Merry Christmas!

I was too stuffed yesterday to write a word so merry Christmas everyone! I truly hope you all got exactly what you wanted. All the best!

Fight like Jason Bourne?

When I set about writing the action scenes for The Gatekeeper's Son, I already knew the fighting style I wanted for Junya. I'd seen The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and a whole bunch of other movies which feature elaborate Kung Fu fight scenes. They're fun to watch but are all rather ineffective as far as ending a fight fast. Enter Jason Bourne. In the first installment of the movie series, what impressed me the most was his brutal yet economical fighting style. And it was extremely realistic. When he fights the three guards in the US Embassy, that is a brilliant fight scene, using from what I can see, the Israeli fighting system Krav Maga. Another great fight was the one shown in the clip below. I think that has got to be one of the best movie fights I've ever seen! So, that's the way I wanted Junya (and Shoko) to fight. Fast, brutal, get it done and move along. I don't think long fight scenes play well in a book anyhow. But if the Gatekeeper's Son ever makes it to the Big Screen, I will insist that the fights scenes are choreographed like Jason's.        

A street in Japan.

When I first visited Japan, it was little things that surprised me, like a street with shops and restaurants. At home, that means a straight row of buildings of different sizes, plate glass windows, maybe trees lining the sidewalks and a bunch of parked cars. A shop in japan is often at the front of the owner's house and they'll hustle in from a back room hidden behind a curtain to serve you. Often both the house and the store have been owned by the family for generations. Streets and shops like this are all over Japan. Of course, like in America, this way of life is being threatened by big box stores. 

Cool street scene pictures below. Very fun to find places to eat or drink. I need to add a scene like this in GKS2!

The Shrine of love?

Ōkuninushi (Ōkuninushi-no-mikoto), famous as the Shinto deity of marriage is also known as  'En-musubi', the creator and arranger of relationships. The relationships are not simply those that bind men and women together in marriage. They are also the relationships that help us grow into respectable adults, create a bright and exciting society. Bring all things happiness and good fortune a create a feeling of brotherhood between us all.' (Taken from A Guide to Izumo Oyashiro). No wonder Junya and Shoko fall in love (Maybe) Stayed tuned for book 2.

Ōkuninushi-deity of marriage

Junya's Father? Can you tell me his name?

I'm getting a lot of people saying, "What's the deal with Junya's dad?" Well, it's true that he didn't show up very often in book one. He really didn't have a role other than showing that Misako (Okaasan) had a husband and Junya a dad. And when he did show up, he wasn't a strong character either. He was, and is, a quiet man who had his share of bad experiences and just wants a quiet life. However, he plays a larger role in book 2 where he will be an important role model for Junya and I hope, that will satisfy you readers! I do like him, after all, he's a woodworker and likes heritage renovations, just like me.

More on the ancient Izumo Shrine

If you remember, after Junya's nightmare, he described the Izumo Shrine as have massive posts: 3 huge trees, tied together and painted red. 'According to the Kuchizusami, a book written in 950 AD. the main structure reached 48 meters, topping the 45 Meter height of the Great Buddha Hall of Nara's Todai-ji Temple and making it the tallest building in all of Japan.'  The first records of the Izumo shrine date to 710 AD. Below are pictures of what archaeologists excavated at the site and a model of what they believed the posts looked like based on old records. The posts they found were three cedar trees with a three-meter (about 10 feet) diameter at its base. As I've said in interviews, with visuals like these, it's pretty easy to create the land of Izumo where Shoko and the Gatekeepers guard the home of the gods. 

Another look at the posts excavated at the shrine site as well as more documentation of the probable layout of the shrine. 

There the posts stood

Model of the posts as they may have looked 1000 years ago

Izumo-Taisha Shinto shrine

One of the main locations featured in The Gatekeeper's Son is the great Izumo-Taisha shrine. It's considered one of the most important shrines in Japan and has a history going back a thousand years. The general area around the shrine is full of artifacts and archeological sites dating from the bronze age and reinforce how old the area truly is.

Izumo Taisha present day