Japanese people call any running over about 30 seconds “marathon,” which is incredibly annoying to someone like me who prefers to assume that words mean actual things. I wouldn’t mind it if “marason” was simply a loanword from English to Japanese that came to mean “running” or something like that. But, Japanese people know that it’s supposed to mean a 42 km race; they just generally feel free to mangle meanings of words that come from English. It’s as though Americans knew the word “sushi” was supposed to mean vinnegared rice with raw fish, but felt perfectly justified using it to refer to hamburgers as well, because hey, that’s meat and starch too, and it’s just a foreign word, so who gives a shit.

Anway, Genbo and his class ran a “marason” the other day. They had been practicing for it for a long time, and he was pretty excited about it, so I went down and snapped some photos. This particular marathon was 1 km, and Genbo came in 14th place out of 59 boys in his class.

Home stretch
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Almost there!
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Here are some photos of him I snapped the other day…

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I’ve been working a LOT lately, which has left precious little time for really quality family time, or photography, or shakuhachi. I was work-free this past Sunday, though, and sent Genbo and Zoe out to play in the next-door park with friends while Maki and I watched this program about a painter who had been commissioned by two elderly people to paint a portrait of their daughter who had been killed in an accident. By the end I had tears streaming out of my eyes while I grabbed my camera to go take pictures of the kids while Maki just laughed at me.

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I used a nifty program called Posterino to create this image, which I will be printing big just as soon as I get a chance.

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Some photos from my recent trip to Wakayama to visit Pierre, who was not only an expert swordsmith but a great guide.

I also have a friend who is storing some high-grade recording equipment at my house, so I used that to record myself on shakuhachi. It was fun putting this slideshow together, but even this rudimentary level of synching audio and video took a couple hours, moving things around by tenths of a second until I had it just so…

Yesterday was the undokai at Genbo and Zoe’s daycare, which is kind of a field-day on steroids that the kids practice a long time for. (Previous posts here and here.)

Genbo is in the oldest class in his daycare, so this year they spent a long time learning the fine art of marching with drums. It truly was pretty impressive. Video of that later, but for now, some photos.

Stilts are big in Japan
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Passed the baton in the relay…
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Everyone’s a winner!
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Maki’s parents made a point of coming down for the event, traveling early to get to our house by the early morning. Our friend Ikuko, the daughter of my potter friend Kamada-san, also came the day before and stayed at our house to come watch it.

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Most days it doesn’t matter, except for the ritual greetings to the Shinto gods they perform, but the daycare Genbo and Zoe attend is attached to a major regional shrine, with a history going back to 667 AD to when the area was, briefly, the capital of Japan. The oldest class, however, gets to take part in a yearly ceremony called Miae Matsuri, which is, as close to I can figure, an annual thanksgiving to the gods for the bounty of the harvest, etc. etc.

This festival just happened to fall on the morning of the day we flew back to the States. So, we did the whole ceremony thing, changed really quickly, then hopped on a plane to San Francisco. Which, by the way, is where I’m writing this. So, it doesn’t have the usual custom formatting that I have set up on my home machine.

Genbo was given a place of honor holding a live rooster in a basket, which may or may not have been sacrificed as part of the ceremony we didn’t see. There was one other kid performing the same duty, but he apparently got scared of the thing during practice and had to have someone else take over.

Photo-Op with Mom

Hanging out with friends

Can we go to America now?

Genbo and first friend

The Procession Begins

Up the Stairs

Through the Gate-Portal-Thingy

And Everyone Follows

…To be continued.

OK, there are still a few blossoms on the cherry trees, so this post is not technically late. I returned to the exact place pictured in the first shot of this post with a mission to take some non-boring sakura pics. Since I wanted to use my new neutral density (ND) filters, however, I knew I wanted to do something with running water. These are basically just darkened glass you put in front of the lens to allow you to keep the shutter open for longer, thus capturing motion, without blowing everything out. The trick, as I quickly learned, is to find something moving in close juxtaposition with something not.

After many, many false starts, I finally settled on this one rock in the stream with some blossoms stuck to it. I had to take off my shoes and bring my tripod down into the stream to get the right perspective, but it was worth it. Not only was I able to arouse some levity among the passers-by, but I also got some very nice shots. (At first the water was extremely cold, but I just lost all sensation in my feet after a few minutes, which is good, because the rocks were sharp, too.)

These first two shots are some of my favorite that I’ve ever taken. I love how the ND filters let me keep the shutter open long enough to make the water all silky, while still capturing the rock-stranded blossoms in perfect clarity. The whisps of light you see are reflections on the water’s surface.

This first one, especially, deserves to be clicked on to see at full size.

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Here I was fortunate enough to be in a position to capture a bunch of blossoms blown into the stream by a particularly fierce gust of wind.

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…Or not. I cannot tell a lie.

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Not usually a big bird photographer, but I like these from today. (And, my previous bird shot garnered a rare compliment from the wife!)

Jump!
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Crows on the underside of the Sanjo bridge
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The same duck in repose a few minutes earlier. Taken with a neutral density filter allowing long exposure in daylight to get silky water effect. The ducks were completely still, which was sporting of them.

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It’s cherry blossom season, so here is the obligatory sakura photo. Actually, I have a lot more coming, but this one, sort of influenced by my friend Stephane, stands on its own.

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Need I say more?

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Well, it’s been another one of those post-less months. Now Christmas is passed, New Year’s is almost upon us, and I still have a bunch of Halloween-related posts I want to make. I’m going to get them all up before New Year’s or it’ll never happen. Here is the first one, a Genbo-centric post, from our Halloween back in the States.

Genbo as an astronaut, his friend Gabe as a pirate
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Even astronauts gotta run for the bathroom
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(OK, maybe that’s not why he’s running, but who cares?)

Some down time
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The obligatory pumpkin shot. I love the lighting and background here.
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Genbo looking outrageously handsome. ‘Course, I’m partial.
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