Wednesday, July 4, 2012

A Fisherman Abode

I feel like I'm toying with the cosmic order posting about this particular exhibit out of order. Ahahah... After all, this exhibit is located right at the end of the trail one need to walk through at Shikoku Mura. Anyway, here's a fisherman's home for you!
A fisherman's house facing the Pacific should be sturdy and this house has a stone fence on the sea side serves as a windbreak and the narrow entryway is to minimise and keep out rain and wind.

This dwelling was in an isolated fishing village strung along the base of a cliff in the Izari region of Tokushima prefecture.
 Son making himself comfy while Mommy checking out the place.

Functioning to provide complete shelter in the frequently foul weather the area faced, the house has a low roof to reduce wind resistance and is covered with heavy tiles (hongawara).
The baked clay entrance and adjacent bamboo floors are designed for the return of the fisherman; dripping wet in their fishing gears.

The central or "Good Fortune Pillar" (daikoku bashira) is unusually massive. All lumber throughout the house was handshaped by adze.
The waters of Izari were once filled with yellowtails (buri) which is a much favoured eating fish. 

A sad reason for this house came to Shikoku Mura in its original condition was because the villagers had no funds to renovate their houses. The villagers in the community decided to increase their catch by buying a huge net like in commercial fisheries. After the net was bought, the yellowtail left the feeding ground of Izari and moved elsewhere. The villagers were saddled with huge debts that they could not pay off and the town went bankrupt leaving fishermen without funds to renovate their houses.

Monday, July 2, 2012

A Stone Bridge And A Stone Storehouse

More of Shikoku Mura exhibits. This time its the stone bridge and a stone storehouse.

The arched bridge was built in 1901 by Yonekichi and Yojiro and has a carp and a Chinese lion dog (karashishi) carved on the keystone. This is the only bridge in Japan to bear such design.
 
Traditional Japanese storehouses have mud clay walls finished with plaster. However, during the Meiji Period (1868 - 1912), brick contstruction for commercial buildings was promoted by the Government in Tokyo.This particular storehouse copies brick construction, substituting stone of a variety used for over 1,000 years in mausoleums. The floor inside was laid with brick.

Altogether, the storehouse is a rather interesting hybrid of East & West typical of Meiji period.

Judging from the storehouse, one can sense that a storehouse is waaaaay more important (seeing that it's clay/brick made) than a personal dwelling. After all, one's source of income are stored there. Got to protect those from the elements and from predators too (human and beast alike). No?

OLA: Finding the Center of Two Revolutions


at Authors' Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts
where Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, and Hawthorne lie together in eternal peace

Doug and Audrey treating us out to dinner
at historic  Colonial Inn in Concord, Massachusetts
We are fortunate that Doug (one of Bill’s HS bffs) and Audrey invited us to their beautiful home in Concord, Massachusetts. It was not part of our itinerary. They saw to it that not only did we have time to visit with them but also the chance to explore the city. Doug showed us how it became the center of two great American revolutions, the political revolution that resulted in American independence in 1776 and the literary revolution that influenced the mindset of the mid-1800s leading to the Civil War.

Doug and Bill at the Lexington marker
The Political Revolution

The Minutemen National Historical Park links the cities of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts on a trail of significant events surrounding the start of the American Revolution. From our walk on the Boston Freedom Trail (please see last post) I learned that Paul Revere took a ride on the midnight of April 18, 1775 to warn the Concord militia of the impending arrival of British troops. The signal lantern from the Old North Church would tell what route the British troops will take: ‘one if by land, two if by sea’.

at the North bridge, where the 'shot heard round the world'
was fired on April 19, 1775
The British troops, numbering 700, proceeded to Lexington from Boston. Their mission was to retrieve the cannons purportedly being held in Concord.  At Lexington they quickly scuttled the rag-tag militia of the colonists. But around 400 minutemen (in a minute they can be ready for battle) were ready in Concord, having been warned by Paul Revere. At the North Bridge between the two cities, the ‘shot heard round the world’ was fired on April 19. 1775. The American Revolution had begun.

in honor of the minutemen at the North Bridge
The news quickly spread to the surrounding towns and the colonists’ ranks swelled to 20,000 in number. They quickly drove the British back to Boston and hounded them on their trail back. More than 250 British soldiers and less than 100 colonists lost their lives. The fighting then resumed in Boston and on June 1775, The Battle of Bunker Hill gave the colonists an astounding victory, pushing the British further back south. The cannons were not found for the colonists had moved them to another town.

John Adams and John Quincy Adams with their wives
at the lower level crypt of the First Unitarian Church  in Quincy, Massachusetts
First Unitarian Church in Quincy, Massachusetts
And we discovered that the Adams National Historic Site was at the Quincy Center Station of the Red Line, two stops before Braintree. The tombs of John Adams, second president and the one who took over from George Washington, and John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, together with their wives were lined up together at the lower level crypt of the First Unitarian Church in Quincy, Massachusetts.  They were the first father-son tandem who became presidents. Their orderly assumption of the powers to govern the USA after George Washington solidified the success of the Revolution.

The Literary Revolution

The political revolution was significant enough but after the victory, the newly independent Americans went through a renaissance. Concord, with Cambridge, to the southeast, and Salem, to the east, became the seat of excellence in education and literary works in the mid-1800s. The Author’s Ridge at Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is where five great American writers lie together in eternal peace, next to each other. Visiting their homes also evoked wondrous feelings in the fledgling author that is me.

Walden Pond, where Thoreau stayed for 2 years living in simplicity
The following friends and neighbors were the Concord Quartet: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882, An American Scholar, Nature), the great essayist and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1863, Walden, Civil Disobedience), the philosopher and naturalist, Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888), the educator, and Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864, The Scarlet Letter, House of 7 Gables), the novelist. Together, they fanned the ideals of individual liberty and equality, heavily influencing the abolitionist sentiment in the North. They also greatly influenced Amos’ daughter Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888, Little Women) towards becoming a great author herself.

house of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
also Washington's Headquarters during the American Revolution
In Cambridge, we visited Harvard University, an Ivy League school established in 1636. It was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard, who gave the school his entire collection of 400 books. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) served as a professor there until he retired into fulltime writing. He was very happy that he was able to own and live in the House that Washington used as headquarters during the initial stages of the war. He made Paul Revere an icon with his poem, ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’.

The house is right beside the campus of Radcliffe, formerly a renowned university for women and now part of Harvard. I wanted to see the campus, just like Bill wanting to see Yale, because I had an undergraduate scholarship there, after completing, with honors, my HS scholarship from American School in the Philippines.  However, my mother could not raise enough funds for living expenses and felt it was just too far away. I went on to a scholarship in the University of the Philippines instead. 
 
the House of Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts
birthplace of Hawthorne in Salem, Massachusetts
In Salem, we were surprised to see not just museums, statues, and memorials of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. We were also able to see Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birthplace in Salem which was relocated to a spot near the only living colonial home in North America, the House of Seven Gables. The house was also Hawthorne’s inspiration for his classic novel of the same name. The house is now listed under the National Register of Historic Places.

Doug, Audrey, and Mika with Bill and me at their Concord home

Our visit with the Millers turned out to be much more than a visit to an old friend. Doug drove us around, showing us how the city was really the center of the two revolutions, the political and the literary. Meanwhile Audrey kept us fully satisfied with the delicious Asian dishes she prepared from her lovely kitchen, showing me some great cooking tips.  We also had the opportunity to meet their lovely daughter, Mika who will give them their first grandson in a few weeks. Thank you, Doug and Audrey.



Saturday, June 30, 2012

A Master's Home and A Place Where The Elders Can Retire

I've been going on and on about the exhibits in Shikoku Mura, haven't I? Bear with me. I just find them very interesting and felt it's a pity if I can't find a reason to put each of them in a post here.
A residence of Master Kume Tsuken, an intellect, inventor and entreprenuer which was built in the late 18th century. In his life, Master Kume helped develop the growth of salt making in Sakaide where his house was located. He also invented naval cannon, pistols and an air-circulating fan. 

When the house was disassembled for its move to Shikoku Mura, various navigational instruments and molds for casting cannons were found  in the attic. Interesting, eh?
Two homes and a work storage belonging to the Nakaishi family was the next exhibit that we saw. These buildings, like many of the exhibits in Shikoku Mura; came from Ochiudo Mura, a refuge village originally established by survivors of the vanquished Heike clan in the late 12th century. 

It was long a custom in the region to build  a smaller, extra house as a retirement retreat for family elders and this was the etiquette of the Nakaishi Family.

The houses are arranged side by side on a space saving narrow terrace just like it was in the mountains except for the fact that the ones in the mountains would have the back of the houses right against the slope.

Coming up next - an official storehouse, a granary, an arched bridge, a stone storehouse, a border guardhouse and lastly a fisherman's house. Not too long before I wrap up my lenghty posts on Shikoku Mura and move on to our visit to a really beatiful garden - the Ritsurin Koen.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

A Break From Japanese Food

It was a visit to Huis Ten Bosch. A trip just for One Piece, as a birthday present for Raimie last year. We took a break from eating Japanese food and had fast food instead. Birthday boy was happy.
No meat. No chicken for us. Just fish. Fish burger was the meal of the day for us!
A lot of fellow Malaysians would keel over eating burgers in Japan because they won't get chilli sauce with the burgers. What???!!!! No free chilli sauce?! Horror! Who eats burgers without chilli sauce???!!! LOL
Raimie does. We do too!

Actually, our love affair with chilli sauce and pouring them on top of any kind of food is a pet peeve of mine. We eat pizza with chilli sauce. There are people asking for them when eating spaghetti bolognaise (like, you need it with that? Seriously?). Huge dollops needed when eating fried chicken or burgers. Or fried mee. Why of why? For me personally, chilli sauce masks the real taste of the food served. But hey! That's just me.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Pit Stop At Gift Shops

and this particular gift shop is for all things One Piece, over at Huis Ten Bosch. 
 Get your wallets and purse ready! Let's get ready to do some spending!
 
They have everything you probably want. Confectionaries, items of clothing, stationeries, toys and even stamps! Which we have to absolutely get
plus a postcard. We always make a point to send a postcard to ourselves at each different city we visited when we vacation. It makes nice souvenir for us. ^^
Fancy a snack?
Gotta love this sight. Waiting in line patiently to play that One Piece card game. And gotta love the fact that kids were courteous enough not to hog the machine and let others have a go at it too.
There's a One Piece restaurant too, selling all One Piece inspired menu. We didn't eat there though. We went elsewhere for our lunch.

Monday, June 25, 2012

WHICH WICH - Superior Sandwiches - Colorado Springs CO

A new sandwich shop in Colorado Springs.
Interesting concept - you pick the category of sandwich and the corresponding bag.  With a marker you mark what dressing, veggies, cheese, type bread, toasted? etc.
Take it to the counter pay for it and the day we were there 8 folks were working the 'line'.
There was an error on what we were charged, but this manager took care of it immediately and gave us a card all punched out for a free sandwich  Fantastic customer service!!
  We were so impressed we went back the next week with out of town grandaughter and her friend.