The god of electronics found in Japan - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 26, 2017, 01:00:37 pm
content: I just returned from a holiday/family reunion trip in Japan. My immediate family lives in Australia, Japan and France, so we all met up in Japan, visiting Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Imari, Nagasaki, and Goto Islands (Fukue).As we were nearing the bamboo forest in Arashiyama near Kyoto, we had some Japanese food a little off the beaten tourist path. The guy serving suggested we visit a shrine for the god of electronics and he gave us a free personal tour of the place. All these gods in my opinion are bunkum and in general I have no time to waste on occult, false gods, palm reading, fortune telling, lucky numbers, astrology, lucky charms and other, but this so-called god of electronics I investigated out of curiosity.So on the precincts of the historic Horinji Temple, we checked out the Shinto shrine known as “Dendengu”, which is devoted to Den Den Myojin (the ancestral god of electronics). Besides the Dendengu Shrine, there is a stone pagoda and monument that commemorate Thomas Edison and German scientist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. The shrine is dedicated to protecting electricity and electromagnetic radiation.https://en.japantravel.com/kyoto/dendengu-shrine-horinji-temple/14695Also attached are some photos I took, in low res.I also visited the great electronics mecca of the past called Akihabara has been turned into a kitsch bling place with little content for serious electronics enthusiasts. Their idea of hobbies is models of Pokemon type stuff. There were some ham radio stores still around. Almost no low level component stores. I did not waste my time visiting Nihonbashi in Osaka where I bought my Create antenna rotator in the 90's. I feel Japan is losing its electronics retail core, like Australia has lost most of it. I guess it has all gone to China where all our eggs are in the one big red basket. Fortunately I did have a chat with the cute Cosmo the robot. I also noticed as I travelled on the numerous Shinkansens, there were almost no ham radio antennas to be seen outside the windows in comparison to trips I did in the mid 1980's. It appears ham radio is dying in Japan.Slightly off topic, I have included one photo of an extraordinary monument in Nagasaki, which I found quite emotionally moving. Many countries and former regimes provided memorials in Nagasaki all with a message of peace, except the meagre one from the USA which did not offer peace, just friendship. I did an assignment on Hiroshima/Nagasaki/nuclear weapons proliferation assignment in 1974 in year 10 at high school. 500 words was the requirement. I wrote 25000, covering 156 foolscap pages to impress my very attractive teacher I had a crush on. She gave me 56 out of 50. Never had a mark like that before or since. Almost as good as getting date with her but being only 15 years old, I had no hope. But I got so interested in the subject matter, I felt visiting Hiroshima and Nagasaki were required to complete the assignment. It has been on the bucket list for the last 43 years. The assignment is now truly complete!