International Exchanges-2
My Hometown’s International Exchange- Nara
Megumi Kawa (Faculty of Letters, 2nd Year)
After finishing up my job hunting in Tokyo, I returned to my hometown in Nara Prefecture. When I got off at the train station, I had this feeling of relief. Within the ten years, the view of Nara Prefecture changed. However, the atmosphere and the feelings people had did not. Because Nara is known as a bed town of Osaka, many people consider this city as their hometown. After a long busy day, the evenings of Nara look so relaxed and those faces cover all around the city.
When people hear “Nara,” they think of the Todaiji or the Kofukuji temples. At the Nara Park, people give treats to the deer with deer cookies. Once you climb the Wakakusa Mountain, you can see the nature that only exists in Nara. All the kindergarteners, in the school I used to go to, had to climb every year as class called “Wakakusa Mountain Climbing.” I still remember the saying, “If you climbed the Wakakusa Mountain, you are a child from Nara.” This place is a very familiar to the local residents.
Taking in one step from the shopping streets in front of the Nara Station, there is a beautiful district with latticework townhouses. This is a very interesting town because in front of all the houses, there are red stuffed monkeys hanging around. It is the “Nara City” of today which captures the image of the Edo and the Meiji periods. In the Nara prefecture, there used to be a capital located at Gekyo inside the Heijo-kyo. It is a city that changed over time where shrines and temples became part of the businesses and turned the city into a place for sightseeing. “The Machi-ya,” or a town that is still kept since the Meiji period, has features of narrow frontages, and wide depths. The reason goes back in time when this city used to be a place for businesses. The people who lived there constructed the stores equally along the streets to make the buying and selling easier. In addition, inside the “Machi-ya,” there are kitchen stoves and on top of that, there are the “smoke passageways.” This passages are used when the fire woods are burned, the smoke leads to a well and to the “smoke passageways” standing on the rooftop. At the same time, the smoke also has a role of protecting the pillars supporting the houses and keeping the insects away from the beams.
“Nara City,” is a place where you can understand the traditional ways of people who lived in Machi-ya and experience the lifestyle during that time period. This is the place I encourage people to visit when coming to Nara. Nara is a place where many gentle and polite inhabitants live and also a place with a history of the past. I hope many people will visit and learn about Nara!
Naramachi
