Tag Archives: olympus

Field notes: Kurashiki Jazz Street day-out snaps

Field Notes (brief) Kurashiki day-out during the “Jazz Street“ event (first in-person since 2019) with little pop-up concerts happening in all sorts of venues from tatami rooms to kissatens. Possibly more to follow.

Bikan Historical Quarter is just everything is so fcking cute with canals (complete with sort of gondola boats), rickshaws, coffee shops, cafés and restaurants of all kinds, craft shops, and some spectacular museums.

Ichiro was a great respectful supporter of the bands & especially like players rolling double basses down the lane

Everyone looking extra sharp with dapper hats, sometimes kimonos, musicians rolling double basses down the cobbly road.

Also tourists (mostly domestic but also some internationals… First time seen “in the wild“ for a very long time) heck we even chatted with a Belgian couple briefly. “Good Timing” i said.

Importantly, the tree with wooden supports was a spontaneous emergency repair by wife at a friend’s cafe (it was falling down and she went to work with saw – standing on a restaurant chair – and we pounded the support sticks in with a chunk of wood and tied up with rope. Not “perfect“ but a bit safer… The planter box is too small for the roots yet the tree was very healthy)
One thing about Japan, a lot of the attractions and “things to see and explore” require a lot of stairs which I have limited ability with. I can walk upstairs but just not a lot of them or else I use up all my batteries for the day. But anyway, you can see the branches cut down from the emergency tree surgery
peeked at an art installation, or is it a sculpture? no matter (same artist was the “space cat” from Osaka… the name slips me, hold on, i’ll figure it out)

Moving on… a few more (really didn’t capture any of the actual music or musicians we were there to see , but these just “field notes” after all, not a documentary.

this is me sitting in the breezeway, listing to tunes and goofing with the camera – just so lovely
another stack of stairs to gaze at, ramble to clamber up

{note: these photos come straight off this little ruggedized Olympus camera that I found in the wife’s office while tidying up and I really like it, lots of onboard effects / settings ++ and allows me not to be handling my phone as a camera – on which the cameras don’t work anymore so well, works out extra well}

and back towards our sweet ride, Agnes like we live in a Ghibli film

Outing: inland sea beach and pizza (and camera goofing)

just up around the bend

Along our adventures, in this case, June 2022, we made a return visit to a stretch of beach called Nishwaki with a handy wood fired pizza oven/ hang out/ playground/ parking called Iweburo around Ichiro’s birthday. (He really wanted to go back to the sea even since the trip to Shimane when he saw the surfers.)

We ordered pizzas and then spread out blankets, chairs etc and picnic on the beach. Few people, some high-school/college age kids were playing games while the whipped whipped around a bit, the fellas from an takoyaki shop nearby chased a blowing red paper lantern. Ichiro went in for a bit and managed a swim (wade out for a bit amidst the seagrass).

Our friend Ayumi who lives nearby joined us there. (Foreshadowing, we are going to her top floor apartment for fireworks soon).

3 happy adventurers

The “inland sea” is very different than the rugged sea of Japan (or the Pacific coast of which i am not so familiar). Because the seto ni kai is protected by islands, this was a useful place for manufacturing, mining, shipping and transport. As such, some of the locations are hardly pristine but regardless, scenic and handy.

beach, not to scale

The Pizza Café is totally my style with reggae music playing, guitar scattered around, handbillsfor live music, drums and shakers and Legos and coffee.

Continue reading Outing: inland sea beach and pizza (and camera goofing)

Outing: Tsuchida (mini) Matsuri

young ladies making best of the scene

With the public health conundrum is the last few years, the usual neighbourhood festivals have been cancelled including our small Tsuchida area event, which is usually a wee bit bigger and held at the elementary school. It’s significant to us as this is where I first met Ryoko’s parents who were helping out selling yakitori. Ryoko bought me my own yukata summer kimono for the event.

Your 3 pals on location

Of course, in Japan there are many sizes and traditions with the summertime festivals from small neighbourhood gatherings to epic shrine carrying and fire burning and fireworks.

In this case, in mid-July, 2022, at a small community centre right by our house, the neighbours did their best efforts to do a small and safe gathering which is especially geared towards the kiddos.

There was a sudden rain storm, a band which were doing their best (arena rock and the obligatory country roads”), some young ladies in kimono, fellas in their cool t-shirts, an energetic ballon-making lady, some older gents happy to see me settling into the neighborhood, many people remarking about Ichiro’s adorableness.

balloon lady working the crowd

Yes, temp checks and masks and you pay a ticket price with then gives you credit at each of the stands so we came home with a buncha extra popcorn we didn’t need/want but ya gotta use your chits.

you think Burning Man is weird? check out this
Continue reading Outing: Tsuchida (mini) Matsuri