University of Tokyo

This historical gate is called "Akamon", meaning the Red Gate in the University of Tokyo, the top university in Japan.

This gate used to belong to a famous samurai residence, and now it is a symbol of the university and academia.

The picture below is the front gate of the university.

The university of Tokyo was established in 1877, so as to nurture the beaurocrats to manage modern Japan in Meiji period, just after Tokugawa Shogun era.

It's another Rainy Season in Japan

September is a transitional period from the summer to the autumn in Japan.

Some days are hot, but the night is getting cooler than in August.

One of the typical seasonal events is the attack of typhoon.

We have had seventeen typhoons this year already and the seventeenth one brought huge damage in Kanto area, which is surrounding area of Tokyo, where the Kinu river in Ibaragi prefecture was flooded and took cars, houses and even human lives away.

The traffic signage in the photo shows the warning, "Heavy rain warning has been issued, Travel Caution".

The graph below shows the average amount of rainfall, the hours of sunlight and average temperature in each month for 30 yeas (1981~2010) in Tokyo.

The amount of rainfall in September is heavier than that in June, and the hours of sunlight  in September is shorter than that in June.
Why don't we say September is now rainy season?

(Japan Meteorological Agency: http://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/view/nml_sfc_ym.php?prec_no=44&block_no=47662&year=&month=&day=&view=p1)

I had an appointment in such a heavy rain near the Tokyo Tower,  where one of the famous neighbors was Zojoji temple, cemetery for Tokugawa Shogun Clan.  In addition to this, Zojoji is famous among fans for "the Lord of the Rings".

The photo below is the Zojoji in the rain, where the ring of "the Lord of the Rings" has been dedicated.

The tower in the right is the Tokyo Tower, supposed to be "Sauron" at the event of the dedication of the ring.

SOBA noodle

I went to one of my favorite soba noodle shops in Nagoya, the city where I was born and raised.
It has a hearth in the middle of the table.  However, old Japanese house used to have a hearth on the floor, just like the picture beneath.

Actually, ordinary Japanese house had used charcoals as fuel at home in rural areas until the mid of 20th century.

The left picture is a hearth in the old post town where I visited this spring. See the following URL; http://ritztalk.blogspot.jp/2015/04/ancient-post-town-in-japan.html

This day, I ordered Soba Lunch Special, which includes a bowl of Soba noodle, a piece of sesame tofu, a piece of rolled egg (not egg roll), a bowl of vinegared rice with marinated bonito (unrolled sushi), a cup of thinly sliced and dried radish and a dish of sliced cucumber.

Ｔｈｉｓ type of fire place have been replaced with modern kitchens such as gas ranges and ovens in the middle of 20th century.

A funeral in Japanese style

15th of August became another Memorial Day for my family, in addition to the end of the Pacific War.

My mother passed away on the 15th of August after two month long coma.
On 18th, we had a funeral ceremony in a multi-purpose hall, and this picture shows the altar decorated with many flowers for my mother.

This is Buddhism style ceremony.

What we do in the ceremony is that the priest recites the Buddhist scriptures and while scriptures are recited, the attendees burn incense for the repose of a departed spirit.
After this ceremony, we burn the dead body at a crematorium.

After the cremation, the relatives get together and have some banquet to finish the period of mourning; we are allowed to have meat and fish.

For seven weeks after she passed away, we worship the burned bones of the deceased at home on a decorated tentative altar at home.  The right side is the formal alter for the ancestors and she will join there after burying  the burned bones seven weeks later.

May peace be with her.

"Obon" and the memorial days of World War ll

August is a special month in Japan.
Many people go back to their home towns in tolerance with heavily crowded transportation and stay with their families and friends around 15th of August.
For many Japanese people, this period is one of the longest vacations in a year.
We call this period " Obon", literally meaning a tray or a container carrying dishes and glasses filled with offerings on, then "Obon" has been symbolized the activities to welcome the spirits of ancestors in their family.

"Shoryu-Uma",  Katori city, Japan

"Torou-Nagashi", photo by Miki Yoshihito

These two pictures are typical events in Obon period; the upper picture is "Shoryu-Uma", meaning the horses and the cows for the spirits to move around during the "Obon" period.
The lower one is "Torou-Nagashi", a lantern ship to seeing off the spirits back to their places after "Obon" period.

"Obon" is a traditional and religious event, in addition to this, 15th of August has another aspect: one of the most important memorial day for Japanese and other countries, such as the anniversary of the end of the Pacific War (World War ll), even though it is not a national holiday.

Not only 15th of August, 6th is an Atomic Bomb Anniversary of Hiroshima, and 9th is that of Nagasaki.

Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
/media/File:Genbaku_Dome04-r.JPG

Atomic cloud over Nagasaki, 15 minutes later
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
/media/File:Atomic_cloud_over_Nagasaki_from_Koyagi-jima.jpeg

My question is why Japan did not quit the war before Atomic bomb attacks.

Before August, Japan had already got catastrophic damages at urban areas such as Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and many cities, moreover, met the US troops at Okinawa and resulted in the crushing defeat.

However, the termination of war seemed untouchable and it was difficult to speak up the termination for governors by sensing the mood in the Japanese government at that time.

We need to figure out what types of group dynamics let the military and government not decide to finish the war.

If we understand this dynamics of the hesitation to speak up whatever opinions against the mood are, I hope we will prevent Japan from repeating the bad decisions on the war; in other words, we may figure out other solutions besides the war.  Moreover, we can provide with the universal solutions for the peace over the world.

Japanese Garden

This picture shows a traditional Japanese garden, decorating trees, stone lanterns and big stones and pebbles, lying looking like a river with a stone bridge.  
The upper picture shows the whole view, and the lower shows the detail around the stone bridge.

The Bonsai has a similarity to the traditional Japanese style garden, in the sense of the shapes of trees and the allocation of stones with moss.

Stones and pebbles prevent from weed's growing, but in the hot summer day like this year, wild weeds are very active and let us make a lot of efforts to pick them off.

                            

Traditional Japanese Tea

This is a bowl of green tea, traditional Japanese tea.

We use several scoops of tea powder and stir the tea with bamboo-made whisk.

Usually, a green tea is for a tea ceremony with strict manners, but my grandmother used to drink it everyday at home without such manners.

I learned  only how to make it through her and now it is one of my favorite drinks.

Unfortunately, I don't know the traditional manners, I can't join a tea ceremony but I can enjoy it.