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Happy New Year -2017-

2017.01.06

Random thoughts

2017 has just begun!

This time of the year is always the best time for anyone to start something new,

restart something and/or start all over anything.

Do you have anything which you would like to achieve in this year?

 

For Hatsumode (the new year’s visit to a shrine), I visited Asuwa shrine in Fukui City.

This area is a recommendable strolling course in Fukui City.

As you walk up the stairs of “Atagozaka”,

there is “ Fukui City Atagozaka Tea Ceremony Museumwhere you can enjoy

Japanese traditional green tea “Maccha” and learn about Japanese tea ceremony.

 

In front of the museum, there is

“Fukui City Akemi Tachibana Literature Memorial Museum” where you can enjoy the Tachibana-no-Akemi’s Dokurakugin (reciting poetry for my own pleasure).

 

And about a minute away from Akemi Tachibana Museum, there is a traditional Japanese restaurant, “Hanase” where you can enjoy the excellent traditional Japanese food that is pleasing to the eye, as well as to the palate.

 

After walking up a few stairs from the restaurant, there is

“Shinpu-kan Atagozaka Martial Arts School”.

 

And a little further up, there is a small observation deck and the entrance of the shrine.

You can take a break seeing the great view of Fukui City and then enter the shrine.

 

Asuwa Shrine has over 1,500 years of history.

The shrine’s crest has the sun, the moon and a star together which is rare for a crest.

 

In the precinct, there are drooping cherry-trees which will bloom gorgeously during spring.

 

Therefore, I can recommend you to take a walk from Atagozaka to Asuwa shrine.

 

 

T.F

Informatory sign

2016.12.21

Random thoughts

若狭三方縄文博物館のトイレの案内標識

This is an informatory sign for the bathroom at Wakasa Mikata Jomon Museum in Wakasa, Fukui Prefecture. Aren’t the male and female signs which look like ancient Japanese clay figurine cute? Although I think that the most important role of the informatory sign is functionality, it becomes creative and enjoyable to look at with some ideas like this. (T.S)

Look down at the street when you walk down

2016.12.07

Random thoughts

This is a picture of the manhole cover which has same tiles as the street has.

 

Each manhole cover has been made one by one by hand to match with the designs of the tiles on the street around the manhole cover.

 

I don’t know since when people started doing such a complicated thing but I think these tiles are not as slippery as metal ones. When it rains and/or snows, walking on the manhole covers with these tiles might not be slippery as walking on the ones with just an iron like most of them on streets in Japan.

 

Besides the functional parts of the manhole covers, the designs made by the tiles of the street and manhole cover look like an abstract art and it’s interesting to look at.

 

This is a simple one, but it’s done precisely.

 

When I walk down streets,

I actually see many sceneries which I want to cut out and place on the wall.

 

T.S

Street Signs in Foreign Languages

2016.10.03

Random thoughts

 

Near Fukui station, there is a map which is written in English, Chinese and Korean.

I’ve always thought that there should’ve been more maps like this with names of places and many things in town written in foreign languages. So, I hope more maps like this will be placed not only in the center of the city and/or popular sightseeing areas, but also in many other local areas as well. Long ago, as a traveler, I’ve had experiences with getting lost in countries where barely had signs even in English.

T.S

iPad application for the communication between deaf and hearing persons

2016.07.03

Random thoughts

I had an opportunity to talk to Masaaki Kimura, the miraculous guitarist of a band “Prospute”, which performed in Fukui yesterday.

 

Unfortunately, I don’t know how to use sign language, so Kimura introduced me the iPad application to communicate by writing with deaf persons which became useful for
Kimura and I.

 

As soon as Kimura showed me the application, I downloaded it and I found it very innovative.

In this application, as a user writes anything on one's screen, it also appears automatically on the other person’s screen at the same time. With one-touch operation, the users can easily erase and/or rewrite. Moreover, the colors are color-coded for the users to see which person is writing.

 

T.S

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