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Like onions? |
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Awaji-The Country LifeVignettes and Visions |
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Awaji Lifes
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Nushima island fishing harbor. The early morning water takes on a langorous feeling. The boatsman is in no hurry to disturb surface stillness. It is 7 a.m. and time to pursue the passing schools of fish. We are both fishing for schools. I pass the harbor on my way to teach the miniscule elementary school of the island. |
Fervent thoughts & supplications are sent up to the kami to start the new year at the Izanagi Jingu, Awaji island's largest shinto shrine. It is also a chance to dress up and enjoy a sunny day with friends. The shrine has many smaller shrines, a pair of huge, ancient camphor trees which have grown together. Outside the shrine walls, a country county fair atmosphere with many vendors selling trinkets and hot, grilled food. Hard to resist, but I held onto my five yen coins to share with the kami! |
Yellow tassels hang on the front of Gyosei Jinja, a local Shinto shrine. The tassels, white paper lightening bolt symbol and twisted rice straw rope all demarcate the sacred space and visually announce the arrival of the new year. |
The sprightly fox god, a native deity of Japan. Reworked at countless Inari (fox god) shrines throughout Japan, he is accompanied by the orange torii gate, red banners, and smaller shrines either alone or alongside a local shrine. This one is by my local Gyosei Jinja. |
Black sakura (cherry) blossom banner draped around Gyosei Jinja, a local Shinto shrine. Looking from the inside. The square, circle, motif. |
"Honey, could you take out the moenai* garbage? Especially all those Asahi beer cans? Oh, and the retaining wall by the water pump is a mess. Could you do something about that?" *(unburnable) |
Japanese News of the Weird |
1-yr prison term sought for doctor in child's death Public prosecutors sought one year in prison for a doctor accused of negligence for failing to prevent the death of a 4-year-old boy whose brain was pierced by a wooden chopstick after he fell over while eating cotton candy in 1999. The defendant has said that he was unable to find the chopstick during his examination of Junzo Sugino and that even if he had found it, saving the child's life would still have been difficult." (Daily Yomiuri, December 2005.) |
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