One Heart Ballet

 

I don’t often get to see ballet here, so I am excited when I get the chance to attend a performance. 

This performance was absolutely wonderful. The dancers were Japanese and Ukrainian (Awaji World Ballet). There were also 17 children dancers who must have been thrilled to take part. There were exerts from Swan Lake and a full act from Don Quixote. My favorite part was an original piece of the Japanese Crane. 

Here is the link to the official page of the featured ballerina, Emi Hariyama. I hope I can see these dancers again.

Kokokuji Castle Ruins

This castle ruins site is about a 40 minute walk from Hara Station. 

This is the castle history from the J-Castle website:

Kokokuji Castle is well known as the castle from which Hojo Soun rose to power. Soun became the lord of Kokouji Castle in 1487 for helping to quell the succession dispute among the Imagawa after the death of Imagawa Yoshitada. Yoshitada was married to Soun's sister. In 1491, Soun invaded Izu and Imagawa Yoshimoto was put in charge of Kokokuji Castle. After the hostilities settled down, Imagawa renovated the castle. As the Imagawa lost power, Kokokuji Castle became one of the points of struggle between the Takeda and Hojo. The Takeda took control in 1571 and kept the castle until their downfall when it came under the control of Tokugawa Ieyasu. After Ieyasu moved to Kanto, various lords served from Kokokuji Castle until it was abandoned in 1607.

Map of Castle Area

There are several open fields as you walk up from the road.

A small shrine is located on the grounds.

From the shrine, the trail goes up, and up, then another goes steeply down.

This is the roof of the shrine below.

This is interesting, and not a long walk from the train station, so worth a visit.

Kubizukainari Shrine

This shrine is about a 25 minute walk from Kusanagi Station. It’s kind of hidden. If I hadn’t noticed it on the map, I don’t think I would have found it just walking around on my own.

The wooden torii don’t last forever. Sometimes they need to be replaced. The bamboo growing here is large.

The shrine building is tiny. It’s clean and tidy, but doesn’t look like it gets many visitors.

Side

Back of building.

Hand-biting in the Public Toilet

This is another strange crime case. 

Police in Gifu City arrested 37 year old city employee, Yusuke Tsutsumi, on suspicion of assault for biting the left hand of a 46 year old man inside the public toilet in Meitetsu Gifu train station around 11 pm last Saturday. Mr. Tsutsumi denied the allegation, saying “I have no recollection of it”. Police said the two men do not know each other and Mr. Tsutsumi was not intoxicated.  

Does this sound weird or what?

Mabase Shrine and Yakushido Temple

Mabase Shrine is an interesting site high on a hill. Isn’t that always the way?

To the right is a rough set of old steps. I chose to climb the newer, straighter steps.

At the top is a small shrine building. There are two lion creatures, which is normal. The interesting thing is that one has a ball and the other has a baby.

Looking through the building, I saw another big set of steps behind this building.

Looking down is the old rough steps.

I walked around the shrine building and up the steps.

According to google maps, the site at the top is Yakushido Temple.

This building is even smaller than the shrine below.

From the top, there was a nice view of Mt. Fuji.

I went down the stairs and on my way.

Work In Progress Wednesday

The Tale of Genji progress

 The Knot Garden progress