河内成幸 – 翔べ北斎 (XIIX)

For the last few weeks in the art gallery in the Stevenson Union Building on the Southern Oregon University campus, there has been an exhibit featuring several Japanese artists. Today’s photo is of one of the works.

Japanese love to use words in a way that yields double meanings. The English rendition of this woodcut print clearly has a double meaning, but I don’t think 翔べ北斎 has the “knockoff” meaning that “take off” has in English. Native Japanese speakers, please correct me if I’m wrong.

More on the original Hokusai can be found in my earlier entry.

Posted on March 17th, 2013 under Japan, Oregon. Tags: hokusai, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Nikon D600. Comments Off on Seiko Kawachi’s “Take Off Hokusai XIIX”

Misoya Bistro – Medford, Oregon

I picked up a couple of used, manual Nikon lenses in Medford this morning from a Craigslist ad. I purchased them mainly because I have fun playing with new lenses, and the price was right. The one I used for this photo of my “Japanese” lunch is a Nikon 20mm f/2.8 AI-s lens. It weighs about 25% as much as my 14-24mm and is much smaller. I will take this (or my 24mm prime) along when going on a hike or bike ride instead of my much larger and heavier zooms.

Why did I put Japanese in quotes? Because all of the “Japanese” restaurants (other than 武蔵スシバー Musashi Sushi Bar & Japanese Cuisine in Grants Pass) in Southern Oregon are run by non-Japanese with non-Japanese cooks and with foods that only partly look and taste Japanese.

Posted on March 14th, 2013 under Japan, Oregon. Tags: beer, food, Nikon 20mm f/2.8 NIKKOR AI-s lens, Nikon D600, sushi. Comments: 1

It has been six years since I’ve been to Kyoto. I hope to spend a day or two exploring the city again this summer. On the day I took this photo in 2007, the cherry blossoms weren’t quite ready yet, and the sky was overcast. I don’t know if I’ll have better luck in June (rainy season) or August (hot and humid peak), but I’m willing to give it a try.

Posted on March 13th, 2013 under Japan. Tags: kiyomizu-dera, kyoto, sakura. Comments Off on Niomon (or Deva Gate) @ Kiyomizu-dera

You can watch this award-winning movie online today only as it is being made available to mark the two-year anniversary (March 11, 2011) of the Tohoku Earthquake and subsequent tsunami. I highly recommend it.

The above is the trailer. For the full movie click here.

Posted on March 11th, 2013 under Japan. Tags: video. Comments Off on The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

My random, desktop image of the day is this one from the ballet festival Ellie and I attended in Kodaira (小平市) a few years ago.

Posted on March 8th, 2013 under Japan. Comments Off on Ballerinas in Japan