sashimi bytes

Tea room, Kono Koen, Saga

This is one room of the beautiful old tea house that overlooks
the ornamental lake in our local park, Kono Koen.

It dates from the Edo period, and the park was once the
garden of the Nabeshima family summer residence.

Blue sky at last, Saga, Kyushu

At last we have the official and real end to the wet
season in Kyushu. We have been having record amounts
of rain for three weeks, but finally we see some blue sky
this summer.

The sign is on an old, disused dry cleaning factory in Saga.

Watertower, disused sake factory, Saga

This sake factory once produced high quality sake that
is well known from Saga. Most of Saga's sake is now
produced in Kashima, although that is in decline, too,
as Japanese drink less and less sake.

So many of these type of disused structures in Japan
are made of concrete, I wonder what is happening to it
all as they are dismantled?

Kindergarten wall, Nagasaki

This wall is at a kindergarten just near the A-bomb site
in Nagasaki. I love the figures, quite Miro like.

Sports shoe shop, Shinjuku, Tokyo

This shop is in the downtown shopping area of Shinjuku,
and only sells sports shoes.

Buddhist priest, Fukuoka

This priest is collecting alms for his temple. He is standing
outside one of Fukuoka's slick new department store
facards in the Tenjin district of Fukuoka. I just think
the old and new make a nice juxtaposition, and as it
has been raining here without letup for two weeks
now, I am going through the archives.

Street cleaning, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Visitors to Tokyo often remark how clean
the streets are, especially given the amount of
people that are constantly using them.

The secret is these cleaners, who endlessly patrol
the footpaths, sweeping up cigarette butts, papers, etc.,
that would otherwise accumulate very quickly. And you
hardly notice them, except first thing in the morning,
when the streets are quieter, and they are out in full force
getting Tokyo ready for another day.

Disused gravemarkers, Saga

These headstones are no longer required in this cemetary in
a buddhist temple in Saga, because the families of the deceased
no longer visit, probably because they too, have passed on.

So the headstones are stacked to the side of the cemetary,
to make way for the newer gravemarkers of paying customers,
whose families make regular visits, and regular contributions
to the temple. People are not actually buried in Japan,
but are cremated, and at most one or two bones may
be situated at the grave site.

Buddhism in Japan is a religion, but it is also very much
a business, too.

Funeral suppliers, Saga

This cute little mascot, in the likeness of a priest, stands outside
the Saga funeral and graveyard supplies shop in the main street of
Saga city. I wonder how westerners would relate to such
an obviously cute-kitsch mascot in such a place in
Melbourne, or London, or downtown Detroit?

These shops are where you go to buy household shrines, urns for
ashes, candlesticks and candles, and all the paraphenalia you
might need to honor the dead.

Toilet cafe, main street, Saga

This new cafe in the main street of Saga seems to think their
proximity to the local public toilets is such a feature that they
use it as a major attraction, and decorative device.

Another in the series of grungy B&W symbol shots.