EXCITING YAMANASHI AND MORE

Year of the Tiger 2022: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_(zodiac)

Ideshigyou Co., Ltd. https://www.ideshigyo.co.jp

Happy New Year! From a small shrine, Kumano Jinja, in Kofu, Japan. It is a calm, yet chilly night.

A year full of love to all of you!

Really amazing! According to the company’s home page, this is the 17th year to hold this illumination event. The theme of this year is “Snow White in The Woods With Animals.” Since light emitting diode (LED) lamps are used, relatively less power is being consumed [4.2 kW, 56 yen/hr]. (https://illuminate.jp)

Illumination Time: 16:30~24:00; Duration: 11/25/2021~2/28/2022.

Nanbu-cho (the town of Nanbu) is located in the southernmost part in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. The name of the town was derived from the Nanbu clan, a Japanese samurai clan, and is related to Nanbu town in Aomori prefecture.

Nanbu town is known for its moderate climate and famous for its bamboo shoots, tea, ginger and other agricultural produce in Yamanashi Prefecture.

(https://www.town.nanbu.yamanashi.jp/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanbu,_Yamanashi) (https://michinoeki-tomizawa.jp/; https://michinoeki-nanbu.com/) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanbu_clan) (https://www.town.aomori-nanbu.lg.jp/)

The Tsugane region in the town of Sutama, the city of Hokuto, in Yamanashi Prefecture, used be well-known for its apple production. However, because of its reduced population and the aging community, the number of apple growers and the area of apple orchards have decreased drastically, and it is very difficult to find Tsugane produced apples these days.

At Oishii Gakkou (literally meaning “delicious school”) in Sutama town, you can purchase some agricultural produce grown in the Tsugane region. And also, you can enjoy local vegetables and bread in the restaurants and the bakery. There are accommodation facilities as well, so you can stay there and experience some local activities if you want.

(https://www.oec-net.ne.jp/; https://www.oec-net.ne.jp/en/concept-en.html) (https://taishoukan.jp/)

Tabayama-mura (the village of Tabayama) and Kosuge-mura (the village of Kosuge) are located in the mountainous northeastern corner of Yamanashi prefecture. Both villages have nice camping sites and are good for fishing and other outdoor activities. Route 411 connecting Hachioji and Oku-Tama, Tokyo and Koshu, Yamanashi runs through Tabayama. It is a very popular motorcycle road in the same as Doshi-michi (road), Route 413. It is also very popular for bikers (cyclists). It was a fine autumn day, so there were a lot of motorcyclists and enough bikers. Prefecture Road 18 connects Tabayama to Kosuge and joins Route 139. These areas provide the water resource to the Oku-Tama area.

An event on “Hunting and Cooking Deer” and “Outdoor Sauna” was held in Michi-no-Eki (Road Station) Tabayama on November 6-7, 2021.

In a very popular anime and manga story Demon Slayer (Kimetsu No Yaiba), the main character Tanjiro made a living selling charcoal in the Mt. Kumotori area, most likely in the Oku-Tama side. https://kimetsu.com/

Tabayama-mura (https://www.vill.tabayama.yamanashi.jp/index.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabayama; https://tabayama.info/; http://ta-kankoukyoukai.com/; https://nomekoiyu.com/)

Kosuge-mura (http://www.vill.kosuge.yamanashi.jp/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosuge; https://nipponia-kosuge.jp/; http://kosugemura.com/; http://kosuge-eki.jp/)

Rokugo is known for its name seals in Japan. Rokugo is a district of the town of Ichikawamisato in Yamanashi Prefecture. Its history dates back to the Edo period when high quality crystal was found in Yamanashi Prefecture and its use for name seals was established. The creativity and technique have been handed down through generations until today. Nowadays people (and the government) talk about breaking away from traditional seal usage; however, name deals will surely be around for a while at least in Japan. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichikawamisato) (https://www.inkanhanko.com/inkan_foreign/english/index.htm)

Office of Rokugo Name Seal Industry Federation

Doshi-mura (the village of Doshi) is located in the southeastern corner of Yamanashi prefecture next to Kanagawa prefecture. Doshi Road, part of Route 413, was part of the Tokyo Olympics Cycling Road Races located in the middle of the Tokyo, Kanagawa, Lake Yamanaka, and Mount Fuji areas. And also, this road is a very popular motorcycle road from the Tokyo area through Mount Fuji to the Hakone area. Even today there were tens of thousands of motorcyclists in this narrow mountainous road. About a hundred motorcycles were parked at Michino-eki (Road Station) Doshi.

Yokohama-city has been depending on its water resource to Doshi-village since the Meiji period, and it maintains the watershed protection forest covering about 2800ha in Doshi. There used to be a lion head common plug and a bluff gutter donated by Yokohama-city in Showa 57 (1982), but I saw it nowhere. It seems that there are several remained in Yokohama-city; it is said that originally 600 common plugs were imported from the UK.

Doshi Village: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Dshi; https://www-vill-doshi-lg-jp.translate.goog/?;_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=ja

Doshi Road: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_National_Route_413

Road Station Doshi: https://www.michieki-r413.com/contents/introduction/item.php#01

It seems that a lion head common plug and a bluff gutter are found in the courtyard of the Yokohama Archives of History: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokohama_Archives_of_History. Cited as follows:

JAPAN’S FIRST STREET-FOUNTAIN and BLUFF GUTTER

This fountain is a replica of the old street fountain placed at every 300 feet along the streets of Yokohama when Japan’s first modern waterworks was introduced in Yokohama in 1885-87.  In those days water supply to individual houses was rare, and each of these street foundations was shared by several houses.  The first 600 street fountains were imported from Glenfield Coy Ltd., Scotland.

Used here as the basin is a part of the old stone gutter placed along the streets of the Bluff and other foreign settlement area in the 19th century.

July 1987, Yokohama Archives of History

A photo exhibition and a DVD screening were held to commemorate the second year anniversary of his death at Kusakabe Community Center in Yamanashi-shi, Yamanashi, October 5-10, 2021.

“We choose not to go to the places where everyone is willing to go, but rather to the places where help is desperately needed and no one else is willing to go.” (Tetsu Nakamuta)

・Brighten the World in Your Corner (https://specials.nishinippon.co.jp/tetsu_nakamura/ )

・Water, Not Weapons _ The Greening of Afghanistan [NHK World-Japan] (https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/special/episode/202107040910/, sorry no longer available)

・About Peshawar-kai and Peace Japan Medical Services (PMS) (http://www.peshawar-pms.com/eg/index2.html)

In 1978, Tetsu Nakamura served as a medic for a Fukuoka Climbing Association mountaineering team that had an expedition to climb Mount Tirich Mir in western Pakistan. He was drawn to it because he loved climbing and collecting insects. The PMS was set up in 1983 to support Nakamura’s medical activities in the remote Pakistan and Afghanistan mountainous regions. Starting from 2000, a severe drought hit the eastern Afghanistan. Then, he soon realized that “One irrigation canal will do more good than 100 doctors.” He started building an irrigation canal getting water from the Kunar River, inspired from the irrigation canals that had been built in Fukuoka, Japan in the Edo period more than 200 years ago. The rest is history.

The country of Afghanistan is in chaos again. What has the United States of America done in the country for the last twenty years? What will be the future of Afghanistan?