The Asian reporter., March 21, 2016, Page Page 5, Image 5

ASIA / PACIFIC
March 21, 2016
Away from tourist crowds, an
older section of Tokyo beckons
By Linda Lombardi
THE URBAN LEAGUE OF PORTLAND’S
CAREER CONNECTIONS JOB FAIR
Tues day, April 5, 2016
10:00am to 3:00pm
The Associated Press
OKYO — Explore Tokyo
beyond the crowded tourist
highlights and you’ll find
many older parts of the city with a
different look and slower pace. One of
these, the area around the Metro
station Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, is a
convenient side trip if you’re visiting
the Tokyo Skytree, which is four
stops away. There’s a charming local
history museum, public garden,
coffee shops, and a contemporary art
museum. The neighborhood may not
be picturesque in the conventional
sense, but there’s a lot to see if you
have an eye for detail and an
appreciation for the charm of urban
and slightly shabby locales.
Fukagawa Edo Museum
From the Metro station, head
south and turn right onto an old
shopping street marked by two small
decorative towers. On your right
you’ll see an old-fashioned candy
shop where the proprietor dresses in
garb from the Edo period (including
an entirely unconvincing wig of a top-
knot hairstyle). Farther along on the
left is the Fukagawa Edo Museum.
Most tourists with any interest in
history end up at the Edo Tokyo
Museum with its indoor re-creations
of historic buildings from the Edo era,
which began in the 1600s.
The Fukagawa museum, which
predates the Edo Tokyo Museum, is
much smaller and more charming,
with a life-size Edo-period town re-
created on its lower level. Be pre-
pared to take your shoes off to go
inside the little shops and homes, and
a guide with adequate or better
English will show you how the old-
fashioned locks work and how ropes
pull a skylight open over a stove. You
can even try a rice-pounding device.
The guide will also explain how to
tell the difference between a nice but
tiny house for someone well-off (note
the tatami-covered floor) versus a
poor person’s home with a mostly
bare wood floor and just a couple of
rice straw mats. Lighting sets the
mood through 15-minute day-and-
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
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OFF THE BEATEN PATH. An old-fashioned candy shop in the neighborhood around the
Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Metro station in Tokyo is seen in this file photo. The area has a different look
and slower pace than parts of the city where tourists typically head to see major attractions, but
it offers a number of things to see and do, including a local history museum, public garden, and
contemporary art museum. (Linda Lombardi via AP, File)
night cycles with recordings of birds, huge coffee-roasting machinery was
merchants calling, and the cry of the far calmer on a recent weekday, but
animatronic cat on a rooftop.
it’s still not a place to camp out with
Coffee, the universal language
your laptop, though people did seem
Walk the small streets and alleys to stay to chat.
around the museum and you’ll
Museum of
Contemporary Art Tokyo
encounter a mix of residences, shops,
If you’re willing to walk a bit
small businesses, and light industrial
spaces. You’ll find much that is rather farther you can also have a com-
old-time Japanese, like restaurants pletely modern experience in this old
selling the local specialty of rice with neighborhood at the Museum of Con-
clams. But the neighborhood is also temporary Art Tokyo. Two exhibits
something of a hot spot for coffee that just opened are running through
May 29: “Loose Lips Save Ships,”
shops.
Don’t think in terms of grabbing a exploring freedom of expression, and
morning cup of joe. Some of these “Pixar: 30 Years of Animation.”
Kiyosumi Gardens
don’t even open until later in the day,
Kiyosumi Gardens is easy to find
and they’re more about relaxing and
making a ritual of it. Some are quite on your way to or from the Metro,
small and the menus may be limited. visible across the main street
The one I visited, aside from coffee opposite the entrance to the shopping
and tea, had just two cakes and two street near the Fukagawa Edo
flavors of small cookies, chocolate and Museum. It’s a beautiful typical
sesame, but the cookies were Japanese garden laid out around a
large pond, first opened for company
exquisite.
There also was an outpost of a U.S. use by the founder of Mitsubishi in
chain, Blue Bottle, that caused 1880 (Mitsubishi was a shipping firm
something of a stir when it opened, at the time), then donated to the city
with lines reported to be two hours and opened as a public park in 1932.
long. Its conspicuous modern The garden is nice to stroll around or
building with an industrial vibe and find a bench to gaze at the pond.
China: No plan for couples to have as many kids as they want
BEIJING (AP) — China has no plans to allow couples to
have as many kids as they want after changing the rules to
allow all couples to have two children rather than one,
according to a health official.
China’s population reached 1.375 billion last year and it
has to consider its large population and stress on
resources when making decisions, said Li Bin, director of
the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
Starting this year, China has relaxed its decades-old
family-planning policy to allow all married couples to
have two children. Before, it limited most urban couples to
one child and rural couples to two if their first was a girl.
“We don’t have a specific timetable” to abolish the
family-planning policy, “a basic state policy,” Li told
reporters at a news conference during an annual meeting
of China’s legislature.
CAP ON CHILDREN. A woman carries a child near government
propaganda promoting filial piety on the streets of Beijing, China. China
has no plans to allow couples to have as many kids as they want after
changing its family-planning policy. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Lights out: Cities worldwide mark the 10th annual Earth Hour
SEOUL (AP) — Cities around the world turned out the
lights this past Saturday evening to mark the 10th annual
Earth Hour, a global movement dedicated to protecting
the planet and highlighting the effects of climate
change.
As night came on, the lights went out in cities from
South Korea to the United States in what the World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) describes as a moment of solidarity
for climate action. The group sponsors the event and says
people in 178 countries and territories participate.
Lights went out for the hourlong event — from 8:30pm
to 9:30pm local time — in Beijing, Moscow, Beirut, Cairo,
Athens, Rome, and Paris. The lights atop the Empire
State Building in New York were dimmed, and some
billboards in Times Square also went dark.
In Seoul, the glass-covered City Hall was among several
public buildings where officials switched off the lights
inside and out. Lights illuminating landmarks such as the
massive COEX shopping mall, the city’s main railway
station, and several bridges on the Han River were all
either turned off or dimmed.
In Beijing, Chinese actress Li Bingbing showed up at
the iconic Temple of Confucius, which was shut dark for
an hour while municipal government officials announced
that the city’s energy conservation slogan would be
“Consume less, consume wisely.”
The Taipei 101 skyscraper was among the buildings to
Continued on page 16
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