Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.503
Hello from Ichiroya.
This is Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.503.
Firstly, we like to thank you for all the comments for the last newsletter. We are so impressed with the empathy and understanding about this concern, domo arigatou gozaimasu for the comment. Recycling kimono and fabrics will be a big issue-and there must be something more revolutionary method in futre, besides using them as a material for craft. Using as a nice material, there were a lot of interesting idea! domo arigatou gozaimasu again!
For handicraft making at senior citizen's house, we send some fabrics, and also when we receive requests from other organizations, we are happy to welcome them, if they come to pick them up, however still there is a limit for these activities and we are seeking for the other method. Collaborating with other companies or industry was very inspirational idea too. We will keep thinking and seeking out what we can do. We will be happy to report in our newsletter too.
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Our older daughter Shoko got married and moved to Fujiyoshida city, Yamanashi last year.
She is now raising her daughter there, living with her husband's family. Her husband works for the city office, and they were talking Mt Fuji was recommended to the registration of a World Heritage site. It finally became to be registered.
It is the highest mountain but more over, it is considered as a sacred mountain. Until our daughter got married with Masanori, we really were not so interested in Mt Fuji. We could see the site from Shinkansen on the way from Tokyo, but were not so eager to visit there. However, when we first visited Yamanashi prefecture to greet Masanori's family, we were overwhelmed by its serenity. We were lucky we could see the mountain each time we visited Yamanashi and each time, we never get board by looking at the sight. Shoko's daughter(our granddaughter) had a first time shrine visit at Sengen jinja - and the shrine is always crowded by people who go to Mt Fuji, for the safe trip. Many people climb the mountain to see the sunrise-actually to ogamu(pray). So the mountain is considered as one of the religious objects. Even for those people who are not religious or having other religion, still Mt Fuji seems to have special meaning. One of my Japanese friend who were raised in NY, USA, once said when she could see Mt Fuji from Shinkansen, she feels very auspicious! She is the most `modern' and realistic person I knew, and still she thinks so.
When we went to Yamanashi to greet Masanori's family, they took us around-but from their house, Mt Fuji was so close, and we could just see them almost from everywhere we went. From the hotel we stayed, we could see the mountain behind our dog like this:
http://kyouki.hatenablog.com/entry/2012/05/06/053714
This was one of the issue of Ichiro's past blog in Japanese. We did not translate in English but in that blog, he confessed, he could not help asking(praying) Mt Fuji for Shoko's happiness there- he asked the mountain to watch over her in his heart.
The video on top shows the moment when the news(Mt Fuji was finally registered as a World Heritage)came. Shoko sent the video to us- they all gathered in front of the city hall and celebrated this news. We can see Masanori wearing a blue T-shirt with Mt Fuji print, holding our mago(grand daughter)in the crowd. This scene was so impressive for us-here, our city is in Osaka, a little more city than the city they live, we probably would have been more calm, I mean not so enthusiastic about our local issue.
They are really proud of living near Mt Fuji, and by seeing the site everyday, they think they have been watched over by this mountain. To a lesser or a greater degree, I think people in Japan all have this special feelings about Mt Fuji. Our country is very small, and mountainworship has been a natural thing.
There are some nice muserums there (including Icchiku Kubota's museum:http://www.itchiku-museum.com/)
and there are 5 small lakes around Mt Fuji (Kawaguchiko, Yamanakako and other three lakes) they are nice and relaxing. It is about two hours trip from Tokyo, so many tourists from Tokyo area come for a nice short trip.
If you come to Japan first time or next time, we recommend to visit Yamanashi area!
