Spare Change

Statue of a Shishi (or Jishi), which translates as "lion” but it can also refer to a lion-dog with magical properties and the ability to repel evil spirits. A pair of shishi often stand guard at Japanese Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Shishi are usually found in pairs, one with an open mouth (Ah) and one with closed mouth (Un). “Ah" is the first sound in the Japanese alphabet, while "N" (pronounced "un") is the last. These two sounds symbolize beginning and end, birth and death, or all possible outcomes (from alpha to omega). Photograph is from Sumadera Temple where it is apparently common to place an offering inside the mouth of the Shishi.

Show Me Japan: Autumn

A statue of a monk on pilgrimage at the Sumadera temple surrounded by autumn foliage.

Last weekend the blog Budget Trouble: Travel and Trouble in Japan, hosted a photo meme called Show Me Japan (Vol.1 Issue 2), and now it is a weekly event. I really enjoyed seeing all the images from around Japan last weekend and was introduced to some wonderful folks; so I am participating again, and here we are.

Rust & Stairs

An old pedestrian overpass in Suma near the aquarium. The rust stained stairs have caught my eye in the past, and a few days ago I finally had a suitable combination of filters and lighting to capture a decent image.

Suma Rikyu Park: Flight

Poised for flight at the Suma Rikyu Park.

Suma Rikyu Park: Dragonfly

Caught this fellow near the rose garden at Suma Rikyu Park drying its wings during a short break in the rain.

Suma Rikyu Park: Drop

One downside of my free visit to the Suma Rikyu Park was the weather, quite rainy. However it made for a fun photograph of this tree bark and the rain drop upon it, making its final stop on the way to the ground below.

Suma Rikyu Park: Bamboo

Suma Rikyu Park also has a greenhouse, collections of hydrangea, peony, and cherry trees, a Japanese garden, tea ceremony rooms, a drive lined with maple trees, fountains, a picnic area and restaurant, playground, and an athletic pathway with 28 stations. Well you get the idea, the park is rather large. The gardens were diverse and well kept, a nice surprise to find them set quietly and unassumingly near the city nestled in the Suma mountains. Photograph is of a bamboo grove, I spun the camera as I took this long exposure.

Suma Rikyu Park 須磨離宮公園

Last weekend was the end of the Kōbe tourist week, where many local sites offered discounted or free admission. One of the last places I got to check out was the Suma Rikyu Park, a botanical garden and park created in 1967 on the general model of the Palace of Versailles park. It includes about 230 types of trees, substantial gardens of iris, rose, and camellia. Photograph is from the goose and lotus pond across from the iris garden.

Back At The Beach

Beachside furniture, photographed using the toy camera setting on the LX3.

須磨海浜水族園

One last image from Suma Aqualife Park, these fellows seem to prefer living huddled together in a small tube; kinda like a capsule hotel for fish. Hope this gives you a smile, to me they look like little muppets. Today is the beginning of a three day weekend in Japan, hope wherever this finds you, your weekend is close at hand and promises to be a good one.

Suma Aqualife Park

Yesterday was a free admission day to the Aqualife Park in Suma, so I decided to check it out with the large numbers of locals and children who had the same idea. "Suma Aquarium" was built in 1957, and was considered to be the biggest aquarium in East Asia. After its renovation in 1987, the aquarium was renamed Suma Aqualife Park and the "Wave Tank" is in front of the entrance hall of the main building was added. The first of its size in the world, the tank spans 25m and contains 1200t of water. Inside the tank are ocean sharks, rays, turtles and other large fish. While not as modern or impressive as its cousin in Ōsaka, the history, beachside location, and many exotic pacific ocean animals made this an enjoyable afternoon.

Day At The Beach

School is back in session and the young masses have retreated from the sandy coasts of Suma beach, leaving in their wake plenty of rubbish. However, as the beaches are slowly cleaned and returned to the small numbers of beach combers, romantic couples, and fishermen that frequent them in the off-season, calm and quiet has again settled. For me personally, my photography has been feeling a bit stale of late. In an attempt to rediscover my local landscapes I have employed the "toy camera" setting of my LX3 and turned off the LCD, so the colors are all wonky, light leaks are simulated, and I am shooting without really seeing exactly what the camera is seeing. I miss my Holga, but this is the next best thing and loads cheaper, having no processing and film costs. Here are some results, I wait until I get back home to my computer before I see any shots and they are often a surprise. This method allows me to "let go" and just shoot whatever catches my fancy in a stream-of-consciousness like manner. If you want to have some playful and unexpected snapshots, this is a fun way to spend an afternoon. Try using an expired disposable camera, lomography camera such as the Holga, or a digital toy camera such as the super cute but expensive digital Harinezumi.

Sumadera Temple : Six Jizō

Six Jizō, this time from Sumadera temple - these fellows work to ease the suffering and shorten the sentence of those serving time in hell, to deliver the faithful into Amida’s western paradise (where inhabitants are no longer trapped in the six states of desire and karmic rebirth). Jizō is a Bodhisattva, one who achieves enlightenment but postpones Buddhahood until all can be saved. In particular, the six Jizō represent the six realms of existence (and each can be recognized by certain mudras and objects within their possession):

1. Beings in Hell (Jigokudō 地獄道). The lowest and worst realm, wracked by torture and characterized by aggression.
2. Hungry Ghosts (Gakidō 餓鬼道). The realm of hungry spirits; characterized by great craving and eternal starvation.
3. Animals (Chikushōdō 畜生道). The realm of animals and livestock, characterized by servitude.
4. Asura (Ashuradō 阿修羅道). The realm of anger, jealousy, and constant war. Asura are powerful, fierce and quarrelsome demigods and, like humans, are partly good and partly evil.
5. Humans (Nindō 人道 ). The human realm where enlightenment is within their grasp, yet most are blinded and consumed by their desires.
6. Deva (Tendō 天道). The realm of heavenly beings filled with pleasure. Deva posses godlike powers and most live in delightful happiness and splendor for countless ages. However, their powers blind them to the world of suffering, to which they also belong. Some believe that because their pleasure is greatest, so too is their misery.

Sumadera Temple : Pagoda

Sumadera temple, from which I have previously posted a picture of lanterns from the graveyard, is large and really quite quirky - full of unusual little things that are not common to most Japanese buddhist temples. It's very easy to spend an entire afternoon wandering around and marveling at all the interesting buildings, statues, and art in this quiet retreat. The 3-tier pagoda is impressive and stands atop a hill that overlooks the temple grounds.

ツマグロヒョウモン (Tsumaguro-Hyomon)

Photographed in a community garden near Suma, this is the Indian Fritillary (Argynnis hyperbius) butterfly or Tsumaguro-Hyomon in Japanese. It is a member of the Nymphalid or Brush-footed butterfly family.

Suma Night Life

The Suma beach party was 4,000+ people peacefully gathered to enjoy free live music and the smell and tastes of grilled food in the breeze flowing from the sea and hitting the mountains close behind. The beach is really the most relaxed public atmosphere around. Photograph was taken on my way home, atop a pedestrian walkway the leads from the beach toward the city.

Senbazuru 千羽鶴

Japanese legend advises that a person who folds 1,000 origami cranes will be granted his or her greatest wish. The origami crane has also become a symbol of peace because of this legend, and because of a young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was exposed to the radiation of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as an infant, and it took its inevitable toll on her health. Hearing this legend, she decided to fold one thousand origami cranes so that she could live. Later, realizing that she would not survive, she wished instead for world peace and an end to suffering. A group of one thousand paper cranes is called senbazuru, and they are also common sites at Buddhist temples - like these at Suma temple. The crane symbol also has a long history with Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. One legend tells of a high-ranking Taoist priest who, upon his death, turned into a crane.

Suma Temple 須磨寺

Suma temple is a Buddhist, Shingon sect, temple established in 886 and rests at the base of the Rokkō mountains not far from the sea coast. Its official name is Joyasan Sumadera, but local people affectionately call it "Mr. Suma's Daishi". Daishi is a Japanese honorific, usually granted posthumously, meaning "great master". Photograph is of many lanterns hanging from the ceiling of a small open-air shrine found atop the large graveyard.

Kogane-Gumo

The theme this week is going to be insects, and as it is summer the insects are out to play, propagate, and do whatever insects do. At any given moment there are around 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 insects on earth - seriously, that's a real number. For every one of us, there are 1.5 billion bugs. This is an Argiope amoena or kogane-gumo in Japanese which, might as well mean big #@!!% spider (20-25mm). Bugs really do come super-sized in Japan. In North America, Argiope aurantia is commonly known as the "black and yellow garden spider" because of the similarity of the web stabilimenta, however I have yet to see any spider this large in the states. I choose a more benign photograph, one that does not show her full-fuzzy beauty, to spare the arachnophobes in the audience.

Fine-Tooth Beachcombing Suma

More treasures from the Suma coast: Jellyfish, shells at the tideline and what I believe is a sea mouse or other member of the marine polychaete worm family.

The sea mouse, Aphrodita aculeata, normally lies buried head-first in the sand and its body is covered in a dense mat of chaetae (hairs) - from which the name "sea mouse" derives. They may grow up to 20 cm and are active carnivores chiefly eating other polychaetes which may be up to three times the length of the sea mouse. The iridescent threads or setae that emerge from its scaled back are one of its unique features and normally these setae have a red sheen, warning off predators. Apparently these fellows are a fairly common site on the coast in the spring and early summer.