Japanese life in Japan

Inuyama Autumn Festival (Japanese Samurai Parade)

2007-11-20T19:00:00.000+09:00

In December 28th, I enjoyed Inuyama autumn festival as volunteers.

I'd like to show schedule of the festival was the below.

・On the first day is floats festival (Yama-Zoroe)
We can enjoy the Windup doll's show (Karakuri Ningyo) of floats (Yama) at Shiro-Mae-Hiroba in the daytime and 10 floats with Japanese lanterns (Yo-Yama) in the nighttime.

・On the second day is Japanese samurai parade.
We can enjoy the parade of Japanese samurai in suit of armor and Matchlock gun show by the samurai (Hinawa-Ju Enbu) in the daytime.

But I was joined the Japanese samurai parade (Sengoku-Busho Monogatari) as volunteer on the second day. And the weather on the day was so nice like the weather in Vancouver summer!

At 10 am, I got together to change my cloth to parade costume at 10 am.
Everything was the first time for me, so it was very difficult and I needed the help putting on the traditional Japanese costumes. So, general Japanese especially men usually don't know the way putting on Japanese traditional cloth.

At that time, I met one international samurai! You might understand the Japanese armors by the picture.

The quality was so nice and the armors were making noises when they were running, and it made me remember the fact written on the book that samurai put straw into the chinks between their armors to keep silent when they tryed night attack.

By the way, I took his picture when we had our lunch before the parade. And he is famous in MC of radio in our area.

Anyway, we paraded with more than 260 samurai to Inuyama castle.

We couldn't take any pictures during the parade, so I took our float in the place where we waiting to start before the parade.

Can you understand the atmosphere? I don't know the actual parade and I felt bit regret, because of we couldn't watch it.

　And the next picture is the float that we pulled it to Inuyama castle. Three ladies dressed with traditional princes cloths and one Japanese traditional general were on the float.

I took it at starting place so there are some ordinal houses on the picture, but there are a lot of Japanese traditional style houses and shops when we parade the castle town.

Inuyama city in Aichi (Castle, History, Events, Features, Local dishes, Get in)

Japanese horned beetle of the scarab family (Kabuto-mushi)

2007-08-14T15:50:00.000+09:00

This summer, one of my friends suddenly visited my room and it was the first time for me in my life.
When I was an elementary student, I had used to play with him very often in summer. But I had never contacted with him since after junior high school. I'm sorry.

Can you guess his name?

It's Japanese horned beetle, and Japanese name is Kabuto-mushi!

I'd like to observe the proprieties, I should invite him to my room. At that time I took the next picture.

After taking pictures, he left my room for night sky.

So, I'd like to write about Japanese horned beetles on this blog!

It's so difficult to see them in Japan especial in city area, but on the other hands the horned beetles are the most popular insects among Japanese boys. This is the reason, sometimes we can see them in some pet shops.

But, in local area, Japanese boys catch them at mountain, forest or Japanese Shinto shrine easily.

How about horned beetle in your country?
Please let me know the kinds and figures!

Nabana-No-Sato is a beautiful flower garden at Tokai area in Japan

2007-06-28T13:51:00.000+09:00

This time, I'd like to update some pictures when I visited at Nabana-No-Sato to enjoy a lot of tulips in April.

Nabana-No-Sato is an one of the parks of Nagashima Resort, which contains Nagashima onsen (Hot springs), Jazz Dream Nagashima (outlet mall), Nagashima Spa Land (amusement park), in Kuwana city in Mie prefecture.
The Nabana-No-Sato is very famous at our local area, so I was also interested in the park and I visited there! At the Nabana-No-Sato, we can mainly enjoy a lot of seasonal flowers. On the other hands, their illuminations in winter are also so popular, the number of lights is the biggest in Japan.

Anyway, I update the pictures at Nabana-No-Sato in April!

This is a pond at the center of the Nabana-No-Sato. Can you see a lot of flowers surrounding the pond? It's so beautiful, right?

And the tulip festival was held at the Hana-Hiroba, which is a main open space of the Nabana-No-Sato.

It's the first time for me to see such a lot of tulips in my life. Tulips have a lot of colors, so they colored the field beautifully.

But, if we attentively see the field, we notice the fact that there're some pansies between tulips. And the tulips weren't bloomed yet, I guess that it's to delay to bloom.
If there're no pansies, the field with no bloomed tulips isn't nice, right?
So pansies also let visitors enjoy the tulips always.

I took this picture on the small hill. There were a lot of visitors even if it was weekday. If the day was weekend or holiday, it would be busier.

Every path, where we walked, is decorated with flowers after tulip field. I think that it's hard to trim the garden, but I was hankering the job.

Next pictures were taken at begonia garden. And I would like to show them.

I took this picture after entrance. I think that some group of tourists would take their souvenir pictures here.

There were several so unique flowers at begonia garden. And they look like tropical flowers, right?

I took the picture of so beautiful pond at end of begonia garden. It let me remember Butchart Gardens in Vancouver Island, Canada. Butchart Gardens are one of the most famous gardens in the world, and it was just breathtaking for me.

I took the picture in front of Chinese restaurant after begonia garden. We enjoyed full-blown peach blossoms that are suitable for Chinese restaurant.
Peach blossoms are bigger than cherry blossoms, so it's bit difference from Japanese elegance. But I can understand Chinese love peach blossoms.

This is the final picture that I took at the exit. The flowers were full-blown in April and I really enjoyed them! It was so nice! I want to visit there again in other season.

The night time of Inuyama festival at the second day

2007-05-19T23:08:00.000+09:00

I'd like to write this blog for second day of Inuyama festival, especially night time. Because of the night, we could see the night float called Yoyama and they were so beautiful and fantastic!
I already wrote about windup dolls called Karakuri Ningyo and cherry blossoms, and this blog is the final article for the festival.

So please enjoy Inuyama festival with my pictures!

At evening, every float called Yoyama started to move with 365 lanterns!
I took this picture when the float was starting to move, and we can find the other float behind it on this picture!

Every float were going to Haritsuna shrine. There were a lot of Japanese lantern in front of houses on the way to the shrine and they made the special atmosphere. I think it might be the day that I saw the biggest numbers of lanterns in my life.

There were some children playing their musical accompaniment on night floats, so we could also enjoy them. And I was surprised for me, because of they could continue playing when the float was controlled in very special wild and powerful handlings called Shagiri or Donden-Gaeshi. Shagiri is the one of the way controlling the floats to make a right or left - angled turn, and the time the floats make the big noise "Guwa ga ga ga ga....." When we saw the turning, I got so strong impression by the noises and the floats! Basically, the floats don't have any functions to turn, so the turning ways just depend on power of people and it's the reason making the big noise. But, Donden-Gaeshi was more! At that time, they make right or left - angle turn on two back wheels and they advance with only two wheels! Can you guess the weight of the float? It's three-ton, and it looks so heavy right?

After darker and darker, the lights of lantern was going to be fantastic.... Every lantern lighted by a candle, so the lantern sometimes burst into flames. When I found any fires on the lanterns, I concerned about it even if every float has a fire extinguisher.

This is a picture of the float going forward on the approach to Haritsuna shrine. On the approach, there were a lot of street stalls.

In front of the Haritsuna shrine, there were some night floats! The left float looked like ship, right? And it was one of the unique floats at the festival.

And I took this picture when every float gathered around the Haritsuna shrine. We could see only 6 floats of total 13 floats the nighttime. But, the day was a special day, because of the night was the first time that floats gathered in front of the shrine night time even if the festival has the 373 times history.

Of cause, it was possible to see the floats very near at hand. The orange lights were so beautiful!

30 minutes might have passed since the floats gathered, the floats started to go back.
When the floats were making right-angle turn to forward on the approach, they tried Donden-Gaeshi. Usually the floats leaned to the back at an angle of 20° when they tried. So, I worried the floats to fall down.

After the turns, they keep to forward with only two wheels by the just poles as leverage to control it. And their records of forwarding distance should depend on the spirits! The best spirited float could forward for 30 meters, on the other hands the shortest record was only few meters.

The Donden-Gaeshi is exactly one of the highlights to show their manliness! When I seeing the Donden-Gaeshi, a girl said "Japanese festival would depend on men" to herself. I agreed her opinion.

The floats on this picture were going back on the approach. So this is the final picture of the festival!

Could you enjoy Japanese festival on my blogs? This time, I understood the difference between Japanese festival and North American festival. In North America, we can enjoy several cultures, for example Greek, Chinese, Mexican and so on cultures in their festivals. But Japanese festivals depend on their local histories. So the Inuyama festival also depends on their history of Inuyama.

Inuyama City in Aichi

The day time of Inuyama festival at the second day

2007-05-07T22:19:00.001+09:00

I'm sorry, I didn't update since last month. This time, I want to update about the second day of Inuyama festival, but the point aimed at is bit unique.

The first day, we enjoy the windup doll so I directed my attention the cherry blossoms around Inuyama castle on the second day.

These pictures shows the cherry blossoms on Gose River that is also moat of Inuyama castle. The day, the blossoms were so beautiful, and the beauties were based on Japanese cultures.

When I walked along the river, I remembered the cherry blossoms at Chidoriga-Fuchi next by Japanese Imperial Palace called Kokyo. I guess the atmosphere of the cherry blossoms on moats that surround Japanese castles would be very similar by the fact that I remember the cherry blossoms at Chidoriga-Fuchi by the cherry blossoms in Inuyama.

We also found some carp streamers called Koi-Nobori swimming over Gose River. It's so rare to enjoy cherry blossoms and Koi-Nobori at the same time.

When I turned my attention to the surface of the river, I found a lot of the petals.
The time of Inuyama festival is same as full-blown of the cherry blossoms in Inuyama. I felt lonesome when I imagined the blossoms were going to fall soon after the Inuyama festival.

I went over the Gose River after enjoying the cherry blossoms, there were some floats in preparation for the night festival at down town of the castle.
At the first day, we couldn't see the night festival by rain. So I aimed at night festival at the second day!

This is a barrel of free Japanese Sake for every body who enjoys the festival. The tast was so nice and I was so surprised to be honest.

Before this festival, I believed that Japanese Sake in Toyama was the best for me, but I found the fact that some Japanese Sake in Aichi were also very tasty! This festival changed me to love some Japanese Sake in this area.

This is the stone monument that is describing there was a mile stone of Nakasen-do had been here.

Next time, I want to show the night festival!

If you're interested in Inuyama, please check more!
Inuyama City in Aichi

Windup doll's show (Karakuri Ningyo) of The Inuyama Festival

2007-04-10T12:37:00.000+09:00

Last weekend, I enjoyed Inuyama Festival (Inuyama Matsuri), so this time and next time, I'd like to introduce the festival on my blog.

The Inuyama Festival has a long history of 373 years and it also be designated as one of the nation's significant intangible folk cultural asset. So the festival is one of the biggest festivals in our area.

Every year, we can enjoy the festival for two days, so I can't write about the festival only once and I would need two or three articles for the festival.

The first day called "Shingaku-Sai" is April 7th, and the second day called "Hongaku-Sai" is April 8th. The both of the days, total 13 floats (Yama) are get together in front of Haritsuna shrine under Inuyama castle, and then their floats dedicate their wind-up doll's (Karakuri Ningyo) Show in daytime, and we can see the very beautiful 13 floats with 365 lanterns lighted by candles in nighttime.

In Spring, a lot of cherry blossoms are in full bloom in the castle town of Inuyama city. We can enjoy the wind-up doll's Show of the festival, and also enjoy the beautiful cherry blossoms and the float in the nighttime. I want to recommend you to visit in Inuyama city in the season.

On this article, I describe the wind-up doll's Shows of the floats (Yama) in the first day.

When I arrived at the Haritsuna shrine at the castle town in Inuyama city, there're a lot of floats like the picture. The number is 13 and every float has the wind-up doll's show, the fact is rare thing in Japan.

The structure of floats have a three-story and the first is for musical accompaniments, the second is for four or five people handling the wind-up dolls and the floor is covered by curtain, and the third is the stage for wind-up dolls.

This is a picture of the musical accompaniments on the first. We can see some children who look five years old beating Japanese drums. But there are also some adults performing Japanese flute.

The floats have four wheels and they can only move backward and forward. So they don't have any functions turning right or left, so they should turn by the only power of people. So the floats make their tire tracks after turning. Can you see the tracks on the picture?

I took the people pulling the float. The front pullers decide the way, the pullers under the float push the float and the back pullers push and steer the float.

I took the pullers taking a rest after moving to the place in position with their float. We can have every alcohol on the street in Japan, so the festival is really an exciting time.

And one of the highlights is wind-up doll's (Karakuri Ningyo) Show, and I enjoyed two kinds of the wind-up dolls.
1. The dolls turn in to a something.
2. The dolls give an excellent performance.

So, let's check out some pictures of the wind-up doll's Show.

At first, the doll of the float turned into the shrine.

The doll entranced on the stage, and danced, and then turned into the shrine.

When we enjoyed the transformation, the audience made a storm of applause. Of cause, I was included such audience.

I took the pictures during the shrine was turned into the doll again.

It was interesting for me. The six floats started to move to Inuyama station after their performances.

The windup doll Show on the picture is the doll pick a bud of a red flower and put it into the stand. After putting, the bud flowered and the doll and the flower started to dance.

I was surprised when the red flower was flowering and spinning.

This windup doll was born from the white sphere, and the doll went up the stairs.

Finally, the doll flew at a makimono that is a hand scroll.

The letter written "the sun, the moon (Nichi Gettsu)" rose.

Can you see the first picture and guess the gimmick? The doll was going up the stairs. I can't guess it, and so amazing!

This doll also nice! The right doll…..

…beat the drum during hand standing on it.

The next is really fantastic!

The left doll standing on the stage…..

ridded on the other doll's shoulders.

And the doll took him to the place under the bar.

And the doll grabbed the bar and lifted up.

Finally, the doll turn twice with the bar! I can't understand the gimmicks.

The next windup doll Show is Urashima. The story of Urashima is one of the most popular old tales in Japan. And the show based on the story.

The girl who is Otohime entranced on the stage with a box called "Tamate Bako".

Can you see the doll that has white hair with smoke? After opening the box, the box gave smoke to him, and it made him be old.

After windup doll's show, we were caught in the rain. So we couldn't enjoy the festival at night.

If you're interested in Inuyama, please check more!
Inuyama City in Aichi

Night view in Nagoya city, Japan

2007-04-04T12:09:00.000+09:00

This time, I'd like to update some pictures of night views at Nagoya city.

The downtown of Nagoya city is Sakae area, and there are TV tower, Central park, Oasis 21, Mitsukoshi, Matsuzakaya and Blue Note Nagoya in the area. The atmosphere would be similar to Ginza in Tokyo.

And the area is very convenient to make a small trip, because of there is the Nagoya castle to the north of the area and it's very easy to go Osu that is very unique town whose atmosphere is like Ueno and Akihabara to south of the area.
They are the reasons that we can see a lot of young people in the area on every weekend.

So I'd like to show some pictures of the night views.

I took the pictures at central park at Christmastime, so we can find a tree on the pictures.

And we can also find an orange tower, it's the TV tower in Nagoya city and one of the landmark at the area.

I took this picture at the very unique bus terminal called “Oasis 21”. The Oasis 21 is shown at right in the picture and it has a very unique object that is a kind of Hanging Gardens with a pool whose bottom made with specially hardened glass. We can see the downstairs open space through the bottom of the pool from the Hanging Garden.

I took the picture of the TV tower on the Hanging Garden of Oasis 21. Looks so beautiful, right?

This is a picture of the centers of Nagoya city, and I also took the picture from Oasis 21. Can you find a fact by the picture? There are only low buildings, right?
Nagoya city is famous in the height of building is low. Because of the ground is soft by the sandy place of tributaries of Kiso River. But, recently we can find some high-rise buildings, so the building techniques have been improved.

By the way, we can find a small Ferries wheel shown at the right in the picture. Can you find it?

This is the pool on the Oasis 21. When I visited here with my boss, he said, “it's very scary for me to see downstairs”. So we can see the downstairs, but we can't understand by the picture.

And, this is a picture of the TV tower and a jet of water at central park in Nagoya city.
The place is very popular and well-known. So all of people who live in Nagoya would know the place!

Japanese tradition: Sushi!

2007-03-24T18:28:00.000+09:00

Japanese tradition: Sushi!

One of Japanese comedians made a film describing Japanese tradition about Sushi to international people and it's very funny!

Please DON'T believe it!

Sushi

I found some others, but they don't have any subtitles and only Japanese version. If you can understand Japanese language, please try them.

They're also funny.

Meoto-Iwa is a holy rock at Futami-Ura in Japan.

2007-03-19T02:15:00.001+09:00

This time, I'd like to introduce the Futami-Ura where we visited at after the Uramura oyster festival.

The area where Futami-Ura is in is the ground of the Futami-Okitama shrine and there is a very famous couple of the rock called Meoto-Iwa in Japanese in watching sunrise. (The word "Meoto" means a married couple in Japanese.) Especially the sun rises in the middle of the rocks in the summer solstice.

I'm interested in the sunrise in the summer solstice. But it's very difficult to take the picture, so this time I just update ordinarily scene.

This board describes the history of the shrine.

Usually, shrines have such boards as the picture. And the deity of the shrine is Sarutahiko-No-Mikoto. So we could find some statues of frogs said to be his familiar in the shrine. (I forgot taking any pictures of the statues.)

We could see the Meoto-Iwa after going through a first torii. The sea was very calm at the Uramura oyster festival, but the sea had some billows with strong wind when we visited the shrine after the festival. So it was very different even if both areas locate at same area.

Do you know the manners of worship for Shinto shrines? There was a signboard of the manners and it was also written in English by the shrine pavilion! I've never seen such signboard before.

There were the Meoto-Iwa and a small torii after the shrine pavilion. Can you guess the size of torii by the offertory box? It's really small.
By the way, the Meoto-Iwa is one of the toriis for Okitama-Shinseki that is an incarnation of Sarutahiko-No-Mikoto and also the place where deities come from Tokoyo-No-Kuni. Because of he was drowned by catching his hand in Hirafu-shellfish when he was fishing at Azaka in Ise area on Japanese mythology.

This picture was taken at the closest point to the Meoto-Iwa.
We can see the Shime-Nawa is the stylized straw rope on Shinto and it change at the special event each May 5th, September 5th, and end of December. And the events are bit famous at the area, so we can sometimes watch them on any TV news.

When I walked around the area, I thought that Japanese have such folk customs believing some unique things in great nature like deification and they worship them. It's really easy to guess by Native American's culture. So I'm interested in the fact that there're some such places where we can find some great nature with Japanese mythology in Japan.

Uramura Oyster Festival

2007-03-02T23:21:00.000+09:00

We visited in Uramura town in Mie prefecture to enjoy the Uramura Oyster Festival last weekend.

Mie prefecture is one of the scenic prefectures and it has some deeply indented coastlines. So the coastlines make very calm gulf, and the atmosphere is very similar as Matsushima. Maybe the suitable environment for oyster is very similar.

The both pictures were taken at the gulf. Looks very calm, right? In the future, I will write a blog of the Futami-Ura and the atmosphere is so different.

Anyway, I took some pictures at the place stuffing a lot of oysters free! And the event was the biggest in the festival!

We could stuff a lot of oysters on the table into a green bag for 30 seconds and the fee is only 500 yen! The staffs helped us well during stuffing and it was possible to heap oysters on the full bags, so we got three bucketful of oysters by four people. After returning to our house, we ate too many boiled oysters and grilled oysters!

Anyway, we could enjoy grilled, boiled, steamed with wine and deep-fried oysters with oyster rice at the festival. And the prices weren't expensive, usually only from 200 to 300 yen. But, oyster miso soup was free! After tried every dish, we had eaten moderately.

At the festival, I was interested and excited by a bottles of wine that were Rubaiyat!
I knew the wine when I searched the information about nice wines in Japan for my website. So the taste should be good! And I bought white and red! I couldn't guess any reasons to be able to buy the wine in Yamanashi prefecture at the festival. Anyway I was very lucky by the fact that making website gave the knowledge about nice wines in Japan to me!

And I took the next picture when we stopped in a souvenir shop after the festival.

That's all!

At the festival, I didn't take enough pictures. Because I had to curry a big bag of oysters, so I didn't have my free hands and it made me forget to take. And I hope that you guess how we enjoyed the festival.

Ankake Pasta is the famous local specialty in Nagoya

2007-02-27T00:00:00.000+09:00

Nagoya area has some famous local foods and the food's culture is bit different from the other area in Japan.

And the famous foods are Miso-Katsu, Miso-Nikomi, Kishmen, Dote-Ni, Ten-Musu, Hitsumabushi, Tebasaki, Uiro and Ebi-Fry.

But, There is one more unique food in Nagoya area. It's the Ankake-Pasta!

Ankake Pasta is a kind of spaghettis with tomato sauce. But, the spaghetti is thicker than general ones in Japan and it's covered with the sauce that has boiled with some tomatoes and meets and vegetables for many hours and then the sauce changes to be thick after boiling.
If we visit any major restaurants of Ankake pasta, we can order several kinds of Ankake Pastas. But, every dish is covered with only the sauce. So difference is the ingredients.

The birthplace of Ankake Pasta is Yokoi at Sakae in Nagoya city and major chain is Ciao. I heard that the recipes of Yokoi were spread over Nagoya city and then Ankake Pastas got the position of famous local specialty. It was very interesting for me that the fact made one famous local specialty.

When I was a businessman and my supervisor came to Nagoya by his business trip, he ate it at Ciao every time. Because, he usually said "Ankake Pasta is only local food that isn't too sweet in Nagoya". I used to eat it with him for our lunch if we worked at weekend, and he always looked smiley in the restaurant at that time. The amount of the pasta are always different, especially "jumbo" are so different. If you are unluckily in happy day, the amount should be too big.

Recently, we can find Pasta de Co Co that is the chain of Curry house CoCo Ichiban-Ya in Tokyo. (I think that the ingredients on the Ankake Pasta look same as ones on the curry of the restaurant)
Because of the Ichiban-Ya is the enterprise in Aichi prefecture.

The festival floats exhibition hall in Hida-Takayama

2007-02-22T22:48:00.000+09:00

This time, I'd like to update some pictures that I took at the festival floats exhibition hall (called Takayama Yatai Kaikan in Japanese) in Takayama city.

At the exhibition hall, we can see four floats that are used with when the people enjoy Takayama festival and all of the floats are National important tangible cultural heritages of Japan.

So, please enjoy the pictures.

This is one of the floats. Always there're four floats at the exhibition hall and they are changed three times in a year. A shrine maiden explained about the floats and the history for ten minutes when we visited, because of the exhibition hall locates in the precincts of shrine.

There're some dolls with the floats in the hall. Actually, local people wear their Kamishimo that is ceremonial dress of a samurai, so we can guess the atmosphere of the festival.

This is a Mikoshi and it's a portable shrine. It has a very heavy iron plate to keep the balance of it. And now, it doesn't work and local people just use only floats at the festival.

I took the picture of the whole floor on second floor. There're the Mikoshi on this side, but I couldn't take it on the picture.

Can you guess the size of floats by the size of dolls? The size would be same height as the three or four-story buildings. When local people take the floats into the hall, they usually use the gimmicks of the pillars to be short. But, they are still high.

Next, I'd like to upload some pictures took in Sakurayama Nikko hall that is next from the festival floats exhibition hall. We can also enter the hall by the ticket of the festival floats exhibition hall.

We can see some tenth models of Nikko Toshogu Shrine that is one of the most famous shrines in Japan. And it had been made by 33 technical experts for fifteen years before 90 years ago. It's so elaborate model by the fact.

This is a picture to see the whole models.
I guessed that the models would be arranged to be same as Nikko Toshogu Shrine.

I have no experience of Takayama festival and it was my first time to see the floats. It makes me want to visit there during the festival.

We can check the information about Hida Takayama!
Hida Takayama in Gifu

The Jinnya is Historical Goverment House in Hida-Takayama

2007-02-15T18:10:00.000+09:00

This time, I would like to show some pictures that I took at Jinnya in Takayama city.

There're some museums and tourist attractions in Hida area, and the majors are Takayama-Jinnya that I want to describe this time and Festival Floats Exhibition Hall on next blog would be the best in the area. If you'll visit Hida-Takayama, I guess that you'll enjoy them well!

At first, I need to explain about Jinnya. Jinnya was a magistrate's office in the Edo period. So, this Takayama Jinnya was also built when Tokugawa shogunate started to manage Hida area in the Edo period and then it was used for their administrative organ. At that period, Hatamoto who were direct retainer of the shogun came from Edo to control the area as Daikan who were local magistrates. So Jinnya is a bit special building and it's also unique from other building in the fact that people worked at the Jinnya with differs in social standing.

By the way, there were more then 60 Jinnya in Edo period, but now there is only Takayama Jinnya in the point keeping origin building. Of course, some of the parts were restored.

Well, I put my pictures on this blog with my explanations about Takayama Jinnya.

The first picture is the gate of the Jinnya. In Edo period some gatekeepers were standing in front of the gate, but now the place changes to pay our entrance fee. The fee is 420 Yen for an adult and we can enjoy explanations by the member of the staff of Jinnya free! We felt the fee was very cheap! But, the explanations are described in Japanese only, so it's not so helpful for international people.

The Jinnya was the bit special place for people who had several kinds of social standings, which were Hatamoto from Edo, local public functionaries and people who weren't Samurai.
I took the picture of the office to show the interesting fact. Can you guess? There are two rooms on this picture, and front one is for Hatamoto and the other is for local public functionaries. And we can understand the difference by the borders of Tatami. We can find any patterns on the borders at front room, but the other was just black, right?

And there are some entrances for each social standing, even if the building is only one. This entrance was for local public functionaries. The different entrances were very small for the worker who weren't samurai, and they look ordinary.

It is a bathroom. In Edo period, the workers used to wash their body here. On the other hands, there were also cultures using bathtubs in other area. So cultures depended on the area in Japan.

This is the room for their special guest who usually came from Edo. And this room is the best to enjoy the Japanese garden of the Jinnya.

This room is one of the biggest rooms in Jinnya, and it is for the family of the Hatamoto to live in. This room has a Tokonoma that is a Japanese alcove with very beautiful Kakejiku that is Japanese hanging picture. And we could also enjoy Japanese garden from Engawa that is Japanese veranda and I describe it after with a picture.

In Edo period, all of Japanese buildings were built with wood and the Jinnya is also same. So they really care about fire. This is the reason of the waterways between buildings like this picture, and the waterways also have the function to take the water after snow melted to river in Hida area. I took this picture in January, but we can see few snow....it's too warm in this winter.

We could find some parlors in Jinnya. This parlor was for people who weren't Samurai to take rest with the Irori that is Japanese open hearth.

This is the kitchen on Jinnya. This furnace is on the floor boarded up, so the meals cooked with the furnace were for the family of Hatamoto came from Edo.

And the furnaces on the ground were for the meals of other people. We can also find the fact that the ceiling is higher than ones in other rooms, right?

And this is the washroom made in wood and Japanese style.

After washroom, they washed their hands here. It's looks Japanese style.

This is the Engawa that is Japanese veranda. We don't use it as only veranda, but we also use it as passageway.

This is the great hall. If they had any audience, they used the room.

This is basketwork to ride on for the people of high rank. The color and the ornament of basketworks depended on the social standing and/or the distinction of sex.

Can you guess? How to move by it? Some people carry the bar of the basketwork on their shoulder.

This area is Shirasu that is Japanese law court where suspects and witness were summoned before a magistrate.

And now, some torture items are exhibited here. Basically Hatamoto didn't have enough judicial power, so finally suspects were sent to Edo and then to get their judgment.

This is a Dozo that is Japanese storehouse covered with clay. I wanted to take some pictures in the Dozo, but it was prohibited so I gave it up. The inside is museum with the structure kept since Edo period. So inside was made with wood.

In this connection, the means of the word ‘Dozo' is a storehouse covered with clay in Japanese language. And the roof looks made with wood, but the roof just put on the Dozo. So if the Dozo is caught in a fire, the clay doesn't burn and it protects the inside from the fire.

How do you think?

We really enjoyed the Jinnya for one and half hours with a member of the staff. So Jinnya is very good tourist attraction.

I must recommend you to visit there, when you travel in Japan.

We can check the information about Hida Takayama!
Hida Takayama in Gifu

Japanese traditional street in Hida-Takayama

2007-02-02T19:29:00.000+09:00

This time, I want to update more pictures taken in Hida-Takayama to continue last topic.

But, today's topic is difference from last time and it's the pictures of the streets lined with orderly rows of well-kept old stores and houses in Takayama city. Takayama city was the very famous town in masters and carpenters who built a lot of famous temples and palaces since ancient times. On the other hands, the town was a Joka-Machi, which is a kind of Japanese downtown and it defended the castle in the past, of Takayama castle of Kanamori family. After the family moved to Tohoku, this area was managed by Edo shogunate.
In additionally, the castle was said "The castle is in the best five castles in Japan" with the very beautiful structure that built by carpenters lived in the area. But, after Edo shogunate managed, they pulled it down and the ruins of the castle are only standing on the Shiroyama Park now. Because of the government had a such behavior as it hated castles that had few possibilities to make rebellions.

So Takayama city has such history as above wrote still keep the traditional rows of houses. And I took a lot of pictures on the streets, please enjoy some of them!

This is the street in the area where they keep the old style.
The style was bit changed but the atmosphere are still kept, right?

This is a liquor store in Hida-Takayama. Can you find the object that has round shape under the roof of the store?
It's a Sakabayashi and sometimes also called Sugidama. It's made to understand the mature degree of Japanese sake with the leaves of Japanese cedar when they start to brew. At that time, the color is fresh green and then it will change to be brown, so the color is the signal starting to sell their sake.
So their customers can understand by Sakabayashi when they can drink.

There are some coffee shops, restaurants and souvenir shops on the street!

And this is the notice, they really want to keep the atmospheres like this.

Can you see the pine tree on the picture? The branches are hung up to protected from snows. It's also Japanese culture in north area and called 'Yuki-Tsuri'. We could find such trees as on the pictures in Takayama city, even if this winter is very mild.

I took this picture under the pine tree hung up. There are a lot of waterways in the city, the waterways don't only have the function for drainage of snows, but also used to put out a fire.

This is a convenience store that is Family Mart in Takayama city, general family marts are colored in blue. But this is so special.　

We can find the fact the city keeps traditional styles in large area when we walk around Takayama city.
Finally, I put two pictures that are the library in Takayama city. The name is Kansho-Kan.

It looks the traditional style before 100 years ago when Japan started to receive Western civilization. The building was very modern at that time.

We can check the information about Hida Takayama!
Hida Takayama in Gifu

Takayama Ramen and Goyei-Mochi in Hida-Takayama

2007-01-31T12:53:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, I visited Hida-Takayama in Gifu prefecture, so I want to introduce about the city, Because of the city keeps some traditional Japanese style streets and it's very famous.

In additionally, the area is also famous in heavy snowfall in our area. So before going there with my friend who drove his car to Takayama city, we really worried about the road condition, you would guess that the road to Takayama is very easy to be covered with snow or frozen. But this year is very special year for Japan, this winter is very warm, so it's mild winter and we couldn't see any snow on the road. It's very strange.

Anyway, we really enjoyed sightseeing in Takayama, especially Takayama Jinnya that is a historical government house, the festival floats exhibition hall, traditional Japanese style and so on, and we took a lot of pictures when we found any interesting things. So I want to write about it few times, and this time is the first time and the content is about food.

The pictures are Takayama ramen. Japanese really love ramen and we can try a lot of kinds of ramen in Japan, generally the taste is depends on the area, so Takayama city has the taste that is soy sauce and chicken for making stock, and the noodles are fine. The style is very Chuka-Soba. The price is 650 Yen, it's bit cheaper than common price.

This picture is Gohei-Mochi. We ate it during walking around traditional streets. The Gohei-Mochi is a rice cake grilled with miso or soy sauce and it is a local dish in Gifu or Nagano prefectures. Sometimes we can find it in other area and I have some experiences eating it, and I've never felt tasty to be honest. But this time was difference it was so delicious. Maybe, we need to eat local dish in the area.

We can check the information about Hida Takayama!
Hida Takayama in Gifu

Matsushima is one of the most famous scenic places in Japan

2007-01-26T19:17:00.000+09:00

There are the three most famous scenic places in Japan, which are Amano-Hashidate, Matsushima and Itukushima.

When I traveled in Tohoku area in November 2006, I also visit Matsushima! Matsushima is so famous in the fact that Basho Matsuo who was the most famous in Haiku couldn't compose good Haiku that is a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables.

Finally he gave up to compose his Haiku by the really beautiful great view.
So, his Haiku in Matsushima is...
Matsushima Ya,
Ah Matsushima Ya,
Matsushima Ya.

He just called Matsushima three times in his Haiku. Can you guess how beautiful it is?

So this time, I want to update some of my friend's pictures of the great view in Matsushima. Because of my battery of my camera had gone at that time.

Matsushima locates in Sendai gulf and there are a lot of small islands in the gulf, so the small islands make the special views.
And the there are a lot of pine trees on the island, the pine trees also help the special atmosphere to be very Japanese view. Because, pine tree is called Matsu among Japanese, and the tree is one of the important trees for Japanese, for example we make Kado-Matsu with pine trees to celebrate Shogatsu.

We took this picture on the island, and we can find a lot of the islands in the gulf.

And there is a red Japanese bridge after walking few ten minute, we are require to pay 200 yen to go across the bridge.

During waking across the bridge, we found the interesting thing. Can you guess what there are under the sea?

The answer is 'oyster'!

Because of Sendai gulf is so famous place in oysters in Japan.

After the bridge we walk around the island and took this picture. It was so fine day and we really enjoy sightseeing!

By the way, there are a lot of small shrines on the islands and the small shrines were tomb long time ago. We forgot picturing them! When we visited Yamadera in Yamagata prefecture, we also found such shrines. So I guess that the facts depended on the culture in Tohoku area. I'm interested in the common fact between Matsushima and Yamadera.

This picture was taken at the park on the island. We can watch the surface of the rook if we visit there at low tide.
It's easy to understand the rock scooped out since few thousand years ago! We also found some geologic stratums on the rock.

This is our lunch at that day!
We ate oyster rice, grilled oysters and oyster soup!
It was so nice!

When we walked around the red bridge, we found the place selling a lot of oyster and visited there. At that time, there are few small boats with a lot of oysters! It was very interesting and we talked with the fisherman about the mountain of oyster. But, we couldn't understand what he was saying by his very strong Tohoku accent.

After Matsushima, we visited very huge Buddhist temple that houses of the load of the domain of Sendai grave. The atmosphere was so nice, so I really want to post on my blog. But I couldn't take any picture with my camera whose battery had gone.

I study that it's very important to bring my battery charger of my camera with me when I travel anywhere.

The Hasso is one of Japanese quasi-national parks in Inuyama-City

2007-01-18T16:01:00.000+09:00

Last weekend, we went hiking in Hasso where is in Inuyama city that is our neighboring town. The area 'Hasso' is selected for one of Japanese quasi-national parks with the beautiful nature, so the area is bit famous for camping and really convenience to visit there from our town by a car.

So this time, I'd like to introduce Hasso and update some pictures took in the area.

This is the area map of Hasso in the campsite, and I took it to refer the map on my digital camera when we lost our way.

And in front of the map, we planed our hiking course that we could enjoy our hiking whole day, and the course had some beautiful areas, which were Hasso Falls, an observation platform, marshy areas, the Virgin Falls called 'Otomeno-Taki' in Japanese, the five stairs falls.

This is the Hasso Falls. It looked very simple, but it made a lot of fresh airs.

At first, we planed eating our lunch in front of the falls, but there weren't enough space. So we changed our plan to eat at the observation platform.

These pictures were taken at observation platform.
We can find the little world on a first picture. The little world is a theme park that has a lot of international building in the park, and we can't enjoy only buildings but also we can try international foods and costumes. We usually visit there by our school trips when we are elementary school students or junior high school students. At that time, I couldn't find any interesting things and just felt tired, but now it's very interesting theme park for me. Our senses would be changed by time easily.

This second picture is mt.Ontake.
We can find the shape of Mt. Ontake if it's really fine day in winter. Sometimes, our teachers said "We can see Mt. Ontake today" to us in our school. I think Japanese love some big mountains, for example Mt. Fuji, and Japanese sometimes love talking about them, I think that it's Japanese sense. Recently I like the sense little bit. I also changed by time in this point.

The third picture is Iruka Lake. Someday, I will write about the lake with sad and brave story. Because, the lake is so famous in our area.

Can you guess what it is?
I took this close-up photography at swampland, and the surfaces were frozen.
In my feeling, this swampland was the best in last our hiking.

And the atmosphere was like this!

Water came from left side and flow to right side on this picture and the width is 150 m and depth would be 1 cm.

And there are a lot of logs to go across the swampland, so people can walk on them. Some of them are bit old and decay, but they are still strong.

This picture are taken at the deepest point in the swampland, I guess that the depth would be three cm. We might understand that the swampland is so shallow.

On the other hands, we can find a lot of small stones over the water in the shallow place.

This swampland wasn't made with any rivers, it was made with spring came from the middle of the mountains, and the width of spring might be 200 m. The water is having came from long time ago, so the surface was cleaned and covered with small stones.

I didn't know such swampland is in Inuyama city.

After the swampland, we found the Virgin Falls and I took this picture.

Before the falls, we had to cross three log bridges, I don't want to go again by my fear of heights. Especially I bring my digital camera and cell phone with me, so I couldn't fall into the rivers.

Sometimes, we can find some falls and flows like this picture that I took during heading on five stairs falls.

At first, we thought that the falls were the five stairs falls by the fact we can count five falls, but it wasn't.

This is the five stairs falls! It's difficult to count the numbers on this picture.
In summer, some children would play with the falls.

This time, I enjoy the hiking in Hasso area in Inuyama city. There're some good views and falls that made us be interested in.
The area were very well-kept natures, and it's very easy to walk around and safe.

A lot of people usually enjoy camping in summer, but we can also enjoy hiking at a slow speed in winter.

If you're interested in Inuyama, please check more!
Inuyama City in Aichi

Hatsumode in Japan

2007-01-03T21:44:00.000+09:00

A Happy New Year!
I wish you great success in the New Year!

This time, I'd like to introduce one of the most popular Japanese New Year Events called "Hatsumode" in Japan. Hatsumode is the event to pay our first visit of the year to a Shinto Shrine at New Year's.

So I also visited one of the biggest Shinto shrine "Naritasan" in Aichi prefecture and I enjoyed New Year countdown and Hatsumode! Both were my start of this year!

I took some pictures at that time, and I would like to show some of them on my blog.

This is the beginning picture and I took it on the approach to Naritasan at 23:30 in December 31st, 2006. The shrine is on the mountain, so we went up the stairs to the center of the shrine.
I took the picture at midnight, but there were a lot of people to go the shrine.

There is a Shinto shrine at the top of the stairs, and it was so crowded in front of the building of the shrine. The time, I was really lucky…because, I was in front of the building and it wasn't on the stairs in this year!

Suddenly some of the people started the countdown before the New Year and they prayed and returned. So we could move closer!

After countdown, everybody started to move to the front of the shrine, and then prayed.

In my case, my wishes are different every year and it depends on my situation. I'll try that my wish will be true in this year.

Finally, I would add a supplementary explanation. There are a lot of people praying at Hatsumode in Japan. But, most of them aren't pious believer in Shinto, and they prayed. So, the fact depends on Japanese culture.

If you are interested in the fact, you can read this homepage.
Religion in Japan

How did Samurai educate their children?

2006-12-26T22:10:00.000+09:00

When I visited at Tsuruga Castle in Aizu-Wakamatsu, I found a one of the answers.

Because of the castle is a museum now, and we can touch some facts about Samurai's daily life and the history of Tsuruga Castle and so on. At that time, I was really interested in a practice of every child of Samurai.

So this time, I would like to write about the practice called Juu-No-Okite that is the rule of the group.

The children had to belong their group called Juu when their ages were from six to nine years old for entering their school Nisshin-Kan at their age of ten. So Juu-No-Okite was a rule of the group Juu that were small group of children and they usual played with the group.

And every evening, they recited the Juu-No-Okite and had a meeting for reviewing.

The contents were…

=========================================
1. Don't against what senior are saying.
2. We must make a bow for seniors.
3. Don't lie.
4. Don't act in a mean way.
5. Don't dully to any weak people.
6. Don't eat anything in the outside.
7. Don't talk anything with women in the outside.

And we can't do any forbad things.
=========================================

I think the rule includes two important means, first is looking up their seniors and two is helping weak people. Both would affect that they were be great leaders.

So, actually the Aizu-Wakamatsu domain was the most famous in valor. Because. Japanese valor should come with consideration for weak people.

Japanese Scarlet Maple Leaves at Jakko-In

2006-12-20T22:15:00.000+09:00

I guess that it might be ten days ago. We had excursion for viewing scarlet maple leaves at the famous temple “Jakko-In” in Inuyama-City in North Aichi-prefecture. So, this time, I’d like to upload some of the pictures of scarlet maple leaves and the temple.

Inuyama-City is bit famous for tourist attractions, because the city has Japan Monkey Park, Meiji village and Little World, which are theme parks established by Meitetsu-Group. Every park is huge and interesting.
And there is Inuyama Castle that has a castle tower, which is national treasure on the rocky hill close by Kiso River.

The temple “Jakko-In” at Inuyama-city is so famous for scarlet maple leaves that there are a lot of posters in Meitetsu stations.

This time, I walked on the route that we passed through under Inuyama castle and go to Jakko-In to enjoy scarlet maple leaves, and then we visit the castle and came back with my friends.

From here, I would like to upload the pictures!

This is the tunnel under Inuyama-Castle. And Kiso River flows right of the picture. We would guess the area is the upper of Kiso River by the atmosphere of the rock.

I took the picture has a lot of scarlet maple leaves on the small brook when I walked to Jakko-In. There’re a lot of leaves.

The road to go the temple was colored by a lot of scarlet maple leaves. The timing when I visit was end of the season of scarlet maple leaves. So we walk on the road covered by a lot of fallen leaves.

The road is like this picture. The trees are scarlet maple leaves at right side.

So, these are the pictures that I took when I found a small path at right side. The steps also covered by scarlet maple leaves. I guess that it’s easy to slip at raining day.

I took the scarlet maple trees on the steps. So, there are just scarlet maple leaves!

There was a bronze statue after the steps. Of cause the background also scarlet maple leaves!

After the bronze statue, I guessed that it was the real beginning of the approach to Jakko-In. There were no autumn leaves on the steps, so I took the picture.

But, the scarlet maple leaves continued from next steps. We really loved the scarlet maple leaves. Don’t you think it’s beautiful?

These steps were under the roof made in scarlet maple leaves! The color was beautiful red at the foot, but the colors were changed to yellow! Because of the scarlet maple leaves are very sensitive in the environment, so there was a difference of temperature between the foot and top of the small mountain that Jakko-In locates on.

There is Jakko-In is a temple on the top of the mountain. And it has a special bell. How special? If we pray for our dream while striking the bell, the dream will come true. So, I struck it strongly! I wish the dream would come true.

And I took the picture of Inuyama-castle while going back. The left of the sun is Inuyama-castle, and the river is Kiso River.

Japanese really love scarlet maple leaves, and the leaves is one of the representatives of Japanese autumn. The atmosphere is difference from Canadian one. Canadian Maple leaves would be great and breathtaking, Japanese Maple leaves would be sensitive and breathtaking.

Because, Japanese beauties have been cared from old times and it was calculated.

The dolls of Chrysanthemum at Kasumiga castle in Nihon-Matsu city

2006-11-29T23:33:00.000+09:00

This blog is also written about my travel in Tohoku area. And this time, I would like to write about the event that is The Dolls of Chrysanthemum Festival called "Kiku–Ningyo" at Kasumiga castle in Nihon-Matsu city.

When we wanted to enter into the Kasumiga castle, we could found the bronze statues who died at the Boshin-war when they were so young. Generally the bronze statues aren't decorated with flowers, but the date was special.

And this is the entrance of the castle, and there is a long stone stairway in front of the gate. Can you find the two dolls on the stairway? They are so small on the picture.

We enjoyed a lot of chrysanthemums in the castle. And the chrysanthemums is called "Sen–Rin-Zaki" that means "One thousand chrysanthemums". And the explanation about the chrysanthemums describe that the number is 1725. Wow, it's over one thousand!

we enjoyed a lot of single chrysanthemums also. And this was my best chrysanthemum at the event. Is it beautiful?
But some of the chrysanthemums were already dead, and others didn't start flowering yet. Because, it makes everybody enjoy some of full-blown chrysanthemums over the term.

The theme of this year is "Komyoga-Tsuji" that is the famous period drama and the story is the success story of Kazutoyo Yamanouch who was a just soldier when he was young. But finally he became a King. So a lot of the chrysanthemum dolls show some scene in the drama. I can't remember the exact number of the scenes and it might be around 15.

So there were a lot of people on the drama in included Kazutoyo. And this scene is Hanami that is cherry-blossom viewing.

We enjoyed a lot of chrysanthemums all over the event included the drama. And the waterfall is also dressed with the chrysanthemums.

This is the biggest scene of the drama that is Sekigahara-war. The Samurai on the horse is Kazutoyo. Maybe you can see that the dolls wear the chrysanthemums.

After the drama, the atmosphere was changed to Japanese story of olden times. And the picture is "Sichi-Fuku-Jin" that is the Seven Deities of Good Fortune.
If we see the picture carefully, we can find the autumn leaves.

We found the doll that is changing the chrysanthemums and we went near the doll and took the picture. And we found the fact that general people can try the change with our reservation.

These pictures are Japanese story of olden times. Someday, I would like to describe the stories.

This isn't Japanese story of olden times. And is a puppet show that describes a woman who fights with her incurable disease and her name is Chieko. They also wore chrysanthemums.

I took the picture on the hill after went out from the event. We could see the whole place of the event. This side is the scene of the Sekigahara-war, can you remember?

We enjoyed the chrysanthemum doll festival so much. And the festival is unique for me.
When I visited some places in Tohoku area. I found the fact that they really love their local famous people. It's bit difference from other country's one.

Japanese Soba and Imo-Ziru at Yamagata in prefecture

2006-11-21T19:46:00.000+09:00

When I travel at Yama-Dera in Yamagata prefecture, we eat the local dishes, which are Soba and Imo-Ziru.

Do you know what kinds of noodles are famous in Japan? Ramen, Udon, and Soba are so popular in Japan. Udon is popular in Weston Japan, Soba is famous at north are popular and ramen is for all over Japan.

So at last travel in north are in Japan, it gave an opportunity to eat real Soba to me. The flavor was so nice and it was difference flavor and taste in other area.

At first, we ate the Konnyaku and Japanese pickles after our order. Both are special local dishes at the area.
Konnyaku has very unique feel in our mouth. Please try Konnyaku if you have any chances to try it.

And we were waiting for our Soba and Imo-Ziru during eating them.

This is the Imo-Ziru. This is a soup with Sukiyaki taste and several kinds of ingredients. The mean of the word ‘Imo’ is describing potato and taro, at that time we ate some taros in the soup. The most interesting ingredient was Sendai-Fu for me, and is so unique for me also even if I’m Japanese.

And this is another main dish Soba!
We ate them with cold temperature, the taste was difference from other area’s one. Especially it was a good season for Soba, we enjoyed them very well.

So when you visit Tohoku Area, which is north part of Japan, don’t forget to eat Soba. It’s so nice.

Japanese temple in a mountain, Yamadera

2006-11-18T19:13:00.000+09:00

At my traveling in Tohoku area, Yamadera in Yamagata prefecture was one of my important places to visit.

Tohoku area has four famous Buddhist temples, and one of them is the Yamadera, So I’ve watched some posters of it at some JR stations. So I ‘m so happy! Because, I got the opportunity to visit the great temple, and I also get the opportunity to upload some my pictures about Yamadera!

I hope that my picture will make you visit the temple.

There are some reasons that Yamadera is famous, and one of them is Basho Matsuo who is one of the greats about Haiku that is Japanese poem. There is his bronze statue near the souvenir shops the foot of the mountain.

Then, if you see the next of the bronze statue, you would find the monument about his poem.

The poem describe below means.

Silent
　　Soaking into the rock
　　　　The chirring of cicadas

My last boss sometimes gave me the explanation about this Haiku. The time he told me that there are a lot of cicadas and they are chirring in chorus in summer, the time Basho found the fact that he can’t hear it. It just likes that the chirring are soaking in the rock.

This is the gate of Yamadera. At the gate we need to pay 300 Yen to enter. I think it’s so cheap if I compare to the famous temples in Kyoto, and the price is the cheapest.

At inside of the temple, we can find some interesting things, and the below is also one of them.

Somebody put a lot of coins into in the cracks of the bark of the big tree.
Some of senior Japanese believe that big trees have a sprits or god. I guess that they might do it.
If I visited there with one of my Chinese friends who really love Ninja, I would say “They are present Shuriken and they are very safety, Because, it isn’t dangerous, is it?” to him.

We found some sculptures on the big rock after few minutes ago. The mountain is a big rock mountain and it has a lot of sculptures and small shrines. The picture is just one of them.

Than, if we saw left side, there is a gate. It isn’t the top of the mountain.

On the other hands, if we saw right side, there are some small shrines on the rock. Can you see some stone images of Jizo? I felt some spirits of the Buddhist monks who leads an ascetic life on the mountain that was the holy mountain for them before. And a lot of monks died here.

And this is the picture that I took after the gate. The view is so beautiful by the temple and the rocks and autumn leaves.

After few minutes, I took this picture. It was almost the top of the mountain. There are three roads to go the top, to go the foot of the mountain and to go the right side of the picture. There is a monumental image of Buddha at the top, but we couldn’t see it at that time.

Can you see a lot of the shrines on the picture? At last junction, I went to right road and took this. Of cause we can’t go there, the reason is so dangerous for general people.
But autumn leaves are so nice.

There is a kind of turret at the end of the road, and we can enjoy the great view on the turret. At that day, I climbed the mountain from the foot, but we didn’t feel tired. I can guess the reason that the mountain is so interesting and we enjoyed convocations during climbing. Especially, this season is one of the best to visit there by autumn leaves.

On the turret, I took the picture. I think that this picture is so easy to guess the feature of the part of the mountain. Can you guess how the monks lived in the small hut on the right side of the picture? I have no idea.

When I went down the mountain, I took it. At this mountain I sometimes felt that maple is the best of autumn leaves. I really love deep red maples, and it adds a good accent for the beautiful view.

Finally, I want to describe that my impression of Yamadera.
I really want to recommend to visit the temple. Because, the temple owns a mountain and the site is so vast comparing to some temples in Kyoto. And you might enjoy a lot of refined views.
If I say one fault, the temple is so far from some big city in Japan. So it’s better to go there by the cars.

This time, I visited there in autumn. I can easily guess that there would be some difference tastes in other seasons, which are summer and winter.

The Abukuma-Do is the beautiful limestone cave in Japan

2006-11-14T19:03:00.000+09:00

Last week, I traveled at Tohoku area. And the provinces were Fukushima, Yamagata and Miyagi.
So, I'd like to write about my traveling at Tohoku Area with some pictures often.

For this reason, I wrote about "The Abukuma-Do", which is one of the most famous and deepest limestone cave in Japan, in Fukushima prefecture at first.

Maybe you can guess easily that the limestone cave is far from any stations, so we need to go the limestone cave by the car. So, the transportation isn't convenience for customer, because the cave is surrounded by mountains. However, The Abukuma-Do is so great and I have to recommend visiting there. In my case I visited the cave on weekdays, so there are few travelers and not busy. It made me take a lot of beautiful pictures! On the other hands, I think that we can't enjoy the cave well by a lot of travelers at summer vacation or the Golden Week. If you have any chances to travel Fukushima province on weekdays, please go there. It's so nice!

From beginning, I have to describe about The Abukuma-Do...... The limestone cave was found in 1916, and then it opened to the public after 4 years, and it received several prizes of Japanese tourist attractions. I can guess that you would have a lot of funs in the cave.

The picture is the photograph of the shrine and the surface of the mountain that have The Abukuma-Do. The Abukuma-Do was one of the places mining the limes, so we can see white rocks. The mountain and water have made The Abukuma-Do for 80 million years.

I took a sign of the entrance. The sign describe that The Abukuma-Do is one of the Japanese natural monuments. When I walked in the Abukuma-Do, I saw some Korean who wanted to scrape off the limestone during walk against the suggested route.
I thought that the reason was no sign written in Korean language. It makes some problems for international travelers. Maybe every tourist attractions have to write every sign with several languages to protect.

These pictures were taken at inside of the limestone cave. The inside is floodlighted by several colors that are green, yellow, orange and blue and it makes it be fantastic room.

This is the roof of the Abukuma-Do. We can see a lot of stalactites.

This is the largest room of the limestone cave, and the height is also enough to give strong impressive for us!

At the latter half of The Abukuma-Do, there are some table pools of limestone with so clear water. The place of inside is very special and unusual.

At this opportunity, I chosen the adventure route that is uneven and rough, so sometimes we used some ladders to advance. The route is more expensive than general one, but it's totally nice.

So please visit there with your good manners! Because, The Abukuma-Do is so great.

Japanese Sushi

2006-11-03T03:32:00.000+09:00

This time, I'd like to you introduce the sushi restaurant in Japan.
When I stayed in Canada, I found the fact that a lot of Canadian sushi restaurants were totally difference from Japanese one.

How is it different?
First, Japanese usually order Nigiri-sushi, which aren't sushi roll and look small sushi ball with any seafood in sushi restaurants.
Second, Japanese enjoy some conversation with the cook over a counter when we order something. Because. We don't know the best seafood at that day. So, it's better to ask about it to the cook.
Third, sometimes the menus describe only the name of sushi except the price. So we can't know the exact price before our payment. Usually, the price would be from 5,000 yen to 10,000 yen each. If I describe in English, it would be from $ 50 to $100 each.

Yesterday, I ate Japanese sushi in a sushi restaurant. So I updated my pictures bellow with my comments, please check them!

At beginning, we ordered a plate of assorted sashimi and beer.
The picture is the plate. There are 7 kinds of seafood, which are Kani that is crab, Tachiuo that is a scabbard fish, Hamachi that is a young yellowtail, Tyu-Toro that is a medium-fatty tuna, Tako that is a octopus, Shako that is a squilla, Wakame is one of the seaweeds.

The plate looks very beautiful, right?

This is the Japanese Sake!
When you order Japanese Sake in Japan, please try some Dai-Ginjo that is the best class of Japanese Sake. It's so nice! How nice is it? Sorry, please try in Japan, it's other sake from other countrys.

The picture is the interior of the restaurant. It's neat and clean.
Do you know how to find good sushi restaurants in Japan? It's very easy, because if the interior is neat, the tastes are delicious. Japanese believe it.

This is Hime-Negi-Nigiri. Hime-Negi is one of Japanese leek and fine and small. Japanese sushi is not only raw fish. There're several kinds.

This is the Kama that is the neck of fish. And the Kama is Hamachi's one. Kama is the best part for baking.

This is a Kuarage, which is a jellyfish, prepared with sweetened vinegar.
Yes, Japanese eat jellyfish also! The time, we also ordered Shirako, which is soft roe prepared with sweetened vinegar.
Both are very tasty, and novel for international visitors.

This is egg sushi. The egg is a sweetened and soy-flavored omelet. Can you guess the size of rice and egg? The egg for sushi is bigger than rice. So the sushi of this restaurant has very good taste, one of the reasons is a ratio.

This is a Anago-sushi, which is a conger. The Anago-sushi prepared with baked conger with the special sauce. When you eat it, every body can understand that is so soft, and it's very easy to melt in your mouth.

This is the king of sushi, Uni! Uni is a sea urchin.
And most Japanese love it! And the seaweed has great flavor, and the combination is just breathe taking.

This Miso-soup has Aka-Miso taste, which is very popular in Nagoya area. It's bit salty and bitter. But, this Miso-Soup didn't have strong taste. So I liked it.

This is the final plate in this time. That is Chawan-Mushi.
It is a steamed egg with a soup stock, therefore it's very soft! On of my friend who is a Taiwanese girl lives it.

Japanese cooking experts don't only cook, they understand the way to provide the seafood with the best condition, and they can suggest us to order some nice plates.
So, you can ask them about the recommendation and how to eat it, it makes you have more fun.
I can say "Japanese Sushi restaurant is the place to enjoy the best seafood by Japanese cooking experts"

Japanese Holy Mountai, Mt.Owari-Fuji

2006-10-28T13:50:00.000+09:00

Recently, I started to clime some mountains to take off my weight with my friend every weekend. And one of our favorite mountains is “Owari-Fuji”, which is the holy mountain in our area. So, this time I’ d like to introduce the mountain, because of the mountain is very unique.

At the beginning, I need to describe the mountain, how the mountain is unique. The mountain is owned by the Shinto shrine and they have a “Ishiage-Matsuri“, which is a festival to bring some so big stones to the mountain. This is the reason, there are a log of big stones along the mountain path.

Please check my pictures that I took when I clime the mountain!

This is the bottom of the mountain and the entrance of the mountain path. Could you feel something by this picture?

After start to clime, there are some big stones on both sides of the path, and some of the stones are so old.

Could you guess the size of the stones by the person? The stones are bigger than him. So, the stones were brought by many people from old times.

When I was at the middle of the mountain, the time I found the freestanding signboard, which describing the story of the mountain.
The story is…”Once upon a time, there was a nun who ate a meat of mermaid, and she already lived to be 800 years old by the meat. When the nun wanted to climb over the middle of mountain, her palm stuck on a rock and couldn’t separate it. Because, the part over half of the mountain was closed to women climbers. After making apology for the mountain god, her palm was separated.
At that night, she dreamed the god of the mountain and he gave an oracle bringing a lot of big stones to be higher that Mt. Hongu for her. This is the history of Ishiage-Matsuri”

Therefore, every big stones has same word “献石”, and the word means “Offering Stone”. The left stone and right stone have different words, right? Right stone is younger than left one, so the styles of the Chinese character are difference.

After middle, the atmosphere would be suitable for the holy mountain. The air also changed to be chilly.

And these stones amazed me. You know? The weight are so heavy, so I couldn’t guess how they brought to, because, some of the part of the path were too steep that they brought it to.

Could you see? There was a path at the center of the picture to go the top of the mountain. I climbed on the way by the recommendation of my friend for our exercise when I went up. After followed him, I got regret soon.

This picture is another path. In my opinion, this way is totally better than his recommendation. Don't you think so?

This is the top of the mountain! There is a Shinto Shrine! I found some so old big stones that had been brought before 150 years ago.

How do you think about this holy mountain? In my case, I really enjoyed to climb the mountain and to feel the atmospheres that was so nice to feel ancient Japanese nature. If you’ll visit Aichi province, please try to climb this mountain.

If you're interested in Inuyama, please check more!
Inuyama City in Aichi

Japanese Chicken Wings, Tebasaki

2006-10-21T12:00:00.000+09:00

Do you like Chicken wings?

Our hometown area, which is Nagoya area, is the famous about chicken wings in Japan. And we call it Tebasaki.
The Tebasakis are grilled or deep fried, and the taste is so nice, so we really love them to be honest.

This is the picture of the Tebasaki looks nice, right? When we start to order, we ordered three serving of the Tebasaki with beer. This is the Nagoya style!

And do you know how to eat chicken wings in our area? I took a picture describing the way. Can you understand by a below picture?

If you do that in front of your friends, it would make them be surprised surely. So please try it.

Japanese Samurai Festival (Natoya Festival)

2006-10-17T14:14:00.000+09:00

Last weekend, I went to Nagoya-City that is the third biggest area in Japan to meet my friend.
At that day, there was one of the most famous festivals in Nagoya-City, which was Nagoya Festival.

So, in this blog, I’d like to write about the festival.
In this year, Nagoya Festival was holed on the week end of October 15th and 16th. The festival had some events and biggest event is the “Kyodo Saneiketsu”, which celebrates the three most famous and popular Samurai in Japan whose name are Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa. I enjoyed the parade.

And at the festival, we can enjoy other events in Nagoya-City, I want to enjoy more events next year. In additionally, some place were given free access, for example Nagoya-Castle, Higashi-Yama zoo and so on.

From here, I uploaded some pictures at Kyodo-Saneiketsu in Nagoya Festival. Please check them!

There are three group, because the parade for three famous Samurais who are Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. So, the parade has three group for three Samurais and Nobunaga is the first samurai and Ieyasu is the final one at this parade.
This picture is beginning of Nobunaga group, and the guy has a nameplate of Nobunaga.

This is the symbol of his family, and called “Mokkou Ageha-Chou”.

It’s one of the parts of Nobunaga group, after this part there are some gun solders and Japanese sword solders and generals. We enjoyed short play each groups.

Nobunaga’s short play is Anegawa-war, the time I took some pictures for gun solders. Because, Nobunaga’s gun solders are very famous.

after the war, Nobunaga on with his horse entered the place!

And after Nobunaga, his general were following him. In this parade, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu were just Nobunaga’s general, even if they had own group in this event.

Without a break, Hideyoshi group was coming with his flag that were drown his family crest called “GoSichi no Kiku”

He is Hideyoshi! And the golden gourd is his symbol at war called “Sennari-Hyotan”

Each groups have a women’s car. This picture is Hideyoshi’s one. Looks beautiful, right?

Finally, Ieyasu was entered on the parade. The picture is his symbol “Kin Sen”

I took the picture of his gun solders were shooting at the beginning of his short play. Can you see the fire on the gun?

After gun fight, they started sword-to-sword fighting! Finally, there were only one each general!
And…

On this blog, I don’t want to write every thing, so please stop Nagoya Festival next year.

I hope that you will enjoy the parade and some other events at Nagoya Festival.

A Japanese castle, which is The Hikone Castle

2006-10-14T16:02:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, I visited at "The Hikone castle", which is one of the Beautiful castle in Japan. And the Hikone castle locates very close the Biwa Lake, which is the biggest lake in Japan, so the location is truly wonderful.
In additionally, it's famous about autumn leaves and cherry blossoms, and it has the big Japanese Daimyo garden that is Genkyu-En.

When I visited the castle, I met some international travelers, it made me guess that the castle is one of the tourist attractions in Japan or it's easy to fined the castle on some international guidebooks.

The castle cost us 500 yen (almost 5 US dollars) to enter, it's not so expensive if I compare to other tourist attractions.
Anyway this time, I uploaded some pictures that were taken yesterday, and added some comments for them.

This picture is taken on the bridge that was built over the moat. I can guess that there was a gate long time ago.

Behind the bridge, there is a stairway to go Tenshukaku, which is a center building of the castle. And the stairway has an idea to protect the castle. The width of each steps are difference, so it makes soldiers rush into difficultly. At the time the defensive soldier can shoot on the hill easy, right?

After the stairway, there is a wood bridge that connects to the Tenbin-Yagura (it means Balance-Turret). And it's a one of the national important cultural properties.

This is a picture taken on the hill in front of Tenbin-Yagura. Maybe you can't guess the forma by the picture, the gate has two turret at both side and looks a balance. Please check one picture before this one, you can see the turret.

There is a more stairway to go Tenshukaku behind the Tenbin-Yagura, we can guess that there are many gates to protect the Tenshukaku.

This picture is the back of The Tenbin-Yagura. There is a small open space, surrounded by stonewall. I think defensive solders shoot on stonewall easy.

This is a bell to tell the time or war. I guess that a lot of solder were called by the bell when any war started.

This is a one of the café to enjoy the Japanese green tee that wee call Matcha. The price of one cup of Matcha is 500 yen (almost 5 US dollar). I didn't check the garden behind the café, but maybe it is maintained well and you can enjoy tee and the garden.

This is the final gate to go Tenshukaku. Can you see the really big pillar?

This is the back of the final gate. Some of the solders could shoot from second floor.

This is the Tenshukaku, which has three layers, in this castle that is standing on the backlight strongly! The Tenshukaku So, after this picture, I updated some pictures that were taken in the Tenshukaku.

These are Teppo-Zama and Ya-Zama. These are hole to shoot some offensive solders from inside. Usually it is hided by the board. So this is the reason that we can't see the Teppo-Zama and Ya-Zama from outside.

This is a stairs in the Tenshukaku. Can you guess the angle of inclination? The angle is super heavy slope, and very dangerous. I heard that it's also to protect from offensive solders, but before fight inside of the Tenshukaku, it was burned with a bright flame by offensive solders.

This beautiful view was taken on the top. There is the Biwa Lake at right side of the picture.

I took the picture at second floor in the Tenshukaku, the beams keep the Tenshukaku since it built up. So the size is so big and so burly, right?

This floor is called Musha-Damari, which is the place to have some conferences with officers and some solders. However, the room isn't so large.

This is the back of the Tenshukaku, the white wall is just noble.

I took the picture when I come out from Nishino-Maru. Because, we can see stonewall and it's easy to understand how high is it, and it's very difficult to clime it. In addition, the bottom has no water, because this is the inner moat same as Tenbin-Yagura.

These pictures are the outer moat of this castle. The moat has water. When I stopped at this moat, I felt calm by the moat, I think the reasons came from some birds and the moat is wide. Don't you think so?

These two pictures were taken at the Genkyu-En that is Japanese Daimyo garden. So, this is the exactly Japanese garden. Maybe you can guess the Japanese style from them. Japanese feature has few colors, green, brown and black. It's very simple.

This time, I updated some pictures and wrote some comments on this page. So if you watch some fake Japanese castles and gardens, you will see through it.

Atomic Weaponry

2006-10-12T19:01:00.000+09:00

Recently, North Korea said, “We got our atomic weapons” to all countries of the world. Japan locates close North Korea, and it’s easy to fire some missiles to Japan from North Korea.

On the other hands, Japanese government and US are thinking some sanctions for North Korea. Basically, North Korea doesn’t have enough power to fight with US and South Korea. So, I worry about North Korea would fire any missiles to Japan from beginning when they start to have war with international armed forces.

Basically, the area is very difficult, because they have own rules that isn't International one and they hate other countries advices. The history gave a lot of evidences.

Japanese Cell Phone

2006-10-11T22:13:00.000+09:00

Today, I bought my new cell phone!
Since I came back from Canada, I've never haven my cell phone and it makes me feel uncomfortable. But, from today, it’s very easy to contact with my friends by my cell phone actually.

The cell phone has some interesting functions, which are digital TV, radio, music player, digital camera, barcode reader, electronic money, and so on.

Especially Digital TV function is the best of all others, and if I insert a memory card into the cell phone, I can record the program as any TV recorder. At that time, we can select the TV program from Internet TV program listing.

So, the cell phone give some funs to me.

Hello!

2006-10-08T09:24:00.000+09:00

I came back from Canada Oct 4th, 2006.

I felt bit strange about new my Japanese life. I guess that the reason came from some culture difference between Canadian life and Japanese one.

So, I'd like to write some information about Japanese life with comparing Canadian cultures.

If you want to visit or stay in Japan, these information would help you.

Thank you.