Tsuyazaki Excursion

Sandy and I were late to the shrine for setsubun, so we instead turned the morning into an "around old Tsuyazaki" excursion.

First off, and with no historical significance whatsoever, how kawaii is Japan that they decorate the doors of the local fire station? [See "Cuteness in Japanese Culture"]

Then we headed over to one of the oldest houses in "old" Tsuyazaki, which has been around for over a hundred years or so...



The architecture inside was very cool.



The wood had been treated with salt water to prevent infestation by insects.



There's something very appealing about the wood retaining it's natural shape and not being cut, shaped and sanded into all right corners and 90 degree angles.





An older fellow, who I think worked there, and who explained a bunch of things to us about the house and things in it [including the salt water/insect thing above] also showed us this old school Japanese raincoat, which was woven from tree bark.

Yes, tree bark.

It once again confirmed the opinion, first developed at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, that if I had to show the amount of creativity and resourcefulness they had in days of old, I'd have died very early.



Fascinating to see a couple photos they had up of a the Tsuyazaki Yamakasa festival from the Taisho Era, year 12 [1924]. The neighborhood doesn't really look all that different today.





Lastly, check out these very cool June 1930 Price List of Tobaccos for Japan that they had.

"Imperial Japanese Government Monopoly" indeed.



On this last pic, if you click it to full size, you can make out the price for RJ Reynolds tobacco... My home state's gift to lung cancer around the world.