It's a Dead Man's Party
Nicki mentioned it briefly on our previous post, but over the weekend I took a short trip to the other side of the peninsula. 
My goal for the trip was to get close enough to take pictures of what I thought was a "spikey headed buddha" that my coworker, Lonnie-san, pointed out to me the previous weekend on a mountain near his judo dojo. Basically, I didn't know exactly where to go to get to the big statue, but my plan was to spot it from the main street and then venture closer on some of the smaller streets to get to the base of the mountain.
As it turns out, I parked in completely the wrong area. But like so many other things in life, sometimes the path less traveled ends up making all the difference.
Once I got within visual range, I started heading down some of the narrow residential streets of lower Miura Peninsula and found myself at the base of the mountain. Then I parked the car, hopped out, and started walking uphill. I found myself walking through a small cemetery (followed shortly by a larger one), where I stopped to take pictures of some of the sights. 
I've always had a strange fascination with cemeteries - morbid, I know - but the places seem so peaceful and quaint, but there's that underlying feeling that someone's laying underfoot. Anyway, there were quite a few little "baby buddha" statues, which I've learned are really called "Ojizo-san" or the guardians of unborn, aborted, miscarried, and stillborn babies. There were also quite a few buddha and kannon statues. As it turns out, the "spikey headed buddha" that I based the trip around is actually a "Kannon", which is a female diety of sorts. Thanks to Hide-san and Jeff-san for clearing that up for me over lunch.
Anyway, I went to shoot the spikey headed kannon and found out when I got home that my best pictures were actually taken on my way up the mountain. And when I got to the mountaintop, I found a road that led all the way up the mountain. If I had found that road originally, I would have missed some great photo opportunities. Fortunately, my lack of direction helped produce some pretty nice photos, which you can see in the Gallery, dated 03/01/2006.
Sorry I didn't go into more detail during the post... I've been feeling under the weather these past few days and am hoping to get to bed early tonight.
My goal for the trip was to get close enough to take pictures of what I thought was a "spikey headed buddha" that my coworker, Lonnie-san, pointed out to me the previous weekend on a mountain near his judo dojo. Basically, I didn't know exactly where to go to get to the big statue, but my plan was to spot it from the main street and then venture closer on some of the smaller streets to get to the base of the mountain.As it turns out, I parked in completely the wrong area. But like so many other things in life, sometimes the path less traveled ends up making all the difference.
Once I got within visual range, I started heading down some of the narrow residential streets of lower Miura Peninsula and found myself at the base of the mountain. Then I parked the car, hopped out, and started walking uphill. I found myself walking through a small cemetery (followed shortly by a larger one), where I stopped to take pictures of some of the sights. 
I've always had a strange fascination with cemeteries - morbid, I know - but the places seem so peaceful and quaint, but there's that underlying feeling that someone's laying underfoot. Anyway, there were quite a few little "baby buddha" statues, which I've learned are really called "Ojizo-san" or the guardians of unborn, aborted, miscarried, and stillborn babies. There were also quite a few buddha and kannon statues. As it turns out, the "spikey headed buddha" that I based the trip around is actually a "Kannon", which is a female diety of sorts. Thanks to Hide-san and Jeff-san for clearing that up for me over lunch.
Anyway, I went to shoot the spikey headed kannon and found out when I got home that my best pictures were actually taken on my way up the mountain. And when I got to the mountaintop, I found a road that led all the way up the mountain. If I had found that road originally, I would have missed some great photo opportunities. Fortunately, my lack of direction helped produce some pretty nice photos, which you can see in the Gallery, dated 03/01/2006.Sorry I didn't go into more detail during the post... I've been feeling under the weather these past few days and am hoping to get to bed early tonight.
posted by Unknown | 7:41 PM
3 Comments:
Great pics as always. You are very artistic.
Whew! I feel so much better. Both my Mom and I have always had a thing for graveyards (they're usually beautiful places for reflection with beautiful natural surroundings); so it's nice to know we're not alone.
Great Ojizo-san snaps in gallery as well, I haven't seen any as ornately dressed as these yet.
My uncle, who has traveled all over the world, has said you can tell a lot about a city or even country by its cemeteries. I haven't quite got what he meant, but maybe there is something to it.
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