How to Rediscover Your Citys Past Tips from a Tour Guide

[Music]

hello everyone my name is justin velgas

and i’ll be your tour guide today i’m

originally from san francisco but i

moved here to sendai

in 2013 i instantly fell in love with

the

deep history and culture of the city

actually so much so that i ended up

volunteering at the sendai city museum

and also becoming a long-term member of

goes-in

a volunteer interpreter tour guide group

so don’t worry today i am acting as a

volunteer

your tour is free if you can’t tell by

now we’re going to do this

kind of a walk and talk style this is a

walking tour

so let’s begin welcome

to sendai capital of miyagi prefecture

and the largest city here in tohoku

now today sendai is a very vibrant and

lively city

but that hasn’t always been the case we

have had our share of

dark days we actually started our tour

back there

in front of the sendai city war memorial

reconstruction hall

and when you get a chance peek inside

and you’ll be able to find artifacts and

information

related to the sendai air raid

it was in 1945 july 10th

just a few minutes after midnight

when 123 u.s

b-29 bombers flew over the city

they dropped their deadly payloads and

set the whole city ablaze

everything from sendai city to hirose

river

was burned down in just a few hours

now because of that unfortunate event a

lot of people say

there’s no history you can find in

downtown sendai

well i don’t believe them come see

sendai through my eyes

here’s the reality even if everything

disappears history is going to always

remain

in one form or another if you want to

track down the history of your city

you’re gonna need to act like a

detective where are the clues

the hints the traces they’re all around

but they’re also hidden at the same time

when you can understand the history of

your city

everything’s going to start to make

sense you’re going to understand the

lives of past generations

you’re going to understand how people

live and how the city was even laid out

what is the city trying to tell you

what are things that most people don’t

notice or

don’t care about these are the things

we’re going to try and think about

today so actually we’re approaching our

first stop right here

on your left we’re gonna walk here

into sakana machi cohen

this is a nice little residential park

here

i actually come here and just hang out

have a coffee i read a book

it’s actually pretty close to my

workplace but

that name sakanamachi coin fish

town park well here’s your first

history tip the obvious

location names fish town park well where

are the fishes

right when date masamune founded sendai

in 1601 he developed the castle town and

there was a lot of fish sellers

around this area and they thrived until

what happened in 1945 i’m gonna need you

people pay attention i just told you

the air raid there they burned down

everything and they made a park here

afterwards let me go ahead and give you

another example of these location names

um a few blocks northeast of here

is a neighborhood called motu tera

koji it means old temple

lane and guess what there’s no temples

there anymore so

what happened okay you can’t just

jump to the conclusion it’s not the air

raid this time

you have to piece together different

clues and see how they

blend together and whether that works or

not if you look

at a map of the east side of sendai

station

you’re going to find a town called

shintera

or a neighborhood rather this

neighborhood shintera

it means new temple

interesting you go to the library

crack open a couple of books you’re

going to find out that

as the temple

rather as the castle town expanded

they needed to move the temples to make

a room

for businesses and residences and they

moved them

from moto tenacoti to shintera you do a

little bit more research you’ll find out

in that area and the neighboring

neighborhood there are about 40

different temples there

some of them were moved some of them

were

newly constructed and even some of them

have been in sennai

before date masamune arrived

we know location names is going to be

important another important thing when

you’re looking for history is

the designs of the streets because even

when many things are destroyed

the city layout of the streets is often

rebuilt the same

and we’re here at our next location

basho no tsuji

the basho crossroads

so we have right here in the edo period

this

was the center of the castle town

we go down there and this street right

here that’s going to go all the way to

the castle

and on the other end that’s going to go

to the modern shopping arcades that’s

probably where thousands of people are

passing by right now

but before it was right here during the

edo period the tokugawa government

in edo tokyo required the northern

daimyo including data masamune to visit

on a sunken a system of alternate

procession hundreds of samurai

accompanied the daimyo right down here

this north to south uh streets this is

actually kokobun chodori

that goes up to kokobuncho we’re gonna

head

south and if you walked this way about

10 days

you’re actually going to reach tokyo i

haven’t tried that yet and don’t worry

our tour is just about 10 more minutes

and we’re going to finish instead of 10

days

so once we have our streets and once we

have our location names

what’s next it’s your job to notice

these clues and to pick up on them

and one thing that’s interesting we’re

gonna pop over on the street over here

to a place called genoa

yokocho okay and this is one of our

location names again denois means phone

yokocho kind of

alley but it’s not an alley it’s really

more like a street

what happened in denmark yokocho or let

me give you the reason right

in the meiji period a telephone

switching station

those operators putting those things up

and down in the machines

that was built here during the meiji

period

but what the what’s more important at

least for sendai’s history i think

is what happened in 1919

there was a great fire that literally

burned down 700 buildings across here oh

oh hello

i’m shooting video right now i gotta go

yes uh see ya okay so you can see the

the locals here in zendaya are pretty

friendly

um back to the tour so we’re here on

denmark

a fire happened here in 1919 and burned

down

700 buildings and

you can’t quite see it yet but if you

keep going this way the opposite side of

the street of minami machidori

is much narrower than this street

right here but it doesn’t really make

sense

why is this street so wide and that one

is so narrow

well after the fire burned down

everything the city decided

let’s go ahead and make the best of a

bad situation

they decided to start a new

transportation project they built a tram

system so they widened the street to

make the tram

and that tram was in sendai from 1926

operating for 50 years

to summarize that street over there the

narrow one

was not rebuilt it just stayed the same

this one burned down

and became something new

so i want you to think about that that

1919 fire

kind of use your detective mode

what month do you think this 1919 fire

happens

don’t just guess i’m trying to actually

think about it a little bit deeper right

okay well summer’s hot yeah but

it’s very humid in uh japanese summers

okay the winter is dry yes but

everything’s cold and there’s snow here

so it’s hard to ignite things

the correct answer is march anyone that

spent a march in sendai knows how windy

it is

and up to the 20th century they had a

major fire almost every single decade

oh real quick before we head down this

street you can go ahead and see what i’m

talking about that narrow street

down there we’ll take a hot side street

over here

and we’re gonna head to a kind of a

hidden shrine i really like this place

and

yeah you could find it online but i

first found it by just

just walking around

so our next location coming up right

here is called

no naka shrine

um it’s not so famous but it could be

the most historically important shrine

in our city so let’s go ahead and take a

step

inside no naka shrine

now i want you to go into detective mode

this hidden shrine why is it hidden

well basically you’re going to see all

these big apartment buildings

towering above us now isn’t that kind of

crazy why would they build a shrine

in the middle of all these apartment

buildings

well they didn’t the shrine was here

first the shrine started

when sendai city was built and all the

ropes

that were used to lay out the different

streets

there were burns and the ashes were

enshrined in that shrine up there

so another historical clue we’re looking

for is

old things things that are important are

usually protected

i’m going to let you explore nonaka

shrine a little bit later by yourself

because there’s one more final place i

want to show you

so how can you explore your city

well we’ve talked about having that

detective mindset but what are some

actual tools

or strategies

well let’s just start small maybe on

your walk home

try a different street or take a

different

bus home right and see how the scenery

changes and what’s around you

you could simply read wikipedia articles

online or

visit your local museum i’m sure you’ll

learn something interesting and

hopefully you’ll want to explore

a little bit deeper

it’s your job to really feed your mind

right

learn about different things and make

this database inside your head

so when you see something that might be

a clue you’ll be able

to connect it to other seemingly

unrelated things

and then hopefully be able to draw some

type of conclusion

we’re going to finish our tour up here

we are

crossing sun mall shopping arcade

we’re gonna go step inside iroha yokocho

this popular post-war alley proves that

people still have a place

for the past and the long days of the

post-war

era called chola

now it’s really cool if you come here at

night all the little bars and

restaurants are going to be open

but there’s also some cool shops open

during the day fashion shops and

tea shops and things like that so i

think you should really visit

irohayokocho twice it is early in the

morning so it hasn’t quite yet come

alive

as you can see

so i leave you with a challenge a

request a quest if you will

i want you to go

go rediscover the history of your city

because well it doesn’t matter where you

live

because home is where you make it

the more you learn about the history of

your city

the stronger your connection to it is

gonna be

and once you understand the history

of your city you’re gonna realize how

it affects how it affects today

and there’s one more step beyond that

right we look at the history of the past

and how it connects today and i want you

to realize

you can make an impact on the history

of your city

well thank you so much everyone i had a

blast

i hope you had fun again

my name is justin please write a great

review if you enjoyed the tour

if you didn’t enjoy the tour

um my name is susan

well thanks so much everyone have a good

day and a great time

exploring your city see ya