400th anniversary of Awaji traditional clay tile industry (淡路瓦産業)

In Minamiawaji area, especially TSUI area, there are many clay tile industries operated. "Awaji clay tile industry" (淡路瓦産業) has 400-year history, and next year, 2010, will be the 400th anniversary.
Awaji clay tile industry association has planned and proceeded some projects for this anniversary. For example, art decoration for public toilets and garbage stations, exhibition and events.
Awaji clay tile industry had once flourished, but now the number of companies remained is beeing one-third of that time because people want light-weight and cost-saving roof for their house after experiencing the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.

Young generation members of Awaji clay tile industry association have been taking actions to recover from these declination!
The official blog of the 400th anniversary is here.
I look forward to participating some 400th anniversary events next year!

Mr. and Ms. Shimizu is a member of those young generation.
They have started their gallary "VASARA" to provide place to communicate directly with their costomers (usual consumers, housing makers, designers...).
And you can buy some clay tiles for name-plate, nameboard at the gallary.

Mr. and Ms. Shimizu are nice and friendly, so I recommend to visit this garally.

↓the clay tile garally "VASARA"
















↓Mr. and Mrs. Shimizu.

より大きな地図で Minamiawaji Info Map を表示

Awaji-ben vol.1: "cha-wa-re."(ちゃわれ。)="No! It's wrong!"

Since I'm glad to have got a request of "Awaji-ben interpretation," I'd like to start it little by little.
About "Awaji-ben," there is very rich and exellent website "awajiben.net," so basically I quote words and phrases from this website and add some explanation originally.

The first Awaji-ben I try to pick up is "cha-wa-re."(ちゃわれ。).

-interpretation: No! It's wrong!
-in standard Japanese: "chi-ga-u-yo."(ちがうよ。)
-example conversation:
  A: "Didn't you go to your girlfriend house last night?"
  B: "Cha-wa-re! I just went shopping."

You can listen to the real voice conversation click here. (provided by awajiben.net)

"Cha-wa-re!" has some derivatives like "Cha-u-yo!"(ちゃうよ。), "Cha-u-cha-u!"（ちゃう、ちゃう）. (I don't know exactly which word is an original and which are derivatives.)
"Cha-u-cha-u!" is used not only in Awaji island but around Kansai area.

"Flying Dog Studio" （飛行犬撮影所）

In Ikari area of Minamiawaji, there is very famous dog run "Flying Dog Studio" (飛行犬撮影所).
The owner Mr. Matoba is a professional photographer, and many dogs and their family (means their guardians) from all over Japan visit and enjoy beeing taken their flying shots there.
Mr. Matoba has started this business for revitalization of Ikari area. This purpose has been partly accomplished because 3,000 to 4,000 dogs (with about 10,000 guardians) have visited there in every year. But any business like cafe, resort inn, shops etc... other than this dog run have not been created yet, so that the spreading effect of this revitalization idea has still been limited.
I hope some other business will be created in near future.

The entrance fee with 2 photos of each dog is 1,500yen.
If you'd like to visit here, you had better register before your visiting.

E-mail: awaji[at]plum.plala.or.jp
TEL:　0799-39-1160













より大きな地図で Minamiawaji Info Map を表示

How to get a vaccine of "influenza virus" ?

In all over Japan, vaccine of influenza virus have been distributed to the citizens, gradually.
About Minamiawaji area, the Hyogo Prefecture has provided information of how we can get a vaccine. 
According to the Hyogo Pref., people, who have a primary desease, who are babies or children, have a priority to get vaccines, and those people can apply from the mid-November 2009.

Please check the detail information on the Hyogo Pref. web.
*caution: the website provided only in Japanse, so if you'd like to get information in foreign language, you had better directly phone-call to "0799-44-3004" (Health Department of Minamiawaji city).

"Danjiri Uta" - song of floats - (だんじり唄)

"Danjiri Uta" has been very popular Minamiawaji traditional culture than the traditional puppet show in the now.
Its history has been since 18c (at the late of Edo era), and it has been formed by departing just "song part" from the traditional puppet show. So lyrics of songs are same as stories of the puppet show. Because of those relationships between "Danjiri Uta" and the puppet show, some say it as "Opera of Awaji Island" !
Now there are about 100 Danjiri-Uta groups in Awaji island, and every year Danjiri Uta contest has been held.
You can watch some videos of Danjiri Uta from this website.

Women Danjiri Uta group "UTAIMASENKA" (shall we sing?) .
They have original costumes on them.

 Very cute back shot.

"Oino Shimizu" (御井の清水)

A bottled water has been popular recently, even though people can drink tap water in Japan. About myself, I have been drinking bottled water from about 10 years ago, despite I know I can drink tap water...
And recently many local natual bottled water has been available, and some water industry operated by local bodies (ex. Osaka city, Kobe city) have got into bottled water market to cover decreasing demands of tap water.

When I went back to Minamiawaji in this summer, I have found "Oino Shimizu" (in Japanese "御井の清水") bottled water sold at Fukura port vending machines.
As I remember, this product has opened to markets very recently (within 5 years, I think).

"Oino Shimizu" is coming from the Rokko mountain group, and stated as "hallucinatory water" in "Kojiki" (A Record of Ancient Matters). 
In Kojiki, the Emperor NINTOKU (A.D.313-A.D.399) composed a poem,

『旦夕淡路島の寒水を酌みて、大御水献りき』
(In the morning and evening, lave cold water of Awaji island, and dedicate it to Imperial.)

Now Sansui Co., Ltd. produces and sells the bottled water.
You can find it at some vending machine in Awaji island, or buy it on the web.

"Awaji Island Internet Television"

NPO "Minamiawaji Information Community" has provided the website "Awaji Island Internet Television" since 2001.
On "Awaji Island Internet Television" website, there are many videos (festival, traditional event, food, etc) posted, and anyone can play them on the web at no charge.
Each video has 5-10 minutes length with Japanese narration.
Even if you cannot understand Japanese, you can enjoy them enough.

Event info! "5th Ceramic Art Festival at Kunto-no-Sato" from 31Oct to 3 Nov. 2009

From 31 October to 3 November, the 5th Ceramic Art Festival has been held at Kunto-no-Sato (in Japanese "薫陶の郷").
The young artists' group of "Toiro" (means "ten color") is the organizer and exhibitor of ceramic arts and ceramic goods (ex. dish, bowl, cup).  You can touch the Japanese traditional ceramic art and get some of goods.
The following is the details of this event.

------
The 5th Ceramic Art Festival at Kunto-no-Sato

period: 31 Oct. to 3 Nov. 2009
place: 1541 Shitori Doi, Minamiawaji city (see map below)
artists:  "Toiro"
theme: "serving dishes for guests"

----
I have already visited this event in 31 Oct.
Caution! the event place is very difficult to find and difficult to access without a car, so I recommend you to ask some people near the place when you visit.

The exhibition site is a very usual Japanese house.

Inside of the exhibition house.

My favorite of the exhibited ceramic arts.

より大きな地図で Event Place を表示

Event info! "Interpreting Local Culture with the Culture-Information Literacy" in 14th Nov. 2009.

Since June 2009, Minamiawaji city and Kobe University has proceeded some research projects based on their "academic-local cooperation agreement."
In this 14th November 2009, the international conference "Interpreting Local Culture with the Culture-Information Literacy" will be held at Minamiawaji Mihara community hall, as one of the accomplishment reports of the research project.

The conference is consisted of two parts.  First part, morning session, is the Awaji traditional puppet show by the professional Awaji Ningyo-Za members, and Second part, afternoon session, is seminars about local culture.
This event is free of charge and not necessary to register, so please join in!

About myself, I'm going to join in this event as a staff of Kobe University.
So I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

--Event Program--
14th November, 2009
   at Minamiawaji Mihara community hall (map below)

 11:10-12:20  Traditional Puppet Show
 -break-
 13:40-14:30  Poster Presentation by Kobe University students
 14:30-14:45  Opening
 14:45-15:20  Seminar1 "Rethinking of Keisei Awa no Naruto"
                    by Janice KANEMITSU (Cornell University)
 15:20-15:55  Seminar2 "Rethinking of New Art of Public Entertainment"
                    by Ryoji SASAHARA (National Museum of Ethnology)
 15:55-16:30  Seminar3 "Psychology of Puppeteers "
                    by Narisuke UTSUKI (Kobe University)
 -break-
 16:45-17:45  Comments and Discussion
                    by Hiroki OKADA, Hajime MURAO (Kobe University)
 17:45          Closing


↓place of Minamiawaji Mihara community hall


大きな地図で見る

Daily news of Awaji area

When I visit any city in the first time, I always face difficulty to gain daily news of that area.  Fortunately, recently we can access that kind of information through the internet, even so sometimes it's difficult to find the appropriate local broadcast website.

About Awaji island, I strongly recommend "Kobe shinbun website"(Kobe newspaper company website) to find Awaji daily broadcasts.
"Kobe shinbun"(paper media), is one of the biggiest local newspaper in Japan, has one-hundred years history, has more than 5 million customers around Kansai area.  Awaji island is also covered area, so my family home and most of the neighborhoods have read as daily information collection.

On the website, there are daily news of each area in Hyogo Pref, some special reports, and local wether news.  But unfortunately , provides only in Japanese...

Kobe Shinbun has published the book of "20-century of Awaji Island"(『淡路の20世紀』).  If you can understand Japanese language, please check the following.

Munamiawaji publicly owned hotsprings!

Minamiawaji city is not famous for hotsprings, but there are a few publicly owned places as follows:

• Sunrise hotspring
• Sanyu hotspring
  
• Yutorikku hotspring
• Yupuru hotspring
• Uzuno-yu hotspring

I have ever been to "Sunrise", "Sanyu" and "Uzuno-yu".  Those are publicly owned, so that the usage charges are very cheap (around 500yen to 700yen).
More infomation about hotsprings in Awaji island, please check this website (but only in Japanese).


より大きな地図で Minamiawaji "ONSEN"(hotspring) Map を表示

Minamiawaji City council election in 25th Oct. 2009.

In this October, Minamiawaji city has the regular city council election. The last election, which was the first city council election after the municipal merger, had held 4 years ago, and 27 members have got seats in the coucil.
Unfortunately, I didn't and still don't have a voting right in Minamiawaji, so only I can do is to watch their activities from outsides.

Once I have checked their profile on the Minamiawaji city website, and I have been interested in the following data;

• average age : 62 years old (oldest: 84, youngest: 33)
• women rate : 3/27
• having own website: 5/27

Next time, I would like to check the records of the council !

Who is the Diet member from Minamiawaji?

Minamiawaji is designated the voting district no.9 of Hyogo Pref., and Mr. NISHIMURA Yasutoshi, from Liberal Democratic Party, has been elected as a lower house member at the last election (August, 2009).
You can check his profile in English on his website.

I was met him by accident at Minamiawaji during his election campaign.
He was energetic, talking much and looks nice. And after the election which the Democratic Party of Japan has got the historic win from LDP, Mr. NISHIMURA had tried to run for the LDP leader election. Unfortunately, he had lost this time, but I and Minamiawaji citizen expect him to be a leading politician in someday.

Search at Amazon.com of Mr.NISHIMURA's Books


↓photo with Mr.NISHIMURA (August, 2009)

shopping mall in Minamiawaji

Minamiawaji area has some big shopping malls.
Each shopping mall equips foods market, daily commodities, apparel for men, women and children, CDs/DVDs, books, home electronics and small cafe.
But it's not expected to be able to find books for specialists. If you want to find those technical or academic specialized books, I reccoment to go to Miyawaki book store located at Midori-cho area (next to Sumoto-city) in Minamiawaji..

Please check those shopping malls and book stores in the following map.


より大きな地図で Minamiawaji Shopping Mall を表示

Welcome to "MinamiAwaji (JP) information Blog" !

The purpose of this blog is to provide daily information of Minamiawaji city, Pref. Hyogo, Japan.
I have started this information site because there are very limited information in "English" even though the number of foregin citizens (including temporal visitors as trainee) have been increased.

Minamiawaji-city has been faced the decreasing trend of population.  According to the estimation executed in Nattional Institute of Pupulation and Social Security Research, the number of population, now about 50,000, will decline to "35,000" in 2035.  The third of population will disappear!!!

To keep Minamiawaji alive, Minamiawaji people have to introduce ourselves to various partners, and minamiawaji people have to understand we live in various reciprocal relationships.
As one of the small efforts, I would like to start this blog anyway.

I welcome the comments and questions from any readers who are interested in Minamiawaji city, Pref. Hyogo, Japan.