27 April 2012 Walking Around Yamashina
Today was the first, really nice day of spring-summer-short-sleeves weather. It was also the first day that I felt half-way OK after the flu that knocked me out for most of the week. And, finally, it was the day after my Voigtlander 125/2.5 came back from being repaired and adjusted. I didn’t feel all that great, and I didn’t have much time because of Genbo’s half-day at school anyway, so I kept my wanderings close to nearby Yamashina station.
There was still plenty of photographic interest, though. The neighborhood isn’t exactly poor, but it’s far from affluent. So, it’s practically oozing with what the Japanese call aji (“flavor”), which implies something akin to “character,” “interest,” or “depth.”
Here’s the front side of someone’s house.
Someone’s second-floor veranda
This door practically oozes aji. The texture of the rust and the concrete contrasting against each other, and with the trees standing guard on either side…
I have always been intrigued by (OK, incessantly aggravated by) the Japanese predilection for making everything annoyingly cute. I often wonder what the sociological roots of this pathology are. We could carbon date this sign for a minimum age for the trend.
I took this as a throwaway shot, but it’s interesting because of the colors. The top of the train just happens to nearly exactly match the sky, while the bottom of the train just happens to nearly exactly match the train tracks. (It also tells me that I really need to clean my sensor.)
If you click on this last photo, you can see that this woman is sporting some pretty serious in-ear headphones.
*Calling old women “grandma” is not rude in Japan!