Quite a while a go now I posted an entry to this PBLOG titled “The Ship”. It was of this apartment block which Ritsuko and I nicked named “Fune Mansion” (since “Fune” (pron. “Fu-ne”, e as in egg, but shorter) is Ship in Japanese, and for some reason apartments are called “Mansion” in Japanese, BTW real Mansions (very rare in Japan) are called “Sanso”).
The first time I noticed this building which is shaped somewhat like a ship, it kind of “appeared” over the top of some small buildings as I approached the area on my bicycle. It kind of reminded me how as I would walk down the streets of Fremantle (the city where I used work in Australia) if there was a passenger ship in port it would appear over the tops of buildings as you neared the port.
This building became a symbol of familiarity and better times after the very hard first three months when we were not earning any income.
So while my first PBLOG on this subject was at the start of my new business ventures in Japan, this photo (taken over a year ago now) was pretty much at the time when the business here started to get very busy. Having at the time recently purchased the 24 f/2.8D lens, I could think of no better subject to test it out properly with than “The Ship”.
Note 22/09/2011: Typhoon Roke has come and gone, we only got the yellow (on the typhoon map) part of the storm here, we weren't in the red zone fortunately. Doesn't appear be any damage around this area. The worst typhoon we've had here in Nagaokakyo so far was the one in 2009.