Month: March 2010

Meiji Jingu energetic fountain

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date March 29, 2010

Inside Meiji Jingu temple there is a natural fountain (quite strange in downtown Tokyo) which is the spring of a small water stream that ends up a little further in a small pond on the limit with Yoyogi park. It turns out that the fountain is considered one of he most “energetic” places in the city; it is a power spot or パワースポット (in Japanese). In general, all Meiji Jingu is considered a power spot and legend has it that the energy is specially positive at 6:00 a.m.

The fountain, which is called Kiyomasanoido 清正井, is the most energetic spot in the temple and its “powers” have been known for a very long time. However, until the end of last year it was almost always unnoticed by the temple visitors, but then it appeared on TV… and since then really long lines are being formed regularly only to be able to see the fountain!

Some people say that the fountain is energetically connected with Mount Fuji because its location is just in one of its “energetic lines” according to the ryumyaku 龍脈 technique (something similar to the Feng Shui).

Power spot

Power spot
People say that if you take a picture of the fountain and you store it into your cellphone, it will bring you good luck.

Vídeo of the power spot.

Source: Yahoo News.

JapanGuide

The street of the frogs

Near Matsumoto Castle, next to a river, there is a street plenty of small shops. The street is called “kaeru”, which in Japanese means many different things; the Japanese language has many homophone words, just like the Chinese language. The three different meanings of “kaeru” that gave name to this street in Matsumoto are: “frog” (蛙), “come back / go back home” (帰る) and “be able to shop” (買える). The locals use the name of the street referring to the three meanings, the street is full of frog statues and is full of places where they are able to shop, and after strolling along the street they go back home. It’s a really curious street and it’s on the way if you go walking from Matsumoto station to the castle.

Kaeru
At the beginning of the street there are some frogs with katanas welcoming visitors.

Small temple dedicated to the “frog gods”

A frog reading.

The river that flows next to the street.

Kaeru
There are frogs even in the beautifying fences!

Money purses like the one that Naruto owns!

One of the shops in the street, where almost anything you could imagine is on sale. Ceramics, books and vegetables, what a mix.

Alberto and I transforming into frogs.

Map of the area. The station is in the lower left part of the map, and the street of the frogs is just across the bridge in the center of the map, heading north, on the way to the castle.

JapaneseTV

Foreigner nose

Sometimes when Japanese people dress up like a “foreigner”, they put on a fake plastic nose trying to imitate our noses, which generally are more protuberant than theirs. For example, in this TV show, the comedian Tsukaji Muga is dressed up as an “Amerika-jin” (American). Notice the fake big nose and the tie 🙂

In the show, the contestants have to grab the food that passes by in front of them using chopsticks. In this other video you can see another contestant dressed up like a Mexican (curiously without nose, can anybody guess why?); there is also a Russian (with fake nose) and an Indian as well (also with plastic nose). The two girls represent China and Japan.

If you want to know what happens when one of the contestants fails and can’t get the piece of sushi watch this other video:

If you are enjoying the TV show and want to watch some more I put here a couple of more videos. In one of the videos the contestants have to dip down a meatball into a raw egg.