open-air museum of japanese folk houses

i ended work really early today, so i decided to head out to Ryokuchi kouen (緑地公園) station on the Midosuji line to check out the Open-Air Museum of Japanese Folk Houses.

wow.. the place is interesting! it features about 12 traditional houses from various parts of japan, and it's really rustic and atmospheric. lots of of grass, plants, flowers, etc. the houses are really old too - some of them are a few hundred years old, and only very few can still be found in japan.

here's one of the houses.. most of them arent as big as this one from Gifu prefecture though

there were quite a few primary school kids in the museum before me, but when they left i think i was the only visitor!

many of the houses had a fire going, which was a really nice touch! each house had someone taking care of it too..

2 of the ladies in charge chatted with me (on 2 separate occasions), which was really really nice! this is the kind of "community" and "non-urban" japan that i want to experience but havent quite had the chance.. one of them visited singapore once, and expressed regret that she wasnt able to eat at the hawker centres as the tour guide told them that they should definitely avoid doing that. hurmph. i dont think much of that tour guide at all! he apparently told them  that eating at hawker centres is "絶対だめ”, which is putting it way too strongly even though japanese tourists might find hawker centres too dirty for their liking. so it was great that the lady told me that she wanted to try it out, because sitting with the locals and eating the same food they're having would help her understand more about the local culture and share in a local experience. wow. she's so enlightened :) it was fun so chatting with her about singapore and what's good to do there. plus i had to encourage her to visit singapore again, and we started talking about how the japanese yen is doing well against all the major currencies, which makes it a great time for japanese to go travelling! :) she even complimented me on my japanese (アクセントはきれいですね - woohoo!! *beams*) and we even went into a discussion of kansai-ben. haha.

as for the other lady.. she was sooo cute. she thought i'm japanese - as did another guy - for the longest time (granted, it's almost impossible to tell if all someone says is はい、そうですか、そうですね and ありがとうございます since it's really quite easy to sound native with those few words), and when she found out that i teach english tried to practise what little english she knew.. we started talking about how unmotivated students are to learn english - and in fact, the older people are far more interested in learning than the young ones - and the best thing was when she had to leave, she told me to come back again - "you are coming back rite???" - pointed at herself and urged me to remember her face and that i must look for her when i return so that we can chat more. heh. you have had to see her then, but she was sooo cute. i might actually go there again too, for such nice people!

i completely understand why they thought i'm japanese though.. i came from work rite, and so i was dressed just like an OL - office lady - and the cardigan and black stockings - it was cold and i want to continue wearing my skirts! - totally added to the whole look.

(small pic cos i look awful in there. but look! no paul frank)

and may i add that i was dressed completely inappropriately for this outing? i had no idea what this museum was going to be like. in fact, i didnt even know which museum it was as all i remembered was that there's a museum at Ryokuchi kouen station and so i headed there (it was on the same subway line as the station i was then at too). i didnt recall which one it was - there are a couple that i want to check out - and didnt know it was open air, AND because it was raining today (and the whole of yesterday), which resulted in this:

muddied heels!!!!! i'm pretty sure that the fact that i was walking around in frigging heels added to the misconception that i'm japanese, cos that's what a lot of japanese people do! (trust me, i've seen pple climbing up slopes decked out in their finest clothes and heels way higher than mine) to be honest, i thought at least a thousand times that i must be crazy to be walking around this museum in soft-ish ground and sand in heels (i certainly quit since i was already there anyway), and you know how i kept myself going? (ok lah, it really wasnt all that bad, but i was just struck by the sheer ludicrousness of the situation as i would never do that if i were back home. but i was free from about 10.30am, and i certainly wasnt going back home to rot!) i kept telling myself that i'm in japan, so i might as well try masquerading as a japanese, and if the japanese girls can do anything in heels, so can i. haha. of course, it really wasnt all that bad, and i do think that i'm getting better walking around in heels.. which is good, i think?

anyhow, there were quite a few steps:

 

as well as slopes:

 

all of which i climbed in heels! *clap clap*

like i said, the entire museum is very rustic and nice

and there were quite a few persimmon trees laden with fruit!

and persimmons strung up to dry..

i really liked this windmill that was used to pump water in sendai too..

and in front of the toilet outside the museum was this pretty mosaic of a traditional farm house :)