Recently, as I was walking down the avenue linking Hongô 3-chôme to Ueno, I noticed a board indicating a “Japan football museum”. I decide to go in that direction to see.
The street I was in was actually called “Football street”, sakkâ-doori サッカー通り.
After a few minutes walk, I finally found the football museum, but it was closed. I’ll try to visit it another day. Here’s the museum’s website : http://www.11plus.jp/e/
When I go to Ueno or Akihabara (on foot or by bike), I often go through Yanaka Ginza and Ueno park. On the way, there’s a really short roofed passage. It’s the merchant street (a dead-end alley, actually) called Hatsune-kouji 初音小路.
There are several shops, restaurants and bars there with an atmosphere recalling a bit 1960’s Japan found in Yasujirô Ozu’s movies. If I have an opportunity, I’ll try one of these restaurants.
Ueno park not being far from where I live, I take advantage of days the weather is good (which is quite rare recently) to have walk there. Here are some famous monuments of this park.
The picture above is that of the gate called “kuromon 黒門” (the black gate). It is said to have been themain gate to the manor of lord Ikeda, daimyo of Inaba province (East of Tottori). It is now located inside Tokyo National Museum, at the north of the park.
Not far from there is the Tokyo National Museum of Nature and Science. Beside it is a full size statue of a blue whale diving. The statue is 30 metres long.
More in the south of the park is the statue of Saigô Takamori 西郷隆盛 (1827-1877). He was a Japanese politician of late Edo-early Meiji period, originary from the Satsuma province which opposed the shogunate to restitute the Emperor at the head of the State.
When coming to Japan, one goes to buddhist temples and shinto shrines. There are however also many churches in Japan. The other day, as I was having a walk in Nezu district, which is famous for its sanctuary, I found this church.
It was built in 1919 (Taishô era) and is still used nowadays. It is a protestant church.
It is probably not as exotic as a shrine or a temple, but I find this kind of building very interesting. It shows the Japanese’s broad-mindedness towards religions.
When I was in Hiroshima, I made a short trip to the town of Iwakuni. There is a 5-arches wooden bridge crossing the Nishiki river. It’s the Kintai-kyô 錦帯橋 bridge.
It was built in 1673 by Kodama Kurôemon under an order from the local lord, Kikkawa Hiroyoshi. It was destroyed by a typhoon in 1950 and rebuilt in 1953. The bridge is 210 metres in length. It cost 300 Yen to cross it both ways.
During my trip in Hiroshima, I visited the Hiroshima castle.
As most Japanese castles, it’s not the original building but a reconstitution as it was destroyed by the A-bomb in 1945.
The inside of what is also called the Carp Castle (rijô 鯉城) has been amenaged as a museum about the history of Hiroshima. There, we learn that the castle was built in 1589 by Môri Terumoto 毛利輝元 who was one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s council of Five Elders. In 1600, being on the defeated side at the Sekigahara battle, Môri was forced to leave the castle and to retreat to Hagi (Yamaguchi prefecture). Fukushima Masanori 福島正則 became then the new lord of the castle until 1619. He was then replaced by Asano Nagaakira 浅野長晟.
The museum also explains the different types of Japanese castles and the social organization during the Edo period. It’s probably not the most interesting attraction in Hiroshima, but it’s worth seeing.
Actually is held in Asakusa district the sanja-matsuri festival 三社祭 (festival of the 3 shrines). It celebrates the three founders of the Sensô-ji 浅草寺, Hinokuma Hamanari, Hinokuma Takenari and Hajino Nakatomo.
Many people, both locals and tourists come to see the procession of portable shrines.
If you’re in Tokyo, go there, it’s impressing.
As I said before, I went to Hiroshima during the “Golden Week”. Apart from the Itsukushima-jinja sanctuary, I also went to the famous Atomic Bomb Dome, also called Genbaku dômu 原爆ドーム. This is another site registered to the Unesco World Culture Heritage.
The building used to be Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall and was designed by a Czech architect called Jan Letzel. The atomic bomb is said to have exploded about 160 metres from the building. (The bomb actually exploded about 600 metres from the ground, so the Genbaku domu is actually located 160 metres from the pointed straight under where the bomb exploded.)
Not far from there i, in a park, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum where the history of the city, that of the development of atomic bombs and the ravages the bomb thrown on the 6th of august 1945 by US Army caused on the city and people of Hiroshima are presented. A visit to this museum won’t leave you intact, I assure you.
I took advantage of the holidays period called “Golden Week” in Japan to get out of Tokyo and go to Hiroshima. There, I made a visit to the Itsukushima shrine, located in Miyajima, in the West of Hiroshima, and registered as a Unesco World Heritage site. It is also one of the “Three most beautiful landscapes of Japan (nihon sankei 日本三景)”.
The torii gate to the shrine (ootorii 大鳥居) is particularly famous for being in the sea, giving the impression it floats over the water. It was edified in 1168, but the actual one dates back from 1875.
The shrine itself is built on pilotis and also gives the impression of floating on the sea, at high tide. To observe this, it is better to go there late in the afternoon. The first picture, above, was taken at around 6:40 pm, but the sea level is not high enough yet. It’s probably better to go there in summer.
The several buildings that compose the shrine are connected to each other by roofed corridors. Apart from the buildings used for religious purposes, there’s also a stage for nô theater.
I hope this will make you feel like going there.
I mentioned the Nezu are previously, well, if you come around, don’t miss the Nezu-jinja sanctuary 根津神社. This shinto sanctuary was created in Sendagi more than 1900 years ago by legendary character Yamato Takeru 日本武尊, prince of the Yamato dynasty. It was relocated to Nezu in 1705 by the 5th shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi 徳川 綱吉, in the Edo period.
Nezu-jinja has been designated as important national cultural heritage.est désigné patrimoine culturel important national. Around it are other sanctuaries such as the Otome-inari jinja 乙女稲荷神社 or the Komagome-inari jinja 駒込稲荷神社.
Several festivals take place at the Nezu-jinja, but I particularly recommend you the Azalea festival, Tsutsuji-matsuri which is from early april to early may. If you haven’t anything planned this weekend, go there !