Patan one year and three months after the quake

パタンダルバール広場　地震から1年3ヶ月

Complex of temples

Patan Durbar Square is a 17th century royal palace complex filled with temples and monuments. Since this World Heritage site was badly damaged by the quake on April 25th, 2015, one year and three months has past. I went back there to learn the post-quake reconstruction work under way. It has a lot of fences surrounding temples I wanted to see them closer actually.

Vishwanath Mandir

Hence a lot of travelers were walking there and you can enjoy seeing them.

Preservation

I am concerned about way to preserve. If I have world heritage sites are situated in my neighborhood, I will ride a bike there to see it sometimes. But will I park my bike in 　the site ? No...!
But here you will see many mortar bikes parked in front of monuments and temple.

 Nepali people don't mind such things seemingly. They are kind of generous??

Krishna Mandir

This Mogul-influenced Krishna Mandir survived the quake are standing still there. Even... people are relaxed and sitting on there....

Krishna Mandir

寺院が並ぶ

パタンのダルバール広場は寺院やモニュメントであふれた17世紀の王宮コンプレックスです。この世界遺産が2015年４月25日の地震で激しく傷ついてから、１年と3ヶ月経ちました。 そこを再び訪れると、まだ再建の最中でした。寺院はフェンスに囲まれてます。 もう少し近づいて見たかったな。
とはいえ、沢山の旅行者がいっぱい。観光を楽しめます。

保存

ただ保存方法が心配だ・・もし近所に世界遺産があったら、そう、自転車で見に行ったりするかもしれない。でも自転車をその中に止めるかなあ？ いやー止めないなあ。
でもここでは止められたるのです。ネパールの人、気にしてなさそう。寛容っていうのかな？

クリシュナ寺院

地震の影響を受けなかったモンゴルの影響を受けたクリシュナ寺院も、そこに静かに立っています。みんな座っちゃってたりするけど。

Hydrangea

あじさい

Rainy season is over...?

Lately it is sooooo hot here in Tokyo. Temperature is beyond thirty degrees. Even the humidity is almost 90%.... this may be like in a sauna!

I suppose it is still rainy season here since I haven't heard that the Meteorological Agency hasn't announced the end of rainy season. But it is more likely in the middle of summer.

Last Thursday, July 7th, was Tanabata(star festival). People generally celebrate it hanging on pieces of paper which a wish is written on bamboo stems. The small pieces of paper are called Tanzaku. They are five colored.

Hey... Is it the same as Tarchor?!

A flower of rainy season in Japan

June is blooming season for hydrangea in Japan and we often see hydrangeas on streets. I love this beautiful flower. Their bright and deep color catch our eyes in rain.

I am just wondering hydrangea is popular in other countries as well? Hydrangea is indigenous to Japan indeed.

Shrines and the flower

I suppose Japanese associates hydrangea with shrines.

Since health care was poor in ancient time, more people suffered from illnesses and killed in the rainy season when hydrangeas bloomed.

Some shrines planted this flower to offer people killed. In fact we have many shrines which is famous with its hydrangea ; https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%B8%E3%82%B5%E3%82%A4%E5%AF%BA

I missed to visit my favorite place to enjoy seeing hydrangeas this year.....

梅雨終わった・・・？

最近、すっごい暑いです東京。気温は30度を超えてます。湿度に至ってはほぼ90％。。。サウナか！

気象庁が梅雨終わったって言ってないし、まだ梅雨だとおもうんだけど。でも、もう真夏みたい。

先週の木曜7月日は、七夕でした。一般的には小さい紙にお願い事を書いて笹の葉にぶら下げます。この紙、短冊と呼ばれます。５つの色が付いています。

あれ、タルチョーと同じ！？

梅雨の花

6月はあじさいの季節で、道を歩いてるとよく見かけます。わたしはこの綺麗なお花が大好きなんですよね～。鮮やかで深い色で、雨の中で目を惹きます。

日本以外でもあじさいはポピュラーなのかな？あじさいは実は日本原産です。

お寺とあじさい

思うに、わたしたち日本人はあじさいに、お寺を持っているのでは。

昔は医療が発達していなかったため、　沢山の人があじさいが咲く梅雨の時期に病気になったりなくなったりしました。

お寺の中には、そうした人たちに手向けるためにあじさいを植えたところがあります。実際、あじさいで有名なお寺が沢山あります。
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%B8%E3%82%B5%E3%82%A4%E5%AF%BA

今年は行けなかったなあー。

Prayer Flags

祈りの旗

Colorful

You may have seen those colorful prayer flags in some pictures of Nepal and Tibet. They are found in many places in Nepal.


They say that flags seen in Tibetan Buddhism and have a long long history and root in ancient India.

As I learned that Tibet Buddhism affects Nepali traditions this much, those flags are also from Tibet.

Tarchor

They are called "Tarchor" which are in five different colors.
Each of them represents;

Blue symbolizing sky or space.
White symbolizing air or wind.
Red symbolizing fire.
Green symbolizing water.
Yellow symbolizing the earth.

In vertical displays, the yellow goes at the bottom and the blue at the top.

カラフル

色とりどりの旗、ネパールやチベットの写真で見たことがあるのではと思います。ネパールではよく見かけます。
旗は長い歴史があると言われていて、チベット仏教のものですが、ルーツはインドだそうです。
そう、チベット仏教はネパール文化にいろいろ影響してるように、旗たちもチベットから来たのね。

タルチョー

タルチョーと呼ばれるこの旗。5色あります。それぞれが意味をもっているそうで、

青は「空・天」
白は「風」
赤は「火」
緑は「水」
黄色は「地」

縦に並べるときは、黄色が一番下に来て、一番上が青です。

Old and New

新旧

Konpira Gu in the middle of buildings

As you know, Tokyo is one of the biggest city in the world.

While we see skyscrapers, we can see a plenty of old temples and shrines in Tokyo.

Sometimes they are seen at the same time as blow.

integration of a modern building and an ancient shrine 

This shrine is built in the middle of Tokyo where is near the governmental area, Sakurada-mon, Konpira Gu. The Torii of it is standing out with its unique animal statues on itself.

Zojoji Temple and Tokyo tower

Behind of the temple, we see a tall building. 

a beautiful combination of new and old things

They are Tokyo Tower standing 333 meters high and Zojoji Temple standing next to Tokyo Tower. The temple was built in the year 1393 initially. And it was moved its present location in 1598. The contrast of the modern architecture and the ancient architecture is awesome.

Sushi restaurant

お寿司

luxury food, Sushi

As you may know, Sushi is one of the representative Japanese food.
It is one of the traditional food. Since the Edo period, Japanese people have been enjoying eating it.
Sushi is kind of expensive and fancy food. If I have sushi at a "real" sushi restaurant, I would say "I treated myself for fancy dinner tonight".

But they say that Sushi used to be a fast food like Macdonald's back to the Edo period. They used to be sold in street stall.

Sushi grew cheaper and entertaining 

We have Kaiten Sushi restaurants while we have expensive fancy Sushi restaurants where the plates with the sushi are placed on a rotating conveyor belt.

At fancy Sushi restaurant, we sit at counter seat in front of Sushi chefs and order and a chef serves.

a Sushi chef

But we see chefs over a conveyor belt , even we can't see them at Kaiten Sushi restaurants. And Sushi will be conveyed on the rotating belt. We need to pick up Sushi we want to eat by myself. Sushi at Kaiten Shushi places are made by special machines, not human chef mostly. Kaiten Sushi places are kind of a fast food shop.

The first Kaiten Sushi restaurant was opened around 1960. When I just wanted to eat "Sushi like", I visited Kaiten Sushi places some times. Because they were less tasty than ones at fancy Sushi but much cheaper.

Sushi covered go around in a restaurant

However I realized recent Kaiten Sushi places are very entertaining too! Lately I visited a Kaiten place for the first time in the past 10 year to learn it.

We see no chefs there and can order what we want from the spacial device equipped with each tables, other than Sushis coming up on the rotating conveyor belt.

Desert plates are conveyed around as well.  It is fan to see them sliding forward on the belt.

Your orders are conveyed on another belt in front of you.