Yesterday I was a guest on Arisa Muto‘s chat show on FM Okinawa. We talked in Japanese about topics ranging from how blue the sky is to my favorite Okinawan food. It will be broadcast on May 23rd at 9.30pm, and if you’d like to hear me butchering the Japanese language it will definitely be worth tuning in to. I had never been into a recording studio before. I was most impressed by the doors.
Just want to say thanks to everyone who made it out to the opening reception of my exhibition. I think the about 45 people came, and everything went really well. DJ Gilberto was great, the food was delicious, and Jose did a wonderful job of translating my talk. I wandered around nervously babbling to people, but managed to enjoy myself tremendously. Exhibition will be up for the whole of May so drop by Cotonoha to check it out.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been sorting out a slideshow for my exhibition that will be projected on to a wall where a single picture would normally hang. It allows me to show far more images than would otherwise fit in the gallery. The slideshow I have created for Cotonoha lasts 30 minutes and has images changing every 25 seconds. I also created a 7 minute version with images changing every 5 or 6 seconds that also has some wonderful background music. The piece is Sakura by Yokoh and is played by my friend Eduardo Terre on the classical guitar. The music came from a live recording of one of his concerts. It has been a bit of an exhausting experience learning how to create a slideshow, add music, convert formats etc, but finally both the long and short versions are now complete. The long version is ready to be shown at the gallery, and the short version is now up on YouTube. Enjoy. Eduardo, I am humbled by your talent.
The Okinawa Rail is an endangered bird that is endemic to the northern part of the Okinawan main island. They are both rare and shy, which makes getting photographs of them tricky. Luckily last year I was given access to the birds at the breeding center in Kunigami. I was able to get so close to some of the birds I was using a macro lens and getting my fingers pecked. Last week my friend Ichiro told me that there were some very young Okinawa Rail being cared for at Nagamine Animal Hospital and I had permission to go and take some photographs. It was tough to get good shots – small dark birds in a dark room on a cloudy day. In the end I got some interesting shots which will hopefully become part of a larger photo feature on the efforts that are going on to try and save the species from extinction.
For the whole of May an exhibition of my photographs will be showing at Cotonoha Artspace + Cafe in Ginowan, Okinawa. Cotonoha is a new gallery / cafe in Okinawa that was created by Daryl Mitchell a.k.a. Mitch and his wife. Mitch has done a great job on the gallery and strives to produce the best in every aspect of his work. The food, interior design and ambiance are all first rate. Check out the Cotonoha website to find out more. There will be a reception on May 1st with a buffet, music, and lots of interesting people. Rather than a lecture I thought I would tell a few anecdotes about taking photographs in Japan. Hopefully these anecdotes will be amusing, a surprising number are about men’s bottoms. My photographs are going to be on display for the entire month, and Cotonoha will be open from 2pm till 11pm except Mondays. The limited edition prints that are on sale through my website will be available for purchase along with open editions of smaller A4 sized prints. I won’t be at …
A few minutes ago Guardian photographer David Levene sent me this link. Just made my day! I will blog more later about the use of audio recorders and taking shots for slideshows, but for now I think I’ll just chill out and smile.
Once you have chosen the car you need to do some paperwork… First the car dealership takes a photocopy of your Japanese driver’s license and, in my case, my gaikokujin toroku shomeisho (certificate of alien registration – a.k.a gaijin card). You then need to get an inkan (personal seal) made, register it at the city office, then bring the inkan and the inkan toroku shomeisho (certificate of name stamp registration) to the car dealership. Also bring your gaikokujin toroku genpyo kisai jiko shomeisho (certified copy of registration) which shows your official address. Fill out the parking application paper, drawing a diagram of your local streets and the exact dimensions of the parking area at your house or apartment. If you are not the owner of the house you must also produce a piece of paper from the housing office with their official stamp to show you have parking permission. Parking applications must be taken to the local police station for processing although your car dealer may do this for you. This is all done to get a shako shoumei …
In 2000, Sefa Utaki, along with Shuri Castle and several castle ruins from the Kingdom of the Ryukyus, was listed as UNESCO world heritage site. Sefa Utaki is the holiest place in Okinawa where the kikeo kimi high priestesses would perform rituals. There are several places of worship hidden among the trees, but the most famous is at the triangle shaped opening. Water that dripped from stalactites hanging from the rock faces was thought to be sacred. Pots were positioned on the ground, and remain today catching the slow drip drip drip of holy water. Tourists rather than priestesses are the main visitors to Sefa Utaki now. I had to wait a while before I could get a tourist free wide angle shot.
First some background… Although I learned to drive when I was 17, I didn’t have my own car. I would pootle around in my mother’s Rover Metro. It got my climbing buddies, Stewart and Jack, and me out to places like Stanage Edge and the Lake District on weekends. It did exactly what my dad said a car should do – get you from A to B. At university and for several years after I never owned a car. It wasn’t until 2001, a couple of years after moving to Japan I got my very first vehicle. For 70,000 yen (US$ 700) I got my very own monster truck. The Toyota Hilux Surf as demonstrated on Top Gear is usually one of the toughest vehicles on the road. My aging Surf, however, was on its last legs, the old turbo diesel engine would whine as it slowly built up momentum to it’s top speed of 80 kilometers an hour. The limited speed was however a bonus as the worn breaks, knobbly tyres and spongy suspension …
A couple of years ago I met David Levene a photographer for The Guardian. It was 5 in the morning and we were both waiting to get in our respective hot air balloons while photographing the Bristol Balloon Festival. We had a good chat for an hour, and I said it would be great to meet again if he ever made if to Japan. I then got in my wicker basket and had my first (and only) balloon ride. It was a great experience and I got a few good photos. A couple of months ago I got an email from David saying he was coming to Japan to get shots for the newspaper, particularly the two page center spreads, which are an amazing showcase for a photographer. Check out this short video to see the kind of work David does. (Then come right back!) David is in Japan for two weeks and came down to Okinawa for 24 hours to get some images of Churaumi Aquarium I talked about in a previous post which …
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 