さよなら Sayonara

Unfortunately, today is my last day in Japan. I am traveling to the West Coast of the United States, so this post marks the end in this chapter of DekoBoko. I am unsure what the ultimate fate of the blog will be at this time. I am sure to continue taking pictures, so perhaps I will continue to post from my new residence and from my future travels. I am sure that the posting will halt for a time as I settle into a new routine. If you are interested please check back in a few weeks and I will let you know what, if anything, will become of DekoBoko.

To those of you who have spent your precious time viewing my amateur attempts at photography, and tolerated my dry and pointless prose . . . I thank you!!!

I would especially like to thank everyone who has commented, including the regulars: Kat & Satoshi's from "Our Adventures in Japan" which is a really fun food journal of Japan, A. and Y. Ikeda from "Tochigi Daily Photo" (+2 other great blogs) which are stunning and informative photography journals (I will miss participating in Show-me-Japan), and last but not least Anzu from Ann & Natsu, who has a super cute furry family.

Cheers,

Jonathan

Header

History of the DekoBoko Header to this point. . .

Portrait in Shadow

Fire Brigade

Last shots from the disaster-preparedness drill; this was a demonstration by the fire brigade setting up hoses in three different locations on the school yard surrounding one of their water disbursement trucks and another small controlled fire. They then all released water straight up and as the water showered down the flames were extinguished.

Disaster-Preparedness Drill

Attended the annual disaster-preparedness drill for the ward that I currently reside in. The drill consists of activities, displays, and information provided to the local citizens to inform them about disasters that could potentially befall the area including tsunami, earthquakes, and fires; and what measures they might take to prepare for such events and what to do when and if they occur. The local police, fire, road, and disaster management organizations were on-hand for this rather interesting event. Does the neighborhood you live in have such events? Pictured is a hands-on demonstration of a fire extinguisher by a local elementary student.

Sketches

I have found myself sketching slightly more often, and thought I might share some. I have to say that Japan has some of the best art supplies and art supply retailers, a real treat if that is your sort-of-thing (for me it is like being a kid in the candy store). I recently picked up a travel kit of watercolors, a clipboard, and blank postcards that are made of watercolor paper. They are the perfect size for me, keeps the time per drawing down and they are cheep and portable. Best part is I just put a stamp on the back and send them on their way. I took a picture first, because you never know with the mail system, even if it seems rather efficient here in Japan. Obviously some of the characters are not my creation, they are just sketches after-all.

Japanese Retail Aesthetics

Retail consumption and retail brand awareness are important to the average Japanese city dweller. It is difficult to walk down any street in the city centers of this country without spotting a number of designer brand name logos on the shop bags of many passersby. Not that this is unique to Japan in anyway, it is perhaps a keystone of modern capitalist societies. However, not all cities pay so much attention to the retail stores themselves. Some of these outlets are like galleries (or works of art) and are entirely unique, but still have a certain familiarity; the clean lined and hyper detailed Japanese aesthetic - also found in Japanese landscape gardens, formal tea ceremony rooms, and architecture. Pictured is the Onitsuka Tiger store in Kyōto, one of my personal favorite brands of overpriced shoes originally made in Kōbe.

Sorakuen Garden Sculptures

Light sculptures at the Sorakuen Garden, this event really called out to photographers, well most events of any consequence seem to attract photographers in Japan, mostly serious amateurs of retirement age with either the latest and greatest equipment or a vintage collection that would be at home in most museums. Oh and tripods, lots and lots of tripods. Of course I was one of those photographers, just a little younger then some - with my small LX3 and tiny bendy tripod. It is nice to live in a place that has so many photography enthusiasts - it's not at all awkward to take photographs when everyone else doing the same with phone, camera, or video camera. However, it does beg the question: how many of these photographs look exactly alike?

Kenroku-en 兼六園

Kenroku-en, or Six Attributes Garden, located in Kanazawa, is a celebrated formerly private garden; that along with Kairaku-en and Koraku-en, is considered one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. The garden is located outside the gates of Kanazawa Castle where it originally formed the outer garden, and covers over 25 acres. The gardens name references the six attributes of a perfect landscape garden: spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, waterways, and panoramas, as recorded in the "Chronicles of the Famous Luoyang Gardens," a book by the Chinese poet Li Gefei.

Pictured is the Emerald (Midori) Waterfall and a caretaker keeping the garden "natural." One aspect I find interesting about Japanese landscape gardens, are how painstakingly they are kept clean and orderly to represent a "natural" world that is actually messy and disordered, especially by the standards set forth by Li Gefei. To see what i mean, just go for a hike anywhere human hands don't have a heavy influence. While containing its own "natural" beauty, the wilderness is not the meticulously manicured world of the Japanese landscape garden. Better yet, try to make your own landscape garden, even a very very small one, and see how long it looks orderly when left to its own devices. Not long I would wager.

Gion Lantern Parade #2

Final images from the lantern parade, more festival pictures coming soon. Parades are a difficult subject, so I am shooting more images than I would otherwise. Generally I try to make an economy of how many images i expose, however, when I am not confident of the outcome I shoot more - just to be safe - but I have more to sift through.

OneTravel.com Guest Post

DekoBoko will be featured at OneTravel.com, they invited me to do a guest post on their blog so please check it out. OneTravel is an established online travel site with many years of experience. They provide easy booking of flights and accommodation at discounted prices in a convenient one-stop shopping experience. Lets face it, we all like cheeper airline tickets.

OneTravel.com Blog

Airline Tickets

もしもし Moshi Moshi

"Moshi moshi" is a greeting used when answering a telephone or trying to get someone's attention, used both by the receiver and the caller. This greeting is uttered an average of 125 million times a day. The term itself apparently stems from Japanese myths of the shape-shifting Youkai, 妖怪 bewitching apparition, which are traditional Japanese monsters of supernatural origin; grotesque, diverse, and often as comical as they are terrifying. Youkai were popular subjects in ukiyo-e prints depicted as oni, tengu, kappa, kitsune and tanuki (the last two are real animals unto which supernatural powers were attributed). The magic behind the phrase "moshi moshi" lies in the Youkai's ability to only say "moshi" once, kinda like the repetitive power of the name Beetlejuice in the Tim Burton film. The weary fellow who answers the single "moshi" called out by a Youkai will have their soul stolen and devoured. Be diligent, add that oh-so-important second 'moshi' to prove you aren’t a soul hungry ghoulie on the other end of that line. Images are Sannomiya graffiti; Oh and it's for you . . .

Concrete コンクリート

The Japanese landscape has many colors and if you wanted to capture them and the only medium you had on-hand was crayons, then you better hope that they have one entitled "concrete." Not just for a city scape, because every corner of Japan has been touched or covered in this utilitarian compound of rock aggregate and water. Which is not to say that concrete is not sometimes beautiful, it like the crayons are mearly a medium, and it is ultimatly the job of the construction worker or concrete artisan to shape it.

Shadow Motomachi

The heavenly contrasts with the earthly.

The brightness of the moon emphasizes the crisp darkness of the pine tree’s shadow.

The shadow gently moves,

compared with the stillness of the tatami mats.

- Takarai Kikaku

Contrasts are often found at the heart of the traditional sense of Japanese beauty, the stark contrasts of stillness and movement, darkness and light. Photograph is a shadow of a lamp in Motomachi.

自動販売機 Vending Machines

To say that vending machines are popular in Japan would be a slight understatement. In fact, Japan has the highest number of vending machines per-capita, with about one machine for every twenty-three people. Japan's high population density, relatively high cost of labor, limited space, preference for shopping on foot or by bicycle, and low rates of vandalism and petty crime, provide a fertile environment for vending machines. While the majority of machines in Japan are stocked with drinks, snacks, and cigarettes, one occasionally finds vending machines selling items such as bottles of liquor, cans of beer, fried food, underwear, iPods, porn magazines, eggs and potted plants. As a visual representation of these numbers I used my apartment as a central point photographing all the vending machines within a half-block radius square (23 total, one is repeated to even the collage). Assuming this area and this apartment don't have a privileged status among vending machine distribution then this is normal for semi urban Japan.

life is a Rubbishy Beach

The environment at Suma Beach really contradicts some of my preconceived notions about Japan, I believed that the Japanese truly respect their natural environment and are a nation prided on cleanliness and orderly behavior. And for the most part those conceptions hold true, however, I have also found that sometimes a strong sense of indifference is payed to common public spaces. The gardens of every shrine you encounter are impeccably clean and even most city streets are remarkably tidy. The beach is a different story - it is full of treasures but is also full of trash: fast food wrappers, empty cans and bottles, turds, broken glass, rotting fruit, streamers of video tape, a hundred plastic bags and a thousand cigarette butts. Perhaps Suma Beach, or all beaches, are simply a pressure valve for Japanese. . . where they can strip off not just their clothes but also respect for their surroundings?

Streets of Marunouchi 丸の内 #1

Marunouchi is a commercial district of Tōkyō located in Chiyoda between Tōkyō Station and the Imperial Palace. The name, meaning "inside the circle", derives from its location within the palace's outer moat. I am fascinated by the city streets in Tōkyō, especially at night, and reading their landscape literally and figuratively. The streets in Japan are bathed in language: signs, sounds, warnings, advertisements and symbols. For a visitor it is not just the language, which is also layered and difficult, but also symbols and methods of communicating other than standard language that prove interesting. For instance I sometimes see signs without any language that are intent on conveying some warning or meaning but to me they are a mystery that even a better understanding of Japanese language would not demystify.

Streets of Marunouchi 丸の内 #2

Sometimes I try to see the landscape the way that medieval exegetes saw sacred scriptural texts. The medieval scholar of the Bible could read identical texts in productively different ways. Utilizing different metaphorical lenses you will find different things in the landscape depending on what you are searching for; if you understand that a landscape posses features that can be understood according to several disparate senses.

This is a large gate (Torii) marking the entry to one of the many temples in Marunouchi with an impressive office building behind it and though not pictured a mirror copy of this office building exists on the other side enclosing the temple between them.

Streets of Marunouchi 丸の内 #3

Every text or landscape can teach several radically different lessons depending on the questions being asked and no single reading, no matter how original or insightful, is ever exclusive or comprehensive.

Another Marunoichi Torii (鳥居) this time in the more common Shinto/Buddhist style with bright vermilion paint that was hidden down a small ally between large apartment buildings. I crossed paths with this site while looking for a warm vending machine coffee to give me an early evening perk.

Chinatown Kobe

Yokoso (ようこそ) Welcome to DEKOBOKO. The name of the blog translates from Japanese as “unevenness” and is composed of two elements meaning 凸 convex and 凹 concave; aside from the unique meaning I just like the way it rolls off the tongue. The following image is from Chinatown in Kobe, though many cities across the globe have a chinatown they all seem to take on a local flavor that makes them unique.