Yamabe-no-Michi Cultural Hall

Article posted on Monday, March, 28th, 2011 at 1:32 pm

Today, we’ll be visiting the town of Kusano, in Kurume city (map). In many ways it’s just an ordinary, out-of-the-way, rural town, but the fact that there are several historically interesting places dotted about can almost be considered ordinary for Japan. Something I’m still not quite used to having come from Australia.

The fine specimen of a building below started out life in 1914 as the Nakano Hospital. Today, it’s the Yamabe-no-Michi Cultural Hall (formerly, Nakano Hospital). That’s 山辺道文化館（旧中野病院）in Japanese. Quite the mouthful no matter the language. Without having reached it’s 100th birthday, it and a small companion building are both registered tangible cultural properties.

I can’t really say that it looks particularly Japanese or even Asian (Oops, non PC?). Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. It was built about half a century after Japan had emerged from its self-imposed isolation, and it seems foreign influences had become more-and-more common place by this time.

Back to school

Article posted on Saturday, June, 26th, 2010 at 8:29 am

I was walking around school between lessons looking for a teacher (I work at 8 schools in Kurume city) & came across a room filled with historical artefacts. The room was decked out like a folk museum with items from various eras of Japan’s past. I later found out that the more ancient stuff were replicas but hey, considering this is a local school, I was still impressed.

Anyway, after getting permission (of course), the teacher said that NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, had been there just two days earlier for a story. Have I in fact scooped NHK? Perhaps the big question is, Does it really matter?

Check out the vid and tell me what you think!

Kurume Castle – Video blog #3

Article posted on Friday, March, 26th, 2010 at 5:29 pm

This was kind of impromptu. The sky was blue & I had access to the car (finally), so I thought I’d check out Kurume Castle. It’s about a 25-minute drive from my house. I actually wasn’t expecting to see cherry blossoms at all, so that was a nice surprise.

Is this video too long guys? Would love your comments on any & all aspects of the video.