Walking along the Ijinkan street, I spotted a sign like this.
Apparently it’s Sherlock Holmes’s room, shown to the public for the first time in Japan.
As a Sherlock Holmes fan, there was no way I could walk past without going in.
The car at the entrance
The kind of car an English gentleman would ride around in. Every time I see something like this I can’t help thinking of butler stories, which I’d call a side effect of the mass media.
The English House isn’t very big, but the props, laid out with lots of lively little details, really catch the eye. Maybe that’s why there were couples and women travellers here and there, and now and then I also spotted a middle-aged photographer and a girl in a sailor-suit uniform doing a photo shoot. Ah… this is exactly why trips around regional Japan are fun in unexpected ways…
Sherlock Holmes’s room
Holmes’s trademark check coat and hat. The room was dark, so a lot of my shots came out blurry. It feels like it’s about time to change cameras, but no decent model has come out yet, so I’m holding off. However I think about it, upgrading from a mid-range body I’ve been happily using to another mid-range body seems like a waste of money… When you splurge, you’ve got to go all in at once, that’s the fun of it… yep…
Boxing gloves
Holmes has a strong image as a brilliant detective, but in the stories he was also quite a physically fit type. In that sense, the fireplace poker is faithfully recreated in this room too.
He was also a violinist.
He was always astonishing his ordinary, conventional friend Watson. I think that kind of fun is what makes Sherlock Holmes so appealing.
On the table, a cigar case…
Holmes was famous as a heavy smoker, and he’d sometimes take cocaine when he was looking for stimulation. The magnifying glass and the pipe are Holmes signatures too.
The dining table
The fireplace once more
An official international certificate.
The Baker Street sign
Roughly this kind of atmosphere…
From here on it’s not Holmes’s room but other rooms of the English House.
An English-style toilet…
A suit of armour that somehow looks like it might walk off at any moment…
If you like Sherlock Holmes, it’s worth a visit. If not… I’d suggest just looking at the building and heading straight to the Kitano Hotel.