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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)
