Foiled Plans & A Step Back in TIme

I went out for okonomiyaki with some of the new people in the community last night. I think I really, really like them. My new neighbor (well, we live in the same complex, but he's the other foreigner in my area) and I seem to get along well. He and I have a similar background. He's maori (and from northern NZ), worked for the Bank of NZ for the last year-and-a-half, studied business in college and also did a year abroad (in Poland and Ireland) before college. I think we like a lot of the same kind of music, too, which is generally a good sign. And the boy likes to party - as in throwing theme parties, that is! My apartment is much too small to host any real shindigs at the moment, but I loved the parties we had at "the White Castle" (my old house in Minneapolis), and would love to collaborate on a theme party or two this year. Excellent!

So I was going to attend this music festival this weekend called Summer Sonic. It's held annually in Osaka and Tokyo and is one of the biggest festivals in Asia. I've been lazy about getting the tickets, however, and when I finally went to buy them yesterday... they were sold out!! I am so sad - I would have loved to have seen Gwen Stefani (especially in Japan since she's obsessed with the culture) and I've really been looking forward to Interpol. I am going to try discount ticket places, but I don't have much hope.

Tobs, his French girlfriend and Trygve are going island-hopping in Okayama and invited me to join, but I think I already missed the boat (no pun intended) on that one. SO, what is the big plan for the weekend (now that Summer Sonic is out)?!:MEIJI-MURA!

I mentioned earlier that I wanted to explore the Frank Lloyd Wright/Japan connection more this summer, and this weekend will be the second installment of that little expedition. I'm planning to visit a theme-park of sorts called Meiji Mura, where the lobby he designed for the Imperial Hotel (originally built in Tokyo) is housed. I am especially interested in seeing more of his work here in Japan after the Ashiya estate turned out to be so cool. And now that I have this Juhachi Seishun Kippu, a 5-day unlimited JR travel pass (that expires in Sept and I need to use anyways)... it makes sense.

I'm going to head out for Nagoya tomorrow morning and just go for the day (it takes about 4 hours each way). I am sure I'll have a lot to share upon my return, but in the meantime, here's some background information about where I'm going. I think the article offers some good information about the Meiji Era and the park; it might give you a better idea of why I want to go, too. I didn't actually get permission to post this article here, but it's on the Japanzine website if you want to research more. Cheers!

Meiji Memories
By Chester Cross

Other Asian countries were colonized by the West, but Japan more-or-less colonized itself. Though it took Commodore Perry and his infamous Black Ships to convince the Japanese to spread their country's legs to the outside world, once they'd taken that first step there was no looking back. The first decades of the Meiji era (1867-1912) saw Japan lose itself in a fever of rampant Westernization, as everything from democracy to top hats was imported and given a try.
It was a weird, heady period in the nation's history, many of whose initial gains were later rescinded as reactionary factions regrouped and fought back. However, some conspicuous reminders of that full-on flirtation with all things Western lived on – not least among them the distinctive architecture. Replacing wood and paper with bricks and mortar, many of the Meiji era's buildings wouldn't have looked out of place thousands of miles away, in the countries whose styles they were so overtly aping. Some were the work of Western architects, but others were the fruits of exclusively Japanese labor, an impressive testament to how quickly the country's brightest minds were catching up with their overseas counterparts.
These days, though, you'd be hard pressed to find many Meiji relics. While the odd example still exists – Tokyo Station being perhaps the most well-known – many fell victim to the scourges of earthquakes, bombing raids and post-war reconstruction. The latter was perhaps the cruelest, when glorious old wrecks were swept away in a wave of bland concretisms and pre-fab apartments.
Fortunately, these buildings weren't without their mourners. Moved by the seemingly willful destruction of his country's heritage, an architect named Yoshiro Taniguchi decided to take action. He joined forces with his former classmate Moto Tsuchikawa, later president of the Meitetsu railway company, and in 1965 opened Meiji Mura, providing these unwanted remnants of the past with a permanent home.

Meiji Mura's site, curled around one corner of Lake Iruka on the outskirts of Inuyama, initially housed 15 structures, all painstakingly moved from their original locations and reconstructed there. That number has since swelled to over 60, ranging in scale from lamps and gates to an entire cathedral. They're spread over the rolling hills of a vast, bucolic park that would probably be worth a visit even without this rich, slightly random confection of historical goodies.
Yup, random is the operative word. Meiji Mura's buildings have been wrenched out of their original contexts, and the initial effect of seeing them bunched together here is a bit jarring – more befitting of a theme park than a history museum. One second you're admiring the innards of a Kanazawa prison, the next you're standing face-to-face with the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo. It's like wandering around the real-life results of a drunken game of Sim City. Still, once you get over the mild weird-out factor, there's plenty to enjoy.
Visitors coming by bus will arrive at the Main Gate, requisitioned from a Nagoya high school, in the south-west corner of the site. From there, it's roughly a kilometer to the North Gate, traversing the park's five distinct areas. Pace yourself, as there's a hell of a lot to see – you'll need at least half a day to do it all justice.
If your legs threaten to give up on you, you can take advantage of the vintage transportation options on offer. An old-school bus travels from gate to gate, while shorter stretches are covered by a streetcar, horse-drawn carriage and, most impressively, a steam engine whose distinctive whistle echoes through the park all day long. These all cost extra to ride, but the novelty factor might prove irresistible for some.
In the southern half of the site, don't miss out on the beautiful St. John's Church, one of the ten buildings here that's officially recognized as an Important Cultural Property. The grand Higashi-Yamanashi District Office and the oh-so-Germanic Kitasato Institute are also well worth checking out (and pretty hard to miss). Follow the path that snakes around the side of the lake and you'll find Zagyo-so, a gorgeous wooden villa that belonged to Prince Kinmochi Saionji (“politicians visited the villa incessantly,” the official website states, and you can see why), then the pint-sized Shinagawa Lighthouse.
A little further north, in Area 4, are some of the park's most exotic attractions (well, in geographical terms at least): a Japanese Evangelical church from Seattle, immigrant's house from Brazil and immigrant's assembly hall from Hawaii. None, to be fair, are all that interesting to look at – at least not when there's buildings like the glorious Uji-Yamada Post Office competing for attention.
However, Meiji Mura saves its best until last. Area 5 is home to such treats as St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral and the aforementioned Imperial Hotel. The latter is undoubtedly the biggest draw here: the building single-handedly revived architect Frank Lloyd Wright's career, not least because it survived the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 unscathed. It's an impressive bit of work, fusing ferro-concrete and blocks of volcanic rock into a structure weirdly reminiscent of both Mayan and Balinese temples.
All of the buildings come complete with explanatory plaques in both Japanese and English. Visitors are able to wander around many of them freely, while others open their doors a few times a day for guided tours. Well, you wouldn't want just anyone poking around now, would you...?

(article found at http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/jz/1065/Meiji+Memories)