M&M: Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)

Chihiro is 10 years old and together with her parents she moves to a new city. On their way to the new home they get lost. During a break they find an abandoned funfair. At first Chihiro does not want to be there, but then goes alone to explore the area as her parents illegally help themselves to some food and start eating like pigs at a sort of restaurant. As Chihiro is walking around, she meets a boy by the name of Haku. Haku warns Chihiro to leave this place before the night, but when Chihiro is back with her parents, they turned into pigs. To protect Chihiro from the creatures of the night, Haku brings her to the bathhouse to the witch Yubaba. In the bathhouse Haku asks the young woman Lin to request work for Chihiro. But the witch controlls her workers by erasing their memory of their name and whoever doesn't know their name has to stay in this magic world. Haku himself can't remember his full name and makes it clear to Chihiro that it's important for her to remember her full name whatever else happens. Chihiro has to do many tasks and wor hard until she can go back to her parents in the end. You'll have to watch for yourself to find out, if Haku will remember his full name.

The bathouse of the witch Yubaba was build for the Shinto gods an spirits and I found it exciting to learn a bit about the shinto belief through this animated movie of the year 2001 (directed by Hayao Miyazaki). For someone like me from Europe this belief is foreign and less known. Although I did read a bit about shinto (and voodoo) some years ago, because I'm interested in different belief systems and wanted to learn about them. So it wasn't totally new for me. I like this idea that gods and spirits are on earth, in the wind, in the water, on the earth, in the animals and not somewhere up in the sky far away from us on earth.

I felt a bit drawn to this movie not just because I found the plot description exciting, but also because of the name Haku. I knew the name because it's the name of one of the currently 4 cats of the American-Japanese Youtuber couple Rachel and Jun. If you like cats and are interested in the Japanese culture, check out Rachel and Jun's YouTube channel!

Nina Hagen did the German voice for the witch Yubaba. Lin was spoken by her daughter Cosma Shiva Hagen. I didn't know any of the other speakers in German or English.

Again... why me?

I was shopping today and shortly behind the cash stand there was something round with a cross on the floor. For a moment I was thinking of picking it up and handing it to the checker, but put it in my jacket pocket instead. On the way home I only had one thought:

"Why? Why?! WHY?! Why do I find something like this again?"

I don't even know where this is from or what for. Does anyone know? Write it to me in the comments.

I'm sorry for the bad quality of the picture. The shot was taken with my mobile phone.

Again something religious at a religious time. Just like around Easter with the statue and pendant. Crazy times.

Religious signs

On March, 30th I went to throw my waste paper in the containers a couple of streets from here. Next to them was a big bag. I was curious and peeked inside. Inside were several dishes and a statue. I hesitated for a short moment and then I took the statue and took it home with me. It's about 21.5 cm (about 8.5 in) and weighs a tidy 1.3 kg (about 2.9 lb). No idea who would dispose of something like that. I would suppose that a religious relative died and the other relatives didn't have any use for such a figure and didn't know how to get rid of it in another way or didn't want to sell it. Strange though that this figure was dumped so shortly before Easter. What a timing!

Yesterday I went outside for a short time, walked our street and saw something round, golden and shiny on the sidewalk. I bent down to pick it up, believing it was one of the coins we have for shopping trolleys, although it obviously has a small hook, which those coins usually don't have. When I turned this thing around in my hand, I was baffled. It wasn't a coin, but a religious pendant. Fairly solid, too. I can't bend it. It's not a cheap toy. I put it on my keychain and wondered, why I found such religious things twice in such a short period of time. Me of all people.

I think, I'll hold on to both for a while, until I decided on what to do with them. Sell online?