Apparently, like Eminem, Christianity is not big in Japan.

This is not altogether surprising as they already have their hands full with two other religions, Shintoism and Buddhism.

Having said that, there are roughly a million Christians in total here - though in a country the size of Japan, it's not a lot. But if it was a country the size of Barbados, it would be. But it's not.

Walk around any neighbourhood and you'll find plenty of churches, but in many cases the pews will be empty.

It appears that it's all down to the advertising methods being employed by the Christian Association of Japan. Sticking a few TVs in a wall and running God-related ads around the clock just isn't cutting it.



Let's be honest, corrugated iron never looks good, no matter what colour you paint it.



It's something of a surprise that there aren't more Christians here, as according to the people of Shingo in northern Japan, Jesus is buried in their village.

Legend has it that instead of having his hands nailed into wood, Jesus fled to Japan and ended up living in Shingo, doing a spot of rice farming and dying at the ripe old age of 106.

On his way to Shingo, he visited the Gion district of Kyoto because he'd read in his guidebook that it was a really lovely place....


Jesus was said to have been impressed by the doors in Gion.


Moving on from Gion, he soon found himself feeling rather peckish and, for the first time in his life, tried takoyaki - little chunks of diced octopus inside a ball of light fluffy batter...


Despite burning his tongue on his first bite, takoyaki became part of Jesus's calorie controlled diet while living in Shingo.


Jesus forewent the bullet train in favour of leg-power, arriving in Shingo a few weeks later. Here he lived out the rest of days mingling with the locals and eating takoyaki.


"Tooooooouuuuuuchakuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!"

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 01, 2009 at 9:45 pm. You can skip to the end and leave a response.