As I mentioned a couple of times in my previous posts, Hachioji city had been famous for producing silk fabrics in old times. After Japan began trading with Western countries in the last years of the Samurai era, this area became prosperous with the export business of silk fablics.
Although Japan was closed for more than 200 years until then, it appears that people in Hachioji were very open-minded and good at business. It didn't take long until they realized that the most efficient way to do their business was a direct trade with foreigners. They started visiting Yokohama Bay in Kanagawa prefecture which was one of the few bays opened to foreign countries at the time and selling their products to foreign buyers.
Hachioji silk fabric traders maintained the road connecting between Hachioji and Yokohama, and the route was named "Silk Road" later. They built buildings for their business along the road, and the road side business boomed a lot since they were making a large profit. They even had a guest house to invite their foreign customers to Hachioji though most Japanese in those days were not familiar with any foreign languages. Perhaps people at that time could communicate with foreigners much more positively than people of today?
The silk business declined in this area and the "Silk Road" has been now abandoned. A big temple along the road, that had been thriving with silk traders at that time, was completely decayed and only the foundations are remaining as you can see in the photo on the right corner of the bottom row.
However, people can still enjoy the atmosphere of Samurai era road as you can see in the photos on the middle row. Moreover, there is a small museum exhibiting the history of silk fabric business in the area. The museum building is shown in the photos on the top row. The area isindeed a nice place for a historical walk!
This traditional cafe bar named "Habutae-Dango (Habutae Rice-cake)" is located near Nippori Station in the heart of Tokyo. It has been doing the business since 1819 (during the Samurai era), so it opened about 200 years ago.
The food mainly served here is a traditional Japanese food called "Dango". "Dango" is the general name for one kind of rice cake with a style that small round shape rice cakes are stuck by a bamboo stick. It's actually not always a sweet. As you can see in the photos in the slideshow, this cafe bar has two kinds of flavor for Dango and the one is soy sauce and the other is sweetened mushed red beans. Therefore some people enjoy the Dango with tea, but some other people enjoy it with Sake or beer.
The old wooden board in front of the cafe tells the origin as follows.
"During the Tokugawa Shogunate era (the Samurai time), this area was a nice suburb by the Arakawa-River. In 1819 the first owner Shogoro opened a small cafe bar here and named it "Fujinoki Cafe Bar". He cooked Dango and served it to those who traveled through this street. The texture of the Dango was extremely smooth and it became very popular. People started describing the rice cakes as smooth as one kind of silk fabric called "Habutae", then years later "Habutae Dango" became the name of the rice cakes and also the cafe bar.
Inside of the door, there are a space for selling the Dango to go. Since the rice cakes became famous many people just stop by here to buy "Habutae Dango" as souvenir. Beside the shop area, there are a spaces for antique items used in daily life. They keep them from old times and display them like inside of a museum. Also an old drawing which shows the old days of the cafe bar is hung.
At the cafe area, out side of the window is a nice Japanese style garden as you can see in the photos. People can enjoy the view while they enjoy the rice cakes and drinks. The block this cafe bar is located is actually packed with buildings, but the garden is well made shutting off the outside view, thus the customers can relax.
It would be nice to go to a traditional Japanese cafe like this one. You can enjoy Japanese history and traditional culture in addition to some traditional food.
Noziriko is one of the well-known lakes as a tourist spot in Japan. It is located in northern Nagano prefecture. The perimeter of it is 10 miles (16 km) and the deepest point is 126.3 ft (38.5 m). The reason why this lake is well-known is the fact that fossils of one kind of ancient elephant called "Naumann's Elephant" were found here for the first time in Japan. Yes, now there is no wild elephant in Japan, but they are living in Japan until about 15,000 years ago.
Therefore around the lake, people find monuments of the elephant here and there as you can see in the upper left hand side photo. It is a nice place for leisure time and not only elephants lover but also small pet animals lover would enjoy visiting this lake.
There is a pleasure boat activity on the lake, and actually people can take their pets to enjoy a short excursion tour with it on the lake. The fee is 1100 yen (about 10 $) for a person and 300 yen (2.7 $) for a pet. The boat tour takes about 40 minutes and pets can stay both inside of the boat and top of the boat during the trip.
The boat make a round of the lake and stop by an island called Biwa-jima (Biwa-Island) shown on the lower left hand side photo. The boat passengers and their pets can also enjoy walking on the small island covered by lots of green and visiting a shrine there. It would be nice for travelers to pray for a good luck on their trip.
Recently pet friendly places are increasing all over Japan, and this is one of the wonderful places to enjoy a trip with pets!
This slideshow is showing "Komagino Residence and Gardens" Located in Hachioji city, Tokyo. It is a hundred-year old residence and gardens for upper middle class family. The place was owned by a medical doctor originally and the building was used as a clinic and home.
Now the house is open to the public and it is actually a nice traditional cultural site. The building is a traditional Japanese wooden house including a room for Tea Ceremony. Even though nobody is living here now, the decorations in the house are changed by seasons, for example in May a miniature Samurai armor set is displayed for traditional boys festival on May 5th.
Outside of the house there are two different styles of traditional Japanese gardens. The one has a path around a pond with fancy colored carps, and the other is a dry landscape garden spread small pebbles all over the ground. Both gardens are surrounded by various kinds of plants, so this place is also a good spot to enjoy seasonal flower viewing.
Visitors can enjoy the view of the flowers and pond from a cafe space inside of the house. If you are interested in taking a tour to this place with a guide interpreter, please check my "Tours and Fee" page, too!
I wrote about some advantages of local museums in my previous post on May 16th. This post is also about local museums. There was a very interesting one-day event at a local small museum in West Tokyo recently although the event wasn't widely known.
At the event visitors could experience wearing a replica armor set which is shown in the upper left hand side photo. This replica armor was made of metal so that people can feel the real weight of Samurai armor. What's more, it wasn't only wearing an armor. There were also strings and pads for shoulders, arms and legs to attach under metal armor as you can see in the upper center and right hand side photos. So it was like a full set of Samurai soldiers' outfits.
There were more items such as a replica Samurai sword and a flag to show which Samurai lord to belong. Then after put everything on, becoming like a Samurai foot soldier as shown in the lower left hand side photo.
Moreover, after enjoyed trying Samurai armor replica, museum staff brought out one of their real Samurai armors and showed to people as in lower center and right hand side photos. It would be also a rare opportunity to see a real armor so closely although it was just a general armor and wasn't owned by any famous historical person or any lord class people. People could take a look all the parts from every angles and enjoyed seeing how elaborate the metalworking and the craftsmanship were.
Unfortunately this was a one-day special event, however if you are interested in trying this kind of Samurai armor replicas, please feel free to contact me.
Generally speaking, special exhibitions at major museums are always very popular since they show many famous pieces or extremely valuable items, far more than local museums can. Is it always better to choose famous big museums over local museums? I think local museums also have their advantages.
If you love historical artifacts or Japanese Samurai, there is an interesting exhibition at a local museum named Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. The museum is located in Hachioji city, Tokyo and now holding a special exhibition of Japanese swords "Katana-A Millennium of Swordsmith Mastery".
In the exhibition, visitors can enjoy a large number of various Japanese swords from ancient to modern times, and explanations on Japanese sword makings, swords accessories and Samurai armors. For those who love Japanese swords, there is even a space to look at a sword close up shown in the upper right hand side photo. People can sit on the Tatami-mat and look at every details of the sword.
The museum is about one hour away from the center of Tokyo, and is never crowded. This is the biggest advantage over the major museums in the center of Tokyo. You don't have to wait in a line nor feel tired from pushing your way through the crowd. What's more, you can take photos of most exhibits at this Japanese swords exhibition. this is completely different from most major museums in Japan where taking photos of exhibits are strictly prohibited.
In addition, there is a fun event space outside of the exhibition. As shown in lower right hand side photo, anybody can try on replicas of Samurai armors made of cardboard. Although they are made of paper, they are very well made with excellent craftsmanship.
The exhibition continues to July 3rd in 2016. The space of fitting replica armors are open between 10 am and 4 pm.
I kept writing about Japanese Samurai era history recently, and let's continue it since there are more historic sites relating to Samurai era in West Tokyo area. The photos above are showing a former manor house in Samurai era, specifically Tokugawa Shogunate era. Tokugawa Shogunate era started in 1603 and continued until Japan got the first modern government in 1868. The Shogunate government was established by a Samurai Lord "Ieyasu Tokugawa" and the Tokugawa family ruled Japan as Shogun for 265 years.
The refugee Samurai princess Matsu who I introduced in my previous posts died in 1616 after the Tokugawa Shogunate era started. Although she was a refugee princess and most of her family were killed, she was not alone in her later days. Actually former Takeda troopers were around her during her last years. How it was possible?
Even though Lord Takeda family and their troopers were defeated and Takeda family lost their land, some Samurai vassals and Samurai soldiers survived the disaster. Moreover some of the competent men among them were re-hired by other lords.
One of the re-hired survivor from Takeda troopers is Nagayasu Okubo. He must have been a very capable person because after he started working for Lord Ieyasu Tokugawa who became the first Shogun later, he rose by leaps and bound and at the and he became one of the senior councilor of Tokugawa Shogunate government. As a refugee Samurai survivor who lost his lord it was really a rare case.
After Tokugawa shogunate government was established, Nagayasu Okubo took up a administrative director position of the greater Tokyo area which was under Shogun's direct control. Thus Nagayasu Okubo was called "Great Chief Secretary of Shogun" later. By the way, in those days local areas were entrusted to local lords who were appointed by Shogun.
As one of his famous works, Nagayasu Okubo proposed to form a security squid for Shogun's direct control area. It was named "Thousand Troopers" and stationed in Hachioji. He hired many of survived Takeda troopers for the squid, then they were gathered in Hachioji where Princess Matsu was living. It is said that she became the source of emotional support for the survived Takeda troopers and because of her they were united to work as the "Thousand Troopers".
Today, only a small shrine and an old well were remaining on the ground of the former manor house of Nagayasu Okubo in Hachioji City. However there are lots of buried historical episodes there.
