Movie title themes in Nayr76's past week:

Girl Looking at a Pearl Earing: Returned from a jaunt to Mie Prefecture, maybe 100 miles east of my hovel in Kobe. Toured the pearl farming area of Ago Bay, which produces some great grey, white, and black pearls.
The cells which the oyster coats with its silica apparently come from the Mississippi River. Not exactly buying locally, but then neither are all the imported snacks I tend to ingest here, either.

Is Nothing Sacred?: Well actually, yes. One place in Japan that has been spared paving is the beautiful Ise Jingu. A Shinto shrine that has become sacred and sports guards from the Imperial Agency, Ise Jungu is unique in two ways. first, the main shrine is rebuilt every 20 years. There are several large sites with gravel, and while one temple stands, its replacement is being built. Surrounding the grounds are cedars probably more than 500 years old, as well as a nice stream and many sub-shrines paying homage to various gods, such as wind, animals and other nature dieties.

Mission: Typhoon Hysteria: A typhoon is crossing Shikoku and headed across the main japanese Island of Honshu. Now no group of people get caught up on weather like the Japanese. They can even talk about weather minus a water cooler and a styrofoam coffee cup. Until I see a spotted cow flying around in a funnel cloud, I am not going to become victim to fear's unrelenting icy grip.