Quake Ramblings

2005-01-18T04:41:00.000-08:00

The experts believe one should come in the next fifty years. They predict a big one usually hits once every hundred years, and since the last one to hit this area of Japan was in 1958, they have half a century on their side. A strange exceptance of this fact must pervade most Japanese people, perhaps explaining in part their resolute nature and acceptance of the way things are; perhaps its even a reason why Buddism took off so well here. Whether its acceptance or naivety one thing is for sure, the Japanese people I've met here don't seem very well prepared for it. Or bothered. To an outsider the thought of impending doom might be enough to deem only mountainous areas suitable for building a house...to the Japanese its business as usual. I can't help finding such disregard in the face of danger admirable in our overly safety conscious new world.

Get Rural

2005-01-13T10:15:00.000-08:00

I am writing to you from Tano. Where, prey tell me, might that be you wonder. Well, does Aki ring any bells? No? Then how about Kitagawa, or Hane? Still none the wiser? You're going to kick yourself when I tell you. It's right next to Nahari, the town famous for having more Kareoke bars per capita than anywhere else in Kochi. At the risk of insulting your intelligence again Kochi is, if you needed reminding, in southern Japan. In Japan there are four main islands, right. Well, look for the one down below that you probably hadn't noticed and you'll see the fabled island of Shikoku; hidden paradise, jewel in the rough, modern-day utopia, the last refuge and also the least interesting place to go in Japan according to most travel guides. Don't take their word for it though, get a first hand account straight from the horse's, or pony's mouth........all will be explained in good time. So, to recap, Tano is in Kochi which is on Shikoku which is in southern Japan. You're following me then.

What first springs to mind when you mention Japan to most people is mega-metropolis biggest-city-in-Asia behemoth Tokyo. Impressive as this city might be, there is plenty of Japan - the heart of Japan some say, the dregs others - which is outside all that big city glammer and glitz. To some Tokyo is, quite frankly, over-rated. I mean who really needs such a variety of first rate bars and clubs, world-class restaurants, shops and department stores galore, late-night bookstores, state-of-the-art modernity, museums, theatres, multi-culturalism, discount electrical gizmos, mullets, etc. Who really does when you can be perfectly happy with one supermarket, one bank, one station, one restaurant (with erratic opening times, but hey whats wrong with home cooking?) three pachinko parlours (come on, you have to live a little). Tano has one of everything. Simplicity is beauty, and you can't get much simpler than that. Tano 'Town' is a place which is steeped in local history too. Does the tale of the 23 Samarai, a story analogous to the 47 Ronin but more interesting, sound at all familiar? How about the assasinated 1920's president of Japan Hamaguchi Osachi who Tano spawned? In Tano, which prides itself on being 'flower town' of the east, there are all these things and a whole lot more, far more than is possible to recount in a few lines. I will do my best to though, arduous task it might turn out to be. Rural living is the new avant-garde, thats why I, Monsieur Swann, with a finger firmly on the pulse of all things happening in and around the Chugei area, have taken up residence in Tano.

Get a life and get rural.

2005-01-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

The resting place of the 23 Samarai of Tano

Monsieur Swann's Weblog

Quake Ramblings

Get Rural