HARMAN-Y

At the Nagoya Hilton MCing a special event for sound system engineers, Harman Automotive and Mark Levinson who hosted the Lexus personnel. A Lexus type sound system was set up around the event hall to give the Lexus people a chance to really hear the sound system they will be (hopefully) fitting into their cars.
Apart from listening to music and sounds, Harman local director, Bruce and I did a talk presentation showing the history of the Mark Levinson brand, the $10,000 speakers behind us and the Eagles too, who debuted in 1972, and whom the Harman team took the Lexus team to see in Nagoya Dome prior to this show.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME...

It's been a very busy month and right at the end of Feb came my 43rd birthday！PPF Radio DJ School member Shirakawa Yo gave me some Japanese Samurai battle prints, and a Paul Simon biography! Thanks Yo!

BOOK OF 5 RINGS

SCREEN SHOT...Just been watching a TV special on my hero, the master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, the book on warfare and tactics he wrote, and that books' modern day meanings,...It's been interesting to watch, but shocking how so few Japanese know about the Go Rin no Sho (Book Of 5 Rings)

ART DVD

Out now! A DVD made to promote the visual and performing arts of Nagoya to the world! Hosted by,...Ta Daaaaa~ yours truly! ....Available in Japanese, English, Spanish and Chinese!

KOUGAKUJI TEMPLE

On the gateposts of the Kougakuji Temple in Nagashima are the golden crests of the Tokugawa clan, the family that rose to prominence and became Shogun in 1603.
The ancient temple was made famous in 1649 when it was chosen to hold the remains of the first Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu's mother.
The temple also houses a 96cm tall wooden statue of the buddha, now listed as a cultural asset.
Despite it's obvious importance to the Tokugawa family, the temple remains slightly run down, remote and mostly unknown.

NAGASHIMA UPRISING SITE

Southeast of modern day Nagoya City, nearby the Nagashima Castle site stands the Ganshoji Temple. The temple was moved to this spot after the devastating typhoons of the 1959, when the entire region was flooded meters deep. The temple once stood a kilometer away on the banks of the Nagara river, and was one of the primary fortified temples involved in the three large battles that took place first in 1569 and again a year later. The warrior monks of the Ikko-ikki sect had seized Nagashima Castle and the entire Nagashima island had been made into a series of forts.
The warlord Oda Nobunaga had attempted on 2 occasions to quell the growing powers of the warrior clergy and the civil uprisings resulting in civil disobedience. His brother had been killed in the first attempt, and so an angered Nobunaga made a third and final attack in 1574....
Nowdays, the temple serves as one of the very few reminders of the incident in which over 20,000 priests, men, women and children were burned alive when Nobunaga laid siege to the fortifications, encased the complex in a wooden barrier, and then set it all alight. No-one escaped alive.

NAKAJIMA CASTLE

On the border of Aichi and Mie Prefectures is an area known as Nakajima. In 1555, a castle was built here, however, all that remains today is the main gate.
The castle served as a residence of major land owning samurai up until 1876, when the samurai caste was abolished.
The gate, now within the confines of Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture is listed as a local cultural asset, and survived the deadly typhoon and massive flooding of the 1950's.
The Nagashima Castle site is now a primary school, with the main castle having been situated where the top right building stands now.
The large pine tree that stood in the main citadel of the castle still remains, and marks the site of the ancient fortification. Surprisingly, the castle is little known, despite the area having been the site of 3 large battles, the last in which Oda Nobunaga attacked and killed 20,000 priests, men, women and children.