"John W." <worthj1970@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:73fde4f0.0411040930.a1dd6a0@posting.google.com...
> From Mainichi
> http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20041104p2a00m0dm015000c.html
> 
> "SHUNAN, Yamaguchi -- A bear found trapped in a garbage disposal hole
> will be left to die because it is already too weak to save."
> 
> Now I can probably guess what a garbage hole is, but I don't know I
> knew you could just throw your garbage into a hole in the ground. Are
> these things official, or was it just something the lady and/or her
> village used? And is that legal, to just throw garbage down a hole in
> the woods?
> 
> John W.

I suspect that it is a "composter" of some kind. And this place is real "inaka".
This article says that it was a pit, diameter of the opening 30cm, depth of 2 meters
bottom width of 1.5m. The old lady put leftover rice and vegetable scraps into it
once or twice a week. Apparently there was always a lid on the opening but the bear
must have pushed it open.

http://dailynews.yahoo.co.jp/fc/domestic/bears/

Musashi