Lantern Slides: My Japan Experiece through Other's Eyes

The passing of time in Akita could be felt less by the change in seasons, and more by the flooding, planting, and reaping of the rice. My experience of Japan was only four months log, not long enough to experience the seasons. (This is fortunate, since winter in Akita is... rough.) I was amazed by where the rice fields were put. If there was a meridian with grass that was big enough... there was rice growing there. Every inch that could grow rice in Akita, was growing rice. Surely, that scope was what the photographer was tryng to convey.

Twice I went and volunteered to visit the very small schools. All the children came up to my waist, and we laughed and talked to each other in my simple Japanese. I even sat down and ate lunch with them. The children helped serve lunch, and they taught me how to break down the milk boxes so the fit in the trash better. I'm kind that the ?reality? that this photo shows, at least visually, has not changed. For some reason, I found Japanese children more cute than Western ones. Perhaps that feeling is reflected in other foreigners to Japan, and caused this photo to exist.

DOLLS! 8D Okay, I missed the Girl's Festival by a month. This was a saddness to me, since I wanted to see all the beautiful dolls for sale in the shops, like I did see for boys. Still, if I was anything in Japan, I was doll obsessed. Every time I saw a new type or sculpt or paint of one, I stopped to admire them. This photo was showing a similar but different theme. Japanese children, Japanese clothes, Japanese dolls with Japanese clothes. I love these type of dolls since they were some of the ones that were meant to be dressed and undressed as part of play. More often, Westerners concentrate on kokeshi meant for display and Kyoto dolls.

This picture is beautifully similar to my own picture of the Noh stage, right down to the angle of the picture. While my picture was snucked out before the play had begun, this one was taken in progress. Showing the audience gives the viewer the feeling of being with them, rather than distanced and apart from them. The main actor is centered, and the painted pine is also easily viewable.


Sanjusangendo was the one thing that I was told I couldn't, wasn't allowed to skip over in Kyoto. It's really impossible to feel the impressive scope and awe of the place without being there in person, none the less the photographer attempted. The angle has the Kannon gilded wooden figures stretching on to infinity in the background. The painted yellow takes away from the texture, but the Kannon being guilded is part of what makes Sanjusangendo unique as well as their impossible quantity.