23 May 2006, early morning Lots of news because lots of days have passed since May 12th.
- We ate French food at a fantastic restaurant in the Tenroku area. My photo friend Julio, an old Argentinean-Japanese guy, invited Kumiko and I to this place he supplied furniture to. It's called Ciel. As I mentioned after our Sapporo trip, Kumiko and I pretty much never eat French food, but now we've already done it twice this year. This was country (Provence?) style fare, and really filling and satisfying. We were there for four hours. It was awesome. It cost us about 6000 yen each. I don't know if this was a discount or not, because Julio seemed to be pretty chummy with the owners. If anyone wants to try it, let me know and I'll get you the details. I asked the chef if he could do vegetarian dishes and he said it was no problem, so don't let that stop you!
- I had a breakthrough photography experience on Saturday afternoon, when I walked around the Noda station area, finding, photographing and interviewing old dudes in their shops and on the street. I've never really gotten up the nerve to approach people this way before, but on Saturday it just happened for me, and it was easy as pie. That's an amazing area in that traditional crafts seem to have held on there really well. I met a 77 year old fusuma (paper door) maker, and an 80-something tatami maker who's been working in the same location for 61 years, and an 84 year old woman who still sells tofu from the back of a bicycle, and a 64 year old Chinese restaurant owner who's planning to bicycle across the United States next year, and another tatami maker who showed me 120 year old samples of hexagonal tatami, and a younger old man who makes modern swimwear in his home shop, and gave me a pad of paper and a pen so I could take notes. The next day I went to work, and afterwards walked down to the park and photographed a 68 year old tsukemono (pickled vegetable) seller who was nice enough to pose for a shot I really love. I'm on a roll.
- I've downloaded all of the first season of Pokemon, which I really loved before I came to Japan. It was just so nice, the whole idea of kids taking a walking journey across the country with their beloved animals and friends, camping, or getting free lodging from new friends along the way. A fun, pseudo-communist fantasy world where every day is a new discovery, and kids are never raped and killed when they walk in the woods. Anyway, it's been great to watch this again and recapture some of that old escapism that helped me back then when I was getting really sick of my office job. Now I'm getting really sick of my current job. Perhaps that has something to do with it.
- I'm finally delivering on my orders from the exhibition at Early Gallery. I sold these small customized portfolios, with the promise of a two-week turn-around. I sent Paul and Jenny's orders to England weeks ago so they could use them as souvenirs on their trip home, but the others have been delayed. Now they're all made and I'm getting them mailed out or delivered. These things were pretty labor-intensive. I'll choose something else to sell next time.
- The weather has turned genuinely warm. It's been raining a lot, but when it's not raining it's beautiful. I've been waking up earlier to get outside and enjoy it (with a camera of course).
- I've turned my finances over to Kumiko. In Japan, this is the norm. Husbands surrender their entire paycheck for administration by the wife. I've resisted this idea, but her savings power is hard to ignore. She's got me on a good plan, saving plenty for our joint savings, as well as a separate fund to help us start a business (probably in Texas).
I've been much less frequent of late in my journal updates and scanning of photos. I've been trying to do more real work, and less computer work. I'm printing photos in the lab, and making contact sheets rather than organizing everything on the computer. And I'm spending my evenings developing film.
12 May 2006, morning I'm eating raisin bread for the third day running. I love it. Once again, thanks to everyone who's gone to the exhibition. I haven't had much chance to hang out this time, but I'll be there this evening after I do some printing. I need to make prints for a print exchange I'm in with some folks from APUG (analogue photography users group). Two people from Illinois have sent me photos and I'm expecting one more from a guy in England. I'll make three copies of the same print today and send them out. It's a really fun idea, I think.
We had a visit from Mariko and Bay last Saturday, all the way from Austin, as well as from Abe Chie, Kumiko's friend from Kochi prefecture. It was Golden Week, so everyone was off work (except me) and visiting their families or vacationing. We met Chie for lunch at a Tunisian restaurant in Umeda. It was really disappointing: overpriced, tiny, flavorless food. I'll bet they do it much better in Tunis. Sorry, Chie, for choosing such a lame restaurant for your visit. We'll do better next time! After the "food" we went for a walk down to Nakanoshima Park, and I tested out my latest camera, the Balda Baldaxette, another old folding bellows rangefinder. This one is special though, because it shoots 6 x 4.5, a new format for me, save from my multi-format pinhole camera. I've developed the rolls, and I think I can be sure that 1/250th of a second is not as fast as it should be, so my rolls were overexposed, but still printable. I'll have to compensate next time. It's a really cool camera, with a great rangefinder, but the design is hard to get used to. No matter how I hold it, my hands get in the way of the rangefinder or the viewfinder. Anyway, I'll figure it out. I'm determined not to be a camera collector, but a camera user. So after our stroll in the park, we went back to Umeda and met Mariko and her son Bay. We checked out the Chibi Maruko fair at Kiddy Land, then went to a chic coffee house/pottery studio and had some chic coffee and played games with our straws. Chie taught Bay how to shoot a straw wrapper into the air, and Kumiko taught me how to make a straw wrapper look like a snake's tongue. I'll be happy to demonstrate anytime. Mariko was kind enough to bring us a bag of stuff from Austin (lots of soap, taco mix, and some cooking magazines for Kumiko). Thank you, Mariko. That was a nice surprise. We gave Bay a little toy train that's supposed to function as a personal alarm (in case you're attacked or something). I'll bet he's driving his parents crazy with it right now. Sorry Barron and Mariko!
hanamizuki (dogwood) flowers near our apartment. These come out early May.
Photo with Kowa SIX on Classic Pan 400
1 May 2006, night It's a good time for Matt and Kumiko. Kumiko started her job at the city office today, and she loves it. She's never had a standard kind of office job before, and she was really excited to tell me how calm and casual the working environment is. The main good points being: there's no tension in the air, people are absolutely unconcerned with fashion, she can get free coffee, she can eat lunch with everyone at a regular time, she has the chance to wash her dishes at the office, her coworkers have messy hair and stuff stuck in their teeth and no one cares, the conversation is light-hearted, she rides her bicycle to the office in 3 minutes. Yay for Kumiko! She's also excited about attending a certification course for wedding planners. She loves wedding culture and is thinking she'd like to do this for a living.
I have another exhibition next week. It'll be the same pictures (people on the train) as the last, with some minor changes. I've printed a couple of giant-size ones just for fun. This is a group exhibition organized by Chu-san, the owner of the darkroom where I do my printing. Four others will exhibit as well. I like this idea, because it has the potential to gather a greater number of visitors: five people worth of friends and family, and five artistic styles to attract outside interest. On the other hand, this gallery isn't as well-known as the last, but I'm happy to have a less-demanding, casual show. The best thing to come out of my gallery experience was the contact with two people who are making money with photography: the gallery owner and the darkroom owner. I've been impressed with what both of them are doing, and I'm formulating a plan to follow in their footsteps. I want to open a rental darkroom with a gallery space in Austin. I'm really excited about the idea.
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