Ghost of Nanachi-baka

 Located in Makishi, Naha, Okinawa

Not far from Miebashi Station on Yui Rail is a hill we'll call Nanachi-baka.

Best translated as Seven Tombs for the family burial sites which stood there.

Surrounded by the concrete of Naha, it's on private property but the woods are visible.

Thanks to Google Earth Pro you can see the terrain. There's a bit of greenery in the image.

Whenever you spot a grove of trees on a hill in the city, assume it's some sort of sacred place.

If it weren't special, developer bulldozers would have claimed the land.

Another scene borrowed from a Google Earth screenshot at ground level.

Miebashi Station is on the left side of the image frame.

Show Us the Ghost!

Alright, alright first let me do some explaining.

After three days of unsuccessfully trying to reach Banksy here's what I decided.

Draw the pictures myself or attempt to sketch them with a pencil and paper.

Should a real artist show up, these sketches will be replaced. I promise.

Nearby this grove of trees a young woman would purchase candy around closing time.

She hands the cashier Japanese yen to pay for the sweets. Then off she goes.

The problem is, the next morning the shopkeeper noticed the money had changed.

The yen note had turned into uchikabi (symbolic paper notes) given to dead spirits.

Kind of Mysterious

These little mom-and-pop stores are in competition with some big chains.

So, to stay in business, you have to keep an eye on the profits.

Next time that gal comes into the store late at night she's going to be followed home.

Sure enough, another night the woman comes by and gets more candy, paying with yen.

The store owner follows from a distance. It's dark outside.

The girl with the candy goes into the woods of Nanachi-baka and disappears. 

At one of the tombs, a baby could be heard crying. The storekeeper looked inside.

The woman who bought the sweets was dead.  Candy wrappers were near the baby.

Local villagers made sure the mother got a proper burial and raised the child.

The ghost was never seen again.

Happy Halloween!

PROMISE

This is the last time I will try doing sketches!

Have You Heard of the Ghosts at UNESCO Sefa-Utaki ?

Kudaka Island from Sefa-Utaki

Everybody Loves a Ghost Story

 

Just a few days ago I was there taking photos with Map It Okinawa.

There's no telling how many times I visited this site not knowing about the ghosts.

Now that I've been enlightened, this place deserves several more visits.

Sometimes a Slippery Trail

 Going up the hill to the sacred site (Utaki) it pays to walk with caution.

Your Choice, Sandbags or Stone

Even on a hot, dry day the stones can be slippery.

Short people can get away with just looking down at the ground.

Tall people, have to look up and down.

It's not the ghosts, I worry about.  Banana spiders are what I don't like running into.

The spiders, I don't mind.  It's the sticky webs that get mangled in my hair; I don't like.

 There's almost always travelers looking out at Kudaka Jima.

It's the island, where most Okinawans believe life originated.

This World Heritage Site is rated #3 out of 20 attractions in Nanjo, Okinawa.

Can Anyone See Ghosts ?

Today, when I went to TripAdvisor I learned about a ghost.

It whispered in somebody's camera microphone.

There has to be some way we can document these sorts of things.

It only costs 200 yen to get in there.

If I can catch a ghost for you with my camera, I will.

Then, I bet Sefa-Utaki becomes the #1 attraction in Okinawa, Japan !

Related Post: 

Travel Photo: View of Kudaka From Okinawa

The Torii on the Beach: Ghost at the Top of the Hill (Photos)

Aw, you don't really believe in ghosts.  Or do you? 

I promised a few people I'd show them the Ghost I mentioned in a previous blog post so, I guess it's time I dug her up.

First, you get to look at the scene as it would be if you were approaching this sacred site in late afternoon.

It can be pretty dark inside this wooded grove, even when the sun is shining brightly on the best of days.

After passing under the Torii and entering the site, this small Utaki, or place of worship, is the first thing you notice along the trail.


Climb all the stairs behind the small building and you'll come to this, very special, site of worship.
It is locked up. Only a high priestess opens the doors to pray and make offerings and that is only on special occasions. No one else has access to the place.  There is a chair on the right side.

Just about the time I started thinking of going the rest of the way up and sitting down to rest my weary bones. Something moved and I snapped this photo.  It's a GHOST and I know her.

She used to work with me here in Okinawa, Japan.  She did the writing and I was the photographer.  We worked together on Photo Essays for APOGEE PHOTO MAGAZINE, GO BACKPACKING and ROMAR TRAVEL.

Some of them, we did a couple of articles for between 2009 and 2010.  Then, all of a sudden, one day she just disappeared into thin air.  So, I figure, she really must have been a ghost.  A GHOST WRITER. 

There's the ghost on the top of the hill behind the Torii on the beach in Okinawa, Japan.  Wuuuu !

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 !