In the July issue of Okinawa Living, I have a 6 page feature on photographing Okinawa’s outdoors. Scans from the magazine below, and I’ll put up the text next month for people who’d like to read the feature but aren’t on Okinawa.
In the interview with sanshin player Byron Jones I asked if he could play Hendrix. Yesterday I found this video by shamisen player Kevin Kmetz proving that you only need three strings to rock! I believe the Japanese dubbed version of Iron Man began with this song 🙂
From JapanUpdate Okinawa’s weekly English newspaper: City bus strikes, kills bike-riding youngster Date Posted: 2009-06-25 A seven-year-old boy is dead after being run over by a Nanjo City bus Monday afternoon. Nanjo City Police say the fatality occurred as a city bus driver on the Baten Branch run in Tsuhako, Sashiki area of Nanjo City, on Route 331, encountered the young boy on a bicycle in front of him. The bus driver reportedly tried to get the youngster, Kousei Chinen, to move to the side of the road, and tried to pass him. When the bus driver sounded his bus horn, the noise surprised the elementary school student and caused him to lose control of his bicycle. Chinen fell from the bicycle, and beneath the bus. The driver, realizing what happened, stopped the bus about 100 meters from the accident. A passenger aboard the bus ran to the youngster, saw his school nametag, and called him “Kousei chan, Come on, please. Can you hear me?” The boy was transported to a nearby hospital, where he …
After mentioning Byron Jones in the previous post I thought I should put up the entire interview for those who didn’t see it in the magazine. Sanshin Virtuoso Byron Jones was born in Quantico, Virginia. In 1985 his father, a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was transferred to Camp Foster on Okinawa. Byron attended high school on base, but developed a deep interest in the local Ryukyu culture. At 19, he started playing the sanshin, a traditional Okinawan three-string instrument, which would become his passion. As his proficiency increased, he gained a reputation in the local and national media as “more Japanese than the Japanese.” Byron now teaches the sanshin at various places including the University of the Ryukyus. What is your musical background? I played the clarinet when I was in the 4th Grade, and in high school, one of my friends taught me to play guitar. I saw a sanshin for the first time while visiting my friend’s house and immediately wanted to learn how to play. It wasn’t possible to rent …
Listening to the local radio station the other day I heard a song by The Pussycat Dolls. The tune would have been forgettable except for the fact that it sounds like an Okinawan sanshin is playing in the background. Does anyone happen to know if it really is a sanshin? The song is called Whatcha Think About That The Okinawan sanshin is a three stringed instrument, similar to a banjo. It is a close relative of the shamisen that is played on mainland Japan. Here’s a shot of professional sanshin player Byron Jones that I took for Okinawa Living.
The Fender Stratocaster guitar is an American icon. So why you may ask am I writing about it in a photography blog about Japan… Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but in the early 80’s Fender USA was trying to deal with a flood of foreign-made Stratocaster-like guitars. Fender decided to make the best of a bad situation and set up Fender Japan to produce Japanese Fender guitars for the Japanese market. Fender Japan was particularly good at producing vintage reissues. So good in fact that Dan Smith, Fender’s Director of Marketing said:“Everybody came up to inspect them and the guys almost cried, because the Japanese product was so good – it was what we had been having a hell of a time trying to do.” Fender Japan guitars are not officially exported to Europe or America, these markets are supplied with Fenders from Mexico or, for the higher end models, from the US. There is a healthy used market however. My friend John exports Japanese made guitars to musicians and collectors all …
Most Japanese women prefer to drink green tea rather than soda. This is good for their health but bad for soda companies. But then big business had a cunning plan….. On June 8th, Coca-Cola Plus Green Tea Flavor appeared in stores across Japan.
As I mentioned in a previous post it’s probably more useful to learn about festivals before they occur rather than seeing photos of an event you just missed. In exactly one month, on July 17th the main parade of floats will take place as part of Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri. The huge floats are called Yamaboko and are dragged through the streets by teams of men. They do not go through the cobbled streets of Gion but rather trundle along the main shopping streets Shijo, Kawaramachi and Oike. The streets are packed with spectators but usually you can find a spot where you can get a decent view. I recommend the main intersections as this is where the floats have to be rotated 90 degrees, an impressive feat of strength and teamwork. You can read more about visiting Kyoto in my article The Best of Kyoto.
I needed to get some examples of using natural framing in photographs for a future photo tips article I am writing. Luckily I knew of a suitable location that would allow me to get the images I wanted. Shots taken at 7.30 AM at Zakimi Castle, a UNESCO world heritage site that’s about 15 minutes from where I live. Zakimi Castle has no entry fee, and is permanently open. A fantastic place to take photographs.
Picked up a couple of rolls of film I had dropped off at Kitamura Camera for processing. Processing for one roll of 220 film (without any pushing or pulling) is 1740 yen. A box of 5 rolls of Provia 220 is 5080 yen. That means film plus processing comes to 2756 yen per roll or 131 yen per frame when using my camera (21 shots on a 220 roll). Film photographers have to deal with a rapidly reducing number of places that they can process film, and increasing prices of both film and processing. However, rumors of the imminent demise of film are a little premature. Not only is film still sold and processed, a new film camera was being advertised in the store. The Fujifilm GF670 is a brand new rangefinder camera with a clever collapsible lens. Weighing just 1kg it shoots in the same 6×7 format as my Pentax 67II. If you want those big beautiful 6×7 transparencies, but don’t want the weight of a Pentax system this could be well worth checking out. It …
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 