This evening, I dropped by Oimachi to get some things and decided to walk home (about 30mins). There’s a street that joins Oimachi Station to Nishi-Ooi Station that’s called Kogaku-dori （光学通り）or Optics Street. A few times, cab drivers have mentioned it but I never paid much attention. After some research, I learned that the street was named Kogaku-dori when they built the Nikon Factory near Nishi-Ooi Station in 1918. It is still the largest Nikon Factory in Japan. Every single lamp post and telephone pole has a sign displaying the name of the street. If you were walking from Oimachi to Nishi-Ooi you would wonder what all the fuss is about because the street is soo less than ordinary. In fact, it’s down right ugly.

(1) This was the only NICE looking building. Not sure if it’s an apartment or what (2) Never heard of this Pizza Shop before, will have to give it a try (3) This is a sento or public bath, you can tell it is one of the older public baths because it still has a big chimney in the back. Probably full of Nikon employees working late. I wonder if they offer them a corporate rate? (4) Further along the street, the screenery gets even more drab.

(1) Finally, the street widens and there are a few large buildings, this is one of the Nikon Factories. It looks very old, I doubt it would survive the next big earthquake (2) Another factory building. That kanji character you see there is the first of the phrase 安全第一 (anzen daiichi) or SAFETY FIRST. You see this on the sides of factory walls, safety helmets, large trucks, condoms, everywhere (3) The main office building, I felt like a criminal taking a picture of the Nikon Factory with my Canon camera. Well, if only Nikon made a compact digital camera worth buying.. (4) Beside the factories was this high school. The building looked newer and more modern than any other school I’ve seen before.

I feel sorry for the people working here, it’s such a rural area that they must have a hard time finding places to go for lunch. With Nikon being such a big international brand name, if would be nice if they invested a little money and made this street into a nicer looking place, maybe some cafes with photography themes, some museums, a park with objects amateur photographers could use as subjects etc. That would be really coool.