Kyoto house

Visited Kyoto a couple of times at the end of last year; as well as all the ‘Japanese’ stuff there’s some some real Japanese stuff too. Loved this rusty orange corrugated iron wall and window grille, it looked great in the late autumn sunshine.

New Year

For the traditional ‘hatsu-mode’ first-visit-to-a-shrine-of-the-year event we went to Iimori Jinja in the southwest of Fukuoka, just at the foot of Mt Iimori. After we had negotiated the traffic and queues the actual line to get to the main shrine was so long we gave up, said our thanks from a distance and headed off for retail therapy. It was a dark and damp day but I managed to grab these holy stones in a rare moment of sunshine. Anyway, happy 2012 world!

Beetle

A VW Beatle ‘parked’ (I’m not sure that’s exactly the right word in this case) in Tani, about 20 minutes walk from our house. Tani is a rather odd area of Fukuoka, very quiet, very green, very steep roads and paths, lots of old buildings and the occasional spot of interesting decay.

Beach Rust

A couple of days ago we drove out to Futami-ga-ura to have lunch, watch the surfers and generally enjoy a pleasant late-summer day; post-typhoon the humidity was down and there was a pleasant breeze. One of the beach-front cafe’s was being held up by this girder. I’m sure it’s perfectly safe.

Onsen

Sandals lined up to dry outside an onset hotel in Kurokawa, Kyushu.

 

Snicket 2

Took this about a month ago, managed to do something strange to the camera and the whole days shooting came out oddly dark and grainy, this is one of the less worse. Another little alley running down from a big main road, the house at the bottom there is in an entirely different world to the ones at the top.

Manet-ish

I thought there was something rather Manet-ish about this picture, the shadows on the path, the lady with a parasol, there’s even a model sailing boat if you dig around. Or do I mean Seurat-ish?

Festival

Carrying this mikoshi for an hour and a half is hard work in the 30degree heat, I think the buckets of cold water constantly thrown over them help though!

Taken before a visit to the same sake brewery last Autumn. Inside they were selling various local produce and giving away free sake, I have never seen so many ‘respectable’ people so drunk at two in the afternoon!

Shopping

Colours and composition all worked out well with this

Particularly like the way the odd angles of the passages and buildings, and the overlapping/mirrored shadows make this look like a composite, but this is really what it’s like. After all, the camera never lies (unlike the people who use them of course!)