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Blog 2025年2月 2ページ目
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Miyako-jima Mamoru-kun
Miyako Island is known for its blue sea, known as Miyako blue. However, my personal favourite is Miyako-jima Mamoru-kun, a police officer-shaped doll. These police officer-shaped dolls were installed on roads for traffic safety in 1996 and have been seen on Miyako Island and the surrounding islands ever since. The character is now popular with tourists, and various goods such as sweets and stationery based on the character are on sale. When I first visited Miyako Island, I found them extremely creepy. However once I got used to them, I found them strangely cute and mysterious. In Japan, such strange but…
- Miyako Island
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Pāntu
On Miyako Island, the largest and most populous of the Miyako Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, the number of foreign tourists has increased with the arrival of cruise ships and property prices have soared on the island due to the rush for resort hotels, known as the ‘Miyako Island Bubble’. The island is also vulnerable to external influences, such as the Corona Disaster, where the mayor called for people to stop coming to the island, even though it is not an overtourism phenomenon like Kyoto. The Shimajiri area in the north of Miyako Island is home to mangrove forests. In this village,…
- Miyako Island
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Snow in Kyoto
Kyoto is extremely hot in summer and extremely cold in winter. Our guesthouse is a renovated old private house built in 1940, but it is not what is known as a Kyomachiya (traditional Kyoto townhouse); the Building Standard Law came into force in 1950, and no matter how old the house is, it cannot be classified as a Kyomachiya if it has been renovated at least once since then. However machiya houses are relatively cool in summer, they can be incredibly cold in winter as they have no insulation and are constructed to allow outside air to pass through to…
- Travel tips
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Setsubun iwashi
Food culture changes as places change. In western Japan, including Kyoto, sardines are eaten on Setsubun. Setsubun means the division of the seasons. Setsubun in winter, in particular, is a time when people throw roasted soybeans while shouting ''Devils out! Fortune in!'’ (Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi), and eat as many beans as their age to ward off evil spirits.In Gifu, where I am from, there is no custom of eating sardines as far as I know.In western Japan, on the other hand, the heads of sardines are displayed at the entrance or grilled with salt. It seems that…
- Culture