Bushido Virtue #1 GI

義
The first virtue of the samurai code is Gi, its meaning is justice or fairness. It's far beyond the rule of not cheating in battle, it's also about decisions, not judging by personal favor but by quality. The samurai culture is very often still alive in Japan's modern day society especially in old corporate companies that still take care of traditions. This way it's about giving fair chances to everyone in every situation in life. One movie example where you can see this virtue is "Last Samurai" where the lead actor is captured after a battle, making hi a prisoner (Shuujin), but still the lord Katsumoto is giving him a fair chance to get to know each other though they are enemies he is threating him with respect.

Although Gi is part of the Bushido - the way of the warrior - in some cases the samurai had double standards, especially in realtion to other casts or ranks. They sometimes exploited their right to weild a sword in public by killing civillians if they were displeased by them, neither fair nor respectful.

That's it so far about the 1st of 7 virtues of the Samurai.

Bushido - the Way of the Samurai

I will explain the 7 virtues of the Samurai next week.

Just to give you a short Teaser

GI義

YUU

JIN

REI

MAKOTO

MEIYO

CHUUGI

Danjiri Matsuri - the end of the vacation

It's been a while since the last entry, I will try to increase the frequency of new posts.

During my last trip to Japan one day before returning back home I visited Kishiwada going to the Castle and the Danjiri Matsuri. It was a little tricky to find the festival grounds, but just because I took the wrong railway, instead of using the JR I used the Nankai Railway ending up quite far from the matsuri. I just visited a shrine nearby the Kishiwada station before starting off to the JR station area passing the castle before arriving at the Danjiri Matsuri.

The castle's structure shares a few similarities with the Osaka castle like the golden ornaments of the frame right under the roof. I already went there in spring at the Hanami high season seeing all the cherry trees blossoming.

In the Danjiri Matsuri wooden carts called Danjiri are pulled around the whole town, it looks very dangerous when they turn, especially the guys on top jump and motivate the audiance like crazy almost falling off.

The atmosphere is really awesome, hearing the taiko drums and flutes, you can actually feel the energy. A few times I have already been able to participate in some of the festivals, but sadly not this time, but there will always be the next festival and so far the next chance to be part of it.

Here are the impressions, enjoy!

Picture of the Day #20 Shinto Marriage at Meiji Shingu

I've visited the Meiji Shingu in Tokyo many times, it's named after Emperor Meiji like the Meiji era / Meiji Restauration as well. This was the historical period where Japan opened to the West, a good movie about that is "Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise or the Manga "Kenshin" and the Anime "Rurouni Kenshin" by Nobuhiro Watsuki.

The easiest way to get to the Yoyogi Park is by getting off at the JR or METRO station of Harajuku

Every Sunday you can see many of those shinto marriages. In this picture the husband and wife to be are under the umbrella, just behind the 2 Miku. Behind the couple the parents and the grandparents are walking.

In this ceremony the bride is "packed" like a gift that is handed over to the broom's family. Taking a big family photograph is also part of that.

Other daily pictures can be found in the Picture of the Day section and on INSTAGRAM, where you can also find a few more pictures about my many trips to Japan, as well as some video game stuff.

Direct Link: Instagram

Good old Kyoto - Japan-Sunday

I was in Kyoto many times, the first time in the summer of 2015, it was a rainy day, I only went to Fushimi Inari Taisha, the Nintendo Headquarter and a book off, where I bought Pokémon red.
At Fushimi Inari they had blocked the way up to the top because of a typhoon.

But the following pictures are about my trip to Kyoto in Fall with my buddies

FUN FACT regarding Fushimi Inari Taisha and Nintendo: The "white fox" shrine is some sort of the Origin of Star Fox, the Fushimi Inari and its thousands of Tori inspired Shigeru Miyamoto to create the "torii" in Star Fox

Now enjoy pictures of our trip:

At the Kyoto JR station a few students with their teachers practiced their english skills, it was funny, the boy on the right was the best , he was quite enthusiastic and asked a few questions and reacted to our answers while the others only read their questions on the papers.

We started with the Kiyomizudera Temple in the East of Kyoto, we had planned a lot for that day, but our day began very late so we only were able to visit the Kiyomizudera temple and the Fushimi Inari Taisha.

 

And here's the entrance / Main gate of the Fushimi InariTaisha

This time I was at the top and prayed, but I didn't visit the bamboo forest this time, so there's something that you can look forward to in my next Kyoto entry.

Aaaaand that's it again.

Picture of the Day #15 - Osaka Castle from above

I've been to the Osaka Castle many times already. When I went there the first time I had been living in Izumi as woofer at a acompany that recycles old video games and modifies consoles, I went to Osaka to meet my friends. The castle is a nice spot in every season.

I ever wanted to see that castle, because it's a very beautiful one and it was very important in uniting Japan. The Castle was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Today inside of the castle itself there is a museum with astonishing historical artefacts.

Find the other Pictures of the Day and INSTAGRAM for More

Now enjoy the view from the roof of the castle

Picture of the Day #14 - Kyoto Temple

Kyoto has hundrets of temples and shrines. Many of you might know the famous Kiyomizudera or the Fushimi Inari and other big ones.

But if you go straight forward to the well known ones you definitely will miss the small and "hidden" unknown ones, but they are very often worth visiting. Especially because there aren't those huge crowds of people you can enjoy the temples and shrines itself a lot better and also take pictures without or less persons.

When I went to the Kiyomizudera the first time ever, I passed this small temple, it's the 大谷本廟(Otani Hombyo Hongwanji)


I've been to Kyoto a few times, for example for the Hanami festival, the cherry blossom and to collect a few stamps for my shuincho, but I will talk about that later.

There are more Pictures of the Day and INSTAGRAM, too.

Now enjoy the temple: