Inside Tulip

A lovely spring day, though perhaps a bit breezy (which was all right for when I went out to the skydiving place for "Jump" - and that beats trying to find a grasshopper to do a macro of, which was my other option for "Jump".). Lots of blossom trees about, but here's a tulip in splendid colour.

Now what's happened?

Saturday now ... I guessed I missed yesterday as I had to wait around in the evening over on the other side of the city while Mi-chan went ot a party. I went to Bell Mall and did some writing in Tully's Cafe.

This morning, we got the tyres changed on her car as there's little chance of snow now (though it was a bit chilly today.)

The photo is from Wednesday's visit to the Tokyo International Forum, a possibilty for the candid challenge, but I think there's too much noise in the picture.

Candids

I had a short meeting at school in the afternoon, so on the way back I went to a park near the Honda factory where there was a cherry blossom festival starting up. I took my camera to practise candid shots for the Candid III challenge. These old guys were chatting away. (Highlights too blown out.)

Meanwhile at home, work continued on the new house which is being built on the western side of our ground floor apartment - they put the prefeab walls up. This makes a huge difference to the amount of light that comes in :-(. But I guess it will be cooler in summer...

Big Architecture

I went into Tokyo today, but unfortunately it rained. Lots of cherry blossoms were floating on the water in the various moats - they would have made some nice pictures, but I could only see them from the train.

As I took my camera anyway, I went to the Tokyo International Forum building (C block, I think it is) to take some photos. I was hoping to find some people I could ask to jump for a photo, but that didn't come to pass.

Refractory Owl

Here's an outtake from the Refraction challenge. Voting hasn't even started, but as hardly anyone visits this blogs it doesn't matter if I post similar shots to my entry. I didn't use the owl in my entry though.

I have a collection of owls and tortoises back home, but I brought a couple of the owls to Japan. I think I got them both in Greece - and I haven't been to Greece for 22 years.

Quackified (YELLOW)

I decided to try a shoot of my original idea for the Yellow challenge, a rubber duckie and an origami crane. I was going to call it "Quack?" "Honk!", but I decided to keep the entry I had already submitted.

I went to my new schools today to show my face to the staff. It was extremely windy - clouds of soil were travelling south, as rice fields have recently been ploughed but it's too early for them to be flooded.

The Pinhole Experience

I didn't get around to posting yesterday, but I did take some photos for the dpchallenges. I also picked up the prints from my latest snazzy camera. OK, it's not so snazzy - it's a pinhole camera I got from a magazine. It takes 35mm film, as well as little bits of photographic paper which you can develop yourself with the chemicals provided. However, I lost the actual pinhole piece when I was changing lenses (there's a lens piece as well). Anyway, the quality isn't all that great, as one would expect.

Cypress Road stream

I was up in Imaichi (which is now part of Nikko City) this morning. I stopped off at the waterwheel park and had a wander along the famous cypress road - just a section of it, of course. The water level of this stream is actually higher than the road surface.

Having mentioned that I couldn't download cryptic crosswords from the newspaper website without paying an exhorbitant fee, my father sent me a book of 75 cryptic crosswords from the smae newspaper.

Plums a-springing

I went to visit the education office in my new town of work this morning. There are now only three schools - two of them recently built, almalgamting several smaller schools. The town is quite rich, due to the Honda factory and the Canon factory. On the way home, I stopped off at a little shrine to take some photos with my new camera - a 35mm PINHOLE camera - which was included in a magazine kit. It even has an interchangeable lens ... and when I was changing to the lens from the pinhole, the shutter component came off (exposing the film) and I lost the little bit of plastic that has the pinhole in it. I still have to finish the film off before getting it process, though.

A Japanese Lecture (boring)

I renewed my Japanese driver's licence this morning, which entails going to the licencing centre and attending a two-hour lecture. Well, the first half hour is a video talking about near-misses. Then an old guy talks for the rest of the time, spouting statistics and warnings, and how Tochigi Prefecture has taken over the number one ranking for traffic accidents (bad drivers here..). I spent most of the time reading a book. Lengua9

The photo is from Sunday, a guy fixing up his toy racing car.

Hard Rock Whirligig

On Sunday, I went into Tokyo for the Tokyo Game Market, in the Asakusa area. In Ueno Station, there's a branch of the Hard Rock Cafe, which has this guitar installation hanging from the ceiling outside.

Backtrack to Saturday

Hmmm, I've been rather busy and hadn't realised there was no entry on Friday. Well...

On Saturday I went up to a remote waterfall in a mountainous region. Remote - the narrow, rock-atrewn, precipitous road ended there. I didn't see the falls that were pictured in the tourist brochure, but I got some nice shots in and managed to get out without breaking an arm or a leg.

Hose (BLUE)

Last day of working, if you could call it that, in the town I've worked in for two years. It was an office day, but in the morning, I went to one of my schools as they had invited me for a farewell assembly. Very nice of them.

At lunchtime, Peter (the other English teacher) and I went to the old house museum which has been somewhat repaired since last I was there. However, this blue hose is still curled up on the pavement. Then, in the afternoon, Peter and I played a boardgame - Oltre Mare - in the back room. hehehe

Plum Blossom

I went up to the plum orchard at the castle ruins site and took some pics of the blossoms. They're not all out yet, and seem to be much later than last year's by about a month. Last year I took photos of plum blossom in snow.

Anyway, today was my last day at my most-visited school. I had to go in much earlier than usuall as they held a farewell assembly for me. Then I had the second and fifth graders We played games and sang songs.

Snowy owl Spring

It was a public holiday in Japan today, it being the spring equinox. It was very windy again . I stayed home most of the day, just going out for petrol and some groceries. I wanted to go to the zoo for more photography, but it's 1000 yen and a crappy zoo, and I live with someone who wanted me home. However, it is just up the road.
Anyway, here's a snowy owl I took last year. Not bad considering it was through a fence.

Boardgame Day

Here's a picture I took for boardgamegeek Anyway, yesterday was boardgame day in Oyama. I got to play about seven different games; some guys were playing one "crayon" railway game that was still going on when I left. Looking forward to next Sunday - Tokyo Boardgame market.

22,658 Bows

That's the accumulative total of bows during the sixth graders' graduation ceremony, for everyone in the hall. Even to get their certificate, each one of the 66 students had to bow seven times between standing up and returning to their chairs.

Of course, they've been practising for weeks; not just them, but the lower grades as well. They sang several songs - there are a lot of graduation songs to choose from in Japan - and they sang very nicely. I think three of the students actually played the piano for the graduation songs, and very well. And when they all stood on stage and recited memories of their school life and whatnot - one boy would say a sentence, then another, then a girl, then all of them. (Hey, they even mentioned me...). The lower grades also had things in the script to say, too.

So, a very formal affair, and it was de rigeur for the parents to wear black clothes. The sixth graders wore their new uniforms for junior high school, which they start in just over three weeks. Most of them are going to the same school, joining students I taught at other elementary schools. Two or three wore different uniforms.

All By Myself

I got to the office this morning and sat down and started my computer. A few minutes later, I was asked to go to the back room - because they were having visitors. Namely, the various school principals coming in one by one for a chat with the big boss. So I spent a solitary day alone in a small room by myself with noone there. I was taking a nap at lunchtime, but was disturbed by the office lady who wanted the money for my lunch...

The photo is from the other day, when it was really windy and cold.

Graduation coming

Here's a pic from last year of the school I've spent most time at in the past two years. I was there two day and asked if it was all right to come to the graduation ceremony on Friday (figuring this would be a good way to get out of an office day. Peter is doing the same for one of his schools so he won't have an office day.) They were really happy I asked, and made sure I understood that I should look as formal as possible, with a jacket at least.

I fixed up the links to my other website I posted yesterday - for some reason, this morning, they were set to this blog.... strange.

Busy? Was I busy?

Nah, not really. Just another office day ... I did a few pictures, and updated my nonsense site. I hadn't done anything to it since September 2004. Vert's On-Lign Magazine
So here's a photo from last year, a nice soothing sunset, with Mt Nantai looming in the glooming (above the clump of trees on the right)..

Towel drying

Here's a shot from the other day. Gosh, I hope I didn't post it already. Anyway, it's just a towel drying, hanging from the apple tree.

Today was an office day and Peter was there. He did the other elementary schools in the town (city, really). We went out for a walk after lunch. It was partly cloudy, but snowing in the mountains, and there was a fiercesome cold wind blowing. I took a couple of shots of the mountain but the wind was so cold and strong my eyes watered. There was a hawk flying around, and he seemed to be enjoying it.

Office days are pretty useless; we just have to be there for some unfathomable reason. I take my laptop in and edit photos. One of the guys apologised to us because they hired a different (cheaper) company for their native English teachers next April.

First Insect Macro of the Year

This little fellow was out on the front lawn (which is still dried-out grass for the winter). He didn't seem to be a very good jumper, or maybe it was just the grass that caused him the trouble. Hey, that's kind of ironic, given his name. He'd make a short jump and end up in a funny position, like upside down, or head buried in the grass.

The Pointing Frog Poster

It's not my frog photo, of course. It's on a poster about an exhibition showing the importance of rice paddy life - of which frogs are just one aspect. I've seen snakes in rice padies, too.

Friends Blend

I had lunch with the first graders today (I've only taught their class six times over the year at this school) and they actually asked me if I was going to take my camera out at play time. So I did. I did the line drawing editing technique in PSE.

The Blue Bucket

Yesterday was Wednesday, so no time for editing photos. I took some good ones of the kids at school, but here's a bucket of gardening trowels.
I had the two 6th grade classes together for the last time. They gave me a book of letters to me, many saying how I'd changed their concept of English and some even wishing I could teach them in Junior High School.

AIUEO Katakana Project

Katakana is one of the syllabary "alphabets" in Japanese. There are about 48 of them. I thought I might make a slow project of photographing a 3-D version of each one, in the order that they're written in a matrix. Thus starts the vowel series, 　あ "A"as in "father",　い "I" as in "pig", 　う　"U" as in "put",　 え　"E" as in "bed" and 　お　"O" as in "cot".

I thought I'd have trouble finding "O", but I drive past it most days - it's a part of a hedge spelling out wordson the side of slope at the waterworks.

It tok over a month to get these five - would have been quicker if I'd realised the hedge was doable.

Mops! (GREEN)

The mop handles are green, the wall is pale green, the kid got into the photo as I took it - I think it's kind of funny.

This is my last full week of teaching before the spring break, then I'll have a couple of weeks of office days with one school day each week.

Hiashinsu

It just goes to show how my big my knowledge gap of flowers is on occasions. These flowers have been grown by the fourth graders, so I went along to take some photos of these scenty gems. I asked them what it's called and they said, "hianshinsu". It didn't ring a bell with me, so when I googled it, it comes up as Hyacinth. Now I know what a hyacinth looks like up close.

A Last Lunch

As I will be working in a different town from April, today was the last time to have lunch with this class. So I took my camera in, which I don't usually do. It was actually snowing at the time, though it didn't last long.

And thumbs up is better than the usual V-sign.

Blue Fish

One of the blue fish. They had put five into the tank, but there are only two left. Very difficult lighting conditions.

After school, I went to a temple near the expressway. It's kind of out of the way, but there are some trees there waiting for spring blossom time. I also went to the opposite hill-side to investigate something that lloked like a cemetery. It was a cemetery - for pets. There are four or five tiers, a Kannon statue ... and a grand total of four (4) headstones and a lot of empty plots. One of the headstones was dated 1999 ("Queen Haponess"). As a cemetery, I'd say it is a failure.

Owl Tap

A photo from the other day, one of the bird-shaped taps in the new drinking fountain place at one of my schools; I didn't take my camera with me atodays it was raining. I will tomorrow, because the school has some new tropical fish in the skunk shrimp's tank (the yellow striped angelfish wasn't there).

I signed a new contract today, but will probably be in a different town to work in as my current town has budgetry constraints, apparently.

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).