Like I said before, Japan consists of something very new and old. In the urban areas of Japan you would see many modern things, but our rural areas are full of old buildings, traditional food and so on. I can experience both of the new and old in my neighborhood. And I think I'm very lucky to have this theme park in a nearby city. Anyway, this is a sequel to the last posting.
I walked toward the bridge. As it was very warm like March, this walk was a bit surreal with birds singing and the reflection of the clear sky on the surface of the channel.
This is called "Nihonbashi" or a Japanese bridge. Upon hearing this name, people would think of the bridge of the same namesake in Chuo ward, Tokyo. Here is the link to a pic of the bridge in Tokyo. I guess people in the Edo period would have walked on a bridge comfortably without any cars.
This is the nameboard of the clothes shop you're seeing. It reads "Gofuku Futomono Donya". "Gofuku" is close to the meaning of clothes, and "Donya" is like the word "wholesaler". And as for "Futomono", it means clothes made of hemp or silk.
This is also the nameboard of the inn in the pic. The inns in the Edo period were called "Hatago", in which worriers or ordinary people stayed. "Hatago" originally means "a serving dish" or "a place where food is served".
I sit on one of these chairs to rest for a while. There were carps in the pond.
A TV drama called "Animitsu Hime 2"was broadcast last year. It is a drama that has the Edo period setting. The heroine of the TV drama was then 22 year old Mao Inoue. You can go to her official page by clicking this link. I think she is really beautiful in the eyes of Japanese people.
These are fans that are called "Sensu" in Japanese. We use more oridinary fans like "Uchiwa" in the summer, but older or decent people would use the fans shaped like these. You can fold a "Sensu" and put it in your pocket.
A shirt with the picture called "Ukiyoe", which was invented in the Edo period. You can buy this shirt for 1500yen or about 16 us dollars. The words on your left say, "This shirt has the picture on its back only".
You can buy these pickles called "Tsukemono". I have some for dinner once in a while. It goes very well with rice, and I could have a few bowls of rice with some Tsukemono.
The round-shaped object you're seeing is an old-styled umbrella called "Douchuugasa". There wasn't the umbrella in the Edo period that you use now, and this hat kept people from the rain. Its price was 840 yen or about 9 us dollars.
I was going to have a canned coffee on my way home, but that would bore you. Instead I bought this canned juice called "Youkai-jiru", or "Monster juice". I have to say if it tasted like something out of a monster, nobody would buy it anyways. Instead it tasted more like lemonade.
I think the area I live in is pretty interesting as it has many fashionable shops, scientific laboratories, and something very old. I sometimes wish I could write about Tokyo as a blogger, which I'd like to do once in a while, but I think foreign people might like to visit other areas in Japan as well =)
