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This is a picture of the Futon Daiko festival in Nakamozu. In this the participants carry a heavy wooden float into a shrine, up a large set of steps and then parade around and rock the float as if it were a ship in stormy waters.

It’s a very exuberant festival. Lots of noise, a constant bang from the drum inside and as a finale, the man on top of the float throws paper pieces into the air. I expect this is to pray for a good harvest.

Because the float is so heavy (not to mention the weight of the people inside) the participants have to change pretty rapidly. Between breaks they douse themselves in water to cool down.

It`s highly entertaining to watch.

I was walking along a part of Western Osaka on the way back to the train station after a particularly stressful Kindergarten lesson, and I spotted this little fellow on the ground next to the wall.

Thanks to Reiko and the newly crowned King of mightiness Vertical, I found out that it is an Ojizosan which is “a Japanese god presiding over road safety and safe voyages. People travelling the road would stop at the many temples to pray to Ojizosan for a safe trip.”

These are a couple of lanterns taken at the famous baby temple Nakayamadera temple with the escalator especially for pregnant women.

We went to Nakayamadera temple in Kobe today which is a temple used for pregnant women to pray at for good luck. We exchanged an extortionate amount of money for a lucky charm and a stomach warmer and prayed for the baby`s good health.

What struck me most about this temple above is that it`s got an escalator to take you up to the top. Lazy pregnant women.

Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English, nakayamadera

Woman praying at street-side shrine.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English, Shrine

One of mine and my stalker Stupot`s favourite temples.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, EnglishTemple/span>

Despite previously posting about loving blogging and writing posts in my free time on the train, I have written nothing on the train for about a week and a half. This coincided with realising I could emulate console games on my PSP (to play on the train to work). That and my relatively hectic schedule (though Reiko would disagree) meant that I have resorted to linking to other posts, posting pictures and not blogging for a couple of days.

I have however added a photo to my profile so you can track my receding hairline (I`ve got nothing to hide - or at least my forehead thinks so) and done some other minor template changes. I have some stories to tell which I should be able to share with you in a couple of days when my life quietens down. I`ve found it`s often more fun to read blogs than to write your own one.

With that in mind, have a look at some blogs I`ve been reading recently:

Blog Herald - An interesting blogging news site.

ProBlogger This man makes bucket loads of cash via blogging, therefore his site is predominantly (and needlessly) focused on how you can make as much money as he does. Naturally this isn`t the point of blogging. Yet if you rifle around on his site though there are some good general blogging tips like making titles live links and such.

Lifehacker - This is an excellent site on useful sites and downloads for your computer.

A consuming experience is another excellent English (bonus points) blogging help site.

Sir Harris is an English (bonus points) site of superb photos collected from different places on the internet with a theme a day such as Landscape Monday, Highday and Greyscale Wednesday.

But I know you only came here for the shrine pictures so here you are:

I try to please everyone.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English

Lanterns at night in a shrine.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English, Shrine, Lantern

In response to Houjin`s great comment (quoted below) left on my earlier post about Yasukuni Shrine and more specifically a right-wing textbook approved for use in some schools :

“The Japanese military drove away the Western powers which had long controlled the Asian countries … Their actions awakened the long-dormant spirit of ‘making their homeland their own nation by their own hands’” The textbook Ch5 p13

I actually enjoyed (well … within reason) reading this alternative interpretation of Japanese action during the second world war … but I’m afraid they lost all credibility (for me) with that remark. I’m curious … do the Japanese actually believe that sort of rationale ?

I am genuinely curious - my Japanese friends have all been here in Korea for almost a year so, as I am sure you can appreciate, they have been (rather forcefully lol) exposed to an alternative interpretation to the one they were originally taught.

But for the average Japanese Joe, how prevalent is an alternative (genuine ?) reading of Japanese history in Japan ? It’s going to be a long road to forgiveness if they keep doing things like this I’m afraid.

This textbook I linked to is used in a real minority of schools. Very very few of the thousands of Junior high schools in Japan chose to adopt this specific nationalistic textbook written by a small minority of very vocal patriots.

Each country has their own view of history - China being a communist dictatorship uses propaganda against Japan to advance its own nationalistic end. Japan undoubtedly did some very bad things last century but in the years since then, they adopted an attitude of pacifism. The use of war is made illegal in Article 9 of their Constitution

Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.

Whilst many Japanese seem to be very anti-Chinese - one reason (among many) being they gave (and continue to give) large loans to China which receive no thanks, few truly believe what the textbook above states. This is why so much controversy has erupted that it was approved and why so few schools are using it.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, Yasukuni, Shrine, Koizumi, Textbook