Walking over sky, following a bird...

Carol - I hope you liked a post. I put some more photographs in photo album.

MizzM - well, the most of what could be seen there was a part of history, what it looked like about 150 years ago

Zaphira - Saigo Tanomo was just an official of a clan; but even though his residence was big it was nothing comparing to castle his daimyo had - Tsuruga-jo castle will be in my next post

I put some more photographs, Opera servers refused to accept uploading 15 at once, so I needed to put 5 by 5 of them

Adele - I think there are about 20 earthquakes per day in Japan, but most of them you are unable to notice - at least I didn`t. This is very active area. It was on news there was a bigger one few days after my return to Serbia, in northern island Hokkaido.

I hate to use another website for my photos now that I have a place here in Opera. In time, it will be better, I hope

Yes, the life goes on and people tend to forget what once was. A great parts of history will remain forgotten in a next 50 years or so

Carol - I had a problems with uploading photos but now everything seems to work Sorry if this confused you.

Mit - it is nice indeed; story about their tragic destiny is something that brings deep sigh out of a listener;

Allan - this is my point exactly; and another one: it is necessary to spend more than 15 days (what we usually have for a days off of job) in some city/country to get a full understanding of a way of living of people there; sometimes more; but we are limited by circumstances and sometimes have a wrong impressions;

Rose - thank you

Ed - thank you; the story in The Last Samurai is based on actual events that happened in Japan during 19th century; there you can see a war between Emperor`s troops made of peasants and commoners, armed with modern weapons and using tactics of western countries; on the other side there are samurai warriors, using their traditional armors and weapons, fighting against what they thought will destroy true spirit of Japan;
I didn`t like Tom Cruise in that movie though but Ken Watanabe and Hiroyuki Sanada were real stars

Zaphira - I want a sword like that

Angeliki - family ties and a sense of duty; in old Japan samurai women were given a small knife or sword as a wedding gift from their fathers; to protect themselves and to protect their honour and honour of their husbands;

Pam - thak you I am happy so much people like to read about it

Cois - thank you I hope it is not too borring, sometimes I go deep into details

You are a strange kitten

Aqualion - wow, your stepson had a nice tour all over Japan; I have not been in places he visited, I spent my time mostly in Tokyo and Yokohama; but it would be realy nice to see Kyoto and Kamakura; as you said, next time....

Carol -

Cois - thanks

Angeliki - people in Japan are very polite, everywhere, as one of my friends stated, they are polite in a street as we are polite in our homes; it doesn`t matter if this is just an usual everyday way of living, it feels good and make you do the same way

Carol -

Aqualion - nice point of view

Yes, 21. It was usual for samurai era, though. Sometimes, samurais who were in service of an daimyo, would commit suicide after his death - to follow their master (to whom they were dedicated by Bushido code) in death. There is an very interesting book written by Maurice Pinguet "Voluntary Death in Japan". He described it pretty well.

Kimmie - as far as I know this was not unusual - there is a story Chushingura about 47 ronin who commited suicide after revenging death of their master.

Cois - ronins are masterless samurais who lost their master by his death or punishment, and usually were considered as thieves and cowards, because they didn't have guts to kill themselves because of that dishonour; but, after establishing Tokugawa shogunate, a lot of proffesional warriors (mostly lower ranking samurais and soldiers) were left without job; wars stopped under strong hand of Ieyasu Tokugawa and time was needed for all of them to find a service under another master;

You are welcome

Aqualion - it is a very poetic explanation; I have found this article in Wikipedia, and a translation here was a "drifting person"

Isabel -

Louis, take your time. I will soon make another post about my visit to Aizuwakamatsu. I hope your stories about Guatemala are about to be posted.
Nice to see you again.

I would like to go thereduring spring, so maybe once I will try to organize that as well.
I hope your family will enjoy my posts and maybe comment if they find something unaccurate in my posts.
My food there was mostly traditional Japanese, miso soup with nori, white rice, tempura, sashimi, soba noodles, daikon prepared in different ways, umeboshi and some chinese dishes (there is a biggest China town in Yokohama)
And a beautiful green tea