29 February 2008 Window detail per request
Archive for February, 2008
29 February 2008 Digging through old shots
Some of Genbo when he was about two.
“Hoarder”
“What’s in lives in there?”
What is it about kids that just makes you want to absolutely devour them?
(In a good way, of course)
29 February 2008 Some beautiful shots
…of the snow in Heian shrine (one of Kyoto’s biggest and fanciest) are on Jeffrey’s blog. Here and here.
25 February 2008 THEY raise US
One thought I’ve had often while parenting (aside from awww…. and arghhhh!) is that our children really raise us, not the other way around.
No one is a parent until their kids do them the favor of being born, and the skills and dedication you need to be a parent aren’t fostered in you until they need to be. It was certainly true for me, and I bet it is true for most people, that the level of selflessness and patience required to be a parent, and the depth of love that arises in return, is a product of the process. Your kids inculcate it in you, because that’s what they need and that’s what you naturally feel inspired to give.
In the end you wind up more than you were. Hence they raise us.
20 February 2008 Apologies for light posting*
My daughter Zoe, precocious 9-month old that she is, has mastered the art of generating a fever just barely high enough to keep her home from daycare to play with me, but not high enough to actually make her feel bad.This new skill, combined with lots of work, has been keeping a loving-but-frazzled daddy too busy to play with photos.
(*Don’t you like the conceit that my lack of posting actually puts you all out enough to require an apology?)
13 February 2008 Face of the Day
I’m not sure what it is I like about this guy. Despite the obvious hair-piece and the sallow complexion, he ends up looking kind of cool. I like it when people somehow pull off this kind of trick. As my vain grandfather used to say, “None of my individual parts are very handsome, but they come together to make a nice whole.” Same concept.
12 February 2008 Japan’s Two Religions
…are illustrated well in this photo. They are Buddhism (actually native ancestor worship with a very thin Buddhist veneer) and construction. It is not much an exaggeration to say that the entire economy exists to support the construction industry. In Japan, everything is always under construction everywhere.
12 February 2008 History in (of) a Roof
As Stewart Brand points out in his brilliant How Buildings Learn, buildings tend to change over time based on varying needs and environmental factors. This is well illustrated in this building:
Here you see the side of a building built in the old Japanese way: Rough-cut boards on top of
stuccowattle and daub. This probably predates WWII, or if not was built soon after it ended. You can see how the boards fallen off reveal the stucco underneath. The boards were not originally black; that comes from long years of weather. In fact, you can see a red band under the eave of the roof where some of the wood’s original color remains because it’s been sheltered from rain.Next, although this is just a guess, it appears they replaced some of the wood siding with aluminum or tin because a building was being built right next to it. Some time ago that building was torn down, leaving just the tin siding and the silhouette of where it used to be.
Another interesting detail is the post stuck onto the top of the roof to draw the telephone and power lines. This was clearly done after the original construction, too.
All in all I love all the textures here. Even the dove on the “Keep Japan’s Pacifist Constitution” poster adds a bit of color. Here’s a detail:
7 February 2008 Three Random Kyoto Shots
Here are a few shots taken all within about an hour of each other while wandering around Kyoto, killing time between my bookstore wanderings/pasta lunch and heading back home.
These were all taken with my 50mm f1.2 lens, before loaning it to Jeffrey to take scary pictures of me with. I like walking around with a prime, which just means a lens that doesn’t zoom. At the beginning of the day you decide what the field of your photographic vision will be for that day, and then you find opportunities to fit that. Zooms are so flexible they end up being less fun. Yes, it’s a little paradox, finding more enjoyment by limiting yourself, but it’s not like I’m writing entire novels without the letter “e” or anything.
This building could easily predate WWII. Some form of restaurant I’d be scared to enter. I was amused by the contrast between the architecture and the poster for the new West Side Story production in Osaka.
Monk sweeping up in front of his temple.
I’ve always liked this temple. You have to enlarge the photo to really see it, but there is a children’s play area right through that impressive gate. Almost as though the Pure Land promised by this particular sect of Buddhism is just one big jungle gym…
(Click to enlarge, or you ain’t never going to Pure Land…)
7 February 2008 Random Family Pics
My mom wanted me to post some pictures of my kids, so, without further ado, some random family pics from the last month:
2 February 2008 Snow Falling on Condos
Taken from my balcony. I love it that it snows a couple times a year here, and I love it that it only sticks for a couple days.
Most of all, I love watching the snowflakes come down off that mountain right into my windows.
