小京都革命: Revolution in Little Kyoto

サイクリングは趣味で、たまに福井市の近くの「小京都」で呼ばれる大野市へ行く。日本にいくつかの「小京都」はあると思うけど、大野市は自分の気に入りの田舎のお出掛けだ。自転車で山や田んぼを眺めながら落ち着く。

One of my hobbies is cycling, and I sometimes like to go to a town near Fukui City called Ono, which is also sometimes called "Little Kyoto" (Its temples and traditions are reminiscent of Kyoto according to some people). I think there are any number of "Little Kyoto" towns in Japan, but Ono is a personal favorite countryside getaway for me. Admiring the mountains and fields from a bicycle is very calming.

長年大野に住んでいる外国から来た友達は普通あまり町を出ないけど今年のお盆休みに仲間が一人も大野にいなかった。ということは、小京都は無防備になった。戦争戦略ゲームが好きな俺様はこんな機会を絶対に逃さないから、すぐ旅の準備をして大野を征服しに行った。

国、町等を征服するには旗が必要だからそれを準備した。下の写真は俺様の栄光の勝利の証拠だ。

Friends of mine from overseas who have lived in Ono for a long time usually don't leave town much, but this year during vacation time in August not one person remained there. This means that Little Kyoto was left defenseless. As a fan of war strategy games, I simply could not pass up this opportunity. I quickly prepared for my journey and set out to conquer Ono.

When conquering a country or a town, flags are necessary, so I prepared one. The pictures below are evidence of my glorious victory.

小京都は俺様のものじゃ！

これから大野に行く時ここで泊まる。

From now on when I visit Ono, I'm staying here.

俺様のお清水

My pure spring water

俺様の国際的に有名な半熟味付け煮玉子（越前大野駅の近くのラーメン屋さん）

My internationally renowned seasoned soft-boiled eggs (from a ramen place near the Ono JR station)

この寺町の写真をよく見たら、征服の道具が見える。

If you look closely at this picture of the temple district, you can see the instrument of my conquest.

俺様の里芋。

My satoimo fields.

俺様の山。俺様のお米。

My mountains. My rice.

俺様の不思議な橋。

My mysterious bridge.

俺様の置き忘れられた建設機器。

My misplaced construction equipment.

忙しい一日を終えて、この山葡萄で出来たワインを飲んでリラックスした。

After a hard day, I relaxed with wine made from these mountain grapes.

新しい帝王を祝う花火。

Fireworks to celebrate the new sovereign.

My New Job

最近転職した。今の職場は昔お城だったけど、今ただのビルだ。

僕の机は最上階にある。普段の仕事は下の絵の通りだよ。

”Ｓｏｍｅ　ｐｌｕｍｂｅｒ”　＝　「配管工」っていう意味。

This is my new job. The location used to be a castle, but now it's just a building.

My desk is on the top floor.

The Sadness of Spring

If you come to recognize no other kanji (Chinese character) that I've ever written on this blog, at least get to know this one:
桜：sakura (cherry blossom)
Last week the cherry blossoms began blooming across Japan. I took the above picture at Himeiji castle, near Kobe. The blooming of the cherry blossom is, perhaps, the most important natural phenomenon to occur in Japan. Sakura is a proud cultural symbol that figures prominently in music, literature and artwork. Newspapers and newscasts give predictions of when the blooming should begin in various parts of the country, and people step out in droves to delight in the newfound springtime beauty.
花見： hanami (flower viewing)
A group of tourists enjoy hanami along a river in Kyoto.

The arrival of sakura marks the end to the long, cold, wet, miserable winter season. As one of the most easily recognizable symbols of Japan, it brings much happiness with its beauty, but also a tinge of sadness. The blooms only linger a couple weeks. Thus, although their arrival is a joyous occasion, those who view them do so understanding the oft clichéd phrase that all good things

must end someday.

雪祭り：Snow Festival

Time to start posting photographs from 北海道 (Hokkaido), the northernmost of the major Japanese islands and proud home of nearly 6 months of winter weather annually.Every year in February, Sapporo, the capital and largest city of Hokkaido, hosts a Snow Festival. For one week, people pass through the city in droves to see the many snow and ice sculptures. The main section of sculptures took about 1-2 hours to see, but there were other smaller displays in other parts of the city.

International superstar Al Gore!
There were a dozen large sculptures like this one and many dozens more of smaller ones like the Al Gore above.

This one follows the design of Inuyama Castle, a national treasure not far from Nagoya.

Several of the large sculptures also featured a stage with entertainers or games.

Winter Holiday 1: Osaka

新年好！

あけましておめでとう！

Bonne Année!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year, Minasan. I'm back in Fukui now. I'll be updating about my winter holiday travels throughout the coming week or so. Things did not go as planned, but I'll let you know the details as they are relevant to each post. Let's start from the beginning - a very fine place to start.

大阪

Osaka, the third largest city in Japan, is a vibrant hub of rock 'n' roll, good eats, a characteristically non-nonchalant populace and a dialect of Japanese highly favorable to comedy. I needed to fly out of the international airport but decided to spend a day in the city before leaving the country for Thailand.

I really didn't intend to see much of anything specific. I just like wandering in big cities. This a view across the river in the park in front of Osaka Castle.
I didn't enter the castle, but, gee it sure looks pretty from outside, eh? It's actually a post-war reconstruction (Americans love the bomb), so the interior isn't much too exciting from what I've heard from others.
This is where I spent most of my afternoon. The park around the castle features some free concerts. The bands were all pretty good, but even more entertaining were the people who danced along.
They never seem to spell my name properly in this country, but, man, I sure do appreciate the effort.

In Chinese folk tales there often appear certain characters known as fox spirits. Fox spirits by nature are deceptive creatures who take various forms to trick people. A traveler gets lost on a cold night in a mountain and discovers a hut with an old man to welcome him and give him a bed only to wake up alone the next morning with no hut or kindly old man. Another man marries a wealthy woman who pays all his debts only to wake up several years later with no house or wife. Sometimes they are beneficial, sometimes harmful - but always they are deceptive.

I mention Chinese folk tales because I know that fox spirits are real and they exist today in the form of Fuji Climbing Partner. As it turns out, Fuji was in Kyoto the same time I was in Osaka (only a 20-30 minute train ride away), so we agreed to meet for dinner. We met in a very busy station with probably at least 100 different exits and an underground mall. It took me at least an hour to find the exit for the restaurant we wanted. Shortly after achieving this, the fox spirit arrived eager to help me get lost on the way to Peruvian food.

We left at the proper exit, but never found the restaurant no matter how many times we doubled back and checked side streets. So, we ate somewhere else, and afterward decided to look for the Umeda Sky Building, a tower with a good view of the city. The Umeda Sky Building is rather tall and also reportedly featured a gigantic Christmas Tree in front. I say "reportedly", of course, because we never found it.

Fuji Climbing Partner has also been known to beguile travelers in search of the very-simple-to-find Philosopher's Path in Kyoto and to silence people climbing mountains so severely that onlookers marvel at what they believe to be the austere religious devotion of her victims.


Life lesson, amigos, if you ever come to Japan, be wary of anyone who speaks Chinese. Such a person may be a fox spirit.


Anyhoo, the meandering and failed adventures in Osaka were good preparation for things to come.