There is a place in Tsuchiura City, which is next to my own city, where a poet Komachi Ono is said to have passed away. The place is called "Komachi no Sato"(Sato means "hometown" in this case), and it had her tombstone and some shrines as well. I came to this "Sato" last weekend.
When you come here the first thing you'd see is this sign. The white Japanese reads, "Komachi no Sato". I drove about 1 hour to reach here.
Though this waterwheel seemed to be made for tourists, I was impressed by its enormousness. I came here for the first time, and one of the reasons why I visit "Japanese-styled" places is to make a posting for this blog to be honest.
This is a picture of Komachi Ono. Her birthplace is said to be in Akita or Fukui prefecture or elsewhere, and the place she died is also numerous, but let's believe this place has something to do with her last days. She wrote poems called "Haiku" for a poetry book called "Kokinshuu", and she is one of the very renowned poets from the Heian period (794-1192).
There was a doll of Komachi Ono, and the clothes she's wearing is called "Jyuuni Hitoe". It was worn as oridinary clothes back then.
I came here around noon, so I decided to have lunch here. You should have you legs folded to sit here. That way of sitting is called "Seiza" and here's a pic of "Seiza".
Have you gotten used to seeing Soba? This cold Soba is called "Zaru", and if it has "Tempura" as well, it can be called "Tenzaru". (So this is Tenzaru as you can see).
I saw this "Electric Dragonfly", which was made by a professor from a university, outside the Soba restaurant. It seemed to have been set up to attract tourists, but personally I thought this didn't go well with the legendary poet.
-to be continued-
