Six steps in Japan - bloom bloom to boom boom

咲 ... This is the single character that we chose to name our first child. It means to blossom or to bloom. 9 simple strokes. It reads "Saki". To celebrate our daughter's birth my sister gave us a book of Saki's greatest works.

Saki was the pen name of Hugh Hector Munro, a master story teller satirising Edwardian society. You can read his short story Tobermory, here. For an extensive online collection of his works visit this webpage. It is really worth the read.

Another Munro, Neil Gordon, was a Scottish doctor who lived in Japan in the first half of the 20th century. For the last part of his life he moved to Hokkaido and lived among the Ainu people in Nibutani, ministering to them spiritually and medicinally. He was influenced by shamanism. You can visit his house and see his Ainu collection in the bleak Nibutani (pack for cold weather). He published an anthropolgical study Ainu Creed and Cult.

Blind shaman women are known as itako. They gather in Aomori to commune with the dead. Check here for a quirky Japan death map including information on the grave of Jesus Christ in Aomori!

Jesus Christ the manga version. Described as a comedy and romance. Think they must have twisted the plotlines a little.

Short (but useful) English bios of the main comedy protagonists in Japan.