関町

Sekicho is the name of a former town in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, now swallowed up by the city of Joetsu. Its name (literally "barrier town") would have disappeared from discourse by now, were it not for the existence of a little Shinto shrine that still bears the old town's name.

In 1999, someone rummaging around the shrine happened across a big taiko drum, which they brought out, cleaned up, and restored to a playable condition. A local man named Seido Kobayashi donated a traditional-styled float to mount the taiko on, and a group of locals wrote a song for the drum called "Sekicho Bayashi" — "The Sekicho Forest." The discovery of the Sekicho taiko seemed to bring back a little hint of traditional Japanese life to this modern Japanese city.

To think I didn't know about the town of Sekicho until about five minutes ago. Much like liveforever, I can't complain about the unintentional meaning of my name. It's a great little story, don't you think?

00100 informs me that this is the 2,000th entry in EJE! I am honored.

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