The Glover House & Garden

We walked through the oldest Western-style wooden building in Japan (1863), built and owned by Thomas Glover, who helped found the Japan brewery Co (kirin beer) among numerous other technological firsts in japan. One of my favorite operas, Puccini's "Madame Butterfly," has a history here as well: taken from a story set in Nagasaki, the lead character of Butterfly is said to have been modeled after Tsuru, Glover's Japanese wife.