Japanese with anime voice: episode58
Hello, I’m Sachi.
May 22, today is the day the Tokyo Skytree opened for business. It was completed on February 29, 2012, and opened on May 22 of the same year. the Tokyo Skytree is a radio tower with a 634-meter-high sky observation deck, from which you can look out over the city of Tokyo. There are two places where you can see the sky: the Tembo Deck is 350 meters above the ground, and the Tembo Galleria is 450 meters above the ground. If you come to Tokyo for sightseeing, you should definitely go there. But I happened to look at the ticket prices, and to my surprise, there is a 200-300 yen difference between weekdays and weekends! If you want to go, it is better to go on a weekday!
I have been there before, but the weather was a little bad and the view was not so good. Both my partner and I were supposed to be sunny girls and guys, but the weather was unusually bad that day. That might mean that there were more powerful rain-girl or rain-guy than us on that day. Sunny girl, sunny guy, rainy girl, and rainy guy are phrased in this way, depending on whether there is a greater chance of sunshine or rain when you go out somewhere. My partner and I are usually sunny when we go out. When we go on a trip or go away for a while, it rarely rains. Incidentally, I don’t remember it raining on any of our school excursions in elementary school, junior high school, and high school. However, a good friend of mine at a previous company was a very rainy girl, and even she herself was aware of it. It always rained on the day she went out somewhere. She only remembers it raining on a school excursion. She went to Disney twice with her child, but both times it rained. Sometimes I would meet her in the company parking lot, but on cloudy days, it would be pouring by the time she arrived at the parking lot. She was really a rainy girl. So whenever the company went on a long vacation, we would joke about how we wished she would stay out as much as possible.
Now, there is a rumor whispered in Japan about this Tokyo Skytree. Does anyone know about it? There was an ukiyoe artist named Kuniyoshi Utagawa who was active in the late Edo period (1603-1868). 東都三ツ股の図 (Toutomitsumata no zu), which is said to have been painted by Kuniyoshi Utagawa between 1820 and 1850, depicts something that looks like the Tokyo Skytree! The painting depicts a bridge, and considering the size and distance of that bridge, that tower is ridiculously large. Historians say that such a large building did not exist in Edo at that time, when it was forbidden to build anything taller than a castle in the first place. What was Mr.Utagawa really looking at when he drew such a large tower, or did he foresee that the Tokyo Skytree would be built in the future city of Edo? Even from the point of view of history experts and ukiyoe artists, there is still no clear answer as to what kind of building the tower Mr.Utagawa painted was. Therefore, some people believe that Mr.Utagawa foresaw the Tokyo Skytree. To tell the truth, I agree with them. I also think that Mr. Utagawa already knew that the Tokyo Skytree was going to be built. It would be more romantic to think that way, wouldn’t it? Just thinking about it is exciting, isn’t it? I like that kind of mystery. Japanese Ukiyoe prints are not only fascinating in themselves, but also sometimes have this kind of mystery, which makes them mysterious and fascinates people even more. Actually, I am the type of person who dreams of foreknowledge quite often. I do not foretell the state of the world, but rather my own future. When I have these dreams, I don’t think that they are prophetic dreams, but there are times when I suddenly realize that I saw them in a dream. It’s not that often, like once every few years, and it’s only a fragmented part of the dream. This is strange. What is it?
