A theater beside JR Tanami Station, built in 1950. In its heyday it bustled with traveling troupes and film screenings; it closed around 1970 and sat abandoned for years. Restoration began in 2014 and took four years, and the theater reopened in the summer of 2018 with a film screening. Today it hosts films, live music, exhibitions, workshops and rakugo, and runs a cafe.
1547 Tanami, Kushimoto, Higashimuro District, Wakayama
Sources: good.tetau.jp tanami.jp pref.wakayama.lg.jp
This moment in the journey
The little Tanami Theater
I walked to the Tanami Theater, a charming little place with a handmade feel. It is a white clapboard building, and an old post box and staghorn ferns decorate the entrance.
Built in 1950, it once bustled with traveling troupes and film screenings. After decades of neglect it had become a ruin, but from 2014 it was restored over four years and reopened in the summer of 2018 with a film screening. Today it hosts films, music and exhibitions. Through the window I could see posters and booklets from an art exhibition. I had hoped to watch a film here, but unfortunately it was closed that day. The movie will have to wait.
Right behind the theater is Tanami Station on the JR Kisei Line. Crossing a bridge with rusty railings, I could see the tracks and the platform.
Watch this scene on YouTube2:39
More notes from this journey
Kushimoto, Wakayama
Katsuo chazuke (bonito over rice with hot broth)
Bonito dressed in sauce is laid over rice and eaten with hot broth poured on top.
From: A house in the forest and a southern sea: a day in Kushimoto
Kushimoto, Wakayama
Flying fish and citrus carpaccio
Besides tuna and bonito, Kushimoto's port lands flying fish and saury.
From: A house in the forest and a southern sea: a day in Kushimoto
Kushimoto, Wakayama
Cape Shionomisaki, the southernmost point of Honshu
The southernmost point of Honshu, at 135°46′E, 33°26′N.
From: A house in the forest and a southern sea: a day in Kushimoto
Kushimoto, Wakayama
Kushimoto Marine Park (aquarium and underwater observatory)
An aquarium that recreates the sea of Kushimoto with seawater and creatures from the waters right in front of it.
From: A house in the forest and a southern sea: a day in Kushimoto
Kushimoto, Wakayama
The coral of Kushimoto's sea
The coastal waters of Kushimoto hold the world's northernmost large coral communities.
From: A house in the forest and a southern sea: a day in Kushimoto
Kushimoto, Wakayama
The Turkish Memorial Museum and the Ertugrul
A museum beside the memorial to the Turkish frigate on Kashinozaki, Kii-Oshima, displaying a model of the Ertugrul along with relics, photographs and documents.
From: A house in the forest and a southern sea: a day in Kushimoto
More notes from Kinki
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kyoto-style ozoni (white miso New Year soup)
Ozoni in and around Kyoto is built on kombu dashi and white miso, with round mochi, taro, carrot and daikon.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Osechi (datemaki, red-and-white namasu, decorated kamaboko)
Each osechi dish carries a wish.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Toshikoshi soba (nihachi soba)
The custom of eating soba on New Year's Eve is said to have spread among ordinary people in the Edo period.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Chestnut rice (kuri gohan)
My first chestnut rice, made with chestnuts I had picked myself.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Charcoal-grilled saury with sudachi
Sanma is written 秋刀魚, "autumn sword fish," but that spelling only spread from the Taisho era on; older texts wrote it 青串魚.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Wakayama bonito and mandarin carpaccio
In contrast to the lean first bonito of spring, the fish that head south from around September are called modori-gatsuo, returning bonito.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast