月: 2013年12月

カナダの女性ファッション・ブティック・ブランド、アリツィア( Aritzia )のウェブマガジンに、別邸音信と大谷山荘の天体ドームが掲載されました。ダイアンさん（Ms. Diane Vadino）に記事を書いていただきました。

WE OWN THE SKY
From a hotel-top observatory in Japan to constellation tours in Texas, here are the best spots to go stargazing. By Diane Vadino. Illustrations by Chrissie Abbott

After four days in the neon dreamscape known as Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, the only possible option was to seek out something altogether different—which I found six hours away by train, in the hills above the Sea of Japan. Near the literal end of the Mine Line, I disembarked—to visit Otozure, a ryokan, or inn, seemingly built to foster an easy communion with nature. The ryokan’s onsen, or hot-spring baths, overlooked the banks of the Otozure River, from which it takes its name; butterflies darted above it, while hummingbirds thrummed in the heavy, early summer air.
Less expected was the inn’s relationship with the sky above, as experienced through a rooftop telescope installed by the grandmother of owner Kazuhiro Otani. Otozure and its sister property, Otani Sanso, have been in Otani’s family for five generations; his grandmother began working there after World War II, when her days would begin with cooking rice at dawn and conclude at 2 a.m., after dancing and singing with guests. Her lifelong love of the stars was inspired by the work of a local poet, Kaneko Misuzu, a Sylvia Plath-like figure who killed herself at the age of 26 after her philandering husband pursued custody of their daughter. Misuzu left behind more than 500 poems—including “Stars That Cannot Be Seen,” which celebrates how “deep in the stars there are more stars; stars that cannot be seen.” Otani’s grandmother first viewed those invisible stars on a trip the U.S., which included a look through a NASA telescope; on her return, she asked her son to install the telescope.
After hearing this story over dinner, I couldn’t wait to go gaze at the stars. When the sky was fully dark—Otozure is over 600 miles from Tokyo and its light pollution—Otani led me up to the roof and introduced me to the astronomer who regularly takes hotel guests on a tour of the constellations. Otani said his favorite view is of Saturn, which the astronomer promptly dialed up on the telescope; its famous rings were clearly distinguishable. “Every time I see them, I discover small differences—in the shapes of the rings and their colors,” Otani told me. “Before I saw Saturn through the observatory telescope, I just recognized it as something like a child’s doodle. But the more I saw it, I noticed that the exact same planet gave me totally different impressions, depending on the situation. That is my wonderful thing.”
It’s a magical experience, seeing those stars that cannot be seen—and while you might not be jetting off to Japan anytime soon, there are observatories all over the world offering this opportunity. Here are four that will speed you along on your trip to the stars.

宿 別邸 音信 〒759-4103　山口県 長門市 湯本温泉 2208
Ryokan Bettei Otozure, 2208 Yumoto-Onsen Nagato-shi,Yamaguchi-Prefecture, Japan 759-4103