Book : Guin Saga Vol.129

This is the latest volume of Guin Saga, entitled “The Child Chosen”.


This is what Skarr (the second son of the Arugosu’s king) said:

"You say that we, who are at the mercy of the gods, try to escape fate desperately to survive or try to achieve our ambitions while, all around us but just out of sight, necromancers and strange monsters who came from nowhere are struggling for power to dominate the whole world?"

The storyline seems to be becoming a magic and monster story. I prefer human stories to stories about magic or monsters. If a powerful wizard appears, settles wars and saves people in the end, the story is absurd.

I believe that telling a wizard story is difficult because the author must decide what a powerful wizard can’t do. If there are many almighty wizards, regular people are useless. The author of Guin Saga might have known this and therefore made Skarr speak the lines above.

The problem is that the author has died. Who can take over the world’s longest great story?



Thank you.

Farewell Party

I gave a farewell party for one of my friends from belly dancing class.She is going to Kobe, which is very far from Kawasaki. I will be missing her. When I belly danced for the first time at the belly dancing party, she danced with me. It was very fun to practice together, and to talk about the costumes for the party.
We were sad to say goodbye, so we took many pictures with her just before she left us.I wish she lives in happiness in Kobe.

Thank you.

This is the restaurant where we held the party.
http://www.rest-intiraimi.com/food_menu.htm

Koir, Columbine and DougLewis, thank you for helping.

Ise Grand Shrine

I went to Ise Grand Shrine last week. Ise Grand Shrine is the headquarters of approximately 80,000 shrines, and the most traditional site in Japan.

The Ise Grand Shrine has two distinctions. One of them is that the shrine has two gods.

There are 125 shrines within Ise Grand Shrine, and the two main shrines each house a major god (not saints). The names are “Amaterasu-oomikami” and “Toyoukeno-ookami”. “Amaterasu-oomikami” is said to be one of ancestors of Tennoh(Emperor of Japan) and the Imperial Household of Japan.

The other distinction is that the two main shrine buildings and the gate bridge are rebuilt every 20 years.

You would think a very traditional shrine would be old and huge. However, Japanese people believe that gods would like to live in new houses. We think gods lives in the shrines, not in Heaven Above. So we can’t take pictures near the buildings. (I took the picture shown above at the foot of the stairs in front of the building.)

Another reason for rebuilding is the architectural style known as Shinmeizukuri. That means the building doesn’t have groundwork. Ise Grand Shrine is the one and only shrine built in this style.

When I entered the gate of the shrine, it started raining. I walked about 20 minutes to get to one of the main buildings in the downpour. I thought gods might dislike me.

Thank you.

http://www.isejingu.or.jp/shosai/english/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ise_Shrine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaterasu_Omikami
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_of_Japan
http://www.sengu.info/index.html
Koir, thanks as always.