Pictures from the nightime festivities…

Another crazy day in the life of the people of Noto Peninusla. A long time ago the villagers suffered badly from some kind of plague which they blamed on evil spirits. So ever since, they do this annual ceremony to scare the evil spirits away by violently trying to destroy a small portable shrine with fire, water and smashing it about.

It seems to work since they haven’t suffered since.

I took alot of pictures so here is the first installment covering the early evening while it is still light.

Also there are a lot of these big things being carried along the streets with kids sat in them playing flutes and drums:

A dog dressed for the occasion:

The shrine being toasted and smoked:

Into the harbour with it:

Now turn it over and over:

The men are all 23 or 43 years old.

Haul it out of the water:

Now give it a roasting with the fire:

Turning it over and over smashing it down onto the flames:

Stay tuned for the evening action….

This is an annual event in the seaside resort of Notojima on the Noto Peninsula. There is a 10km and a half marathon held on the same day. I entered the 10km race for fun. My friend Bruce came along and tried to enter but had to settle for pretenting to be my personal trainer so he had to miss the start and finish areas.

It was raining alot up until just before the start and the race it self turned out to be rain free which was nice. The 10k was over some steep hills so it was tough work. In the end, I finished in a respectable 59 minutes 21 seconds.

Just before the start:

Just after a cold shower at the finish:

These are pictures of a garden up in the hills that is free for the public to visit and view. At this time of year, the Iris is in full bloom and the place is very pretty to see.

Here is a view of the pond area, you can see a fish below where I added a fish symbol.

Here are some of the Irises:

Also there were Hydrangea flowers:

Here is a view showing the maple tree and woodland in the background:

A few weeks ago, I made friends with some locals that tapped on my door. To cut a long story short, after telling them too much personal information thinking they were friendly neighbours, they announced they were Jehovah’s Witnesses - doh!

Yeah, we get them over here too! They turn up in pairs and only one does the talking. After they got the foot in the door they came back and I let my wife handle them. Unfortunately she reads alot of books and has read the bible and even the Kuran so they had lot’s to discuss on the doorstep. She is too nice to tell them to get lost.

Finally they left but came again when only I was home. I explained that my wife was not interested but they didn’t understand why since she seemed interested. They handed me a Watch tower magazine and left. I skimmed the mag to check out what they are about and it seems that the end of the world as we know it is very close. Soon all suffering will end and the good people will live in paradise will all the good people that died before being brought back to life.

Well I think I am a good enough person to escape being killed on judgement day. So I don’t plan on getting bible brainwashing lessons at home from them and giving up many of the sins I enjoy like booze and flirting etc.

Anyway, they came back again and got deep into discussion of the evolution of man from Adam and Eve with my wife who was asking how come different races are so different even though they came from the same people and engaged in incest etc. I later suggested to her that it’s only in recent times that the earth became a globe with a large separation between continents. In the flat earth days it would have been much easier to spread the family members around the world.

I guess the most likely time the earth became a globe was at the time Noah loaded up the Arc? The official recognition that the Earth was round of course came many years later with Galileo.

Anyway it turns out that  Jehovah’s Witnesses are brainwashed by their preachers and they simply quote bible passages as answers to everything. They didn’t seem to be able to debate the questions my wife was throwing at them but simply picked out stock phrases from the bible and kept dodging the issues. The other person who stays quite is like a student who can’t open the mouth until they have learn’t enough stock answers to the most common questions. Like a FAQ.

When I was studying at University, my housemate was a Religious Studies student. He didn’t seem to be at all religious (interested in the gay side of the clergy) but had an in-depth knowledge of the bible. He used to say how he had fun with Jehovah’s Witnesses on the door step. Like they would answer a question with a stock biblical quote but he would come back with a counter argument backed by a biblical quote to total flummux them!