31 January 2005 I smell! We went to a kushiyaki joint with some of Kumiko's work friends tonight. Kushiyaki is food on a stick, battered and deep fried. It's delicious of course. How could it not be with that kind of preparation? This place was in an area I haven't been to since my first few weeks in Japan (and that was only by accident). Shin-Imamiya station is on the loop line in the heart of Osaka, near the famous Tsutenkaku Tower. I had my camera with me, but my snapping was severely limited due to being with a group of people I'd only just met, and who wanted to go eat. I'll go back alone someday. It looks pretty cool. Lots of kushiyaki shops, board game parlours for the 60-something set, and according to the locals, crime. Can't wait to get down and dirty. Crime is something you hear about on the news here. In 4½ years I haven't once felt scared for my personal safety, though I have had a bicycle stolen. Tonight's news brought the story of several ducks and rabbits which were killed at an elementary school. Oh anyway, I smell like grease after eating at that restaurant. That's what I meant. We watched Episode II last night. it's a fun movie, except for the romance, which is truly tasteless. It's like a Harlequin novel, complete with heaving breasts and bucolic meadow running frolic. The senator is wearing a skin-tight, black vinyl, strapless bustier (her fourth outfit of the montage) when she tells the Jedi knight that she's not interested in making love. Despite these embarrassing moments, Episode II still gets my approval. I'm sure I've seen it at least three times since it came out. It has some kick-ass light saber fighting and really cool incendiary devices, and the first meeting of R2-D2 and C3PO. Yoda is too serious though. I like the comical Episode IV Yoda who throws food and acts childish. Happy Birthday to my friend Michael! I missed it by a couple of days I know.
29 January 2005 We've now watched Episodes VI and I, and we have II ready to go. Kumiko is properly into it. She loves Chewbacca. And rightly so - he's a very lovable wookie. The short scene in Jedi when Han and Chewie are reunited in Jabba's palace is really a good one. Touching wookie devotion. I'm reading the infamous "Da Vinci Code" now, and it's very engaging. I'm really getting curious, but I'm only about 40 pages in. I don't usually read popular novels like this. I tend to steer clear of them, but I'm glad my friend Sue lent this to me. I've two days free ahead of me, and no plans for filling them. It's a nice feeling.
26 January 2005 Over the past two nights, Kumiko and I have watched Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back on DVD. This, believe it or not, is Kumiko's first time to see the original trilogy, so it's pretty exciting. I love Empire over all the other films. That Hoth sequence does it for me - snow, recon droids, taun tauns, AT-ATs, snowspeeders, a secret base carved out of ice, it's all great. I also like the way Leia looks on Bespin, with her hair braided and looped down. That Leia is much more appealing to me than the metal bikini Leia on Jabba's sail barge or even the classic double-bun Princess Leia.
24 January 2005 Last night we went to a dinner party at our friends Paul and Jenny's house. They live in the middle of Osaka City, which is pretty cool. Sometimes I think I'd like to be right in the thick of it, but usually I think the country life is for me. Paul made some great chili, and we built tacos out of it. John and Tomo were there, who are also friends, and we had a really nice time. John told us ghost stories about the building he used to super on the way home. I don't believe in ghosts, but ghost stories can still give me shivers. When John was the superintendent of this 20 unit building in Manhattan, there was a crazy old woman living in the adjacent apartment. She lured mice and squirrels in and gave them food, so the mice were just thriving in her room. A few days after she died, John heard radio music in the night, coming from inside the apartment, though he was certain no one was inside. Later, Tomo's friend rented the apartment, and on her first night, she heard footsteps circling her bed, then felt hands trying to pull her off. It creeps me out writing it. I hope if I ever encounter a ghost, it won't be pulling me out of bed and scaring the bisanouli out of me. Hopefully it will be friendly and helpful like the ghost in The Pink Panther and the Haunted House, one of my favorite books as a kid.
21 January 2005 It's the middle of the night. Time I went to bed, but I've become addicted to Ebay. I had this problem about 5 years ago, but it went away when I moved to a different country. Now it's back again. I had to send my Makina 67 back to the shop (from whence it came), for a refund, due to three problems: a light meter that wouldn't turn off, an unreliable film advance mechanism, and improperly installed foam light insulation. It was a lovely thing, but I paid a lot to have a camera that works, not just a lovely thing. Now I'm scared of Makinas because mine exhibited the same problems that other Makina owners have complained of, but which I never thought could happen to me. Now I'm shopping again, which is a good feeling. I want something for about half the price now. My candidate short list: Zeiss Super Ikonta B 532/16, Agfa Super Isolette, Ansco Super Speedex, Fujifilm GS645, or a Rolleiflex TLR. I'm leaning more towards 6x6 than the other configurations. 120 roll film is a lot of fun. I like sticking down the adhesive strip at the end of the roll. In other news, my friend Mike has recently put his Star Wars figures into plastic bags. Fascinating stuff in its own right, but it made me think of the Sears and J.C.Penney catalogues of my youth. The toy section was always at the back of the book, and you could count on some really cool (so it seemed at the time) action dioramas utilizing all the ships and action figures and fake snow and stars and stuff. Made the toys look like much more fun they they actually could have been, but I wouldn't really know because I never had an official Star Wars toy until I bought my own in college. I remember trying to make a tie fighter out of thin cardboard before, but it never quite looked right. I did build a fairly creditable Millennium Falcon plastic model kit, but once again, not until college. My favorite Star Wars vehicle, though, is actually from Episode One - the Naboo fighter (yellow and chrome). Naboo is my home planet. I'm from there. Now I'll put a call out: please rank your top 5 Star Wars vehicles. Here's my list:
- Naboo fighter (for pure aesthetics)
- Millennium Falcon (for it's speed on the Kessel run)
- AT-AT (I like bears.)
- Y-Wing (must be something about yellow spaceships.)
- Snow Speeder (Great out-dated workhorse look. What were those cables designed to tow?)
16 January 2005 I've spent a day playing on the computer, going to the photo shop, watching some TV, going for ramen, going to Satsukiyama with my camera and now back on the computer and watching TV with Kumiko. That's a very, very standard day off for me. I did have a touch of excitement this morning when I saw that Moomin Valley FC, my fantasy football (soccer) club, has risen to third place in our league. I'd been fluctuating between 7th and 9th for quite a while, but the holiday season was magical for me, and now we're knocking at the door of Duncan's 2nd place team "Onara Opai" (translation: Fart Breast). Not bad for a guy who knows nothing about the game. I certainly know a lot more about it than I did 5 months ago.
12 January 2005 Kumiko has gone to bed. I'm watching the Chelsea v Middlesborough game, and waiting for my film auction to end. I took the Makina (which I ordered from a shop in Nagoya) to the top of Satsukiyama yesterday around sunset. When I got to the top, I ran into my ex-landlord, from one apartment ago. He's a nice guy, but talks and talks, so I didn't really have a free hand to take all the photos I wanted. It's such a strange feeling to load up and have only 10 shots rather than the 37 I usually get. A much more conservative feeling. The Makina is definitely more of a deliberate camera. There's nothing fast or spontaneous about it. All the settings are manual. The focus is a knob on top rather than a ring around the lens, and changing film is a sitting down proposition. I first tried taking it to Osaka and shooting people, but I doubt if many of them will be in focus. This camera is for things that don't move much. I'm up for the challenge though. Still getting to know it. I won't have photos online for a while since I can't scan 120 film negs. I'll have to get prints and scan those. In the meantime, here's a group of pictures from various spots in Osaka City: Umeda, Fukushima, Shinsaibashi, Honmachi, etc, from October to January.
11 January 2005 We watched a movie called "Old School" last night, and we're watching the outtakes and extras now. It was much funnier than I'd expected. Very crude and stupid. It was 60% Animal House re-make, and 40% new funny different stuff. We just downloaded Kumiko's phone pics to the computer, and uploaded them to the net. It'll have to be self-explanatory, because there are no file names or coments. Just everything she's taken since she got the phone last August. Okay, now we're watching the movie again. The birthday party is the best part.
10 January 2005 Tonight we went to Toyonaka Ebisu shrine to exchange last year's good luck arrow for a new one. There were hundreds of people there and lots of food stands and kids' stuff I hadn't been expecting. It was a lot of fun. This year the arrow is supposed to point south in your house, while last year's faced east for greatest lucky result. Today is "Seijinshiki", which is coming of age day for recent 20-year-olds. Lots of girls, excuse me, young women, were wearing winter kimono today with fur collars or stoles. It looks beautiful. They look like princesses mixed in with the common man. The new men are supposed to wear hakamas to match, but very few do it. They wear skinny suits and stand around smoking and looking stupid. We ate negiyaki at the shrine. It's a sort of pancake with egg and ham and tons of green onion piled on top and cooked on a griddle. Tasty.
9 January 2005 I bought the Makina 67. Just couldn't resist. Especially after urgings on from Mike and from Donald Trump.It's a beauty. I loaded it up with Fujicolor PRO400 yesterday, but haven't had a chance to test it out yet. Can't wait until Tuesday. I'll have a day off to make a proper go of it. Yesterday I went for a haircut after work. My hairdresser was all sick and snotty with red puffy eyes. It was really grossing me out. I had to get that haircut though. My hair was killing me. I'd already touched it up myself about two weeks ago, so there was nothing else I could do. I tend to resist getting a haircut until it's driving me mad. I'm trying to resist spending money too, since the camera cost so much. I've had 280yen ramen for lunch for the last 3 days, and I haven't been buying an onigiri on the way home as I usually do. Tonight I made rice, and had it with butter and soy sauce. Reminds me of my bachelor days.
5 January 2005 It's 1am now, and I've just completed a a major update to Moon Station Echo, the totally photography-oriented sister site to Moon Station Foxtrot. I added 20 more photographs and changed the gallery layout slightly. By the way, I still have free MSE gifts waiting for "The Shellito" and Brian. All you have to do is email me your shipping address. Yesterday (the 4th) was a day of almost nothing. We only went out to go to the post office, where I mailed some MSE gifts to the USA, and also Ebay film to The Netherlands, and Kumiko bought some stamps. Besides that, I rode my bicycle to Hattori to drop off film and pick up prints. Kumiko made some excellent fettucini for dinner, and we also had fake caviar (lumpfish roe) on saltine crackers, which I really love. I guess I haven't tried expensive caviar. I'd hate to spoil my image of the cheap stuff by trying the 50 dollar an ounce stuff. I'd better just stay away. This evening I'll be able to pick up a lot of slide film from the photo shop. This is the big test to see whether the 20 rolls of expired film I purchased from Ebay were worth the very low price I payed. It's 2 years beyond it's expiration date. I think it'll be OK. If not I'll cry, because there are 5 exposed rolls riding on it. This is officially the final day of my holiday. Such a shame that all good things must come to an end. Oh well, I still have 36 hours of relative freedom until I have to be in the office. I can do a lot (or almost nothing) in that time, but the first thing is to sleep.
3 January 2005 Ahh, it's been a good year so far! I haven't worked a day yet, but not much longer on this cushy schedule. I start back on the 6th. Kumiko has been working hard this whole time, on the other hand, but when she finishes tonight, she'll have three days off to look forward to. The year in a glance for me: on the 31st I completed one photo project I'd been planning, which was simply to walk from Niigawa station to Sakasegawa station (only two stops away) with a camera, and take photos of whatever I came across. That's just what I did. I'm looking forward to getting the film back from the shop day after tomorrow. On the way from Obayashi to Sakasegawa I came across an open garage with some lanterns hanging outside and some people out in front with a sort of tent set up. When I stopped to take some pictures, the people (all middle aged men) beckoned me over, and I realized the lanterns were part of a portable festival shrine. The stewards of that shrine were just out there bringing in the New Year by opening up the garage and standing around a trash can fire cooking vegetables and drinking beer and sake. So that's how I finished the daylight hours on the 31st, standing around with the old dudes, drinking their sake and beer, and eating hard-boiled eggs. I answered the typical barrage of foreigner questions, and then excused myself. They gave me a baseball cap that says "Obayashi Danjiri". Nice guys. I got home around 7, and then Kumiko came home from work and we ate a great dish of bean sprouts and spinach fried together with a kind of omelette on top. Really good stuff. I made or New Year's card on the computer, and printed out about 30 of them. Everyone sends cards at the New Year. The post office shuts down normal deliveries and concentrates on the cards, so you open up your mail box on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and there's a rubber-banded stack of cards waiting for you. Every family sends them. Some of you faithful readers may even receive one. This year's card was much easier to prodeuce. I've had a year of hard-core practice using Adobe Photoshop, so I can knock them out like I'm knocking back Coca-Cola. We watched the "Red and White Show" on TV, which is a big talent show that last until midnight. It's on every New Year's Eve. The red team (women) vs the white team (men). This year the men won. Last year the women. It's all of the most famous names in Japanese music. Very crappy music, indeed, but fun to watch. On the first, I decided to try another camera walk, this time from Kyoshikojin station on the Takarazuka line, but it was boring and sucked and nobody gave me eggs or a cap. In the evening, we went over to Kumiko's parent's house for dinner with them and Kazuomi and Chiaki and Daichi. It was very nice. Daichi was more entertaining than ever, and also demanded constant entertainment and attention from us. It was a huge dinner of osechi (traditional cold New Year's food, followed by delicious shabu shabu. I almost exploded. Yesterday, I tried more walking with camera, this time in central Osaka. I walked from Umeda in a roundabout way to Shinsaibashi. It was eerily quiet. No one about on January 2nd. I took a few more photographs than I managed on the 1st, but no great bounty. Anyway, it was interesting to see some areas of Osaka I've never had call to go through. I want to do more of that. Today was another good day. I didn't go on a camera walk, but I went back to Shinsaibashi and went to a camera store (Camera no Naniwa) where a friend (Sakai-san) works at a gallery, and talked to her for a while. The gallery was empty, but she took my picture holding a sign which I wrote on explaining "what a photograph is to me", which will be part of their upcoming exhibition, which is photos of a bunch of people holding up signs explaining in their own writing "what a photograph is". My face will be on the gallery walls for about 2 weeks. My sign said "A photo is a piece of time you can hold on to." Sounds cheesy, but she put me on the spot. I just had to come up with something then and there. I bet I think of something really cool I could've said in the next couple of days. Oh, and actually I misspelled it, so it says "hold onto". What a great English teacher I am. Afterwards, I went downstairs to the used merchandise section to check out the Plaubel Makina 67. I've recently learned about this camera, and I really want it. It's expensive though (at least 120,000 yen) in good condition. I've only read abou them before, and they're kind of rare, but Naniwa had one for sale, so I could play with one for the first time, which made me want it more. It's bigger than I'd imagined, but not bulky like other medium format cameras. This is a 6X7 camera, so it makes a huge, high quality negative. I've been yearning to get into medium format.I'm also considering the cheaper, and very old Zeiss Ikonta B 6X6, and the newer and equally expensive Mamiya 6 and Mamiya 7, and finally the cheaper and equally old Fujica GS645. But the Makina is greatest in my eyes. It has the best lens, and a good meter, and simple design, and looks cool. I'm still thinking though. I'd have to sell an aweful lot of film on Ebay to pay for it.
