Japanese Light

Curiosity best left to cats

2011-09-21T13:54:00.000+09:00

It seems I only post about natural disasters this year.

The current typhoon which has closed all schools in Nagoya today has once again seen incidences of people being washed away by swollen rivers. The most tragic example happened yesterday when an 8 year old boy on his way home from school was lost to river flooding in Tajimi, north of Nagoya.

My wife commented during the Typhoon a couple of weeks ago, "Why is it that people always get washed away during typhoons?" The sad fact is that of those who have been lost over the last two days, the majority have been men in their 50's to 80's. It is not only sad because of the loss of life, but also because they perhaps should have known better.

In one exemplary incident, a retired man announced that he was 'just off to have a look at the condition of the river', and wasn't heard from again. This sparked a conversation at work today, and the fact that it is on the whole only old men getting washed away lead one senior teacher to the conclusion that nobody else is daft enough to go and stand by a raging river in a typhoon.

Commiserations to the families of those lost to the typhoon, and words of warning to the over 50's in Japan, for this will not be the last typhoon Japan sees. Just remember that thousands of tons of muck laden raging river can be dangerous, and that curiosity is sometimes best left to the cat.

The last week and a bit

2011-03-21T23:22:00.006+09:00

To begin with:
Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal

I have spent the long weekend in turn drunk, crabby, fatherly and cleaning. Nothing to do with priorities. Friends from Tokyo staying with another friend provided the first, the next was unavoidable and the last two are default settings.

I have spent the last week and a bit in shock, sadness, fear, shaking, working, being a father and husband and wondering whether I should be leaving Japan.

It's not such an easy decision as I imagined when I was younger. Radiation? Quakes? Family? Leave now, and never come back!

Bought a flat last year though. Got a full time job and my wife is starting a new one next week. Been in Japan for 11 years, worked fairly hard in some ways to be in the situation I am in now and who is going to walk away from that without checking a few things first?

Earthquakes. We have always lived with the knowledge that it could happen right now. It did. Not in my area. We discussed what we could do. We cried when we saw the rescue team from the UK arrive on the scene (again, nothing to do with priorities). We sent money to the Japanese red cross. I did a little disaster prevention in the home. I mailed friends in Tokyo to come and stay. I watched as Damon did the opposite and went to the disaster zones to take photographs for a client. Our house wasn't shaking anymore. I bought my daughter a protective hat. There were only 2 quakes that I felt here (one more while asleep, I heard).

I got an i-phone the week before the first quake hit. I was at work when it did. The school moved like it had been plonked on top of a cross channel ferry. I downloaded the BBC news app. In the constant search for information to make sense of the situation, my fingers left the screen when they had to (if I have one complaint about the iphone it is that with all other mobiles they can be charged by emergency hand powered generators... but not the i-phone).

Facebook was taken over by links, comments and expressions of shock. One friend in Tokyo gave almost minute by minute accounts of the shakes. It put me on edge, and I was glad when she came to Nagoya to get away. It seemed like nothing had happened here. People out shopping, my work going on as usual. Food in the shops. Gas in the heater. It didn't balance out.

The Japanese news was now even more difficult to understand. NHK kept up their translated news service. Staunch work. The tsunami images were unbelievable. Images of the Indonesia tsunami overlayed upon small Japanese coastal towns.

Then the Fukushima problem. Now the chance that, as well as the appalling loss of life, the effects on the Japanese economy, the expected tax rises and the heightened worry that we could be next, we may have another .... another what? 3 Mile Island? Chernobyl? Who knew?

The reaction to the Japanese earthquake and Fukushima plant problem by many people and by some news services was hysterical to say the least. I was in a panic. My wife told me to spend more time with her and our daughter than with our computer. In my mind I was only trying to find out more about the dangers we faced. I posted on a newspaper site that I thought we needed 'level headed reporting'. I just wanted to know what was going on.

One foreign resident, Daniel Kahl, uploaded a 'plea' for non-sensational reporting to You Tube. It seemed like a nice idea, but I couldn't help thinking that beyond that we need to have a little more self control. 自己管理 (jiko kanri) in Japanese. Self management. Spaces like facebook and Twitter were never set up for disasters, but they have been used for so much more in recent weeks. Opinions can reach many people in the blink of an eye and there is no controlling voice of reason to say 'hang on a minute'. Nor should there be.

Like I say, I panicked. I looked for information where I could find it. Many people did the same. Below are the links I posted to Facebook over the past week or so in chronological order. Some are news, mostly the BBC who I found to be un-sensational and informative (though I have no idea what their reporting was like at home). Others are sites that friends posted. The light relief were just that.

March 21st Randall Munroe ("...if you are basing radiation safety procedures on an internet PNG image and things go wrong, you have no-one to blame but yourself") "Radiation Dose Chart".

March 21st Light Relief "Melody Gardot - Who will comfort me".

March 21st One of sources of Fleep's charts for Tokyo "Environmental Radiation Measurement Result".

March 18th BBC article "Choppers bring no nuclear relief - but current might".

March 17th NBC (via friend) "U.S. to help Americans leave Japan".

March 17th N.Y Times (date saw article)

March 17th The Guardian "Japan nuclear crisis escalates".

March 17th (date I remembered I was UK citizen) UK Embassy "Travel advice".

March 17th BBC article "Surprise 'critical' warning raises nuclear fears".

March 16th (date I first saw site) "Graphing Earthquake and Radiation Data in Japan". (constantly updated)

March 16th BBC article " 'Radiation' text message is fake".

March 16th BBC article "Japan nuclear alert at Fukushima - Q&A".

March 15th BBC article "Reactor breach worsens prospects".

March 15th light relief "Damn you auto correct".

March 15th BBC article "Radiation rises at Fukushima nuclear plant".

March 12th BBC article "Uncertainty surrounds Japan's nuclear picture".

Park

2010-05-09T00:08:00.000+09:00

____ in the water.

2010-05-02T21:59:00.002+09:00

Biz

2010-02-06T22:56:00.002+09:00

A Fine Art

2010-01-21T21:21:00.002+09:00

They work with a dark pencil to create the impression of light and shadow.

Pigeon Portrait

2010-01-17T16:45:00.002+09:00

Walkin'

2010-01-17T09:23:00.002+09:00

School Clubs

2010-01-17T09:11:00.003+09:00

Follow this link to read some introductions to club activities in my high school.

2010

2010-01-01T02:41:00.001+09:00

Have a good year!

Cheerleaders

2009-11-23T00:04:00.003+09:00

I just don't get them. Really. The smiles, and the "We are number one"s (well who really wants to be a number two?) ... but they do make for good photos.

The Dome

2009-11-15T23:34:00.001+09:00

Whatever you say, boss

2009-11-11T22:01:00.004+09:00

"Containing just a little more alcohol, this delectable liqueur has a rich flavor of barley."
....だそうです。

For Will

2009-11-10T22:44:00.002+09:00

Japanese Yoof

2009-11-08T22:53:00.000+09:00

The Channel

2009-09-13T23:16:00.002+09:00

Kickin' it in Alfriston

2009-09-07T21:40:00.000+09:00

Well, You Can Wish Can't You?

2009-08-27T18:31:00.003+09:00

Saw this in the car park at Asda in Brighton Marina.

England Has Many Good

2009-08-24T03:19:00.002+09:00

Old Stuff At Mother's

2009-08-20T07:23:00.000+09:00

Shizu

2009-08-20T01:13:00.001+09:00

Buddah In The Wall

2009-08-10T09:31:00.002+09:00

Photographs that tell half truths. I could have been somewhere more interesting than I was, but I wasn't, and there was the entrance to a small basement Izakaya near Nagoya station with an interesting display of small statues behind a lattice of bamboo. Next door to the Izakaya? Probably another one, or a petrol station or hotel, and it was on a busy main road. But could you tell how everyday and even a little tacky it was just from the photo? Not really, because the camera doesn't lie but the person holding it can bend the truth.

Plain and Colour

2009-08-06T07:32:00.000+09:00

Koizumi

2009-08-04T07:04:00.002+09:00

Rainy

2009-07-28T15:08:00.003+09:00

Well, it is rainy season.
I tried to add a little vignetting using the TiltShift Generator featured on Ben Curtis's 'Snapper Talk'. Sadly it refused to save it, telling me that the file must be an image file. I am most confused.

Football (not soccer)

2009-07-26T19:33:00.003+09:00

Spent three days last week in Nagano with the school's football club. Together with students from a high school from Kyoto, my students were instructed by two under 18 coaches from Spain.

In Japan as America, football is known as 'Soccer', but the Spanish coach and I agreed that football by any other name...

Higher Education

2009-07-25T00:26:00.002+09:00

From selection of photos of lectures and lessons. See more pics here, and learn more about where it came from here.
It was an education just taking them.

Beep

2009-07-16T21:29:00.003+09:00

Shopping at the supermarket today reminded me of the old gag about watching your job or you will be replaced with a computer. Pictured above is the latest addition to the checkout lines in Japan's Jusco chain, the DIY register.
Hook your bag onto the holders (bottom left) and then scan in your items yourself and pay. The holder weighs your bag it seems, and then check for the weight of all that is being scanned to make sure you are not being a cheeky tea-leaf.
The whole operation of about 14 machines is monitored by 2 staff.

Delicious Tomato Sauce

2009-07-11T00:22:00.001+09:00

Under The Construction

2009-07-05T19:35:00.000+09:00

City Park

2009-07-05T19:33:00.000+09:00

Here Be Dragons

2009-06-28T11:57:00.002+09:00

Little monsters playing with monsters at a local festival.

Hot Off The Press

2009-06-23T21:44:00.003+09:00

I printed the first edition of the new school newspaper last week. Long story. Read the lead story here. An interview with the headmaster. Gripping stuff.

What's On Your Table?

2009-06-16T22:43:00.003+09:00

A cat, a container of barley tea, tissues, letters and an alphabet board from my mum, and a copy of the Reuters 'The State Of The World' photo collection from December 2007.
Love my local library!

Brass Band Club

2009-06-14T10:47:00.001+09:00

From The 26th Floor

2009-06-07T12:19:00.002+09:00

Fantasy Worx

2009-06-06T16:01:00.003+09:00

An image from the Fantasy Worx site run by the person who first put a camera into my hands and said 'go play'. Well worth a visit. Beautiful images.

After The Festival

2009-06-03T20:11:00.001+09:00

I Shaddow

2009-06-01T12:02:00.003+09:00

Happy Birthday Shizu!

2009-05-17T10:16:00.002+09:00

Keitai Snaps

2009-05-09T22:23:00.003+09:00

Last month I held an elective lesson at school on the theme of taking interesting photos with a mobile camera. The chance to be allowed to used their mobile phones in a lesson (we confiscate any that are used in class as a rule) drew 60 students.... and we were allotted a classroom for 40.

After a brief introduction and a 'getting to know your phone's camera' period, we talked about and practiced taking photos with contrast, movement and angles. After that I let the students loose on a rainy Saturday afternoon and the above are some of the result.

Some students used their inbuilt phone functions instead of thinking, some really tried hard to do something different, and some took the ideas from the lesson and took something a little different from their usual. All seemed to have fun.

Today

2009-05-01T20:26:00.003+09:00

And what a busy day. On top of the lessons, and the meetings, and the marking, we have club activities. In my high school I am now in charge of the new Newspaper Club and it's related blog. You can see a few test articles on that blog here.

Our first club activity was,　of course, interviewing the headmaster. The aim of the interview was introducing a more personal side of the headmaster. The newspaper club finished their interview and I called in my volunteer from the photography club to help me out with the photo above which I hope will illustrate the article. Not a bad effort. The piece of paper over his shoulder is annoying, but at least we removed his lunchbox from the background.

On the way home I stopped off at the chemist to pick up a new pack of masks only to find that they had sold out. Photo taken on handy mobile phone as SLRs tend to draw stares when produced in a chemist's.

The empty spaces on the racks were the virus blocking masks. The green packs at the top are the standard versions (shop brand).

Japan is responding to the WHO phase 5 warning by being practical. They are handing out information pamphlets to high risk groups and in Kyoto, a tourist spot, they are doing so in many languages to visiting foreigners (reported NHK). Keep washing your hands and gargle.The media in Japan is not quite hysterical yet, but they could learn a few things from Yahoo news about dramatizing things with figures.

A cleaner Paris for Yu and Ai

2009-04-26T11:15:00.003+09:00

This photograph from the Raw Japan blog by Reuters shows a Japanese volunteer holding out rubbish collected from the streets of Paris.
Not another fetish. The volunteers just seemed to think it could be cleaner. I suppose it could.

The Reuters blog offers an interesting range of Japan based stories, and a wide range of blogs on other areas.

Arrows

2009-04-22T20:16:00.003+09:00

Succeoの皆さん、一年間ありがとうございました。（ちょっと遅いけど、ね）

Spring comes to the garden

2009-04-18T11:27:00.002+09:00

R U KY?

2009-04-14T22:16:00.002+09:00

Was asked how to say "KY" in English (as English as those letters may seem, they are also used in Japanese). Interesting article here about the acronym culture in young Japan.

Be Prepared

2009-04-12T22:33:00.005+09:00

It has been beautiful for the past few days. You can feel the hot summer coming, but it's not here yet and neither are the insects.

As the season changes, we change the contents of our emergency backpacks. These are the bags that we hope we will have a chance to grab after the quake that we hope our building is strong enough to stand up to.

Lighter clothes, a change of bottled water, larger nappies and dammit, I forgot the bottle of Scotch!

Mochi

2009-04-05T23:22:00.002+09:00

An evangelist meeting? Day of the dead? Not at all. On the day when a North Korean missile was fired over the north of Japan, a small town in Aichi had a Mochi catching festival..

Mochi is cooked rice beaten into a thick paste and formed into small cakes. Today's festival was held at a local shrine where local people gathered to catch mochi cakes which were thrown from a raised stage.

I went to the Honen Festival a few years ago and as rock hard mochi rained down from the skies, someone grabbed my shell toe trainers thinking they were mochi and nearly sent me flying. These events get a little hectic.

As the crowd dispersed and the last mochi bagged, we noticed that one bag of mochi was stuck in a tree. Some very energetic throwing. It was a vary happy young farmer's son who caught them when they were eventually prised free.

Nice To Meet You

2009-04-04T20:42:00.004+09:00

This is a self introduction from a friend Ben.
はじめまして。
benと言います。
私のblogは何気ない日常を切り取った写真を載せています。
気ままに知らない街を散歩しするのがとても楽しみです。
たまにイラストも描いています。
blogからリンクしてますので、ぜひ覗いてみてください。
コメント大歓迎です。
Hi.
I'm Ben.
My photo's are from my wanderings around town. I also have an illustration blog which is linked to the photo blog. Please have a look and make a comment.
See Ben's photos HERE.

Dusky

2009-04-04T16:49:00.002+09:00

Smorgasbord Of The Day

2009-04-02T20:17:00.005+09:00

Lens/sensor dirt on blossom shot. Time to clone! Today was a dash from a meeting at school to meet the photography club members and their multitude of cameras. Some nice shots, some so-so, but the real highlight of the day was chatting to four elementary schoolgirls who wanted to see my photos of the carp.

"Say something in English!"

"(in english) O.K... What do you want me to say?"

"What does that mean?"

"It means 'What do you want me to say'."

"I don't understand. Are you foreign?"

Fantastic! I worked for five years in Japanese Elementary schools and had forgotten how enjoyable it is talking to that age group.

Thank you, Esther.

2009-04-02T20:05:00.002+09:00

My sister told me that it was impossible to see the one that got away in the last post with the picture at such a small size. Here is a blow-up.

While I was using the photo software to trim the picture, I thought I'd give the auto adjust feature a whirl and this is what came out.
After looking at this, the original seems very dull. A bit like living on un-seasoned potatoes for years then discovering cup noodle. The MSG of the photography world, which a nature photographer friend swears that they never use.

The one that got away...

2009-04-01T19:52:00.002+09:00

Look carefully.
Taken in Central park (a stip of concrete with some water and trees and a damn big tower) in the middle of Nagoya yesterday.

Gasshuku

2009-03-29T10:58:00.006+09:00

Guest's slippers lined up outside the dining room in a Japanese hotel (Ryokan).

The school year in Japan begins in April and ends in March. From April this year I will be a full time member of staff at a private high school in Nagoya. Responsibilities and the exciting chance to do lots of unpaid overtime abound! I have been asked to develop some form of international communication/exchange (more on that in another post) and on top of many other things I must take part in the various committees and meetings that exist outside the classroom. One of these is the 青年部 (sei-nen-bu = young teachers group).

I was 36 this march, but the sei-nen-bu does not concern itself simply with age. Most new teachers to the school have automatic membership and the purpose of the group is to support these new members using the perhaps over relied upon 'Senpai-Cohai' (senior-junior) method. Last Friday, the group went on it's end of year 'Gasshuku', a drinking session cleverly disguised as a training meeting, where teachers old and new discussed their successes and failures throughout the past year in front of the new staff (four nervous looking university graduates).

It's an exciting time for me. I always wanted to know just how far I could get on my own ability, not just selling my foreignness. The photography studio work was one experience that proved to me that some people just think about the way you work, not just about your nationality. Now I have a job with roughly the same contract as the Japanese teachers again given to me on the basis of hard work not just nationality. In the current economic climate I thought that this was a very brave move by the school. I am a little sad that I had to drop the studio work, but having a child changes things dramatically and there are always opportunities in new situations.

I arrived late for the meetings. My lift was held up at school with re-tests, whereas my one re-test student finished by 10am. The dinner and the after dinner party were fairly routine but good fun. I look to the new year with some trepidation but mostly with the feeling that here is a chance to learn and produce something worthwhile.

Bathroom Colours

2009-03-23T21:31:00.002+09:00

St. Patrick's Day Parade?

2009-03-21T22:09:00.006+09:00

The Nagoya St. Patrick's Day parade takes place on two roads in the covered shopping streets between Osu and Kamimaezu. The parade starts at Osu Cannon Temple and heads east, then makes a U-turn and heads back.
While walking east, I decided to skip to the parallel street and skirt the crowd to get to the front of the parade. Instead, I ran into the 'Free Tibet' march being held in the same shopping arcade at the same time as the parade. "What would be the chance of them bumping into each other?", I thought.
Sadly the Tibet group passed by the road that the St. Patrick's group were to exit from two minutes too fast for there to be a meeting. I think that the Tibet march leader started walking that bit faster when I asked him about the likelihood of an encounter. I must have sounded too much like a culture/political paparazzi.

And then the final mystery, the Indian film crew. One guy with a digital movie camera and an actor using the parade as a backdrop, walking around and looking bemused/aloof/mystical etc etc. What were they attempting to suggest with this location? Never got time to ask, but one of the assistants told me that the Japanese girl who was sometimes in shot was the (ex?) miss Japan. More mystery.

Ultraman to the rescue

2009-03-16T21:43:00.003+09:00

In response to the PRK's (supposedly) forthcoming missile test, Japan has unveiled it's latest in a new series of micro missiles, the Ultraman 1! This will in turn destroy any airborne threat and give the cute factor to this whole ugly arms business. A crowd-pleaser all round!

Gocchi

2009-03-02T22:03:00.003+09:00

The economic slump is hitting the home-grown fast food market it seems. I am sure that the Gyu-don O-mori is smaller than it used to be. Boiled strips of cow meat flavored with onions and sauce on top of a bed (futon?) of rice. A raw egg mixed in for the extra flavor. The chain 'Yoshinoya' even has a stamp card to reward loyal customers. They must be the people we hear about so much on T.V, those sufferers of 'Metabo' (Metabolic Syndrome).

Me? Just late home after the full day then a part time job, making the end meat.

Uniqlock

2009-02-27T13:20:00.001+09:00

Annoyingly watchable, the Uniqlock from Japan's clothing chain Uniqlo. Best viewed without sound.

Generations

2009-02-25T23:08:00.003+09:00

Mum wanted to come and visit. Couldn't wait for us to go to England. We took a train down to the inlaws a few days into her jet-lag.

My feelings do not matter

2009-02-22T14:43:00.002+09:00

Partial portraiture. A teacher sits during his students graduation.
"My feelings do not matter in the slightest degree. If they did, I should not have become a teacher." (Magister Kegel - The Blue Flower, Penelope Fitzgerald)

Taisho

2009-02-20T18:40:00.002+09:00

Ava Larf

2009-02-17T23:40:00.002+09:00

The view from the train seems familiar

2009-02-16T23:11:00.000+09:00

Rockin' the neighborhood

2009-02-02T20:13:00.003+09:00

Mount Asama seems to have idled for long enough. Photo courtesy of Yahoo.

Riding The Wave

2009-01-22T22:43:00.002+09:00

An advertisement for a fashion magazine hanging in the subway carriage on the way home this evening taken on the mobile camera. I only just noticed it before I got off. "We can change". For the OL's of Japan (Office Ladies) this means:
Yes we can 1: Looking cuter this summer.
Yes we can 2: Moving one rank up on the femininity meter.
Yes we can 3: A new one piece dress.
Yes we can 4: A variety of cute and wearable new looks.

Idyll

2009-01-21T21:12:00.002+09:00

When out walking, remember to stop and smell the rice plants.
A photo I re-discovered from last year when I was out playing with the black and white setting on the D200 I had bought second hand. Mint condition for 300 pounds!! Thank you to the old boy photographers of Japan for always trading in the nearly new for new.

Performance Art

2009-01-09T23:54:00.002+09:00

This photo was taken using my mobile phone which, I discovered, has a black and white setting for the camera. What next? DOF?

Mother in law

2009-01-03T18:20:00.003+09:00

Black, White and Blue

2008-12-26T23:03:00.003+09:00

There he sat in Central Park plaza as I was walking by, and it felt like an intrusion to scoop him up in my digital eye.
Too well dressed to be homeless, and as deep in thought or sorrow as anyone I have seen. I could only hope to wonder, as we will likely never meet, at what had cast him down.

2008-12-25T00:19:00.002+09:00

Photo courtesy of the Ritz Hotel, Osaka, Japan.

Christmas eve, and full to the brim of ads for "Christmas cake".

A curiosity in Japan for someone raised on homemade fruitcake is the Japanese Christmas cake. Christmas cake, wedding cake, birthday cake.... all soft.

Tonight on Christmas eve t.v, one trivia program brings out a list of Japan's top selling cakes. I missed number 10 in the scrabble to find a pen a paper, but my apartment is small so we can go from number 9:

9 - Cheese cake

8 - Fruit cake (sponge with strawberries sandwiched in cream)

7 - Chocolate gateaux (sponge)

6 - Chocolate cake (sponge)

5 - Short cake (not the Scottish type, a soft sponge)

4 - Monblan

3 - Eclair

2 - Special shortcake ( I have no idea, but it was soft)

1 - Cheaux cream

All soft. In the first few years of living in Japan, and living through the Japanese Christmas cake commercial season, I often wondered if Japanese people were weak teethed. How would you explain the cake mania that does not include a firm fruitcake?

Some differences...

Colours (3)

2008-12-18T21:21:00.001+09:00

The Wedding

2008-12-17T17:38:00.003+09:00

Not long after reading this post on Damon Coulter's blog, I was asked to photograph a wedding. Believing myself to be up to the job, I said yes. In hindsight, I should have said yes after a pause.

It's not that I mind working from 8 till 2:30 without a break, then dashing to my designer friends to download the data before the after wedding party. Neither do I mind the fact that they asked me because they knew me and hoped I would do it cheaper than the hotel (not difficult).

What should have made me pause for thought was knowing that they not only wanted snaps, but also wanted them for an album which I was to produce, and although I have taken a few nice photos in my time, even some that have made a passable series, an album is a series that you shoot in a day.
The wedding began with traditional dress, and the couple entered the dining room after a short ceremony and a studio shoot in the hotel studio (not me). The dining room is variously lit, the routes are set, the whole event is choreographed and despite having attended the planning meeting I got caught out on more than one occasion as the curtains suddenly opened to reveal the backdrop of Nagoya castle, or the lighting suddenly changed and so changed the light settings I was working with.

This would have all been routine for the hotel cameraman who must have done the whole gig a thousand times, but not for yours truly. I woke the next morning with the unnerving feeling that too many of my shots were badly lit, too many had been out of focus and the album would be a no go. I dashed round to see the designer who I have worked with before and sure enough many of them were. The album, however, seems to be a goer.

I found myself lacking in many ways that day, but it was experience, and as a friend said before the wedding "well, it's digital, so you'll be o.k". What I have working in my favour is Atsuko, the designer, who like professor Dumbledor will provide the phoenix (photoshop) that will cry on my wounded images. Oh, and there are also some shots that stand on their own.

Shisendo

2008-12-03T12:50:00.003+09:00

Colours (2)

2008-11-29T19:07:00.002+09:00

I take it all back. Kyoto can be beautiful.

Colours (1)

2008-11-26T22:14:00.002+09:00

Bank Holiday

2008-11-24T14:59:00.005+09:00

It rains on bank holidays in Japan too.

I have a cold. Sat in front of the heater watching a documentary about the animation director Miyasaki Hayao on TV. He creates one character in each of his movies that reminds him of his mother. The documentary showed him at great pains to complete a scene with this mother figure to his satisfaction and I watched, impressed that while he could have drawn anything, he took days to decide what should happen.

Karaoke Time

2008-11-20T06:42:00.003+09:00

That Autumn Feeling

2008-11-15T17:16:00.002+09:00

A visit to Shirakawa park in Nagoya this time last year with a friend. The apartment buildings that loom over the north side distract from the carefully sculpted 'au naturelle' ideal of Japanese garden. And so, like unadventurous escapists, we faced inwards.

House Guest

2008-11-13T20:02:00.001+09:00

He came, he chased,slept, sat and purred, and went again.

In Hot Water

2008-11-11T22:52:00.004+09:00

A nice article in one of the local (National - how rude!) English language rags about the importance of hot baths for the Japanese.

When my father came to Japan for the first time we took him to see Kenrokuen, a famous garden, in Kanazawa. After that and the 'Ninja Temple' we stayed in a Ryokan hotel for a night. Dad had about 3 minutes in the hotel's public bath before calling it a night.

Why are Japanese baths so hot? Find one writers opinion here.

Godzilla Sings The Blues

2008-11-11T22:13:00.003+09:00

This outside for a change. Dark though.

The south exit of Kanayama station Nagoya is a gathering place for those with instruments to play or dances to dance. I have become to blaze about the experience I suppose. Many of them are terrible to tell the truth.

But it's not just the music, it's the people that stay and listen. Mostly high school girls with their short-skirted bare legs wrapped in Disney motif fleece quilts against the cold. Stay on the fringes.

In the middle of those around me

2008-11-10T20:06:00.003+09:00

Still subterranean...

Platform

2008-11-09T23:12:00.002+09:00

Recently, time out-doors is regularly spent underground in subways and underground shopping malls going from A to B (and back via C if lucky).

Just occasionally, there is a lull or a surge in the crowd, someone steps into a frame they didn't realize existed and 'click' goes the shutter.

Over

2008-10-29T22:53:00.000+09:00

Aye, Fisheye!

2008-10-19T00:08:00.007+09:00

This is the Kenko x0.25 180 degree Fisheye Converter. You can find out more details here at the Japan Trends site.
Fisheye lenses are nothing new, but this one is designed to be held in front of or attatched to a compact digital camera or mobile phone camera lens. Below is the lens sitting on top of a Canon Ixy 8 meg (!!!) compact.

And here is how the converter converts.

It's a great little toy and it only costs 10,000 yen (50 pounds). The trends site mentions nothing about larger sizes, but my friend mentioned that it also comes in medium and large sizes, and thought that the larger size would cover and convert a 50mm lens on an SLR.

October 21st: Sadly these don't seem to be available to cover 50mm lenses. A shame. The three sizes available are still only to suit the smaller compact cameras, but I'm holding out for an adaptor.

On Subway

2008-10-13T00:47:00.004+09:00

Morning Blues

2008-10-10T22:59:00.003+09:00

A few clouds in an otherwise blue sky...

2008-10-05T21:16:00.007+09:00

I'm taking a short break from posting. Just a little busy, that's all.
(-0-) v

Drawing Lines

2008-03-12T00:25:00.011+09:00

Some similarities indeed. This is an article I never imagined I would write:

At what age do we become adults? In Japan people legally come of age at 20 years old. There are coming of age ceremonies for new adults all over Japan each year.

Now in the U.K as this article explains, former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has proposed a similar coming of age ceremony for sixteen year olds.

After the tube and bus bombings in London in July 2005, there was a lot of talk about the lack of national identity and cohesion amongst the modern youth of Britain. This proposal is perhaps a predictable institutional reaction to such sentiment, but is it without merit?

Aside from the affirmation of national identity comes the question of legal responsibility. As this editorial explains, the legal age of adulthood in Japan is a current hot topic. Should the legal age be lowered to 18?

There is the possibility of big change in both countries. There is also the proposed introduction of a registration card for foreign residents in The U.K which would mirror the much maligned 'Gaijin Card' system in Japan. Another similarity that I never imagined commenting on.

Lines are being re-drawn, with both countries trying to cope with internal changes.

Spring Is In The Air

2008-03-10T23:38:00.004+09:00

All White Again

2008-03-04T20:58:00.006+09:00

Last weekend we spent two nights in the holiday home of a friend who asked me to take some illustrative winter shots of the home for his brochure.

The house is in Hakuba, in Nigata prefecture. The rear windows pictured in the second photo look out onto the entrance to the ski slope and the base of the ski lift. A prime location with underfloor heating (very comfy).

Sadly, no skiing for me (not that I'm any good, I have only been twice). The long drive and the two day weekend meant that we only had a day and a half to get the inside and outside pictures. With more people than just my group staying, it meant a constant flow of bodies in and out of the house which made trying to get a shot of the interior minus cast off ski wear and tired bodies very difficult. There was also the problem of the local Sake being very good!

Finaly a series of 12 shots made the grade. Less from the outside as the wind and heavy snow even closed the ski lift on the final day. It was good to get out of the city though, and see some mountains close up. I'm told that the skiing was good too.

Hot

2008-02-26T22:38:00.002+09:00

A lucky shot from the car on the way back from the mountains at the weekend. HOTel.

The Modern Japanese Woman

2008-02-22T12:41:00.010+09:00

The front cover illustration of "Goodbye Madame Butterfly" courtesy of Pingmag.

This month the Tokyo based online magazine Ping Mag features an interview here with Japanese author Sumie Kawakami. In an unusual deviation from their regular topic of design, the article instead focuses on the relationship between sex and marriage in Japan.

Kawakami’s latest book entitled “Goodbye Madam Butterfly: Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman”contains accounts of the sex lives of eleven Japanese women.

While the term ‘modern’ is used in the title, Kawakami's interview seems to point to a situation which for the women themselves seems to be anything but. Having not read the book I am unable to comment further, but Kawakami seems to suggest that the lot of the Japanese woman could only be modern in the sense of being current.

It is an interesting interview that relates the lack of sexual activity after marriage to the long working hours of the Japanese business man, and the sense of identity that Kawakami says Japanese society ‘demands’ of Japanese couples after having children.

Take ten minutes to read the article for a brief introduction to sexless Japan.

Men at work

2008-02-20T17:59:00.008+09:00

A priest inspecting drainage repair work today outside Shiogama Shrine in Yagoto, Nagoya.

It's nearing the end of the financial year in Japan. The most noticable signs of this are the road works.

Each local government department recieves a budget from the central government. The size of the budget depends on the spending from the previous year. If spending was less than the alloted amount in the previous year, the budget for the next year will decrease.

This system encourages departments to use their entire budget, and so in the run up to the end of the financial year, only slightly worn roads are resurfaced, barely wetted drainage is remade and the full budget is guaranteed for another year.

"It doesn't matter how you get there"

2008-02-13T20:58:00.003+09:00

Love hotels.

Photo Words

2008-02-10T23:17:00.000+09:00

When searching for a definition of the term "pot life", I found a link to Photo Guide's "Photo Words" section. Wish I had found it a couple of years ago.

"PhotoWords aims to help English-speaking photographers learn basic Japanese words related to photography. "

(introductory remarks from Photoguide Japan Photowords page)

Translations are written in both Japanese and a romanized version. It brings together on one site the language of the consumer and the studio photographer, listing part names, tool names, and slang.

Word lists are arranged in alphabetical order and include useful remarks about the Japanese by the author of Photoguide Japan, Philbert Ono.

All White

2008-02-10T16:18:00.002+09:00

Yesterday saw the heaviest snowfall in Aichi in at least a couple of years. It has all but gone now, with the snowfall turning to light rain in the afternoon and the sunshine melting the ice today.

I took a walk to Shiratori Park in the afternoon. In the last two hours before the drizzle, the snow fell heavily. Tall buildings turned to grey in the distance and after leaving the main road, the only sound was from the parks and side roads where children played.

As I had imagined, the park was busy with Rotographers, with only the occasional younger visitor. Shiratori park is one of Nagoya's Japanese gardens, and a focus for those who enjoy observing the changing of the seasons.

Gotcha!

2008-02-06T21:02:00.001+09:00

Local Brew

2008-01-12T15:21:00.001+09:00

At the end of the year come the end of year parties, and at the beginning of the year the new year parties. For todays Shin Nen Kai (新年会 = New Year Gathering) a friend arranged a Sake tasting for us with four different types of Nihonshu from three different regions of Japan.

Lucky me!