{"id":16419,"date":"2017-08-07T15:34:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T06:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/welcome.city.matsumoto.nagano.jp\/modules\/xpressme\/?p=16419"},"modified":"2017-08-07T15:34:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-07T06:34:26","slug":"nakamachiproject","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.visitmatsumoto.com\/en\/sightseeing\/nakamachiproject\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Culture Experience Days in Nakamachi! Plus a New Nakamachi Guide Map, Website, and Shop Signs in English!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Japanese Culture Experience Days at Kurassic-kan in September<\/h3>\n<p>Come to Kurassic-kan on Wednesday, Sept. 6 and Saturday, Sept. 23 between 10:00 and 16:00 to enjoy special Japanese cultural activities, plus get a free gift for participating! Here you can try your hand at various traditional arts, crafts, and other activities (mostly for free!) including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Origami<\/strong> &#8211; the art of paper folding where you can create colorful figures out of paper<\/li>\n<li><strong>Japanese calligraphy<\/strong> &#8211; write your name in Japanese and favorite kanji characters<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tea ceremony\/Matcha green tea making<\/strong> &#8211; experience the traditional Japanese tea ceremony and learn how to make matcha, a special kind of green tea<\/li>\n<li><strong>Japanese paper fan decorating<\/strong> &#8211; decorate your own folding paper fan just the way you like and keep yourself cool the rest of the summer<\/li>\n<li><strong>Traditional Japanese toys<\/strong> &#8211; try out old-fashioned Japanese toys like the <em>koma<\/em> (spinning tops), <em>kendama<\/em> (a kind of cup and ball game), <em>takeuma<\/em> (stilts), and more<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sake tasting<\/strong> &#8211; try a specially brewed sake made just for the Nakamachi area<!--Matsuo changed again. get a taste of locally brewed sake-->!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kimono wearing\/rental<\/strong> &#8211; choose from your favorite design and walk around Matsumoto in a kimono (fee required)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rickshaw rides<\/strong> &#8211; enjoy a fun ride through Nakamachi on a rickshaw! (fee required)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ninja experience<\/strong> &#8211; learn cool ninja skills like how to shoot darts using a blowgun (fee required)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(*Activities may be subject to change)<\/p>\n<p>After participating in the activities, fill out a short survey to get a free gift &#8211; a roll of specially designed masking tape decorated in the characteristic &#8220;namako-kabe&#8221; pattern, which is the black and white crisscross pattern found on the walls of many of the old buildings in Nakamachi.<\/p>\n<p>The name <em>namako-kabe<\/em> has an interesting origin, coming from the word for &#8220;sea slug&#8221; (<em>namako<\/em>) and walls (<em>kabe<\/em>). If you look closely at actually pattern on the buildings when walking around the town, you&#8217;ll notice that the crisscross patterns are made up of rounded, embossed lines that supposedly look like sea slugs, which have a similar cylindrical shape. Although this pattern makes the buildings quite beautiful, it also had practical applications too, as it helped protect them against fire, strong winds, and rain. The <em>namako-kabe<\/em> masking tape will make a fun souvenir to remind you of your time in Nakamachi!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16421\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16421\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16421\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/visitmatsumoto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/DSCF3976-590x393.jpg?resize=590%2C393&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Namako-kabe walls in Nakamachi\" width=\"590\" height=\"393\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16421\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Namako-kabe patterned walls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>New Nakamachi guide map, website, and shop signs in English!<\/h3>\n<p>Finding your way around Nakamachi Street just got a whole lot easier with Nakamachi&#8217;s new guide map, website in English with a shop directory, and soon-to-be-finished shop signs in English that will posted in front of every shop so you will know exactly what kind of place it is.<\/p>\n<p>Nakamachi Guide Map in paper form will be distributed soon, but until then you can download a <a href=\"https:\/\/visitmatsumoto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/nakamachi_map.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">PDF version here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16423\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16423\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/visitmatsumoto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/nakamachi_map.pdf\" target=\"new\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16423\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16423\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/visitmatsumoto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/nakamachi_map-590x417.png?resize=590%2C417&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Nakamachi English guide map\" width=\"590\" height=\"417\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16423\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nakamachi English Guide Map (click to download the PDF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><!--Matsuo changed \u3068\u308a\u3042\u3048\u305a Find the Nakamachi Guide Map in paper form around Nakamachi Street, Matsumoto's tourist information centers, or download a <a href=\"https:\/\/visitmatsumoto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/nakamachi_map.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">PDF version here<\/a>. Grab a copy of the guide map and explore Nakamachi to its fullest!--><\/p>\n<p>Check out the new English version of Nakamachi&#8217;s website <a href=\"http:\/\/nakamachi-street.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to learn more about its history, what events and sights there are to see, and find shops &amp; restaurants with the handy, searchable shop list. You can also download the guide map from the website, too.<\/p>\n<p>English shop signs are also coming soon and will be posted in front of each shop. These signs will let you know what kind of shop or restaurant it is, whether there is Wi-Fi available or not, if credit cards can be used, which restaurants allow or don&#8217;t allow smoking, and more. Keep an eye out for them in the upcoming months!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16435\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16435\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16435\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/visitmatsumoto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/nakamachi_shop_panel_w-590x418.jpg?resize=590%2C418&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Nakamachi shop sign\" width=\"590\" height=\"418\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16435\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Preview of the shop signs being prepared for Nakamachi Street<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing\"><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><div class=\"fb-share-button\" data-href=\"https:\/\/blog.visitmatsumoto.com\/en\/sightseeing\/nakamachiproject\/\" data-layout=\"button_count\"><\/div><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-url=\"https:\/\/blog.visitmatsumoto.com\/en\/sightseeing\/nakamachiproject\/\" data-text=\"Japanese Culture Experience Days in Nakamachi! 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Here you can try your hand at various traditional arts, crafts, and other activities (mostly for free!) including: Origami &#8211; the art of paper folding where you can create colorful figures out of paper Japanese calligraphy &#8211; write your name in Japanese and favorite kanji characters Tea ceremony\/Matcha green tea making &#8211; experience the traditional Japanese tea ceremony and learn how to make matcha, a special kind of green tea Japanese paper fan decorating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing\"><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><div class=\"fb-share-button\" data-href=\"https:\/\/blog.visitmatsumoto.com\/en\/sightseeing\/nakamachiproject\/\" data-layout=\"button_count\"><\/div><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-url=\"https:\/\/blog.visitmatsumoto.com\/en\/sightseeing\/nakamachiproject\/\" data-text=\"Japanese Culture Experience Days in Nakamachi! Plus a New Nakamachi Guide Map, Website, and Shop Signs in English!\"  >Tweet<\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":16426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"inline_featured_image":false,"spay_email":""},"categories":[2354,2365,2358],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blog.visitmatsumoto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/DSCF3976-590x393-1-1.jpg?fit=590%2C393&ssl=1","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.9.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Japanese Culture Experience Days in Nakamachi! 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