Cute Puppy Practices Zen!

Merciful Eye Temple--This little champ is named Conan, and he is praying for good grades for students. Apparently, the crowd made him frisky at first, but he calmed down and properly did his 合掌 (prayer hands). Of course, there was some memorabilia, a few charms, or omamori, and other stuff with his image on sale too. All for the grade. No mention of whether or not poop played a part in this grade-praying event.
[original Japanese+big pic]

Here are a couple more religious stories I found interesting:


Shiga-ken--One thing about festivals in Japan is that usually a portable shrine gets pulled out. I myself have helped pull one or two down the street--next goal is battling shrines!-- but this is pretty awesome a feat: getting together about 200 guys to carry a shrine 1km into the mountains. And that final bit of stone stairs is a 45% slope!
[original article]


From Fuki to Obama city--Have you ever heard the sound of a ほら貝? Here is a video of what a conch-horn of the Japanese variety sounds like (it's pretty difficult to do). Now, keep that in mind when you look at this picture. Sure the group may resemble a certain group of ill-repute in America, but these folks are doing nothing sinister; just the opposite in fact: that horn signals spring coming. Where better to announce spring than at a spring*, in an event called "the sending of the water"? They place their flaming cedar sticks in the water (2,500 people doing this, mind you) and purify it.
[article]
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* Actually this one was pretty hard to read and then decide proper English terms for, so if you notice anything off, do comment.

Pics from the Japanese News: Who Let the Deer out of the Bag?

All these articles are from Japanese new sites, for the purpose of helping us learn Japanese. Today, I think I will put all the links in the pictures to see how it feels. So click pics to read/see more. Feedback welcome.


Nagasaki--A deer fell and got into a pinch! Poor thing! Video at the original article.


This is an おたふく, or moon-faced woman. She is associated with luck, and showed up a couple days ago on this blog, so you may have already guessed that this is another Setsubun story. In Kure city, people are passing through her mouth to take some luck with them. The shrine has been doing this for eight years running, and there is still time to drop in for a visit with the lucky tonsils.
Also in holiday news:

Kyoto--Setsubun activities happened here as well, were maikos (apprentice geishas) threw beans at the crowd. If you want to learn more about maikos and their business, may I recommend Maiko Haaaan!!!

(amazon, subtitled), a very odd Japanese comedy.


There was a volcano eruption recently; ash fell on Tokyo and other parts of Kantou I hear. However, it wasn't too bad. There are of course articles with pictures, but I thought the kids wearing masks to keep from inhaling ash was interesting too; usually masks are for allergies or working when you should be staying at home.

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Bonus vocab: I saw an article use マグマ for magma, but it seems you can use 岩漿 too.


Bonus eruption: Scientist were predicting a mountain in Kagoshima prefecture would be seeing some action too.

Pics from the Japanese News: Products and Byproducts

The articles linked to in these picture posts are all in Japanese, but hopefully my summary is enough for those of you that don't speak it.

Setsubun paraphernalia sales are up, perhaps because the economy is down. Using these implements, one can drive out bad luck and invite good, or so the tradition goes. I had a glance at the beans in the supermarket the other day. Not only are they cheap, but they are super healthy source of protein. I made trail mix with them. [article]



There's gold in them thar sewers! The treatment plants have recently confirmed that gold is in the sewage water, and are estimating that 150,000,000 yen (1.65945 million U.S. dollars) worth of profits can be made. The theory is that a lot of onsen water, rich in ores, is the cause. The prefectural governor is thankful that there was gold in those nuggets. [article]



Soumen noodles are spread out to dry in the bitter cold in Hyōgo prefecture; apparently the freeze enhances the flavor. The frames are called hata, which may be derived from kite, but I'm not sure (nothing in the article about that). The noodlers* stretch and separate the cords, which can be around 2 meters long, with chopsticks, and make adjustment depending on the wind. There are approximately 490 hatas this noodle-farming association. [article]



I thought this might be the same story as the soumen noodles at first glance, but I guess they are actually hanging daikons in this picture, for the same cold weather benefits. I'm not sure what the final product is used for. Has anyone ever eaten these sun-dried daikons? [article]


This turtle has been given an artificial fin (hopefully, it's not the tire), and if it can successfully be reintroduced into the wild, it will be the first success story of it's kind.[article]
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Bonus vocab:
物を言う seems to be a variation of 物言う, which is kind of like, to be effective or valuable. Lots of experience as a noodler is quite valuable.
風物詩 means "things that remind one of the season." The four seasons (five if you county rainy season) are very important to Japanese culture and eating habits.
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* Noodler shall be the name of the profession in all English translations from this point on! So decrees I!

Pics from the Japanese News: Are You Aware? Edition

The links in this article will all be to Japanese news stories; I hope to provide good reading practice to those of you that are interested, as well as interesting pics and bite-size chunks of news for those of you that don't do the moon-speak.

Nurse prevention Rangers-- I mean Preventative Nursing Rangers are teaching old people how to keep healthy. "Talk to people--Jya! Brush your teeth--Jya!" No word on how they handled the giant geriatric kaiju that showed up. [article]


Schools in Niigata Prefecture will start displaying posters encouraging girls to wear longer skirts, with intentionally humorous slogans such as "Whether it be studying or skirts, depending on your willingness, you can lengthen them more!" I offer two simple solutions to the problem*: Make either pants or tights part of the uniform. And I mean nerdy tights. [article]


Remember my manly posts? This is another example of purifying yourself the hard way. The local temple has been leading the meditations for 6 years. The people gathered chant "南無不動明王" (namu (hail)+fudoumyouou (one of the five wisdom kings). Try saying that three hundred times fast! [article]
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Bonus English story:

Kazuo Umezu won his lawsuit, and despite his neighbor's laments, he can paint his house however he wants. I made a vid about this long ago, but the one I did about his movie was even better. [article]
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Bonus vocab: 啓発 (enlightenment) was a word used in both the ranger and school girl articles to talk about the awareness campaigns.
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*:I know short skirts don't sound like a problem to any man that breathes, but theoretically, short skirts lead to sexual attacks and cold bodies, according to the article.

Pics from the News: Hose 'er Down Edition

The links in this article will all be to Japanese-language news stories; I hope to provide good reading practice to those of you that are interested, as well as interesting pics and bite-size chunks of news for those of you that don't do the moon-speak.



Firefighters all over Japan practiced for a event on the 26th that I will translate as Cultural Assets Fire Day. In this picture, they are hosing down Nagoya Castle, using a truck with a fifty-meter ladder.


An old man helps a child notch and aim a lucky arrow. There are twelve targets, and depending on whether they get hit or not, predictions are made as to how the weather and harvests will be. This year, ten targets were hit, and a very detailed fortune was told.


There was a protest march suing for peace in the middle east in Kyoto recently. The above picture, however, is actually for an article talking about worries that all the fighting in Gaza is leading to anti-antisemitism.* The above demonstration took place in London. Ah, middle-easterners and their love of shoes...



The above pic actually refers to a video article, of interest even if you can't speak Japanese, of the Nagasaki Lantern festival. I've been to the event twice; and may get around to uploading a youtube video with footage. You know how my video promises go though...

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Bonus English story:
A film about the dolphin slaughters that happen each year in a secluded cove in Japan is a hit. The movie, titled The Cove, may soon bring Japan the amount of shame that seems to be required to get things to change. And good thing too; the dolphin meat is full of toxic mercury!

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*I can't help but wonder if we need a new term, as antisemitism technically means "against Semitic language speakers" (Arabs use Semitic languages too). Anti-Israel won't work, because I think one can be anti-Israel without being anti-Jewish...
Did I just say something controversial?

Manly Festivals: Getting Cold and Naked

An English speaker introduces a manly festival in this video. What is going on here? I shall explain a bit.

I think I implied that the first manly post would get a followup, so here it is.
What is more manly than running around with other naked men? Nothing! Actually, 裸祭 (naked festivals) usually don't have truly naked guys. You get a ふんどし (loincloth). But that's about it. Some people seem to get the wrong impression about these things and think that naked=sexuality*, but think of it as purity. Manly purity. In fact the whole thing about being in your starkers in the cold is about purifying your soul.
Speaking of cold, half-naked manliness, you don't get any more wicked cool than these guys. I've heard of meditating under a frigid waterfall, but martial arts training on top of it is just solid.


These gung-ho gung-fu men (okay, karate, but you gotta love alliteration) gather on the coldest day of the year to gather their ki in such concentrations that small animals in the area explode.
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Bonus (Japanese only) reading: Check out these guys, dousing themselves with frigid water.
And an article about the freezing fists above.
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* Some foreigners seem to not get the nudity is not the same as sexuality in this context. But hey, I just wrote a vaugely homosexual-looking post (I am, for the record, a Claysexual).

Girls sometimes participate and wear fundoshi too. But this is pretty rare. Anyways, the "Many" terminology is not meant to be much more than a humorous framework for these posts! A man admits that the women folks be manly too.

Manly Festivals Part 1

Recently, I was treated to my first mochi-pounding event (a もちすき). Some neighborhoods get together to pound mochi and then offer a couple dollops of mochi (glutinous globs of smashed rice) called a kagamimochi (鏡餅) topped with a relative of the orange (a 橙*). The pounding things with a hammer is indeed very manly, and I may make a video of that, but today I wanted to tell you about a manly event I just discovered recently.
It seems in some festivals around this time of year, men see how far they can carry the platform that the kagamimochi is usually put on.
If I may transummarize** the article I encountered yesterday, leaving out a few details:

In Tokushima prefecture, strong men (and women) from 4 to 45 gather to to fight in a battle of hefting ginormous kagamimochi [or 力もち大会], seeing how far they can carry them, while big crowds look on.

The tradition has been around since the Warring States period [approx. 1467-1568 CE], when a feudal lord endowed with great strength carried a stone monument to the Daisan temple as an offering of thanks for his superhuman muskles, or so the story goes, and the festival has been happening for about 400 years.

The events are divided into four weight categories, with mochi weighing from 10 to 140 kilos, for kids and adults respectively. The warriors are cheered on with clapping and shouts of "endure!" and "you can go the distance!"

32 year old worker Hiroshi has pulled of three successive championships, with a personal record of 42.8 meters. He breathlessly said with a smile that he wanted to continue as long as he has the strength to compete.

Now, knowing my Japan, I figured there had to be other contests of this sort. The following video looks like the same event, but at a different place, where they've been doing it a mere 70 years. Look out for the guy in the loincloth; now that is manly***!

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*interestingly, 橙色 was orange before オレンジ was orange.
**: translate-summarize
***: We'll get into loincloths next time...

Avocado coal walking manga irrelevance!