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"Tell the chef, the beer is on me."
The marking of the Kilometre Zero is popular in many countries and Japan is no exception. I found two such markers in Japan: one is the KM 0 for the roads, located on the Nihonbashi bridge in Tokyo, the starting place of the Five Routes (Gokaidō) connecting the old Edo to the 5 important provinces.
The second marker, pictured in today’s photo, is the KM 0 for the Japanese Railways: located inside the JR Tokyo Station, the marker can be found on the platform number 20-21 (which is for the Tohoku, Yamagata, Akita, Joetsu and Nagano Shinkansen).
In many Japanese Buddhist temples, you will notice rows of dozens or even hundreds of cute stone statues, “dressed” with bibs, various hats and beads… Usually the garments are red, because in the Japanese tradition red is the color used to ward off evil spirits and to cure illness.
At the first glance, it is quite a cheerful view, filled with cuteness. But actually it has a very sad role: the statues are representing Jizo Bosatsu (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva), the guardian of children in the Japanese tradition… The Jizo statues are cute, because they are made to resemble the protected children, but the garments are usually offered by grieving parents, as part of the prayers for the lost children… However, there’s also a slightly brighter side: sometimes, the garments are offered by parents as thanks to Jizo for saving their children from a life-threatening illness.
"Tell the chef, the beer is on me."
"Basically the price of a night on the town!"
"I'd love to help kickstart continued development! And 0 EUR/month really does make fiscal sense too... maybe I'll even get a shirt?" (there will be limited edition shirts for two and other goodies for each supporter as soon as we sold the 200)