Greetings and salutations, to those of you who are still faithful enough to follow this blog.
As soon as I got into the habit of updating this almost weekly, I left you all high and dry without an update for almost a month.
I could once again blame it on life but...

You know? I will blame it on life. Life tends to get in the way of things we want to do, doesn't?

I'm not going to give any excuses or anything, but I will say that hopefully this month I can get at least three updates in. The first of which, being this one, is yet another photo blog! [cue unenthusiastic fanfare here]

But this isn't just any photo blog, this is a photo blog that can only happen once in seven years. This is a photo blog about Zenkouji Temple's Gokaicho festival.

Zenkouji's main branch is in Nagano City in Nagano Prefecture. I had the privilege of living within the temple "city" for three months while I was an exchange student in high school. My third host family through the Rotary Youth Exchange Program was a monk's family who owns a shukubo (visitor/pilgrim lodge), named Ryoushouin, directly west of the Niomon Gate. They're the fifth picture down on the left side of that page, and if you look at the map, they are the bottom-most one in the blue square.

The quick story behind Zenkouji is a man named Yoshimitsu Honda (本田善光) had a statue of a Buddhist triad jump onto his back from out of a river. The statue in question is supposedly the first ever Buddhist image to come to Japan, and was tossed into the river following a feud between two clans. The kanji for Yoshimitsu's first name can also be read as "Zenkou", which is why the temple is now named "Zenkouji".
As Zenkouji was built before Buddhism in Japan had split into different factions and sects, so the temple is presided over by both the Tendai and Jodo Shu sects of Buddhism. It is one of the last remaining pilgrimage sites in Japan, and historically is one of the few temples to have allowed female worshippers and pilgrims. There is also a story about how a non-believing old lady followed an ox, who had gotten some of her laundry stuck on his horns, to the temple and turned into a believer. If you walk around the temple gardens, you can see a statue of the ox.
The main temple in Nagano also has a kaidanmeguri (戒壇巡り) : a pitch black tunnel under the building where everyone is equal in the darkness, searching for the "key to enlightenment/paradise". Those who find this "key" are said to have their sins washed away and are guaranteed a place in nirvana.

Now, the weird thing about Zenkouji is the actual Buddhist statue that Yoshimitsu found is a "hidden Buddha". Literally, it must be kept out of sight from everyone, including the head priest and priestess. Supposedly it is locked up in a vault in the bowels of the Nara Museum. Every six or seven years they bring out a replica for worshippers and pilgrims to gaze upon for about two months. Then that replica is hidden away from view until the next festival, the Gokaicho.


Zenkouji has since spread around Japan, and there are well over 100 different branches. Many of the branches were started by warlords in the Sengoku Period, and the ones in Gifu were started by Oda Nobunaga, while the ones in Aichi were started by Tokugawa Ieyasu. We have a branch here in Gifu City by the large Inaba Shrine near the castle, and there is one in the nearby city of Seki.



The last Gokaicho was held in April and May of 2003, the year after I had been an exchange student. This year's Gokaicho had me really excited, as I was finally in the country for it, but due to time/money/flu panic, I was unable to head to Nagano's Zenkouji to witness the festivities. However, for the first time in Zenkouji's history, six temples across the nation held Gokaicho at the very same time, two of which were Gifu Zenkouji and Seki Zenkouji!

Gifu's Zenkouji is pretty small, only one building, so I decided that Seki's Zenkouji was were I wanted to be for this thing. Sadly, I didn't get any time to go until the last day of the festival, May 31st.

But man, did I pick a good day to go!

The weather was beautiful, and I got one of the last parking spots that was less than a 10 minute walk away. Considering the temple in Seki is much, much smaller than that of Nagano, there weren't nearly as many people as I had expected.
Seki's Zenkouji is relatively old, supposedly older than the current 300-year-old main hall in Nagano. There are five buildings: one that houses a Buddha sitting on what looks like a pineapple but is really a bunch of tiny Buddha images, two that house smaller Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, one that house a quite large statue of the Buddhist Triad, and the main hall. The main hall and the Buddhist Triad building are connected by a wooden corridor that houses a Binzuru statue (a physician that followed the Buddha and supposedly heals ailments if you touch where you hurt), and a series of statues that I guess are either the Gods of Fortune, or the Gods of Hell. I'm not sure which and no one would explain it to me. There is also a bell tower up on the mountain behind the two smaller buildings, where one may ring the bell for a donation of 100yen. The bell makes a lovely ring.

My husband and I were lucky to get there about and hour before the closing ceremony started, so we checked out their replica of the Buddhist Triad (which was tiny and hard to see), listened to a priest tell the story behind Gokaicho, and did Seki's kaidanmeguri. Seki Zenkouji is one of the few, if not the only, temples that has a kaidanmeguri tunnel in the shape of a manji, 卍. It has some really abrupt turns in the dark, and while most of the time you end up fumbling through the dark on your own, only to run your nose into the wall, they tied up a rope for people to follow, and had a small blue LED light over the "key" to make it easier. I thought it was a cop out, but then again I've done the kaidanmeguri there twice before, and at least five times in Nagano. I can tell you the differences between the two, but I won't go into that much detail. I already type too much as it is.

After getting out of the kaidanmeguri and grabbing a few pictures of the crowd and buildings, we headed up the hiking path past the bell, just to see what was up top. Not much, but it was a good hike. When we got down to the bottom again, it was time for the ending ceremony, a mochinage. I believed I talked about mochinage with the Tagata Shrine festival, but for those who missed it, a mochinage is where they pelt a crowd with lucky mochi rice cakes. Not wanting to get bulldozed by several scores of grannies and grandpas who'd rip the dentures out of their best friend over a lucky mochi cake, my husband and I took refuge on the staircase up to the bell tower. A family who was helping set up for the mochinage noticed me taking photos of the crowd, posed for a picture, and even sent their kindergarten-aged son over with a mochi cake just for us before the official mochinage started. Then the fun ensued.

I'll let the photos below speak for themselves.

Golden Week's over, and I spent most of the week being lazy.
Saturday was spent in my pajamas.
Sunday hubby and I met up with a friend who had come home from his job in Tochigi for karaoke and drinks.
Monday was karaoke-overload-recovery day.
Tuesday was a trip to Inuyama (more on that later down the page!).
Wednesday was laziness in pajamas again.


Overall, a nice, relaxing vacation. I only wish it had lasted longer.


I said that if we'd go anywhere (i.e. Inuyama) I'd post any pictures I'd take.
Well, Golden Week is over but that doesn't mean I can't spend my hour before my night class starts uploading pictures for your viewing pleasure!


Inuyama Castle is considered one of the oldest remaining castles in Japan. Wikipedia says there are 12 that remain from before the Edo period, but the four most famous are Himeji, Matsumoto, Hikone and Inuyama. Out of these four, I had only been to Matsumoto Castle several times. You can find pictures browsing around my deviantArt account.

Inyuyama Castle is only a half hour from the nearest Meitetsu train station near my apartment. I've been in Gifu for almost two and a half years and I had yet to go, so I made it clear to my husband that we were going come rain or shine.

Well, it rained. Right when we got out of the station in Inuyama City.
And I forgot an umbrella.
But, being the crazy American tourists we are, we braved the 20 minute walk up to the castle without an umbrella!

Got there and being Golden Week there were more tourists than usual out on a rainy day. The walk up to the castle from Inuyama Station is nice because there's a whole area of old-style shops and galleries. I wish I had stopped to take pictures, but I wanted to get to the castle before it started pouring. There are also several oddly tall buildings along the walk. These hold the mikoshi for the Inuyama Matsuri and Inuyama Castle Matsuri that are held every spring in the beginning of April. Inuyama's mikoshi are quite taller than the normal mikoshi found at festival, and I believe are on wheels. I haven't actually seen them, so I'm not sure.


By the time we got to the castle it was starting to rain pretty good, so everyone was trying to get into the castle at the same time. Being an original castle with original flooring, one has to take off their shoes and put them in a plastic bag before entering.
This makes it quite dangerous to walk around the castle. The reason being, the stairs are insanely steep. To put it simply, castle builders made the staircases steep with narrow steps to keep invaders from rapidly climbing up the floors in the case they were invaded. I still wonder how samurai got around the castle in full armor during battle. There is no safe way to run up and down those stairs.

I will stop talking now and just let you guys look at the few pictures I have. All of these can be seen in larger on my deviantArt site which is linked up top. You can also download the full resolution photo from dA, but they aren't big enough to be wallpapers. If you would like a wallpaper from any photos you see on deviantArt, let me know and I'll see if I still have the original on file somewhere.

I think I'm starting to get into the swing of once-a-week posts on here. What I need to do now, it convince my boss to let me start doing this from home so I can post more things when I feel like it, not just went the office tries to schedule me in.

Anyway, today I'm going to take a break from the website reviews and write about something probably every other single blogger about Japan is blogging about.



Yesterday, on April 29th, Japan entered perhaps its most famous set of holidays, Golden Week.
If you haven't heard about it, Golden Week is a one-week period between April 29th and May 5th that houses four national holidays. Yes, four. These four are:

April 29th - Shouwa no Hi (昭和の日)
May 3rd - Kenpou Kinenbi (憲法記念日)
May 4th - Midori no Hi (みどりの日)
May 5th - Kodomo no Hi (こどもの日)

This year, because May 3rd falls on a Sunday, May 6th is a Furikae Kyuujitsu (振替休日), basically an observed holiday.


While April 30th through May 2nd are not technically holidays, many businesses will close to let their employees travel. The most common destinations are major tourist spots in Japan (Kyoto, Tokyo, Okinawa), returning to your hometown, South Pacific islands, the west coast of North America, and Europe.
During this week it is nearly impossible to find flights or vacant hotels without paying through the nose. Most bullet trains and super express trains are also completely booked way in advance. The few train cars on them that are not reserved seats are usually packed like a Tokyo subway car at rush hour: like a can of sardines.

Last year I was smart enough to stay at home and not really go anywhere. My husband hadn't been in Japan for even a month yet, so I didn't want him to be turned off of Japan by the mass exodus out of the city.
However, the year before I had a former student come visit me from the US for her high school senior project. We decided to rough it out and make a trek from Gifu up to Nagano City. Oh man, was that a mistake.
The train from Gifu to Nagoya wasn't all that bad, but the 4-hour express train from Nagoya to Nagano was standing-room only in the non-reserved cars. We ended up shoving our bags into the luggage racks at the one end of a car, and sat in there for the 4 hours. The weather was quite warm as well, so the train cars, despite being air conditioned, were still quite stuffy due to the fact that everyone who got on the train was sweating from standing out in the heat on the platforms.

I know now, because of that trek, that if I am going to travel during Golden Week, I better make plans and reservations about 6 months in advanced. Well, maybe 2 months at the least....



Now, I can't find anything to back this up, but I once heard on a TV show here that the name Golden Week was originally created by travel companies and movie theaters. Basically, the long row of holidays created a surge in people going on trips and going out to movie theaters, so the PR guys for the travel companies and movie theaters decide it was a "golden" opportunity to get some business going. As such, the week was labeled "Golden Week" as not only a "golden" time to go spend time with your family in an exotic location or at the movies, but also a "golden" time to make a lot of money.
Whether this is actually true or not, I don't know. However, I do know that because of so many travel deals that are marketed for this week, many employees started taking off the whole week to travel, and eventually many businesses started shutting down for the week as well.
Even though I have class and a meeting tomorrow (out of all the teachers, I'm the only one with a class), our office is technically closed from the 1st through the 6th for Golden Week. A friend of mine is coming back home for the first time since New Year's, as Golden Week is one of only three long holidays his company in Tochigi gives him (the others being New Year's and Obon in August).


Anyway, I figure it's probably a good "work thing" if I go into a bit of detail on the holidays that make up Golden Week. While it's all easy to Wikipedia and all, at least it'll all be on the same page on my blog!



Originally, April 29th was only celebrated as the birthday of Emperor Hirohito (posthumously called Emperor Shouwa). However, upon his death, the day was made into a national holiday called Greenery Day (Midori no Hi みどりの日). This name was chosen to represent the Emperor's love of plant without specifically naming him, basically just to keep scandals away.

Wait? Midori no Hi? Didn't I type that up as being May 4th?
Well, after the Emperor's death, Japan was all afraid that there would be huge scandals and controversy and such, and decided not to name it directly after him. But, starting in about 2000, several attempts to change the name of the holiday were brought to the Japanese Diet and finally in 2005 one of them passed. Starting in 2007, the name of the day was officially changed to Shouwa no Hi.


May 3rd, Kenpou Kinenbi, is an easy day to explain. Literally, it's Constitution Memorial Day. May 3rd, 1945 was the date that the new Japanese Constitution was put into effect. Japan likes to make holidays, so they commemorated the turning of a new page in Japanese history by making May 3rd a national holiday. Many news outlets use this day to talk about democracy and bring up issues in the constitution that are constantly being battled about in the Diet, mainly the issues of Article 9 (no offensive military, just defensive), and whether or not the royal line can be passed down to a princess.
The common man, however, just sees it as a day off. Nothing more, and no one really cares it seems. They're all too busy drinking fruity cocktails out of coconuts in the South Pacific.


May 4th, the current Greenery Day, was originally just a "day of rest" between two national holidays. Japan didn't like the fact that there was a holiday on the 3rd, a day of work on the 4th, then another holiday on the 5th, so someone got the bright idea to make the 4th a holiday as well and just give everyone three days off in a row.

Whoever came up with that idea, thank you. You deserve a medal.

Once April 29th was renamed to Shouwa no Hi, Greenery Day got moved to the 4th to make it an official holiday. Much rejoicing was had with, once again, fruity cocktail-filled coconuts.



May 5th is probably the most well-known and celebrated of all the holidays in Golden Week.
Originally called Tango no Sekku (端午の節句), it marked the beginning of the summer rainy season on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. (Which is total news to me. I'm learning this right along with you guys!)
This day was also used to celebrate the health and prosperity of boys born into families by the hanging of carp banners, and displaying a set of armor and arrows in the home. Some houses only display the kabuto helmet of the armor set, but there are immaculate, full-armor sets in some older homes. One of the kindergartens I teach at has a full-set from the Heian Era (794-1185).
The banners, koinobori, are kinda neat. One day I will post pictures of the set Gifu Kindergarten made last year in an event we helped out at. Basically, the banners are a family of carp: a large black one for the father, a slightly smaller red one for the mother or eldest born (depends on who you ask, it seems), and then smaller blue, green and purple carps for each subsequent son. They're pretty much giant windsocks, and are usually on a pole that has a spinny-thing on top followed by streamers.
Carps were picked because of a Chinese legend about carp becoming a dragon if they swam upstream, but you don't really hear anyone mention that anymore. There are a few songs about the carp banners and the day in general, but once again, I've never actually heard them.
On the largest, black carp, you will usually see a half-naked, red-skinned child hanging on for dear life. This is Kintarou, a character in Japanese history/myths that was known for his strength as a child. Supposedly he played around with wild animals and rode on the back of a bear, not a horse. Not sure why he's on the carp and not a bear, but I have a feeling it's to wish that the sons born into that family become strong like Kintarou was as a child. If I can find out anything more on why Kintarou is on the carp, I'll be sure to add it in. On the same note, if you know why Kintarou is on the carp, please leave a comment!

There's some controversy over Kodomo no Hi, mainly as it has traditionally be considered "Boy's Day". Though the name has changed to "Children's Day" to celebrate all children, it still focuses mainly on boys, while Girl's Day (Hinamatsuri) on March 3rd is not a national holiday. Many feminists and women's rights people have gotten their panties in a twist over this fact, but nothing has changed still. I think it would be awesome if Girl's Day became a national holiday. One more day off for me!



Once again, this blog has gone on way too long.
I need to stop writing walls-of-text. Maybe then some of you would stick around to read the whole thing.

I may or may not post from home during the holidays. Currently we have no plans to go anywhere except karaoke with my friend coming home from Tochigi. If we feel up to it, we may venture over to Inuyama Castle for a day. If we do, expect a photo post.

The post date for my last entry tells me it's been almost a month since my last post.
And I had promised a post the week after my last one!


All I can say is:
I'm sorry for the wait.

What exactly kept me from posting a new entry?
Well, to put it bluntly, life happened.
The ups and downs that come with life happened to be mostly downs last month, and kept me far away from the computer.


However I am back, and bringing you two new posts today! This post will be a quick recap of several events that have happened in the last month, and the next will be a list of various online resources useful when learning Japanese. Not specifically sites to learn Japanese from, but sites that are good to use as supplements to your learning.


Now, on to the main event! Photos and stories galore!
Those with slow internet connections may want to go get a cup of coffee or go file their taxes while all the photos load up.



First things first, I sadly do not have any awesome pictures of my awesome fiber optic internet line getting installed. The landlord refused permission to have NTT install the line through the wall, so we had to have it brought in through our window. Sadly, it wasn't as awesome of an install as I thought it would be. However, it is relatively faster than my last connection, which is awesome. No lag time in World of Warcraft in the mornings!



In the place of fiber optic installation pictures, I will add to the thousands of photos online of a very peculiar spring festival.

Every March the city of Komaki in Aichi Prefecture, the neighboring prefecture of Gifu who's capital is Nagoya, has a set of shrines that put on a harvest/fertility festival, known as a hounensai (豊年際). These shrines are Oogata Shrine (大縣神社) and Tagata Shrine (田縣神社). Tagata Shrine always has their festival on the 15th, while Oogata Shrine has theirs on the previous Sunday. Oogata Shrine's festival is relatively small and unknown, even though it occurs on a weekend. An image search on Google only brings up 149 hits, very few of which are actually of the shrine. Tagata Shrine, however, brings up 2650 hits. Nearly every single hit is an image of the festival.

I will warn you now. If you are at your place of work, or have young children/immature adults around you, please do not Google search this festival, nor scroll down past here.


This year the two festivals ran together, which I did not know, so I missed out on Oogata Shrine's festival. I dragged my husband to Tagata Shrine early in the morning, hoping to miss the crowd. However, I was dead wrong in my timing.


At only 10am, nearly 3 hours before the actual main events of the festival would start, the temple was already packed.
From the first glance, this looked like any other shrine you'd see in Japan. Typical styled shrine buildings, large stone torii out front, gardens everywhere.
The always-a-must food booths for festivals were also everywhere you looked. We made sure to pick up some yummy Hida Beef ka-bobs, and chocolate-filled taiyaki.



It wasn't until you got further into the shrine grounds, past the taiko drummers, that you notice this is not your typical shrine.
Every where you look are rocks that are phallic shaped. Either naturally shaped or carved by hand, every corner hides several small phalluses. Next thing you know, there are vendor tables selling phallic-shaped candies, ashtrays, incense burners and keychains.




They had phallic candy in several flavors
As well as many different phallic-shaped objects for gifts to take home with you.




As my husband described it, it seemed we had walked into the world's largest sausage fest. But what was the point of all of these phalluses?
Turns out, the deity of Tagata Shrine is a female harvest and fertility deity, and all of the phallic stones, carvings, candy, etc. were gifts and offerings to the deity in hopes for a bountiful harvest and healthy children. Oogata Shrine, the one we didn't get two, houses a male harvest and fertility deity and gets gifts and offerings of female genitalia.



Around 2pm, a parade from the nearby Kumanosha Shrine (熊野社) starts that brings three mikoshi floats to the main shrine of Tagata Shrine. One is an offering float, one is the male deity from Oogata Shrine, and one...I'm not sure what it is, to be honest with you. The offering float contains a newly-carved phallus, made from a single cypress tree. The thing is huge, and sticks out from both sides. There were two or three teams of men, all aged 42 (an unlucky age for men despite being the answer to the ultimate question), who take turns carrying the offering.







The other two floats are a red float, that looks much like a shrine itself, and a elaborate float. The red float, pictured on the left here, carries a statue of Takeinadene-no-mikoto, the deity of Oogata Shrine. Legend has it he was a warrior who married a girl from the village where Komaki now stands. The girl is the deity enshrined in Tagata Shrine, Tamahime-no-mikoto. Sadly, I did not get a picture of the figure inside of this, as much as I wanted to.
The little torii gate in front of the float did make me giggle, though. The Japanese can be very detailed with these things.






The last float, the really elaborate one held this guy:
No clue who he is. Neither the English pamphlet that I bought for 100 yen nor the informational website I found mentions it. My guess is either it's a second image of Takeinadene-no-mikoto, or the deity of Kumanosha Shrine. If anyone can find any information, I'd love to know!







For all three of these floats, as well as several groups of shinto priests and a group of 36-year-old women holding freshly-carved wooden phalluses (36 is unlucky for women), it takes about an hour to an hour and a half to make the 1.5 kilometer walk between shrines.
Once the mikoshi have made it to Tagata Shrine, the offering mikoshi is brought inside the main shrine, where it will rest for a year until the next hounensai brings a new offering.
Around 4pm there is a mochinage, or rice cake-throwing, where a bunch of the priests and special guests lob lucky rice cakes at the crowd. This is QUITE dangerous, and several times they warned that the elderly, pregnant women, people with kids, and people with eyeglasses should refrain from joining in as the shrine is not responsible for any injuries received while trying to catch a rice cake.

Overall, it was a unique experience, and both my husband and I were glad we went. The festival has gained a lot of popularity with foreign tourists, and a good 30% of the visitors to the festival were not of Japanese decent. There was also a random Japanese man dressed up in full cowboy gear, except for chaps. He also had a guitar case with him, which prompted my husband and I to stay far away from him, in case the guitar case held a machine gun, like the movie Desperato.

If anyone ever comes visit the Nagoya area in March, I completely suggest this festival. I think it's about 700 yen from Nagoya's Meitetsu train station to Tagata Shrine, which makes it a very affordable day trip.
Next year, my husband and I will definitely make plans to go to Oogata Shrine's festival, so I hope this blog sticks around so I have somewhere to post pictures!


Now, there is still one more thing to talk about.
However, I believe this post is long enough, so I will stop here and start a new one. So I guess you guys are lucky and get three posts today!

As much as this blog is supposed to be writing reviews and such about the available self-study Japanese websites out there on the tubes, I'm still trying to find my voice by talking about work and work-related subjects.
I've talked about Hop Step Jump, Hop Step Jump events (student-run and company-run), and Learn-Japan.
All the photos I've posted so far have been work-related.
I've been all work, work, work.


So a bit of a break. Before I start cracking down and actually reviewing websites, I want to share Gifu.


The title of today's blog is a well-known quote from the Sengoku (Warring States) Period of Japan's history. The reason being, Gifu is the exact center of Japan. Literally. Geographically. The village of Minami in the northern city of Gujo is actually the dead geographical center of the Japan archipelago. I've been to the museum that has a huge pendulum-looking cone pointing to the exact center. Many of the postal codes in Gifu also start with 500 to signify how central of a location it is. Relative to the "big" cities of Tokyo and Osaka, it's roughly 396km (246 miles) to Tokyo and 217km (135 miles) to Osaka, making it roughly in the middle between two of the largest cities in Japan and the world.

While most in Gifu would consider it inaka (country) here, it's actually a pretty interesting area to live in. In way northern Gifu there's the Hida-Takayama area, known for it's mountains (considered a part of the Central Japanese Alps), sake, and for a large, old-style shopping district in Takayama City. Takayama City is also the largest city in surface area in Japan. There's a famous Shinto matsuri festival in spring and fall that I have been meaning to get to. The whole are gorgeous to go visit any time of the year, especially in fall and winter. They also sell good luck charms called sarubobo, and I have two Hello Kitty sarubobos I bought my first trip there. Sadly, my laptop died two years ago and I lost all of my photos from this area. I need to go again and get some good photos to share.

Nearby Hida-Takayama is Gero, which houses some famous onsen. The onsen has a huge fireworks festival every year that attracts a huge crowd from all over the country.
Gujo, which I mentioned further up the page, is west of Gero and is one of my favorite places in Gifu. Gujo is home to Gujo Odori, a huge dance festival in August celebrating the Bon Festival. If you've ever seen a picture of the famous Daimonji in Kyoto, it's for the same holiday. It's held in the Hachiman area of Gujo, and lasts a month. The most amazing part of this festival is in mid-August, usually around the 14th, where for four days the citizens of Hachiman and people form all over the country come to participate in tetsuya-odori, all-night dancing. I've gone two years in a row and plan on making it three this year.
Here are two of my photos from last year:

This is the little pagoda that is in the center of the dancing area. These poor old guys have to sing and play music all night from about 8pm until 4am while people have fun and dance around them.











This is what it looks like in between the dance lines, looking towards the center. Usually the dancers are arranged in a plus shape, snaking down the four streets that create the intersection that the pagoda sits in.





Gujo also houses several caves which are open for tours and are awesome places to hide from the summer heat, as well as a "food replica" factory and store that is open for tours. Gujo-Hachiman actually produces 80% of the plastic food samples you see in restaurant and cafe windows across the country. The factory sometimes offers tours that allows visitors to try their hand at making their own leaf of lettuce to take home with them.

Heading south towards Gifu City brings you to Seki City, which has a 700-year-old history of sword making and cutlery. Four times a year they have demonstrations of the traditional methods of sword making, and also have ceremony for the first sword of the year at New Years. The Swordsmith Museum also houses one of the largest swords in the world, a katana that's a good 6 meters long. The area of Seki, and it's neighboring city of Mino, is pretty well known for unagi, or eel, as well. Makes for a tasty summer treat!

In southern Gifu, the big three cities are the capital, Gifu City, Kakamigahara City, and Motosu City. Kakamigahara, often called Mippara by citizens, houses several aeronautic companies that design and manufacture airplane parts, as well as a Self-Defense Force (formerly the Japanese Army) air base, both of which made the city a common air raid target during World War II. Currently, Kakamigahara is known for it's sakura in the city park and along the river banks.



Motosu City is known for mainly three things: persimmons, Usuzumi-zakura, and MaLera.
Motosu is a large producer of fuyugaki persimmons, and groves of persimmon trees can be seen all over the city. If one asks someone from Gifu what a good gift from Gifu would be in the fall, most will suggest a box of persimmons before anything else.
The Usuzumi-zakura is the oldest sakura in Japan, believed to be over 1500 years old. The park where it is is now filled with many "babies" that have come from the central tree. It is a rare type of sakura that has pale pink blossoms that change to white at full bloom, and fade to a light gray as they fall. The sheer size of it is unlike any sakura I had ever seen. Hopefully I can go this year and actually take photos.
The MALera shopping mall in Motosu opened a few years ago, and is actually one of the largest malls in the country. It boasts 240 retail stores, a movie theater, food court, supermarket, and a "restaurant street" that stays open after the retail stores have closed. It is a paradise for mall-walkers, without a doubt.


Gifu City is where I'm stationed, and is the capital of Gifu Prefecture. It's a pretty decent sized city, and is quite easy to live in. There's a large JR station and one of the main Meitetsu stations in the center of town, as well as a shinkansen station about a 45 minute drive away over in Hashima City. First thing you notice when you get out of the train station is usually Gifu Castle sitting up on top of the mountain. Just as most of them are nowadays, it is a replica museum, but is a nice hike up Mt. Kinka to get there, or you could take the ropeway car up for $6 one way. Inside there is a lot of samurai armor, weapons, ninja weapons (yeah, real shuriken and the like), and a bunch of papers in Latin about a missionary who came during Oda Nobunaga's reign. Nobunaga's a weird historical figure in that he's become quite the legend. Appears in several video games as a "devil" figure, mainly because of how Japanese history portrays him. He was good at killing off those who opposed him, and allowed Christians onto his lands. Both of these got him the lovely title of "evil" when he was finally defeated.

Below the castle are several museums inside Gifu Park, including an insect museum and a city history museum, and down the street is Shōhōji Temple which houses one of Japan's largest Great Buddha statues. One of my co-workers told me it is not only the 3rd largest Buddha in Japan, but also the largest lacquered Buddha in Japan. Within a short walking distance from Gifu Park one will find Inaba Shrine, one of the three largest shrines in Gifu City. Inaba, along with Kogane Shrine and Kashimori Shrine (right down the street from my office), house a "family" of deities, with Inaba and Kogane shrines housing the parent gods, and Kashimori Shrine housing the child of the two. Every year in April the three hold joint festivals. In front of Inaba Shrine, one can also find the local branch of Zenkouji Temple. Seki City, which I mentioned earlier, also has their own branch of Zenkouji Temple which is much older than that of Gifu City.



Possibly the most famous tourist attraction in Gifu City is it's historic cormorant fishing, Ukai, that occurs on the Nagara River between May and October. Gifu's section of the Nagara River is one of just a handful of places in Japan where this traditional night fishing still exists. Seki City, Inuyama City in Aichi Prefecture, and an area of Nara are the only places I've heard of that still practice this art. The tradition has been passed down through families, from father to son, for 1300 years. The houses where these families live are preserved as they were from Japan's past. Officially, these fishermen are under the watch of the Imperial Household Agency, and much of the first catch of the season is sent to the Imperial family as a gift. There are also areas of the Nagara River where fishing is prohibited as they are the official fishing spots for where the Imperial Family gets their Ayu, a type of Japanese sweetfish.


Another must-see in Gifu City, is Bairin Park, which houses 1300 Japanese plum trees. It offers 50 different varieties of plum trees, 600 of which are red or pink blossoms, and 700 are white varieties. A few of the red and pink varieties start blossoming as early as mid-January, and continue well through March. The Bairin Plum Festival, Bairin Ume Matsuri, is held the first weekend of March every year, with food booths selling all sorts of festival food, and local modeling companies bringing in models to pose with the blossoms for amateur photographers. Two years ago we had one model dressed up as a maiko, and last year we just had two girls in pretty dresses. The sheer amount of people with cameras is just amazing. Many also bring portable printers with them to print out their photos right then and there. Going to this festival is one of my favorite parts of living in Gifu, and I can't wait for this year's. Most likely I'll run into every single photographer you see in that above picture.



I could go on and on and on about things to see and do in Gifu, but I think I've droned on long enough. This took me two sessions at work to type all out. One last link I would like to share with you all is The Site of Reversible Destiny in Yoro Park, to the East of Gifu City. There is no other place like this in the world, and it is an incredible experience. It's slightly run down after being open for 10 years or so, resulting in a surreal, almost bad dream-like experience if you go on a cloudy day. I regret not taking my mother while she was here last summer. I think she would have gotten a kick out of it.



This is all my random rambling for now. Starting next month I'll be doing reviews of various websites to learn Japanese from, and possibly different ways to find work in Japan. Have to run that by my boss first.

Till next month!