Miyazaki, a prefecture in Japan, in the southeastern part of about. Kyushu. The area is 7.7 thousand km2. Population 1 million people (1973, estimate), including 62% urban. The administrative center is the city of Miyazaki. The basis of the economy is agriculture. Over 70% of peasant farms cultivated less than 1 ha of land each. About 65 percent of the cultivated area is occupied by rice (156,000 tons harvested in 1970); wheat, barley, and oats are also cultivated. Horticulture (mainly tangerines) and sheep farming (mainly cucumbers).
Most of the territory is covered with subtropical evergreen forests (bamboo is of industrial importance). Near the city of Makimine, copper pyrite is mined. Chemical industry (about 50% of the value of the industrial output of M.), food and flavoring, woodworking, pulp and paper, textile (Miyazaki, Nobeoka, Oyodo), aviation (Miyakonojo) industries, and non-ferrous metallurgy (Nobeoka).
In the Japanese prefecture of Miyazaki, next to the city of the same name, there is a small island of Yoshima, with tropical vegetation. It is interesting because it lies on top of an extremely unusual, as they say, basalt formation, popularly called the devil’s washboard.
How this could be formed, there is no sensible explanation. Let’s take a closer look at all this and then we will give some analogy, although it concerns only the island itself, the situation with the washboard is more complicated, but the term terraforming is definitely in the air.
Culture of Japan
Japan is a very interesting state, known for a wide variety of traditions and customs. The geographical position of the Land of the Rising Sun made it somewhat isolated from other states, thanks to which it developed without regard to European countries. The culture of Japan is extremely rich and diverse.
Peculiar Japanese traditions were formed under the influence of historically important events. Gradually, Japan turned into a powerful, cohesive state with characteristic features and a certain mentality of the population.
Tea ceremony
Utensils for tea drinking are quite simple, ceramic, rough workmanship, not decorated with anything. Very much appreciated, in contrast to European habits, the old look of objects. The set includes a box in which tea is stored, a teapot or cauldron for boiling water, a bowl for general drinking, cups for guests, a stirrer for stirring tea, a spoon for pouring. When the guests enter, the water for tea is already heated.
Guests should pay attention to a niche in the wall opposite the entrance, in which hangs a scroll specially hung for this ceremony with a saying defining the theme of this ceremony, as well as an incense burner and a bouquet of flowers. The owner himself meets the guests outside and enters the house last.
The owner sits opposite the guests. While the water is heating, guests are served a simple light meal. After eating, the guests leave the house, stretching their legs and getting ready for the main action – a joint tea party. The owner at this time changes the flower arrangement in the niche. When the guests return to the lodge, the host begins to prepare green powdered tea. Everyone is silently watching the process and listening to the sounds.
This is a kind of meditation. The host pours the tea into the bowl, adds a little boiling water and stirs the contents with a bamboo stirrer until everything turns into a homogeneous mass and green foam appears. Then water is added to the tea to obtain a drink of the desired strength. Passing the common bowl is a whole act. The host bows and passes the tea to the most honored guest. On the left palm of the guest is a silk scarf. He takes the cup with his right hand, puts it on his left, nods to the next guest, sips tea from the cup.
Then he puts the handkerchief on the mat, wipes the edge of the bowl with a paper napkin and passes it on to the next guest. So the bowl makes a circle, symbolizing the unity of the assembled guests, and returns to the owner. The next stage of the Japanese tea ceremony is the conversation of guests drinking tea from separate cups. It is not everyday affairs and worries that are discussed, but a saying written in a scroll, tea, tea utensils, a flower arrangement in a niche. Before the guests – sweets.
When the conversation ends, the owner apologizes to the guests and leaves the house. Already without the host, the guests are examining the hearth, flowers, in a word, everything that accompanied the tea ceremony. Then the guests leave the house, the owner, who is near the entrance, silently bows to them.
Then he enters the house and sits there for a while, remembering the ceremony itself and the feeling of it. Then he cleans everything up and leaves. It is important that there are no external traces of the ceremony, only a trace in the mind.
