Tim’s Nomad Diaries

I have a dream. A dream where all male genitalia can live in a world free of persecution, together in peaceful and harmonious serenity; a place where man does not build walls of distrust and points out the differences and discrepancies within one and other, but rather rejoices in the commonalities that unite us all. Tolerance. Love. Compassion. And, the Holy Shaft of fertility, the Great Cock that put us on this planet and gives us Life. A calling to all of the Penii out there, all shapes and sizes, colors and creeds, curved or cut–it matter not, let us all come together for a better fertile and free world.

I am sure this is exactly what the designer of Tagata shrine, a Shinto place of worship about an hour North of Nagoya, had in mind. I prefer to call it by the seemingly more appropriate name PhallicWorld, a place that has so many phalli popping up at every fertile square inch that it would have Freud himself spinning with Oedipal symbolism. PhallicWorld should definitely be on anybodies list of things to see who has an interest in the anthropomorphic depiction and phallic representation prevalent in Shintoism and other Eastern mystic religions–or, for that matter, anyone who falls to the ground convulsing in laughter thinking of the notion of a Holy Prick Land, like myself.

But, it probably is better as a remote shrine unbeknownst to the travel guides and as such tourist, like it is now. PhallicWorld, far rom being the major tourist attraction that one would imagine it to be, is rather a legit functioning holy place, filled with believing worshipers, and largely undiscovered by ‘Gaijin’ eyes. Luckily, my Servas Hosts, Masumi and Shige, brought me here, but with the caveat (blessing in their minds) that tradition holds that if a single person prays to the shrine–the ‘Holy Shaft’, that person will shortly find his or her wife/husband. I hope the ‘Shaft-Master’ deity understands the Western tradition of crossing ones fingers when speaking untruths…

Hitchhiking tales and lots of more photos to come in the next few days…