We went to visit a park in Miyazaki encountering its so-called ‘Tower of Peace’ (looks more like a tower of war to me) built, I understand, in 1940 to celebrate the 2600th anniversary of the ascension of Emporer Jimmu, the mythical first emporer of Japan on what is believed to be the original site of his capital. The tower is constructed from stones sent from all over Asia and was meant to symbolise a united world. Bad timing, huh?
More enchanting – and the real reason for our visit was to see a collection of over 400 replica haniwa (burial statues) originally from about 250-538. They were placed around burial mounds in tribute to the deceased.
I think it’s very difficult not to project on to the little creatures, but it seems to me also related to Japanese ‘cute’ that we see everywhere:
We next ventured to the seaside to visit the tiny island shrine of Aoshima which turned out to be a jolly place full of families and surfers:
The island was surrounded by beautiful, perfectly straight rows of basalt rock, called, aptly enough the Devil’s washboard.
The formations were really exquisite reminding us of feet and melting sand sculptures:
We saw a few fishermen at the end of the ‘washboard’ though we can’t say if they caught anything:
Even the beach was beautiful, made up of crushed pink crustaceans:
But the best bit was hidden away in a notice:
Biro trees? Biro trees? We walked round the island wondering what on earth they might be – and then reached a grove of palms which I was convinced must be them. Sue didn’t believe me so we used our phone to identify them and sure enough – these were biro trees (also known as Chinese fan palms):
How could we top off all this excitement? By going in search of some replica Easter Island Moai colossi of course.
We leave you to make up your mind as to whether or not this is just theme-park nonsense or something deeper than that. – this is what the sign says:
What a great day out. I particularly like the surprised expression on the group of burial statues- what me, dead, surely not!
Those creatures were completely enchanting – funny, sad, remote, mysterious – I loved them!
Easy to dismiss the replica Easter Island statues as kitsch but there is something rather poetic about the intention behind them so my vote would be for something more than theme-park nonsense. But far more impressed by the natural stone formations – the one that looks like a draped sheet is particularly lovely.
I assumed the rocks were man made when I first saw them – so symmetrical and orderly – but the wilder shapes were just gorgeous and the draped sheet was one of the loveliest.
Rock formation can be extraordinarily mathematical and uniform in pattern. for example the Giant’s Causeway in NI with columns of symetrical rock. This looks like layers of lava over time, with occasional bubbles and spurts. I’m just catching up after a few days of bathroom chaos, so you are likely to miss this! Beautiful to have gone there,
Yes, the rock formation made me think of the Giant’s Causeway – and you’re right about the occasional bubbles and spurts of lava over time. Speaking of which, I hope the bathroom chaos has been sorted?