14 November 2006, night I became 33 yesterday. In 4 months my age will be advertised on LPs. I had to work on Monday, but we went out for birthday yakitori on the 12th with Paul and Jenny. My favorite yakitori shop is still the one I discovered with my old friend Glenn during our first year in Japan. It's called "Yoshi", near Toyonaka station. Kumiko and her mom went in together on some nice shoes for me. Kumiko and I went shopping for them on Saturday, and then we went to a clinic to donate blood. The clinic gives out free drinks and cookies, well worth the 400ml it cost me.
On Friday I returned to Muroji temple in Nara, following a 2.5-hour journey on two trains and a bus. It was great again. I just wanted to take photos and that's what I did, with a better camera (or two) this time. I wouldn't mind going back again when I finally get my 9x12cm plate camera up and running. I have film for it now. The next step is to find thin glass plates to stick the film on. I might try heavy cardboard, since the glass plates are looking unlikely. It's hard to find thin glass.
Thanks, Mom for your birthday card and gift! Thanks Anna too! Thanks Paul and Jenny for the Amazon.uk money! Thanks Kumiko for the Yodobashi Camera money, and to you and your mom for the excellent wing-tips!
Muroji temple, from the first trip
photo with Balda Jubilette (thanks for mailing this camera to me, Mike)on Konica-Minolta Pan 400
3 November 2006, night Phew! That was another great weekend trip. Today we woke up early and drove to Nara prefecture with our friend Julio and his wife, caravaning with Ide-san (the ultimate French chef) and his family, as well as another chef friend (Italian specialist), and ending up at the vacation home of another friend, near Muroji temple, which now takes the place of Kiyomizu-dera, in the "best temple I've ever seen" spot. Julio is half Argentinian, and called this event a "gaucho barbeque". I don't know what was gaucho about it, except that the chunks of meat were awefully big. I'd stake that they were better prepared than the typical gaucho could muster out on the open range. We had several types of meat: pork chorizo, beef steak, lamb chops, pork slab, chicken, and little filets of flounder or sole. Then came yaki onigiri, and yaki soba, and red miso soup. And of course there was salad and French bread and beer for all. All told, an extraordinary meal. We weren't able to explore the temple complex thoroughly because of the timing, so I'm determined to go back and see it again. I have to bring a more reliable camera next time. I brought my little Balda Jubilette, which is missing the shutter release button. I had been using a cable release, but that recently stopped working, so I had to improvise a shutter button from a machine screw. About 10 minutes into the temple, I lost that screw, and replaced it with a small stick from a shrub. The viewfinder glass is also cracked, and it's only a scale-focus model, meaning that you just estimate the distance to your subject and set the lens accordingly (not very precise).
I say "another...trip" because last weekend we went to Bizen in Okayama with Paul and Jenny and had a really magical time. I fell in love with the International Villa. It was the best one yet. We always enjoy Paul and Jenny's company, and it was just really nice spending the weekend out in the country.
We explored a bit of tourist Okayama City (the castle and the gardens) before heading out to the villa. The castle is smaller than Osaka Castle, but prettier. It's black and looks older, which is a nice change. I'd say 70% of Japanese castles are white. We saw a taiko drum performance while we were there. It was cool, but seemed to be never-ending, so we left the drummers in our dusty wake after about 30 minutes, and headed across the river to the garden, which is said to be one of Japan's three great gardens. I can't remember the name of it for the life of me. It was a very nice garden. I've seen one of the other two greatest gardens, 6 years ago in Kanazawa, and I have to say, the Okayama one beats it. I'm not a huge fan of these really grand Japanese gardens though. I prefer the smaller, quainter variety. Kyoto is chocked full of them.
We arrived at Hattoji International Villa after sunset, following a pretty hairy busride round some winding roads. We couldn't see the neighborhood because there are very few lights around there, so we were really looking forward to waking up and checking out the view. The villa turned out to be fantastic. We had it all to ourselves. We immediately inaugurated the kitchen, since we'd built up a terrific hunger enroute. Paul took the lead and I assisted in a grand spaghetti-cooking operation. I had my doubts about how good it might be, but it turned out to be some of the best damned spaghetti with tomato sauce ever. After dinner, we played cards and drank beer and played harmonica, until all the beer was gone, then Kumiko and I took our turns at the traditional goemonburo bath. A goemonburo is a cauldron. This bath was in a cauldron, but rather than having a fire underneath, as they used to, it was set into a tile platform, and supplied with hot water the modern pipe way. It was still fun, but too small for me.
In the morning, we woke up to an idillic country scene. Just thatched roofs and mountains and golden rice fields in the rosy morning light. Beautiful. Peaceful. I wish I could wake up there every morning. Of course I had a camera with me. For this trip I selected my 1941 Argus A. It's actually slightly more primitive than the older Balda Jubilette, but in much better condition. All the parts are there. The thing that makes it primitive is the fixed focus lens. It has two positions: near and far. Through testing I've figured out that near means about 9 feet and far means beyond 20 feet. The lens is really soft at the edges, but sharp enough in the center. I had fun using this camera. It dictates a slower approach to shooting, but not too slow since you don't have to waste time focussing. The pictures from Okayama are here.
a giraffe that lives in my neighborhood
photo with Franka Solida (For some reason, I just sold this camera!) on Classic Pan 200
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