In Meiji Jingu there’s always a lot of barrels donated as an offering by many distilleries around the country. The funny thing is that last weekend I also found water bottles as offerings. In addition to being a donation to the Shintoist shrine, they are useful so that the kami-gods bring good luck and good business to the water bottlers.
Alcoholic beverages offerings
Other offerings
I’ve been collecting photos of ancient Japan for a while. I compile them in my Pinterest. Most of the photos are from the late 19th century and early 20th century. My favorites are the photos of the farmers in the foggy forest and the photos of the Buddha in Kamakura. In one of them you can see the Buddha with palm trees around.
Wandering around Wikipedia I ended up reading an article about Katia and Marice Krafft, a couple of French volcanologists that after several decades filming volcano eruptions around the world, they eventually died in the eruption of Mount Unzen (Nagasaki) in 1991. Unzen is one of the most active volcanoes in Japan. Legend has it that an eruption in the 18th century killed 15,000 people. Its most recent eruptions were in 1990, 1991 and 1995.
Unzen volcano from the sea
Katia and Marice are considered pioneers in photographing and recording video eruptions. In 1991 they arrived to Japan with a National Geographic team. The day before dying Marice said in front of the camera:
“I am never afraid because I have seen so much eruptions in 23 years that even if I die tomorrow, I don’t care”
In this video, starting at second 20 Marice “predicts” his destiny and starting at minute 1 you can see the devastating eruption and the pyroclastic flow that ended their lives.