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Gate City Ohsaki sunset
Gate City Osaki (ゲートシティ大崎) is an artificial (urban renewal) city constructed on the Yamanote Line about 10 years before I took today’s photo in 2010. I’m not a big fan of such places, not being a shopper and all. However, the sunset on this day was lovely.
Award Winning “The Birth of Sake” at the 2016 Ashland Independent Film Festival
One of my favorite films from the 2016 Ashland Independent Film Festival, The Birth of Sake, is showing on PBS over the next few days. See the trailer and check your local listings here.
倉
Kura means storehouse. These buildings were common during the Edo Era for merchants, or others with a bit of money, to store their valued possessions. They weren’t made out of wood, like most buildings in Japan at the time, so they could survive fires that frequently wiped out communities. You still see them occasionally when you get out into the Japanese countryside. However, in big cities, like Tokyo, they are now exceedingly rare.
This house, in Central Tokyo, was a bit north of my Nishi-Waseda apartment, maybe in Takada or Zoshigaya–I don’t remember exactly anymore. I’m not sure if they built the house around the kura, or if they built the kura with the house and merely designed it to look old. The entire property screams, “I have valuables that need protecting!”
Hideyoshi Toyotomi Statue @ Osaka Castle’s Hokoku Shrine
Hideyoshi Toyotomi began construction of Osaka Castle in 1583. Construction was completed just prior to his death. His family (the Toyotomi clan) held the area until Tokugawa took over in 1615 and the Edo Period began. The Hokoku Shrine was built in his honor on the Osaka Castle grounds late in the 19th Century.
Yakult Swallows fans and their umbrellas (YS傘)
MACさん @ Hiroshima’s Koba
I only met MAC once. It was the evening I took this photo of him. He told me about about his bar down the street. We talked about traveling around the world and meeting new people. I promised him I’d visit him in his bar the next time I came through Hiroshima. That won’t happen now as MAC has died. His memory (and the stickers and flyers with his name on them around the Koba bar) remains.