In Odawara I've found 1

Odawara-jouchin,which means a folding lantern made in Odawara.

It's quite huge.
An original one seems to be around 0.3 meter high,I guess.

The shape is indigenous to Odawara.Hundreds of years ago,a craftsman named "Jinzaemon" contrived it.

The point is,it could be compact.

Japanese seems to have learned a lot from that like to produce a collapsible umbrella and a miniature radio and so on.

They have decorated it as the emblem of Odawara at Odawara station, I reckon.(click the picture)

In Odawara I've found. 2

The statue of Souun Houjou(1432-1519).
It's humongous.

Must have cost over 30 million yen,I guess.
It's situated at the mountain side of Odawara station.

Souun was one of the strongest lords
in the Warring State Period(1467-1570).

He was the founder of the Houjou family and lived in the Odawara Fortress(it became the Odawara Castle afterwards).

He died at 87 years old at Izu-Nirayama where he came from.=On the 26th.Feb.(click the picture)

Japanese apricot blossoms in Ohkurayama,Yokohama 1

Today (on the 25 th Feb),I've been to the Ohkurayama-park in Yokohama-city to enjoy Japanese apricot blossoms.

But the opening ratio of blossoms to buds was only 30 %.
It'll be full in a week,they say.

The Ohkurayama-park is near Ohkurayama-station on the Toukyu Touyoko-line.
7 minutes walk from the station.=3:40p.m. at the Ohkurayama-park
(click the picture)

Japanese apricot blossoms 2

Japanese apricot blossoms are not so enchanting as cherry.
Modest enough.

The history admired by Japanese is longer than cherry blossoms.
It was from the beginning of Japanese hitory.
The origin is in China.

On the other hand,cherry blossoms became popular just after the kind of "Somei-yoshino" cherry tree was produced through the process of hybrid at the end of Edo-era,about 150 years ago.

"Somei-yoshino" cherry blossoms are the ones which we appreciate every spring.(click the picture)

Japanese apricot blossoms 3

The best point of Japanese apricot blossoms is a fragrance of their own.

In darkness,people come to recognize that there are Japanese apricot blossoms there or thereabout only by grace of the delightful scent though they cannot look at.

It has been reckoned to be chic from over 1200years ago by Japanese.Especially by aristocrat.
(click the picture)

Japanese apricot blossoms 4

For some unknown reason,I feel that it's full of white blossoms in winter.
Don't you think so?

Red ones are precious.(click the picture)

Japanese apricot blossoms 5

In green bud.(click the picture)

Japanese apricot blossoms 6

Ohkurayama Memorial Hall near the blossoms.(click the picture)

Ginza ground positions 1

I took photographs from the the ground level, placing my camera on the ground.

The position is lower than the "low position camera" of the deceased Japanese film director,Yasujirou Ozu.
That's all.

He was the big maestro.Admired as equally as the late Kurosawa.

Ozu described people internally,setting stories in homes or companies.
Whereas,Kurosawa made a point of the stories which make audiences' hearts leap up.

Ozu's films are the ones which lead people into thinking of their lives or the meaning of life.
Not exciting compared to Kurosawa's.But an inteligent people's liking,I think.

The white building on the right in the picture is the headquarters of the film company which he worked for at that time.=at 4 chome (click the picture)

Ginza ground positions 2

A reality of Japanese.

The films by Ozu were glorified by Londonites at first, and secondly by Parisians.Thirdly by Japanese.

Ozu won "The Sutherland Trophy" at the London Film Festival in 1958 by his masterpiece "Tokyo Monogatari".And in France, at "The French-Japanese Film Festival" in 1963,Andre Malraux,the president of the Cultural Ministry of France at that time,instructed them to show as many as 10 films by Ozu.

The reason must have been why he repeatedly described solitude of human beings profoundly. They might have discovered another European author in Japanese Ozu and might have been touched.

He was alredy an authority then in Japan,but there were a lot of filmgoers who didn't know of him.

Once he was praised in Europe, all the Japanese media began to appreciate him like a copycat without recognizing its value,I think.
Eventually he became a maestro.

The masterpiece is conceived to be "Tokyo Monogatari" which means a Tokyo story.

The theme of the story is the sightseeing trip to Tokyo by an old husband and a wife who are living in Onomichi-city in Hiroshima prefecture.Although they were invited by their children,the couple is treated cool because of their everyday's busyness.

The kindest person is turned out to be the wife of their second son who was killed in battle in the world War 2. She is stunningly beautiful.

Eventually the old wife dies of the strain from the trip.
And the old husband lives alone in Onomichi-city in his later days.

I saw "Tokyo Monogatari" twice in a plane bound for Paris 2 years ago after an interval of 10 years.I found it not so interesting and redundant.

Almost all of his films are boring,I reckon.

Excuse me !=at 4 chome (click the picture)

Ginza ground positions 3

Also a reality.It's okay.=at 4 chome (click the picture)

Ginza ground positions 4

Ozu died in 1963.He was 60 years old.
Unmarried.

Lived in the north part of Kamakura city.=at 4 chome (click the picture)

Ginza ground positions 5

The darkness on the rather left side in the picture is a salaried worker.Never mind!=at the 4-chome crossroad(click the picture)

Ginza ground positions 6

From the center of a pedestrian crossing.

Ozu also used to cross here around 50 years ago.=at 4-chome (click the picture)

Signs of rendezvous 1 Shinjuku station

"Shinjuku no me".
As you know,it means the eye of Shinjuku.
Surreal!!

It's not my responsibility.
(click the picture)

Signs of rendezvous 2 Tokyo station

"Gin no Suzu" which means the bell made of silver.
That's why it is guarded with a glass case.
Boring!
(click the picture)

Signs of rendezvous 3 Ikebukuro station

"Ikefukurou".
It means an owl at Ikebukuro.
"Ikefukurou" is a pun of Ikebukuro.
"Ikebukuro"+"Fukurou(an owl)"=Ikefukurou
Third-rate!

Once there were lands here that were surrounded by hills like the shape of pouch ("fukuro" in Japanese) and ponds("ike").And also a lot of owls(fukurous).

That is the origin of the name "Ikebukuro".
It's written on a signboard behind the statue.
It's well-made.
(click the picture)

Signs of rendezvous 4 Shibuya station

The top celebrity of Japanese dogs,Hachikou.

Tell me why you are laughing!

Not well-made,I think.
(click the picture)

Signs for rendezvous 5 Ebisu station

The statue of Ebisu-san as it is.
It's okay.
(click the picture)

Japanesque plus 1

He is not alone because he has positive belief to rely on,I guess.

The right wing people like them have been under taboo for the Japanese media to cover because of their acts of violence against democracy in the past.They haven't been reported except for special cases such as balancing the left wing with them.
Is that the way it goes?

This group became big-name at 3:05p.m. on the 12th of October in 1960,when a 17year-old boy assassinated the party head of the Japanese Socialist Party with his dagger on the stage of the Hibiya-hall where the panel by 3 party leaders had been being held.It happened in front of a lot of audience.It had been also being broadcasted by a TV station.
The boy was told to have had a certain connection with the head of the group.
I`ve once met the head named Bin Akao in Naha,Okinawa.

"Your paper is my foe.But I've decided to meet you because you showed up to ask me."
He said,with big eyes and a long face.
He seemed couteous and witty.

A lean man in mild of manner sat next Akao.He gave me a calling card.
He was the person who had knocked the face of the prime minister Miki at that time down on the ground in public at a venue of a state funeral in 1975,I recognized afterwards.
His second name was "Fudeyasu",I remember.

Once a playwright,Kazuo Kasahara said:
"Politicians and bureaucrats have become dirtier because terrorism has died out."

The famous series of films titled "Jingi naki Tatakai" have had a big influence for Quentin Tarantino,the director of the films titled "Kill Bill".
He confessed once.
Kasahara wrote almost all the senarios of those films=on the 19th Feb,at Ikebukuro.
(click the picture)