#queens is known for many things: #jfk and #lga airports, #nymets, #WorldsFairs and #rockawaybeach. But did you know it is the #cemetery capital of #nyc and likely of the entire #UnitedStates ? It has more than 25 cemeteries, with #calvarycemetery by far the largest with at least 1.75 million interments. Some are like parks, with amazing #funerary #sculpture. Others are perfect settings for #horrormovies At least in that sense, it is a #genealogists paradise #newyorkcity

Thanks to the #WorldsFairs in the second half of the 19th century, #Japan had infiltrated Western popular culture. For example, this is a postcard from a charity bazaar in T(h)iengen in Southwest Germany in 1902. Setting up a Japonist booth helped sell stuff in the middle of nowhere in rural Germany!

The postcard is only hand-drawn, and maybe there was no such elaborated booth with kanji. Nevertheless, it is still fascinating that the #FarEast sparked local imagination!

So I'm into researching #JapaneseGardens. I really like #JGardens. However, what we see today is a product of the 19th century, when #Japan got more entangled with the West. The first JGardens were built for #WorldsFairs as a cheap backdrop for selling stuff. Of course, gardens in Japan have been around for a long time. However, only since the 1870s, all of this turned into a national symbol – and only a fraction of styles and types in Japan. This process is what I am interested in.