Hibara Shrine

Hibara Shrine lies on the Yamanobenomichi at the base of Miwa-san. It is an affiliate shrine of Omiwa Shrine, and like it, enshrines the kami of the mountain, now reckoned to be Okuninushi.

There are no buildings at Hibara Shrine. Buildings at shrines only began after the introduction of Buddhist temples.

Amaterasu was worshipped here but it seems that after Okuninushi was installed from Izumo there were problems between the two of them, so Amaterasu was moved to Ise.

This small shrine was added in 1987. Called Toyosuki-iri-hime no miya. Toyosuki iri hime was an imperial princess who was the "priestess" in charge of the mirror that was the shintai ( god body) of Amaterasu.

Typical Japanese Landscape 24

With a total length of 29,761 Kms, the coastline of Japan is where a large proportion of the population lived historically. The idea, underpinning much Nihonjinron, that the Japanese were primarily rice-growers is, I think, an exaggeration and a fairly modern invention.

This small port is in Asahi Town, in the SW corner of Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku.

Monsters in the garden

Found a whole bunch of these critters under some rotting wood.

I gave them to a friend's sons, because they ( the critters, not the boys) turn into.....

...one of the most popular pets for young boys in Japan, Kabuto Mushi.

It's the biggest beetle in Japan, and Kabuto means "samurai helmet".

In English we call them Rhinocerous Beetle.

I found this monster after it had eaten half of one of my tomato plants. We get a few every year, but this one was the biggest I've seen,... it was as long as my hand. If it was in the U.S. it would become a Luna Moth. Not sure what they become here.

An umbrella at Matsuo Shrine

Just 4 shots of a red Japanese umbrella I saw at Matsuo Shrine near Kyoto.

My favorite is the last one.

Looking down on mom.

One of the reasons our Turkey trip was so cheap, I think, is because we flew with Uzbekistan Airways. After spending 4 hours in the middle of the night in the holding tank that is Tashkent Airport Transit Lounge, the leg of our flight to Istanbul flew over some amazing country.

Not sure what they are mining here in the middle of the desert.

Another very noticeable man-made mark upon the earth.

Whenever I travel I spend the whole time with my nose stuck to the window. I was lucky enough to have a window seat, clear skies, and low light of the early morning.

I think these very high mountains were in Georgia.

Another mine, this time in Turkey

The suburbs of Istanbul.

To see the whole sequence of 42 photos, please click below

Tashkent to Istanbul

Izumo Dome. One of he biggest wooden buildings in Japan.

Depending on how you define "biggest" or "largest", then the Izumo Dome is the biggest wooden building in Japan. Most sources give the biggest wooden building in the WORLD as the Great Hall housing the Buddha at Todai-Ji in Nara, but the Izumo Dome is a little taller, and has a larger base area, but because of its shape it contains a smaller volume than Todai-Ji.

Anyway, its a pretty impressive structure. Built in 1992, and designed by the Kajima Corporation, it stands more than 49 metres high and has a diameter of 143 metres.

The design is modelled on a Japanese umbrella, and the translucent skin means no artificial lighting is needed during the daytime. It doesn't actually get used much as there are no pro sports team in the area, and most days a 200yen entrance fee will get you inside to look around.

Its located about 10k from Izumo Station, not too far from Izumo taisha, close the the Kitayama mountains.

Actually I recently discovered an even larger wooden stadium, the Nipro Hachiko Stadium in Akita, and it also looks cool, but I still like the symmetry of the umbrella design of Izumo Dome.

What's all the noise about?

No, this is not going to be a rant about the loudspeaker vans passing through the village electioneering right now. Actually we don't get them very often, and being surrounded on 3 sides by mountains mean the slogans echo and reverberate and kind of sound like a Charles Ives piece.

And I'm not talking about the hot-dogging, top gun watching, U.S. airforce jets that scream overhead just above the trees.... though what a huge waste of resources they are......

I'm talking about these guys....

...Cicadas, or "semi" in Japanese.

Just as the frogs quite down they are replaced by the calls of the cicada. By now they have reduced their sound to a random buzzing, but when they first start up they start up in unison. It can be quite eerie, standing in the garden when suddenly all the cicadas in a few hundred metres of forest start up simultaneously.

There are about 30 different species of cicada in Japan, and they have long been celebrated in song and poem. The sound of the cicada used in a movie ( or drawn in a manga "nim nim nim") lets the viewer know the setting is the heat of the summer.

Anasenimasu Shrine

Anasenimasu Shrine, or Anashiniimasu in its alternate reading, is one of the oldest shrines in Yamato, and yet little is known for sure about it,... most references to it include lots of "maybe"'s.

It's located up the valley a little behind the Sumo Shrine, just off the Yamanobenomichi, and seems to be connected to Emperor Suinin.

The 3 kami housed in the unusual triple honden are Hyouzugami, Wakamitama, and Daihyouzu. Each is associated with the imperial regalia, the sword, mirroe, and jewels.

Some sources equate the 3 with Susano, Kushinadahime, and Onamuchi, 3 Izumo kami.

The main kami, Hyouzu is believed to be the ancient Chinese god, Chi-You, considered to be the ancestor of the Han chinese as well as the Koreans. He was a god of war with associations with metal and weapons, and to have had an Ox's head. Interesting that Susano, in Izumo at least, is associated with metal and weapons, and came to be equated with Gozutenno, the Oxhead king originally a Hindu god, but brought into Japan through Korea. Gozutenno is the original kami at the shrine now known as Yasaka in Gion.

Red hats.

Red hats on statues are fairly common throughout Japan, and often accompanied by red bibs.

It is said that the red caps on Jizo statues represent the amniotic sac, but the most common explanation for them is that red is the color that drives away disease and sickness.

Making the hats and bibs for the statues is in a sense an act of prayer.

All of these photos were taken at Mitakidera, a temple in the hills just outside downtown Hiroshima. It is my favorite site to visit in Hiroshima.

In a rock nook behind the spring above the temple even the snake representing the kami of water is hatted.

Scarcity and surplus.

Every year the garden is different. Some veggies grow better some years than others. It depends somewhat on timing, but more importantly on that enormous set of environmental factors that we call the weather.

This year has seen some unusual weather in this area. July was the wettest July in over 50 years. It was also the July with the least amount of sunshine.

The word is that many types of vegetables are going to be pricier this year. I expect to see lots of cheap Chinese veggies relabelled as expensive domestic produce.

Compared to our neighbors we have done well for pumpkins/squash this year. We will end up with more than 50 of them, and they store well through the winter. These are a cross between the Japanese kabucha and a butternut squash. The butternut is tastier ( to my palate) and the kabucha is bigger, so they are a nice balance. They make great soup, and of course pumpkin pie.

The other crop that finally came on recently were the tomatoes. I plant a lot of plants and let them run wild. A lot of fruit gets damaged by the rain, and the crows take some, but still we have enough to need to process them every few days. These are jars of home-made ketchup. Incomparable to factory-made stuff. We also can a lot of pizza sauce.

The strange weather was good for one crop this year... zuccini! usuall the zuccini plants are eaten and killed by a little orange bug by the end of June, but this year the bugs didn't arrive until just recently, so I had my best ever zuccini harvest. Now if only the damn eggplants will fruit I will be able to can gallons of ratatoille.