Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Service Providers

Our electric power is distributed by Energia, The Chugoku Electric Power Co., Inc. The company serves the western part of Japan which is called the Chugoku Region. The region covers Hiroshima, Okayama, Tottori, Shimane and Yamaguchi prefecture. The word "Chugoku" itself means "China" in Japanese. The second sign below on this electric pole is NTT telephone line. For you who might not know, NTT stands for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. My internet line at home is provided by NTT.


An updated info, an excerpt (copied) from Wikipedia:
Chugoku Region (Chugoku-Chiho), literally means "middle country". In Japanese, the characters 中国 and the reading Chūgoku are also used to mean "China". The same characters are used in Chinese to refer to China, but pronounced Zhōngguó lit. "Middle Kingdom" or "Middle Country".
To avoid confusing "Chūgoku region" with China, the Chūgoku region is also called the "San'in-San'yō region". San'in is the northern part facing the Sea of Japan, which indicates the "shady side of the mountain". San'yō is the southern part facing the Inland Sea, which indicates the "sunny side of the mountain". These names originated from the marked differences inclimate.

Yuri San: O kuni wa dochira desuka (Which country are you from?)
Hiro San: Nihon no Chugoku desu (From Chugoku, Japan)

6 comments:

Coskunca said...

Hi Henny,
I think we must use less energy in the life. Anyway I do something for the world and myself and I ride bicycle.
Thanks for sharing photo and information.

VP said...

I like these posts, they show us how a country 'works'. Any reason for a part of Japan which is called China?
A part of Italy is called Magna Grecia (latin for Big Greece)...

henny said...

Thanks, Coskun. I, too, ride bike on a daily basis or when going out to take some photos of the town :).

VP, I'm having a class tonight, will ask my "sensei" about that. Been curious so long, but too lazy for asking :).

Unknown said...

Great post. The details of the city is very interesting.

Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.com said...

Interesting posts. Are the electricity rates and cable rates regulated by the government?

VP said...

Thank you for the link, the question of the 'middle country' name was very well explained.