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The Bizarre and the Wondrous from the Land of the Rising Sun! (Paperback)
Loot Price: R361
Discovery Miles 3 610
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The Bizarre and the Wondrous from the Land of the Rising Sun! (Paperback)
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Loot Price R361
Discovery Miles 3 610
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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The Bizarre and the Wondrous from the Land of the Rising Sun
highlights unique aspects of Japan-ancient and modern-that have
made the country fascinating to Westerners since they first
stumbled upon the islands in 1543. These unusual attractions range
from high-tech robots that do such things as act as tourist guides
and perform delicate surgery, to festivals that go back more than
two thousand years and strike many foreign visitors as being
bizarre. Among the celebrations that could be labeled as bizarre
are annual fertility festivals that feature authentic-looking
replicas of the male penis carved in wood, from purse-size versions
to ones that are over two meters long and weigh up to 800 pounds.
The best known of the fertility festivals is the one staged each
March 15 by the Tagata Shrine near the city of Nagoya. The largest
wooden penis is carved anew each year, and after the ceremony is
kept on display in the main shrine building until the following
year when it is sold to private buyers. On the day of the festival
the large version of the erect male organ is pulled through the
streets on a wheeled cart by up to 12 men to the delight of raucous
crowds and child-bearing-age women who try to touch the replica in
order to increase their chances of becoming pregnant. Other penis
replicas are edible versions made like candy and cookies that are
sold to visitors as snacks and souvenirs to take home. Also on the
incredible side is a legend that the young Jewish man now known and
worshipped by Christians as Jesus Christ the son of God did not die
on the cross-that, in fact, he lived and died in Herai Village in
Japan. According to the Christian Bible Jesus was born in Israel.
There is no further mention of him in the Bible until he is 12
years old when he appears at a Jewish synagogue and lambasts the
rabbis for their un-Christian like behavior. The next mention of
Jesus in the Bible is when he is in his early 30s and shows up at
the Jordan River to be baptized by John, a well-known Jewish
preacher. According to the Japanese legend, Jesus and his brother
Isukiri spent most of those missing years in Japan, returning to
Judea when Jesus was 34 years old. The story goes on to say that
after he was betrayed to the Roman authorities he fled back to
Japan, and it was his brother who was crucified. The story adds
that Jesus married a Japanese girl, became a rice farmer, and lived
the rest of his life in Herai later renamed Shingo]. There is a
tomb in Herai that has long been known as the burial place of Jesus
Jehova], the son of Mary. In the book, De Mente goes on to explain
how the legend and the tomb became known to present-day Japanese
authorities and was publicized in English for the first time in
1935. De Mente says he learned about the story in Tokyo in the
early 1950s when he was editor of a monthly cultural magazine,
including seeing a photograph of documentary evidence from a museum
in Herai. Other fascinating stories in the book include how the
infamous secret agents and assassins known as ninja neen-jah]
became a major part of Japanese history; why and how Japan became
the first nation in the world to have a national network of
roadside inns spaced one day's march apart; why the Japanese are so
skilled at producing arts and crafts of extraordinary beauty; why
single Japanese girls and men have a hard time hooking up; why
Japan's izakaya are more fun than Irish pubs; why rice and other
vegetables grow on top of buildings; how the Japanese came up with
a new reason for wearing clothes...and some 50-plus other
fascinating stories.
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