Japan: June 10-19, 2018. Concrete Children

At the Buddhist Temple at the base of the Tokyo Tower, there were thousands -- yes, thousands -- of concrete carved children.  These children were well cared for, with bibs and hats to keep them clean and warm.  They also had toys that spun and kept them entertained and happy.  Incense or candles burned beside them.  Each was slightly different.  They represented the children lost in youth or childbirth or as fetuses.  





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Japan: June 10-19, 2018. Shinkashen: bullet train

Image
One of the exciting experiences we had was on the Shinkashen, or bullet train.  If there was one word to describe the whole experience, it would be efficiency. If there was a word to describe what it looks like, it would be "eel." The Shinkashen station is at the same place as the subway stations; the booths for purchasing tickets have a person instead of a machine.  Sometimes the person speaks a little English, but we found that doesn't matter anyway.  In Tokyo, we purchased tickets -- with reserved seats -- for ourselves within 10 minutes of the train's arrival/departure.  We walked through the gates, lined up at a sign with our car number clearly marked.  The sign offering directions on the train platform appeared in Japanese, but also rotated through English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean. The marvelous parts? We could read the numbers depicting time and train number.   If we looked confused, someone would step forward to help us. The...
Read more

Japan: June 10-19, 2018. Coloring Inside the Lines

Image
My first Japanese experience was when the bags arriving on the turnstile at Tokyo airport were arranged wheels up and 18 inches apart: Instead of willy-nilly at LAX: Organization pervaded their lives.  It seems to be yet another quality that helps with sanity in a densely populated region.   This kind of organization appeared in how children took field trips.  Notice the hats: different colors for different classes.  Notice the black and white uniforms. Notice the pied-piper teacher carrying a sign, Notice the identical bags (orange for the younger children.) This picture is from the base of Tokyo Tower: And this from the gardens at the base of the Tokyo Tower where the hats can be seen as particularly useful. And this picture is of older children sitting and waiting for their train very much out of the way of everyone else in the Kyoto train terminal. We saw hundreds of school children in uniforms on field trips.  Apparently, June is...
Read more