Local History

Since moving to Gifu I've become a lot more interested in Japanese history. This is central Japan after all, an area where a lot of major events occurred throughout the centuries. Outside the JR Gifu station is a statue of Oda Nobunaga, a tribute to the leader who started the process of unifying Japan four centuries ago. His castle is on top of Mt. Kinka, a short bus ride from the station. If you take the JR Tokai line west, you'll pass through Sekigahara, the location of the historic battle where Tokugawa Ieyasu gained control of Japan and finished what Oda started.
The articles for Japanese history on Wikipedia read like a drama, despite consisting only of simple facts. With it being Wikipedia the accuracy of some of the facts is of course debatable, but I find that the general sequence of events is accurate, and often very compelling. Naturally, the pages written in Japanese have a lot more content than their English counterparts, but that is all the more reason to study up, in my opinion.

How I Dealt with the Morning

Snowing over the past few days, with freezing temperatures overnight and in the mornings, something had to give out. This morning I found out my hot water pipes were the first. Waking up in an icebox and finding that out isn't too pleasant, so I had to improvise and use my water boiler in the kitchen. I did however wash my hair in the freezing shower, reminding me of what I heard about a part of Shinto monk training. Getting bucket after bucket of cold water poured over them in the dead of winter. Based on my experience this morning, I think I have a way to go before I get there.