessing mean amps and watts, although I couldn't get my dictionary to say that.



So I'm still stuck. The facility is called Tama Kushi Pit.



Who else do you think I might ask?

Attachments:

For Diane.kmz (5.28 KB)

Hi, Washi,

So sorry you've had to give up your pipes;  I smoked one as an impoverished apprentice and it's certainly a very comforting, contemplative smoke, even if it meant a lot of faffing about before you could smoke it and it was, even then, decidedly uncool.  I remember sharing a clandestine smoke with you on our Japanese visit few years ago - was that in Kyoto?

As for porridge, well, that's real Scottish Soul Food, also comforting in its own way.  Last time I visited my father in Scotland I tried White Pudding, which is fine oatmeal mixed with beef fat and shaped into a sausage shape.  You fry it up for breakfast with your bacon and eggs.  It's essentially fried porridge.    The Scots love to deep fry almost anything (even, in some areas, pizza and Mars Bars!) and, even though you'd think that combining the Scottish love of porridge with the Scottish love of fried food would be a winner, I have to report that it's much less interesting than it sounds.  I don't think it's coincidental that the Scots have one of the highest death rates from coronary heart disease in Europe - I can almost feel my arteries hardening at the thought of fried porridge!

And congratulations on your new-found sport of bicycling everywhere, although I find it hard to picture you in Lycra.  You might enjoy Tom Vernon's book.


As for your facility, you mentioned the small gradients in the area.  While this might be attractive for a guy on a bike, it doesn't do much for shifting water around.  Might it not just be a simple pumping station to provide a head of water and give gravity a helping hand?  The meter you mention does indeed sound like a simple electricity consumption meter; it would be located so that the electricity supplier can read the meter without having to enter the (presumably) locked premises.

Cheers,

Frank

Thanks Frank, for your answer. I was just about to come to the same conclusion, that the place was just a pumping station. In fact, if the pit is just a small reservoir, big enough so the pumps didn't run dry, that would answer my question about why the need for such a big hole in the ground. I like that answer enough well enough to cancel my plan to ask someone in the city government.



Your white pudding sounds a little bit like haggis or the American scrapple, two dishes I am fully prepared to die with neither of which having ever passed my lips. I just boil mine up with cinnamon, and a handful of raisins and maybe a spoonful of chucky peanut butter for sweetener.



And you're right, no lycra for my wide bum!

Oops, sorry about that, washi. Second one deleted, nobody cares about the water treatment in Klamth Falls, Oregon anyway!    I only care in August, or so, when the evaporating ponds stink up the Walmart parking lot a few days at a time. Or, maybe that's the Walmart parking lot campers...