2010年1月26日火曜日

A Unique Museum, Warland


There is a very unique museum in Sekigahara called Warland. Sekigahara has three museums where you can see many arms and armors used for the battle of Sekigahara. However, Warland is a bit different from an ordinary museum.

Once you enter the gate, hundreds of samurai dolls welcome you and they are stopping at the moment of fight. Some of them are shooting a gun, drawing a bow, riding a house etc. In addition to this, the quality of the dolls is low so that it enhances their mysteriousness. Therefore, Warland has become a popular spot for history fans.

As I remember, Warland was kind of a deserted place. I hardly saw visitors and I thought nobody outside of the town knew about the museum. However, when historical dramas and TV games became popular, lots of history fans learned about Warland and visit there. Now on weekends, hundreds cars are parked at the museum from anywhere in Japan.

It is difficult to imagine what the museum is like from my blog so please come and visit Warland.

Warland

http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=456

2010年1月12日火曜日

A new school in Sekigahara

Sekigahara Primary School has been rebuilt. The school had been under construction since the beginning of 2008. It is clean and has a garden in the very center of the school. I can say it is a quite unique design.

The idea of rebuilding came up to improve earthquake resistance and its capacity. The number of students is declining. Therefore, two primary schools were unified in this town. There were three primary schools including Sekigahara South, North and Imasu, that is the mountain side of the town. South and North were consolidated. Around 250 students go to this school. There used to be twice or three times more students a couple of decades ago. As other cities are thriving, many young people do not come back to this town.

This unification was controversial. Two schools had long histories and for some students the school location is inconvenient. Opposition forces collected the major population of the signatures but the town didn’t accept it. Later on the opposition forces sued the town and claimed compensation because their liberty was disturbed.

This unification eventually came up with excellent facilities. The security of the school has been improved and I hope that the new school provides a good environment for students to study.