A Rude Awakening...Of a Sort.

This morning I was woken up by a chorus of chain saws (I found out from a friend later that there doesn't seem to be Japanese specific name for the tool - it's just a "che-in-sa-uh").  After listening to the racket for a while I got up and opened the shoji slide doors to take a look at what was going on.  The sight wasn't a pleasing one.  Workers were busy cutting down the trees in the lot next door.  After a while the sound of the chain saws and trees being felled became a bit disturbing so I went out for lunch. 

At the cafe I asked about the Japanese name for a chain saw.  That led on to their purpose this morning.  I was told the lot is being cleared so that a new apartment building can be built.  The purpose of the Shinto ceremony which woke me up late last month thus became apparent; the priest was unconsecrating the little shrine in the corner of the lot. 

The buildings which occupied the lot housed a restaurant which had been founded in the 10th year of the Meiji era or 1877.  The buildings were of a much more recent vintage as the original structures would have burned down in the 1910s when a pair of massive fires consumed the centre of the city.  I'd hazard a guess that the business closed down as much as 20 years ago though the buildings were used occasionally as late as this past summer.  My friend's remark was that it's a bit sad to see it being torn down.

Then I asked him what one calls a Shinto priest in Japanese (the answer is "kannushi"/ 神主 ) and that led onto a question of what is the difference between "bokushi" (牧師) and "shinpu" (神父).   I couldn't come up with an authoritative answer to that one.  I pointed out that the kanji for shinpu suggested a relationship to the title of "Father" used by the Catholic Church.  By that time Minako, the woman taking care of the cafe today, had joined the conversation and it went off on tangent: the meaning of "ho-ankan" (保安官) in English and what position of authority that would equate to in Japan.  That prompted me to check online and the word I pulled out of the hat was "sheriff".

Trying to explain "sheriff" was a bit of a handful for me.  I pointed out that sheriffs were public figures responsible for enforcing the law before the days of police forces.  I also pointed out their frequent appearances in westerns and cowboy movies.  That tipped off my friend and he mentioned the title of a millennial western movie, "Young Guns".  So we talked a bit about the rule of the law in the Wild West.  On top of that was talk about various titles used by the public for members of Japanese police officers and whether or not their usage is correct in Japanese language subtitles for American movies. 

Anyways, the conversation was a lot longer than last night's conversation about a vegetable called "takana".  Incidentally, that name is a local version.  I don't remember the proper Japanese name for it.  Though I suspect the vegetable in question is kale.  At which point its name would be "ryoku kanran"...I think.