Climbing (BLUE)

I just went outside at lunchtime looking for some colours to photograph. Of course, the monkey bars! They're blue. And Seiryu just happened to be climbing up the slide.

Spring Approaching

I got a bit lazy and didn't edit any photos these last couple of days. This is one from the entrance at school on Friday. I tried taking ohotos of the fish in the tank but the light wasn't good enough.

Skipping

A photo from yesterday's skipping. This boy came second - jumped for quite a long time.

Maybe Skipping

The school I was at today had their jumprope championship. For each two grades (1&2, 3&4 and 5&6), they had to try to be the one to skip the longest. If they missed, they had to sit down. I don't have time tonight to edit any photos, though.

Yellow Bud

On my desk at school is a small vase of these buds. Last week, they were just the furry bud, but over the weekend, the petals became exposed. I'm not sure what tree it's from - maybe a magnolia, but I think it might be too early in the year for that.

Crabby!

I went out at lunchtime, up to the top pond, and saw this crab in the drain ditch. Some of the boys lifted up the grill and got it out so I could take photos. When the chime went, it started raining.

Artificial (YELLOW)

Some handmade artificial flowers in Oyama.

Saturday Game Day

It was boardgame day today in Oyama, so I'll post a photo tomorrow　- which is one of Elasund, City of Catan (or something). I didn't play it; in fact, I've never even played the original Settlers of Catan game. I can't believe it - I actually played Monopoly, perhaps the game that gets vilified the most by boardgame geeks. It's a better game if you play by the original rules and keep it short.

It's a-tangled (RED)

I noticed these kendamas all tangled up the other day, when I didn't have my camera, so I made sure I got a pic today.

I Saw a Weasel

I took this yesterday when it was sunny and seeming very spring-like - it rained today, and half the school went skiing. On the way to school, I saw an animal cross the road and go into a drainpipe. It was bigger than a squirrel (and wasn't carrying any nuts). Fortunately, I knew the school I went to today had a book on prefectural wildlife, so I was bale to look it up and find it was a weasel, or "itachi". I would never have expected to see one at that place.

My Sunglasses

Hmmm, it looks like I missed yesterday. Oh well, no great loss.

I really find it hard to go out in bright sunlight without sunglasses and not squint. And there are kids who always want to try them on. I have, in the past, thought of making a gallery of photos of kids wearing my sunglasses. This is one of a set of twins in third grade.

Another Dragon

I went to the "biggest" bookstore in town today. I park in the Futara Shrine carpark and walk from there, passing though the shrine gates and going down the long steps. This is the dragon at the entrance. Because of the bright background, I went totally manual - I set the camera to f5.6 at 1/90. I like how it turned out.

Skeleton

Elsewhere in the archives are my shots of a skunk shrimp who lives in the same tank as the yellow-striped angelfish. I saw this part of his exoskeleton, but then noticed he was hiding behind the rock. He must have shed it recently.

Paper Craft (GREEN)

A photo I took on my last day for this school year at one of my schools. One of the fourth grade teachers made a whole lot of origami paper dolls (with matchstick heads) and gave them to the other teachers. Even me - mine came in a red box; I'll get around to shooting it some time. The dolls are the Emperor and Empress dolls from a Hina Matsuri set (doll festival in March). They were all different colours. I took a photo of this one because it was green...

The Zoo Robot (BLUE)

It snowed during the night but had stopped early in the morning, which was sort of agaisnt the forecast, which was for 10-15 cm. I didn't mind as it wasn't so dangerous to drive to work. I pass the zoo (though usually the back of it), ut here's the big robot they have overlooking the carpark. The zoo also has an amusment park with a ferris wheel, a swimming pool and a mock Japanese castle donjon. I really feel sorry for the animals.

Colour Project: RED (and a bit of Purple)

I drove past this jizo statue in a cemetery on the way home, a route I usually don't go, so I thought it was worthwhile stopping to take a pic, parking at the next-door dance studio carpark. They say it's going to be snowing tomorrow, and it is colder.

Oliver Twist

I went to see the Roman Polanski film today. I thought it was excellent, though I can't remember if that was the way Bill Sykes died in the book (long time since I read it). Funny thing is, I saw the principal of one of my schools afterwards. He's been to a different movie - but on the rare occasions I do go to that cinema, I seem to always meet someone form my town of work (because there's no cinema up there, I guess).

photos > words

photos > words Really nice, Peter.

Dragon

I took this a couple of weeks ago. Shrines and temples have basins of water to wash mouth and hands with, and they often have a dragon as the faucet. A spent a lot of Saturday in the department store waiting for Mi-chan to make up her mind about buying a blouse and a corsage (graduation ceremony is next month - it's not her graduation, though)

The Emu with the extraordinary name

We watched a program a while ago about emus in Western Australia that wander thousands of kilometres in the Outback, following the weather and to feed on wildflowers that appear after rain. So yesterday, this toy emu came in the post for Mi-chan from my parents, in lieu of a book or calendar about emus.

What I find really funny is the tag on the emu that says, "My name is Sharlene".

Woodblock Prints

Yesterday being Wednesday, I didn't have time to post a blog note. Here's a picture I took yesterday at school. They have the "best" recent works on display in the foyer for each class. This is a couple of woodblock prints by sixth graders. They're done on black paper. They carve the wooden board, paint some of the uncarved bits, print, then paint and print some more in stages. (This is opposed to just doing basic black ink woodblock prints which the fifth graders just did).