Not long ago we spent the day with our friends, Kazushi and Mieko Kimura. We met at a park in the area of Noborito, only about a 20 minute train ride. The park is home to many traditional homes and buildings from all over Japan. They have restored them to their original condition. It was educational to see how these buildings were constructed, mostly without nails. We had a great time touring the park and then had a wonderful lunch at a nearby museum cafe.
In one of the buildings (an old inn for horse traders) the man shown above created a scale model of a typical fire place in this type of building. He asked Maddie to help him assemble it for display.
This building has an interesting roof. The wooden shingles are held down by logs cut if half and rocks!
We really liked the massive thatch roofing.
Vanessa grinding rice for a particular kind of grilled rice. They would grind it using these stone grinders, then cook it and put it on sticks. Then the rice sticks would be placed in the ashes around a fire for grilling. Sounds delicious to us!
There were many volunteers who practice the crafts of the time period. These artisans were making shoes, slippers, boots and other items from straw and grass. I tried to buy some but they were not for sale. We met some of them and they are very dedicated to keeping the old traditions alive.
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