Wordless Wednesday: Japanese Toilet Translation

Okinawan Folktale: Kouri Island -- The First Man and Woman

An Adam and Eve Sort of Legend

 

 

This photo of a mural comes from the front of a religious center on Kouri-Jima.

Inside the building are all sorts of mysterious things about the island.

There's a Japanese children's book with this story in it, you can purchase if, you like.

 Outside, facing the ocean is the adult version of the story and, some different artwork.

The first man and woman are wearing some clothes in this rendition.

When stuff, gets etched in stone, there might be some truth, to the myth.

So, lately, I've been Geo-tagging images and shooting any text, I find.

Behind the man and woman are some utaki (shrines) where people pray.

In the left side of this photo is a plaque inscribed with Japanese Kanji.

Using the Google Translate camera, a broken English version of the story was obtained.

Take this image and scan if for translation if, you like.

An easier (to understand) interpretation was found at Chicago Okinawa Kenjinkai.

The First Humans of Kouri-Jima

They came down from above and, lived naked on this small island.

The only source of food was rice cakes, which came down from the skies on a daily basis.

They figured it would be a good idea, to store some food, in case the supply got cut off.

Once they started stashing rice cakes, the daily delivery suddenly stopped.

They began, begging the full moon, to start sending food again because they were starving.

Their prayers weren't answered and, they had to hunt for food for themselves.

One day, they noticed a pair of dugongs swimming near the shore.

That's when they realized male and females had different body parts.

Somebody must have gotten embarrassed and, they decided to start wearing clothes.

Clothing didn't stop them from being the best of friends and, they made lots of babies.

And, when the babies got older, they carried on the family tradition, making more babies.

Now, you know, where all these people on Okinawa came from!

MORE OKINAWA FOLKLORE

The Longest Living People in All of Japan

Stone Monument in Ogimi Village

 

 

This stone is located alongside HWY 58, in the village of Ogimi.

Directly behind it, there is a small trickle flowing from a waterfall in the hills above.

Lately, I have been carrying a Garmin along, to add Geo-tags to my photos.

And, I really wanted to shoot this rock because, I heard it was special.

But, after traveling all over the northern hills, the batteries in the Garmin, wore out.

Two things needed to be done before, I posted this photo.

1. Figure out a way to get Latitude and Longitude, to add to the image EXIF data.

2. Verify, that to inscription on the plaque, said something about longevity.

Travelers May Want to Visit

  

The location happens to be at the Michinoeki (Road Stand) in Ogimi, Okinawa.  

There's plenty of parking spaces and, the waterfall is just to the right of all the shops.

Over at Google Maps GPS Coordinates, I punched in the address.

Then, hit "Get GPS Coordinates" and, they gave them to me.

Latitude: 26.690 Longitude: 128.108

That should be good enough for the Geocache crowd to find the location.

Then, I manually added the Geo-tags to my photo file, for the rest of the world to see.

Translation of Inscription

This turned out to be quite a chore as, I used my smart phone as an interpreter.

The Google Translate folks, haven't quite hit 30% accuracy, would be my guess.

After, I stopped laughing, I figured, they gave me enough, to continue researching.

The rumor, I'd heard was, that this stone had a poem about longevity written on it.

An article in Japan Times gave me this:

“At 80, we remain children.”

 

If death visits us at 90, we should say, “Wait until we are 100, then we might consider it.”

The best translation, I could find, came from the Ogimi Village website:

"At 80 years old, I am still a child. When I come to see you at 90, send me away to wait till 100

Let us keep going strong as we get older, and not depend too much on our children in old age.

Come to our village in your old age, and we will provide the blessings of nature and teach you

 the secrets of longevity.

We the senior citizens of Ogimi proudly declare this the longest-lived village in Japan."

"April 23rd, 1993 Ogimi Federation of Senior Citizen Clubs"

Me and this Ryukyu Island Pine Tree: L'il Rant

Hunting for Special Trees

 

 

It started one day, last week, when a friend asked if I could locate a tree.

He has a  black and white picture, taken somewhere around 1950.

A few prints, were made and along with Doc Graff, the search began.

Our first stop was on the northeastern side of Okinawa.

That's where we discovered this Ryukyu Pine.

Looking around at the background and taking photos from several angles, convinced us.

Although, it's big and impressive, it wasn't the tree we were searching for.

 

The tree, is special or, it wouldn't have this sign posted nearby.

So, I shot the sign and some other items in the area, for further investigation.

Without any help translating, I gained some information.

For example, the tree is 220-250 years old and, I have a Latin name.

Making Friends Searching for Trees

 

 

The folks in the neighborhood of that pine tree were helpful.

Once they saw what we were trying to accomplish, they showed an interest in helping.

They agreed, we had found the wrong tree and gave us some suggestions.

They even offered some sake, to drink. It wasn't lunchtime, yet !

Nice people but, we had work to do.  So, I'll visit again, sometime.

 

Off to the Other Side of the Island

 

 

Up and down the west coast, we went, showing the photo of the old, special tree.

Over there, people were helpful, too.

They did stuff, like pull history books off the shelf, searching for that picture.

And, passing the photo around, gave us directions to another huge, historical tree.

But, it didn't turn out to be the one we were hunting for, either.

More on than gem, at a later date.

The rest of the story about this Ryukyu Pine, is more important.

Going 'Round and 'Round

 

 

It would probably be a good idea to go get a translator for this sort of thing.

But, I decided to try and do it on my own.

They have these online services, you can use, for free.

Take a JPEG image and get it scanned at one of them, by uploading the photo.

And, the thing turns it into a downloadable document.

So, I tried a few, using the photo, of the sign above. But, some won't read Japanese.

Once, I figured that out, I thought I had it made and, sent the image in for processing.

Then, downloaded the document, copied and pasted it into Google Translate.

And, it told me this:

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Masu "

WHAT MORE COULD A MAN ASK FOR ?

So much more could have been learned, sitting with those guys and a bottle of sake !

Ryukyu Pine a Prefectural Symbol of Okinawa

 

Sunday Silly Sign for January 6, 2013 (Photo)

A whole year was spent chasing down silly signs for a Sunday post.

Thinking there weren't any more left, to take photos of, I figured, we gotterdun.

This one was sent to me by an alert reader, here in Okinawa, Japan.
  

This Sign Requires Some Translation

 

First, I have to give you some background.  My friend was in a Japanese Hospital.

Like any normal guy, he was looking for something to read, while the lady was with the doctor.

There isn't really much, in the English language to read around there.

So, I guess he got bored and started looking at the trash cans.

This sign was on top of the trashcan for burnable (もえるゴミ) material.

COMBUSTIBLOES !!!

He immediately took a shot of it with his cell-phone and emailed it to me.

When I asked what they had on the trashcan for non-burnables, he said he saw.....

NON-COMBUSTIBLOES !

But, I think he was laughing so hard, he couldn't hold the cell-phone camera still.

This was in a hospital.  The doctor speaks English.

Now, I'm sorta worried about my friend and his missus because of this silly sign.

Maybe, the doctor fell asleep during spelling class when he was a little kid.

Do you suppose they let a guy like that deliver babies ?


More Silly Signs in The Doozies


Today's Feature Photo