Shinto shrine in Kyoto has become globally famous for its beauty, but inconsiderate visitors are ruining the view for everyone but themselves.
bamboo
It’s gonna take more than one call to insurance for this one.
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Kyoto has a heartbreaking message for visitors who carve graffiti on trees in the famous grove.
Childhood is notoriously short in education-and-work-come-first Japan, but these tykes’ throwback idea of fun got them out of trouble with the law.
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Shot by a couple during a visit to Cambodia and uploaded to YouTube just last week, the following video treats us to a ride on one of Cambodia’s “bamboo trains” — worryingly shaky, home-made bamboo pallets balanced on a pair of train wheels and fitted with a disconcertingly large engine.
After all, what trip abroad is complete without experiencing some potentially perilous activity that you’d never dream of doing in your own country?
It’s a question that’s plagued people for generations: How do I get a three-ton load of bamboo off the back of my truck with minimal effort? Well, the Taiwanese truck driver in the following video has developed a rather efficient method for dropping off his deliveries.
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Tori no Ichi is an open-air market festival held in Japan on the day of the Rooster in November, as determined by the Chinese calendar. At the festivals, markets are set up in front of or near to Shinto shrines, and charms- most often decorated bamboo rakes called kumade- that are said to bring the owner good fortune in the coming year are sold to visitors.
Kumade literally means “bear hand”, since, when you think about them, rakes are shaped rather like a large hand with claws. Rakes were chosen generations ago as a sign of good luck since they can be used to draw things– in this case wealth and good fortune– towards us, and the practice of buying ornamental rakes has been common in Japan since the Edo period (1600-1867).
Wanting to check out the lively festival and ask for continued success for the website next year, our reporter Mr. Sato headed over to the famous Hanazono shrine in Shinjuku to purchase a kumade on behalf of RocketNews24.
However, having never purchased one of the charms before, he discovered that he had more than a couple of things to learn…
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