A Happy New Year 2015

Dear visitors,

A Happy New Year!!! 明けましておめでとうございます。

Thank you for visiting my photoblog although entry is posted infrequently^^

May every day of 2015 glow with cheer, happiness, and love for you and your family.

Cheers, Yoshi

photo from the archive...

Cherry Tree at Korinji Temple

From the archive. Fish-eye filmed by old film camera, Nikon F801S, with negative Kodak film at Korinji Temple (光淋寺) of Jodo school (浄土宗) in Utsunomiya city. Approximately 250-year-old popular cherry tree is registered as natural monument by the city.

Our Beloved Orange Tabby

It was 15 years ago when I first encountered the orange tabby angel.

It was the middle of November and I was back from shopping at Montbell, holding a shopping bag in my left hand and keys in the right one. He was a stray kitty aged around 6 months then, burying himself in a paper box just below mailboxes by the entrance door of the dormitory where I lived. The box was filled with fliers, direct mailings, and free paper magazines. I could only recognize his small head. He's been staying in the paper box and making everlasting "Meow Meow" noise to everybody walking through the entrance door.

He was very friendly and talkative but nobody paid any attention to him...  

Except me.

I must admit that there was an irreversible chemical reaction taking place deep inside my heart that unintentionally caused me to grab and put him in the Montbell shopping bag. 

Later on, because of that, he was named "Mont" and yes, I kidnapped this little tiger.

Please excuse Ms. T's purple underwear (unwashed) revealed in public

I took him to my apt where, of course, pets were not allowed. I asked my then GF to buy him cat foods as I had zero experience of having a cat. I had been a hardcore dog person until then, but that orange tabby immediately and utterly converted me into a cat freak. We set his date of birth as May 26th, 1998 because he was born in the spring of that year and May 26 is my birthday. Mont and I celebrated each other on the same day.

He had no idea that this was the beginning of his bizarre adventure in THE WORLD!

After me defending Ph. D degree in the field of Bioscience (I became Dr. T.), he settled in New York City, Ames IA, Umeå Sweden, and went back to my home town, Utsunomiya, Japan. He made a round trip on Planet Earth!

When little orange Mountain started his journey we were the only two. He just turned 3 years old when he came to NYC. Mont survived September 11 attacks, anthrax bioterrorism attack in New York city, 2001,  and northwest blackout of 2003! Mont had a younger brother called "Bell", Russian blue bleed, in a short time window. For some reason he had to say goodbye to Bell as Bell had to move to Japan...

Nap time when he was in Big Apple

In 2003 we moved to Ames, Iowa. Ms. T. drove all the way to the field of dreams. It was only 5 days after her getting a driver's license and we just bought a used 4-door green Jeep Cherokee 3 days before leaving Big Apple. Mont was in a cage during 2 days of her driving and he survived this long journey.

We still have no idea why nothing good happened to us all when we were in the Midwest - car accident, racism, discrimination from the community, bad health condition of Mont... Absolutely nothing! Within a year, we left that vast corn and soybean field and flew to Umeå, Sweden, located just below the arctic circle. I left the US earlier to set up environment to welcome Mont in Sweden. I'm not going to describe how critical his health condition was when we left Iowa but it was very bad and Ms. T. saved his life. No kidding. He was 6 years old then.

Life in Umeå was pretty compatible to him. Ms. T. could spare more of her time taking better care of Mont and he regained his vigor relatively quickly. We met a very nice and skilled veterinarian and it meant a lot to him. About a year and a half later Mont got a new sister who was a freshly born kitty, a mixed Norwegian forest tabby. She reminded us of Gizmo in Gremlins, always full of energies.

Her name is "Tara" and Mont was 8 years old then.

Since Tara was a very easygoing and cheerful kitty with warm heart, Mont got along well with her. Well, they had cat fights from time to time but when it was time, they relied on and helped each other.

Altogether we got four members - Japanese orange short hair (Mont), Japanese black long hair (me), Polish yellow short hair (Ms. T.) and Sweden-born Norwegian forest thick gray hair (Tara).

In February, 2009, Mont landed his home country - Japan. Unusual snowstorm was waiting for us when arrived at Narita Airport. He was 11 years old. He's been doing fine for the first three years. I was lucky to be able to spend more time with him when we were in my hometown. That was when I started photography and whenever I bought a lens or a camera, the first shot was always Mont. Just because he was always by me. Mont and I enjoyed eating Japanese rice and fresh sashimi (see video below). He gained weight a little bit.

It was always Ms. T. who noticed the subtle changes in his health condition. In 2012 when his age hit 14, the fluctuation of his thyroid activity were too big that we could not find the optimum dosage of medication to have the thyroid activity under control... That was the beginning of the end.

We, especially Ms. T., struggled to cure Mont but he was becoming a VIP customer of our vet. I must mention that Mont was never an easy cat in terms of health condition even when he was little. He had a very sensitive stomach that was like made of very thin fragile glass. He was picky and had indigestion problems (throwing up even when eating proper dosage of food at once). We had to feed Mont one dry bit at a time, a few bits every 20 minutes whenever we were with Mont, even while sleeping. We always had his dry food under the pillow and fed him while dreaming. We even used to get up to make wet food twice a night.

But we were happy just being with him. Spending time with him cheered us all up! Mont was that type of creature. Or maybe we were too crazy for him, weren't we???

Mom, set us free...

Mont exerted his gumption to survive and prolong his life, hoping to see me again. Given the fact that almost all of his organs became dysfunctional, we were forced to come to the conclusion to give him an eternal catnap... The decision was so heartbreaking but witnessing our orange boy suffering was not our intention, either. The treatment was administrated at 8:30 AM on November 4th, 2013 (JST)... He was 15 years and 5 months.

Sadly, due to my working circumstances, I was not able to say goodbye to our beloved boy...

We all miss him like there is no tomorrow. We all love him deep from our hearts.

His memory is our treasure and his soul is always with us.

Always.

Tennosai in Utsunomiya

It's summertime, which is when festivals happen in many places all over Japan.

We went to Tennosai festival (天王祭) last night. Only to the best highlight part at night, though. It was cloudy and extremely humid. We thought it's a matter of time before it would start raining... Because Ms. T was with me (it ALWAYS rains when she's out and about), but hey, it didn't!

Please expect that she will upload video in the near future.

Every year at Tennosai festival, the districts that have their own mikoshi (portable shrine) compete who can climb up the backbreaking 96 steps of Futaarayama shrine with the mikoshi the fastest! The winning time this year was 18 seconds.

These two are the mikoshi photos from Bamba district. It has a big drum on it and two young drummers kept beating while being carried to the top of the shrine. Over 70 guys contributed to the pushing of the biggest mikoshi to the finish line.

Actually, Bamba has another tiny mikoshi (No drum on it) carried by little boys and girls.

Cherry Trees And Giraffes

Today was probably the last chance for us to photograph cherry blossoms in our town, Utsunomiya. So we headed to the Oya district and Utsunomiya zoo (宇都宮動物園). Utsunomiya zoo is one of my favorite places to photograph cherry trees. It's plain gorgeous to see blossoms from the Ferris wheel!

After approximately 5 minutes of the Ferris wheel trip, I spent quite a long time taking photos of giraffes.

Mizuko Jizo Statues

At Tagesan Fudoson (多気不動尊).

This is a Wordless Wednesday entry.

Time To Say Goodbye To Dolls

Since 1998, Tagesan Fudoson (多気不動尊)/Tagesan Jihouin Fudoson (多気山持宝院不動尊) of Shingon school (真言宗) Buddhist temple has been holding a ritual ceremony around mid February for old dolls that the owners decided not to keep at home anymore. It is an annual ceremony during which the temple treats the dolls as human beings when dead - by cremating them.

This was my first time to photograph this event, my positioning was bad and the best shooting position was completely taken by a bunch of old dudes with fancy DSLRs with expensive lenses.

The ceremony started off with the Buddhist monks chanting. Then gasoline was used to start a fire. It took less than 10 minutes of that for more than 100 fancy dolls to turn in ashes...
 
By the way, the most exciting event organized by the temple is a fire walking ceremony every May. We are planning to attend it this year. Photos of last year's ceremony are below. Click photos to enlarge.

This is Our World Tuesday Week 26 entry.

Jizo Statue

A jizo (地蔵菩薩) statue photographed at the cemetery of Jikoji temple (慈光寺) of the Jodo school of Buddhism (浄土宗) in Utsunomiya city. It was heartbreaking to see that many statues, especially the old ones, were either cracked or crushed there and they still remained as they are up until now...

The statue in this photo is taller than me and obviously one of several that survived the March 11th earthquake!

南無阿弥陀仏...

This is a Outdoor Wednesday #159 and Sky Watch Friday entry.

           

Matsugamine Church

Matsugamine Church (松が峰教会) in Utsunomiya city is made of Oya stone (大谷石).

In February, I visited there at night and posted a photo of this church taken with a real Fisheye lens and explained briefly about this church.

Fishing the Church

The beauty of chilling winter is the clear air and sky! Though it was windy at dusk and nobody was there, it was worth visiting and photographing with the blue sky behind.

Inside photo of this church can be seen there.

Bronze Statue Of Sacred Horse

It was a beautiful day today, though it was cold... When we went to downtown, I stopped at Futaarayama shrine (二荒山神社) to photograph whatever looks interesting. I captured the bronze statue of the sacred horse there.


This is a Black and White Weekend entry.

Have a wonderful Christmas Holiday!

Long Time No See...

Terribly sorry for being away from the photo-blogging sphere... I hope that there IS still somebody who is curious about visiting my blog:)

I marked December 15th on my calender as Otariya Festival (冬渡祭) that is organized by Futaarayama shrine (二荒山神社) in our town, Utsunomiya.　

Since we've featured this festival in our other blog, Budget Trouble, those who are interested in the background of this event, please take a look at  this article. And the photo of this festival taken last year is shown here.

Mikoshi Procession

Summer is the season for the festival in Japan.

The festival we went today is called Miyaichi festival (宮壹祭). In principle, mikoshi (a portable shrine) is owned by each district and the carriers in the district wear the same uniform with its logo. At Miyaichi festival, you can only see ONE mikoshi carried by a variety of participants coming from Utsunomiya downtown, as well as mikoshi freaks coming from outside of Tochigi prefecture.

This year, we have several mikoshi carriers coming from the tsunami devastated area in Tohoku... Though they also could be refugees that had been evacuated to Utsunomiya city...

This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 32. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit!!!

Update: For those who are curious about how I took this photo, here is the answer.
I was not on the mikoshi, but my camera was approx. 3 meters high from the ground. I am not a mutant in the movie X-Men. So I don't have the ability to jump 3 meters, stay in the air, and take photos...
What I did was attaching monopod and remote cable release to the camera and doing the blind shooting by walking backwards in front of mikoshi! Does it make sense???

Tsuruta Pond

We are currently in the middle of the rainy season and I am sort of reluctant to photograph when it's wet. But occasionally I strive to be an early bird and head to the pond named Tsuruta pond. It takes approx. 5 min to get there by car.

I was the only human being there when this photo was taken. I could only hear ducks making noise in the mist...

The haze has gone when the sun appeared and when it's not windy, the surface of this pond looks like a mirror with a few feathers floating.


Here is another photo taken there. Eventually you can see ducks (click image to enlarge)!

This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 29. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit!!!

Me No Hot, No Pain!

Another self-torturing performance freaked us out at the Tagesan Fudoson (多気山不動尊) fire festival.

Young monk appeared in public with a handful of bamboo branches in his hand, then approached the big metal bowl filled with boiling water. After reciting a sutra, he revealed his upper body. We just held our breath and waited for his next move to come...

He broke the silence by frantically spraying boiling water on himself. We were just speechless at this show of extravagant discipline. Bamboo branches shuttled between the pot and his body more than 10 times until his body was (most likely) cooked.

When it was done, he was overwhelmed by the standing ovation.

Fire Walking at Tagesan Fudoson

Buddhist monks walking on fire is an eye-catching event we love to see. Today I went to Tagesan Fudoson (多気山不動尊) by Mt. Tage (多気山) in Utsunomiya city. It's a Shingon school (真言宗) Buddhist temple that is said to be established in A.D. 822 by Sonchin (尊鎮), one of the disciples of Monk Sho-do (勝道上人). Hayagriva/Bato Kannon (馬頭観音) used to be worshipped there until A.D. 1355 but Utsunomiya Castle Lord, Kintsuna Utsunomiya (宇都宮公綱), transferred Acala/Fudo Myo-oh (不動明王) to the temple. Due to this Buddhist guardian, this temple is called "Fudoson (= a temple worshipping Fudo Myo-oh".

Last year we went to see a fire-performance done by Buddhist monks at Kobugahara Mt. Kongo Zuihoji temple (古峯原金剛山瑞峯寺) in Kanuma city (鹿沼市) and posted an article in our another blog, Budget Trouble. Practically what I saw today at Tagesan Fudoson is very similar to that event performed at Zuihoji temple.

This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 25. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit!!!

I am back!

Dear visitors,

I am terribly sorry for being away from your wonderful blog(s). Due to my family issue that happened soon after 3/11 disaster, I sort of lost my motivation to photograph. To be honest, I still am but I find it inappropriate not to update my blog.

From now on, I will resume posting photos, though not as often as I used to do.

This photo was taken last spring at Korinji temple (広琳寺) in Utsunomiya city with my old film camera, Nikon F801S with a fish eye lens, of course. It's totally out of the season now but the 200-year-old cherry tree should be worth sharing with my visitors.



This is also an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 24. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit!!!

 

Update On Us and Our Area Part 2

I am terribly sorry for being lazy and not updating for a while and not visiting your blogs lately...

As I already said a couple of times in my last two posts, our family members are all fine in the northern part of Kanto area- Utsunomiya city, Tochigi Prefecture. When compared to what people in the coastal region in Tohoku area have been suffering, our damage is extremely subtle. As you can see in the photo above, occasionally old buildings are shown to be half collapsed. These buildings are in the process of demolition, because otherwise a total collapse caused by aftershocks is very likely.

Fig. 1 The frequency of quakes. Gray bars (left) indicate quakes that happened before the major disaster (red). The Y axis denotes the numbers of aftershocks per hour and the X axis indicates time.

Numbers of aftershocks are getting fewer and fewer, although it still shakes significantly more than before the major quake (red bar on March 11th, 14:46 Japan Time).

Fig 2. Average magnitude of aftershocks. The red bar reached at magnitude 9 which is the biggest number ever recorded in Japan. Y axis indicates average magnitude of aftershocks per hour. Gray bars denote quakes that happened before the major disaster.

The magnitude of aftershocks remains unchanged...


The only concern we are facing in the Kanto area is a lack of gasoline, which is mostly attributed to the psychological (= hysterical) reaction of the customers, combined with the temporary decreased supply from the vendors... Hope that the situation will be improved next week.

Our government is doing their best to prevent from the worst case scenario at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Lots of rumors are spreading in all sorts of media you can think of as to what is likely to happen in the northern part of Japan but I have been visiting one site from time to time for updates on the power plant in a critical situation. It is also useful for future prospects.

I strongly recommend everybody to take a look at this article posted on March 16 there. Dr Don Higson actually has said everything that's been on my mind and there's absolutely nothing else to say. Dr Don Higson is a retired nuclear safety specialist and Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, Fellow of the Australasian Radiation Protection Society.
Sure, this is an article posted three days ago and what was written is not what is happening now but I agree with his interpretations of the events that occured at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Dr. Higson's personal views started as follow:

I believe it will eventually be understood that events over the past few days at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in north-eastern Japan have demonstrated the safety of nuclear power. In what may have been the worst earthquake and tsunami ever to have occurred, the approximately 40-year old nuclear plants have been severely damaged. Three of them are likely to be written off - like many other industrial installations in that part of Japan. However, the reactor containments have remained intact, releases of radioactivity outside the site boundary have not reached dangerous levels and there is no risk to the general public.

For over a decade I have been using radioactivity at the university and I am not so concerned about low levels of radioactivity in our region...


This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 18. 

This is also a Black and White Weekend and Sunday In My City.

          

Have a wonderful weekend.

Update On Us and Our Area

First of all, thank you very much for your kinds words and concern about us. I really appreciate it. Secondly I am sorry for not replying...

We are doing fine. None of our family members are dead or injured. Due to the unprecedented shaking that took place on March 11, we had a minor damage at home (as you can see photo above), located in Utsunomiya city, Tochigi Prefecture. But it's nothing comparative to what happened to the coastal area of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures.

As it is constantly reported on all sorts of media, one of our main concerns is the radioactivity leakage from the Fukushima #1 nuclear power plant. Fortunately we are not within 20 km of the power station that is in critical situation of cooling down the nuclear reactor. It is fortunate that Onagawa nuclear power plant near Sendai city is still under control! It's so nearby the epicenter.

Since where we live is so far away from the Pacific coast, our lives are OK. As you can see in the photo shown above, we have had very minor damage caused by the quake. In some area of our city, we have problems with electricity and telephone services. The majority of JR trains lines are still out of service. Gasoline supply has been out of service since yesterday and this is probably the biggest issue for most of the inhabitants in our prefecture since driving a car is indispensable. More and more shelves at supermarkets are getting bare, as well.
Other than that, our area is so quiet. I haven't heard any ambulance sirens since yesterday. The people here appear to be saving gasoline. The streets are not so busy. Rather, it's so quiet, I have to say. We posted photos of our neighborhood on another one of our blogs, Tochigi Daily Photo, here.

Here is the funny part. Did I tell you that we don't have a TV and radio at home? We totally rely on the internet for getting updates and we have been listening to the BBC live video, as well as reloading Japanese newspaper websites. Never before have I been exposed to such a massive flow of British accents. By the time everything's back to normal, I will be so familiar with many varieties of British accents!

What we are really worrying about is the aftershocks that are continuously happening. I feel like living in an airplane cabin or on a train all day...

Fig. 1 Everything started at the time when the red bar was recorded. Gray bars indicate quakes that happened before the major disaster. The Y axis denotes the numbers of aftershocks per hour and the X axis indicates time.

This is all written in Japanese, but just take a look at the times that the aftershocks happen. You can see how often it's been happening. It IS gradually getting less and less as the time goes by. Which is good news!

However....

Fig 2. Average magnitude of aftershocks. The red bar reached at magnitude 9 that is the biggest number ever recorded in Japan. Y axis indicates average magnitude of aftershocks per hour. Gray bars denote quakes that happened before the major disaster.

The average magnitude, unfortunately, remains high... The data does not make me happy...


This is a Black and White Weekend and Weekend Reflections #77,