Tag Archives: Japan

One for the road

Yashica Electro GX

We are going on a backpacker-ish trip to Thailand next week and the question apart from where to go and stay is what camera to take. Pickpockets are an issue, as well as other things, and the last thing you want to do on your holiday is worrying about stuff like cameras. So I did an impulse purchase on Yahoo! auctions for this nice Yashica Electro GX (I made the picture a little more colourful to emphasise the happiness of the seventies, when this camera was produced. Don’t think I am just another superficial foreign photographer in Japan). Turns out it is a rather rare camera, according to one source not even listed in the “Japanese Camera Collectable” guide books. But that was a coincidence, because if it is valuable, then I am back to my original problem, aren’t I?

Anyway, I realised that the camera is not in such great shape after all. With the rather humid Japanese climate, the lens of this camera fell victim to the dreaded kabi (fungus) on the front and second lens element [pics]. I will try to take off the front element according to some repair instructions and clean the second element. Although if that turns out not to be possible, then that’s fine too. At the moment the camera is sunbathing on the balcony to let the sun’s UV rays kill the nasty spores.

I have been meaning to mention how great using Yahoo! auctions is. It must be one of those aspects of Japanese culture where one can feel safe and trust the people, but maybe that is just my illusion and wishful thinking. Anyway, I have made 3 transactions in the last 2 months and with a little Japanese language skills you can go a long way in buying and selling some nice things. The best part is the delivery. We have all seen the Kuroneko vans cruising the streets, but the home delivery network in this country is just a marvel. You can drop off your package in any convenience store and it arrives the next day for a not too high a charge, and most of the time it is best to send it chakubarai, where the receiver pays for the postage. No excessive quoting and calculating payments. It is a pure joy. This comes at the same time as my first bad eBay experience.

Get cool at the pool


At one of the many Kashiwa pools.The pools with many rules. I was busted for not swimming a lane end to end and sitting on the pool rim during the hourly “floater inspection” (for those outside of Japan: every hour for 10 minutes everybody has to leave the pool, the lifeguards will then busily scan the pool for… not sure what. On the other hand there was news yesterday that 14 people countrywide have died in swimming pools or lakes, quite a high number, No wonder they need this baby-sitting).

I have to add that photography is also not allowed, but I sneaked that one in.

Election trail

As noted before, election campaigns are a noisy affair in Japan. The candidates drive around with their lorries and vans with enormous loudspeakers, bringing their message to the masses. And there is no escape for anyone.

Shinbashi is a popular place for campaigning, especially for the right-wingers with their scary vehicles. So when I left the office one evening, I first thought it was them again hammering our tired ears. The instantly gathering audience indicated however, that this time something was different. This was the Democratic Party of Japan (民主党) doing the rounds for the upcoming upper house elections.

Some people go rather excited because the speakers are well-known politicians. I suppose a symptom of Japanese excitement is taking your camera or mobile phone with camera out and start taking pictures. I was not sure whether some of them were part of the campaign team or not. Anyway, it was a mild spring evening, with some listeners and others like the taxi cabs just minding their daily business, and I tried capturing a little of the atmosphere around the station at the time.

Featured

One of my recent photos was included in this month’s Japanzine, a free monthly magazine targeted at foreigners living in Japan. [online version]. They put out a call for photos made by foreigners living here, photographs that do not conform to the standard impressions of Japan, i.e. the tourist and overly romantic Japan shots. Why they felt they still had to include images of pachinko parlours, Mt. Fuji, hanabi and the like, I cannot quite fathom.

Two Sundays

We were invited to a tea ceremony by our friend Satoko (nicknamed Frau Sugane by me) who is doing this as a hobby. I always find it nice to hear that people do traditional things like these as a hobby, for example Naomi recently started Ikebana and we always have a nice flower in the hallway. But back to the tea ceremony. Apparently the teacher of this tea house is quite famous, it is near Mitaka, I have to check the exact location. Once a year they hold an event, where they show visitors what they have learned. Since I hadn’t seen it in Japan, I was keen to go and I enjoyed the two sessions and of course the interior and surroundings of the actual house.

Afterwards we went towards the station and as a snack stopped at this yakitori place, which was full of people, even though it was only afternoon. When I looked at the photos later I realised that even though this was the same day, those things going on in parallel are quite intriguing. First the quiet and graceful tea ceremony, and then the loud and smoky yakitori-ya-san. Then it occurred to me that these seem really like male or female aspects of life, apart from the fact that the customers or guests at those locations were also in reality mostly male or female. I just found this a nice aspect of Japan, that these things can and do co-exist. It is the same day, however one might think these were Two Sundays.

写真の日

Today is “Shashin no Hi”, the Day of the Photograph in Japan. My modest research skills in Japanese bring to light, that this day is held since 1996, with the intention to spread and grow photographic culture. Many shows and exhibitions take place during the core months May and June. Probably the Museum of Photography in Ebisu is a good place to start, or one of the many galleries and salons in Ginza, which is where I heard of it.

At lunchtime I pop into the Kodak salon from time to time. I have no real connection to Kodak, using none of their products, except lens cleaning paper maybe. But the Kodak and Canon salons are within walking distance from the office and shows change frequently, making it a nice diversion. In gallery 2 was a captivating series of images of a child, maybe the photographer’s son in different places or doing different things. Each frame on the wall actually consisted of one or two series of 5 or 10 images. In a way these are sequences of images, possibly taken with a 4.5 x 6 medium format camera, vertical format (maybe a MF rangefinder then). They are fairly small and arranged looking a little like contact strips. Unfortunately the show ends soon, but I recommend looking at it, because it is rare that what often ends up as family photos can rise up into the spheres of art. I wouldn’t have thought that it would work and I am surprised it does.

On the way out I notice the flyer for this year’s World Press Photo. I have to admit I haven’t been touched by an image for a while like I have been by winner Jean-Marc Bouju’s photo of “Iraqi man comforts his son at a holding center for prisoners of war”. It’s good to know that there are still moving images and people out there to get them. What could be better on the Day of the Photograph?

Photos from Bali

It took a while, but here they finally are: pictures taken during our one week holiday in Bali, Indonesia in January. The reason for the delay is that we simply took too many pics: 4 rolls of film and over 100 with the digital. Editing and captioning those takes longer than you think. And even after an admittedly not very stringent edit, 156 pictures are left in the album. Yes, I could edit it down even harder, but hey, is there a better way to bore family and friends?

I admit I am pleasantly surprised by the trip, it was better than I expected. It was my first trip within Asia and across the equator. While we were travelling in the wet season (there are only two seasons there, wet and dry), the climate added a lot more character to the location. The lush green vegetation, humid air and exotic smells just came out tremendously, and if it is nice and warm one doesn’t mind a few big drops of rain.

We spent 4 days in a slightly “touristised” village named Ubud, the rest in a resort in Kuta at the coast (where the bomb went off). If you ever go, don’t bother with the beach and coastal area, unless you like monstrous development inflicted using the money of rich westerners. The hinterland is where it is at.

We were extremely lucky that our visit coincided with the holidays of Galungan, which is a Hindu festival taking place every six months. People dress up and decorate their houses, it was absolutely magnificent. Looking at the gallery, you may find that the series of photos are roughly categorisable into general impressions of buildings, vegetation and landscape, sights in the village of Ubud (palace, market etc), the beautiful rice paddies, street scenes and impressions from Galungan festival and photos from a Balinese Gamelan and Legong dance performance. We hope you like the photos.

As for technical details, images were either shot on Agfa Ultra 100 colour negative film and scanned by Fuji (and sadly over-sharpened as the artifacts show, but I pass it off as film grain here) and digitally using a Canon G2. When travelling from Japan we recommend specialist operator バリ王 (Bali Oh)