After my meeting last Saturday, I decided to take a short walk instead and cross the bridge on foot. It was a nice sunny day but still cold.
The Sky over the Tenjin Bridge. This bridge is just one of the few bridges over the Yodo river connecting downtown Osaka to North area of Osaka.
Just could not resist to take this Sunset over at Yodo River from the Bridge.
Before reaching Ikoma Theme Park, we passed by several interesting places on the way, one of which is a watermill. I search for an English description but unfortunately I could only find a Japanese one.
I am not a professional translator and my Kanji skill is still far from perfect, so I still need to use a translator every now and then but here is my rough translation of the page.
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生駒山の西側山腹の興法寺を経て、宝山寺に通じる辻子谷（ずしたに）越えの山道は、江戸時代以降、信仰の道として大いに利用された。
During the Edo Era, religious people have been using Zushi Valley pass located at the west side of Mt. Ikoma as the passageway going to Kouhouji and Houzanji.
この辻子谷を始め、生駒山麓の各谷では、当然のことながら谷川の水を利用して水車が設けられ、自家用として利用されていたが、江戸時代には大坂の商業発展とともに、水車を工業用として利用するようになり、昭和１８年頃には生駒西麓一体では１１７輌の水車があったといわれる。
In the beginning , residents around the valley used watermill to used the mountain stream for daily used but starting Edo Era, local business around Osaka also started using the watermill for business purposes. Around the 1940’s , it was said that there were about 117 watermill around the area.
特に、ここ辻子谷では谷の奥深くまで水車小屋が並び、寛永年間（１６２４～４４年）には胡粉製造が始まり、元禄年間（１６８８～１７０４年）以降は和漢薬種の細末加工が増え、明治から大正にかけての最盛期には最大４４輌の水車が稼動していたという。
これらの水車は１９１４年（大正３年）大軌電車（現近鉄奈良線）が開通した後の電力普及とともに減少の憂き目にあったが、辻子谷では芳香成分を含む薬種加工が主であったため、他の谷より永く水車が残され１９７５年（昭和５０年）頃まで細々と使われていた。Even deep within the valley watermill were also constructed, in fact around 1624 to 1644 (Kan’ei era) they started the production of powdered calcium and in 1688-1704 (Genkoku Era) different varieties of Chinese Herb and Medicine were also manufactured. From Meiji to Taisho Era, around 44 watermill where said to be in operation and was considered the golden era of the time. In 1914, train was constructed around the area ( the current Kintentsu Nara Line), even though production slowly decreased and the hardship started, production of Chinese Herbs and other medicine were concentrated around Zushi Valley still continued until around 1975.
現在では、各種機械製粉機の発達にともない伝統産業として、香辛料や生薬の粉砕行が続いており、この地区を通り抜けるときは、漢方薬独特の匂いが漂っている。
Even the with development of mechanical mills, the traditional ways are still followed and the the smell of herbs and medicine is still evident around this area.
辻子谷の往時のよき時代を語り継ぐため、地元の有志が中心となり、２００４年（平成１６年）１１月に実物大の直径６ｍの水車を復元完成させ、２００７年（平成１９年）秋に完成した１/４のミニチュアの水車小屋とともに、辻子谷で活躍していた当時の様子が感じることが出来る。
To preserve the local history, volunteers restored one of the watermill in November 2004 and was finished by autunm of 2007 including a minitaure version for the kids.
地球温暖化問題防止が叫ばれる現在、自然のエネルギーを利用した水車の復活も大いに検討すべきテーマだと考える。
With the current global warming , using natural energy like watermill is currently under consideration.
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Again, I am not a professional translator or have done any translation work before so if any body out there have some correction , please don’t hesitate to inform me.
It definitely a nice surprise to discover that the place we were currently hiking/walking holds a great history that not many people know about.
The big wooden board that greeted us before going in. The place is free by the way, no need to pay anything.
What a sight. It was beautiful and the water was really cold and refreshing too and no I did not drink it although I was really tempted too. There was nobody there to ask if the water was safe to drink or not.
The miniature one.
Inside the miniature mill.
We spent a good 20 minutes or so just exploring the around the mill. I love the sound of it too .
If you want to check this place out, the nearest station would Ishikiri Station. It’s about 15 minutes walk uphill on the Zushidani Hiking Course.
I am so behind with my challenges so forgive me for that. The weather has been so nice this past few days, nice and warm and not humid so I was finally out and about exploring with my bicycle. If the weather stays like this I do not care if autumn or winter is late, I will be content and very happy but alas that happiness was cut short when the temperature dropped so suddenly yesterday to 16C. I was still wearing a thin summer clothes but thankfully I had a blazer with me but still by the time I arrived home, my ears where hurting. And the strong cold winds was not helping at all. So I guess Autumn has finally arrived 🙂
Nways. back to the theme: Height.
In the intersection between Sonezaki Avenue and Midosuji Avenue. I feel like a little dwarf walking around this tall buildings.
Sorry a little blurry. This was taken at the Community Forest at Arcata California. Lovely tall trees.
The white gate to Ishikiri Shrine in Higashi Osaka.
Have a nice weekend everyone. Hope you liked my entries for this theme 🙂
I almost forgot to join this week. Started work again with my former client, so I don’t need to get on the train to work anymore, yipee. Everything is a bit hectic trying to remember what I did here but everything is slowly coming up and I got to work again with some cool people in the team.
But anyways, back to the topic of this post which is Distance. During my visit to San Francisco R suggested that we take a cruise and visit Alcatraz but since I did not have much time, we just took a walk along the pier area and got to see the Alcatraz from a Distance.
A few minutes away, we also saw Bay Bridge before getting on the train again.
It was a foggy cold summer day in San Francisco, the exact opposite of the very hot and humid Osaka. If the sun was out that day, it would have been perfect but it was still a fun day with R.
Why is it called “Golden Gate Bridge” when in fact its Red. Should it not be called the “Red Bridge” instead? R patiently explained that a certain part of the day, when the Sun hits it, it turns golden. True? Whatever reasons why its called “Golden Gate” , it cannot be denied that it’s BIG.
Upon arriving in Osaka early this week, I was greeted with a very big Sadako.
Looks like there is a new moving coming out.
Have a great week everyone.
Maniniyot 