Word: mura
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...sounds of a steam whistle and a puffing train can evoke another era. At Museum Meiji-Mura, tel: (81-568) 670 314, they take you to one. Set outside Inayuma, near Nagoya in central Japan, the open-air museum park comprises a collection of splendid, century-old buildings rescued from demolition, linked by historic train and trolley cars...
...movie-set atmosphere of Museum Meiji-Mura is accented by its eclectic mix of 67 buildings that were reprieved from razing as postwar Japan was being rebuilt. You can stroll from the Imperial Hotel over an iron-lattice bridge and through the former gate of Kanazawa Prison to the cathedral of St. Francis Xavier, where couples can still get married. Every building, from old post offices to police posts, butcher shops to banks, is fronted with an English-language plaque explaining its history. Within, dioramas depict life in the Meiji era (1867-1912). Many displays are interactive: a Kabuki troupe...
...Museum Meiji-Mura makes for both a relaxing day away from Nagoya's industrial homogeneity and a history lesson for other Asian cities repainting their faces for the world. The park is the brainchild of Yoshiro Taniguchi and Moto-o Tsuchikawa, a Tokyoite who lamented the relentless modernization of his native city as it prepared to host the 1964 Olympics. Here's hoping a baron in Beijing feels the same about the Chinese capital's fast-disappearing architectural gems...
...following the internment,Japanese-Americans were forced to abandon theircultural identity, Mura said. In the '90s, youngAsian-Americans live in a period of "fluctuationand change" which makes them more aware of theiridentities, he said...
...around the country, I see a renewedenergy among young Asian-Americans to look atissues of identity and their place in Americansociety," Mura said. "Asian-American perceptionsof selves are changing, there's been a hugeoutpouring of cultural production, works thatreach a white mainstream audience...