Kanagi
Kanagi (金木)is next on the intro list.
The first character means "gold", and the second, "tree". Original meaning? Don't ask me.
This town was about the size of Ajigasawa, but got gobbled up by Goshogawara in last year's spate of amalgamations. Famous for:
Ashino (reed field) Park and it's cute station on the quaint Tsugaru Railroad (a private company). Ashino Park is beautiful at cherry blossom time. Tourists flock to Hirosaki's larger and justly famous Castle Park, but a lot of us locals prefer the smaller crowds and down-homey feeling of Kanagi. As the Chapel (see Rabbit's busy day) is right across from one of the park entrances, we can find parking easily- a major consideration. This photo was taken a couple of years ago on a sunny May day. Most of the others were taken during a recent spell of grumpy weather.
Kanagi's most famous native son was Osamu Dazai, a famous writer from the 1920's. This is Shayoukan, the family home. Dazai's real name was Tsushima, and his brother ran the family rice mill (big money people in town- this house is a must-see). Meanwhile, Dazai lived in Tokyo with his faithful, long-suffering wife, wrote nihilistic novels, and sat around bars drinking till all hours. He attempted suicide with girlfriends TWICE. Both times the girls drowned, but Dazai remembered he could swim as soon as he hit the water. Three times lucky? Not really: his third attempt was successful. And, despite the fact that it was his brother who kept the business going, and bailed him out of his endless scrapes, it is the gloomy writer who is comemmorated here.
The first character means "gold", and the second, "tree". Original meaning? Don't ask me.
This town was about the size of Ajigasawa, but got gobbled up by Goshogawara in last year's spate of amalgamations. Famous for:
Ashino (reed field) Park and it's cute station on the quaint Tsugaru Railroad (a private company). Ashino Park is beautiful at cherry blossom time. Tourists flock to Hirosaki's larger and justly famous Castle Park, but a lot of us locals prefer the smaller crowds and down-homey feeling of Kanagi. As the Chapel (see Rabbit's busy day) is right across from one of the park entrances, we can find parking easily- a major consideration. This photo was taken a couple of years ago on a sunny May day. Most of the others were taken during a recent spell of grumpy weather.
Kanagi's most famous native son was Osamu Dazai, a famous writer from the 1920's. This is Shayoukan, the family home. Dazai's real name was Tsushima, and his brother ran the family rice mill (big money people in town- this house is a must-see). Meanwhile, Dazai lived in Tokyo with his faithful, long-suffering wife, wrote nihilistic novels, and sat around bars drinking till all hours. He attempted suicide with girlfriends TWICE. Both times the girls drowned, but Dazai remembered he could swim as soon as he hit the water. Three times lucky? Not really: his third attempt was successful. And, despite the fact that it was his brother who kept the business going, and bailed him out of his endless scrapes, it is the gloomy writer who is comemmorated here.
posted by John Elliot | 10:41 PM
2 Comments:
My roommates' parents bought us two gold fish. They called the one Neenyo and let me choose the name of the second one, so I called it Merosu after Dazae's character. Neenyo is already dead. He didn't even last 2 days. Oh well, that's what you get for buying gold fish.I hope Merosu is made of the same sort of stuff as his name's sake....
You are mistaken. The weather was NOT sunny on the day we took the cherry blossom photo. In fact, it rained, snowed, and sleeted! At no point was there any sunshine. But we still had fun. Too bad you missed it! I think you were in Canada.
Hey, Sarah, I wish you luck with your goldfish - but I don't hold forth much hope!
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