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What I was surprised when I talked with my friend recently was that his hobby is “visiting ruins”.

On his day off he visits ruins with a camera in his hand.

I wonder what’s so interesting about ruins but I heard another surprising hobby that is popular among Japanese people recently.

The person who has the hobby is called “haka-mairar”.

“Haka-mairar” literally means “tomb visitor” and it refers a person who visits tombs of famous people as a hobby.

It is quietly boom in Japan.

The purpose of “haka-mairars” are diverse; for example, some people want to see the tomb of a great man who he or she respects, or others want to visit a tomb to express his or her gratitude.

(c)otonage-nai

The tomb of Tokunaga Yoshinobu, the 15th shogun of the [W:Tokugawa shogunate],
in Yanaka cemetery in Taito, Tokyo.

It is surprising that some salary-men go business trips and visit tombs around the area.

(C)otonage-nai

It’s the tomb of one of the masters of Japanese painting,
[W:Yokoyama Taikan] in the same cemetery.

What the great thing about this is that they don’t go alone but the people who have the same hobby get together and they all visit a tomb, and enjoy talking about the topic.

In March, there was a talk show in [W:Odaiba], Tokyo, where charismatic “haka-mairars” met and talked about the fascination of tombs.

Spreading of twitter made a great contribution to them holding those events.

I have peeked in on the “haka-mairars” twitt but it was a deep world LOL.

By the way, are there those “haka-mairars” in your country?

Maybe I just didn’t know but visiting the great people’s tombs is a usual act in the world.

This is the JAPAN Style!

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