There’s no denying it, this is a boring shot. But, in the Niya-Thiya caves on the island of Iejima off the larger island of Okinawa apart of the even larger Japan, you’ll found a grand and unique history behind the seemingly mundane sights like this.
For starters the cave itself, which sits on the emerald shores of the island, is large and completely detached from modern amenities. The view is so gorgeous it’s almost unbearble. There could easily be a few food vendors atop the cliff of the cave. There could be book stores at the end of the cave selling texts about the 1,000+ Japanese that resided in this very cave for over three months during WWII to escape the bombing. Instead, the caves remain a memorial. Letters and offerings of wine and money scatter across the entire cave to honor the fallen, leaving you wondering if the cool air is more than a product of a typical cave but remaining spirits.
These spirits, as the legend goes, also live in this rock and any woman who lifts it will be pregnant within a year. To many Japanese it’s more than a legend but a last resort. There aren’t many reliable correlations between this rock and impregnation. But, fact the legend lives on tells me coincidence happens enough to legitimately make locals wonder, ‘is there power in this rock?’ I was a skeptic, until a week after my visit to the Niya-Thiya caves, when, for the first time in my life, I had a food-baby.