The Architecture Museum Meiji-Mura Part2

One of the most impressive buildings is the Main entrance hall and lobby of the famous Imperial hotel. Constructed in 1923, the hotel was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright one of the greatest architect of the twentieth century.


Inside the reconstructed lobby, there is the table used to sign the Treaty of Portsmouth an a cafeteria with live music



The Miyasu Court district from the Kyoto prefecture (1886), wax figures recreate a court scene of that era.



The cabinet library, formerly at Chiyoda ku Tokyo (1911), This library was used as the central library of the Meiji government.
The Bank of Kawasaki formely at Nihonbashi Tokyo (1927). The building was part of the old center of Japan.
The Shinohashi bridge, formely at Koto ku Tokyo, over Sumida River (1912). During the kanto earthquake in 1923, many lives were saved when the other bridges were destroyed and this bridge was used as scape route.


Main gate of the Kanazawa prision formely at Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture (1907).



The St. Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, formely at Chukyoku in Kyoto (1890). The cathedral was built commemorate the missionary, it is used now to perform wedding ceremonies.




Kurehaza theater, an “Important Cultural Property” formerly at Nishihonmachi ikeda, Osaka prefecture (1892), the theater is currently used for performances.


Summer house of Lafcadio Hearn, formely at Jounokoshi, Yaizu, Shizuoka prefecture (1868), and the Kinotocho barber shop (1910), formely at Bunkyo ku tokyo.



The Ujiyama Post office “Important Cultural Property”, formerly at Ise Mie prefecture (1909), the post office is still in operation and you can send postcards from this place.




The Machinary hall, Formerly at Oimachi, Shinagawa in Tokyo (1872). At this building there is also the Ring Spinning frame “Important Cultural Property” (1983), the last machine used in the cotton spinning process.



Between the buildings from overseas, the most outstanding are the Japanese evangelical church, formerly in Seattle, Washington (1907), and the Japanese Immigrants’ assembly hall from Hilo, Hawaii (1889), both used by the Japanese immigrants of the era.


Mused Gymnasium for martial Arts, Fourth national High school. Originally at Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture (1917).


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The Architecture Museum Meiji-Mura Part1

The Museum Meiji-Mura in front of the Lake Iruka, in Inuyama city in Aichi prefecture, opened on 1965 to preserve the Japanese architecture of the Meiji period. One of the most remarkable things of Japan is the fast paced construction of new buildings, and the destruction of the old ones. The founders of the Meiji-Mura museum seeking to save important buildings from destruction created this museum that purchase period buildings marked for destruction, dismantle them and rebuild them back at the museum, recreating the original apparence. Ten of the buildings on the Museum are designeted “Important Cultural properties” by the Japanese government.The museum covers an area of 1,000,000 m2, and has over 60 buildings.


You can go around the park by foot, use a special bus, a steam locomotive and period streetcars fromn Kyoto. The streetcars of Kyoto were the first in Japan (1895).


Electric lamp originally located at “Nijubashi” in the imperial Palace (1888), one of the first electric lamps in Japan. To the right is the Shimbashi factory of the Japan Railway bureu, originally at Shinbashi (1889).




House of Ogai Mori and Natsume Soseki. The writers lived at this house, in Bunkyo Ward in Tokyo. Ogai Mori rented the house for a year in 1900, published “the dancing girl”, on that year, he also wrote “The courier” while he was living there. Natsume Soseki (the writer portrayed on the 1000 yen note), lived in this house 10 years later, publishing “I am a cat”, while living there, the novel portrays detail of living at this house, Soseki lived at this house for 3 years.


There is a small monument outside the School of Medicine of Japan marking the place of were the house use to be located.


Mie Prefectural Office (1869), this building has been designated as an “Important Cultural Property”








Located at the brick road street are: The Old Higashiyamanashi Country office (1885) an “important cultural property”, The Office of Dr. Shimizu (1897) from Nagano, The Tomatsu house (1901)from Nagoya, the Nakai sake-brewer house (1870) from Kyoto, and the Yasuda Bank (1908) from Fukushima.

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Cherry blossom viewing at Sagiyama memorial park

As the weather continued to be unpredictable, we had more than 20℃ one week and snow the following (in April!). On one of the good weather days I visited the Sagiyama memorial park, to enjoy the cherry blossom trees.





The Sagiyama memorial park in Saitama city, with more than 250 year of history, is not one of the most prominent parks in the Saitama prefecture, but it has seen an increase of visitors as a result of the creation of a green zone in the area by the Saitama prefecture.




Next to the park are the Minuma natural park and the Minuma canal. The canal is now lined with stunningly beautiful cherry trees in full bloom.

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Nostalgic shopping district Okage Yokocho

The shopping area Okage Yokocho in Uji, Ise city in mie prefecture, was created in July 1993 to reproduce the streets of Iseji road in the late Edo and early Meiji period, with gratitude (“okage”) toward Ise Jingu.



In front of the Ise Jingu Naiku, the place is not a theme park and thus is not admission charge, with 45 stores in typical structures of the Ise area, to experience the flavor of the old local shops, the regional food, the customs and the people.




The area is always full of isejingu visitors purchasing souvenirs, specially the famous akafuku mochi.




Okageza is museum to experience visit to Ise during the edo period.

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Hanami at Showa memorial park

The weather has been unpredictable in the last couple of weeks; it has been raining and cold most of the week, everybody has been cautiously planning for the weekend hanami or cherry blossom viewing. I visited the Showa memorial park with a weather forecast of cloudy/rain.




Showa memorial park, or showa kinen, was established in 1983 to commemorate the 50 anniversary of the Showa emperor. The park extends now to 163 hectares of beautifully maintained gardens, ponds and barbeque areas.



The sakura or cherry trees were at full blossom and the many families were enjoying the park by the traditional Japanese picnic under the cherry tree or hanami.



I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the open field area and the number of people enjoying the day.




The park has several flower areas a large pond and a canal.




There is also a beautiful Japanese garden area that, excluding the house under reparation, was just perfect.





But the star of the day was undoubtedly the cherry blossom, and fortunately the rain didn’t spoil the day.

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