Tanegaike Dragon

Tanegaike Dragon

The Bentengu is a shrine to Benzaiten on the shore of Tanegaike, a small lake close to the sand dunes in Tottori. Though only a quarter of a square kilometer in area, the lake is actually the deepest in the Chugoku region, with a depth of 17 meters. Deep in the lake lives a serpent.

Once upon a time a local rich man employed many local villagers as servants. One young woman, who of course was beautiful, by the name of Otane was employed as a maid. Otane was known as a particularly kind and generous young lady and every day she would give people persimmons.

One young man was curious about where she was getting the persimmons from so he secretly followed her. She went down to the shore of the lake and transformed into a serpent and then swam out to a small island in the middle of the lake and picked persimmons from a tree there.

Because she saw the young man watching her she was unable to turn back into her human form and so stayed as a serpent living in the lake.

An old lady built a small shrine to honor Otane, and this grew into the Benzaiten shrine. Benzaiten, originally the Hindu goddess Saraswati, has strong associations with water and therefore also serpents. She is one of the seven lucky gods of japan and has both "shinto" and Buddhist manifestations.

Washibara Hachimangu

Washibara Hachimangu is a couple of kilometers outside of the town center of Tsuwano, so doesnt get as many visitors, which is a shame as its quite a beautiful shrine, especially in the cherry blossom season.

The thatched gate is very unusual.

The shrine was founded in the 13th century when Tsuwano castle was first built.

The kami, Hachiman, is the god of war and the protective deity of the samurai.

The shrine does get hundreds of visitors in early April when Yabusame, horseback archery, is performed. In the grounds of the shrine are the only remaining yabusame grounds from the kamakura period.

Tsubame Japanese Swallows

The local railways station, (5 trains a day in each direction) is a small wooden structure that is home to a colony of swallows.

From late spring its enjoyable to stand and wait for a train while watching the swallows acrobatically swooping around catching bugs to feed to their young safely ensconced in the numerous nests in the waiting room and under the platform roof.

They may be barn Swallows, Im not sure, but I believe they are not migratory.

I quite like the impresionistic effect that is created by photographing them at a slower shutter speed.

Tengu Hornbeam

This is the draincover for the town of Oasa in the mountains of northern Hiroshima. Its where we usually get on and off the expressway when driving long distances. I havent actually looked around or explored Oasa.

The tree is a Tengu Shide. The english name for shide is Hornbeam, and I must admit I have never heard of them. there is a good article on them here.

If you look on the right of the draincover you can see a tengu. Apparently the tengu shide is a mutation and the only place in the world it grows is around Oasa. According to the local story, if you try climbing one of these trees a tengu will appear and throw you off.

Lots of tengu blogs here

Grin Grin Park

Sometimes written Gurin Gurin, Grin Grin Park opened in 2005 on Island City, the artificial island in Hakata bay.

A series of connected forms, organically shaped, seem to emerge from the ground.

The structures are concrete and steel covered in glass and in places vegetation.

The spaces inside and under the structures contain plants of the area.

Grin Grin was designed by Toyo Ito who is often referred to as a visionary architect. Much is made of Grin Grin's supposed "eco" qualities, but as it is on an artificial island whose construction destroyed bio-diverse wetlands, I find it hard to see.

walkways snake up and over the structures.

entrance into the greenhouses is only 100 yen.

It was a few years ago when I visited, and maybe the growth of the vegetation has improved its appearance....

Vacation 2011 Day 5 Marrakesh

Up with the dawn on the roof of Hotel Ali to watch Marrakesh wake up. The restaurant with arched windows in the left of the photo was blown up by a bomb a week after we left Marrakesh.

Headed off to explore. In the old town you cannot go far without seeing storks and their nests on the high points of the city wall. Must be mating season.

And then to the ruins of the El Badi Palace. Built in the sixteenth Century it was reportedly magnificent with masses of marble and gold. Most of the palace was "recycled" by a later ruler to build his palace in Meknes.

Then we headed off to find the Saadian Tombs.... down the maze of alleys that is Marrakesh

The alleys got narrower....

Marrakesh grows out of the desert, and the color of the desert permeates everything.

The Saadian Tombs were built in the seventeenth century to entomb members of the Saadi family. The entrances to the tombs were sealed off and not discovered until 1917. Thanks to the remarkable decoration, in cedar, stucco, and marble, the tombs are a major attraction for tourists....

Buddhas, Jizo, and other statues of Kunisaki 3

The kunisaki Peninsular in northern Kyushu is home to a huge number of stone buddhist statues.

many are created by craftsmen and many are "folk".

I can usually recognize Jizo, Kannon, Fudo Myoo, and rakan, but others are still beyond my knowledge.

Not all of them are old.... these are Kannon, I believe, and were at a temple known as a "womans" temple.

Not sure who this guy is, but he is my kind of buddha!!

Gradually I am learning more about the huge diversity of gods and buddhas that populate Japanese buddhism.

These are the last I will post for now., next will be magaibutsu... carvings directly into cliffs and rocks. Kunisaki has more of these than any other area of japan.

Taikodani Inari Shrine

Its possible to drive up to Taikodani Inari Shrine in Tsuwano, but its better to walk up through the more than 1,000 torii that make a tunnel that switchbacks up the hillside.

The shrine is modelled on the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine near Kyoto, the head shrine of all Inari Shrines in Japan.

It was founded by the local Daimyo Kamei Morisada in 1773 to protect Tsuwano's castle from the NE, the direction of evil. It was a private shrine until the 1870's when the public were first allowed in.

Most of the shrine is of modern concrete construction, but one of the secondary shrines is still made of wood.

There are numerous smaller shrines, all dedicated to different Inaris.

This where we came to the Shunki Taisai Festival earlier this year.

Japanese Skink

Skinks are skittish creatures as well as being fast movers, but this guy got trapped inside a plastic bucket so I was able to photograph him/her.

The latin name is Plestiodon latiscutatus and apparently that is a fairly recent reclassification of the genus. In Japanese its called Nihon Tokage.

Juveniles and females have the distinctive metallic-blue tails...

Colorful Kawara

The original kawara, rooftiles, in Japan were I believe black, as are most of them nowadays. You can find a few bright blue examples which are traditional Chinese I believe.

Most of the tiles in my area are a reddish-brown which seems fairly common in the west of Japan, but nowadays you can get them in just about any color. These were on display outside a local tile factory that has now gone out of business.

There actually seems to be more colors available for rooftiles than there are for housepaint. Houses usually are painted in a very small range of colors.