Day 24 - Shirakawa-Go

Shirakawa-Go is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with many houses built in the gasshō-zukuri style ("clasped-hands"). The roof space of many of these buildings were originally used for the cultivation (is that the right word?) of silk worms.

This place is very heavily visited by tourists, and we are told that this is one of the few rural settlements like this to actually see an increase in its resident population - due mostly to the economic impact and the need to service the tourism industry.



There is only just over a week left to go on the training course now, and things are still very busy, but as you can probably tell by the posts, very interesting, exciting and enjoyable.

Day 23 - Hida-Takayama

We are away for a few days at the moment, and today we are in the town of Takayama, a place with some registered historic precincts, and an annual shrine festival day that is happening today!

It made for some crowded walks about town but was great to see.





And I thought it was about time I put in a food pic - this was a pretty exceptional meal we all shared together in the evening:

Day 22 - Meiji Mura Open Air Museum

Today we traveled to Nagoya and visited Meiji Mura Open Air Museum. This was a very interesting site visit where we saw many buildings from the Meiji period that were scheduled for demolition earlier in the 20th Century, but were moved to this site to provide a kind of 'snapshot in time' of the architectural styles and practices in this very early period of merging japanese and western aesthetics.

Day 21 - Kyoto

Just a quick post to say I finally got to Kyoto for a visit - it was a national holiday today - National Sports Day - so things were very busy but a good day out visiting nonehteless.

Day 20 - Osaka

I wanted to visit the Vaka Moana Exhibition that had come to Japan from the Auckland War Memorial Museum while I was in Japan. I was extra please that the exhibition was showing at the Osaka Museum of Ethnology, which is within a reasonable distance of Nara, and in the former grounds of the 1970 Osaka World Expo. I had recently been to see the "This is New Zealand" re-mastered doco at the Film festival so it was pretty cool to see the place where it all happened.

There is now an amusement park in part of the grounds, and the museum at the other end - I can just imagine all the wee Japanese children brought here by their parents, hoping for a roller-coaster ride and getting lumped with a selection of 329 different types of hair comb from around the world...

[Some of the many combs for kids to enjoy]

Day 17 - Toshodaiji Temple

We have been busy with practical training the past fews days, documenting and recording an old farm house in Nara. Nearby is Toshodaiji Temple - another one of the "Big 8" important temples in Nara.

Toshodaiji is currently under reconstruction. This means that a huge scaffolding building is erected around the temple, then it is mehtodically taken to bits, numbered, assessed, repaired if need be, and put back together.

Our group photo here provides an opportunity to see the roof structure in detail - a view that is available once every 300 years or so...

Day 13 - Todaiji Temple

I have skipped a few days for your own good, nobody wants to see photographs of powerpoint presentations or Ellen contemplating buying a new pair of shoes and then talking herself out of it... and that is basically all that happened the past few days.

Today however, I had a really great Sunday out and about with two of the assistants on the course Yoshido-san and Itaya-san.

It was pouring with rain all day so they were both very nice not to cancel our day trip around Nara, and we didn't get all the walking done we had planned, but it was still a busy day.


We walked through Nara park (note the obligatory image of the deers) and headed up to Todaiji Temple - the largest wooden building in the world.


It's pretty big (can you see the people in the photo?)... the statue of Buddha inside is about four stories high, and all in all it was a pretty impressive visit. The rain deterred many visitors which was good in a way. I haven't taken any photos of the models of the building for you this time, but one showed the original size of the structure which was actually a third larger.

At the temple they had men with fortune telling devices, so I had my fortune told. you shake a wooden container and a piece of bamboo comes out with a number on it, which corresponds to a piece of paper given to you by the man. My fortune told me I would make new friends in travel. It also said "You lost something that was very precious to you; you will not get it back" most of the family will know that I instantly thought of my pounamu tiki.

Once you have read your fortune you fold the piece of paper up and tie is to this rail for the monks to collect and burn in a ceremony.


This last photo is the inverse of the first photo on this blog - looking down on the area of Nara from the place I was was looking up towards on the first day.