Tamana

Overview of a small part of Tamana, from the rooftop of Tamana Girl High oh, pretty Kyushu mountains...

Tamana...

Tamana is probably the most nostalgic place for me to return to, and the place I have been for the longest time, far from both friend and family, so returning there is always a must for me, whenever I return: I have a soft spot for the place, as I have been such a lost child walking around its small streets, speaking no word of the language.

We went there two days in a row, my brother and I, not sleeping there so we'd not inconvenience my former host family, but we shared a meal and tea, in company of my host sister and her two sons, adorable littles boys. She'd have been the pride of her mother had she been born hundreds of years earlier, I often think, as she only gives birth to little princes :)

Street of Tamana, in front of the house and shop of my former Japanese teacher, Suzuki sensei

We went to Tamana on the third and fourth day of our small trip, and the weather, that had been announced to be cold and rainy, was warm and sunny. That made the walk around town much nicer. When I visit Tamana, generally I go along the riverside and go see the flowers and the rock bridges, so particular of the place, but this time, surprisingly, we did not take the time to do so, instead, we walked around town and up to the High School I used to go to, Tamana Girl High School and, luckily, it was open: even my former homeroom teacher was there this time (last time I went to Japan with my childhood friend, he was not there so I was not able to meet him) and we went to one of his English class. 

No need to say that it was really funny, seeing my brother walk in my all girl school, with all the little girls wearing uniforms and staring at him :P Stupidly enough, we actually did not take any pictures with the people there: feeling the pressure of our intrusion in the school at the busy time of graduating ceremonies approaching? Maybe. 

Anyhow, we still went to my personal favorite place of the school, the rooftop. 

Another picture taken from the rooftop

I think I must have read too many mangas in High School, but go chilling on the rooftop has always been for me a really "typical" random thing to do that has this "japaneseness" feel to it. Not really into socializing with people who thought I could not communicate with them (which was actually true for the first 6 months) I was alone most of the time at school, and even if girl groups kept me a spot to eat with them in the classroom, when you don't understand the conversations going on it's not really appealing to stay seated there. Result: I'd go eat and chill on the rooftop quite often when the weather was nice enough to allow it (just so you know, in the end, I did end up hanging around with a Korean-loving student in my class, and the Korean exchange student of my school, the former, with whom I still communicate through letters; the latter of which - sadly - I have gotten no news from since I left Japan). 

Pretty house right beside my old school: such a nice architecture japanese style has...

Another nice one... we had wanted to take pictures of the inside of the garden,
but no one seemed home and so we could not ask for permission: shame

We went to a Shinto temple and a Buddhist temple while walking in Tamana. I had never realised how different the feel of both temples were: never wondered how to differentiate them before. Well now I can. 

To put it bluntly, Buddhist - that are supposed to be basing their beliefs on the non importance of the wordly riches - have grand shiny golden altars with gold trinkets suspended from everythere, and their guardians are big bad tall figures at the entrance of the temples.

Shinto temples, however, have animal guardian (mostly dragons, but in our trip I have seen boar guardians and fox guardians as well so I don't know what is the norm...) and the temple's site and constructions mostly rely on rock carving work, wood, and usually have a source somewhere. I don't know how many Shinto temples there are, but I daresay I think they are more common than Buddhist ones, or at least, I saw more of them.

I learned something really interesting this time about Shinto temple and beliefs. At the door, as I mentionned, there are always animal god guardians. What is special about them is that the right one always has its mouth open, while the left one has it closed. 

Little parenthesis on the japanese language: Japanese language is formed of syllable phonetics (a, ka, sa, ta etc.) and it begins with "A" and ends with "nn".

So basically, the guardians of Shinto temples are guarding against ALL evil: from "a" (open mouth) to "nn" (closed mouth). Isn't it just awesome? Well whatever, when I did learn it it made my day. Hope you like the idea as well :)

Shinto temple in Tamana, main entrance

Purifying water well in the Shinto temple

I personally prefer Shinto temples as they have a feel of old religion to it, sacred and natural. Not that I don't like the buddhist temples: after all, they have tons of shiny golden stuff, which I love <3 it's just that it feels too constricted and the main area in Buddhist temples is the inside, whereas Shinto is outside: I like outside. 

Always loved those monkeys. <3 (still in the Shinto temple, back of the site

 Coming up are pictures from a Buddhist temple. We were in a hurry to meet up with my host family right after so we did not get to visit the Buddhist graves but they are another mark that differs from shinto temples. I like japanese buddhist grave style.

Entrance door

Walking around Tamana, I went to my "Budoukan", where I practiced Kendo with Master Kakizoe. A very lovely old master, that my japanese teacher introduced me to when I studied there. He gave me classes for almost nothing in return, giving me all the equipement for free, plus the whole armor his daughter used to use for practice, giving me a Bokutou as a gift as we parted when I came back to Canada. 

Going there, I hoped to see him, and maybe get my brother to practice a bit of Kendo with him. Alas, the morning class had just ended and Kakizoe sensei had left for home.

Tamana's Martial art gymnasium

 After this non-fruitful excursion, my brother and I went to meet with my Japanese teacher, Suzuki sensei, to have tea, and when we told her we had gone to the Budoukan and missed my master, she brought us to his store and home, where we had tea and talked for a while. He has a really nice store that has a very cosy feel to it. There we bought a mini shinai, for a gift back home, made exactly like the real-sized ones.