Saturday my husband was at work so Ebi-kun Secret Agent 008, went out to film on location (the local park). We had film a few of the missions and then went to look for a new location, there is one part of the park which is very quiet - except for the buzzing of bloody mosquitoes, but I digress...
First, I spotted a kabutomushi on a tree, of course, Secret Agent 008 wanted to catch it and take it home. The only thing I had to carry it in was a ziplock bag with my meds in, 'Lucky Dave' had to be carried in that until we made it to the ¥100 shop so we could buy him a case to live in. We ended up having to buy special beetle soil and beetle jelly too! At least as far as pets go, he is fairly low maintenance.
The other thing we found in the same part of the park was this chest....
It is from the shrine, the gold kanji says 'sacred money' or something like that. Usually, when you go to the shrine, you ring the bell, to wake up the gods*, throw some money into the chest, clap you hands and pray. There is a shrine just behind this section of the park, but the chest is big and heavy, I can't imagine 1 person could have carried it. I also can't imagine that there was much money inside. Terribly disrespectful and I am sure the gods won't be happy.
*in Japan there are Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. The Shinto shrines have many gods, some are dedicated to the river god or god of children. Some shrines are famous for healing certain ailments or bringing luck in business or wealth. I believe Shintoism is the only religion without a book of teachings, like the bible, koran or torah etc.
