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The World's Largest Drain - GCANS by Anymouse A few weeks ago, I filled in the application form on the G-CANS website (after running it thoroughly through Google Translate) with my name transliterated into Katakana (MASHUU BEETON). The form went through, and I received a confirmation number. I was going to give it my best shot to get into the G-CANS tour.
Leaving the hostel this morning, I walked to Asakusa station (nearby if you stay at the Khaosan Guest House) and hopped on a Tobu Isezaki line train outbound. Transferring at Kasukabe station, and hopping on a local Tobu Noda line train - I finally arrived at Minami-Sakurai, the station closest to GCANS. Its a good three kilometre walk from the station to GCANS itself, and I had no map or landmarks - just a general idea where I would find it. I stopped at a 100-yen store (dollar store) to grab some batteries, and then just kept weaving my way through residential streets in a generally northeast direction. I eventually came to the river, and followed it upstream until I hit the biggest outfall I've ever seen. Across the street was the building I was looking for, the something-Q building.
The building was unexpected - from a distance it looked like a maintenace garage; huge overhead doors with people working inside on various machinery. I reached the front entrance, however - and was greeted by two pairs of automatic sliding glass doors. The lobby was immaculate, two stories tall and decorated with artwork on all walls, including a huge modern art piece near the ceiling.
The hallway there was covered with photos and posters of movies and TV shows that were filmed in G-CANS, including one that looked like the Power Rangers or something. Super cheesy.
The interpretive centre itself was just like the ones you visit in school, like the Tyrell Museum or the Frank Slide one. There were numerous videos explaining how they did things, or how it worked. There was a scale model of the whole system, with water that flowed through the various parts as they lit up and a cheery Japanese voice explained what was going on.
There was a model of the turbine engines that run the enormous pumps, and a little model airplane hanging from the ceiling to show where the turbine engines came from. There was a big picture window looking into the main control room for G-CANS, with live video feed from inside everything - lights and dials and buttons and such.
I noticed people walking up to this desk for the tour, and I followed them. I got to the desk, and the lady asked me something very quickly in Japanese. I asked her to say again slowly - and she says "Oh, you are Matthew Beaton!". She hands me a form, nothing but Japanese on it and fields to fill out. I look really confused, and she says "Oh, just sign here and here." - I sign the form. "Oh, and date here. The year is 18" (In Japan they do not use Christian dates, they use years of the current emperor). The tour starts, and we are taken to a dark room with very dramatic lighting that is changing colours and such. It's a video introduction, and one of the most dramatic I've seen - they definately put some budget into making it. 3D animated water dragon spirit thing, three projectors with different video synchronized. Very well done, albeit a lot of drama : )
First stop, through a door in the lobby, is the engine room. Big open place, lit with skylights - and some enormous turbine engine pumps. The noise in this place when everything is running must be incredible.
After cramming everyone into the elevator (somehow got locked out of the stairwell), and heading back upstairs - we head out of the building and down the street, passing a big soccer field on the way. In the very corner of the soccer field is a little concrete shack with a door on it. Our guide moves aside the little pylon saying "no trespassing" in Japanese (I am assuming), and unlocks the door. We walk down several flights of stairs until it opens up into the biggest underground space I've ever been in.
The giant room that you see in all the pictures - we are on a catwalk that surrounds the top of it, and it is just incredible. There is a low rumbling noise that never quits, and feels really cool. The air smells a bit like drain, and it is quite a bit cooler than it is outside. The room is the size of the soccer field above, and is enormously tall. There are a ton of pillars, and very even halogen (maybe sodium vapour?) spotlights throughout. We cicle the whole room on the catwalks, up to the entrance to the first can, where they are actively working on something. Periodically there is a loud BEEP or siren noise that blips across the room, freaking out people on the tour. As soon as we entered, though - we left again. Probably only spending about half an hour in the big room, and never going down to the floor (it was a bit wet still from a recent snow thaw). Still, it remains the coolest tour I've ever been on. Although I may have been one of the very few Gaijin to take the tour, they were very helpful and did their best to help me out. They even gave me a GCANS postcard at the end!
I recommend to anyone that visits Japan to go see GCANS. I took the type A tour, which was the only one available due to weather and construction work - but if you can get on the type B or C tour, they actually go through the tunnels and to the bottom of the cans and such. All the tours are free of charge and operated by the Japanese government. UPDATE 2008: It appears there is now an English Signup Page ( http://www.ktr.mlit.go.jp/edogawa/works/saigai/sonae/gaikaku/g-cans/english/index.html ), that you can use for tours. However, it seems they are now stipulating that you must have an interpreter with you "for safety reasons". Some creativity might be necessary with that one. |