A Little King of Hell 👹 to End Your Year? (Patreon)

Need to scare off some negative energy? Chase away all those bad vibes that keep hanging around? Want to start your 2025 squeaky clean, fresh, and utterly revitalized? Let me share some King of Hell to do just that. Back story:

Julyan lives not far from Noboribetsu which is famous for a place called Jigokudani or "Hell Valley" -- so named because it's in a volcanic crater with a crap-ton of geothermal activity just below the surface. Meaning there are loads of hot springs and smelly steam coming up from the ground. It does indeed look like what you'd imagine hell to look (except it's beautiful, too). Oh, and there are oni statues everywhere. Noboribetsu is very much a tourist area, but a lot of fun nonetheless!

Here's an oni to help you pass exams and get into a good school.

Anyway, one of the attractions is a large Enma Daiō / King of Hell along the main street that "comes to life" several times a day. Comes to life? It's an enormous karakuri. Karakuri are automatons that were popular way back in the 17th century on through the 19th century, where they had dolls or puppets that moved cleverly due to a complicated system of gears and levers and springs, etc. No electricity at all, but they move and DO THINGS.

This one is famous for delivering a cup of tea.

The inside looks something like below.

The King of Hell in Hell Valley is also a karakuri automaton that doesn't use electricity to do his little performance. It's also huge. So it quite impressive! I think some people don't realize the movements aren't using electricity so they aren't as awed as I think they should be. We managed to find parking and make it to one of the performances. That's the video at the top. It starts with cool hell music that I quite liked, but if you want to see Enma Daiō start to move you'll have to fast forward to the 2:50 mark. Its face even changes from normal looking kind to red-faced King of Hell.

There's a little of the J and K and R at the end, too 😉. Tomorrow is the 31st! Somehow I lost a day. I thought it was the day after tomorrow. I'm planning on visiting the temple to ring out all my sins from the old year and hopefully then still be able to wake up to see the first sunrise of the year, all of which I'll record and share here. I'll do hatsumode (first visit to the shrine) later. Luckily, you don't have to do hatsumode on the first of January. Theoretically, the first time you visit a shrine after January first is hatsumode even if it's in March or something. But it's best to go in January because it's all festive and stuff. I'll record that, too! How's everyone feeling about 2025? I always get excited for a new year, new start, a long stretch of blank canvas and what can I do with it? I'm wishing you all a wonderful year filled with peace and productivity and pleasant adventures. ✨🐍✨🎍✨

Since it isn't officially the new year we say: Yoi otoshi wo!

Basically, "have a good year", but not quite "Happy New Year"...yet. Thank you, XOXO,

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