Day 304, 31 Oct 2017: Move over Halloween...

Day 304: ...October one pic:one story 31

Today, or tonight to be more accurate, I could be out
ghouling, or similar. For it is that night.
Lots of people, in costume and make up
~~extensive make up~~
   ~~more make up than I would wear in y lifetime in fact~~

were out and about in Tokyo's famous halloween hotspots
~~ghouling~~ or perhaps ~~ghoulin'~~

But not below the office today...

The balloons were blue
and white

They're already turning attention to Christmas
which, for all intents and purposes
starts
~~tomorrow~~with blue and white balloons 
and Christmas wreaths 
and bright lights

~~tomorrow~~

Just in time for this blog to resume normal service

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 4.16pm; 31 October 2017]

It's been fun, it's been a challenge...'here ends one pic:one story' 

Day 303, 30 Oct 2017: Looking ahead...

Day 303: ...October one pic:one story 30

Looking ahead, flying away, cow plane jumping over the moon. 
All the ideas we have when a plane goes by
For me, it might be about flying home for a visit
For others, the waiting for someone
  flying home for a visit

Flying high

The planes come and go, at about 500 per day
one day I might try and count them
More than 80 million passengers pass through the gates each year
Imagine
Eighty-million

And meanwhile, I've captured just one plane
on this day

One day too, I will fly away.

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 3.44pm; 30 October 2017] 

Day 302, 29 Oct 2017: Rainy days, reading daze

Day 302: ...October one pic:one story 29

A day of rain
Another one
Like the last one
This time last week

The typhoons are arriving later
and later
but stronger 
and stronger

I'm sure the rain is good 
foe someone
somewhere
but there is just a bit
too much for measure

Instead I sat
and I read
I imagine one day
I might want to write
actually write, right

Write the right stuff
not the work stuff
Write the things people
might actually

like

to read...

Nishimura's recollections of war (L) and
Iwaki's Masato, a story about a Japanese boy growing up in Australia (R)

So today, I read
Thinking about the things 
I imagine one day
I might actually write

And wonder, 
will someone

read it, 
on a rainy day

[Camera : iPhone6s, 4.12pm; 29 October 2017]

Day 301, 28 Oct 2017: Listening...

Day 301: ...October one pic:one story 28

Another weekend, another typhoon. Yes, it is the wrong time of the year for these things. Last week it interrupted the election, this weekend, well, it meant a long ride out to the western suburbs of Tokyo in the rain and wind to watch one of my students play in her community orchestra. She plays clarinet (the little one). So as a clarinet-playing (the big one) community-orchestra-supporting person myself, it was all I could do to avail myself of the trip...

Acoustically projecting

And bravo! It was worth it. A very good, enthusiastic community wind ensemble, for people of all ages and starring, at times, a bass clarinet. 

The venue was a full-performing arts centre, just right for this kind of orchestra. There are several of these venues dotted throughout Tokyo, and run by local councils. It makes me wonder what it would take for Brisbane to be a bit more proactive in getting these sorts of venues up for the community (other than those built and owned by selected schools). The population of this particular local government area is just 500,000, so it is not a population issue but more of a motivation issue. One community band I played in used to joke that if we called ourselves a sporting organisation, the funding would be unstoppable. 

Priorities really. Is anybody listening.

Now that's not quite the one pic:one story play I intended today but I figured attending a concert and getting the playing bug again was creative enough. Inspired.

[Camera : iPhone6s, 6.22pm; 28 October 2017]

Day 300, 27 Oct 2017: Just waving...

Day 300: ...October one pic:one story 27

Day 300, that's some kind of milestone I guess. That must be 65 days until the end of the year, 60 days until I visit home again. Not, of course that I count these things. 

In a hurry?

I think I spotted the fastest boat on the water today. One minute it was way over there; next minute it was just here. 

I think it was probably going faster than it should have been, it seemed to be in a hurry. In a moment it was gone, and left behind quite a few waves in its wake. 

Which, of course, if this wasn't the month for one pic only, I could have shown you here but it isn't going to happen. Not for at least another four days, such is this little challenge I have set myself...and of course, you too dear reader.

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 3.08pm; 27 October 2017] 

Day 299, 26 Oct 2017: Peeking through...

Day 299: ...October one pic:one story 26

A quiet day at work
No classes
A transferred holiday

A sliver 

A day of no classes but
not a day of no work
So the work continued through until

I looked up from the desk and
across the port

Above the building
it surprised us all

Peeking through
A new journey beginning


[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 4.39pm; 26 October 2017] 

Day 298, 25 Oct 2017: It all seemed so normal...

Day 298: ...October one pic:one story 25

It all seemed so normal

Rainbow bridge over Odaiba

As I prepared to leave the office
the lights on the bridge
the lights of the traffic below
the lights reflecting on windows

It all seemed so normal

Then

The train was late, a bit late
that happens
Then it was later
And once it arrived 
it then stopped
at every station for much longer
than normal

The normal 48 minutes took
a good 95 minutes or more

An accident much further up the track
disrupted
All that seemed so normal

True story. Instead of dinner at 9.00, it became dinner at 11.00. 
It happens, but rarely. #tokyolyf

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 7.46pm; 26 October 2017] 

Day 297, 24 Oct 2017: Light and water...

Day 297: ...October one pic:one story 24

I've been a morning person for as long as I can remember
That doesn't mean I don't sleep in on the odd occasion

But the mornings are magnificent if for no other reason than the light
when there is sun
especially on the water

Light, on the water
these are just two of my favourite things

That special light (no filter, no edits)

(even if I am there early for a class...)

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 7.57am; 24 October 2017] 

Day 296, 23 Oct 2017: Typhoon? What typhoon...

Day 296: ...October one pic:one story 23

yesterday we bunkered down...

typhoon

Clarity

Today it was clear skies
As far as the wheel of Ariake
could see

Where did it go?

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 1.38pm; 23 October 2017] 

Day 295, 22 Oct 2017: Best laid plans...

Day 295: ...October one pic:one story 22

...rained upon

Rain, lights

With election day today and much anticipation on my part, I had planned to spend the day at the office head down in all things psephological...

Alas, this approaching typhoon had other ideas. When you look out the window and the light shower turns to heavy downpour in less time than it takes you to drink your morning coffee...
you know there are going to be limits to your day.

And the downpour kept pouring down; hours later, as the night fell...water, water everywhere. 

And there is more to come. 

And there is an election to analyse.

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 5.09pm; 22 October 2017]

Day 294, 21 Oct 2017: Down the rabbit hole...

Day 294: ...October one pic:one story 21

There was some running around today, like a rabbit

Down the rabbit hole, Shinjuku sanchome subway

Racing here and there to observe and listen 
to politicians
Rabbiting on (?)

No, not really, they were...
polticians, not rabbits
and they were...
seeking to be honest, at least until
votes are cast 
tomorrow

I am, by virtue of a Chinese astrological sign
A rabbit
I don't know quite what that means
but
I have an affinity with rabbits
when I see them

Here, on the subway
as I went on my way
down a rabbit hole

of sorts

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 6.30pm, 21 October 2017] 

Day 293, 20 Oct 2017: Drying out...

Day 293: ...October one pic:one story 20

It has been raining, every day, every night
But there was a brief moment today
When it looked like it was drying up
Drying out

In the quadrangle

Politicians are campaigning across the country in the wet
Supporters are supporters and turn out
rain, hail or shine

We have just two days left of all
this campaigning
Just two days and then
all the analysis

All the writing
All the work
All the rain

it is still raining




[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 1.44pm; 20 October 2017]

Day 292, 19 Oct 2017: Wet leaves...

Day 292: ...October one pic:one story

Rainy autumn morning commute

Roadside

Waiting for the bus
In the rain
When the maximum temperature is going to be 12
and
the minimum temperature is going to be, well, 12

I guess that makes it easier. 

The green leaves of spring and summer
Are finding their way to the ground, brown
In the rain

I guess that makes it easier

The bus arrived, eventually
and we sat until 
we arrived at the train station
In the rain

It didn't make it that much easier, actually

[Camera : iPhone6s, 9.50am; 19 October 2017] 

Day 291, 18 0ct 2017: Keeping an eye on the prize...

Day 291: ...October one pic:one story 18

There is always something going on on the promenade below my office building. It is a popular area for photographs, filming, staged events, running, strolling, cycling...just about anything really. 

Today as I collated a database on all the women candidates in the current election (it is work, but not as you know it), I glanced up from time to time, just to keep an eye out...

And my eye caught these lads...

And ready, roll the cameras

Cycling while filming something looking a little staged on the promenade below my office building. 

Good luck to them, I'm sure they had a prize in mind at the end of the run. 

More than I'll get for compiling a database of women candidates. 

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 1.42pm; 18 October 2017] 

Day 290, 17 Oct 2017: Out...

Day 290: ...October one pic:one story 17

One word...

OUT.

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 3.15pm; 17 October 2017] 

Day 289, 16 Oct 2017: I went the other way...

Day 289: ...October one pic:one story 16

Rainy day

Track, rain

Today, I took the bus
in the other direction

It took me to a station
in the other direction

I caught the train
in the other direction

I arrived at work 
the other way

in the rain

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 12.15pm; 16 October 2017] 

Day 288, 15 Oct 2017: Green balloon of hope

Day 288: ...October one pic:one story

Supporters will grasp at just about anything; candidates will grasp back in return. At some point during last year's campaign for Tokyo Governor, Koike Yuriko's supporters starting turning out with something green--a scarf, a hankie, a hat--and as momentum built, green became Koike's colour and she asks her supporters now, to show their 'colours': green.

The green has migrated from something small to coats, jumpers, bags and today, at one of her campaign rallies--balloons. In fact, a group of older women, perhaps ten in number, all held, carried, and some even wore the green balloon. They waved them at Koike and of course, one or two popped, startling everyone. 

Ballooning hope

What hope does the green symbolise?
How does green symbolise hope? 

As the rain fell from grey skies today, the green balloons 
and scarves and hats and coats 
kind of made their point. 

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 2.43pm; 15 October 2017]

Day 287, 14 Oct 2017: The world spirals...

Day 287: ...October one pic: one story 14

The day is long, one where work crosses over to pleasure/leisure and back again

Placard 

It is an occupational hazard as I collect my materials, my data, my observations
on what makes people tick, what makes them vote (or not)

We must be neutral
We must be objective

These mantras drummed into us from undergrad years, through postgrad
to seminars and conferences

And yet, when I stand with others
Because the world is spiralling

It is hard to remain neutral 

without some feelings about
some responsibility for 

what it is the world is coming to too.

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 12.24pm; 14 October 2017] 

Day 286, 13 Oct 2017: It is wrong to have favourites, but...

Day 286: ...October one pic:one story 13

It is wrong to have favourites

Someone once said

Tugging along

Favourite foods...no, try them all

Favourite drinks...no, well coffee maybe

Favourite music...too hard

Favourite film...Russian Ark, probably

Favourite tugs...yes, no, I shouldn't but I do

When I look out onto the port and I see

Little yella, as we've come to know it, 

I get a little push, a little tug

And whatever I am doing

I know I can do it.

Is it wrong to have favourites?

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 2.45pm, 13 October 2017] 

Day 285, 12 Oct 2017: Hazy dazy dayz...

Day 285: ...October one pic:one story 12

Out there

Structure

Summer must go
But autumn won't let it

or

Autumn wants to start
But summer won't let it

In the distance was that structure
Barely visible, shapes

or 

The bridge stood tall, despite
the heat and haze, hangover from 

a summer that just won't
let go.

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 11.30am; 12 October 2017] 

Day 284, 11 Oct 2017: Talisman of sorts...

Day 284: ...October one pic:one story 11

There was the story of my nan and the cowries the other day, and how, when I listen, I hear the sea, and hear my nan.

Today it is about another little keepsake in the office. Mum has always been incredibly generous at Christmas time, when we were kids and there wasn't much money and now. She always finds 'just the thing'. 

And each year she has always given something of a 'novelty' present, something to make us laugh, something to make us giggle.

And then there was the year of Gumby.

Gumby, traveller, talisman

Some years ago, in fact probably more than twenty years ago, Gumby, the character from our childhood tv programs, made a bit of a comeback, as these things do. That year, Gumby make an appearance in under the Christmas tree and ever since, I've kept it in whatever car I had at the time. As I cleaned out the old car and transferred tapes, CDs, service manuals, first aid kits, spare sunglasses, roadmaps (old school), tissues, towels, steering locks (old school), emergency tool kits etc to the next car, along came Gumby, usually finding pride of place around the rear vision mirror or wherever his flexible arms could hold him. 

Time to move to Japan, no car and could Gumby really bear to be boxed up in a dark room for five years? I don't think so.

And so, here he is. On my computer. Until it is time to go home again and nestle himself back in my next car. 

He is like a talisman, of sorts. 

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 4.28pm; 11 October 2017]

Day 283, 10 Oct 2017: Through the haze

Day 283: ...October one pic:one story 10



It is early morning
Well, earlier than usual

Out the window
On the port

The sun
Hits a spot through the haze

Today will be a day
To make waves

One way or 
another






[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 8.01am; 10 October 2017]

Day 282, 9 Oct 2017: That work/life crossover...

Day 282: ...October one pic:one story 9

I was just sitting, waiting. A lunch appointment. A working lunch which is always pleasant enough. I was thinking work, but more in terms of what I might do when I returned to the office, after lunch. 

But then I saw it. A tv camera here, a journalist with notepad and voice recorder there; 

A person in a suit jacket...a familiar shade of green.

A whispered comment into a phone, shielded conspiratorially from passers-by.

Should we be here?

The green banners appeared from around the corner. Aha, a politics moment. A possible appearance by a party leader in the heat of this snap election campaign.

How does this happen, that even when I'm not 'working', it turns out that, in one way or another, I'm always 'working'? 

[Camera : iPhone6s, 12.22pm; 9 October 2017] 

Day 281, 8 Oct 2017: Paperback rider...

Day 281: ...October one pic:one story 8

What does it take to be 'a writer'? 
I wondered that today as I sat in on a number of sessions at a writers conference here in Tokyo, a conference for people who write about Japan, mostly in English, people from 'outside'. 

I suppose I am a writer of sorts. I write, therefore I...? I am an academic, therefore I write?

Today, among writers and poets, photographers and playwrights, I was 'just an academic'. It was an interesting standpoint, part observational, part uncertainty, part unsure I should have been there.

To read is to write is to read...is to read etc

Still, it was a way to spend a day, listening and learning about how others tackle their work. 

Perhaps I could start, I don't know, a blog perhaps to overcome the stumbling blocks, the imagined barriers. 

Or just continue on my way. 

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 10.12pm; 8 October 2017] 

*'Paperback rider' you ask? One of my favourite mondegreens via the Beatles...

Day 280, 7 Oct 2017: Puzzles

Day 280: ...October one pic:one story 7

How does that refraction/reflection thing work?
It is like a puzzle
It stands tall, strong, on one side
Bent and entangled from the other

Light in the windows

But today it was the light I wanted to capture
That sun-setting light after the rain
The glow through the atmosphere
That the camera struggles to catch

Or does it?

Maybe it is that reflection/refraction thing
Working

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 5.03pm; 7 October 2017] 

Day 279, 6 Oct 2017: Trails of raindrops...

Day 279: ...October one pic:one story 6

Beads. 

Droplets and beads

I wore an Ethiopian bead necklace the other day, to that soiree. It garnered comments. 

Beads of perspiration trickle down my neck, pool in the ends of my hair. 

Beads of liquorice, memories of Finland. 

Waiting for the lift, I watched the droplets bead down the window, presenting a shimmering gauze between the office and the warm light of home. 

The rain continued and the earth beneath rumbled for a second time today. Beads of awareness, beads of concern, dissipate as the tremors roll through. 

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 6.59pm; 6 October 2017] 

Day 278, 5 Oct 2017: What I could be, what I am...

Day 278: ...October one pic:one story 5

When I looked out there today, there was one new, sleek cruiser ferry gliding through the water, cutting a fine wake out past the new rowing centre, under the bridge and away. To somewhere. 

When I looked out there today (again), there was one old, working barge pushing through the water, creating waves in the port, through the canal and back to base. Until tomorrow.

Barge, at work

When I looked out there today, (again), I knew that I was looking at what I could be, and what I am. 

I'll keep one for the imagination while the other anchors my reality.


[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 1.45pm; 5 October 2017]

Day 277, 4 Oct 2017: Overcoming inward doubt...

Day 277: ...October one pic:one story 4

When the invite came, I was a little wary. I didn't quite fit in the demographic identified, and I thought perhaps it was a mistake. You know, these things happen.

It took some convincing by my inner voice to accept with grace this invite from this place that had once rejected with diffidence the work I had done. 

It would mean another late night in a week that was already running late with unexpected calls on my time but, as they say 'take it in your stride' or, as others say, 'suck it up'. It is all part, one part of a many-sided job. 

At the bus stop. Waiting

It is not until I reach the familiar wait at the bus stop that the unease settles. The familiarity of the path. The familiarity of the ramen shop.

The ramen shop opens early and closes late, very late. Its clientele vary from late-returning workers, students, the neighbourhood's 'colourful characters'. It is quite at the other end of the scale of where I have been tonight. 

I've not yet been there myself, I don't quite fit the demographic identified and yet, as time goes on, I debate the inner voice that says I should go there one night, with grace. 

[Camera : iPhone6s, 10.12pm; 4 October 2017] 

Day 276, 3 Oct 2017: Listen carefully...

Day 276: ...October one pic:one story 3

It was a university holiday, transferred from a public holiday last month, but I went to the office anyway. It is a busy time. In just over a year, I have acquired more than a few bits and pieces, a few 'decorations'. Some I brought over from Australia, some I have acquired since arriving. For me, an office always needs reflections of one's personality. Otherwise, it is just...an office. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you pick it up and listen carefully, you can hear the ocean. 

So said my grandmother, every time I picked up her cowrie shell on the teak coffee table in the lounge room. Now she lived on the beachfront on Sydney's northern beaches, and I spent a fair bit of my time there growing up, watching the waves with her, swimming in the ocean pool, surfing but 'not beyond the third wave', which was her rule. And she watched us from the veranda, the front patio. 

Curl Curl to Kamakura

But I asked one day if the sound I 'heard' in the cowrie held to my ear was simply the sound of the waves I could hear across the road. 

She laughed in that way adults laughed when they were either telling the truth or passing on folklore with its whiff of whimsy. 

In those days, the budding grade 8 scientist in me decided it had to be the waves across the road. Today though, when I picked up the shell, I listened, and these days, I hear my Nan.

I've now got a habit of collecting something from beaches I visit. I honour my nan in doing so. It might be pumice from Moffat, quartz from Kings, a piece of whitened coral, a shell from Kamakura or Ichinomiya. Each connects me with the beach, the waves. the sound of the cowries. 

And I am at the beach again, watched over by nan, only going as far as the third wave. 

Wherever I am. 

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 4.07pm, 3 October 2017]

Day 275, 2 Oct 2017: Two ships pass...

Day 275: ...October one pic:one story 2

The port rarely rests. There is always something happening: ships being loaded, ships getting unloaded. 

Some just sit. 

And then, these two ships passed, not in the night, but in the light of day. But they only did because I let them.

As they pass...

Five seconds earlier, the approached from opposite sides. 

Three seconds earlier, they appeared to hide one from the other. 

At this instant, the moment I hit the shutter button, they passed, seemingly without incident. 

And so the camera records history. 

Does it?

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 2.17pm; 2 October 2017] 

Day 274, 1 Oct 2017: A new month...

Day 274: ...another story

Every so often on this blog, I strip things back to first principles, and play around with them again. Every so often that means posting just one photo from the day...that's right, just one. That was the original intention of course, one photo per day, to show the world's hidden beauty and/or wonder and/or not quite so. Just one pic. 

Of course, as time proceeded (as it does, it rarely stops still...) it became quite difficult to choose just one, much easier to post three or five or twenty...as the case may be. But every so often, I like to renew the challenge to myself for this blog is nothing if not a challenge to oneself...a challenge to do something regularly, to sharpen the photography 'skills', to actually see parts of the day through a lens. 

This time I am adding a level of creativity unusual for me--a touch of short story fiction/faction. I'm not sure which just yet. The story will be of the pic, it may be true, or not. It might relate the day in words, or not. 

Let's see how it goes. Today, with the ankle still a bit wobbly (see yesterday), I didn't get too far outside the neighbourhood. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Concrete dolphin

through the wire, meekly

It has been here a while, in the little park across the other side of the fiveways. I turn right to catch the bus, the park is on the left. In summer the delighted screams of the children resonate around the neighbourhood as they splash around in the pool. For modesty or privacy reasons, which it is I'm not sure, the children are generally shaded by a large blue tarp. 

The dolphin watches on. In summer it smiles. Seemingly.

In October, the tarp is packed away, the pool is emptied. Soon the autumn leaves will fall, layer upon layer in this playground. 

The dolphin will watch the change of seasons. It will wait until the children return. 

The parakeets will perch on the telegraph poles and exchange niceties.

In the meantime, those of us who turn right at the fiveways, instead of left, will get on with our daily chores, until summer, when the dolphin will smile. 

Once more. 

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 4.55pm; 1 October 2017]