The Delights of Kansai (乾菜 dried vegetables) er....... Kansai (関西 south-western Japan)

From time to time, to lessen the guilt of possessing such a good camera and not using it as much as I should, I plan to use this medium to exhibit interesting photos I've had the chance to shoot here. So without further adiue, here some pics from the three-day-weekend I recently spent in Kyoto and Osaka.

This fox guards the entrance to the Fushimi-Inari-Taisha, a shrine-covered mountain dedicated to the gods of rice and sake. The fox in Japanese folklore is traditionally seen as a sacred and mysterious figure that's capable of possessing humans, by entering them under the fingernails. All of the foxes at Fushimi-Inari are messengers of the god of cereal, often being depicted as holding some key to the rice granary in their mouths.  

Fushimi-Inari is home to tens of thousands of orange Torii gates covering the various trials on Inari-san (the mountain).

Merchants and manufacturers can dedicate Torii gates by purchasing them in the hopes that they'll be blessed by success and wealth. The company's Kanji is engraved on the supporting beams. 

Josh Buck tries his hand at lifting the Omokaru-Ishi (literally translated as heavy-light stone). Before attempting to lift the stone you're meant to make a wish and if the weight is lighter than your expectation that wish will come true......apparently.......Forward this to 10 friends in the next hour or you'll have bad luck for a year. SSDD 

Jim Buell walks along one of the tree-lined paths NOT covered by Torii gates at Fushimi-Inari

The Japanese Maples were putting on their final brilliant display before the harsh winter months arrived. This event draws millions of people to Kansai every year. Thankfully, due to our early arrival at the shrine, we pretty much had the entire mountain to ourselves. 

Kiyomizu-dera was original built in 798, however, like many of Japan's famous buildings, the present structure is a reconstruction (dating from 1633, still older than my country!). One of Kyoto's most famous landmarks, this temple houses the Otowa-no-taki waterfall, where visitors drink the sacred water to improve any number of ailments (including poor test scores).

Most Shinto shrines contain a Chouzuya (purifying basin) where you're to clean your hands and mouth before entering the shrine. The etiquette here, like most things Japanese, is very important. One should always begin by ladling water over the right hand before the left, and making sure that the water falls on the ground NOT back in the basin. 

Wandering around the Gion neighborhood in Kyoto we ran into some Maiko-san (apprentice Geisha) who kept insisting that they were genuine. Apparently with Kyoto being such a tourist destination there are young women dressing up in elaborate garb and soliciting money from the people who photograph them. Maiko-san typically have longer sleeves and more pink in their face make-up than Geisha.

Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Pavilion) is one of Japan's best-known sights. Here it is framed by Autumn leaves.

This was my favorite photograph from the trip. To me it is quintessential Japan. 

Here Josh Buck meditates on the intricacies of Ryoan-ji one of the most famous Zen rock gardens. 

This is the reconstructed Osaka-jo, which was burned down in 1583 by the armies of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

The Dotombori arcade is home to a lively collection of bars and restaurants selling every type of Japanese food imaginable. Here a dragon bursts through the wall of a building to proclaim the deliciousness of the restaurant's fare. 

A street vendor expertly turns cooking Tako-yaki (fried octopus balls).

Here is a look at the famed Ebisu-bashi (the main foot bridge over the Dotomburi canal) dedicated by a beer company. As a response a rival (Asahi) has constructed a towering 10 meter glowing neon sign directly over the bridge. 

Casual Rantings Through a Frosty Mug

It was around the 4^th beer that I noticed it, like a soot-faced miner easing off his boots after a long shift underground, our vocabularies were sighing into a more casual realm. It was subtle at first, just the odd drop of an expletive, but as the beers went down so did the politeness. The “here” was a corner table in a three floored izakaya famous for cheep mugs of frosty golden deliciousness. I was occupying a tiny seat at a tiny table, surrounded by three western-sized friends who were having an equally difficult time making sense of sitting side-saddle. As we drank the metaphorical swear-jar began to swell, silvery 50yen coins pierced through the center to start with but finishing with the ominous thump of the heavy gold 500yeners, and all this got me thinking about the reason for such verbally graphic usages. Back in the US, and around other native English speakers that I feel comfortable with, the clever use of a swear word helps to emphasize the bonds I have with these people. I suppose I can’t speak for everyone out there but honestly how often do you find yourself cursing in a conversation with a person you don’t know? With your boss? Or how about with your Grandmother? And equally how likely would you be to choose these same people to be the best man/maid of honor at your wedding? Swearing tells all in the conversation that we’re close enough friends to not be bothered by such depravity. We don’t need the mask of politeness to maintain a positive image in our friends minds, they already know who we are. It’s the ultimate level of casual. But here in Japan the approach is a little different. 

I remember scoffing when I was told that Japanese, when compared to Korean (which is of the same origin), has very few words that we in the west would consider to be swear words. They have words for describing sex organs and fecal matter don’t they? Surely these can be used in a derogatory way. However, that’s not really the case.

Ehhhhhhhhh? 嘘！I don't believe it!
It’s true that some do exist, but when contrasted against swearing in Spanish, for example, you almost want to tuck their cuteness into bed before 9. Really, it’s like child’s attempt at playing daddy. In fact, I’ve only come across one word that’s banned from use on television; 真婿 (manko), which is little more than a crude reference to vagina. The more I learn about this lack of expletive expression the more I become convinced that it’s the result of the country's pre-industrial caste system. Here instead of slinging vocal mud, when insults are levied, the offenses are more commonly the consequence of a failure to observe politeness. Whether intentional or not, this can range anywhere from using the improper suffix on one’s name (-chan for children, -san for equals, and –sama for those above you) to the depth of your bow not being sufficient. Furthermore, rather than individual words marking the distinction between polite and casual speech, there’s a whole different level of grammar, 敬語(keigo), one uses when wanting to be formal. For more than 1000 years and as recent as 138 years ago in Japan a Samurai 侍 (derived from a verb meaning to serve) could kill any commoner who showed them disrespect. Meaning that the peasant class had to be incredibly careful with their language and conduct. So, in a sense, Darwin’s survival of the fittest applied itself to the language and the inoffensive were allowed to keep their heads on their shoulders and keep breeding.

Flash forward to modern times and this legacy of politeness is still burning strong in all the Japanese I’ve come across. However the older generations sometimes raise an interesting point, they complain that youngsters are phasing this formality out and losing the more traditional forms of speech. It makes me wonder that if the trend continues, will the distinction between polite and casual fade, and if this is the case, will Japanese develop harsher forms of profanity to fill in the gap? We’ll just have to wait and see.