‘Even if it is difficult to completely erase the boundaries between cultures, I strongly believe that, through the steady activity of photography, we can lower the boundaries to a height where children can easily jump over them like a skipping rope’
The National Diet Building, the legislature of Japan's parliamentary democracy, is located just south of the Imperial Palace in Tōkyō. Completed in 1936, its unusual architecture reflects elements of German, East Asian, and ancient Mideastern monumental architecture. From the outside it was surprisingly difficult to get a good photo of it, but I edited this one to get a closer view.
In central Tōkyō to help our younger son, security was very tight at the U.S. Embassy, and rather light around the Diet. The building is not gray like it usually appears in photos, but more like sandstone.
"Before beginning to study the sacred texts and constantly singing the sutras, the student should learn to read the love letters sent by the snow, the wind, and the rain."
Fushimi-Momoyama Castle (伏見桃山城) is on a hilltop in southeastern Kyōto, and not easily accessed, so very few Japanese or inbound tourists go there. It makes a good hike for the same reason. The #castle is a reproduction of the intended retirement residence of the national unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but it was near the end of the turbulent Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600), to which the castle contributed the Momoyama part of its name. Although I am mostly interested in the relatively peaceful palaeolithic to Heian periods, this castle is nevertheless elegant, as befits a predecessor of the Shōguns.
Q: Someone asked if I saw a reproduction of Hideyoshi’s gold-leafed tearoom.
A: Visitors aren't allowed in. There never seem to be staff there. The place has an unfortunate history!
Q: The Meiji Emperor's mausoleum is very close by. Why was this location chosen?
The original site was taken for the tomb of Emperor Meiji! The castle is now nearby.
Good news on open access to my works on bilingualism, the research area related to my teaching, child-raising, and using Japanese for over 40 years. I was interviewed by The Japan Times on #bilingual#education for a forthcoming paywalled article. It was a long interview, and usually a newspaper article uses only short passages from one individual. However, the #Japan Association for #Language#Teaching Bilingualism Special Interest Group (#JALT#Bilingualism SIG) would like to publish the full interview in its newsletter Bilingual Japan. Everyone should be able to read that as I back it up in research repositories. The tentative title is "English Education and Bilingual Education in Japan."
My publications on bilingualism have been backed up mostly at Academia Edu, which is not so easy to access anymore [any comment?], so I've added links to the original sources of articles, which are open access, at https://japanned.hcommons.org/bilingualism