So this blog is pretty much dead. Maybe I'll do something with it in the future, but who knows. If you wanna find me, I'm on web 2.0.
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I've mentioned Kamaishi on here a few times, mostly because it's my wife's home town. I recently stumbled across this video on YouTube and was quite surprised that someone took the time to make such a tribute. Not that Kamaishi doesn't deserve it, it's just so small. This is probably only of interest to me (look I've been there!! And there!), but I thought I would share anyways.
The town itself has seen better days as most of the younger population have moved on to bigger cities, but it's definitely worth a visit if you ever find yourself in Iwate.
I wrote this months ago and sorta forgot about it. My bad.
So I promised that I had lots to share regarding my trip to Japan and, thanks to my insomnia, I'm here to do just that. Sorry if this is a bit long. I don't mind if you just look at the pictures. The entire time I was in Kamaishi (my wife's hometown) I kept telling everyone I wanted to go into the mountains. The town is surrounded by mountains, as is much of Japan, and I thought I could get a better view of the city. So on our final day in Kamaishi, Mutsumi decides to take me up into the mountains. After a short walk we come to a path that leads up into the mountains. But it's so overgrown that we choose not to make our way through. Instead we decide to wander around.
From the top of a hill we see a statue off in the distance, so we decide to go and check it out. Mutsumi explains that the name of the place is Hachijuhakkasho, which means "88", as in 88 ghosts or spirits. She says she remembers her mom taking her and her sister there for a picnic when she was a kid.
When we arrive at the statue it's a bit breathtaking. Here, off of this secluded mountain path, is a seemingly ancient statue and nobody cares. If this were America we would have
had to traverse acres of parking lots and vendors selling commemorative hachijuhakkaho t-shirts just to get to it. But apparently Japan has enough ancient curiosities that some old statue just doesn't interest anyone. The small field in front of the statue, where Mutsumi and her mom had the picnic, hasn't seen a lawnmower in years. To the left of the statue is a small building that has collapsed and a wide path that's big enough for a car. To the left of that is a small shrine that's still standing and a wide area that looks to be the former site of the main shrine. It was demolished long ago and there is nothing left of it. A little farther up the path stands another statue, this one much smaller, of a man and a boy. I know next to nothing about Buddhism, so these statues may have some sort of obvious meaning that's lost to me.
Mutsumi says she thinks that because the place is called “Hachijuhakkasho” there must be 88 statues. Obviously I'm not going to let such an awesome place go unexplored. I must know if there are indeed 88 statues, but Mutsumi gets cold feet. She always gets a little nervous around shrines and graveyards. An abandoned holy ground known as “the place of 88 ghosts” is not her idea of an adventure. I thought it sounded fun, like an episode of Scooby Doo, but she insisted we go back. I didn't want to go alone because of bears or poisonous snakes or maybe one of the 88 ghosts so I reluctantly went back with her.
But back at the house I can't stop talking about the place. Opportunities like this don't come around very often so I decide to head back alone. Bears, snakes and ghosts be damned. On the way back I wonder how Mutsumi would let me visit Kamaishi twice without taking me to this place. It's not even a mile away from her house!
When I make it back to the statue everything looks a little more foreboding - maybe because I was alone, I dunno. The sun will set soon, so I don't have much time. I head past the statues up the big paved road. Fifty yards or so up the pavement ends and I find another statue. This one has a big, rusted metal sword to his side. It looks really cool, but both of the pictures I took were really blurry for some reason. To the left, a much smaller, unpaved path continues up the mountain.
All along the path I find little statues, each numbered in kanji, and there are indeed 88 of them. Each statue is different, and each has a small blue plaque next to it. Most of the plaques writing had long since faded, but I did find one that fallen face down. Because it was hidden from the sun, the writing was still legible - to someone else. I can't read many kanji. I snapped a picture hoping that Mutsumi would translate later.
There are branching paths and statues everywhere I look. I make careful note of which paths I take because getting lost was not high on my list of things to do. Mutsumi once told me a story of how her and her friends got lost in the mountains surrounding Kamaishi. She said they recited Buddhist chants until they found their way home. I don't know any Buddhist chants, so I would most likely stayed lost.
I continue on, taking pictures of every statue I come across. When I reach (what I think) is the summit I decide to head back. It's been nearly an hour and I'm sure Mutsumi will start worrying soon. Despite my terrible sense of direction I have no problem finding the correct paths back to civilization.
Walking home, I think how lucky I am to have such an experience. How many people get to explore an abandoned, mountainside holy ground? And doing it alone made it all the more interesting. I felt like some sort of small-time Indiana Jones. I try to think of some way to put into the words the experience I just had. Is this what a religious experience is like? Yes. Definitely a religious experience.
But back at the house, Mutsumi's mom puts a pin in my spiritual balloon. It turns out that Hachijuhakkasho isn't as ancient as I thought. It was built by a rich family sometime in the 60's. Furthermore, it's a copy of a more famous Hachijihakkasho that's found elsewhere in Japan (I don't remember where... I'll ask Mutsumi tomorrow). In other words it's a fake. A tourist trap. So much for religious experiences.
Though I may not have gotten any closer to God (or Buddha) on that mountain, it was still an interesting experience. And who knows? Maybe in 100 years it will be a holy ground. Long after people forget who built the statues and their initial purpose, maybe they will seem mysterious and holy. But then those people will read this post (which is sure to around in 100 years, right?) and feel a little cheated.
The rumors proved to be true and Google has acquired YouTube for a whole lotta money. This is great news for users of the popular video sharing site as Google is probably one of the few companies who could afford YouTube's bandwidth bill, rumored to be around $1 million a month. Google's acquisition means that YouTube will be spared the intrusive advertising that was sure to come.
One thing that that bothers me about the deal is that YouTube will continue to operate independently. I actually prefer Google Video and would love for YouTube to inherit some of its features - namely the larger player and iPod downloads. It would also be great if YouTube could drop the 10 minute time limit as Google Video has never had such a limit. Pairing Google's interface with YouTube's vast content would be a win-win for everyone.
You may think this concept art is impressive (or is this actual gameplay?), but just wait until you see the video. This kind of game seems readymade for the virtual console.
I just switched over to the new beta version of blogger and I wanted to test out the moblog feature.
So that's what I'm doing. Disregard.
I've always been into food, though more as a consumer than as a producer. It wasn't that I didn't like to cook, it was that I was rubbish at it. All of my dishes turned out bland and uninspired (except for my Buffalo Chicken Sushi. That was truly inspired).
But Elise Bauer's Simply Recipes has changed all that. A few weeks ago I tried Elise's Italian Sausage Spaghetti and it was easily some of the best I've ever had. And it was super simple to make. The site seems to be developing quite a following as her recipes regularly appear on the Del.icio.us popular page.
Does anyone know of any other good food blogs? I would love to have more recipes show up in my rss reader.
Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know it's been a while.
Google added a neato feature to their RSS reader - sharing. So now, if you go to this page here you can find all of the stories that I found interesting... and there are a lot of them. Let me know if you use Google Reader and I'll add you to my feeds.
Update: You can now just look to the right to see my shared items.
