I reached Gagarin Park in Toyohara. The name of the park, Gagarin, is from the first-ever space traveler, Yury Gagarin. I wondered if he had come from Karafuto, but a journalist, who was a member of my tour group by chance, told me that it was probably because he was just popular among Russian people. He also told me that the statue of Gagarin also stood in Moscow and both facial expressions are fully different. I'll refer to the journalist below. After coming back home, I examined Gagarin and found his remark right.
By the way, I felt something Japanesque in the park. The lake in the park reminded me of my hometown, and lots of cherry trees were planted in the forest. The vegetation of the park was just like the one in Hokkaido. When I went back to the Nippon Maru, I looked it up in a photo collection in the library. This park used to be called "Toyohara Kouen (Park)" and the lake in the picture was called "Ojigaike Lake". In spring, especially in the season of the cherry blossoms, lots of people enjoy walking in the park. The park was designed and built by Japanese! Then, I found a monument by the path which seemed to have something to do with Japan and so I took its picture, but I don't know what it meant.
The next moment, the most astonishing event on the trip happened. I met Mr. Shigeharu Aoyama in front of the statue of Gagarin. He is a very famous polemicist in Japan. It was so sudden and unbelievable, but he was undoubtedly Mr. Aoyama. I spoke to him and chatted for some time and took pictures! He also knew the historical importance of the day, Sept 6th. He was on a private tour with his wife, but other members noticed his existence by my speaking to him. I was so sorry to disturb his vacation.
I found an interesting object, the dinosaur holding a box in which several dirty books were placed. I heard from the local people that it was the book-exchange box, as it were. Anyone can take books from the box. It seemed to be a nice idea, but I doubted that Toyohara City had its public library. I asked my tour guide about the dinosaur, but wasn't able to get useful information from him. The capability to guide guests from Japan was inferior, even putting it mildly.
(Vocabulary)
北緯５０度以南の樺太は日本領、したがってこのブログでは日本名を使う
Karafuto (樺太) Sakhalin サハリン
Toyohara (豊原) Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk ユジノサハリンスク
Oodomari(大泊) Korsakov コルサコフ
telepolemicist テレビ番組で活発に発言する著名な論客〔television + polemicist〕
polemicist 論客
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