Many thanks to the guests who participated in the tour of the day. On that we hosted 8 people from USA, Brazil and France. The weather was clear and not too cold so it was a typical comfortable autumn day nearing winter season. Since it was a comfortable holiday, we could see happily wedded couples at the shrine so guests could view the Japanese traditional wedding ceremony.
We hope all of the guests enjoyed the tours and conversation with the guides. As promised photos taken during the tour are posted on this page to recall the fun memories we shared.
We always try to care about how foreign tourists view Japan and its culture. It is definitely different from how we view our own culture. This issue sometimes becomes a major topic in our life and recently a drama-series concerning such a topic was produced and being aired on the national broadcasting channel every weekday morning from last September.
The title of the show is “Bake Bake.” The drama is based on a British man who came to Japan as a journalist, later settled down in this country and obtained Japanese citizenship. His name was Patrick Lafcadio Hearn and later renamed Koizumi Yagumo after being married to a Japanese wife and naturalised to Japan.
The show was unique in the sense that a protagonist of this popular show is a foreign-born westerner. The protagonist was played by a British actor Tommy Bastow who also played a British Samurai retainer serving Tokugawa Shogun whose castle site is one of our guided tour courses, in American TV drama “Shogun” that won the Emmy Award. Both dramas feature how a westerner view Japanese cultures and customs. There was a saying “East is East, West is West, and never the twain shall meet” at the time that Hearn lived.
One of the guides of the tour once visited his former residence in Matsue-city, Shimane prefecture, currently a preserved site in memorial of his achievement.
He and his Japanese wife collected Japanese folk horror tales and published a book “Kuwaidan.” The book contains famous horror tales every Japanese knows of. One that fits into upcoming winter season is “Snow Woman.”
“”Two hunters were trapped in a blizzard and escaped to a hut in the village. But they met a snow woman and were frozen. One of the hunters was dead but the other survived because the woman fell in love with him and told him that he could live if he promised not to tell anyone about the incident, otherwise she would kill him once he tell others because she was always watching him.
Later in his life he met a beautiful woman, fell in love with her and then got married. The couple got children and had happy life together. One blizzard day he recalled his past memory and told his wife about the snow woman. His wife suddenly turned the snow woman and said “You broke the promise. I have to kill you. But we’ve got children we love. So I can’t kill you.” Then she disappeared from him and his children. “”
We, Japanese learn from a westerner about our own folk tales. What a surprise!
Yes, such surprises occur every time we encounter our guests on our tours. Very familiar cultures and customs are very unique to our guests and then we can relearn our own cultures.
We appreciate you for giving such wonderful experiences. As long as we continue this guide activities, our Bake Bake adventure continues.
Why not join us and give us more Bake Bake!
To our guest on December 7th – we’d love to hear your feedback!
We would appreciate it if you could leave your comments possibly with names of the guides you were with, on Tripadvisor or our Instagram/Facebook pages. If you want more info about our tour, check out our website.