Japan

I recently returned from a trip to Japan. What an experience! OK, try to wrap your mind around this. I sent an email home at 10:00 A.M., April 8th to let people know that we would be departing Japan at 3:00 P.M. later that same day and would be arriving in PDX at 7:45 A.M. on… April 8th. Time travel !?! Although I’m a tourist whenever I’m in Europe, while in Japan I truly felt like a foreigner. The culture, the language and food (among many other things) were almost always a mystery as well as quite an adventure. Even my best pantomime skills couldn’t communicate much needed “baby diapers” at a convenience store. (I’m sure many of you would have liked to have been there to see that one.) There are probably still some employees laughing about the American who repeatedly pretended to be putting something on, crying like a baby and pointing at his bottom. Just doing my part to improve the American tourist reputation around the world. One of the experiences that intrigued me the most was visiting shrines. When entering a Shinto shrine, you usually see an area for water purification, where the hands and lips are cleansed. After cleansing, people would enter the main area of the shrine, coins are tossed in an offertory, hands are clapped together (or bells were rang) to summon the spirits and then prayers (or wishes) are made. Japan has embraced Shintoist and Buddhism. Although Shinto is native to Japan, Buddhism (originally from India) was introduced to Japan via China and Korea during the 6th century. Shintoism and Buddhism have co-existed for centuries in Japan and have even complemented each other to a certain degree. Although religion does not play a big role in the everyday life for most Japanese people today, most would consider themselves Buddhist, Shintoist or both. Most Japanese will have a Shinto wedding and a Buddhist funeral with many visits to various shrines thrown in for good luck. I have posted several pictures of this in a photo album entitled Japan in the left margin. Enjoy.

Comments

[TJ]

Nice pics from Japan, I especially liked the ones with all of you in robes just before or after the massage. Nice to see Megan too! In the very first picture and several others I see prayers that were purchased or will be purchased at the shrine. When I was in Japan several years ago we visited a shrine with prayers hanging around just like the pictures. I mentioned to my friend who had lived in Japan for several years that I would love to have one of those prayers for my collection of talkables (strange items that have a story connected to it and are different). When we left the temple he said, "Here ya go!". He took a prayer that was hanging up, to our surprise, and handed it to us. We asked him to read what was on the prayer and he said that we are now probably responsible for bad health for the requestors family for the next year.