#265Original Name: ? (Side Shrine of 志式神社)
Transcript: ? (Side Shrine of Shishiki Jinja)
Translation: ? (Side Shrine of Planned Ceremony Shrine)
Location: 1238-2 Nata, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka-ken 811-0204
Visited on: 16-Oct-2018
Another nameless little shrine in the woods next to Shishiki Jinja.
Yet this one is special, or rather, I should make it special, to me and me alone.
It is in this little Shrine that I fulfil one of the goals of my journey, and to explain that, I will have to do a bit of exposition: You see, after finishing my study of Game Design in 2012, I started working for a Facebook Games company by the name of MegaZebra. It was my first long-term work experience, and thus it took me a while to realize that the conditions there were rather abusive seen from an objective perspective. Despite other employees quitting after 18 months on average, I managed to last three-and-a-half years before the continuous mental cruelty imposed on me by management and its lackeys had me ready for the nut house. I spent six weeks in therapy, during which MegaZebra tried to unlawfully fire me. Having anticipated as much, I let my lawyer handle things from there, and ended up with an agreement that had the company pay me for several more months and then see me off with an adequate severance package. It was precisely after that, in 2016, that my travels – and with it
the Travelling Fox Blog – should begin.
Now then, it was during my time in therapy that I carved a little fox statue, taking the Japanese fox statues found at Inari Shrines as an example. Naturally, I inadvertently chose a particularly hard stone, and as thus my progress was limited, and the result not very artisan, but it was something, and that's all it needed to be. I kept that little fox at home during my time in New Zealand, but took it with me on my Journey to Japan, carrying it around all the way, up until now.
I have been meaning to give this little fox a home at one of the Shrines here, but it took me a while to find the right one. It had to be a remote, rural Shrine where even a crude little carving such as mine would be welcome as part of the family, and now, here in Fukuoka, I finally find a Shrine like that while also carrying the carving around and thinking of it at just the right time. And so, I take a minute to pour all my wishes, hopes and dreams into the little carving, and then send it off to Inari, so it may join the other foxes in their family. I dearly hope my prayers will reach her.