Saturday, April 9, 2011

Saturday Photo: The Torii on the Beach Okinawa, Japan

There is some mystery behind this photo.  I just returned from another Saturday traveling the northern areas of Okinawa island with Doc, the cameras and an awful hangover. 

That happens, sometimes when I get stuck working the bar on weekends but, it's all part of the job, I guess.

Last week I was contacted by a young lady asking directions for the iris fields. You know, that place that had hardly any purple iris flowers and got me introduced to the cosmos things.

I updated my blog post and added a Google Map.  It worked; she found the place.

Well, she comes back again asking me if I know where this Torii, on a beach in Okinawa is located. 

She sent a link to someone else's photo of the same Torii.  Whoever shot the original photo refused to share the location with her. The photo was titled "Higashi".  That means "East".

It looked sort of familiar but, you just don't see many Toriis on beaches around here. I snapped a photo of it off the laptop, using my cell phone camera and showed it to a few of the locals.

Nobody knew where I could find the place.

The dang thing looked familiar to me and I told the young lady, if it's on this island, I'll find it.  So, before I had my third, or maybe, fourth beer last night, I wrote a note to myself. "Find the Torii on the Beach."

Doc and I drove north this morning, heading up the east coast of the island.  BINGO, we found it !

Even though I have a frazillion photos to download and develop, I decided to get this one done and online, right away. It'll take me awhile to give you a thoroughly researched story about this place but, the reason it looked familiar to me is, I've been here before.

It's a sacred site, up the hill, once you pass under that Torii.  There is an Utaki at the top of some stairs.  Something that looked like a ghost moved in front of my camera the last time I was at that place.

So, I shot it.  And, I have a picture to prove it.

For now, this place will have to remain a mystery.  I ain't saying I believe in ghosts or anything like that.  The place just makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.  It's spooky.

That got me thinking maybe, just maybe, that's why the original artist doesn't want anyone to know the location of the Torii on the Beach in Okinawa, Japan !






4 comments:

Cathy Sweeney said...

Spooky, but I like that (as long as I'm half a world away). Are you going to show us the ghost photo?

RyukyuMike said...

Cathy,
Sure, the ghost will make an appearance. It'll be awhile before I'm caught-up enough to present her to you, though.

Unknown said...

Mike, your a tease! Show us the ghost!! :)

Nice shot by the way.

RyukyuMike said...

LadyE,
Aw, I didn't mean to be a tease.
Just want to get a few more things together. Maybe, a few more recent shots to show how the place has changed, get an accurate history on the site and then, drag the ghost up off my "C" Drive.
Let me have a week or two. OK?