A decent run of morning shots in recent weekdays. I like this shot because of the general yellowness but then contrasted with the blue of the woman, and the lines up the middle and across the bottom. Composition then, I guess.
I’ve given up trying to reliably identify whether the birds in any given shot are crows, jackdaws, rooks, whatever. Either way, they were swooping over the roof of my house in a rather sinister manner this morning. The superstitious might like to note there are 13 of them in shot…
Definitely one of those days where I was glad there was some half-decent light on my brief foray out of the house this morning, as once I got back at about 9.30 I then stayed in all day teaching online. This window is a feature of the large mill that sits in Hebden Bridge town centre and is known — without much originality — as Hebden Bridge Mill. The new year’s foliage is just coming to bud. I seem to be having a run of square pictures at the moment; that’s two in a row, and three in the last week.
An inactive day, even indolent, but this was much needed. Sunny later, with the promise of spring in the air and look, Japan — we have blossoms too!
I would like to say this is a shot that highlights the biodiversity and ecological health of Manchester city centre. But actually I think this goose was rather lost and confused. Not that I was going to be the one to help it find its way back to the canal (or wherever); Canada geese are vicious buggers.
The long journey home began at 7.15 Tokyo time, when the airport shuttle bus picked us up from the hotel. This shot was taken as it crossed the ‘Rainbow Bridge’ across Tokyo Bay. Not a rainbow of colours however: thanks to the rather alarmingly blue filters on the bus windows, which were so potent that I was seeing extra pink shades inside, to compensate. Still, it’s a nice effect. Farewell to Tokyo anyway — until next time? Sayonara…
On a Sunday of, frankly, foul, revolting weather, my friend Mariam took me on a sightseeing tour of Tokyo, including the Senso-ji Buddhist temple, the city’s oldest place of worship dating from 645AD. Here, visitors purify themselves at this massive bowl of incense sticks, wafting the ‘breath of God’ over themselves before entering the shrine.
I post this pic partly because of the odd added detail, odd to us sensitive Westerners anyway; I know, I know, it’s an Eastern symbol of the sun, good fortune, life itself even. It’s found carved into church windows in Ethiopia, Bronze Age stonework in Yorkshire, prehistoric pottery in Bulgaria. Its name, translated from the Sanskrit, means “it is good”. But still, you wouldn’t find it easy to litter your holy places with swastikas in Europe. I dunno, probably we’re the ones who’ve lost out.
The remnants of jet lag saw me up early, but I had to work today anyway, and photographically, it was probably worth it. Within a short time after taking this the haze had risen and Fuji — a truly beautiful sight — had disappeared behind it. But there you go — Japan’s iconic (and highest) mountain, in its late winter raiment.
Worked in the afternoon and evening, but had a bit of time off in the morning so spent it visiting Meiji-Jingu, a Shinto shrine to the Emperor Meiji who is revered for being the ruler under whom Japan transitioned from a feudal to a modern state towards the end of the 19th century. It was set in a beautiful, tranquil forest park, though the shrine itself, while an attractive building, was nothing particularly spectacular. A peaceful (and free) way of spending a couple of hours though.
For a donation of ¥500 (£3.50, give or take) visitors can acquire one of these prayer tablets and hang up their appeal along with a few thousand others on these boards outside the main temple. The reason for picking this photo in particular is the tablet to top centre. If there are such things as kami (spirits in the Shinto belief system), I hope they address that one, at least.
So here I am in Japan, specifically a side street not far from the immense Shinjuku station, which is like, take the biggest metro station you’ve previously seen in your life and octuple it. Since getting completely turned on to the country — or a certain stereotypical idea of it — by reading and watching Shogun when I was a teenager I have wanted to come here, and so now I’ve finally made it, thanks to a complete work freebie that just fell into my lap two months ago, it’s not easy to know how to depict it. Obviously it’ll take a few more days (months, a lifetime maybe) to even start the process of learning what the ‘real Japan’ is actually like, but let’s start with this shot. I suppose I picked this picture because it’s as good an effort as I can make at picturing my preconceptions. There were plenty of Blade Runner moments this evening, put it that way. But is that life imitating art, or the other way around? What I can gather so far, is that there’s not a lot of point worrying about the difference here.
Being 42 