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I went to see the spring-time special exhibition at Fukui City History Museum “Edo, Kyoto, Osaka and a castle town Fukui”, which began on March 24th.
Major exhibits of this exhibition are a commanding view of the castle town Fukui, a landscape of Edo and a panoramic screen painting of Kyoto and Osaka etc.
Of course, there was no aerial photography at that time but the purveying painters to the government drew such detailed pictures. I have respect for their remarkable ability.
From the Edo bird’s eye view screen painting, I noticed that Edo developed around rivers. Actually, there was “Nihonbashi Bridge” for real. If Tokyo had been developed utilizing more these canals, part of the city might have been a tourism district like Amsterdam or Venice. It’s fun to imagine like that. (H.S)
*Some exhibits are replaced in the middle of the exhibition.
This year marks the 150 year since the era changed from Edo to Meiji.
In Fukui, many events are coming up with the title of late Edo and Meiji Fukui 150 year Expo.
In our previous blog, we have introduced that Ms. Sonam Choki who is the image girl of Bhutan Museum Fukui and she appears in its poster came to Fukui from Bhutan. She stayed in Fukui City from January 20th, 2018 for about one month.
She was only 14 years old when the photograph that has been used for Bhutan Museum Fukui poster was taken. She is now 23 years old.
On January 26th, 2018, Genji Nosaka, the former president of Bhutan Museum Fukui and visited Fukui TV, we learned about Fukui TV and their TV programs.
We talked in front of the cameras about Bhutan, how Ms. Sonam Choki was found in Bhutan after several years of searching her, education system in Bhutan and so on. It was broadcasted on one of their TV programs. I was very excited and graceful to see it because it can help more people to know about how great Bhutan is, and Fukui has such a great relationship with Bhutan.
Ms. Sonam Choki spoke softly and confidently in front of cameras and staff at Fukui TV. I was worried that she had many questions from them, but she was answering each question nicely with smile. The way she spoke calmly, nicely with grace and dignity made everyone around her comfortable. We all enjoyed talking to each other.
The former president of Bhutan Museum Fukui, Genji Nosaka and Ms. Sonam Choki took a photograph with “ear-ear chan” the official mascot character for Fukui TV. I asked Ms. Sonam Choki if she was nervous taking in front of the staff at Fukui TV. She said that she was not nervous, she enjoyed learning about the TV company.
On the street in front of our office in the center of Fukui city, the buds of cherry trees look begining to bloom.
This street crosses Fukui City from east to west, and is called "Sakura-dori street",
because all the trees planted along the road from end to end which is about 8.2 km are cherry trees.
The trees are still small at the end of the road, but around the center of the city they are big and will be quite gorgeous as they bloom.
Though you can't open your lunchboxes under them because it is an ordinary road, you can enjoy cherry-blossom viewing while you are in the car or while walking.
Further, you can find a band of cherry blossoms that runs through the city,
seeing from Mt.Asuwa-yama which is known for cherry blossoms too and not so far from here.
T.S
A photo which I have seen before was in the Fukui newspaper dated March 5th.
It was a picture of a ghost stored in Gansenji Temple in Awara City, Fukui Prefecture.
（From the Fukui newspaper dated March 5th）
GEN shares videos from the internet broadcasting station “Net de Awara” in Awara City, Fukui Prefecture with permission. In one of the videos, they visited the Gansenji Temple and interviewed with the wife of its chief priest about the ghost.
Who was the ghost?
A long time ago, an old woman came to the Gansenji Temple and asked the chief priest to chant a Buddhist sutra. But while he was chanting, she was gone before he knew it.
Then, someone came to the temple and said “My grandmother died just now.” There were burnt two footmarks at the spot where the old woman was.
The picture of a ghost was painted based on the story and donated to the temple.
Also, a Christian lantern remains in the yard of the temple.
During the Edo Period, when Christian oppression got severe under the shogunate,
it is said that hidden Christians carved a cross or the Blessed Virgin Mary on a lantern
and prayed in secret. This lantern is also considered to have been made during that time.
The lord of Maruoka, Arima came from Kyushu. Probably his retainers and other people followed him and came to Maruoka. In Kyushu, where there were many Chrisitians, so they may have built this. The Gansenji Temple is Shin sect’s one but in fact their family name is also Arima.
The Gansenji Temple has rare things such as the picture of the ghost and the Christian lantern. If you want to see the picture, they will show you. Maybe the hot summer is perfect to visit the temple :) (H.S)
＊Here is the video of the Gansenji Temple by Awara City.
On January 25th, 2018, I saw some snow on the street and it was very cold. Even the weather was not great, Ms. Sonam had smiles on her face and enjoyed her day.
The Sun came out from between the clouds occasionally and the sunlight was hitting the snow.
She was excited to see replicas of real dinosaurs, and she was also surprised to hear its howling.
After watching the replicas of dinosaurs, we went to see a planetarium show in a building called Happiring near Fukui station. It was the first time to see the planetarium show and she was amazed to see it. She said that it was so much fun and beautiful.
She said that since she arrived in Japan, it had brought her endless surprises.
Stay tuned for our next blog about Ms. Sonam’s stay in Fukui.
While walking along the Phoenix street in the center of Fukui City and watching around a little carefully, various sentences at the street corner caught my eyes which I usually miss.
At a little from the main street, there is a sign that explains the ruins of the house of the chief retainer of the Fukui domain, the house of Koma. And the frame is made of Shakudani-ishi stone, which used to be the indigenous products of Fukui.
A sign explaining the origin of the name of the place around here. Here also the house of Koma appeared on it.
What I was most concerned about today was this, on the door of a small Izakaya shop "Haru no omise".
It might mean "It's a day off because we go to a hot spring trip to celebrate graduation of part-time college students", and it made me imagine the good atmosphere of the shop.
The winners of the 90th Academy Awards were announced last week and “The Shape of Water” won the Oscar for best picture. The film is now showing in Fukui as well and I went to see it.
(Photo from Fox Searchlight Pictures official Facebook page)
The film has warmth for vulnerable people who live quietly on the fringe of society.
One day, an amphibian man who had been worshiped as a god in a remote part of the upper Amazon, was carried into the hidden high-security government laboratory where Elisa (Sally Hawkins) works. Elisa got to communicate with the creature and she tries to get him out of the laboratory somehow. Elisa is a mute.
Her friends Giles and Zelda who always support Elisa, both have a problem, actually.
The director Guillermo del Toro is well known as a big fan of Japanese cartoons and special effects movies. So I guess that the amphibian man’s body is a little bit like Ultraman. :) The director himself looks like a cute mascot character, and the amphibian man is well-balanced portrayed not too grotesque, kind of cute, not only he has intelligence but also has a living creature’s instinct.
When I saw the scene of wrecking of a new Cadillac, I felt the Mexican director’s criticism toward today’s America. The enemy role is Strickland, who is offensive to women, brutal and makes racist comments. And the scene of counterattack him by sign language is piquant. The film was set in 1962 but it is like nowadays because of sexual harassment and political situation. I wonder why an amphibian man? As a matter of fact, the director del Toro saw the film “Creature From the Black Lagoon” a long time ago, and he felt sympathy for the creature, so he created this film. That sounds like him.
Even if I wrote that this is “A love story between female human and an amphibian man”, those who have not seen the film may not be able to imagine.
But communications are not just limited to between humans. As there are several stories of marriage between a human and a non-human being all over the world, I recall a Japanese folktale “The Greateful Crane” and a legend of dragon god of Yashaga Ike Pond in Fukui. Also,
I felt an animistic reverence for nature and non-human creatures. (H.S)
In our previous blog, we have introduced that Sonam Choki who is the image girl of Bhutan Museum Fukui and she appears in its poster came to Fukui from Bhutan. She stayed in Fukui City from January 20th, 2018 for about one month.
She was only 14 years old when the photograph that has been used for Bhutan Museum Fukui poster was taken. She is now 23 years old.
On January 23rd, 2018, Genji Nosaka, the former president of Bhutan Museum Fukui and Sonam Choki visited NHK in Fukui (Japan Broadcasting Corporation, Fukui Station). Since there is NHK World broadcasting in Bhutan, she’s seen their TV programs and familiar with NHK.
Mr. Hiroya Okado, the director of Fukui Station showed us around in the studio. We had always watched their news and TV programs as TV viewers but not as broadcasters in the studio. It was interesting for us to experience what is behind the camera and what they do in the studio. According to Mr. Okado, when a program is on the air, there are usually only a few people working in the studio. Other staff check the program, check the sound and so on in a different room.
Ms. Erika Morishita, a television broadcaster who has cheerful attitude showed us how the program would be shown on the TV. It seemed very strange to see what we usually see at home in the studio. Ms. Sonam was very interested in the TV camera which she had seen for the first time ever.
I’m sure you have seen at least one or two breaking news on TV.
Ms. Morishita showed us how they usually broadcast when a breaking news happen. An example script that she showed us looked as it needs to be read calmly, seriously and clearly.
At this moment, none of us knew that they would had to report many breaking heavy snow news 2 weeks later.
Mr. Nosaka and Ms. Sonam had such a great experience seeing the studio, and learning about the TV company and their programs.
This stunning decorative dish with the scenery of Tojinbo as a motif is a collaborative work of pottery and lacquer art exhibited in "At the time of lacquer tree budding / Lacquer Work Fuji, Echizen Decorative Ware Exhibition".
Fukui's prefectural flower, daffodils are drawn with lacquer on the blue glazed part of the Echizen-yaki earthenware dish.
Although I tend to think that the picture in lacquer is Makie, these daffodils are drawn with Chinkin (sunken gold decoration).
Chinkin is the decoration technique of engraving the surface and filling the engraved lines or points with gold, on the other hand, Makie is the technique of spreading gold or silver powder over lacquered pattern to fix it.
At this exhibition, collaboration with various materials such as lacquer and ceramics, glass, woodwork, Japanese paper etc. is proposed.
It is being held in the gallery 'Fukui Kougeisha Craft Gallery' in the center of Fukui city until March 18th.
T.S
There is a sake brewery “Aoki Ranjado”, which has run for more than 400 years quietly in Togo District, Fukui City. In fact, they produce medicated liquor “Ranja liquor” adding a dozen crude drugs. It is a secret sake handed down in a feudal lord, Asakura clan and even today, Aoki family continues to produce, from father to only child, by the same method.
Because we visited them to take a video last year, I always have the Ranja liquor ready at home. I have a capful before going to bed, when I felt tired or wanted to get a good sleep. The taste is similar to Kahlua. It’s good with a mellow sweetness. Although it was very cold and snowed heavily this winter, I didn’t catch a cold. Maybe it’s thanks to the Ranja liquor. Come to think of it, Ms. Aoki also said that she had the Ranja liquor like gargle when she had a slight cold and she recovered next morning.
By the way, don’t you think the word “Ranja” is difficult but unforgettable?
As Ms. Aoki told about that in the interview, “Ranja” is a genuine Japanese which is listed in the Kojien dictionary.
*Ranja – The scent of orchid and musk. Good smell. (From the Kojien)
Aoki Ranjado is located in a quiet environment centered nostalgic beautiful irrigation streams near Ichijodani Asakura Clan Ruins. If you visit Ichijodani Asakura Clan Ruins, why don’t you drop by? Mr. and Ms. Aoki will welcome you. You can buy their products at Seibu department store in Fukui City as well. (H.S)
Quaint entrance and surround of Aoki Ranjado
Inside. Its wall was hung with pictures of the old method of Ranja liquor
In our previous blog, as we introduced that Sonam Choki, who is the image girl of Bhutan Museum Fukui and she appears in its poster, came to Fukui from Bhutan. She stayed in Fukui City from January 20th, 2018 for about one month.
She was only 14 years old when the photograph that has been used for Bhutan Museum Fukui poster was taken. She is now 23 years old.
On the second day of her stay in Fukui, we had lunch at a Japanese restaurant “Hanako no Ie” (Ie means a house in Japanese) that serves homemade Japanese food.
It was a pretty big lunch. For their special 500 yen lunch meal, we had miso soup, rice, pickles, boiled vegetables, a fried croquette (frying mashed potato ball) and salad.
*their lunch menu changes everyday.
According to the cook/owner of the restaurant, her recommendation is the fried croquette. It is made with pumpkin, potatoes, and onions. I had it and it was very delicious that the outside of the fried coquette was crispy and inside of it was very soft and hot.
I asked Ms. Sonam, what she liked the best. She said that she enjoyed the croquette and she was also amazed by the miso soup as well. The cook spent time and effort making the soup from scratch. The miso soup broth was made from boiled-dried fish and it was very delicious.
After we had lunch, we went to an animation store called “animate” which is a large chain of anime stores in Japan. They sell everything from anime, games, manga and anime related goods such as manga, figures, posters, stationery goods and much more.
In Bhutan, anime, “NARUTO” and “ONE PIECE” are very popular. Ms. Sonam likes them as well so she bought an ONE PIECE keychain and a pen.
As soon as we stepped out from animate, it started snowing hard and we did not have umbrellas. We decided to head to a 100 yen shop around the station.
She said that there aren’t any stores in Bhutan like 100 yen stores in Japan. It was very new and interesting for her so she kept walking and looking around in the store. Since she is a college student, she likes stationery supplies. She bought vocabulary cards to memorize Japanese vocabularies and an umbrella.
100 Japanese Yen is about 57 Bhutan Ngultrum.
On the way back to Bhutan Museum, we saw snow falling in large flakes. In Bhutan, it does snow sometimes but it does not snow as much as it does in Japan. And top of that, she’s never seen such large snowflakes, so she was amazed by the snow.
Stay tuned for our next blog about Ms. Sonam’s stay in Fukui.
At Bhutan Museum Fukui, you can see many interesting things from Bhutan!
Official Website of Bhutan Museum Fukui
The places we went on February 20th, 2018:
The local homemade Japanese restaurant
“Hanakono Ie (Hanako’s house)”
Address:
1-10-15 Junka,
Fukui-shi, Fukui-ken
910-0023
Japan
Phone Number:
81-776-30-1190
Anime, Manga (Comics) and games specialty store
“Animate Fukui”
Adress:
THEATRE CINQ
1-8-17 Chuo,
Fukui-shi, Fukui-ken
910-0006
Japan
Phone Number:
81-776-28-0255
100 yen shop “Seria” Aossa, Fukui
Adress:
AOSSA
1-4-1 Teyose,
Fukui-shi, Fukui-ken
910-0858
Japan
Phone Number:
81-776-89-1514
On the morning of February 28, I went to the "Winter Restaurant for wild birds" of Fukui Prefecture Nature Conservation Center again. Normally this event ends today, but this year we have a lot of snow so it will be held until the end of March.
I heard that squirrels came just before I arrived. Unfortunately I could not see squirrels, but I could see Kogera (Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker) and Gojukara (Sitta europaea) that I could not see last time and Akagera made its appearance for a longer time than before.
T.S
Kogera (Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker), the first time I saw it
Gojukara (Sitta europaea), barely able to take photo
Akagera (Great spotted woodpecker) VS. Tsugumi (thrush)
NHK Education TV program “Super Presentation” introduces selected presentations from TED Conference. I also sometimes watch it if I am interested in the subject.
In the last week’s program, the presentation “The secret to living longer may be your social life” by a developmental psychologist, Susan Pinker, was introduced. The keyword is “Blue Zones”, which means the five areas where people live statistically longest. By the way, there is a Blue Zone in Japan, too. It is Okinawa. The term “Blue Zones” appeared by National Geographic magazine in 2005. But now, unfortunately, the average longevity of Okinawa residents is decreasing.
Susan Pinker (Photo from the official website of NHK “Super Presentation”)
A Blue Zone, Sardinia, Italy, where there are 6 times as many centenarians as the Italian mainland. There are 10 times as many centenarians as there are in North America. According to Susan Pinker, it is regardless of their nature optimistic or food and it is because their relationships with other people are close and they often meet people in person.
Also, in the presentation, there was the following data, which was very interesting.
[What reduces your chances of dying the most?]
*Going from the least powerful predictor to the strongest.
10.Clean Air
9.Hypertension Rx
8.Lean vs. Overweight
7.Exercise
6.Cardiac Rehab
5.Flu Vaccine
4.Quit Boozing
3.Quit Smoking
2.Close Relationships
1.Social Integration
I didn’t expect that having a flu vaccine protects you more than doing exercise.
And, the strongest predictor is social integration. This means how much you interact with people. But it’s not the same thing as interacting through text or via social media.
Face-to-face contact releases a whole cascade of neurotransmitters, and like a vaccine,
they protect you now in the present and well into the future.
That means loneliness may be a great enemy to live a long life.
This face-to-face contact provides stunning benefits, yet now almost a quarter of the population says they have no one to talk to. Speaking of loneliness, I heard that Britain's prime minister announced the country will appoint a minister of loneliness the other day.
The power of such face-to-face contact is really why there are the lowest rates of dementia among people who are socially engaged, bolsters the immune system and helps us live longer. Therefore, Japan also should be serious about such issues. (H.S)
