岐阜: I've been doing some research

Being in Adelaide again, and having unlimited access to the internet, copious amounts of food at my disposal and a severaly reduced number of friends, I find myself doing some research on my new home for 2007. Here is what i have found kiddies (lets hope if convinves you ALL to come visit me!).

Before the prefectural system was established, the Gifu prefecture existed as two seperate provinces: the arable plain-land of Mino and the mountainous Hida. Historically, this region was renowned for sword-making, but now its major industries are fashion and aeronautical engineering (wooooo...i like the swordmaking better).

Within this prefecture there are many towns and cities, the most notable of these is Gifu City (Gifu-shi). This is where i will be working and living.






Like many cities, Gifu-shi has symbolic representations. Most of them are quite boring, though i like their symbolic animal: the Rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta).








Apart from being home to these fellas, Gifu also welcomes many local and foreign guests for its many festivals and attractions. Some of my favourite that i have learnt about so far are:

Cormant Fishing (Ukai): Gifu is renowned for a special tecnique of fishing practiced in the Nagara Kawa called ukai (or cormorant fishing). The method involves three fishermen who have trained their pet cormorants to fish using a system of leashes. This method is only used at night. You can watch the ukai from April to October every year!







Tejikara Fire Festival: The festival of a local shrine, held in April, sounds pretty exciting. I'll give you a quote from the Gifu Tourist Website: "a firework cascade suspended 20 meters above the shrine precincts is set off. Then with the sound of firecrackers echoing all around them, men wearing only loincloths make portable shrines, which they bear on their shoulders and dance wildly. These shrines also shoot streams of fire high into the air." Yay, loincloths and wild dancing, sounds like me!



Nobunaga Festival: On the first Saturday of October the people of Gifu celebrate the legacy of Nobunaga Oda, who aimed to unify the world based around the momumental Gifu castle. Ambitious man!










How exciting! More Gifu updates as i come accross them...