One course of many

This is just one course of an average of 5 or 6 that Junko prepares for dinner every night. It is broiled buri, a small tuna related to yellowtail. It is served with grated daikon radish, and a green flowering vegetable called nanohana. Both came from Michael's garden.

Off to Manila tomorrow. It sure has gone by quickly.

New Photographer's Yoga workout

Warrior pose while under the "hood" at Hachiman-Jingu Shrine in central Kamakura. Before the tourists, and amongst the morning walkers and worshipers, Michael and I set out to take some photographs of this 1000 year old shrine. I managed to get in a little yoga too.

Brooms

Beans!

Does eating Japanese food make you sprout mushrooms from your ears?

Tuesday was a shopping day. Michael and I road bikes to Ofuna, the next town closer to Tokyo from Kamakura yesterday. We went to what can only be described as a cross between Home Depot and Walmart, Japanese style. Michael was checking out the garden supplies, and bought kitty litter and fire extinguishers for his wooden house. I bought a few kitchen doodads.

Then we went shopping for presents for me to bring back home, and of course for Sake. Can't forget the sake.

Well upon return, we had a soak in the ever ready bath (a truly wonderful thing), a beer, and some crunchy beans while Junko proceeded to make dinner. Dinner started with an apetizer of cod roe, pickled vegetables, and more beans, this time not crunchy, but sweet. The next course was some of the largest oysters I have ever seen, covered with Panko, and deep fried. Yum. Next was Oden, a traditional meal of variously textured and shaped foods cooked in the ubiquitous mixture of dashi, sake, and soy sauce in a ceramic pot on the stove. This is served with very hot mustard, much hotter than wasabi! Finally, we had miso soup with little clams. Of course we had to wash it all down with more sake.

This, according to Junko, is a casual, simple meal...

A traditional Japanese house- on the inside

Micahel and Junko like the simplicity and elegance of traditional Japanese houses, and are wary of the toxicity of modern buiding materials, so they wanted to build an all wood house in the tradtional style. They found a piece of land high up a hillside at the top of a valley, and it was perfect. No one would be building above them, so they have privacy and nature on three sides- a rarity in Japan. As I sit here at the computer, I can look out of the window at hawks soaring above the valley, with the rooftops below, and Kamakura Bay in the distance. It's a beautiful spot.

The first picture here shows their living room and formal dining room, which also doubles as their bedroom. Each morning, the futon is folded up and put away in the closet, or hung outside to air out, and the sliding screens are opened to reveal the clutter- free space. The other picture shows the view when you first enter the house.

Koko and Dodo, the Kamakura kitties

Dodo is getting old, so Junko and Michael decided that he needed some companionship to keep him active. Little Koko is a real ball of energy. Pretty cute too, and I'm not even a cat person.

Farmer Mike and his Organic Mini-Farm

My first day in Japan started with an introduction to organic farming Kamakura style. After making a new compost pile, and reworking th older ones in Michael's back yard (grown men making mud pies) we went around front to harvest some veggies for dinner. Michael's pictured here pulling up a monster daikon radish, (which we had grated and mixed with shoyu on grilled sanma, a mackerel like fish) and with a stalk of brussels sprouts, a head of cabbage, and the aforementioned giant raddish.

A Night in Fall River

This image of the base of a smokestack was taken in November, 2006 at the Durfee Union Mills in Fall River, MA. It was shot with an Ebony 23SW camera on Fuji Acros, and developed in Diafine, my standard film and developer combination. The exposure was about 15 or 20 minutes at f16.

Just out of the frame on the left were several packages of Portuguese muffins left by some previous visitor.

Technophobia justified...

Well, I've tried several times to post an image froma recent night shoot, to no avail. After wandering aimlessly around the help section for quite a while, and then the help forums, it seems that I'm not the only one with this problem. A friend suggested having a go at it with Wordpress. Wish I'd known about it this morning.

I'll wait a day or so and try again...

A Humble Beginning

I suddenly feel like a techno-phobe, but here I am testing the waters of the blogosphere in order to keep in touch with my family and friends while away on my upcoming trip to Asia.

Here goes...