The brilliant sea and comfortable sea breeze tempted us to walk around the pier and we found ourselves in front of the remains of the center office of the Customs House Annex. I had visited Yokohama before, but I didn't know about this remains. Japan, which had kept its trade-restriction policy for about 300 years, put an end to it during the Meiji Restoration and Yokohama was opened to overseas. Yokohama has still its nostalgic atmosphere as one of the oldest international trading ports. This building was destroyed by the huge earthquake and ensuing fire which occurred in 1923. FYI, the day of the earthquake, Sep. 1st is now designated as the disaster drill day. The basis of the building was left and buried at that time. Later, it was dug out and set to the center of the historic park.
(Vocabulary)
ensue (結果として) 生じる, 起こる;(ある出来事のあとに) 続いて起こる
ensue from sth ＜…＞の結果として生じる
で、フラフラと歩いていたら横浜税関跡にいた。横浜は何度か来ているが、このような史跡があったとは知らなかった。在りし日の風景を思い浮かべながら散歩。長く貿易制限を設けていた日本が広く海外に門戸を開いたとき、横浜は開港された。長い歴史がある。この建物は１９２３年９月１日の大地震とそれに続く火災により破壊され、復旧されないまま埋められていた。 因みに、９月１日は防災の日と定められ、避難訓練が行われている。
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