Tama Cemetery's afternoon

I went to visit Sorge at a warm winter afternoon with a nostalgia for hero. 

Richard Sorge was a Soviet Union's spy who worked as a journalist and arrested and executed  in Japan. Sorge was a genius spy. He collected lots of exact information for Soviet, whereas Stalin didn't believe it and even did no effort when Sorge was arrested. Sorge was hanged at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, the place where 7 Japanese Class A war criminals was hanged, in 1944, 3  years after the arrest. His Japanese lover Hanako Ishii buried him in Tama Cemetery and had been buried with him in 2000. 

Because there was no sign about Sorge's grave, I found it not that easy. However, I knew the gravestone that I've seen in the TV, so I was confident that I could recognize it immediately. Sorge and Hanako's names was inscribed on a black gravestone with Russian and Japanese respectively. There is also a natural stone beneath it, on which Sorge's name was written in Japanese and English. I supposed it was the original one Hanako settled for him, since Soviet Union refused to admit that Sorge worked for it until 1964.

I wanted to bring a bunch of flower for him, but there was no flower shop around the gate I entered. Glad to see it, someone has come with flowers though they've withered now. 

Funaya

Location: Ine-cho, Kyoto-fu

I thought about writing a series blog of Japan, but where should I begin with? Then I recalled funaya, an architecture style in Ine-tyo of Japan Sea coast. It's very special and leaves me many beautiful unique memory.

"Funa" means boat, and "ya" means house, so funaya is a boat house. Maybe it doesn't make sense to you. Let me take an instance. You must have seen a house with parking spot -- the ground floor is the space for parking and the second floor is for living. So does funaya, however, not a car but a boat. 

Residents in Ine-cho live closing to the sea, as close-sea fishery is the main industry there. They build house on the edge of the water along a little bay. Their boats was parked in the first floor that they can drive them out at any time.

Ine-cho is a small fish village and really remote, only bus can get there. I went there in a late March's afternoon. It rained now and then, and I also heard thunder sound. The local people said thunder meant snow's coming in March or April, for it's the cold Japan Sea side, not like the other side faces to the Pacific Ocean. However, not snow coming, but a heavy rain just for a while.

The sky after a heavy rain was clean, likely could be seen through. A large numbers of sea gulls were flying low or staying on the jetty. The village was quite, no one on the road. I just walked along the coast, took pictures, and breathed fresh air. It was a shangri-la.

I had dinner in a local restaurant, one of the few opening shops. The middle-age chef was curious about me -- a single, Chinese, female, traveler. He said there was nothing but scenery. I had heard the youths in the village almost worked in big cities, probably because "there is nothing". I said scenery was enough. Then I tried to assume I was a young woman living there from I was born. What should I do? Go out? Or became a fish woman? There, one point of travel came out -- to see, feel and think about different life styles, and try to understand them.

I stayed in a funaya alone. The whole funaya belonged to me that night. I lied under the window. The moon was bright, and so was the water. I got to sleep with the sound of waves. I've never heard a silent sound like that before. It seemed I was sleeping on the sea.

I woke up early in the next morning. The sun didn't rise up,and some stars were twinkling. Sea gulls got up earlier than me, and sang their morning song. I took the 7:30's bus to leave Ine. I loved there, but I can't image what should I do if I stay for an extra day. There's just scenery there. 

About Japanese administrative divisions

I'd like to talk about my traveling experiences in Japan by listing the administrative divisions in this series of posts.

There are one "to", Tokyo-to; one "do", Hokkai-do; two "fu", Osaka-fu and Kyoto-fu; and 43 "ken". All of these are on a state or provincial level, however, Hokkai-do is much larger than the others in square.　And except Hokkai-do, the other prefectures are divided to several regions:


Hokkaidō

1. Hokkaidō

Tōhoku

2. Aomori (haven't been to)

3. Iwate

4. Miyagi

5. Akita (haven't been to)

6. Yamagata

7. Fukushima

Kantō

8. Ibaraki

9. Tochigi

10. Gunma (haven't been to)

11. Saitama

12. Chiba

13. Tōkyō

14. Kanagawa

Chūbu

15. Niigata (haven't been to)

16. Toyama (haven't been to)

17. Ishikawa

18. Fukui (haven't been to)

19. Yamanashi

20. Nagano

21. Gifu

22. Shizuoka

23. Aichi

Kansai

24. Mie

25. Shiga

26. Kyōto

27. Ōsaka

28. Hyōgo

29. Nara

30. Wakayama (haven't been to)

Chūgoku

31. Tottori

32. Shimane

33. Okayama

34. Hiroshima

35. Yamaguchi

Shikoku

36. Tokushima

37. Kagawa

38. Ehime

39. Kōchi (haven't been to)

Kyūshū

40. Fukuoka

41. Saga (haven't been to)

42. Nagasaki

43. Kumamoto (haven't been to)

44. Ōita

45. Miyazaki

46. Kagoshima

Okinawa

47. Okinawa

Hokkai- do and Okinawa-ken are special, because they became a part of Japanese territory later than other prefectures.