Creatures in Miyajima

 On the third day in Hiroshima visiting a friend of mine, Michael, I headed for miyajima(宮島) taking the tram. Actually, I hadn't planned to visit the well-known Itsukushima Jinja(厳島神社), but Micheal recommended me to see it and suggested joining the trip, which made me decide to spend the last morning there. Moreover, he said there is a Starbucks in the island( there is no Starbucks in Hita and I go to McDonald to get a wi-fi usually). I didn't enjoy Starbucks, but nowadays one of the first things I check when I go somewhere in Japan is whether there is a Starbucks nearby. 

 I and Michael were supposed to meet at the Starbucks in the island, but I got a text message on the way that he could't make it for a thing which he had to deal with bureaucratically. 

Surely, my official objective is to enjoy the scenic views of the island and its mystic shrine, but I was more attracted to the moving creatures around like human beings, birds and etc. 

Middle School Students

 The first creatures I had been faced up with was a mass of middle school students and their teachers who were taking a field trip to the island. They looked quite like Korean students and teachers overall. But I could see things I don't see in a school field trip back in South Korea. One thing was that students were wearing uniforms and even the teachers were wearing suits. In Korea, many schools allow students to wear their own clothes on the day of the field trip and teachers tend to wear quite comfortable casual clothes to be more active. Field trips needs students and teachers to move around quite actively and widely and especially for teachers wearing light and comfortable clothes makes more sense to me. 

 But Michael who had worked in a Japanese public school a couple of years gave me a different perspectives over dress codes on field trips in Japan . According to his explanation, on the field trip they should reveal themselves to the public and  it is significant for students and teachers to wear elegantly. I could say  it is from 'saving face' culture in Japan. In Korea and China, and even western countries, there exist customs or social attitudes to save faces, but the spectrum and degree differ from culture to culture. Having listened to Michael's explanation, I could understand why the students were walking and waiting more in order than Korean students were, from a different aspect.

Deer even here

 I've been to Nara which was a capital city in the ancient times several times where you could see lots of deer around the parks and even in the temples. I was relieved to see that there are not as many deer as in Nara. I did't have to worry over stepping deer dung. But they are living creatures enough to get me a few pictures. Additionally, in East Asia deer are treated as sacred animals. 

Blowfish(fugu)

 Looking down the water in the shrine, I was really amazed seeing tens of blowfish moving around. I hadn't seen blowfish in nature. I had seen them in fish tanks in front of sushi restaurants in South Korea. The more places I get around in Japan, the more impressed I get with the affluence of nature in Japan. I am not sure I can generalize, but there may be a stereotype among Koreans that Japan had been a quite tough place for living or surviving because most of the terrain is covered with high mountains and can't produce enough staple grains such as rice. The stereotype has been justified with the fact that historically Korea had suffered from the pirates from Japan who were starving fishermen otherwise and during the Colonization Era in the early 20th century Japan took lots of grains to its Islands and led to the long lasting starvation in Korea. But looking at the sea and mountains with its huge natural resources, I've started to give a question to the stereotype. 

Heron

 I had been used to them because there was a small pine tree forest near my apartment with lots of nets of them back in Korea. But I hadn't known how well they hunt or fish. Actually, watching the heron fishing with great success rates was the most astonishing thing I saw in Miyajima. 

A question going further: what is the nature of Setonaikai(瀬戸内海) like?

A thing to do in the near future: kayaking around the seashore of Miyajima

Christianity in Hita I've experienced just superficially

 One of the first things I tried to find in Hita right after arriving was a church where I could join services, Bible studies or etc. As other areas in Japan, finding a church is not as easy as in South Korea. In Anjung(안중) where I lived more than ten years back in South Korea has more than 10 churches whose names I remember, small or big. There may be more, I guess. I was not even curious  about which kind of denomination of the church in Hita would be. I had just thought it would be better than having no church around.

Luckily, It was not that hard to find. A Lutheran church with a big preschool behind  was located right across McDonald where I would be craving for Big Mac and French fries after getting bored with Japanese or Korean food. The existence of the Lutheran church got me a bit of joy and surprise because back in South Korea there are few Lutheran churches (in my life, I saw only one Lutheran church back in South Korea in Hannam-dong(한남동) in Seoul where there is a quite big German community around. I thought joining a denomination I was not used to or involved in could be a great opportunity to broaden and deepen my perspectives towards Christianity in East Asia( One of the reasons I had decided to move to Japan was figuring out how Christianity has taken roots in Korea, Japan, and China each. 

Whenever I went grocery shopping after work which was typically late in the evening, I checked out whether there was a service being done on a regular basis or someone doing something there. Actually I wanted to know if there are Bible studies or something during weekdays because my day-off is just on Fridays, some times Thursdays, not Sundays. After a few trials, I managed to find someone working in the church. He was not a pastor. There was no Bible studies. There used to be, he said. I asked him whether there are any services or activities during weekdays. He answered 'no.' He said there are two services just on Sundays. Moreover, there was no pastor fully in charge of the church. Pastors of Lutheran churches in Oita Prefecture keep taking turns of having services in Hita. Even though I didn't get any specific statistics over religious life of people here in Hita, I could clearly presume that Christianity is not flourishing as actively as South Korea. 

Another day I happened to find a quite Catholic Cathedral like building. At first I thought it was a real Cathedral building. In Kyushu there has been a long history of Catholic churches starting from Francis Xavier in spite of a long lasting persecutions by Dokugawa Bakuhu(徳川幕府) in the middle. Relatively Catholic Churches are more spread  and visible than Protestant Churches as far as I had experienced. 

Over Francis Xavier click down here!

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Xavier

It was not a church. It was a wedding hall. There was no cross at the top of the roof of the building. Of course, back in South Korea, there are many wedding halls, but they don't look like church buildings. Many of them adopt Greco-Roman styles. Possibly, Christianity is treated not as a religion but as a culture from the West by the majority of Japanese. For example, watching Japanese animations and dramas, there are lots of scenes where couples are having a wedding in a church or church-like building with a pastor officiating. But, it is just a type of wedding and doesn't have any religious meanings related to Christianity. 

Having failed to find an opportunity to do something social in the only church I had found, I started to read the Bible before going to bed or just right after waking up in the morning. And it became my habit to check out the bulletin board in front of the church after shopping, which is almost all the time empty.