When the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami occurred I was surprised to read in the paper that people in that region were honoring the power of nature. Christianity, unlike Shintoism, has never held so much regard for nature. It's regarded in the West as something man should tame, conquer and cultivate, much like the destruction of Las Amazonas from the 1600s. We fail to appreciate how much our culture and ideas and current social climate is linked to religion. Europeans hacked up the amazon without much thought to the care or spiritual balance of the creatures, plants or people who inhabited it. We powered the industrial revolution from the profits and have oppressed other nations using the power we reaped from it ever since. The gods in the grain of rice isn't so much a belief, but a way of life. It teaches gratitude and tells us to respect the things which allow us to live, like the bushmen of southern Africa who thank their prey before taking it home.
Spring has left us. At school we are digging up the dying pansies and rotting cherry blossom hides on street corners. The stuffy heat has started, cocooning everyone in drowsiness and the wind has changed, blowing volcano ash lightly over Kagoshima city, which falls like rain. Ash gets in your eyes, in through forgotten windows and covers the lines on the tennis court. Time is devouring days more quickly and soon I will leave this place. There will be no more chopsticks or rice gods or volcanoes. All that remains is a little of their spirit.
