27/06/2010
Youkoku-ji (aka "Yanagidani Kannon")
This is another of Nagaokakyo's beautiful temples, but this place is not so well know as
Komyo-ji. Youkoku-ji (aka "Yanagidani Kannon") is set right up in the mountains about 5km to the south west of the city centre, it's considered to be the best place to see Hydrangeas in Nagaokakyo during the flowering season. During the Hydrangea season in 2010 Ritsuko, Emi and I caught the shuttle bus there from Nagaokakyo station on a Sunday afternoon. Not only were the Hydrangeas fantastic, but also we found it was a very beautiful temple complex in someways similar to Komyo-ji, but smaller. I especially liked sitting beside the shady carp pond (top right) at the back of the complex.
Access to Youkoku is easy during the Hydrangea (late June) and Maple (late November) Festivals, as there are shuttle buses running from JR Nagaokakyo and Hankyu Nagaoka Tenjin Stations. However at other times of the year private transport, taxi or hiking is necessary. Unless you are a very strong cyclist I wouldn't recommend cycling up there as the road is very steep and you'll probably be pushing the bike most of the way, but the return trip might be fun! It's quite easy to follow the road to get there, just keep following Azalea-dori in a westerly direction from Hankyu Nagaoka Tenjin Station passing the Nagaoka Tenmangu shrine and then turn left at the traffic lights on to Yanagidani-michi which will take you into the mountains and eventually to the temple. There are some Romanised signs marked with "Yanagidani Kannon" along the way.
25/03/2013 Note: Hi all it's been a long time since I've posted to pbase, more than eight months. I've been extremely busy with a few projects including helping my wife write and publish her latest book called “It was Him”. This new book tells our story of our first 3 years in Japan how God's hand guided and provided for us. It's available via Blurb,
click here to check it out. I've got a lot planned for this Mission Japan PBLOG, so stay tuned. Additionally I'm working on a book project of my own which will also be published to our blurb site when it's ready. Plus for my latest photos check out my
smugmug site. - James
21/06/2010
Observing the growth
Well, summer in Japan is when everything "grows like topsy"*(1), while the rest of the year the growth seems slow. So over the summer of 2010, since my D700 was still quite new then, at every opportunity I went out to photograph the growth of things. The rice field near by my house was particularly interesting as every week it was different. Then there were the summer flowers which seemed to spring up everywhere. Another thing “growing” was the new expressway, and actually it still is.
Observing the growth can also be said of what we do as God's witnesses. Since only God makes things grow. Sure we might sow seeds and add a bit of water, so also in our time in Japan, we observed amazing growth in people's spiritual lives as they've trusted Jesus. Ritsuko is writing down many of the observations in a new book called
"It was Him" and from time to time I'll post observations about what God is doing here to this PBLOG.
(1) A saying a manager of mine in when I worked in Australia would say.
Note 23/07/2012: It's been over six months since I last posted to PBase and a lot has happened. I've been all the way up North to Sapporo for the Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) and even further South all the way to Singapore and Johor Bahru to visit some Japanese believers there. We were kept busy in February with a couple of visitors from Perth. I was struck down with a dangerous foot infection in late April, it pretty much immobilised me for the Golden Week holiday. While I'm better now, I'm still treating the foot with ointment everyday and I'm not planning to start my running again until well into the autumn. I've lost a little of the fitness I once had and it's slowed me down a little, but I'm determined to get completely well again. At the same time I feel the experience has humbled me and helped me to feel empathy with other peoples suffering. A lot of positive lessons learned out of it. One day I'll write more about it... When? I not sure yet. - James.
14/06/2010
Rice Plantings, Hydrangeas Blooming
It was late on a Monday afternoon after I had finished teaching, and there was a break in the rain (that time of year is the rainy season around here). So, I decided to go out and take some photos. The first place I headed to was a rice field, which is about 5mins walk away from were I live. The photo at the bottom left is of some rice seedlings, they'd been planted not long before. After that I took a walk around the neighbourhood looking for Hydrangeas. Well, I found a few here and there, but they weren't at their best. As I was about to give up, it was then I found these beautiful hot pink ones.
On a side note these two photos made it in to my
"Through the Year" gallery, where I show four photos for each month. I've been working on that gallery for a good while now the photos used were taken over a period of three years. Actually I had planned to finish that gallery in October this year, so I could produce a calendar from it and get them out well before New Year. However I got too busy and now it's complete on New Years Eve, when I had no intention of it happening that way!
Note 31/12/2011: The build up to Christmas was very full on for us as we had our final presentations for our English classes. Then we had a church Christmas party followed, by our Christmas service. The day after Christmas we went on a two day trip to
Matsuyama and surrounds, which all came together just a few days before Christmas (long story). After the trip was a our wedding anniversary. Finally having a bit of rest over the last couple of days! Wishing all my PBase friends a Happy New Year, I hope 2012 is a good one for you all.
13/06/2010
A rainy day and an impromptu photographic workshop
It was something that came about because of a little miracle: On the 10th of June we were given a bunch of cut Hydrangeas which contained three different colours of flowers. By Sunday morning they were all looking pretty bad. Ritsuko though she could revive the light blue ones so she cut away most of the leaves and put them in icy water. However the blue/purple and red/purple ones she didn't think stood a chance so she through them in the bin (trash can). Well, then we had our church service and by the end of it the light blues were looking better than ever, so we retrieved the others and gave them the same treatment and pretty soon they were good again.
I didn't know how long they'd stay good for so I decided I was going document them that afternoon. Now Emi (one of the young ladies in the church) overheard my plans, and she asked me how to take good flower photos. So, I said why don't you come back after lunch with your camera and I can teach you. After lunch Emi came back with her Panasonic LUMIX G1, and together with a bit of modelling from Linus, Lucy (the cats) and Ritsuko we had a little photographic workshop.
Well, that was the first of four photographic workshops we've had now, each time gaining a little more popularity. I'm planning to BLOG about the others in future...
P.S. The flowers stayed good for another week!
06/06/2010
The Plant's summer growth
The little plant which Bob bought for his sermon illustration really started to grow come the summer of 2010. Seeing it dormant over the winter, come back to life in the spring, and put on a big growth spurt in the summer, was a metaphor for the our journey to Japan. The hard beginning, then the little signs of growth and then better times. Just like with this plant however the autumn (fall) comes and things die out again, so we have to be prepared for that.
The plant also helps me to think about a verse: "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (King James Bible)
Indeed we water, fertilise (feed), and prune (correct), but only God makes the growth. When you have you eyes fixed on God everything becomes a spiritual lesson even a little plant.
Note 29/11/2011: Had a lot of things happen up here recently, both good and bad. With the blessings also come persecutions. Hopefully I'll get time for a few more PBLOGs and updates to other galleries over the next week or so, before the Christmas rush hits me.
01/06/2010
Fushimi Inari Taisha
It's listed in the Lonely Planet Kyoto Guide book as one of the top 5 sites to see in Kyoto (along with the Kyoto Imperial Palace Gardens, Nanzen-ji, Kurama-dera, and the Nishiki Markets). It's also the second easiest to get to from my house of the top five, but for some reason it was the last of the top five for me to visit. Since Ritsuko and had a rare Tuesday afternoon and evening off, so we decided to head to the Shrine in the afternoon and stop at Kyoto station on the way back for a dinner at a nice restaurant near the station.
Given the conditions (it was overcast with a bit of light rain) I was glad I had my D700 and 24 f/2.8 lens, to be able to capture a handheld shot at high iso and wide open aperture. It would have been hard to do with the D80 + Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6 under those conditions, given I'd lose two stops of iso and at least a stop of aperture.
It is usual for a Shinto shrine to only have a few gates, because each gate represents passing through to a more holy part of the shrine. However there are thousands of gates all next to each other in the kilometres of maze like paths at Fushimi Inari Taisha. It's not the only shrine like this, there is a similar one near Tokyo.
Note 04/11/2011: Still very busy at the moment, might be a little while before I post another PBLOG, but I will try to update some of the other galleries in a few days.
31/05/2010
Strange things seen at night
It was on the last day of May in 2010, that I went out to Kyoto to do some more testing of my D700 + 24 f/2.8D combo. I went back to
Pontocho (some of the shots of Pontocho from this day will be posted later). After spending a while in Pontocho, I decided to head for the Shinkyogoku arcade were I saw a few truly strange shops. So this is a little collection of them, plus a self portrait. If you're observing carefully, you might even notice I'm wearing a sports parka. Such is the weather in Kyoto that it can be pretty cool even on the last night of Spring. Actually coming from beautiful warm and sunny Perth, the amount of cool days in Kyoto for me, greatly out weights the amount of warm days. Then again the short summer here in Japan feels even more hotter than the summer in Perth. I can go on an on about Kyoto's "hena tenki" (strange weather), that I might make a gallery devoted to it one day!
Note 31/10/2011: Well it took me much longer to get back to Pbase than I expected... But well... I had visitors from Australia, a Sports Carnival, a Tax Return, and heaps of other work on, so I've been as busy as, and it still is pretty busy, but it might quieten down after next week. So I'm not sure when I'll be able to post the next PBLOG... We'll see...
30/05/2010
Kyoto Botanical Garden
Well, after a trip to busy Osaka and all this talk of hard work, maybe it was time to "stop and smell the roses" and soak up the other sights at the Kyoto Botanical Garden. So on a pleasant Sunday afternoon in May 2010, I donned my "spring suit" and together with Ritsuko headed off for an afternoon of strolling around the garden. Although it is more of a European style garden, there are still the little Japanese touches here and there. I hope I can go back again and again in other months and see what's different.
Note 03/10/2011: We are hosting a couple from Australia at the moment, so I'm not sure how many opportunities I'm going to get to post over the next 2 weeks.
29/05/2010
Underground Osaka
I was in Osaka for a couple of hours on a little errand, and I brought my D700 with the 24mm lens mounted on it along for the ride. So while I was going between the train station and where I needed to get to I took a few snap shots. It was in this same underground area in Osaka five years prior (2005), that I first felt a call to come to this part of Japan. I remember back then seeing the crowds moving by and noticing so many faces sad and without hope. The following verse came to mind:
"And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things." - Mark 6:34 (King James Version)
It's a curious thing, but Japan is one of the most wealthy countries on earth, but it's also one of the most saddest, it's hard to see people who are happy. Many people don't even realise how good they have it, they think they are poor and have to keep working very hard. Not that hard work is a bad thing, but people need a balance, we need family time, we need spiritual time. I've been to places in the world which are much poorer financially, but the people are happier because they keep the balance better.
Also on that day in 2005, in this same underground area inside a smoke filled cafe/bar, a Christian friend who had returned to Osaka after three years in Perth, lamented to me "God is not in this country, I can't find him here, I want to go back to Perth". At the very moment the words came out of her mouth, a song buy a Christian Band named "Plumb" started playing on the sound system in the cafe/bar, the words went like this
"There's a God shaped hole in all of us...". I encouraged my friend "Listen to the song, God is hear, people are searching for him." She's know found a great church to fellowship in and works as a teacher in a little Christian school.
But, who am I, what do I have to give? Unlike going as a missionary to a third world country, we can't impress the locals with superior technology and knowledge (but then that's not the point of the Gospel anyway, but sadly it's done too often). I many ways Japan is more advanced than the west. I'm only a messenger witnessing to the power of God in this world, I'm not coming here to change people to westerners. Rather I come here pointing out God's works to others and testifying of the "Hope" He has given me. It's not about me, it's about Him.
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." - 2 Corinthians 4:7 (King James Version)
24/05/2010
The Ship Returns
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.
22/05/2010
The Bonus
Well after getting the D700 and selling the D80 + 18-135, was I lacking a decent lens wider than 35mm. Yes, I've still got my sharp copy of the Sigma 10-20, which I can't seem to part with (just in case I one day get a cheep DX camera, also I can use it for artistic effect on FX). However I really wanted a wide prime. Anyway I bought my D700 from Yodobashi Camera and they give you points when you buy things. It the amount of points depends on the product, but with the D700 it was 10% of it's yen price. Each point you earn can be used as one yen's credit on later purchases. I found I had accumulated enough points to pay for 60% of a 24 f/2.8D, so one month after buying the D700 I went back and got the 24 f/2.8D. So that was a little bonus.
Note 21/09/2011: We're currently in typhoon lock down for "Typhoon Roke" at the moment with all the shutters closed, no sure how much of it going to hit us here, but the rain and wind are getting stronger at the moment.
17/05/2010
A Sign
Sorry it's not the greatest photo technically/artistically for this PBLOG entry. However I just wanted to share this one, because it is something that I've noticed in Japan, little signs that God is a work here even when others think He isn't. Sometimes it can be a contemporary Christian song that starts playing in a shop, cafe, or restaurant (in English) just at the right time when I or someone with me needs it. Other times it can be something written on a billboard or a building that relates to something in the Bible.
The story behind this one was that Ritsuko and I took a walk around the area after we had dropped off our Australian Drivers licenses to get translated by the JAF (Japan Automobile Federation). We came across this apartment building. The Japanese underneath it actually says "Kyoto Imperial Palace" because this building is opposite the Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds. Since then I've seen another building with "Noah's Ark" on it, in another location in Kyoto. I'm not sure if it's the name of a company who builds the apartments, or it has some other meaning. All I know is that God used it to encourage me at the time.
The other thing is all of these signs are in English (although Dad saw one of a portion of the Lord's Prayer in French, while he was here) and not Japanese. So I feel I have to be the messenger along with Ritsuko to Japanese people, who by and large seem to be ignorant of the existence of the creator God, while His signs seem to come up everywhere for me.
BTW a few days later Ritsuko and I went to the Licensing Centre with our translations, plus our Australian Drivers Licenses, Passports, Expired Japanese Drivers License (for Ritsuko), etc. and after a lot of Red Tape, Paper Chase, Rubber Stamping (especially for me), we both got our Japanese Drivers Licenses.
16/05/2010
Dreams of Flight
At this stage it had been a year and a half since I had arrived in Japan, and I had not flown anywhere in that time. In Nagaokakyo where I live, we pretty much only see vapour trails, we don't see the planes up close. Anyway at this stage I had booked my first trip back to Australia (August 2010), but it was still a few months off...
So dreaming about flying somewhere, I took a trip out to the airport on a beautiful May Sunday afternoon. I was the first time and only time (as of 12/09/2011), I've gone all the way from Nagaokakyo to Kansai Airport without meeting someone or sending them off. This trip was purely for photographic purposes. It was also a good chance to test out the D700 famed low light capabilities.
Click here to see a photo and the two next ones in that gallery taken on the same day, that are examples of some low light action shots I made on this visit to Kansai Airport.
Note 12/09/2011: Today's a quieter day in the middle a very busy couple of weeks, so this might be my only PBLOG until next week when it quietens down considerably. Actually next week is Silver Week (a week in September with two, sometimes three, public holidays) not quite as good as Golden Week in April/May with 4 public holidays in a space of a week.
11/05/2010
The start of my second year
Out of all the various bits of work I do here, teaching at Megumi Kindergarten has got to be my favourite. Every time I walk into the kindergarten the following verse comes to life:-
"But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 19:14 (King James Version)
It is just an amazing place, around 450 students aged from about 3 to 6, most of them living out the principle of "Love one another". The staff and students are a living example of the body of Christ showing such Grace ("Megumi" is Japanese for Grace). I'm still humbled by and learning so much from my times at Megumi. I teach English to about 300 students there, the nenchu classes (turning 5 in the school year) and nencho classes (turning 6 in the school year). Well, after the 3 months break during the change of school year it was great to get back into the swing of teaching at Megumi for my second year. It was good to see how the nenchos had grown since last year and then meet so many new students in the nenchu classes.
During the break I was busy preparing a new workbook for the nencho classes, so as the second year started it was great to see how they used it so enthusiastically.
Note 30/08/2011: That was last year, I'm now almost halfway through my third year. This year I've written a new workbook for the nenchus as well. I've also made a lot of updates to the nenchos' book based on my experiences with it last year.
09/05/2010
100yen Sushi
The first I time tried a 100yen sushi shop (that's 100yen per small plate), I wasn't very impressed with the taste. Actually, I commented to a friend that the sushi from the supermarket (in Japan) is tastier and cheaper. Well, that particular sushi shop went out of business not long after. However my friend found a better 100yen sushi shop and decided to bring us there.
The sushi was quite good, yeah well not up to the top sushi shops standards, but much better than supermarket sushi, even the better supermarket sushi from the fish section. The catch is: of the best sushi you only get one piece per plate, and of the average sushi you get two pieces, so even at 100yen per plate it starts to add up! While I'm easy, Ritsuko was not amused with the automatic plate counter that had a flashy display and made loud noises every time you inserted the empty plates. Sometimes it even dispensed some plastic toys as prizes. The cliental was generally young families, and it kept their kids entertained as far as I could tell. Not a place to go for a romantic evening with the better half, but tasty none the less!
07/05/2010
Dockers 2010
Sometimes you know it's good that I write these PBLOGs with a bit of hindsight. As you might recall,
in 2009 my dad sent me a Dockers' poster which was from a Perth newspaper. By 2010 that poster was looking a bit worse for wear, so I requested a new poster. This time my dad sent me a better quality $10 poster from the AFL shop in a nice poster tube. Well, it's now 2011 and the poster in this picture has been replaced once again, this time with another $10 poster, that I bought from a Dockers' shop when I went back to Perth this May.
Interestingly enough 2010 was a pretty good year for the Dockers, actually it was their second best season ever... And although a team is more than one player, one speculates on how it might have gone for them had Barlow not broken his leg. Well, that season is now gone, Barlow is back, but 2011 is not looking quite as good. Come on Dockers give some more of "that old heave ho" and hopefully we can make the finals again...
Note 10/08/2011: Well, I'm back from our trip to Gifu, we had a great time and held a baptism in a river. Now Ritsuko has gone to Australia to work on her new book. I'm here in Japan looking after our two cats, trying to knock off lots of preparation work, teaching a few classes (not many because it's summer vacation, but in Japan kids still go to school for sports/band/etc on summer vacation so the concept of vacation is a bit different here) and all the house work. When I do get some free time, I'd rather be out shooting than posting, but I will make an effort to post a few more PBLOGs and other photos.
05/05/2010
The Children's Day Procession
Just two days after going to
Kurama-yama, to investigate some possible Japanese connections to Israel, which all started because I photographed a
"Mikoshi" in 2009, a "Mikoshi" came past my house. The reason it came past my house was that it was part of the Children's Day Procession. When I was young I used to ask my parents why there was no "Children's Day", thinking it was unfair that they got presents three times a year and us kids only got them twice a year. My parents would reply "that's because every day is Children's Day".
Well, Japan is a country which has recognised this problem and created "Children's Day" (which is on the day that traditionally is
"Boys Day" and there's also a
"Girl's day", but the only Public Holiday is on boy's day, so they call it Children's Day). Hey they even have a public holiday for grand parents (aka "Respect for the Aged Day") and "Adults Day", as well as Mother's Day and Father's Day. So I guess they've got everyone covered then!
So, when I heard the sound of this procession approaching I grabbed my little Casio and snapped this from my front yard (which is like one meter of concrete between my house and the road!). There were are few older gentlemen wheeling this Mikoshi (rather than carrying it like The Ark of the Covenant) followed by heaps of kids in Happy Coats. While I was taking some shots one of the older gentlemen gave me a bag of snacks, which I then shared out amongst my students the very next day (which is another very Japanese thing to do, rather than hoarding gifts to yourself).
Note 20/07/2011: The busy period for work is over for about 7 weeks, but I've got lots of admin stuff to do in the mean time, as well as a 4 day trip to Gifu and a few day trips planned. Hopefully I will posts a good few more PBLOGs over these seven weeks and update some of the other galleries with newer photos.
03/05/2010
The Mystery of the Tenggu
There are many Mysteries in Japanese culture the origins of which have been lost long ago. Records destroyed by wars, arson, and natural disasters. Other records that have been lost or hidden somewhere, but that may one day be revealed. The Japanese language changes and evolves much faster than English, meaning even words for things and names may be difficult to comprehend for the modern Japanese speaker. One of the big mysteries still to be answered: Is there a connection between the Japanese people and the Israelites? Did one of the 10 lost tribes migrate here? Or did members of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin or Levi migrate here after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD?
Over time I've been photographing
the occasional suspected evidence of a connection. However one day I was going through some photos of a parade and noticed a resemblance between the
carrying of a “mikoshi” (portable Shinto Shrine) and the carrying of the Ark of the Covenant. So I Googled “Mikoshi Ark of the Covenant” and found a lot of info. And it wasn't just from a group of elderly Japanese Christian gentlemen in Kobe! Even some Jewish scholars were doing their own research into the possible connection.
One of the places in Japan which many of the researchers believe has evidence of a connection is Kurama-yama, a mountain to the North of Kyoto city. So Ritsuko, I and our friends Mitsuko and Maki headed off to Kurama-yama during our Golden Week Holiday in 2010. On arrival at the base of Kurama-yama we came across the Tenggu (pictured) which many believe is one of the evidences of the connection. We also explored the mountain and looked at the supposed
“Star of David” and
“Menorah” emblems that could be found there. I'm still not sure if it's proved anything to me yet, but our search continues and I'm planning to BLOG more about the search in future.
And it was worth going there just for the view.
I'll leave you with this video which is one of the better ones I've seen so far...
02/05/2010
Rail Fanning
In a land famed for it's conformity, it's amazing the many and varying types of trains one can see, especially belonging to the JR (Japan Rail) Group of Companies. Even though they do vary in size, shape , colour, and interior décor, for the most part they do conform for punctuality, cleanliness and high level of customer service. What also is very interesting is the whole subculture that has come about because of the beautiful and varied trains and that is "rail fanning". On any weekend and sometimes even early on weekday mornings (before work?) the "rail fans" come out to any vantage point along the tracks armed with everything from handy cams, point and shoots to multiple pro dSLRs and Super Telephoto Lenses.
On this particular day I decided to try out my D700 with the 70-300VR lens. While walking about with this set up, I came to a rail crossing and decided to take a few test train shots. However it wasn't long before a few "rail fans" rocked up armed with very expensive set ups. One guy in particular had two Canon 1D(s?) Mk? Plus a Nikon D700 and 3 massive lenses. Plus huge tripods and a ladder! I became more fascinated in photoing the “rail fans” and their gear than the trains, so I guess I was "rail fan fanning"!
28/04/2010
Something I can't find in Japan
Living in Japan there are a few things I find frustrating, although over time I'm becoming more accommodating. A few of these things relate to food like "why is the biggest size that cereal comes in is a 410gram pack?" (doesn't last me long) and "why can't I get non-sugary cereal like
Vita Brits?" "Why is the only chocolate available in a bar form a Snickers?" (but I'm getting used to Snickers now) But the biggest frustration is when I get a sore throat and can't find any anti bacterial lozenges in Japan, all there is here are throat candies, which don't do much at all.
Well it always seems to happen around Golden Week (in 2009, 2010 and also 2011) I had come down with a cold and was running short on supplies of Strepsils, so I took a photo of the last pack I had remaining and emailed to Mum and Dad who kindly sent me a couple of packets. Moving forwarded to the present time and not the time of this photo, funnily enough I've had less need of them over the last year than in the first two years here. However we have helped a lot of students who turn up to English class with sore throats, "try this it will blow the sore throat away" and most often it does. So maybe that’s why these don't sell in Japan, cause it might put lots of doctors out of business!
Note 19/06/2011: I took my second trip back to Australia in this May (and I still aren't up to blogging about my first trip back to Australia last August!). After I returned to Japan (May 8th) I enter the most busy period of English Teaching and other work, which is not quiet over yet, but it's slowed for a couple of weeks, so hopefully I can post a few more PBLOGs before it gets hectic again. The good news is busier means making more money, which wasn't true when I worked for someone else... Ah the joys of running your own business...
27/04/2010
Still Life
A tribute to "Mr. T" (my neighbour not the actor)...
It was just another rainy April day when "Mr. T" (also referred to by Ritsuko and I as "Jiji" (grandpa)) rang the door bell. He gave us a bunch of unusual looking flowers. It wasn't the first time we've received flowers from him, by any means! However these where the most unusual flowers we've received from him so far...
You see "Mr. T" is that kind of guy. He travels around the neighbourhood either by bicycle or motor scooter (one that pollutes a lot!), giving vegetables or flowers to the neighbours. He's a retired carpenter and he's even helped us fix a few things around the house on occasion for free. Now-a-days he works a field owned by a rich friend of his, who doesn't have time to grow anything. It's a good deal, "Mr. T" gets to use the field for free, his friend doesn't have to pay so much land tax because the field is in use. "Mr. T" grows vegetables and flowers in the field which above and beyond what he needs for him and "Mrs. T", he distributes around the neighbourhood...
"Mr. T" speaks very rough Kansai-ben (the local dialect), tells lots of crude jokes and is very politically incorrect. He's a bit of character, but he has a heart of gold.
Note 23/04/2011: I'm making a trip back to Australia (again) for 10 days from Thursday, so this might be my last PBLOG for a while as I get myself ready to go.
26/04/2010
Something New...
It's happen again: while I was hoping to get this entry posted a day or two after the last one a few things have cropped up which have delayed me. One of them was a nasty but short lived illness I was suddenly struck with three days ago. You know I'm a guy that is pretty obsessed with keeping fit and healthy, actually I spend more time on fitness than I do on photography! I was absolutely floored by this illness, I felt I wanted to die! It was in this time I was reminded of just how sinful we are and how big God's grace is a upon us. No matter what we humans try to do to save ourselves in the end we are but clay in God's hands dependant on His Grace... Which leads me on to talking about getting a new camera (which happened almost one year ago now), because it too was an act of Grace....
Six months before moving to Japan I had upgraded to the
D80 (from the
D50), actually that too was thanks to God's help in a lot of ways. After arriving in Japan I thought I'm probably not going be able to upgrade again for a long time, and I kind of put the thought out of my mind for the first year and bit hear in Japan. However come April 2010, the price of the D700 had fallen, too the point where it looked affordable (actually that was about the lowest they went cause the price has gone up again now!). Our business improved a lot and I had saved up more than enough money. However just like the second hand medium format camera, I couldn't get my wife's approval. As you may recall
I prayed for a medium format camera, then someone gave me their old one without me telling anyone I was praying for such a camera. Was it a selfish wish to ask God for a D700?
So I prayed and although I already had saved up the money myself, two weeks later someone deposited Ritsuko and I a love offering in our Australian bank account equal to the price of the D700. Ritsuko took this a confirmation that God wanted me to buy the camera. Not only that just like with my D50 prior I was able to sell the D80 quickly to a budding photographer friend of mine who was in need of a decent camera. So on the 26/04/2010 upgraded to the D700 and haven't looked back...
Note 20/04/2011: It's now been almost a year since I bought the D700, I've taken more photos with it than I did with the D80 in two years! I've been able to produce some wonderful photographs with it which I look forward to sharing with you all. Prayer works folks, please continue to pray for Japan.
P.S. I had planned the title of this entry a few months ago! and today as I went to add this entry Pbase is advertising "Something New!" WOW!
25/04/2010
The Azaleas at Night
It was my final photo shoot for the D80 and 18-135 lens, before I sold them. I went back to see the Azalea Bush at Nagaoka Tenmangu Shrine. This time photographing it at night using a small but high powered torch to paint the flowers with light as the lanterns weren't shining enough light on them. In the end I had to push the results a couple of stops in post processing (maybe at the EV limit of the D80s light meter?).
So now I've let the cat out the bag, so to speak. What I was trying to convince my wife I should buy
a few blogs ago was a new Nikon D? Well I prayed hard that the Lord would convince her it was good idea and a miracle happened, God answers prayer! I'll let you know what model it is in the next PBLOG.
While I was taking the shots that evening, I also met a couple of people I'd see a bit more of in the months to come. I consider those were divine appointments. All in all it was a very good evening and send off for the old camera.
24/04/2010
Nagaokakyo's most famous bush
Every year around the last week of April people come from far and wide to see it in bloom. It's over 100 years old and classified as an important cultural asset. It's Nagaokakyo's most famous bush, a a large Kirishima Azalea bush at
Nagaoka Tenmangu Shrine.
To quote the words of one of the ALTs (assistant language teachers) who writes a column in the local Nagaokakyo City Council Newsletter. "When I saw a painting of it at a school where I was working, I didn't believe it could be so red. After seeing the real thing, it's even redder than the painting!". Yes, it is an amazing red coloured bush, that is very tricky to photograph with out blowing out the red channel! In 2009 this bush only
appeared in my PBLOG as bokeh. This time I give you the bush!
Honestly, it is worth a trip to Nagaokakyo to see if you happen to be in
Kansai around the last week of April. 5 minutes walk west up either Tenmangu Dori or Azalea Dori from Nagaoka Tenjin Station (on the
Hankyu Railway's Kyoto Line).
18/04/2010
The Plant Comes to Life Again
We kind of wondered if this plant (see
here and
here) which we received from Bob Walker during the Walker's visit to us in 2009 had survived the winter. The branches were bear pretty much until mid April, when most of the other trees around here had gotten their new leaves. Then all of a sudden it burst back to life again. Very symbolic of the ups and downs and then back up agains we go through in life...
17/04/2010
A Photo from the 'In Between' Days
Too late for the Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)... Too early for the Tsutsuji (Azaleas)... It was just another mid April day that I decided to take a walk in the morning and see what I could find. Fortunately there were still some Nanohana (Rapeseed) in bloom and bit of glorious light when the sun finally broke through the clouds.
06/04/2010
The Sakura Peaks in Nagaokakyo
Well, this PBLOG is almost a year behind, which actually makes it look up to date! Because right now we are almost at the Sakura Peak again. However rather than jumping ahead in time, I'm going to keep going with it, so the record is on the internet of all the amazing things the Lord has shown us and the Lord has done in our lives here.
As for some of my newer photographic works, I'm planning more galleries, but the priority is on this PBLOG at the moment, which is about all I can manage at the moment in additional to all of the work we do here, plus maintaining two other websites (one for
church and
another site where I attempt to sell some prints).
This photo of the Sakura by a river in Nagaokakyo was taken on my way to work at Bambio (a civic centre building in Nagaokakyo) for the start of the school year in April 2010. The school year starts in April in Japan. That Sakura blooming was significant because that at that time the numbers grew in our more stable children's classes at Bambio and at our house, that with the children's classes doing well together with my work teaching in English at Megumi Kindergarten, we were no longer dependant on the come and go as they please private adult students to meet our monthly expenses.
What we do at Bambio is run 6 English classes a week. We hire a small classroom (in Bambio there are many rooms of various types and sizes, used for everything from art/craft type classes, to aerobic classes).
In addition to the various children's class, private adult students, teaching at a kindergarten, and church work we do. We also have a small portfolio of investments in Australia that provide us with a small passive income stream.
I am not trying to say that this is a great business model or something. In fact this move would not have been possible with out the help and support of many others that got us through the tough first year (Thank You from the bottom of our hearts everyone who has supported us in many ways: prayerfully, financially, emotionally, etc). Neither am I saying we have the greatest lifestyle, just I'm making it clear what we do and how we earn a living. If our focus was on making money I wouldn't say we've done well... BUT, we are here as "tent maker" missionaries (but not affiliated with Tentmakers International), we do what ever work we can to support ourselves and that gives us an opportunity to meet and minister to people. We live very simply (no car) and in a little old house that's 12 minutes walk from the train station, so our monthly expenses are not very high. Maybe one day I might write a book on "how to live in Japan on the cheap", because a lot of other foreigners (including other missionaries) in Japan don't seem to know how. Our monthly living costs here are only about 1 quarter (or less) of what they were in Australia. Our income here is about a third of what it was in Australia, but we seem to have more left over here. We're the living the frugal Japanese lifestyle and it's been an amazing journey God has brought us on thus far!
Note: This is the last of my "heavy PBLOGs" for a while, I might have them out more regularly now that I've got this one and the previous one off my chest. Cheers James.
04/04/2010
Easter Eggs
This has been a very difficult BLOG to write, my first attempt was before the Earthquake/Tsunami/Nuclear disaster struck Japan, but I just couldn't get the words right. After the disaster struck, I haven't felt up to rewriting it for a while. I want to reiterate that we are about 800kms away from the areas directly affected by the tsunami. The nuclear problem is a concern, but the more research I've done into it, the less worried I am, despite what some foreign media is saying. Sensationalism sells!
Now on to the BLOG, because this is something I've been learning from the Lord more recently about being sensitive to the level of faith different people are at. Some people are strongly against celebrating Easter because of possible pagan origins of the holiday. The majority of Christians though celebrate it us one of the most Holy times of the year. The truth is that none of the so called "Christian Holidays" such as Easter, Christmas, Lent, etc are mentioned in the scriptures as Holidays Christians need to celebrate. They are actually just celebrated out of tradition. The understanding I've come to by the scriptures is this: if people wish to celebrate these days they can, if they choose not to celebrated that's OK too.
"One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day [alike]. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." Romans 14:5 (King James Version)
So now let me share my experience from Easter 2010 in Japan. Firstly just like Christmas, Easter is not a public holiday in Japan. Whereas Christmas does get celebrated by people (both Christians and non-Christian) here in Japan in some form, Easter goes by almost unnoticed, there are no Easter Eggs in the shops. So when the Sakamoto's returned from a business trip to the US with Easter Eggs as gifts for our church here, it was big treat for everyone, because it's something we can't get in Japan. Just this little thing made the people in our little home church, feel connected with something much bigger and it's easy to feel very much in the minority as a Christian in Japan.
If you would like to donate to a church based charity that actually is active on the ground in the disaster zone (rather than waiting for approval from the Japanese government to get in) please donate to
CRASH Japan. If you would rather donate to a secular organisation then please donate to the
Japanese Red Cross. THANK YOU
03/04/2010
Golden lit Sakura
As I've already mentioned, the weather during the Sakura blooming in 2010 was cooler than usual. Actually, as I headed out to Arashiyama where I took this photo it was close to zero. In fact in Arashiyama when I had to take my gloves off with in a minute my hands were not only cold, but they were in pain. I'm sure not too many people enjoyed evening parties under Sakura in 2010, day time was OK though. However I put my self through the pain of going to Arashiyama before sunrise so I could capture that elusive Golden Light on the the pristine Sakuras by the river.
Although the morning was cold the April Sun quickly rose the temperature to a comfortable level(about 15C). After the finishing off the film, I spent the rest of the morning chatting with other day trippers and tourists in English, Japanese and Indonesian.
31/03/2010
Some Nice Drinks, but a Dangerous Idea...
No the drinks aren't poisoned, spiked or intoxicating... You see whenever my lovely wife says "darling, I have an idea", I reply with "your ideas are dangerous", because most of the time she says that, it normally involves me having to do a lot of work! But, this time it was I who came up with a dangerous idea and to break the idea to Ritsuko, I took her to a nice cafe. Actually my idea didn't really involve her doing any work, it just involved me wanting to spending a insanely huge sum of money (from her point of view) on something that was a bargain (from my point of view). I'm sure all of you who are married have had similar conversations.
What the certain thing was and whether I got to buy it will be revealed in future, but on this occasion she wasn't very happy about me even asking... And I'm too nice a guy to try the forgiveness is easier than permission route...
BTW I highly recommend Holly's Cafes in Kyoto.
Note 13/02/2011: Sorry if I've not commented on anyones' photos for a while, I got caught up for two weeks with some urgent work as I was in the middle of posting the last batch which was supposed to include this PBLOG entry as well. Hopefully things have got back to normal now, but we've have mutually come up with a very dangerous idea recently that may make me very busy in a few weeks...
30/03/2010
Snow and Sakura!
As I was saying the last PBLOG entry the Sakura in 2010 didn't really signal the end of the cold weather. In fact we got something that only happens about once every six years and that was it snowed during the Sakura blossoming. I got better shots of the snow and much better ones of the Sakura that day, but this is the only decent shot of the two together as proof of it's occurrence.
This photo was taken outside of Nanzen-ji (Nanzen Temple), which according to the Lonely Planet Kyoto Guide is the best temple in Kyoto city, given the 1000s of temples in Kyoto city, that's saying something! It is a pretty good temple too, and much quieter than some of the more famous places, but I think I've seen better just outside of Kyoto city, which the Lonely Planet doesn't know about yet!
Actually, the day that we went happened to be in a time that we finally had a couple of days break from teaching, while the students were on Spring Vacation. Ritsuko and I were joined on this trip by three of the teachers from Megumi Kindergarten (where I teach English) and one of their friends. While it was a cold start to the morning with snow, it was a lovely sunny day for the rest of the day. After lunch at a traditional restaurant near Nanzen-ji, we walked all the way from Keage to Shijo-Kawaramachi, stopping in the Sanjo-Kawaramachi area for afternoon tea.
29/03/2010
Sakura!
The blossoming of the Sakura is a cause for celebration, because it's normally the end of the cold weather and the start of the warmer part of the year. The Sakura came a week early in 2010 which gave us hopes of warmer weather sooner, but it was not the case. April 2010 and was colder than average and we were still rugged up for most of the Sakura viewings we went to! More to come in the next few PBLOG entries.
The Sakura in Japan also has deep philosophical meaning as a reminder that beauty is only short lived, and life itself is fleeting. As I reflect on these things the following scripture comes to mind: "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people [is] grass. (8) The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." - Isaiah 40:7-8 (King James Version)
20/03/2010
Hagashiyama Hanatouro (Part II)
As I mentioned in the last PBLOG, I made plans to go back the following week at an earlier time. This time, just to make it more interesting I used film instead of digital and a monopod rather than a tripod. Here are couple of the shots from that day. Other than photography, it was also a good chance for me to get out on my own and practice Japanese in the “real world”.
This time I caught the bus to near Kiyomizu-dera (Kiyomizu Temple) decided I'd miss the light at some of my other chosen spots if I went in there, so I walk down from outside Kiyomizu-dera to Yasaka shrine. By the time I got to Yasaka shrine I had finished one roll of film and it was already too dark for film and a monopod so I didn't load up a second roll. Rather I sat down for a beer and ate some vendor food that was sold in the shrine grounds. While I was there I chatted with a guy from England and his French girlfriend. It was cool because the English guy spoke English and French, the French Lady spoke French and Japanese and I spoke English and Japanese. It was very interesting to hear how different people viewed Japan. And that couple weren't the only people I spoke to that evening by any means, but it certainly was my most memorable conversation of the evening.
14/03/2010
Hagashiyama Hanatouro (Part I)
Just as
Arashiyama had a special light up in December, Higashiyama has its light up in March. Actually I found the Higashiyama light up much easier to get around because it's much more spread out which thins down the crowds a bit. Higashiyama's Hanatouro(flower light path) seems to be concentrating on lighting up the traditional neighbourhoods and temples, rather than natural features, plus it's more towards the centre of Kyoto city. Thus this Hanatouro is quite a contrast from the Arashiyama one and it's worth seeing them both.
Unfortunately, since Ritsuko came with me we had to eat dinner first, which meant I missed the best of the light (i.e. shortly after sunset), so I had to make to do with blackened skies in most of my photos. I also had to lug around a tripod, and it was a long walk from Yasaka Shrine (top left) to Kiyomizu Temple (bottom right) and back again!
However while I was walking along, I was taking mental notes of the good spots, and made plans to go back the following weekend at an earlier time by myself...
11/03/2010
In the Osaka Subway after a Happy Meeting
Neither of us are the type of "expat" who's been sent here by some company on high rolling salary, living in the best places in town, rather we are both people who came here by our own choice and money, living very simply while we are at it.
I'm living in a 50 year year old house on 70 square metres of land in Kyoto. He was at that time living in a share house with a number Japanese 20s to 30s year olds in Nagoya. We both have a desire to live here in as local way as possible, trying to learn the language and culture while we are at it.
Well, he was only fairly new in Japan at that time, so there was a lot to talk about how to survive the life here. He's also got an IT background, so it we chatted quite a bit about the latest in programming languages and developing web based applications. So it was a good few hours in Osaka, but then I had to get back to Kyoto to teach a class. This snap shot was taken on the way back home.
01/03/2010
Down and out in the Kyoto Subway
While I can say now, life here is great on the balance of things, sometimes I have a bad day. Here is a recount of one such bad day...
Well, it had been a stressful week, there was lots to do and more things came up unexpectedly (as they do sometimes). So, I finally got the chance to go out somewhere by myself for the evening, maybe a little adventure. When Dave was with us, he had told me tales of interesting places he found in Kyoto. So I set out towards the North of the city and only found that Starbucks was open, maybe because it was Monday, or it was too early in the evening? Looked crowded in Starbucks and the only seats available were outside ones, too cold for that on the 1st of March in Kyoto! Didn't really want to go to Starbucks anyway.
So then I remembered how I saw some interesting restaurants above the subway line in the South of the city, so I decided to head South. The first stop I tried ended having nothing there dark streets, nothing much of interest open, so I walked one subway stop North and by then was hungry, all I could find open was McDonald's! I decided I might go for a 120yen cheese burger because at least it would keep the hunger away until I found somewhere better. While in McDonald's I figured that it must have been on the Southern part of the other subway line, so I'd have to head East via the JR train line. Headed back North on the subway up to the JR Station, caught the train one stop East and then changed on the other subway at Yamashina then headed South again for afew stops till I got to Ono.
At Ono all I found was a few closed car yards, an open convenience store, and roadside Gyudon restaurant. It was already too late in the evening by then for the shopping centres to be open. So I decided Gyudon was what I'd eat. Gyudon is basically slices of beef in a sauce served on top of a large bowl of steaming hot rice. Now against better judgement and warnings from Ritsuko about cheep Gyudon restaurants (cause they might use nasty high chemical content mad cow infested beef!!!) I went in had bowl of Gyudon for about 400yen. As I left the restaurant it started to rain quiet heavily. As I got into the subway station I made this snap with the Casio, the only photo I took that day. Then I started sneezing, it was a the beginning of a cold.
Then it was only on the way home I realised I didn't have my house keys (and I don't have a cellphone). When I finally arrived home it was after 10pm and Ritsuko was asleep up stairs, and I had to ring the door bell a few times before she came down to open the door! Yep, I had a bad day!
22/02/2010
Okonomi-yaki
Some Japanese foods have become famous in Australia: things like Sushi, Teriyaki (although in a highly modified form), Tempura (which is originally a Portuguese dish), Ramen (which originates from China) and Teppanyaki. However, I've never been able to find Okonomi-yaki on the menus in Japanese restaurants in Australia. Yes, back then we did sometimes make it ourselves, but it was never quite the same as what we can get here.
Okonomi-yaki isn't exactly something you'd find at high class establishment though, and thus probably why restaurants in Australia didn't offer it. Okonomi-yaki is a kind of Japanese savoury pancake and an Osakan soul food. It's one of the dishes you might find at cheap roadside eateries or places you'd go with workmates to have a few beers.
Well Ritsuko and I went into Osaka one Monday morning, because we don't start work until 4:00pm on Mondays and it's a quiet day to look at the shops. For lunch we found a great Okonomi-yaki place in the Yodobashi Camera building. I also bought Ritsuko a new CD player while we were there and didn't buy anything photography related, that time.
So if you ever go to Osaka make sure you try Okonomi-yaki (cooked at your table is the best way to enjoy it). Also try the Hiroshima version if you go to Hiroshima because it's quite different, but equally delicious.
20/02/2010
Gatorade
This PBLOG entry is inspired by a BLOG on
Mike Beddall's site about
sports drinks in Japan. Mike complained about the fact that all Japanese sports drinks, no matter what brand all look and taste the same. They are all a cloudy white colour and taste slightly grapefruitish. Even Gatorade in Japan doesn't come in the choice of flavours it does in other countries. Mike mentioned that the only Gatorade he's found in Japan was an Orange coloured one, but it wasn't Orange flavoured.
I wrote on the comments (which I can no longer find on the site), that I had found a Blue Gatorade in Shiga, but since I've got no photographic record of this, I can't prove it.
Now other than photography and maintaining this website and other websites, the other thing (outside of work, church, family and trying to learn Japanese) that I like to do is running (actually in Australia cycling as well, but now here in Japan cycling is my transport, not my recreation). So, needless to say I consume a lot of sport's drinks and I've been putting up with the milky white slight grapefruit flavoured Pocari Sweat, Aquarius, and Dakara (whichever is cheapest for 2 litres this week at the local Co-op supermarket).
Well, during a photography trip, I finally found a vending machine which sold Gatorade. No Blue Gatorade this time, just the Orange coloured one which tastes like every other Japanese sports drink except with a slight mikan (mandarin) taste, rather than a slight grapefruit taste! I still believe I found a much more delicious Gatorade in Shiga which was blue coloured, but until I do find it again, this is all I've got to show. Still hoping for my favourite Red (Raspberry flavoured) Gatorade to turn up here too.
16/02/2010
A Visit to the Dentist
Well it had to happen, with all the chocolate I was eating... While I was drinking some Aquarius (a Coca Cola made clone of Pocari Sweat, in other words a sports drink), I felt something hard hit my tongue. I spat it out and found it appeared to be a piece of tooth, one side white and the other side black. I was shocked, had one of my teeth rotted through? Well after a lot of lectures from Ritsuko about my chocolate eating habits, she booked me in at a local dentist that had been recommended to us as the gentlest dentist in town.
Well when we got there and I showed her (the dentist) the bit of tooth, she examined it and said it is a piece of plaque and I don't have a broken tooth. I felt like a bit of a doofus at that point! She said I'll have to have a full clean and scaling before she could examine to see what shape my teeth really are in. Well, the last time I went to the dentist was 9 years prior in Australia, that clean and scaling was such a traumatic experience, that I never went back there again! Yes, I guess I'm a bit of a wimp! Well, here I am in Japan about to face the clean and scaling again...
Well, the truth be known this dentist is very gentle, compared to the one I went to nine years ago in Oz. After a clean and scaling, an examination and an x-ray, she pronounced my teeth were in perfect shape, I just had a lot of plaque on them. Now with the plaque removed I can feel each individual tooth with my tongue, which is a rather strange feeling. I thanked her most politely and exclaimed in my best Japanese that "you are so gentle", which kind of took her by surprise. (Note Ritsuko was with me at the dentist to translate)
Well I'm definitely going to go back for regular cleans and scales now!
15/02/2010
A Hopeful Sign of Spring
My second winter in Japan was colder than the first, but we did have more heating equipment and better clothing for the second time around. Even then as Dave, Jonathan and Jayden remember well it could get very cold, even inside the house! Japanese houses are not made for the winter, especially approximately 50 years old houses like the one we are staying in.
So it always lifts the spirit when the Ume (plum) blossoms appear which are the first of the flowering stone fruit trees to bloom for the year. Now somehow in the past for me the Ume blossoming was not such a big thing compared to Sakura, but I'm growing to like the Ume blossoming more and more. They are a more modest blooming than the Sakura, which seems to fit well with traditional Japanese values. I also think they photograph a lot better for close ups than the Sakura because the image is not overloaded with flowers. The only thing is, I don't get out and photo the Ume enough because the weather is still so cold and the second half of February often sees the end of winter rains.
However I am planning something big for the Ume blossoming of 2011, because I've found out about a great place to view them. So stay tuned and hopefully it's not 2012 by the time I PBLOG about it!
14/02/2010
Valentines Day in Japan
The concept of Valentines Day in Japan is totally different from the west. It's not considered a romantic day for couples, rather is it is a day where guys receive chocolates from every girl they know including sisters, friends, co-workers, students, etc. Then the guys are supposed to give something (usually white chocolates, although it can be other things) in return on “White Day” on the 14th of March.
So while Valentines Day in the west is a boom day for florists, in Japan it's a boom day for the chocolate makers. I guess because Easter is not really celebrated in Japan, the chocolate makers caught hold of Valentines Day.
Now, I can handle receiving lots of chocolates, cause I'm a chocoholic (especially during the cold winter here in Japan), but the old romantic in me wants to give Ritsuko something for Valentines Day. So I bought her some fancy chocolates (pictured). I'm just wondering what the sales people at the shop thought of a guy buying Valentines Chocolates...
09/02/2010
The life of continual farewells
In the book “Mi Ni Amaru Megumi – Undeserved Grace” the memoirs of the Australia/Canadian missionary couple David and Dorothy Brook, they mention that the life of a missionary is a life of continual farewells. The reason for this they said was they were always welcoming people and sending them off, visiting home on furlough then returning, moving from town to town as they helped train Japanese pastors and plant new churches. Around the time that we had Dave, Jonathan and Jayden staying with us, I was reading the this inspirational book by a couple who had served as missionaries in Japan for 25 years.
It seemed that while they were with us we gained extra members of our family. It was especially hard to say goodbye to Dave who stayed with us for three weeks. We just seemed to all work well together. You know even though we went to a lot of cool places with the guys, it was the simple things that are such good memories: One of the really cool things Dave and I did together was to play kick to kick Aussie Rules Football on two occasions; at a local park and also by the river. It's been so long since I've played kick to kick Aussie Rules and it was great to relive those memories in a foreign land. What was even cooler was that Dave goes for the Eagles (we don't hold that against him) which is the arch enemy of my team the Dockers and thus we wore our opposing teams gear for the kick to kick... The Nagaokakyo Western Derby! Sorry no one took any photos of that...
So after seeing Dave off at the airport, I paused a while to watch the planes depart one after another and that phrase “the life of continual farewells” just struck to the heart. This is the life I choose and sometimes it's tough, but I know I'm where God wants me to be.
07/02/2010
Snow on the Streets
On the day Dave arrived in Japan, we had our first low altitude snowfall for the 2009-2010 winter. When Dave went to Tokyo, they had the biggest snowfall in three years. When Dave came back to Kyoto, we had the biggest amount of snow since we've been here (we moved here in November 2008). So the snow kind of followed Dave around I guess.
We only got one snow accumulation event at our low altitude in the 2008-2009 winter, and that one didn't show up on the roads, only the roof tops and gardens. This time snow was on roads, some where covered more than in these photos. Since it was Sunday I didn't have much time to take photos in the morning because I had to get ready to preach. After church it had all melted.
06/02/2010
Meeting a living national treasure
Living in Japan, life is always full of surprises. Dave decided to come back and stay with us for a few more days after his week in Tokyo and Mr Sakamoto said he wanted to introduce us to his old university buddy who is now a Master Samurai Swordsmith. BTW Mr Sakamoto is an architect by profession, but his friend decided to give up a career in architecture to inherit the family business of Samurai Sword making.
Mr Sakamoto's friend lives quite far from us, right out the other side of Nara city actually. Since we had an afternoon appointment with the Master Samurai Swordsmith, we decided to take Dave out to see Nara in the morning.
So after seeing the Dai-Butsu (the giant Buddha) in Todai-ji (Todai temple), having lunch at our favourite Israeli Restaurant (serves Kosher & Vegan dishes) and stopping in to look at the historical Episcopal (Anglican) Church with architecture inspired by the Buddhist Temples in Nara, we finally caught a ride with the Sakamotos out to Sakurai.
When we arrived in Sakurai we had to trek on foot following some step pathways through some hills until we finally got to Gassan Sadatoshi's house. Gassan Sadatoshi is a Living National Treasure of Japan and is the current Master of the Gassan School of Sword Making. We spent a couple of hours there looking at the swords and talking about the artistic and technical aspects of sword making. It was such an honour to meet Gassan Sadatoshi and he challenged and inspired us in our own artistic pursuits (photography for me, filmmaking for Dave).
31/01/2010
Jayden and Jonathan
The very day after Dave went off for a week in Tokyo, Jayden Bray and Jonathan Tan arrived at Nagaoka Tenjin Station to stay with us for a week. They had spent a week in Osaka visiting a church there and also ministering to homeless people. While with us, they got see some of the things we do here including the church and some English classes. Although the kindergarten English classes had finished, we were all invited to take part in a regular class at Megumi Kindergarten for half a day. It was in that class that the words "Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."" (Matthew 19:14 NIV) rang so true as we experienced the love and hospitality from the children who welcomed us into their class group.
Well, in July of 2009 Jonathan wrote to say he would be making a trip to Japan and possibly bringing a friend along. In the end the way it worked out is that they came here for the week that Dave went to Tokyo.
God has given Jonathan incredible talents for the Japanese Language, he has picked it up so quickly. He plans to come to live in Japan in the future, once he's graduated from university.
It was also great to get to know Jayden who has very different personality to Jonathan! It's is amazing to see how God works in all types of people.
The differences in personality meant all had our moments and misunderstandings, but in the end it was a growth experience!
We know Jonathan's heart is for Japan and reaching the Japanese people with the Gospel, so we are sure we'll work with him more in the future.
We're not sure if God is going to bring Jayden back to Japan or not, but if does come back Ritsuko and I'll welcome him with arms wide open.
30/01/2010
Kiyomizu Sunset
Dave was about to head off to Tokyo on a late night bus, as a bit of a send off we organised a dinner at a restaurant below the Kyoto tower with some of the other teachers from Megumi Kindergarten. Before dinner Ritsuko and I took Dave up to Kiyomizu temple where we were able to watch the sun setting over Kyoto. It was a very fitting end to this stage of Dave's mission trip to Japan...
28/01/2010
Arashiyama on a cold and rainy day
One of my favourite places in Kyoto is Arashiyama and I wanted to share it with Dave during his time with us. Well on a Thursday morning we had an opportunity to go, with the stipulation we got home for a 4pm English class. It was a very cold (about 2 degrees Celsius) and wet (drizzly) morning when we headed out to Arashiyama. We both put on full wet weather gear over the top of our warm winter clothing (including duck down jackets).
Soon after we got there my little Casio gave up the ghost (well so I thought)... However, after warming it up under my Jacket and pulling the battery out and putting it back in again it came back to life and has worked ever since.
Well, we went to Tenryu-ji (a Zen Temple) and then to the Bamboo forest. After that we had lunch at an Udon Restaurant, but we were still feeling hungry so we went to a nice cafe for parfait desserts. Well took so long eating that we had to rush back to the train and then rush from the station back home to make it in time for the English classes. We made it back in time, but had to change clothes, because we were drenched from running home in so much gear... So much for the wet weather gear keeping us dry!
25/01/2010
Four Degrees Celsius
It was a Monday and we didn't have any classes until 6pm, so we decided to take Dave out to visit the Sakamotos in Omi-Imazu. Well, this time unlike when we went there in the New Year Holidays, we decided to walk the 2.6kms from the train station to their house. When Ritsuko and I visited Omi-Imazu with Julia in 2007 we did the same walk, but as you can see from
that photo the weather was quite a bit more pleasant! Still we made it on a cold day and the walk also warmed us up pretty well and good too!
Along the way we stopped to show Dave the the street (top right) named after the famous missionary (who "tentmade" as an architect) William Merrell Vories with a Bank, a Post Office and a Church which he designed.
Once we arrived at the Sakamotos' house we enjoyed plenty of good food and fellowship, before we had to head back (by car to the train station this time) to make it back home in time to for the English class.
23/01/2010
The Neon Strip
Well, after the end of the school year it was time to take Dave out for a bit of a celebration. We finally had a full day with no teaching so we (Ritsuko, Dave and I) all headed out to Osaka for the day. We first went to Osaka Castle... Then the famous Ramen Shop in Shinsaibashi... The Apple Store... Through a few Shopping Arcades... Afternoon tea at a nice cafe... The very special shopping arcade which sells supplies to restaurants... Checking out the neon lights of Dotonburi (pictured)... Finishing off with a traditional Osakan dinner of
Okonomiyaki and
Takoyaki, washed down with some
Asahi.
Yep it was a great day and evening out on the town in Osaka.
21/01/2010
The School Year Ends
Well, after nine months of teaching kindergarten it was time to say goodbye to the classes of 5-6 year olds who would be graduating. It was a day of handing out certificates and saying farewells to the older children. For the younger children in the 4-5 year olds classes, it was a case of "see you in May" as the English classes go it into recess because the Kindergarten is busy with the annual Musical, then Graduations, and Enrolments.
It was a great nine months and it was sad to farewell the older children. I was joined for the last classes by Dave who was staying with us at the time. After the classes Dave and I were each presented with a drawing that the children had made of us (top right).
During the three months between the lessons, I spent a lot of time making a new workbook for the 2010-2011 school year for the older class. During the break in February to April 2011 I'm planning to make a new workbook for the younger class and update the older class workbook again!
13/11/2010: Had an extremely busy October and Early November with Tax Returns, Weather related rearranging of class schedules, Sports Carnival, and my youngest sister visiting. I'm now banning myself from reading photography gear related sites, so I can concentrate on posting more to my pbase galleries... Hopefully it works!
16/01/2010
Yasaka Shrine
On the first Saturday Dave was with us, we didn't have any classes scheduled so I took the opportunity to show Dave around Kyoto a bit. Especially the area around the crossing of Kawaramachi Dori and Shijo Dori and up Shijo Diro into Gion. One of the highlights of this outing was a visit to Yasaka Shrine where we got to watch some of a traditional Japanese wedding.
Yasaka Shrine isn't exactly the most prettiest of Shinto Shrines in Kyoto, but it certainly is one that is a hub of a lot activity. Sometimes even Geisha come to Yasaka to be blessed. Going there is an interesting insight into the Japanese culture, but it might be a shock for some expecting something tranquil and/or religious. Coming to Yasaka you might get the idea that Shinto is one of the most hedonistic and commercialised religions in the world, but then I would say try looking at some other Shinto Shrines to see a different view. Japan is certainly a place where you can expect the unexpected.
13/01/2010
David Blair
Back in September of 2009, I received an email from a guy who we knew from our church back in Australia enquiring if we could use his services on the mission field. He had received a 21st birthday present of a two week mission trip to Asia. Well, we are always happy to have some visitors from overseas to come and share in the work here with church and the English teaching, so we said we'd be more than happy to have him stay for a while.
It turned out that the best time for him to come was going to be right bang in the middle of winter here and thus on the 13th of January 2010 David Blair (Dave) arrived in Japan. The day he arrived he helped us out with the classes at Bambio and the very next day he was helping me teach at Megumi Kindergarten. Dave is such a likeable fellow that he was an instant big hit with the students both young and old as well as with our little congregation up here.
Actually in terms of marketing our English teaching Dave's visit is one of the best things that had ever happened up here. Even though he only stayed with us for a short time (which actually ended up to be about 4 weeks in Japan) we got a number of new enrolments of people who met Dave.
So thank you Dave for the blessing of your visit, which still continues due to the increased student numbers this year, plus all the memories of the things we did together here (more BLOG entries on that to come).
10/01/2010
New Microwave and Rice Cooker
In preparation for the visitors we had coming on mission trips, we upgraded the Microwave and Rice Cooker. We were able to do so thanks to some generous Christmas gifts from friends in Australia, so I want to thank you again for your support.
The old Microwave (approximately 1987 vintage) which was barely working, too small for the larger bento meals, and probably unsafe, was thrown away in October 2009. We had gone without a microwave for three months. We decided to get a microwave that also has an convection oven and grill since our house lacks an oven and grill, we only had a gas stove top.
The case with the rice cooker: the one which someone had given us when we arrived was pretty old and would oft burn the rice, especially if you tried to cook more than a cup of rice. So with young men coming to serve, we decided to get one that would handle a bigger amount.
Note 18/09/2010: A lot has happened since I last posted in July. There was a visit back to Perth and all of the preparations that went with it. Once I got back here (to Japan), I had a busy few weeks and have been pretty much booked out for the last two weeks. I've now got a bit of a lull in the bookings for the next three weeks (however things could change), I'm trying to catch up on some my admin work and Japanese study while I can. Hopefully I can get a few more of these Mission Japan entries up, over the next few weeks. In a months time my youngest sister is coming for a visit and I'm pretty excited about that, looking forward to introducing her to the students and church friends. I know this PBLOG is still in January, but I want to keep it going like this (and not jump forward) as a testimony to the work that God has done here in our lives and the lives of some our friends. - James
06/01/2010
UNIQLO
There's been a lot of talk about the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in the press recently, and how many of the upmarket brands which once ruled supreme in Japan are now struggling. However, there are still businesses which are doing well. Actually
UNIQLO (pronounced "yu-ni-ku-ro") is one of the big success stories in the Japanese fashion industry. More recently they have been moving into markets abroad with stores in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, UK, France, US, Singapore and Russia.(1)
UNIQLO operate their own stores selling their own brand of clothing. The parent company's name is "Fast Retailing", think of it like taking the fast food concept to casual fashion. They offer low cost, yet well made clothes in fast changing fashions.(2,3)
The thing I love about UNIQLO are the sheer number of colours available for the basic items, such as T-Shirts, Sweaters, Shirts, Jeans, socks, gloves, etc.(4) You almost always can find something to match something else! Unfortunately the range of sizes is where they cut back, so if your any bigger than Japanese XL for shirts (M in Australian sizes) you're out of luck at UNIQLO. Plus they only have one size for socks and gloves, which are too small for me. Fortunately I fit Japanese XL shirts, the only problem is at the low prices and good quality it's always tempting to buy a few colours! I have to keep in mind that in Japan I don't have much space in my house!
Note 19/07/2010: Had another particularly busy two weeks, haven't had time to post on pbase, but still had a chance to take a few photos. I will try to look at others' shots over the next few days and post some comments - James
04/01/2010
Omi-Imazu
There's a special place in North Western Shiga-ken that's very close to our hearts. It's somewhere that it's possible to experience peace and tranquility of rural Japan. I'm talking about Omi-Imazu. Those who've been visiting my site over the last few years, may know it's also a place where our good friends the Sakamotos have a holiday house and we've visited a couple of times.
Well, the last time for me go there, was in September 2007... And to cut a long story sort our friends decided in September 2009 to move out of their place in Kobe and live permanently in the Omi-Imazu house... So, this year rather than going to Kobe to celebrate New Year with them, we took the train out to Omi-Imazu. Winter in Omi-Imazu is something special, unfortunately most of the low level snow had been washed away by rains the day before, but the mountains were still beautifully covered. We ate nabe on the second floor of the house enjoying the view of the mountains.
We made our way back to Kyoto on the super fast (well 135kmh, not quite bullet speed) Raicho limited express and got back in half the time that it took us to get there on the regular train.
Note 03/07/2010: If you'd like to see more of Omi-Imazu, I've started a gallery of some of my best shots from Omi-Imazu from the previous visits to there in 2006 and 2007. Check it out here:-
http://www.pbase.com/jameslclarke/omiimazu
01/01/2010
New Year's Cards
It is the custom in Japan to send New Year's Greeting Cards which are like post cards. As long as you post them by the 28th of December, the Post Office will deliver them on New Year's Day. There are about three mail deliveries on New Year's Day in Japan, these are normally done by students who get a part time job with the Post Office during their winter school/college/university holidays.
We received a lot of post cards this year from friends, normally with their photo on it (often dressed up in a kimono). The three cards in this picture are ones we received from companies that we buy stuff from, another form of advertising I guess.
Note 28/06/2010: I've been adding more sub galleries to my
Kansai sites gallery, as I plan to make it a comprehensive guide to the sites in the Kansai region of Japan (where I now reside). Hopefully this can be useful to people who are planning to come to Japan.
29/12/2009
Hikone
After the busyness of the build up to Christmas and all of the things that went on, we finally got the chance to have a day off and go out into Shiga for a bit of an adventure. Since I have an interest in Japanese castles, we decided to go to Hikone to see Hikone-jo (Hikone Castle) which is rated as the third best original wooden castle after
Himeji and
Matsumoto. The Castle itself is rather small, but the architecture is very beautiful and unique. The views across Lake Biwa from the top floor windows are fantastic. Next door to the castle is Genkyu-en a traditional Japanese Garden which is worth seeing if you visit the castle.
The biggest surprise was what we found in the outer moats of the castle, a pair of Black Swans. Since Black Swans are native to Australia (although now common in New Zealand as well), normally Japanese swans are white. Black Swans are also the symbol of my home city Perth in Western Australia. From what I've found on the net, the swans were a friendship gift from the city of Mitto in Ibaraki prefecture, I'm not sure if they originally came from somewhere in Australia or they were born in Japan. They were however coping better with the cold 3C temperatures on that morning than us!
After Castle and the Garden we spent some time looking around the city, which is the second biggest in Shiga Prefecture. We ate a delicious lunch of Omi-Gyu (Shiga Beef), then headed back to the train station stopping at a large cafe near the station for coffee and cakes, before making the one hour trip back to Nagaokakyo.
25/12/2009
A Surprise Christmas Gift
When Mum and Dad came to Japan, I enquired with Dad if he still had the old Flash from the Practika, since it would be a suitable Flash for the
Mamiya 67. Well, exactly on Christmas day (as it is not a public holiday here and thus the mail is delivered, plus even on Japanese holidays the mail still gets delivered by part timers!) a parcel arrived from my parents. When I open the parcel it contained a tea towel, a card and the Bell & Howell Model 20 Flash. What's interesting it's an American Brand of Flash that was made in Japan. Now-a-days my Nikon (Japanese Brand) Flashes are made in China! BTW the only time I tried it out with film in the Mamiya 67 for some reason the film didn't turn out at all (probably due to incorrect loading of the film, than a flash problem) and I've been banned from using the Mamiya 67 for a while because of that! So it may be a while before I have some pics to show from the Mamiya 67 + Flash, but I do have another camera capable of using the Bell & Howell Model Flash now, so maybe I'm going to get some good use from it sooner rather than later...
Note 21/06/2010:- A milestone of 4000 comments on my site was reached today, the person who gave me the 4000th comment was
Mr Rodney H of HumanTouch Photography. Thank you to everyone who has supported me in kind words of encouragement over the last 4 years.
21/12/2009
A New Keyboard and Mouse
Well, the answer to the question "what was the elusive Christmas gift I was seeking for Ritsuko?" is "a Magic Mouse for her computer". I had already managed to get the wireless keyboard, but the Magic Mouse was so popular that it had sold out everywhere except the Apple Store in Shinsaibashi. So that's what the trip into Osaka was for, to get the Magic Mouse.
Now that her computer has a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse and wireless networking, the only wires coming from it are the power cable and the printer cable. Compare that to my PC a few years ago and it had wires for the keyboard, mouse, monitor (x2), speakers (x2), network, printer and power! iMacs already cut down the wires by having the screen and the speakers in the same box as the CPU, but then going with wireless keyboard, mouse and networking - we have pretty much cleaned up our desktop. Sometimes technological advances are a good thing!
Note 20/06/2010: I got a bit busy over the last few days with the sermon preparation and paperwork for my Australian businesses, as well as English teaching here, so I've been away a few days from pbase. Hopefully, I'll get a few more BLOG updates out this week. - James
20/12/2009
"Real" Christmas Cake
One thing I missed in our first Christmas in Japan, was the Christmas cakes we would eat in Australia. For me it's the taste of Christmas. The Christmas cakes in Japan, just don't do it for me: Firstly they are strawberry cakes; secondly they are sponge (more air than cake) cakes; thirdly they don't last much longer than Christmas day. This time I really wanted to have some of the Christmas cake that I was used to and I wanted to share them with as many people here as possible, so I emailed my parents who kindly sent us not one but three huge Australian Christmas cakes. Australian Christmas cakes are solid and chunky; contain dried fruit; last so long that they can be stored away for the next two Christmases if you don't finish them this year!
The only thing was, we needed custard to serve with them and in Japan you can't by custard in milk cartons like in a Australia, neither can you buy custard powder. So Ritsuko and I sourced a recipe for custard from the net. Then I went and bought the required ingredients and we got to work on making the custard. In the end it the custard turned out to be the best custard we had ever tried that I'm not going back to instant custard again!
19/12/2009
Osaka Abstract
A few days before Christmas, I went into Shinsaibashi in Osaka to get the elusive gift (that I was unable to find in other places). I'm not going to reveal just yet what the gift was, but the mission to Shinsaibashi was a successful one. Not only that, before heading back to Nagaokakyo, I stopped in at the
Nike Store were I found that the Nike Gore-Tek hiking boots that I had been wanting for ages were on clearance for half price, but only a few sizes were left. In Australia since my shoe size is about average, I never get half price clearance items, but in Japan were my shoe size is bigger than 99.9% of people, they still had stock in my size (note: only Nike and ABC Shoes actually stock my size here, most other places in Japan don't). So not only did I successfully find the Christmas present for Ritsuko I was looking for, I also got a pair of warm waterproof hiking boots just before the New Year's holidays.
Note: This photo is of some Ichou (Ginkgo) that were still (rather late) showing the yellow foliage not far from the store where I secured the elusive Christmas gift.
14/12/2009
At Kyoto Station
Before going out to my second viewing of the Arashiyama Hanatouro, I went into Kyoto Station to look for some Christmas Presents. While I was there I checked out the Christmas decorations in the Kyoto Station complex. This tree was the centrepiece of the decorations, one thing you might notice is that it says "x'mas" rather than "Christmas". Around that time I received a Christmas card from a friend in Australia that said "Put Christ back into Christmas", and I whole heartedly agree in sharing about Christ at this time of the year (and all other times of year) and the difference he's made to my life to those who are seeking. At the same time I realise (and this might upset some) that we can't force our beliefs on others including trying to make our nation, or organisations, etc, promote so called "Christian Values".
It seems to me that people waste a lot of time arguing about whether it should be "Christmas" or "x'mas" is OK since "x" is "chi" in Greek and thus short for "Christ". Others who would argue we shouldn't celebrate it at all since "mass" is an "Evil Catholic Church" wrong concept. Others still refuse to celebrate it because it possibly has "Pagan" or "Witchcraft" origins. People get passionate about arguing for there particular point of view and forget the main message of Christ that "we love one another as He loved us". It's as my old boss in Australia would say "stop arguing (about) the toss (of a coin) and get on with (playing) the game" (words in brackets added for clarity, Note: in Australia many sports begin with a toss of a coin, the winner of the toss chooses the direction of play).
Note (14/06/2010): Many of you may have noticed that I hadn't posted anything to my pbase site for about 5 months. The main reason for this is the business here got extremely busy in what was supposed to be our low season (February to April), got even busier after the golden week holiday in May. At the same time I've been writing a new workbook for the Kindergarten students, which I just finished today. So some things in life had to be put on hold for a while and pbase was one of them. Now, that I've finished the workbook I'll start catching up with the "Mission Japan BLOG", hopefully about an entry a day (6 months to catch up!). I'll also start commenting on others photos again. I'm also planning a few updates to some other galleries and lots of new galleries, but I just see how it goes with the BLOG first. Finally, a big THANK YOU to those who sent me messages to see if I was OK, your well wishes were very much appreciated. - James.
13/12/2009
Arashiyama Hanatouro
Arashiyama is becoming one of my favorite places to visit, there is always something to see there and it's not too far away from where I live. Well, this year I found out about Arashiyama Hanatouro, a special light up of a number sights in Arashiyama which lasts for 10 days. The word "Hanatouro" means "Flower Light Road", because there are a number of lit up flower arrangements along the roads. There is over 5.2km of road lit up, plus special night openings and illuminations of various temples and shrines. (see
the Arashiyama Hanatouro homepage for more details).
I ended up going on two nights, the first night was a Sunday night and it was very crowded. On the following night there was about 25% less people, but the weather wasn't so good (occasional showers and strong wind). Even going on two nights I still didn't get the chance to see everything. I reckon you'd have to go all 10 nights to see it all! If your wanting to come for 2010, remember it is a pretty cold time of the year to be at Arashiyama, expect the temperatures to be in 4C to 8C range during the light up times (5:00pm to 8:30pm). IMHO they should start it at 4:00pm, because the sky is too dark by 5:00pm to look nice in the photos.
07/12/2009
The Road Works Gravy Train
It's that time of year again, when the financial year in Japan nears it's end and the local government decides to do something to use up the budget they get from the National Government (It's kind of a use it or lose it situation). The usual way in Nagaokakyo to use up the budget, is to go and do more road works. Last year that meant we got new drainage in our street, even though existing drains worked fine, just they were a bit old fashioned. It meant a few months of jack hammering and other interruptions. This year we got a new surface for our road, more interruptions, but at least this time they finished in a couple of weeks. I wonder what the road works gravy train will bring us next year?
05/12/2009
Murata Lights Up
Almost a year ago I blogged about Murata (a Nagaokakyo based electronic components manufacturer), well it's seem that business has been going particular well for them over the last 12 months. At a time when many companies (especially some in Japan) seem to be experiencing a downturn in business, why is Murata doing so well? Firstly they are diversified in the industries which they make components for including wireless communications, automotive electrification, audio/visual, energy, and bio-electronics(1). Secondly they are geographically diversified so they supply components to companies in many countries(2). Thirdly they are a company is unafraid to spend on R&D including researching the downstream use of their components such as having a team which builds robots from their products, just to showcase what their products can do(3). Fourthly they have great customer support with teams supporting all aspects of the end use of their products(4). Fifthly they have operate with a matrix business structure allowing them to be very flexible in reacting to a changing business environment(5).
So even in a hard economic in environment the truly innovative businesses can survive, even thrive and Murata truly had a reason to celebrate with a bit of a light up.
30/11/2009
Komyo-ji
Well, the other day I mentioned about Nagaokakyo's best keep secret, it's now time for me to reveal it to the world... It's Komyo-ji (a Buddhist Temple)...
While most people around the Kansai region (about 22 million) know about Komyo-ji (and also many others further away in Japan), it's relatively unknown outside of Japan. When I was there it was crowded, because it is considered one of the best places in Kyoto to view the momiji (Japanese Maples) in their autumn colour, but I'm pretty sure I was the only gaijin (foreigner) there. There's no mention of this temple in the Lonely Planet guides or The Rough Guide to Japan. It is marked on an English map of Kansai (from the Kansai International Airport Tourist Information Management Association), but there's no mention of it in the accompanying guide to the sites.
So other than being a great place to see autumn foliage what else is there to see in Komyo-ji? Well firstly it is a sprawling complex with many interesting buildings, secondly it is delightfully set in the mountains, thirdly there's a rock garden that is almost as good as the famous one at
Ryoan-ji, and fourthly it's one of the few large temples where you can actually observe the monks practicing their religion and laity joining in (in most of the "tourist" temples in Kyoto you can't see much of this). All this for a low entry fee of 500yen. Not to mention also, the great food and drinks to be sampled in the market area in the lower courts of the temple.
So how does one get there? Simply catch a train to Hankyu Nagaoka Tenjin (on the Hankyu Kyoto line) or Nagaokakyo (on the JR Kyoto line), then catch a bus from nearby one of those stations to Komyo-ji.
29/11/2009
Searching for the meaning of Christmas
Japan is a place where Christmas decorations and Christmas music seem to be everywhere for at a least month and a half leading up to Christmas day, yet on Christmas day they all disappear, Christmas is not even a public holiday here. Yes, some people might give their children presents, families eat chicken (not Turkey) together, couples might go out for a romantic evening. It's not a big family gathering time and there are no company Christmas parties.
A lot of people I meet here tell me that they want to go Australia, England or America to experience "real Christmas". What they'll find I'm not exactly sure, unless they are fortunate to be invited to an family Christmas in one of these countries, all they are going to see is rampant consumerism and more decorations (which probably will disappoint them because the Japanese decorations are pretty elaborate). They'll also be very bored if they are in a hotel on Christmas day with most of the shops closed and the streets quiet.
However this time of year people are more open to hearing about Jesus, so perhaps this searching attitude is a good thing. It must be remembered though that celebrating Christmas is not commanded in the Bible, and it's origins are probably pagan, but praise be to God that at this time of year we can have an opportunity to share with others about the birth of Christ and the implications it has for all of us. If you're curious to know more, please listen to the message I gave titled
"Searching for Christ".
28/11/2009
Maple Light Up
With the momiji season (the time the Japanese Maples' leaves turn red) in full swing in Kyoto and Nagaokakyo, a number of places held special Maple Light Ups in the evenings. Here in Nagaokakyo the main “light up” was at Nagaoka Tenmangu Shrine. Nagaoka Tenmangu Shrine is one of two sites in Nagaokakyo which are great places to visit to see some of Japanese culture and traditions. Additionally, Nagaoka Tenmagu Shrine has such a vast array of plants species so there's almost always something in flower or colour change to see. I started making a
gallery of Nagaoka Tenmangu Shrine earlier this year, additionally there are
more photos from there on
my Photo Stream.
I'm planning post about Nagaokakyo's other special site in the very near future, it is our best kept secret. Although a lot of people in Japan know about it, somehow it has missed getting in the English language travel guides. Stay tuned.
24/11/2009
When it all came together
The season was right for the trees, the weather forecast was for a sunny day, and I had a free morning so I headed for Arashiyama. Leaving home while it was still dark, this time on my bike. Heading to the Hankyu station, catching two trains and arriving in Arashiyama just before sunrise, only to find that it was very grey, overcast and foggy. After waiting around for an hour and thinking the light was not going to improve, I headed back for the train station. When I almost got there, the sun came out, so I decided to stay longer in Arashiyama. This time, I walked further up along the river than I had been before, where I noticed this big tree. I also saw boats coming up and down the river so I waited for one to come along and got this shot. After this shot I headed back home feeling pretty confident that I had nailed it. After getting the film back from the lab (it takes a week for Velvia at my local photo place) I was pretty stoked. I thought I had reached photographic nirvana and Ritsuko was telling me to enter it in this years photo comp. Then I did a Google image search on Arashiyama and found similar images came up, so then I felt I have to work harder to shake myself out of photographic cliches.
19/11/2009
The moment the light broke through
Some think of the very act of photography as a spiritual experience. Especially devotes to Zen, which has a philosophy of the interconnectedness of everything (including mechanical things) with the great universal spirit.
As a Christian I believe in a Creator God who made the universe, and for me being in nature observing things (regardless of whether I have my camera with me or not) is a chance to observe His handy work and marvel at it. There's also very much a faith element in photography, the very act of going out to take photos, is an act of faith that the light is going to be good and I get the shot I was looking for.
So now I want to share the story of this shot:- I finally had a free morning after a good while, so I decided to get up very early (4am). Get dressed in plenty of warm clothing. Grab the camera bag (already packed the night before). Walk 10 minutes to the train station in darkness at near freezing temperature. Catch three trains. Walk 1km up a mountain stopping to grab a snickers bar (breakfast) from a convenience store along the way. Pay a 300yen entry fee to a temple on the mountain, so I can get to a good viewing platform. All in the hope of catching a good sunrise! Then it happened, suddenly the most glorious golden light lit up the mountains to the west. It was only a brief moment and this photo doesn't really do it justice, but just watching the scene unfold was an awe inspiring experience that made the whole effort worth it.
The weather for the rest of the day was overcast and dull. As I caught a bus back to Kyoto and saw people looking sad and depressed on their way to work or school. I just thought if they had seen what I saw, maybe their moods could have been happier. Yes, the early bird really does catch the worms!
15/11/2009
Portrait Time
The weather was fine after a few days of rain, so we decided to go to the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park to take some portraits in front of the autumn foliage. It was a task and a half carrying the all gear on the crowed trains (D80 + SB600 + 3 Lenses + Tripod), and then dragging it all around the streets of Kawaramachi after the shoot trying to find some good Christmas decorations! Oh well we live and learn, next time no shopping trips after the shoot! I could have not brought two of the lenses, but they were the two smallest lenses in my collection so it wouldn't have reduced the weight by very much and I did get some other shots with them. It's just got me thinking maybe I need to invest in a good portrait lens that is smaller than the 70-300VR! Maybe an 85 f/1.8? And bring a third person to hold the flash rather than mounting it on tripod!
Once I got home and got everything up on the computer, I was pleased with the results that we got, here is one of Ritsuko.
08/11/2009
The Gospel in Nagaokakyo
We made it through all of the seasons. The bone chilling cold winter, the spectacular spring, the sweltering hot humid summer, and the mild weather of autumn. Add a typhoon, and a couple of Earthquakes, for good measure. Then there's been the almost total change of diet, lifestyle and careers. So the 8th of November marks exactly one year we have been in Japan and it was cause to celebrate with a bit of a photo.
It was a big step of faith to come here, but we came so that others may know the hope that we have. After one year I can testify that when you step out in faith, God works in so many wonderful and miraculous ways. Not only was it our one year anniversary here, but on the very same day, there "just happened" to be a festival in honour of one of Nagaokakyo's first Christians: Hosokawa Gracia (pronounced "Garasha" in Japanese).
Part of the Garasha Matsuri (festival) was a procession of people dress as historical figures from her era, through the streets of Nagaokakyo. The lady pictured is playing the part of Garasha.
We'd also like to use this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us in so many ways over this year, including: prayer, correspondence, visiting, giving us gifts and providing financial support. God Bless you all.
31/10/2009
The colour change season has begun
It has got to be one of the best things about living in Japan. The six week period from the beginning of November to the second week of December (as it occurs here in Kyoto), that is. It's otherwise known as the colour change season, when the various trees' leaves change colours. Most notable early in the season are the Sakura (Cherry) which turn into a deep orange to red. Then the Ichou (Ginkgo) with their magnificent yellow. Finally in the last two weeks of the season the Momiji (Japanese Maples) which turn a glorious red. Here in Nagaokakyo this particular tree in the entrance to Osaka Seikei University (Nagaokakyo Campus) is one of the first trees in the season to change. So ladies and gentlemen, it's time to get your cameras and start shooting for six weeks of spectacular autumn colour!
24/10/2009
Where Am I?
Well, I've given you one clue it's in Japan, but it looks like Europe. It's on the side of the mountains, but it's not far from the sea. It has lots of spacious properties, but it's in a city with not much space (even by Japanese standards!). The buildings here are old, but the rest of the city is very modern. It was once a very classy part of the city to live or visit, but it's looking a bit worse for wear these days. Give up? Highlight over the location line to find the answer.
Also you can see a photo from the last time I went there in 1998 here.
“Where am I?” also had a couple of other meanings for the day, firstly I got lost about three times during the day! Secondly it was a day I took off and got away from my home in Kyoto, went up a mountain, and had a bit of think about where things are heading. After returning home I made a couple of changes to the way we do things in the church.
11/10/2009
Autumn Scene
On the last full day that mum and dad were here with us in Japan, I brought them for a walk to some of my favourite spots around my neighbourhood. While at this particular spot I noticed this scene which was very similar to an example photo shown for an "Autumn Scene" contest. Except that in this shot the cosmos aren't standing so tall, thanks to the beating they took in the typhoon that when through just 4 days prior.
Well, I know photography is not about trying to copy other shots, but sometimes when you've been seeing the advertising example photo on every street corner notice board, it's just hard to resist clicking that shutter release when the same scene comes past your eyes in real life!
10/10/2009
Vories and Biwa
On our visit to
Japan in 2007 we found out about a Missionary named William Merrell Vories while staying in
Omi-Imazu, where there are three buildings that he designed.
To see more about those buildings and Vories click here. Ever since then we have been wanting to visit his adopted home town of Omi-Hachiman where many of the organisations he was involved in founding still exist in some form. Well, it's amazing how things worked out because the city of Omi-Hachiman decided to have a special month of opening all his buildings to the public which "just happened" to occur at the same time as my parents visit.
It was a great day walking around Omi-Hachiman looking at all of the buildings he designed and visiting the school and a business that he founded (which still operate to this day). Just like Ritsuko and I, Vories was a self-funded missionary, so it was both an inspiration for us and also my parents, to see the impact one can make if they follow God's leading. We also visited a place were Vories would meet with other Christian men for Bible studies, we discovered there that one of the other members of that group founded CO-OP (a chain of co-operative supermarkets in Japan). Our local supermarket that we go to almost daily is a CO-OP.
Since it was my parents first visit to Shiga Prefecture in the late afternoon we headed to Otsu (the capital of Shiga) for a sunset boat cruise on Lake Biwa, where we saw a beautiful rainbow. All-in-all we felt that God really blessed the day together in Shiga Prefecture.
09/10/2009
Osaka Castle
To paraphrase the entry in the Lonely Planet:- "It's Japan's most visited tourist attraction, some would say because it's the only thing worth seeing in Japan's second biggest city! I would beg to differ, there are plenty of interesting places to see in Osaka. Why is Osaka castle so popular, even though it is a concrete reconstruction, when not so far away in
Himeji you can see a real original wooden castle? Maybe it's because of the views of Osaka, or the disabled access, or just that it's located in the centre of a big city. Certainly while the interior is very modern and not authentic, the museum contained inside is very informative."
Since we couldn't make it to Himeji and I also wanted to show Mum and Dad some of
South Osaka, I decided to bring them to Osaka Castle on the way there.
After the castle we had a fantastic lunch at nice cafe/restaurant on the ground floor of the Osaka History Museum which is just opposite the castle (we didn't go to that museum). Then we headed to Shinsaibashi and walked down to Namba, the final stop was at BIC Camera, where I introduced Mum and Dad to the wonders of a huge Japanese Electronics Store.
08/10/2009
The Day After the Typhoon
On the night of the 7th of October, I experienced my first typhoon since arriving in Japan last year. Actually it's very rare for a Typhoon to come to Kyoto, maybe only once every five years or so. Where Ritsuko comes from in Kyushu, they get Typhoons more frequently, so she is experienced in dealing with them. So we brought everything inside, including the bicycles and pot plants and closed all of the shutters on the windows and doors. Then I went to bed determined to sleep it out. Once it came (although we where not in the direct path) our little wooden and weather board house was shaking all about and it was difficult to sleep. Then I heard the sound of the bamboo blind on the back balcony scraping up and down. I had forgotten about that! I didn't want to go out into the storm so I just left it. In the morning after the typhoon had passed I took the photo on the left, before cleaning it all up from the roof and the road!
My parents phoned me about 10am, and I asked them did they notice anything, but they were almost oblivious to it in the reinforced concrete hotel they were staying!
In the afternoon the weather came good and so we decided to meet up with mum and dad. Together we went to see Kamigamo Shrine and the historical area surrounding it. It was in the grounds of Kamigamo Shrine where we saw the damage to the huge tree which is in the photograph on the right.
05/10/2009
Okayama and Kurashiki
Have you ever returned to a place after many years only to find that it's not quite as good as you remembered it? To make matters worse, how about if on the return visit your brought a long some of your family members because you felt it was a special place you wanted to show them? This experience happened to Ritsuko, when we (Ritsuko, me, mum and dad) went to see Kurashiki. Ritsuko had visited there more than 12 years ago, and it was a place she really wanted to show us. When we got there it was almost like a Ghost Metropolis. Now I've seen small cities in rural Japan become run down, due to economic hard times, but Kurashiki is a city of more than 400,000 people and it even has a bullet train station nearby. Even the area around the central train station had many shops vacant! Many shopping arcades where very run down, more so that I've ever seen in Japan.
The photo on the right is part of an area we came to see in Kurashiki which is a historical district, even in this photo if you look carefully you can see the street's not so pristine. Actually, area around the famous canal is still pristine and it was worth seeing, but the rest of the city looks sadly depressed.
When we got back to the train station, I decided to take a look on the other side of the station, because I noticed an interesting clock tower. Then to my dismay did I happen to see the demolition of what looked like it once was an attractive amusement park going on.
Earlier on the same day we made a stop at Okayama to see the famous Korakuen (garden) which is pictured on the left. Okayama seem to be doing much better economically that Kurashiki, but still rather quiet compared to what where used to seeing in the cities around here (i.e. Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe).
BTW on our way there I finally got to ride on the
500 series Shinkansen (Super Express aka “Bullet Trainâ€), so I've now ridden every kind that run (or have run) on the Tokaido/Sanyo line. These are the
0, 100,
300,
500,
700 and N700 series. It's taken me 11 years from my first Shinkansen ride in 1998.
04/10/2009
The local noise makers!
Anyone who's been in Japan at election time, especially the local government councillors elections will know about how noisy affairs they are! So here are all the people I want to charge with "disturbance of the peace"! For a two week period these 27 people drove a car (or had someone else drive it for them) or pushed a cart (or had someone else push it for them) with a loud speaker or two on top it saying vote for insert one of their names here. They did this from 8am to 8pm on each one of those days. What makes it worse is my house has a road at the front and the back of it, so some times I get two at once! I was thinking if I had hose, I might be giving those loud speakers a big squirt! But, unfortunately that's likely to get me in trouble and not stop them!
Maybe I should make a sign in Japanese like "Silence is golden, please consider this if you want my vote" and place it outside my house, but since I'm not a citizen I can't vote anyway. Actually, even a few of my Japanese friends said they are annoyed by this type of campaigning, but in typical Japanese fashion people are too afraid to be the one to speak out. Well guess what? I'm not Japanese, I live here, and I'm not afraid to speak out against this annoyance to neighbourhood tranquillity. Now if only I could speak Japanese well enough to go and tell somebody enough is enough!
This is also a good example of Japanese overkill, because there 24 councillors and 27 candidates, so one would think you wouldn't need to try so hard as these people to get elected!
27/09/2009
Mika's Testimony
Our friend Mika who lives in Perth, came down from Gunma-ken (where her parents live) to stay with us in Nagaokakyo for two days. While here she shared with our church her testimony of the new life that she has found in Christ. Over the last seven years we have seen Mika grow in faith and wisdom, I would say that she has a noble character like the Bereans (Acts 17:11), who always search for the truth. She came to share with us, just one week prior to her Baptism in Gunma-ken, we know that God will continually bless her as she follow him.
Thank you so much for your visit Mika, it was such a blessed time for Ritsuko and I, we hope you come back soon, next time please bring Jeremy and the boys.
26/09/2009
A visit to the Brewery
Well, our friend Mika came to stay with us for a couple of days (more info about her visit is planned for the next entry). So, Ritsuko and I together with Mika and our friends Shiya and Chiyo plus their daughter Ruth went on a bit of a cycling tour of Nagaokakyo. The weather was absolutely fantastic for cycling.
The first stop of the tour was the Suntory Brewery in Nagaokakyo. We went on a guided tour of the Brewery which was very informative, but all in Japanese. Fortunately for me I could get interpretations from my friends. There was lots of good stuff: like all the things they recycle and amazing statistics. For example there are 6 giant vats which hold the finished beer ready for canning/bottling/kegging. If you were to drink a jug a day of beer from a vat it would take you 1400 years to finish just one vat!
The photo is of the canning machine, which was stopped for maintenance, because it was Saturday. This machine cans beer at the rate of 1500 cans per minute! They showed a video of it operation and it's unbelievably fast!
Since we arrived the factory by bike, we were given tags to say we are drivers and couldn't have the free beer (up to 3 middies) which those coming by bus are allowed. We were however allowed to have free Suntory Orange Juice and Barley Tea. It doesn't cost anything to go on the tour, and there's even a free bus from the JR Nagaokakyo Station.
After the Brewery, we went to a history museum which has displays of what Nagaokakyo may have looked like when it was briefly the capital city of Japan (just before Kyoto became the capital). Then we went to Shoryuji Castle and Temple, to a traditional cafe on the Old West Road and finally to a nice restaurant for dinner.
21/09/2009
Looking Forward
Sorry it's been a while since I last BLOGGED. I had almost caught up with the BLOGS before the "Great Pbase Crash of '09", followed by a visit from our friend Mika (coming up in two entries' time), then my parents (coming up in three entries'), followed by a rather busy period of work, and trying to sort out my Australian taxes!
On the 21/09/2009 during "Silver Week"* in the morning Ritsuko and I went to look at a display houses (the one we liked best is on the left). Yes, we are seriously considering buying a house here in a year or two's time, dependant on a strong AUD v YEN and if we can get a good price for our house in Australia. Then in the afternoon I went to Yamazaki (near Nagaokakyo) see how long it takes to change from the Hankyu to the JR trains (as this is the closest point in the two lines anywhere near here). This was in preparation for my parents visit, they're were staying near the Hankyu line, but in order to catch an early Shinkansen (Super Express aka "Bullet Train") from Shin Osaka we had to change on to the JR to get to Shin Osaka (as Hankyu doesn't go to Shin Osaka). So being the eternal Boy Scout (even though I was actually in Boys Brigade as child), I practised and timed the change over and took notes of all the appropriate time tables.
Hankyu O-Yamazaki station is also right next too (like 50cm away!) the Shinkansen line, so while I was there I got the snap on the right of a Shinkansen passing at high speed (although not top speed). It's a big adrenaline rush to feel it going past! BTW if your wondering how I managed to snap a high speed train with a point and shoot? It's easy set it to shutter priority 1/640s, auto iso, and set focus to infinity (point and shoots have practically infinite deep of field). If you try with auto focus, it will never lock on high speed trains.
a period of three consecutive public holidays was nicked named "Silver Week", which happened this year because of the two holidays (the Monday and the Wednesday) being near each other and the day in between became an extra public holiday. Normally these two holidays are not so close, because one is Lunar Calendar based and the other is Gregorian Calendar based. The reason it was called "Silver Week", is because every year in May there is a period of four public holidays near each other (and most companies close down for the whole time) known as "Golden Week".
19/09/2009
Harvest Time
"Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly [is] plenteous, but the labourers [are] few; (38) Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest" Matthew 9:37-38 (King James Version)
This verse has come to mind over and over as we look at the work to be done in Japan. We need as many workers for the harvest as we can get. It just so happened that today as I was planning to post this BLOG that I received an email from someone wishing to come here on a mission trip. In two days time we'll have a Japanese Lady (who lives in Perth) here to give a testimony. Not long after my parents are coming for a 10 day visit and my dad will be preaching on two Sundays. Indeed we pray there will be a harvest of souls in Nagaokakyo.
There's also a good parallel with agricultural work in Japan. It is difficult to attract younger people to stay on the land, and there's a shortage of agricultural workers. Yes, it can be hard working the land in both physically and spiritually. At the same time it is a very rewarding occupation because you're more in-touch with the source of life. Living in Nagaokakyo where we have a good mix of urban and agricultural helps me to understand these metaphors in the Bible in new ways.
14/09/2009
First Signs of Autumn
These plants whose name translates into “Cat Teaser” are one of the first plants to appear heralding the arrival of Autumn in Japan. The nights are getting cooler now and the day time weather slightly more bearable. It's wonderful to watch the sequence of plants that come into the spot light just for a few weeks, following a schedule of some kind. It's something I didn't see as much of in Perth. The excitement is building as we head towards the colour change season.
So I'd like to dedicate this shot to a photographer who has been both a big encouragement and inspiration to me over the past few years, the one and only
Kaden K. A master of both film and digital he never ceases to amaze me with his creative compositions and processing.
11/09/2009
Going to an exhibition
Our good friend Hiromi kindly gave us to two tickets to an exhibition of
Seiji Fujishiro's work at The Museum of Kyoto. This shot is of one of the buildings at the museum, it reminded me of some of the buildings in
Fremantle. If you're not familiar with Seiji Fujishiro's work, he uses paper cuttings of many colours to create his works. These paper cuttings are then mounted in front of a light for a kind of stain-glass effect. The whole exhibition is in darkened rooms. Some of the works have mirrors on each side and water at the bottom making an infinite tunnel.
The colours he uses are amazing, as is his use of light and shadow. Hmm... I think the exhibition is very inspirational for anyone working with visual arts no matter what medium.
One disappointment we had seeing this exhibition, was although he drew on a lot of Christian symbolism and even Biblical events in some works, is that he seems to misunderstand what it is all about. It seems he is not the only famous Japanese person that misunderstands things, there is even a “Christian” author who is very famous and popular who actually doesn't get many important things and thus people reading his works are left very confused.
So, this is one of the things we struggle with in Japan that people just don't get so many basic things (although sometimes they pretend to understand) about Christianity. It can be very frustrating for Ritsuko and I, but we continue to pray that God will open people's eyes to the truth.
10/09/2009
Now I'm dreaming...
Being in Japan (GMT+9) means that I didn't get the official
Leica M9 announcement until the following day. Yes, I had read through some of the leaks that had been posted on the net prior to the official announcement. This camera has caused a lot of strong reactions (both positive and negative) on the photography gear related forums on the net. Here's my take on the whole thing, if your an Obi Wan Kenobi and like your
elegant weapons from a more civilised age then this camera is for you. If your a Han Solo and prefer a good Blaster then you'll be wondering what the fuss is all about, I say stick with your
Nikon D3 or
Canon 1D Mark III! If you more of a Luke Skywalker (like me) who likes to use both Light Sabres and Blasters, but is on a tighter budget, you'll skip this one, but wait until the cheeper Zeiss Ikon or Voigtlander Besa full frame digital range finder comes out for less than half the price! (disclaimer: I have no inside knowledge as to when or if the companies will release a such camera, just my wishful thinking, hopefully it might be noticed)
Seriously if someone bought me a Leica M9, I wouldn't knock it back. If I was shooting reportage or street photography professionally I'd get one without thinking twice. At $6000US for the just the camera body, it is very steep for an amateur with little disposable income... Well, if you are on a budget you and don't mind the 1.3x crop then you might be able to pick up a second hand Leica M8 or M8.2 for a song. Couple it with a Carl Zeiss Biogon T* 2,8/28 ZM lens and you've got a pretty good reportage set up.
It's nice to see a camera maker releasing a camera that returns to the philosophy of “the simpler the better” without all the gimmicks that most of the other camera makers are cramming to the cameras, making them harder and harder use. At the same time I can see how I could make good use of one of the so called gimmicks, that is video in a dSLR. Well, at least we have a choice again between feature packed or just getting the highest quality still image...
03/09/2009
Takatsuki
Situated about 11.6 km (by rail) to the South West of Nagaokakyo lies the city of Takatsuki (pop. 353,619 from Wikipedia). Normally when we want to go somewhere bigger (for better shopping) than Nagaokakyo (pop. 79,306 from Wikipedia) we end up heading for Osaka or Kyoto. Wanting to go somewhere with a little more choice in shops, without putting up with huge crowds, Ritsuko and I decided to head for Takatsuki. We weren't disappointed, within one minutes walk of Takatsuki train station there are three shopping centres (one of them is in this photo) each bigger than anything we have in Nagaokakyo. The strange thing was these shopping centres were almost devoid of people. It turns out that unlike Nagaokakyo where many people live and work, Takatsuki is more of a "dormitory city" for people working in Osaka. However later on, as peak hour trains from Osaka arrived at Takatsuki, the place suddenly got a lot busier. All together it was pretty fruitful little trip, I found some socks in my size (29cm, very rare in Japan), we got a new coffee pot, and we had dinner at a tempura restaurant. I hope to go back there in the near future and explore a bit more.
31/08/2009
Olympus OM-1
Our friend Yuko (
the same friend from whose balcony I took this shot) dropped off this classic Olympus OM-1 kit which, has been used by her family since new. It isn't in mint condition by any means but the most important two elements work: the shutter speed appears to work reasonably accurately and the aperture blades stop down properly on both lenses. There are a number of faults: The light metering is not working, wrong kind of battery jammed in the battery compartment (I can use either a hand held meter or my casio); Shutter button jams down after pressing sometimes, but I've figured out how to un-jam it quickly when it happens; Mirror is damaged at the bottom, but I can still compose; on the 50mm lens the depth of field preview is jammed on; on the 135mm lens there is a chip in the front element and it doesn't lock in properly on the mount, but I can hold it in place. I've not tested the flash yet.
If you're unfamiliar with the Olympus OM-1, it is regarded as one of the classic manual 35mm SLRs. Here are it's features:- Large bright 100% view finder; small compact size for 35mm SLR; easy to use mirror lock up and self timer; built-in centre weight light meter; fully mechanical workings of shutter, aperture, winder, so therefore works in colder conditions than electronic cameras.
I'm going to load a roll of film in and give it a test, but I'm still trying to decide what subjects to choose. Anybody got any suggestions? Now that the kindergarten work is back on after summer holidays, I haven't got as much free time, so it might take me a while before I finish testing this camera.
30/08/2009
Election Time
Well day of the historic national election came and went... If you missed the news the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was ousted by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ending 50 years of almost unbroken LDP rule.
Here is a photo of a poster showing the local candidates (clockwise from top left):-
Representing the LDP and current sitting member for this seat Dr Shimizu Kouichirou he came second in this election and lost the seat.
Representing the Happiness Realisation Party (HRP) Mr Kishimoto Kouichi he came last in this election.
Representing the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) Ms Ishimura Kazuko she came third in this election.
Representing the DPJ Mr Izumi Kenta the new member for this seat.
I'm only reporting the facts of this election and I'm not going to give any personal opinions on what I think of any of the candidates or parties. I pray for the winners that they'll will govern the country wisely as there are many challenges facing Japan.
Trivia: The JCP is the world's strongest non ruling Communist Party (with about 4% support nation wide in the single member seats voting, and 7% support nation wide in the proportion representation seats voting), now that was something I didn't know until I moved here.
27/08/2009
Summer Festival
In August, all around Japan various business and organisations hold summer festivals (called "Natsu Matsuri") on an evening. These festivals are a little similar to fetes in Australia. There's food stalls, handicrafts, a few games for prizes (like air gun shooting, darts, magnetic fishing, etc.), live entertainment, lanterns and plenty of people. Actually the festival in photo is only a very small one put on by our local Kyoto Coop store. Two days prior I went to one about 20 times bigger at Nagaoka Tenmangu Shrine, but because we didn't know about it in advance and we were brought there by one of our students straight after our classes (at the local community centre), I didn't have time to go home and grab the camera. So, when I heard the local Kyoto Coop was putting on it's own festival I brought a long the camera for some shots. Next year, I try to make it to some bigger ones, maybe even in another city somewhere bigger that Nagaokakyo. I might even wear my best Yukata there too!
22/08/2009
A big day out in Osaka
This is the last in my series of "Summer Solo Excursions" since summer is now over... Maybe I'll do some Autumn ones...
Well this was definitely my biggest adventure, because it was the first time that I had ventured solo into Osaka which is a huge city. You may notice some hyperlinks, these link to photos I took this adventure. So firstly I had to get to Osaka, so I left on the Hankyu train from Nagaoka Tenjin Station on a train bound for Umeda. I didn't go all the way to Umeda, because I was planning to go to Shinsaibashi first and the easiest way to get there from the Hankyu Kyoto line is to change on the Subway at Awaji station. From Awaji I caught at train on the Sakaisuji subway line to Nagahoribashi. At Nagahoribashi I changed to the Nagahori Tsurumi-Ryokuchi subway line and rode it one stop to Shinsaibashi. At Shinsaibashi station it was a task and a half figuring out what exit to get out of the place and up to ground level. Once I made it to the ground level my first stop was the
Apple Store Osaka, where I purchased an OS X 10.5 upgrade for our G5 just a few days before they stopped selling it. So now I've upgraded the G5 to the last operating system that will run on it, hopefully the security patches should keep coming for a few more years. Then I had BLT sandwich for lunch at a very nice and inexpensive cafe in Amerika-mura. After lunch I went to the
Nike Store and purchased a pair of cross trainers (YES! they have sizes bigger than 27cm, the normal limit in Japanese shops). While there I had a good chat with the salesman in Japanese, because he's been to Australia and also has a Mac. After that I did
some more wanderings around Amerika-mura and then I decided to head to
Dotonbori. At Dotonbori I watched a few
street performers as well as having chats in Japanese to people who were sitting along the river. I met a few photographers, one even had an FM3a. Then I wandered back up to Shinsaibashi via the road, because the arcade was way too crowded and I then caught a train on the Midosuji subway line to Umeda. Walked all the way to the Umeda sky building in the sweltering heat, thankfully some of it was through underpasses. At the Umeda sky building I chatted with some high school students who were sitting in front of a fountain in shady spot for about an hour, using a mix of Japanese and English. Once I could see the light was becoming good I went up the top of Umeda Sky Building and got some shots from there (sorry I haven't posted those yet). Finally once I came back down, I got this snap of the building in the waning daylight. Walked all the way back to Umeda Station and caught a Limited Express on the Hankyu Kyoto line. I made it back home just a little bit later than the 1900 I had planned.
15/08/2009
Omi-Maiko
Another day trip into Shiga, this time with my lovely wife Ritsuko, and our friends Shinya and Chiyo and their daughter Ruth. We headed further up North along the shores of Lake Biwa this time, but not as North as I went in
2007. The place we visited is called Omi-Maiko (note the Kanji character for "Maiko" in the towns name is the same as that used for "Maiko" as in an apprentice Geisha, I'm not sure why though). Omi-Maiko is a popular swimming spot in the summer months, so I took a swim in the fresh waters of Lake Biwa.
I decided to go for a bit of a swim out to a rope, it was about 15m out from the shore. I made it to the rope, turned around and started to swim back doing freestyle. I made about three strokes when suddenly my wedding ring flew off from my hand when my arm was out of the water. Attempted to dive down to find it for a while, the water was about 2m deep. I had very little visibility so after about 5 minutes I called to Shinya to see if he had goggles. He said they're are back up on the beach, so I swam back to beach told Ritsuko that sad story and got the goggles. I prayed and asked God to help me find the ring, then I headed back to where I thought was the spot and proceeded to duck dive around looking for the ring. The bottom of the lake is pebbles. After about 15 minutes of duck diving I decided I might be more successful I skimmed along the surface. I spotted something gold in the water and duck dived down to find it was only a candy wrapper, but I was compelled to reach out just a bit further and suddenly my hand felt the ring! I picked it up and brought it back to shore and Ritsuko took care off it while I continued with an afternoon of swimming.
You can hear me talk about this experience here.
After the lake we headed for a nearby Onsen (hot spring) for a wash.
13/08/2009
A sortie in to Shiga
...and now for the second instalment in my "Summer Solo Excursions" series...
Back in
October 2006, Ritsuko and I attempted to walk from Hama-Otsu station to Ishiyama station following the shoreline of lake Biwa. This is a distance of about 7.2km. Our first attempt started well, with low 20s temperatures and mild conditions, but had to give up after about 2km because the weather became exceedingly adverse (heavy rain and strong wind). We also carried a lot (as we were travelling between accommodation) on that first attempt and I didn't get a chance to get the dSLR out the bag for any photos.
Well, I got it in my mind at having a second crack at completing the walk. This time I decided to travel lightly only taking my Casio EX-Z850, a small bag and an umbrella.
Firstly I went by JR train from Nagaokakyo to Yamashina. At Yamashina I changed on to the Keihan train and headed to Hama-Otsu station. I arrived at Hama-Otsu at 1650 and proceeded to the path along the shore line of lake Biwa. The weather was clear and about 30C and 86% humidity, not the most comfortable of conditions for a walk, but doable. Proceeded a long the shore line and the weather began to get rainy at about the 2km mark, pressed on. The rain became heavy by the time I reached the 3km mark, so I decided to check out the Prince Hotel (the tall building in the distance on the photo). Rain cleared at about 1740 so I headed on to a large bridge some 4.3km from the start point. Arrived at the bridge about 1800 and spotted a MOS Burger restaurant nearby and decided to have dinner there. Left MOS Burger about 1830 in almost dark though clear conditions. About 1900 rain started again and I had a strong head wind. Rain continued to increase in strength, dark conditions, little visibility, I pushed on. Arrived at the railway line at 2000, then attempted to follow it to the station, no straight path available, wound my way round back streets of traditional Japanese houses in pouring rain. Finally got to Ishiyama station at 2030, met a group of Canadian tourist, one of them said to me “You look flustered!â€... Mission accomplished! Headed back home on the JR train from Ishiyama to Nagaokakyo.
Now as I look at the map of Lake Biwa (Biwa-ko) in my office, I realise I only covered a tiny fraction of it's 235.2 km shore line, so sometime in the future maybe I'll walk around the whole lake...
03/08/2009
An evening out
I spent an evening out on my own in Kyoto. Walking around taking in the sites, getting a few snapshots, sampling the food and fruit juices, and chatting to the shop assistants in Japanese without my safety net of having Ritsuko with me to do all the talking. I'm here for the long haul, so if my Japanese speaking is to get any better, sometimes I need to just go out and practice. Kyoto is a good place to do it, because there so many tourist that people don't expect your Japanese to be perfect. Actually it's amazing how happy shop assistants become when they see you making an effort to speak Japanese. It also helps to pay them a few complements! It's amazing what you can learn when you just start talking to people... Stay tuned a few more posts on some of my "Summer Solo Excursions" are in the pipeline.
01/08/2009
Yodobashi Camera at Last!
Ever since I first saw this place back last year in September
(click here to see the shot). I've been wanting to visit it. Actually I was planning to go there with the Walkers when they came but I missed out due to us getting lost in our visit to Osaka and running out of time to go there. Since it is cheeper and quicker, and Kyoto is a somewhat more pleasant place, my normal place to go if I need anything that the Nagaokakyo camera stores don't stock is
BIC Camera in Kyoto. However, I've heard that Yodobashi is even bigger than the Shinsaibashi (Osaka) BIC Camera, so I have been meaning to check it out.
Well, after our usual monthly Saturday English classes to Employees of a company in
Sone (which is on the other side of Osaka than Nagaokakyo), we decided to stop in at Osaka on the way home. Yep the building is huge, but it's mostly full of clothing shops and restaurants! The camera section is probably double the size as the camera section in the Shinsaibashi BIC Camera, and four times bigger than in the Kyoto BIC camera. The best surprise was the amount of new medium format gear they had, actually if I had put together all of the medium format gear I have seen in shops in the rest of my life, it would only amount to about half of what they had in Yodobashi! They even had new
RB67s with any accessory I could imagine. If you're looking for Mamiya or Pentax medium format gear Yodobashi Camera is the place to find it, and they had plenty of stock of other brands too! Plus all the 35mm Film and Digital SLRs currently on the market (some stock of discontinued lines too!), and every Point and Shot digital camera too.
23/07/2009
Thank you to Sam & Michael
It was on a Thursday afternoon while I was teaching my regular 4pm-5pm Kindergarten kids lesson at my house that the door bell rang. It was the postman, he had a package for me from a guy named Michael in Tochigi-ken. I wondered what could it be, the only people we know in Tochigi are a couple of Japanese ladies. I came back into the class and the 3 students all wanted to see what it was so I opened it. It was film, to my surprise all the students knew what it was too. I think few 5 year olds in Australia would know what film is these days. In Japan although they invent all the new technology, a lot of older people don't change, so film is still popular with older people, so everyone's grand parents are still shooting film (unless they are real photography maniacs, then they'll have a Canon 1Ds MkIII or Nikon D3X + 400 f/2.8 lens!). They even still sell music on cassette in Japan, but only oldies music like Enka or Classical (I like both those styles too, but whenever I bought it's been on CD).
Earlier on in the year I received an old medium format camera from a friend's uncle (a Mamiya RB67), but I was only able to shoot two rolls of film with it due to being on a tight budget. Medium format costs about 4x the amount per shot than 35mm (that's when I add the film + development + scanning costs together). When
Sam C heard that I hadn't been able to shoot with the RB67 for a few months, he kindly offered to help me out. Thinking that sending film all the way from the USA to Japan, might get x-rayed to death, he asked Michael in Tochigi for help to send some films to me. So now I've been able to shoot some more medium format. I want to send out a big thank you to Sam and Michael.
At the moment you can see some of my shots from the
RB67 here, but I'm planning something for my PBase site in the near future.
20/07/2009
Osaka Seikei University
Well, after a few days of rain and humidity, there was a slight relief in the weather, so we (Ritsuko & I) decided to take a late afternoon walk. We were attempting to get to a big river, but found the quickest road there as it appears on Google Maps as now been closed, so we headed back (if I was alone I would have “bush bashed” my way through).
On the way back home we went via the footbridge over the railway near Osaka Seikei University (Nagaokakyo campus), which is on my normal jogging route, however Ritsuko had not been this way before, so we paused to take in the view (this photo). This particular campus is the school of Art and Design. The presence of this campus, according to many, helps create a vibrancy in the town that might otherwise be missing with out so many young and artistic types. The problem is that Japan's ageing population is causing numbers to decline at the university, so it will be closed down in a couple of years.
Well, for some that might be the end of it, let the university will be come another abandoned facility in Japan (a “Haikyo” location). However, for me I have a vision for something new. The university is right next to Megumi Kindergarten, and there is an unmet demand in Nagaokakyo for a Christian school, especially for Megumi graduates of which there are about 120 each year. Before we came to Japan we planned to one day to start a Christian School here, this was before we even knew of Megumi or Nagaokakyo. Now I feel here is a location, all we need is money and permit, Ritsuko is already a qualified Japanese Primary School Teacher (Bachelor of Education from Kagoshima University). With all the things God has done for us so far, nothing is impossible, if it's His will, then He'll make a way. We're already starting to get interest from parents and other qualified Christian teachers.
10/07/2009
Nara
Well, Kyoto might claim the fame of being the capital city for the longest time and thus accumulated a vast array of historical sites from many different eras of Japanese history. Nara on the other hand, claim to fame is that it was the first permanent capital. Prior to Nara they moved the capital every time the Emperor died. Nara is about to celebrate it's 1300th birthday in 2010, so they are sprucing the place up a bit at the moment. The big difference between Nara and Kyoto is that Nara has not become a big modern city like Kyoto, so in Nara many of the sites are located in vast park.
Nara does have a small downtown area, but it's definitely not as up market as Kyoto. Although there are some expensive places to eat around the main transport hubs, it's quiet easy to find very cheep eateries without looking too hard. Also given the large amount of tourism and universities around the area, there is a great range of International food available.
Nara was our last excursion with the Walkers before they returned to Australia, it was just a quick half day trip as we had to get back to teach some students in the early evening. We saw Todai-ji (pictured, a Buddhist temple, and the worlds biggest wooden building), and the Five Storey Pagoda. While looking for a place to eat we found an Anglican church which looked like a temple with a cross on it. Finally we settled on having lunch at an Israeli (Kosher) restaurant (the first I've ever found in Japan).
The Walkers visit was great growing experience for all of us. We thoroughly enjoyed their company and they were a great encouragement to many here. We hope that they will be able to come back again in the near future.
As for Nara, I'm planning to go back there later in the year and visit some of the sites that are a bit further out of town. I've heard they are better, but less famous, so less crowded.
04/07/2009
Back in Shiga (briefly)
You may have noticed a jump in a few days from the last entry. Well, after Himeji we had church on Sunday morning and Bob spoke. Then in the afternoon we introduced Bob to Onsen (Hot Spring Baths). During most of the week I was busy with kindergarten and my own business' English classes. The Walkers also got to help out in some of the classes. In order to give Ritsuko and I a break the Walkers looked after our house, while Ritsuko and I went to Shiga on the 3rd and 4th of July. The last time I visited Shiga was in 2007.
Shiga is the one place in Japan, especially on the west side of Lake Biwa, one can actually escape the crowds of Japan and get out in to nature. Unless you go there on public Holidays in the summer when half of Kyoto and Osaka think that going for a swim in Lake Biwa is the thing to do!
So Ritsuko and I stayed at a hot spring resort in Ogoto in Shiga. Although I'm a fan of hot springs, it wasn't so fun in the Summer as it is in Autumn, Winter, or Spring. The fresh air and open spaces however were a refreshing change.
27/06/2009
A Docker in Japan
So the answer to yesterdays mystery about where was our next destination we went to using the Two Day JR West Pass is... Himeji...We were pretty tired after the long excursion to Hiroshima and Miyajima the previous day, so we decided somewhere a bit closer. Himeji while still in the Kansai area is actually a reasonably decent ride on the Shinkansen away. On the way home we got to ride on an N700 (the latest series) which is way quieter and smoother than the all of the other kinds I've tried, not that the others are all that bad, actually any Shinkansen is more comfortable than a regular train.
So the main thing we went to see was Himeji castle (Himeji-jo), which is only one of four castles in Japan that are still remaining in their original wooden form, rather than a modern concrete reconstruction. Himeji-jo is also the biggest of the remaining castles and some would say the most beautiful, but I think the most beautiful award goes to Matsumoto-jo.
Now, on this day I wore my Fremanlte Docker's cap in order that the rest of the party wouldn't lose me amongst the crowds at Himeji-jo. It was pretty apt that in this photo that Bob had the cap out of focus, because that's pretty much how the Docker's season has been this year. As of today (15/08/2008) we've only won 5 games out of 19 and we sit second last on the ladder! The good news is we beat our arch-enemies (The Eagles) in the two games we played against them this year, so it's not a complete waste of a season. Hopefully we can win tomorrow against bottom of the ladder Melbourne. Come on guys get focused! At least we should get some good draft picks for next season!
BTW Here's a list of the castles that I've been to in Japan:- Kumamoto-jo (1997, concrete), Edo-jo (1998, concrete), Nagoya-jo (1999, concrete with one smaller wooden building remaining in the grounds), Gifu-jo (1999, concrete), Ueno-jo (1999, concrete, not sure if this is it's correct name but it's in Ueno city in Mie-ken), Himeji-jo (2005, 2009, wooden), Matsumoto-jo (2005, wooden), Osaka-jo (2007, concrete), Nijo-jo (2007, wooden, but not typical of Japanese castle design), and Shoryuji-jo (2008, 2009, concrete, Nagaokakyo's own!)
26/06/2009
Hiroshima
The last time I've been out of the Kansai area in Japan was 2005. Every visit to Japan since then and since moving to Japan, we've stayed in the Kansai area. Well, the Walkers visit and a cheep two day JR West Pass that was on offer, provide the chance to travel further. We decided we'd go to Hiroshima which is about 310km away from Kyoto. To let you know what a good deal it was, the Two Day Pass gave unlimited travel on all JR Trains/Buses/Ferries including all Shinkansen (“Bullet train”) services (including the Nozomi, which the Japan Rail Pass doesn't allow BTW). It also allowed us to make seating reservations on four trips. All this for 12,000yen per person, which is about what a one way fare to Hiroshima on the Shinkansen normally costs! We were able to go to Hiroshima and back on the Nozomi Shinkansen, the regular JR from Nagaokakyo to Shin-Osaka was covered, the train ride out to Miyajima ferry terminal, and the return to ferry trip to Miyajima. Then we used to the pass again the next day to go somewhere else, which I'm planning to write about in the next entry...
Well, it was my second visit to Hiroshima, the last time being in 1999. All I can say is that was just as moving experience as the last time, probably even better with the Walkers to talk about it with. I think that every school in the world (yes this is very idealistic, but there is surely enough money in the world if the will is there) should come to Hiroshima for an excursion. To taste for themselves the stupidity of armed conflict in it's ultimate form (nuclear weapons), I think that might be the best education for many.
After visiting the peace dome (left), the peace park and the peace museum, we had the traditional Hiroshima-yaki lunch (savoury pancakes made from egg, pork, cabbage, yaki-soba (kind of noodle) and flour, topped with mayonnaise and BBQ type sauce). After lunch we headed out to Miyajima (which was my first visit there) to see the famous floating shrine (right) and catch the cable car up the mountain. I think I saw more gaijin (non Japanese people) in Hiroshima and Miyajima than I have since I moved to Japan last year!
Catching the Shinkansen back to Shin-Osaka at twilight while eating eki-ben (Boxed food from the train station, normally an assortment of rice, pickles, and meats (commonly fish and other seafood)), brought back memories (for Ritsuko and I) of 2005 and prior.
25/06/2009
Missed something, found something
On this day we took the Walkers to see Osaka. First we went to “Kita” (North Osaka) with the intention of going up on the Ferris Wheel (left) at the HEP5 building. Unfortunately it was closed until mid October! Then we headed to “Minami” (South Osaka) on the subway and found this car (right) the brand is something like “Onochi”. We headed in the wrong direction in the shopping arcades and ended up in “Chuo” (Central) rather than further south as we had planned. All was not lost as we found an excellent ramen shop in “Chuo”. The we made our way back south on foot, but we were running out of time, so we decided not to head back to “Kita” on the subway. So we missed out on going to Yodobashi camera, but we went to the “Minami” BIC Camera instead. All and all it was a good day, even if everything didn't go to our plans.
22/06/2009
Us with some characters
On the second day of the Walker's visit, we brought them into the centre of Kyoto to have a look around Kyoto station. Then it was on to lunch at a Tempura restaurant in Plaza Porta. After that we went up to Higashiyama and Kiyomizu-dera. While we were at a Kyoto station, Bob took this photo of Ritsuko and I standing in front of some anime characters.
21/06/2009
With the Walkers
It has been a pretty long hard slog since we arrived here in November last year. Especially since we started Shining Lights Church. Although I've preached a number of times before coming here. It's the first time in my life when I've had to do it, week in, week out. It's also hard with not many mature Christians nearby to talk to when I have struggles. Here I have to be in a position of always lifting others up, not burdening with them with my issues. So we were absolutely thrilled when the Walkers informed us they were coming to visit us and give us a hand with things for 3 weeks.
Julia Walker is Ritsuko's best friend and has joined us on a trip to Japan in 2007. For the rest of the family, it was their first visit to Japan and it was such a pleasure to show them around and introduce them to new experiences. Bob was able to preach on two Sundays enabling me to have a little rest, and it was great to spend time bouncing ideas with him. It was also good to see the girls grow in faith through this trip. In fact, I think we all grew in the faith in many ways through the three weeks they spent with us (June 21 to July 11). We also got to do quite a bit a sightseeing too, which I plan to post more entries relating to in the days to come.
14/06/2009
Fireflies
One thing I've always wanted to see since reading about them in one of my Dr Seuss books as a child is Fireflies. As far as I know, there are no Fireflies anywhere near Perth. Almost every time I visited Japan on holidays in the past, people have mentioned “here's a place you can see Fireflies...”, but it has never been the right season (which only lasts for two weeks).
Well now that I live in Japan, and I found out that there is a certain spot in Nagaokakyo where the Fireflies appear in the right season, I have been waiting in anticipation. Finally the season arrived and we went to the place with a few of our friends from church. It was the most amazing site I've ever seen, a marvel of creation. How to they manage to all sync their lights like Christmas lights?
I'm sorry that my little photomontage doesn't really do justice to the experience, next year I'll be sure to bring a tripod.
06/06/2009
Closing and Opening
It was a lovely sunny day and Ritsuko and I decided we'd walk all the way to Seiyu (owned by Walmart but not so big at least in Nagaokakyo). It's about a 25min walk from our house. On the way back there was beautiful afternoon sunlight so I made these two shots.
The first shot is of a Pachinko parlour that is actually closing down. If you're not familiar with Pachinko, it's a kind of vertical pinball type game, which players insert balls into the machine and attempt to win more balls by getting the ball to fall into certain targets. Once a small bucket load of balls have been won, this bucket can be exchanged for a prize, which then can be taken to a hock shop down the back alley and exchanged for cash (gambling is illegal, but this is how they get around it). So why is it closing? Changing demographics, young people don't play it so much, older people are retiring and have less spare cash to play it.
The second shot is of the new buildings at the local high school that have just recently opened. It is very good to see. Often I lament about how run down most government schools look in Japan. A country which is the worlds second biggest economy for some reason seems to leave most of it's schools depleted. Most schools I've seen, the exteriors and interiors look like they haven't changed since the 1960s! Well finally it's good to see a school get an upgrade to modern facilities. It's also good to note they are starting a lot more vocational style courses with the new facilities. It's about time...
01/06/2009
New releases from Australia
I received a couple CDs from Australia in the post. Both these bands are truly “Metal Missionaries”, the lyrics of their songs contain an uncompromising Gospel message. Just as Ritsuko and I, bring the message of the Gospel to the Japanese culture. These bands bring the Gospel to the Heavy Metal culture around the world. I've had the privilege of working with both these bands in the past in a number of ways. I also took the photos in this Grave Forsaken album. I will present some photos from that shoot on Pbase later this year. While this Mortification album does not contain any of my photos, the recent live album (CD and DVD) “Live Humanitarian” does contain some of my photos.
I know from my relationship with these guys that the they're are serving the Lord and are not making a profit from their ministry. Rather they are spending money they earned in their day jobs producing these CDs which are of exceptional quality. If you like this kind of music, that is Thrash and Death Metal, consider supporting these guys by purchasing a CD.
31/05/2009
Preparations for the Insect Season
As the season changes from the cold and relatively dry winter, to the hot, humid, rainy summer, many changes had to be made to ready the house for the totally different weather. This is something very new for me, since Perth's mild Mediterranean climate did not require drastic changes to things in the house between winter and summer. The other thing is in Japan insects stay relatively hidden for most of the colder months and then suddenly come with a bang in June. In order to keep them out of the house we had to change many carpets and rugs to tatami type mats and then purchase a lot of (environmentally friendly) insect killers.
To give you an idea of the amount insects in the summer here's a recording made in mid July of the cicadas in the trees near my house, note the sound sometimes get even louder than on this recording. They start their noise at 6am and continue to 6pm. It's good they are quiet at night, but if you're near a rice field then at night you will hear the frogs. Actually, it's a good thing you can hear frogs because it means the farmers a not using too strong chemicals on the rice. I heard in some other countries the chemicals used a so strong that it kills all the frogs!
23/05/2009
Taka Returns
Ritsuko and I made a trip (2 hours one way by the cheapest train option) out to the Airport to surprise our good friend Taka, who was returning from spending 9 months working at a orphanage in Thailand. It is amazing the journey that Taka has been on with God and we are exited to see where God will take him next. We don't know whether we be working in the same place together, but we know we serve the same God and we had the privilege of being with Taka at various stages in his walk and our walk. The last time we met Taka was in September last year while we were here on short trip to check out the house, before the move. At that time Taka was just about to head to Thailand. On the Saturday of that trip we made the two hour trip to his town then to see him and a visit a friend of his in hospital. Then on the Monday he came to Nagaokakyo and look at the house which we are now renting. He even took the photo of us on this pblog entry:-
http://www.pbase.com/jameslclarke/image/103587599
It's also good to have a friend in Japan who is a fan of Grave Forsaken, and I'm sure all who know Taka from the Grave Forsaken Mosher Crew will be happy to see this entry. It's also interesting to note that Taka and I both have the same three countries which have been the locations were we've experienced things that have shaped our character and given us new insight to the things of God. These three countries are Australia, Thailand and Japan.
18/05/2009
An unexpected find
While going for my regular (three times weekly) 6km runs, I noticed something rather unexpected (for Japan) along the route. A bottle brush flower! This is a flower which is native to where I'm from in Australia! What was it doing in Japan? What was the chance of one being along my running route? So far this is the only bottle brush that I've seen in Japan, I wonder if this person is a collector of rare flowering plants? Well it was something that brightened my days as I ran passed it while it was in bloom. A little reminder of Perth, and big reminder that God is always watching over me. I went back at later time of day with the camera and got this photo.
Some links to photos of bottle brushes I've taken in Perth:-
http://www.pbase.com/jameslclarke/image/66579381
http://www.pbase.com/jameslclarke/image/75747395
http://www.pbase.com/jameslclarke/image/76339104
http://www.pbase.com/jameslclarke/image/76339105
http://www.pbase.com/jameslclarke/image/111029280
14/05/2009
MOS Burger
Since we finally came to the end of a rather busy period of English classes. Ritsuko and I decided to catch the train into Kawaramachi and have dinner at “MOS Burger” as a bit of a celebration.
Now MOS Burger is a Japanese chain of hamburger restaurants that make much better burgers and fries, than that other way more famous Hamburger chain starting with “M”. Actually I would say that their burgers are comparable with the burgers from Fast Eddies (a chain in Perth), yet cheeper and faster. Unfortunately MOS Burger is getting a bit harder to find now due to the popularity of that other way more famous chain starting with “M”. There used to be an outlet of MOS Burger in Nagaokakyo (before we moved here), but now it's gone, so we have to go to Kawaramachi. If you're visiting Japan and craving for a burger, please visit MOS Burger rather than that other chain starting with “M”, you may be pleasantly surprised.
12/05/2009
First day at Kindergarten
Well, after more than four months of waiting (from the time I did the training) and a lot of preparation, I finally had my first day of teaching English at Megumi (Grace) Kindergarten. I'm loving it. I would say that this would have to be my best job ever! And I've had some good jobs and working environments over my 14 year IT career in Perth. There is nothing more rewarding than to be able to teach children and see them learning something. Especially when you're exposing them to a totally new language and culture.
My Dad, who for about the last 18 or so years has worked as a career counsellor, once was telling me about how there is a growing trend of people who have “portfolio careers”. That is rather than follow a traditional career path in a given profession, over time have various career changes. Sometimes this is out of necessity, because jobs get replaced by technology changes. Other times it's more for personal reasons, someone just wants a change. When I look at what I'm doing now, I'm actually juggling a portfolio (Pastor, Kindergarten Teacher, English Teacher in own school, Photographer) of jobs at the one time. While it can be busy, stressful, and frustrating trying something so far from my profession. At the same time I feel that I'm now living my best life so far, and I have no desire to go back to being a full time Business Analyst, Systems Analyst or Programmer. However the things I learnt from those jobs certainly help me in unexpected ways in the teaching jobs.
It's is such a privilege to be working with Megumi Kindergarten both directly and indirectly as we share with the Japanese people the Hope that we have in Jesus Christ. When I read articles like this one (
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE54D21P20090514 ) about the increasing number of young Japanese committing suicide, I feel the Gospel message is needed here more than ever.
09/05/2009
Sone
Coming to Japan was a real step of faith. We are not on the payroll or associated with any missionary society. We do have a couple of income sources from assets in Australia and some income from book sales of our 4 published works. However, we had no jobs to come to here and the Australia Dollar at the time had plummeted against the Yen, meaning that we only wanted to transfer a little at a time to Japan. That made us learn to live on very little. The first month we were busy settling in, from December we started “James English Class”, we ran a month long advertising campaign. After a month and a half we had one student! A note to anyone coming to Japan and starting there own English School, it's hard to get people out of their houses in winter! At the end of January another missionary (who we had only met once prior) suddenly and unexpectedly decided to return to Australia handing us over 12 students. We now have about 25 students that either come to our house or the community centre (where we hire a room twice a week).
In March “James English Class” began a contract to teach English to employees of a company that is based near the Hankyu Sone station. This happens on the second Saturday of the month. Ritsuko, I and one more teacher who we employ casually for the class make the trip from Kyoto to Sone which is near Itami in Osaka-fu. In the morning we all teach beginners classes, in the afternoon I have an advanced class with the International Sales team, which is a chance to put my MBA skills to good use.
While we still have not got anywhere near the level of income we had in Australia (maybe 1/5), we're starting to reach the stage we're we are getting enough to live on and maybe a bit left over to buy and process some film! However, I realise now just how much I wasted money in Australia, these past 6 months in Japan taught meet a lot about what's really necessary, it's also helped in increase my faith.
05/05/2009
The Carp Festival
Now in Japan there always seems to be male and female days. Whereas in the west Valentines day is where couples give each other gifts, in Japan only men get gifts on Valentines day, but a month later is White day where the men give the ladies a gift in return. The same is for the Children there is the Dolls festival for the girls (on the 5th of March see
http://www.pbase.com/jameslclarke/image/111286709) and then the Carp Festival for the boys on the 5th of May. The funny thing is that 5th of May is also a public holiday called “Children's Day” whereas there is no public holiday on the 5th of March.
So the question is do we as Christians fly Koi Carps for our sons? There are some groups who would avoid doing this. However we must remember that many of our so called “Christian” Holidays have pagan origins (like “Christmas” and “Easter”). I think as long you are not worshipping another god, and the you place the focus of the holiday is on Jesus then it's OK to celebrate them. At the same time I think we can go without these holidays and still be just as good Christians, but these holidays are good bridges to connect with other people in the world and share the Gospel with them. When I was in Singapore the church I attended there used to celebrate the “Holy Ghost Festival” as Christian version of the “Hungry Ghost Festival”, and it was a time of a lot of evangelism and it connected with people there. The church I attended in Bangkok has it's own ways of celebrating Songkran Festival and Helping the Elderly (rather than praying to ancestors).
It all comes down to contextualisation rather than syncretism. Contextualisation is adapting our method of presentation, but not the core message, to fit a cultural context. Syncretism is where we mix our ideas with other cultures ideas to come up with something acceptable to the culture. So contextualisation is the right approach, syncretism is the wrong one.
So, a contextualised carp festival, might be through drawing parallels with some of the perceived virtues of of the carp with Christian values. Maybe rather than a journey to the mountain to be come a dragon, it could be though of as the journey of our Christian life battling the currents of the world as we press on towards the goal that is heaven.
Now, I know there will be some at the extreme fundamentalist end of the spectrum who will now label us as heretical. Here is a word for you “Just as your (spiritual) ancestors the Pharisees stumbled people from the truth by making it so exclusive, you do the same except with a 'Christian' label. Wake Up! You're stumbling many and saving very few.”
02/05/2009
Nagaokakyo's Christian Heroine
In Japan it is hard to bring the Gospel, because of various ideas about Christianity that got in to the Japanese mind set during the 300 years of isolation. At that time the Tokugawa shogunate did everything destroy the church and defame Christians and Christianity. Even 141 years after the end of the Tokugawa shogunate many people still have those attitudes. However in Nagaokakyo people are a little more open, since the town Heroine was a Christian. Her name was Hosokawa Gracia (or better know in Japanese as “Garasha”). She is famous for kindness and generosity. For a time Hosokawa Gracia and her husband Hosokawa Tadaoki lived at Shoryuji Castle (in the photo) in Nagaokakyo. Now-a-days this cutesy (top left) representation of “Garasha” adorns many publications from the local city council and street signs. Souvenir shops sell Garasha sweets. You can read more about her life here:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garasha
It's so true in God's kingdom, that some plough the fields, some so the seeds, some water, and some reap the harvest. Garasha is just one of many of God's people who worked tirelessly in Nagaokakyo and people have a more soften heart towards the Gospel here today because of their faithfulness. There is the more visible work such as Megumi (“Grace”) Kindergarten and the Evangelical Free Church's various play groups, English classes, etc. The various missionaries from Pioneers International that came here over the last 15 years. Then there is the less visible workers who faithfully serve God in the community building relationships. We are so grateful to God for all you have done and/or are doing here, even if we have a bit different approach to the way we do mission than you, we are all serving God. We've come to see over the last 6 and bit months here that He is co-ordinating it all.
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1 (King James Version)
29/04/2009
Azalea Season
If you thought the Sakura were the only flowers worth waiting for in Japan, think again. With the Sakura blossom over for almost 20 days (at the time of this photo), it was time for the Azalea Season. Actually the Azalea Season is a lot more colourful that the Sakura, with red, pink, purple and white flowers. Set against the greenery of all of the trees now with a full array of leaves back on them, plus the warmer weather, makes Japan a spring paradise. With the 29th being a public holiday, one of our friends brought us to the city of Uji which is just south of Kyoto city. This photo was taken in the gardens of Mimuroto-ji (temple).
28/04/2009
New Growth
New leaves on the momiji (Japanese Maple) against a backdrop of red (created from Red Azaleas which were in full bloom). As I reflect on the days prior to this photo being taken. God had brought a long a number areas of new growth for both us personally and the church, through various tests and trials. Also on Sunday the 26th we had five people from Takino come all the way (85kms) to Nagaokakyo for the Sunday service. So in many ways we were experiencing new growth.
So now that I've mentioned Azaleas, I'll let you know that the next PBLOG entry will have something to with them... Stay Tuned.
24/04/2009
My Fedora is Back
One big lesson from moving overseas is to send the things you think you'll need the most first! Well, here is one thing which because I needed it all of the time in Australia, so I held on to it until the last minute. Then when I packed my suitcase I just couldn't fit it in. So I ended up putting it in a box and leaving it at my parents' house. Well when I got to Japan, it was late autumn, actually the weather felt like Perth does in the winter, so I didn't really miss my Fedora that much. However when April came along and on sunny days the UV is quiet harsh, then I began to miss my Fedora. So I emailed my parents and asked them to post it to me, plus they sent me a couple of pairs of slippers, because I'm two sizes too big for any slippers I can find in Japan. I can't believe that my feet are so big in Japan, in Australia I take UK size 9 or 10 depending on the brand of shoe or slipper. Those sizes are average sizes in Australia. I used to play basket ball in Australia and most of the other guys in the team wore size 12 shoes, some even wore size 14! Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe wears size 17 shoes! The biggest size slippers I can find in Japan are equivalent to about size 7 (Japan size 26), occasionally I can find one or two shoes in my size in some specialist shoe stores here, but only expensive shoes and never slippers which you need to wear all the time here when working in schools.
Big THANKS again to Mum and Dad, for sending the items.
18/04/2009
Sports
Coming from Australia I thought I came from the most sports crazy country in the world, but now I'm pretty convinced it is Japan. Especially for those in Middle School and High School, it seems that if they aren't the most academically inclined students, then they are put into sports clubs. That seems to equate to at least 3/4 of the students at the schools around here. Firstly they start school early to practice sport (everyday), then after school they practice sport (everyday). On the weekends they compete against other schools, and even on the school holidays they go to school to practice sport! Also a lot of the time it is not just sport teachers running the sports, but other teachers who get asked to do it and receive a tiny amount of extra salary for the extra hours work! All of this is probably a plot by the Government to keep energetic teenagers occupied and off the streets! Well, when I was taking a walk through the Imperial Palace Park, I came across a group of students, who rather than relaxing in the Park like everyone else, they had set up a make shift net and were practising their badminton. Yes, I shall declare the Japan the most sports crazy country on Earth until I am proven otherwise.
10/04/2009
Upsizing the Fridge
Well with the weather warming up, it has now got to the stage where we can no longer rely on just keeping things in the cupboard to keep them fresh. So we figured it was about time we upgraded our fridge. The fridge on the left was the one we got for free when we arrived in November. Basically a bar fridge, plus a small freezer. The fridge on the right is our new Sanyo fridge which is actually better than the one we had in Australia. Plus we also bought an Air-conditioner for the bedroom. The other bonus was they took away our old fridge for free (some times you have to pay 3000yen for that here). Plus the guy who installed the air-conditioner told us he lives up on the cold mountain so we were able to give him 2 of our gas heaters (we had three given to us when we arrived, but only one gas point. This also saved us money not having to pay to get rid of the heaters we didn't use), now with two (there was already one in the living room) reverse cycle air-conditioners and a new fridge we should be right for summer. Add those two air-conditioners and our gas heater and next winter should be much better.
09/04/2009
Shidarezakura
A friend recommended to us to go Daigohigashiojicho in Fushimi-ku to view the Sakura there. We thought that the Sakura there would peak a little later than in Nagaokakyo given it's a little bit higher altitude there. However when we got there the Somei-Yoshino while still in bloom already had a lot of leaves coming out on them, however the Shidarezakura (or Weeping Cherry Tree) was at it's peak and I managed to catch the last rays of Sunlight falling on them. Well this is the last of my Sakura images for the “Mission Japan” PBLOG for this year (but I got heaps of images that I may post to other galleries in the near future). The weather begins to warm up and the Sakura have gone, but my friends tell me there are plenty of more floral delights awaiting in the months to come...
07/04/2009
The Peak of Spring
Japan is a place where I really see “that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;” (Psalm 1:3b KJV) happening all of the time in nature. Every couple of weeks there seems to be something new in blossom or a new kind of fruit or vegetable to eat. Life here seems to be so much revolved around the seasons. In Perth, Australia although there were seasons and also different flowers, people seemed to take less notice of them. I think especially in the food where a lot of fruits and vegetables were available all year round probably due to them being placed in deep freeze or some other technique of keeping them fresh! So it's good here to find a fruits and veggies are always naturally fresh you just have to adjust to what kind of things are available at certain times of the year.
06/04/2009
Sakura Light Up
As the Sakura at Nagaoka Tenmangu Shrine approached their peak, the local city council lit them up in the evenings. Actually lighting up the Sakura trees is pretty common all over Japan especially in famous Parks, Shrines, Temples or Castles. People gather for parties under the Sakura know as “Hanami” (or cherry blossom viewing). In some of the more crowed cities (not Nagaokakyo), some companies send one of their junior employees to save a spot for the company party from early on in the day. It was also a chance to see a lot other photographers out in force to capture the light up!
31/03/2009
Somei Yoshino
The big one we had all been waiting for finally arrived! That is the blossoming of the Somei Yoshino cherry trees. These are most common Sakura (cherry blossoms) in Japan, although outside of Japan they seem to be rarer than others. When these trees blossom, everyone gets in a party mood because it means that winter is finally over. These particular trees in this photo blossomed a couple of days earlier than most in the area, due to the fact that they were near to buildings and surrounded by concrete which makes the air around them just a little warmer. Look forward to a couple of more PBLOG entries related to Sakura in the near future.
21/03/2009
God Answers Prayer
For a while I'd been dreaming of getting a cheep second hand medium format camera to use. Especially after I saw an exhibition of Mitsuhiko Imamori's work which was mostly shot using a Pentax 67. Then on pbase I've been equally impressed by the works of Ian Cameron (
http://www.pbase.com/hwatt ) and he mostly uses a Pentax 67 also.
Well actually I wasn't going to just jump in a buy a Pentax 67 first, but it is easy to pick up a reasonable medium format camera here in Japan for around 30,000yen (US $300) second hand. There had been a couple good ones (but 6x6) for sale at the local shopping centre and I had been showing Ritsuko. However, we don't have much disposable income at the moment so Ritsuko wouldn't allow me to buy one. Seeing God has provided so much to us to make this move possible, I wondered would He provide a Medium Format camera? I though this is a bit of selfish wish rather than a need, but I asked Him anyway (but I didn't tell anyone I was praying for a Medium Format Camera)...
Well about a week or so later our friend calls us and says her uncle has just come over to her house and wants give me a camera. Her uncle is a very good photographer and was impressed with some of my photos that she had shown him. So anyway I went over not sure want kind of camera he wanted to give me, but it turns out he had upgraded to a Pentax 67 and wanted to give me his Mamiya 67. So I got a Medium Format Camera and it was better than the ones which I saw in the shop because they were all 6x6 and this is a 6x7.
But wait there's more! I asked my friends uncle what kind of film does he recommend for the camera? He gave me a roll of 120 Fujicolor PRO400, which if you read my previous entry, you'll will know is my favourite film!
19/03/2009
Time Out in Kawaramachi
It's been a while since I had at bit of a chance to just go out spend a few hours shooting by myself. Well, finally I got a bit of a chance and the weather was reasonable, so I decided to head for Hankyu Kawaramachi Station (near Gion, the famous Geisha district) and just spent some time shooting. To make it more of a challenge I took only my Nikon F80 (film camera), a 50mm lens and a single roll of Fujicolor PRO400 film (which has now become my favourite film). Eventually I'll get to posting more shots from this outing, one thing I'll say is I got more than 20 keepers out of 37 shoots.
This shot was taken on one of the many alleyways that comes off the main road in Kawaramachi and I think it captures the atmosphere of this part of Kyoto well.
What I like about Fujicolor PRO400 film, is it's small grain, vivid colours, fast speed, high dynamic range and great handling of multiple artificial light sources without giving strange colour casts.
13/03/2009
Graduation Time
Around the middle of march is graduation time for most educational institutes in Japan. It's quite common to see people dressed in Kimono which is the usual graduation outfit for universities and colleges. It's also a time when our English classes become busy with people coming for trial lessons to see if they want to study with us for the new school year. In Japan there is a lot of formality for graduations even for kindergarten and primary (elementary) school.
10/03/2009
Nanohana
At the end of February and begging of March we had what is know as the “mini rainy season”, over a week of rain with each successive day getting a degree or so warmer. This rain brings about the Nanohana (called “Rape” in English). All around Nagaokakyo wherever there is a field or even by the rivers the Nanohana plants start to grow. Actually these plants continue to grow well into April. The local supermarket started putting up fake Nanohana as decorations and selling dishes with Nanohana in them. My favourite is Nanohana tempura.
08/03/2009
The first of the Sakura
In a park in Fushimi-ku, about 4km from our house, I saw my first Sakura (Cherry Blossom) for this season. Almost a month before the Somei-Yoshino (the most common ones in Japan) come into bloom. This particular Sakura is a Hybrid with Somei-Yoshino and an another kind (which I can't recall at the moment). The colour of these ones is a lot pinker than the Somei-Yoshino.
What makes these blossom so early I don't know. The trees in this park are fairly young and I know the younger Somei-Yoshino blossom maybe a week earlier than older ones, but never so early as this. Other factors like being near sun facing walls or being surrounded by bitumen or concrete also can make the bloom come a little earlier, but these Sakura are in a park with grass.
05/03/2009
Doll Festival
Here is a present we received from the kindergarten across the road at the end of their annual Gospel presentation, because it coincided with the Doll Festival (or “Hina Matsuri”). We attended the presentation by the students and teachers at the kindergarten. It was a very professional show. The teachers spent many a late night preparing the costumes and props for the presentation. In the presentation the students acted out various bible stories and also performed a number of musical items of both Christians and Japanese Folk Songs (with a good moral message). They also recited a number of scriptures and prayers. The kindergarten is doing wonderful work to impact the next generation of Nagaokakyo. We are glad that we can work alongside them in reaching this city with the Gospel.
01/03/2009
Haruka
Well, with a few friends and family planning to visit us later this year. I thought I might take this opportunity to BLOG about the “Haruka” which is the train in this photo. This is the fastest (although not the cheapest) way to get from Kansai International Airport (KIX) to Kyoto. Taking just 75minutes to make the trip. It's also a very comfortable train to travel on with spacious seating and large baggage stowage areas. If you don't have much baggage you could try the Airport Rapid Service which is half the cost, but it's a regular commuter train (extremely crowed at peak times) and you'll have to switch to a Special Rapid Service at Osaka. If you have a Japan Rail Pass you can use it on the Haruka, so don't bother with any of the cheaper methods of transportation.
As you can see this part of the line is four tracked, so the express trains use the outside tracks and the slower trains use the inner tracks. However line the “Haruka” uses on the section between Shin-Osaka and the Airport is only 2 tracked so sometimes you get stuck behind slower trains, but this is factored into the time table and a number of the stations are 4 tracked so you just overtake the slower trains when they are at a station. Japan has the most efficient rail system in the world!
To get to Nagaokakyo from Kyoto station, just catch a local train heading towards Osaka. Nagaokakyo is 12minutes from Kyoto by train.
27/02/2009
Go the Dockers!
Football season (Aussie Rules) has come around again, but now I'm in Japan and far from the action of the AFL (Australian Football League), although there are a few Aussie Rules teams in Japan and local competition comprising of Aussie expats and interested locals. However, I'm still a loyal Fremantle Dockers fan and I hope this season goes better than the last one! Knowing this my parents kindly sent me this poster from the Sunday Times (a Western Australian Sunday Newspaper). So I've proudly pinned up the poster on my wall in my dining/English class area of our house here in Nagaokakyo. Anyway in this day and age it's possible for me to catch all the action of the AFL via the internet or for a bit more atmosphere I could make my way to Murphy's Irish Pub in Osaka (less than an hour away by train) which shows all of the AFL games on their big screen satellite TV. Why does an Irish pub show the AFL games? Because Australian Rules Football (Aussie Rules) is similar to Irish Gaelic Football.
15/02/2009
Spring is on the way
This a shot of some Ume (Plum Blossoms) it is the first tree which blossoms in a sequence which takes about 6-7 weeks. So firstly the Ume (Plum Blossoms), then the Momo (Peach Blossoms), then the Anzu (Apricot Blossom) and finally the Sakura (Cherry Blossom) which is the most spectacular of them all. Anyway, it's always good to see the trees that have been dead looking for three or more months begin to have signs of life again. That uplifting feeling that spring is on the way and it's not going to be so cold any more. Mind you until the Sakura peek it's still pretty cold in Kyoto!
12/02/2009
Opening a Postal Savings Account
It's pretty much the done thing that if you're going to be living in Japan for some time to open a Postal Savings account. The reason is that it's one of the few banks that has a nation wide network of branches and ATMs. One of the surprising things for me is that most banks in Japan are pretty much localised to a particular prefecture, go outside that prefecture and it's hard to find a branch except maybe in big cities like Tokyo or Osaka where most banks have a branch.
Bank accounts in Japan are a good example of how Japanese mix old and new. Firstly before opening the account I had to get a seal (called “inkan”) made up. You will also notice that the bank account actually has a bank book (I think those disappeared in the early 80s in Australia). However, it's a hightech bank book that you can use in ATMs to deposit and withdraw money. Also a few a week later I received my account connected smart card in the post which I can use to shop convenience stores, certain vending machines, and some other places. Also the ATM themselves are more complicated in Japan than Australia, to be able to handle bank books, plastic cards, and even count the money when you make a deposit (unlike the Australia ones which place the money in an envelope and hope it gets counted correctly manually later, and doesn't actually get credited to your account for a week!).
Another good point is you can keep only a few yen in your account and not have it disappear with bank fees. There are no bank fees! Can you imagine that! At last a county, where people have a hope of getting ahead even if they can only manage to deposit a little bit in their bank account each month. Try that in Australia and it will disappear with bank fees before the next month comes around, unless you have at least $500-2000 (depending on type of account). Then there's unlimited transactions without fees, plus they don't charge any counting fees if you go to the bank with the contents of your money box. The negative side about Japanese banks is that they don't pay any interest, unless you make a term deposit.
The other thing was is because of the competition for customers between banks, I got some small presents from the bank to say thank you for choosing them!
08/02/2009
My New Office (from May)
Over the last week of January and the first week of February. I spent some time training as an kindergarten English teacher. I will be working 4 days a month as an English teacher, from this May. The English programme runs from May to January. During this present time I have to get my lessons prepared and also submit a curriculum. I will be teaching both 4 year olds and 5 year olds. Each class gets two 40 minute English classes a month. There are ten classes altogether 5 of each age group.
I don't have to commute very far to get to the kindergarten, it's literally across the road! So now my portfolio of jobs is Pastor (currently unpaid), English Class Operator/Teacher (ages 5 to 55, levels beginner to advanced, making enough money to survive but nowhere near as much as my old job), Kindergarten English Teacher (from May) and Photographer (I'm occasionally making some money at it now, but not much). Although I'm not earning much money this year I don't have to do the 9-5 (actually it was more like the 07:30 – 18:30 for me most of the time, plus the 30min-1hr commute each way!). I don't want for anything because God always provides when you do work for Him. He even sometimes gives us things we though were only selfish wishes, just to encourage us to keep on going in the work for Him.
This is a shot of the English room (which is on the second floor) from the street.
02/02/2009
Industrial
As promised two PBLOG entries ago, here is one of the photos I took from the stairways of "Fune Mansion". This photo is part of a series of photographs I took towards the Industrial area of Nagaokakyo on a couple of days around sunrise. I was trying to capture a similar atmosphere to that I saw painted in a number of J.W.M. Turner's paintings.
I wanted to capture some images that showed dawn and industry, in a kind of uplifting way. As a way of expressing a sense of optimism that we'll get through these tough times. Well in the end I decided to use one of the Industrial pictures (not this one) as my competition entry. Look forward to a gallery containing some of this series in future.
30/01/2009
The old part of town
Another attempt at catching a "slice of life" photo. I took this one while out shopping for supplies for dinner with Ritsuko. I took this shot from the front of a place that sells Japanese style Chinese food, where we got some Gyoza and Subuta to go with dinner. This was also our first break for a little while because we had been busy (the both of us) learning the ropes of an English Teaching business and (me) training at the kindergarten (the English programme runs from May to January so I was getting in a bit of training with the departing teacher).
This area is what I call the old part of town, it is near the Hankyu Nagaoka Tenjin Station, where the streets are narrower and the buildings older compared to the area around the JR Nagaokakyo Station.
25/01/2009
The Ship
Well, for those who have been following my site for a good while now you might know that in Australia I worked for the Fremantle Port Authority. You may have even seen some photos taken from my office window which over looked the Harbour. So, in Australia I saw ships come right past my office window on almost every working day. Actually, I would say the office view was part of the reason I got more keen about photography after a hiatus of some 5 years. So anyway, after coming to Kyoto which is surrounded by mountains I don't get the chance to see ships on a regular basis anymore (except on the couple of occasions we went to visit our friends who live in Kobe).
After I'd been here almost three months I began to notice that an apartment block (or mansions as they are called in Japanese) nearby looked like a ship. So I gave this apartment block the name "Fune Mansion" (Fune is Japanese for ship). This apartment block which is the tallest one around the area also became my platform for photographing the sunrises and the mountains and I've captured some good shots from there (one is planned for a coming BLOG entry). Also around the same time I found this apartment block, another missionary in Kyoto told us she had decided to return to Australia and handed over her 12 private students to Ritsuko and I and her part time job at the local Christian Kindergarten to me. So I felt my ship had come truly come in.
17/01/2009
Modus Transportus
As my friend Shinya put it "Nagaokakyo is definitely a bike city, it's compact enough to get everywhere by bike and it's not so densely populated that you have to dodge so much foot traffic". I have to agree with him after being here for a while now, bike has become my main mode of transport (except on rainy days when I walk instead, need to invest in some good wet weather gear). Actually when I was in Australia I used to ride a mountain bike sometimes with 18 gears, here I'm happy with a 3 speed as long as it's got two baskets on it (plenty of carrying capacity for the daily shopping and carrying resources to our English classes). The other good things about riding bikes is it reduces greenhouse gas and keeps you healthy. I've lost 15kgs (30 pounds) since I came here in November. The only thing is with all of the bikes here some times with all of the bikes here some times it's hard to find a place to park it at the shopping centres even though there's more space allocated to bike parking than car parking! Then they make you pay a 150yen to park your bicycle at the train stations! In Australia I've never had to pay to park a bicycle, should be encouraging people to use them, not make them pay to use them I think.
This shot was taken of some bikes in the bike park of an apartment block only about 100 metres from my house.
16/01/2009
Hiking once again
We went out for only our second hike since we've arrived. Would have liked to have gone more often, but things kept occurring on hiking days so it wasn't possible to go. This time Ritsuko came along with me and also another Aussie who lives in Nagaokakyo. There were a few good English speakers amongst the Japanese who came along this time too. So, I didn't really get the chance to practice Japanese like I did on the previous hike. The route of this hike was different than the last, rather than going right into mountains, we went along the front face of the range and passing a few expensive houses along the way. The area covered has so much history, we learnt about battles, rulers, religious orders and legends. This time we ended the hike in Yamazaki and we had to catch the train back to Nagaokakyo.
If you're wanting to come along on one of these hikes all you have to do is to meet at the start point, I've geotagged it to this photo (click on view map). On Tuesday mornings at 10:00 (for a 3 hour hike) or Friday afternoons at 14:00 (for a 2 hour hike). The start point is very close to Hankyu Nagaoka Tenjin Station. The hikes are free. Good hiking shoes/boots recommend, dress suitably according to season: Bring: jacket, water/drink bottle, snacks (with enough to share), hiking pole. Note the mountain trails can be quite steep and rugged in places.
I can't guarantee I can always be there due to church, home, and work responsibilities. However if you want to know if will be there on a particular date you're welcome to send me a PM.
13/01/2009
BIC Camera Revisited
Went back to BIC Camera in Kyoto, but this time it wasn't for any camera gear unfortunately. The purpose of the visit was to buy a wireless router, because the phone/internet is finally getting connected after two months of waiting! Unfortunately because we came here with no credit rating in Japan, they took their own sweet time in connecting us. Probably wanted to see we weren't going to run away first, before they trusted us enough to connect us. They don't bother checking in to our credit rating in Australia because of the language difference. So we really feel like we are starting from scratch all over again. If you come to Japan with a company bringing you here you won't have all of these problems, you'll be treated as a honoured guest. Anyway didn't want to come here tied to any company, so we paid the price, but the way things have worked out now, I'm glad we took the hard road... I definitely can see The Hand of God at work...
11/01/2009
A bit more snow
Well, it snowed a bit more on the afternoon/evening of the 10th of January than the previous snow fall on the 26th of December. So this photo was taken early in the morning on the 11th, which was the day we had our first Sunday Service for Shining Lights Church (
http://www.shininglightschurch.org ).
After all that we had been through with the separation from the church we had joined when we first came to Japan. I felt God had given us the green light for the new venture when in my devotion time just before our first service I read the following:-
"For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy [place]." - Psalm 66:10-12 (KJV)
P.S. Check out our church website if you want to hear my Aussie accent.
P.P.S for some of you this snow may very little, but since I come from Perth where it has never snowed (in all the time I lived there), I was very happy to see this.
07/01/2009
Mochi
I had heard about a photo contest going on in town, so I went into the busy part of the old section of Nagaokakyo in order to try to capture a slice of life photo. Well I didn't actually end up choosing this photo for the competition and I decided to hunt for the perfect sunrise/sunset shot instead. Anyway I still like this shot because I feel it captures the atmosphere of the place quite well. The shop has two openings at right angles to one another and so I stood at one and pointed the lens at the other and waited for some customers to come along. This shop sells "Mochi" which is a sticky rice cake eaten mostly as a dessert, especially around New Years time.
06/01/2008
Indifference
Well, after New Years Day we had two more New Year's parties. One on the 2nd of January at the Sakamotos house in Kobe. Then another one the following day at our friends' house in Nagaokakyo. However after all of the partying it was back to reality as we attended Church on the 4th of January.
If you've been following along this BLOG for a while you may have read that we were prevented from doing some of the English classes and ministries we had hoped. This all had to do with the leader of the church we were attending in Nagaokakyo.
When we visited in September he had told us we could do certain things, when we moved to Japan in November he kept asking us to wait, because he said it he wasn't sure if it was "God's will". The rest of the church clearly saw us as answer to their prayers, because the church attendance had been dropping since the last missionaries left and the English Classes and Bilingual Bible Studies had ceased. However this leader had a very indifferent attitude towards the health of the church and allowing us to serve. In fact their were so many people in Nagaokakyo open to the Gospel, only to be put off because his indifferent attitude when they visited the church. So, in the end us and the other members could not stand it any longer after raising it many times with him over the last two months. The members meeting after church on 4th of January 2009 was the last straw for most of us and a number of us decided to leave and set up a new church. A church were people can truly be free to serve and worship God. A church that does away with tradition and hierarchy, getting back to the real authority, that is God's word (the Bible). We named this church “Shining Lights Church, Nagaokakyo”. We believe that what is happening here is almost like the Protestant Reformation, because the church in Japan (on the most part) is tied down by many traditions and not being effective at reaching people.
Actually I would say that many Japanese are open to the Gospel, it's just that churches here are indifferent to the people. So many Japanese people are burdened with tradition, they are searching for they truth, they are searching for freedom. It saddens me so much that so many churches are just weighing down people with more burdens.
Now about this photo, I was sitting on the platform waiting for a train to Osaka and she was standing on the opposite platform waiting for a train heading towards Kyoto.
01/01/2009
New Years Day
Well again we slept before midnight on New Years Eve, so that we could get up early to catch the sunrise. Fortunately in Japan being winter for New Year, the sun doesn't rise so early as in Australia which is in summer at New Years' time. However, in Japan we were invited to watch the sunrise from a mountain and we had to climb it first! Our Neighbour Mr T, arrived at our house very early on New Years morning to pick us up a bring us to the base of the mountain.
Soon after we started climbing the mountain it began to snow, I can still recall the feeling of the cold snow brushing against my face as we ascended. When we got the spot where we could get a view towards the sunrise we found that the sky was too overcast. So we decided to climb to the summit instead. At the summit we drank warm Sake which had dried fugu (blowfish) soaked in it, so it tasted like dried fish and alcohol. We ate lots of other types of dried seafood, and the drink didn't help wash away the fishy taste! Anyway after we were up there for about an hour the sun came out between some clouds, so the shot is of the first sun I saw on New Years Day, about an hour or so after sunrise.
After returning home from the mountain we caught a train to Shimamoto (about 6kms to the Southwest of Nagaokakyo). We attended the New Year service at Shimamoto Church and caught up with our friends the Sakamotos and other members of Shimamoto Church. We stayed there for lunch.
After we got home from Shimamoto our landlady brought over this “Osechi” (a special New Years Meal) for Ritsuko and I, which we ate for dinner.
28/12/2008
Ten Years!
Wow! We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in Japan. Less than 2 months after we moved here, our 10th anniversary came around. Our friends Shinya and Chiyo had us over for dinner and we had Pizza Hut, which for some reason is very expensive in Japan comparatively with other fast foods. After dinner we had this lovely cake. Thank you so much for making our evening so special.
As I reflect upon the many things God has brought us through over the first 10 years, it just blows me away! The places we've been, the things we've achieved, the trials we've faced. Through it all our love and God's love has held us together.
Note: for example McDonald's value meals in Australia are about $5.95 and in Japan cost 640yen (mind you that's more than $10 at todays exchange rates), Pizza Hut pizzas in Australia cost about $8.95 (sometimes cheaper with Vouchers or on special days), but for some reason cost 2000yen+ in Japan ($35!).
27/12/2008
The day after the first snow
Well the snow came one day too late for a White Christmas with the first snow fall we got for the winter occurring over day of the 26th of December. Around our house it melted as soon as it hit the ground, however early the next morning I took a walk and noticed it was still sitting upon the distant Mt Hiei (Kyoto's highest mountain).
I'd like to fill you in a bit about our Christmas time in Japan. Firstly Ritsuko and I had wished to go out to a nice restaurant for a Christmas diner, but instead on Christmas Eve we were invited a long to a performance of Handle's Messiah in Kyoto city by our landlady. On the way to the performance she brought us to a nice Italian restaurant (so we got both a nice restaurant and a concert). On Christmas day I was pretty much bedridden with the flu, but I managed to watch Star Wars Episode I on DVD before returning to bed. On the 26th we were invited over for a Christmas dinner with a family from another church in Nagaokakyo, after dinner, I saw the Kyoto tower in the distance from their house. It was pointed out to me by our host that it was designed to look like a candle and thus Kyoto (in the traditional way) is the spiritual light of Japan. This gave me inspiration for the name “Shining Lights Church”, but more about that in a few entries later...
16/12/2008
Christmas Light Up
Christmas in Japan has a lot of build up, the Christmas songs are played in all of the shops even the most Christian ones (in English, I have not once heard a Christmas song in Japanese playing in the shops). Nobody complains, even though only 1% of the population is Christian. There are decorations everywhere. Some people go out sing corals. City councils set up big light displays (like the one in this picture). Yet Christmas is not even a public holiday in Japan and few people really celebrate it. In Japan either it is a night couples go out or that families eat KFC (because Colonel Sanders looks like Santa). On Christmas day all of the decorations and music has gone from the shops, to make way for the New Year's decorations and music. All the hype for not much.
13/12/2008
Time Out
You might notice there's a bit of a gap of days between this entry and the previous entry. The reason for this was in the week between these two entries I had been really busy handing out advertisements for our English classes at the train stations morning and evening. After all of this hard work it was time to take a well deserved bit of time out and I spent a Saturday morning in Arashiyama about 10kms away from Nagaokakyo.
Arashiyama is a part of Kyoto that still has a lot of older style buildings and is quite a nice place to wander around if you get there early enough before all of the tourist and day trippers gather there. I got there around 8:00am and the place was almost empty. Eventually I'll get to putting up a full gallery of the shots from this visit, but until then you can check out a couple of my previous visits to Arashiyama (not so early in the day). See
http://www.pbase.com/jameslclarke/arashiyama05 and
http://www.pbase.com/jameslclarke/arashiyama06
05/12/2008
The Mac is Back!
We sent this Mac by Fedex all the way from Australia it cost $200 (AUD) to send which worked out to a lot more economical than having to sell it in Australia and buy a new one in Japan. As you might have a read a few entries ago Apple would NOT sell us a matching white iMac Japanese power cord for it, so I ended up buy a black PC power cord which works. The power supply in the computer is rated at 100-240V so there is no problem with the computer working in Japan. The computer desk is one we bought from the recycle shop in Takasuki for about 5,000yen. The map of Japan/Calendar on the wall is a freebie I got from BIC Camera in Kyoto. BTW this computer is an iMac G5 which I think is in some ways to superior to the current Intel based iMacs, although if you're wanting to run Windows (why?) on your Mac, then it's better to have an Intel based Mac and run VMWare fussion.
02/12/2008
Hiking in Nagaokakyo
Our neighbour Mr T. had been asking us to come along to the hiking club for a while, but a few things got in our way. Finally on this day I was able to get along, although Ritsuko was not. This was good thing because it meant I had to use Japanese as much as possible, because no one else who came on this particular day spoke much English (although it's not always the case).
It was a good chance to connect with people in the community and enjoy the beautiful autumn colours in the mountains near Nagaokakyo (a gallery on this hike will be coming later).
If you're wanting to come along on one of these hikes all you have to do is to meet at the start point, I've geotagged it to this photo (click on view map). On Tuesday mornings at 10:00 (for a 3 hour hike) or Friday afternoons at 14:00 (for a 2 hour hike). The start point is very close to Hankyu Nagaoka Tenjin Station. The hikes are free. Good hiking shoes/boots recommend, dress suitably according to season. Bring: jacket, water/drink bottle, snacks (with enough to share), hiking pole. Note the mountain trails can be quite steep and rugged in places.
I can't guarantee I can always be there due to church, home, and work responsibilities. However if you want to know if will be there on a particular date you're welcome to send me a PM.
01/12/2008
Ichou (Ginkgo)
Well, late autumn and early winter is certainly the time for colour in Japan. Coming from Perth Australia where all of the native trees are evergreen and the majority of the imported deciduous trees that grow in Perth only go brown for autumn, the colour change sequence in Japan was quite fascinating. First I saw the Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) go orange, then these Ichou (Ginkgo) turned yellow, next will be the maples, but you'll have to wait a few entries to see those...
29/11/2008
Photographic Inspiration
After we had settled into our house and were hoping we'd get going with English teaching and various ministries, but we were prevented from doing things by many circumstances outside of our control. I started to despair a bit wondering just what was going on, what was God's plan in all of this? I had given up my conformable life in Australia with a good stable job to come here only to find myself with not much to do and no internet connection. I really felt at a loss. Since it was cold inside the house, I decided to take a walk to find a nice sunny spot. The best sunny spot I could find was near the railway line, which just happens to be one of the busiest railway lines in Japan. It was then I received an inspirational idea, I'll start photographing the various types of trains on the line. It was very therapeutic, not only that it helped me connect with other people in the community who saw me spending a few hours at the railway line capturing the trains. I even met another photographer on a Saturday who gave me many good tips about which spots are along the line are best for what focal lengths. So expect a train related gallery or two on this site in future.
27/11/2008
Rokko Island
Well Ritsuko and I went out to Rokko Island (about an hour and twenty minutes by train from here) to pick up the last 11 remaining boxes from the port.
So arriving at Rokko Island the first thing I noticed is how un-Japanese the place looks, there's no sign of traditional houses, shrines, temples our anything else Japanese. The roads are wide and tree lined and the apartment buildings are tall and colourful (instead of low rise and drab colours). Also I saw more gaijin (non Japanese people) walking the streets than anywhere else in Japan. Unlike the gaijin I meet in Nagaokakyo they didn't look like English Teachers, no these people seemed like well paid ex-pat types or their families. It was almost like we were somewhere like Singapore's Holland Village except that the weather was cooler than it ever gets in Singapore.
Now being the kind of guy who likes to save a bit of money for decided to send most our stuff by sea and being even more thrifty I decided to use a freight forwarder rather than an international removal company. So we first had to go the customs office and we spend three hours there filling out forms. Then we have to go with a customs officer from the customs office to the shipping company to clear the boxes. We were told by the guy from the freight forwarder we could organise transport of our boxes to our house with the shipping company, but they didn't want to help and scolded us for not using a international removal company for such a small amount of freight. In hindsight we should have rented a small van in Nagaokakyo and drove it there, because there were no rental places around the port. In the end we phoned our friend Mr Sakamoto who lives about 15minutes away from Rokko Island. He was between meetings for a few hours (he's the boss of his own company) so he was able come and bring the boxes to his house and then bring them to our house on the following Sunday since we live near his church. So we got the boxes and nothing was broken or missing, but maybe I should have paid 10x more and used an International Removal Agency for less hassle. Note if you don't have someone who speaks Japanese with you, it would be next to impossible dealing with the customs and the shipping agency.
26/11/2008
Inspiration for this site & BIC Camera
While I was waiting for Kyoto store of BIC Camera to open (everything opens at 10am in Japan), rather than stand out in the cold, I went for a walk around the underground shopping centre (named "Plaza Porta"). Since I had my F80 camera with me and it was loaded with Fujichrome Provia 400X, I thought it would be a good opportunity to test the film's low light capabilities. While in the underground shopping centre I came across an outlet of Lotteria, which brought back bad memories of an experience many years ago (
http://www.globaldial.com/~jamesc/day013p5.html ).
When I wrote that first website I decided to research about Lotteria and came across Mike Beddall's BLOG about a Lotteria (
http://www.mikesblender.com/indexblog44.htm ) from that time onwards I kept going back to Mike's site (
http://www.mikesblender.com/ ) regularly because it is one of the best Japan BLOGs around (and I've read a lot of Japan BLOGs), and it has inspired me to BLOG about my own move to and life in Japan.
BTW another Aussie who lives in Nagaokakyo has reported that Lotteria has improved as of late, but I'm not going to test it. If you want a good Japanese Hamburger go to MOS burger.
BIC Camera is one of the best sources of Apple, PC, and Camera (including film) gear that's not too far a way. Only a 13 minute (210yen) train ride from Nagaokakyo. However at the moment all I can afford to get there is film (and there's plenty of kinds to choose from their huge film fridge), until I start earning some more yen... Here's somethings on my wish list: Nikkor 105 f/2.8 VR N Micro lens, Nikon D700... More dreaming...
25/11/2008
Nagaoka Tibet
Now while we are renting an old house in the valley, which is in a pretty built up area and doesn't get much sun. It is good to dream about where we might buy a house if we eventually sell our house in Australia and buy one here. Our friend Yuko invited us over to her place for morning tea, it's in an area she calls “Nagaoka Tibet”. The apartment block (or mansions as they are called here) is free standing not crowded in by other buildings and gets plenty of sun. Then there's the view out the back windows of all the mansions which can be seen in this photo. Actually because this place is quite far from the train station and the main town centre, it's not too expensive to buy a place out here. While I probably wouldn't want to live in Japanese style mansion, I did notice as I was riding around the area there's lots of land out here. So, maybe one day I can have a little cottage which gets plenty of sun and a nice veggie patchin the yard. OK so it's good to dream once in a while. Definitely an inspirational place for the artistic pursuits.
21/11/2008
Waste of Time and Money?
Ritsuko and I went all the way to Osaka on this cold and wet day, all we brought back was this one photo! It cost us 540yen each one way, so the total cost was 2160yen and about 4 hours of our time. You see one of the things that was in the Fedex box was Ritsuko's iMac and since the built-in power supply was rated at 100-240V all I need is do was to replace the power cord from the Australia one to a Japanese one. But do you think the folks at the Apple Store in Osaka would sell me a Japanese power cord? No, No, No. I said what if someone broke their power cord couldn't they get a new one. No, they have to send the computer for repairs... Frustration... I ended up going down to an electrical store and buying a PC power cord which fits and works. It just doesn't have the extra safe locking disk and the colour doesn't match. Why I couldn't just use an adapter from Australian to Japanese power plugs is that all of the adapters are only for two pronged plugs, I've never seen one for a three pronged plug (like the iMacs one), because 3 pronged power sockets are rare in Japan, but common in Australia. BTW the way the cost of the PC power cord was only 640yen, I'm sure even if Apple had sold me the part it would have been like 3000yen... Apples still rock though... It wasn't a total loss because we had lunch at MOS Burger in Osaka, although there are closer MOS Burger stores than going all the way to Osaka... I've also found out that lots of places sell Apple gear in Japan and I don't need to go all the way to the Apple Store in Osaka.
15/11/2008
More Boxes Arrive
Out of the 16 boxes we sent these 4 arrived second, these are the airfreight boxes. The first box to arrive was my Fedex box, more about what that contained in later entries. These four boxes contained quite a few clothes which was a relief after only having about three sets of clothes to wear! They also contained about half the remnant of my DVD collection (most of the original collection was sold of or given away before I left). Unfortunately I didn't put any CDs in the airfreight, they all went in the sea-freight. Also most of my warm winter clothing was also in the sea-freight, however these boxes did have some of the newer winter gear I bought prior to leaving for Japan. Well once we got these four boxes it was a bit of a task finding space for everything in the much smaller house we are living in here compared with Australia. We wondered how we would manage when the sea-freight arrived...
13/11/2008
Autumn in Japan
Well autumn had truly come to Japan and change was in the air... Unfortunately I didn't really know how deep red these maples go at the time that I took this photo. Anyway a few weeks later I got much better photos... Anyway this photo was taken during an open day at the Emperors Palace in Kyoto which happened on the first week came here... Once I finally get my Internet connection on the 13th of January 2009! Look forward to a gallery of photos from the Emperors Palace open day, plus heaps of Nagaokakyo (the place where we live), plenty more from Perth to come (my old home town), plus a few more photos of old holidays... Thanks for your continued support...
12/11/2008
Our babies in their new home
Well we couldn't just leave our babies in Perth, so arranged for them to join us in Japan. They arrived two days after we did because they had to come on a direct flight from Perth to Japan to avoid a long quarantine period.
We picked up the cats from the airport on the same day that we moved into our rental place. It wasn't and easy task by any means. Firstly we don't have a car and the airport is about 2 hours drive away or 1 hour on the train, but we can't bring the cats on the train. Fortunately our friend offered to help us as long as we paid the road tolls. It cost over $70 AUD in tolls just to get there. Then we spent two hours chasing rubber stamps from the Cargo Company, Customs and Quarantine all around a massive freight terminal with fork lifts wizzing around everywhere. However they didn't have to spend any time in Quarantine in Japan, since Japan trusts Australia's good Quarantine laws. So it has been a huge blessing to have the cats with us. We're sure we'd get a lot more homesick if we hadn't brought them.
The cats have also been a blessing to others when they come and visit our house and people can spend time with them.
19/12/2008 P.S. Still no internet access to my home, will comment on other peoples photos once I get it.
08/11/2008
Logistical Challenges
Well after two pretty comfortable flights where I actually was able to sleep for once, we finally made it to Kansai Airport. The next challenge was to get all of our bags to Nagaokakyo, not quiet as easy as it looked, we could have tried the baggage delivery service, but at 1800yen per item, it starts to add up. The next option was a shared taxi (mini bus), but they wanted 2000yen per person plus 1000yen per item! Finally we opted for the Limousine bus, which charged 1800yen per person and carried the baggage in the lower hold for free, but that only got us to Hankyu Ibaraki station where we had to wait an hour for our friend to come and pick up our five largest bags and we squeezed them into her small car, then we carried 3 bags on the train to Nagaoka-Tenjin. It was raining all the time up until we arrived at Nagaoka-Tenjin station then it stopped almost as soon as we walked out of the station so we did have to walk in the rain, another little miracle.
BTW we had a $500+ excess baggage charge!
P.S. Sorry to all my Pbase friends I still don't have internet access to my house in Japan (long story) so I haven't been able to comment on your work for a good while. Once my Internet access is up, I'll get back to commenting on your photos.
07/11/2008
Departing Perth
The end and also a new beginning. Firstly to be out in the departure lounge meant it was the end of all the clean up, pack up, preparation. Secondly it was the beginning of our new adventure what would await us once we got there. Well, we had about 13 hours to relax and enjoy the journey before we would arrive at Kansai Airport in Japan.
Actually the last day began quite franticly with me having to drop off an air mattress which I had borrowed from my friend Jeremy at his dad's house. Now this was the first miracle of the day, because the only car we had at our house (one we had borrowed) didn't have a road map and with no internet access, GPS, etc how was I going to find the place? We a few years ago when Jeremy came over he brought me along for a ride when he went to pick up his sons from his dad's house and it came back to me to how to get there. So that saved a lot of time trying to hunt down directions. The second miracle how I managed to sort through a lot of paper work which I still had left in less than an hour. Any way we were all packed and ready by 12:00pm with our departure at 5:30pm we were even able to enjoy one last lunch at Red Rooster (they don't have anything like it in Japan).
Now for the flight details MH124 Perth (departed 17:30 WDT GMT+9) to Kuala Lumpur (arrive 21:50 GMT+8), then MH52 Kuala Lumpur (depart 23:50 GMT+8) to Osaka Kansai Airport (arrive 06:50 JST GMT+9). A big plug for Malaysia Airlines, all ways great service and food in my experience, the only little complaint this time was that Japanese food was not on the menu for the Kuala Lumpur leg.
03/11/2008
The Great Garden Cleanup
...and cleaning up everything else too! Well, before we could set off on our big move we had a lot of cleaning up to do of our house in Perth to get it ready for being rented out. In fact we spent about 3 weeks on cleaning the place up! One of the biggest task was giving the garden cleaned up, we hired a skip bin (pictured), a chain saw, then called dad for help (thanks dad). In a few days we managed to fill this 3 cubic metre skip with garden waste. There were are a lot other things we did like planting a few new plants and putting out mulch on the garden. Then there was also the inside of the house to clean as well as get rid of all of our stuff out of it!
28/10/2008
Packing and Shipping the boxes
These are all the boxes of clothes, books, CD, DVDs, etc to be shipped off to Japan via sea freight on Tuesday (28/10/2008) morning. In the afternoon of that day the truck came around and picked them up. All we have left to pack now is two small (although they are called Jumbo size!) airfreight boxes, Ritsuko's computer, and then our suitcases. There are a few more bits of furniture to be picked up, then that's it we're are done.
Today (31/10/2008) is the last day we have an internet connection to our house, so unless I can get a password for one of my neighbour's wireless internet connections or take my laptop down to a Cafe with WiFi, you probably won't be seeing much more from me until I get to Japan. We depart Perth at 5:30pm on the 7th of November on Malaysia Airlines, transiting in Kuala Lumpur for 2 hours before arriving at Kansai Airport at 7:30am the following morning (note Perth and Japan are currently both on GMT+9, due to horrible daylight savings in Perth!).
I have plenty more planned for my site, so once I'm settled in Japan I'll start posting...
26/10/2008
A Step of Faith
Last year when we set out to find a place in Kyoto for the big move we had a great exchange rate of $1 (AUD) = 104 (JPY). If you consider that a can of Coke from a vending machine in Australia cost $2 and in Japan it is 130yen, Japan looked very affordable. Well we are way beyond the point of no return on this journey now having sold most of our stuff (furniture, car, etc) when just the other day the Australian dollar went down to 58yen! Yep we are still going, but we are reminded that we have to live by faith, not by our own strength. The following words are comforting:-
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” - Zechariah 4:6
BTW if you are a tourist in Australia at the moment there are still D700s available at $3499 (AUD) which on the current exchange rates makes Australia about the cheapest place in the world to by one considering the Japanese price is about 324,500yen. Plus as a tourist you can get 10% back when you take it out of the country.
25/10/2008
Learning to let go of things
Over these past couple of months as I've thrown out, given away, sold or packed up a lot of stuff in preparation for the big move, I feel I'm continually be squeezed through a narrow gate. I also realise just how much I've treasured so many material things which in the end I can't take with me. This plane is just a sample of the collection which I sold off recently, and put I this photo here as a reminder to that doing God's will can be costly, yet I also know that He blesses us in so many unexpected ways.
One amazing thing is:- that as I was going to meet a guy who buys a lot of planes and other models, is that for some reason on that day he was not at the shop where he normally is. So as I walked back to the train station with my huge bag full of model planes, I was drawn towards a construction site (which is a little out of the way from the train station). As I walked passed the construction site I saw an old friend (who was lost) and she ask me what was doing with the huge bag full of planes. I told her I was selling them because I was moving to Japan as a missionary, she told me that her friend's son was also planning to go Japan as missionary in the future and put me in contact with her friend and her son. It gets even more amazing when once I spoke to them they told me they have a Japanese friend who is a new Christian and he lives just 8 minutes away from where we'll be living... BTW two weeks later I sold the planes to the guy who I was supposed to meet on that day.
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” - Matthew 6:19-21 (King James Version)
07/10/2007
A Place to Stay
Well two places actually! The photo on the left side is the house that we'll be renting in Nagaokakyo once we move there in November. The photo on the bottom right is our new spiritual home: Nagaokakyo Assembly of God Church. God gave us a truly blessed time during our trip to Japan, and everything is now ready for our big move to Japan. We'll depart Perth on the 7th of November arriving at Kansai Airport the next morning at about 7:00am... I must say that I kind of excited, happy, nervous, scared, and sad all at the same time!
02/09/2008
A Short Trip to Japan
Hi All, just letting you know that Ritsuko and I are going to Japan on a short trip and we'll be back late next week. This trip is to (1) Activate my visa and obtain a re-entry permit (2) Visit the church we'll be joining (3) Look at the house we'll be renting (4) Talk to a potential employer (5) Catch up with and pray with a few people up there.
Our intended date to make the move is in the first week of November. Still a lot to do before then, so watch this space.
19/08/2008
Through away the old bank statements
...or power bills, gas bills, water bills, phone bills, etc, etc... I'll confess I'm a bit of a hoarder, so in order to lighten my load I'm going through and shredding everything that is not required for tax, legal or warranty purpose. This is not the only type thing that I'm going through, but it just an example of how we can let stuff weigh us down.
I know for a fact: 1. in Japan there is not as much space in houses we can afford, 2. It will cost a lot to send it there 3. We might have to move more often because we'll be renting.
The following scripture came to mind:- "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" - Hebrews 12:1 (KJV)
16/08/2008
Home Town Reflections
I went down to the banks of the Swan River for a short time of reflecting on the last 35 years and how it's all going to change very soon. I couldn't of picked a better evening for being at this spot! The sky was clear and the river almost flat. I'm definitely going to miss this place and all my friends here when I go. I know however that God is leading us on to Japan and He will work things out for us, as He has already done so far. Each time we take a step of faith He is faithful and provides us with what we need.
03/08/2008
Photo for our new book
We have now finished the corrections to the manuscript for our new book and it has been sent on for the type setting.
We made this photo as one to go in our new book “Back To Japan”. Normally I like to wear autumn colours for these types of photos, but since it was Shaun McManus' (the last of the original “Dockers”) retirement game I just had to wear my Dockers shirt for it. We took this photo before the game and now I'm glad that I did wear it for this photo, because it is now also a memory of that great victory in the Western Derby (against the West Coast Eagles).
28/07/2008
Cleaning up the manuscript
I'm doing a Nikon and posting to the web a slightly dodgy picture of preproduction page of our soon to be released book. All of the chapters of “Back To Japan” have now been returned from the editor. I am currently about 1/3 of the way through making the corrections to the manuscript. I should have it finished before next week. After that it will be off to typesetter and then to the printer. Hopefully it should ready for sale by mid August.
This book continues on from Ritsuko's first book “Eternity”, the things God has brought us through since then and why we are moving to Japan. It also shares some of the stories of others whose lives were impacted by the first book.
05/07/2008
Let Your Light Shine Out
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16, King James Bible)"
About a week ago we received word from our friend in Japan that she had found us a house to live in near Kyoto. A couple of days later she phoned back asking if I was interested in working as an English Teacher as there is job going. Over the next couple of days I considered these things prayerfully and together with Ritsuko, we decided that we would take up these offers. Additionally, we felt that we would also help out in our friend's church as they are without a permanent Pastor at the moment.
Just as some people in the Bible erected stone pillars when ever they had some life changing experiences with God. I decided to put some lights up out the front of my house to make a statement that I am willing to make the move to be a light for God in Japan. As I looked the lights shining together in a kind of network, I realised that the more lights that shine together the greater the impact. Over the years God has been continually bringing us to the people who share a similar vision of taking the Gospel to Japan. If we all shine together as a network I believe we can make a difference. I'll be the first to admit that Japan is a hard place to bring the Gospel and that's why it always good to have that network of friends to call on to shine together.
16/05/2008
New Printer
In preparation for our move to Japan, Ritsuko and I are writing a book titled “Back to Japan”. The book is about Ritsuko's spiritual journey since the publication of her last book “Eternity” and why she is moving back to Japan. Now, since we are writing this book we had been doing a lot of print outs on our old bubble jet printer, and it finally died on us a few weeks ago.
On the day that the printer stopped working I received a catalogue mail out from the credit card rewards program. Normally I don't pay much attention to these because I usually exchange the points for department store vouchers or frequent flyer points (or “mileage” as my American friends might call it). However, for some reason I started reading through the catalogue and found that there was a special on a Brother Laser Printer, and I had enough points for it for it. A stroke of providence.
Now that it has arrived and I've set it up, I'm impressed how fast it prints. Unlike the bubble jet which claimed to print 3 pages per minute, but really took like 3 minutes per page! This laser printer actually does print 22 pages per minute as claimed on the box. And no more waiting for the ink to dry too.
Just to let you know we've finished chapter 3 of 5, for this book and we're hoping for a July release date.
13/04/2008
Hiragana Practise
A couple of months ago I completed the section on Hiragana in “A Guide to Learning Hiragana & Katakana” by Kenneth G. Henshall with Tesuo Takagaki. Since I've finished the Hiragana section I've been practising writing the Hiragana alphabet over and over. In this photo is some my practising.
Now I'm on to learning the Katakana and I'm up to the 5th character of the that alphabet. Maybe once I've learnt a few more I'll post a picture of my Katakana writing.
11/04/2008
Little Details
18 months ago I took this photo and God had a message in this photo for me today, which until today I had not seen...
As you probably know by now, I hope to do a lot more photography when I'm in Japan and through it support the mission work that we are planning.
As I was showing a couple of friends some of my best Japan photos, I noticed something very interesting while zooming in on this photo of the hippy girl. On her arms she was wearing a number of bands and on one of those bands I could make out the letters “W.J.D” . Immediately I recognised it as part of “W.W.J.D” or What Would Jesus Do!
The story behind this photo was that back in October 2006, Ritsuko and I were with our friend Pastor Jeff MacKay walking around the streets of Shinshibashi in Osaka, when we saw a number of girls in very colourful clothing. Jeff asked me “Do you want to get a photo of one of these girls?” and I said “Yes” so he called over this particular girl and I took this photo, because the beautiful lighting at that time of day it turned out really great.
This photo has since featured on some of our promotional material for our Japan Mission. When Hanako Sakamoto (who we stayed with last year) saw the photo of the girl in one of our fliers she said “I think this girl will receive Christ one day”. I don't know if this girl is a Christian, but I have since found out that unlike here where these “W.W.J.D” bands are only sold in Christian book stores, in Japan these are available in many sports stores (I think it's because a lot of American Christian athletes wear them and Japanese people saw it on the T.V.). Recently it has become trendy for Japanese people to wear crosses (because of a Korean T.V. drama which is popular in Japan where the main star wears a cross). Also I noticed that Japanese radio plays lots of Contemporary Christian Music (in English) which would not get any airplay on our commercial radio here, because they like the tune, but they don't know what the words are about. I think in all of these things God has been showing us that He will take care of the little details and He has gone ahead of us and prepared the way. As Paul did when he went to Athens, we can make known to them the “Unknown God”.
21/03/2008
Back to Basics
As it is now the Easter Holidays I have been spending some time reflecting on what Christ has done for us and the mission ahead of us. On Good Friday evening we had a dinner with some old friends and made some new friends with their friends. We spent some time sharing testimonies with each other of how we came to Christ. All of this just reinforced the importance of being able to share basic message of the Cross with others.
My mates in Grave Forsaken (a Christian Metal Band) have a song called “Back To Basics” which talks about getting back to basics of the faith and going out there and reaching the lost. They are missionaries to the Heavy Metal subculture and they translate God's message into the language (i.e. Music) the people in that subculture understand. As missionaries to the Japanese people we also have to translate the message into language they understand, it is not just about the translating the words, but also actions into a way that they will understand the message of the Cross within their cultural context.
08/03/2008
Learn Japanese Textbook Launched
One of the ways we intend to fund the Mission Work in Japan is through the production of high quality Japanese and English language learning materials. Ritsuko will combine her language teaching and writing skills, with my software development, photographic, and multimedia skills. Well, I am pleased to announce that we have got the ball rolling on this venture with the publication of the first Learn Japanese book and audio CD combination in a planned series of three books and audio CDs. These are not the only things we have planned, eventually we hope to have DVD videos, CD/DVD ROM based multimedia software and website based products. We also plan on producing English learning materials for the Japanese market.
24/02/2008
Learning Japanese
Last year I started more in earnest to study Japanese and I had hoped that I'd be able to sit for level 4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test last December. However I gave up on those plans by about July as I realised with all things that I taken on during the year however good and noble that I just didn't have enough time left to prepare for the test. I think there is a lesson in that, in life there are many good and noble things to do, but we need to keep focused on what's important that is what God is really calling us to do. The most important thing for us this year is moving to Japan, so that becomes our top priority. I know that I will need to learn more and more of the Japanese language, however I know don't really need to sit for level 4 of the proficiency test before I go. So for know I'm concentrating of the listening and speaking skills by listening to language CDs in the car on the way to work and practising Japanese with Ritsuko. I'm keeping up with the writing regularly to ensure I don't forget what I've already learnt, but I'm in no hurry with that at this moment.
16/02/2008
Preparations
It is with mixed emotions of excitement, fear and trepidation, that we ramp up our preparations for our move to Japan (October or November 2008). For me personally I'm moving to a new country, new career, new friends, basically starting over from scratch after 35 years making a life here in Australia. I know for Ritsuko she'll be moving back to her country, but it is not that easy for her either since she has very little contact with her family who are not so happy about her faith in Christ.
We have everything that we could want in Australia (although there are plenty of people with more than us here), but by World standards we are very well off. We have a nice house on 560 square metres of land in a quiet cul-de-sac location not far from shops and public transport. We have two reasonable cars that work well even if they are both 4 cylinder, and one of them is 17 years old now! We both have good jobs that pay reasonably well with stable organisations and very manageable levels of debt to equity. God is calling us to Japan, I'm not even sure exactly what I do for a living there yet, but I know God will work things out for us.
So this arrangement in the photo represents the preparations that I need to do. Firstly the Bible for the spiritual preparation and the fact that we bringing God's word to Japan. Secondly the History book represents Japan's long history and culture I need to be sensitive to. Thirdly my passport to remind me that I have to prepare for the immigration process. Fourthly a Learners Kanji Dictionary to remind me I have much to learn of the Japanese language. Fifthly the Japan Profile of a Nation book which I can learn about modern Japan's laws and society. Sixthly the Rough Guide to Japan has a lot of useful information for both travelling and working in Japan. Seventh a Post Card book from Kyoto because this is the city that God is leading us to. There are many more other preparations so stay tuned.