Research Adventures in Japan Chapter 4: Numbers and Museums

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Konichiwa and welcome to my 4th update!

Project Update

This week I finished data collection for the marmosets and lemurs! Whew! Two species down! I did some quick data analysis just to check how the preliminary results are looking. I don't want to ruin any possible publications so we'll just say that the data is fitting into the existing literature which is good!

We've set up a meeting with the macaque keepers for Wednesday and should be starting our next species soon.

Meiji Mura

Since I had a few days off I made a couple of day trips to near by locations. The first was Meiji Mura which is a collections of over 60 Meiji period (1868-1912)  buildings mostly from Japan but also from places like America (in those cases they're building built or used by Japanese immigrants). Some of the buildings were famous individuals' residences while others are just examples of what buildings would have looked like during the period. There's several restaurants with both modern and period-inspired food. Many of the buildings have docents that do walk-through tours. I only went on one before quickly realizing my Japanese language ability is a little lacking for museums...in a 10-15 minute tour I only caught that the fireplace and ceiling were expensive and the really nice, floral, porcelain pot by the bed was a chamber pot.

Left to right: Reception Hall of Marquis Tsugumichi Saigo House -- where I took my walkthrough tour. Karepan  (curry-stuffed fried dough) -- ooishi! Barracks, Sixth Infantry Regiment. The library/office in the House of Ogai Mori & Soseki Natsume -- two Japanese novelists who lived in the home at different times.

Komaki

Komaki is a small city in Aichi prefecture. At the top of Mount Komachi is a reconstruction of Komaki Castle which was originally built by Oda Nobunaga. Inside this reconstruction is a museum which had samurai armor, pieces of the original castle, and video and audio explanations of important battles fought in the area, including the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute. 


Left: View of the outside of Komaki Castle. Right: View from the top! The castle looks out over several cities and on sunny days you can see mountains in the distance.


Although Shinto shrines are everywhere in Japan, Komaki's Komaki Shinmeisha is one of the larger ones I've seen so far. Prayers are done by going to the main shrine, ringing the bell, bowing twice, clapping twice, and then bowing once again.

Left: Main entrance to the shrine. Center: Main shrine. Right one of the smaller shrines -- including two canine guardians.

Since it's been rainy and cloudy I wanted to do an indoor activity so went to a movie! The theater is Komaki also had bowling and karaoke. There were Japanese and American titles -- the American movies were either subtitled or dubbed in Japanese (some had both options). Tickets are sold at self-serve kiosks -- I went to The Lost City. Concessions are similar to the States except there's a lot of popcorn flavors and sweet tends to be the favorite.

Movie theater combo -- the tray fits into the cupholder so you don't have to worry about holding the popcorn in your lap.

Next week: Japanese macaque trials -- adventures TBD!

 Research is funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.


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