Love Letter from Brussels
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Do you know Lier? (No.41)
08/09/2016
Tourists visiting Japan
The end of the summer’s tourist season is already near. Also in Brussels, days that are too cool without long sleeves are increasing, and day by day the sun sets earlier and earlier.
When asking ANA, operator of direct flights between Japan and Belgium, it seems that the number of tourists visiting Europe from Japan unfortunately did not increase as much as expected, due to the effect of the terrorist attacks in Europe. On the other hand, since a little while, the number of business travellers seems to have returned to normal. I also heard that more and more business travellers use Brussels as a transit airport and as a place to enter and leave Europe.
However, surprisingly, it seems that the number of economy class passengers is also steadily improving. The reason is no other than the fact that more and more tourists from Belgium are visiting Japan. According to the latest statistics from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), between January and May, more than 11.600 people from Belgium visited Japan this year, which is 27.2% more than in the same period last year. At this pace, we could aim for more than 30.000 Belgian tourists this year, which exceeds the 24.000 tourists from last year, representing an increase of 28.6% compared to the year before.
At the start of the year, I personally stated we may expect as many as 50.000 tourists, which might have been a little too ambitious. But seeing the high growth in the number of Belgian tourists visiting Japan during the holiday season of July and August every year, I am eagerly waiting for those figures to be announced.
Do you know Lier ?
I, too, made some short trips during the summer, including in Belgium, and I would like to tell you all about one of the “secrets” I discovered.
Have you ever heard of Lier? Lille, just across the border in northern France might first come to mind. Lille is a beautiful city with a beautiful square, a museum so vast it can only be topped by the Louvre, and a famous university with a department of Japanese Studies.
However, I am talking about the Belgian city of Lier. Lier is a small town located 10 kilometres southeast of Antwerp, which you all very well know, and 50 kilometres northeast of Brussels. From Brussels, it’s about 1 hour away by car. Even though Lier can be found on the tourist guide website made by the Flemish and the Netherlands Boards of Tourism for Japanese people (http://www.hollandflanders.jp/newsletter/6869/), I have yet to find it in one of the commonly published travel guides in Japan.
If it was not for my friend bringing me there, I wouldn’t have known of this beautiful and, even more so, interesting town.
Computer of the Previous Generation
The most well-known sight of this town is the “Zimmer tower” located near a small square in the centre of town. This tower was built in 1930, 86 years ago, by Louis Zimmer, who himself was born in Lier in 1888. In short, it is a clock tower. However, it is not an ordinary clock tower. The normal clock in the middle is surrounded by 12 other clocks depicting various things, such as:
① A clock that shows the difference between the solar time (when the sun is at its highest it is noon) and the actual time. This clock shows ‘0’ 4 times a year.
② This dial shows the position of the zodiac (star signs
on the zodiac). It does one revolution in a year.
③ This dial depicts the 28-year cycle of the sun according
to the Julian calendar. It does one turn every 28 years.
④ "The week” displays the current day of the week. It
does one turn a week.
⑤ The globe shows where on earth it is daytime.
⑥ This dial shows the months. It does one revolution in a
year.
⑦ This dial shows the current day of the month. After a
month with less than 31 days, it jumps automatically to
the 1st!
⑧ This dial shows the four seasons.
⑨ This dial shows the tides. It rotates almost twice a day.
⑩ “The age of the moon” shows the monthly moon-cycle.
⑪ This dial shows the phases of the moon.
⑫ This dial shows the Metonic Calendar. (Cycle in which the moon phases coincide on the same days of the year. It rotates once every 19 years).
And all these somehow move accurately from a single power source, using weight. Its mechanism can be seen inside the tower. It is astonishing that this was made in an age before computers.
On a side note, every day at noon a window on the side of the tower opens, showing pictures of Belgian kings and mayors of Lier from the past. So naturally, we tried to be there at noon. We waited under the tower when, well, this is weird… even before noon, the window started opening and closing repeatedly, showing various pictures of faces. When asking a clerk about this, he told us “Well, you see, it recently broke down and, you know…” This was charmingly Belgian and very amusing.
There are also other interesting places to visit in this town, such as the beguinage and the belfry, which were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites, together with other sites in Flanders.
To all my fellow Japanese people, let’s explore the different parts of Belgian so as not to lose to the Belgians who frequently visit Japan. Besides Brussels, there are many enjoyable places.