autumn tactics

Serenely empty Keikyu Line train. April 2004.

Mokuren blossoms in southern Hatsudai. March 2004.

Northern Shinjuku, after following the Kandagawa towards Waseda. April 2005.

This picture may very well be quite uninteresting to most people, and you may get the feeling like I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel now. You’re not the only one. When I was setting up the shot a man was walking in the opposite direction, and after he passed me, he turned around with a confused expression on his face and looked down the same sight line as my camera, obviously perplexed as to what I could be taking a picture of. This happens a lot, actually. I guess the saying is, “Simple pleasures, simple minds.”

Suzuki motorcycle seen while stopping at Kagurazaka before heading to a Swallows game. June 2005.

View into quiet, suburban Kawasaki’s Kyomachi at dusk. Autumn 2004.

Ethnic Chinese/Korean section of Shinjuku, Okubo Street. May 2006.

お母さんが心配しないように、日本語で伝えときます。もう最近何回目色々な人たちに今の事情を伝えましたから、段々現実離れした感じがしています。

今の住まい、大切な公園の隣の家が三年間暮らししましたが、非常危険なりました。今年の花見頃に、以下の部屋に新規賃借人の親子が入りました。私はいつも通りに親切して、仲良しなるように頑張りましたけど、お互いを理解出来ません。家が古くて、フローリングだけですから、足音とか、落ちた物が良く聞こえます。非常に頑張りましたしかし、私たちの関係がずっと悪化していました。まず、息子が向かい合って文句したんけど、私の努力が足りなくて、適当なノート置いて始まった。「うるさい、やまて」が書いているとか、よくありました。なんでも小さいな音鳴ると、翌日にノートがありました。

九月GEISAIの前に、写真の表示フレームを組み立て中、簿が倒れた。後すぐ、下の人は走り出して、私の部屋に扉にぶつかった。キックしたと思う、なぜなら、扉の外面に穴がありました。それ後、私は彼の扉前に「すみません、」っと呼んだけど、包丁研ぎの音が鳴って、変の声で返事しました。警察署まで言って相談しました。それから、お巡りさんと三人で家に戻りましたが、悪いヤツが返事しなくて出なかった。後日に管理人が検査するように行ったんですけど、ほおかぶりしました。後で、不動産は「頭が壊れたのヤツだ。神経質とか、怖いの雰囲気だった。」

私は引越ししたくなかったから、もっと頑張って我慢しました。

しかし、最近また現状酷くなっています。先週、「いい加減にしろ！」のノートがあった時に、タイヤを切りつけてまわっていた.さらに、誰かが私のゲタ上にブリーチをかけた。最後に、昨夜寝る時に、ロフトベッドからぬいぐるみが落ちまして、ホンダの置いた物にぶつかった。全部が床に倒れた。直後に、階段辺に変な音が聞こえた。でも、扉の鍵が掛かったから、「大丈夫」と思いました。

今日の朝に鍵がロックされていなかった。

少しを見て盗まれた物がなかった。でも、恐らく今物が無くしたかもしれない。また、不動産に伝えて、「我々はどうしょうもないよ。警察に伝え、指紋取って貰うわ。」でも、警察と言ったは、「犯罪が行っている時に110番して。それは一番いい方法だ。今時間が立ったから、何も出来ない。」実は、親父お巡りさんは二十分くらいに法律を説明しました。要は、「米国の法律と日本の法律では違う点幾つがあります。犯罪が起こっている時に、電話して、警察が来て、犯人を逮捕して、裁判に解決する。」

私は犯罪起こっている状態まで待ちたくない。自分の家に泊まりたくない。居たくない。

本日一番重要な物を会社まで持ち来ました。明日朝一に一人で新規住まいを探しに行きます。

寝られない。安心出来ない。これは日本の短所？とか、これは人間性の短所？いずれしても、これは最悪のクリスマスだ。

The simple beauty of my Enjoy commuter bicycle after a bath, taken in the park next to my house. May 2006.

I’m really too exhausted to take a rational position on this, it’s been a hell of a week. Today’s hard lemon candy though is this. If you look closely, you may recognize the background of this chaotically assembled blog. Yes, it’s this, a shot from one of my trips to Saitama.

Now, I don’t have anything really against people enjoying my photography. If I was concerned about rights management I’d get serious and try to use a Creative Commons like license or something. Not that it would have any meaning to a teenage Chinese blogger. I think the general feeling is, “If you like what you see, it would be nice if you let me know.” But, how many times have I gone to Google Images and just grabbed a picture of a guy strumming a fish for my own purposes and given thanks beyond thinking it? So, not indignant, just amused.

It’s amazing the things you can find from web traffic logs.

life, reverbs, i am asleep, but here
no, floating nirvana
so lost in the crowds of a tunnel
notes casade, over and over, like the drops of a sweet waterfall
through heaven, into the ope and waiting eyes of the visionaries.

awake, dear children! this is the moment for your learning
so far, so far, you’ve come to recieve this, and now is the time when it will be given in generous helpings.

awash, awash, sweet lover.

I sat in the sand, huddled between the legs of smoking buddhas, while you drifted among the currents.

so fresh, so fresh, at last I was bathed in starlight

no, oh yes, reach into the places of me so often hidden, reach in and let them unlock all the doors I’ve shut around my self. you must have broguht me here for this purpose, for there really is no other.

then comes the echo, then comes the burning spirits to visit each tongue and mind with the fire of understanding. then we wait in waiting and stretch long unused muscles in eager anticipation of the union.

stretch, extend and release, deep in swirling fogs. there all things left hidden, will be found.

sweet life, saggy eyes. hello long road snaking through these hills.

somewhere beyond the stream of bleary incadescent lights a mind awaoke from an hour of fitful sleep and found its way into the passenger seat of my journey home.

talking about rent and picnics in the park, yawning with the grit of a night in a tent and gazing at the ocean, elbow deep in the sands left golden by mindful souls.

the rain broke and the fog burned off, but I was left nestled deep amidst a purple sea of experiences caught on the edge of my conscience.

an acoustic guitar and a soft voice, the middle seat and a cooler of spent bacchany; something tight was loosened to make me strong.

Folk dance at Gumyouji Temple during a taiko drumming festival, autumn 2004.

When selecting photographs for this month, I try to find shots that have variety and show off a range of my perspectives. I think about convergent vectors, viewpoint, subject matter, color balance, and similar concepts. However, I have a tendency to think too much, seeking self-assurance in the safety of proven, logical concepts.

If photography is to me what I really say it is, a reflection of myself, and not just a technical exercise in the reproduction of theory, then I need to take pictures from the heart, often bypassing the mind in the process. [Turn it off.] So after nearly choosing a shot demonstrating intriguing depth of field, I picked another less consciously composed one that means a lot more to me. It is from a time when I was particularly distraught, and this picture of simple, clean things made me feel better. It made me feel like I was still in control of some things. I could capture the security I felt in an environment where I didn’t know how to worry. This is a picture of me, plain and everyday.