[Leica] IMG: Miyazaki weekend walk

[geordiepete211 at yahoo.co.uk (Peter Cheyne)]

Thank you for the comments.

It's interesting the photos reminded Philippe of Tokyo no Monogatari.   
I appreciate Ozu's rhythm and his respect for letting story unfold and  
character develop with minimal editorial and photographic intrusion.   
For me, that film's theme was that the modern concern to rush on and  
be busy is overtaking our sense of duty and devotion.  The elderly  
parents take a long train journey from rural Japan to modern Tokyo to  
visit their children, grandchildren, and the young widow of their  
son.  The other children and their spouses see the visiting parents as  
a burden, and prefer to send them off to a hot spa hotel for a few  
days rather than enjoy their presence.  The young widow, in contrast,  
is touchingly graceful and goes out of her way to ensure that she can  
enjoy shared time with her respected and beloved in-laws.  Perhaps her  
virtue is somehow not of this world, borne in some part from remaining  
in love with her late husband.  The in-laws urge her to remarry, but  
she just smiles and nods.  Her situation is similar to mine, as my  
wife died too young, to stomach cancer, when our daughter was only 9  
months old.

Much of Japan is very different from the postmodernity of Tokyo or the  
classically beautiful temples and geisha of Kyoto.  Miyazaki, for  
example, has a slow pace of life, the people are known for being kind,  
and real communities exist.  Since a year ago, a strawberry farmer has  
visited us now and again, to give my daughter strawberries.  My  
daughter started elementary school this April, and it finishes a  
couple of hours before I finish work (I teach Philosophy at an  
international liberal arts college).  For the first week she went to  
an after school club, but she was the only one who stayed there a long  
time, the other pupils only staying 20 minutes or so.  The local  
strawberry farmer, who is a retired firefighter, suggested he and his  
wife collect her from school every day and play at their home with  
their grandson.  So that is now the arrangement.  One of their  
daughters lives with them; their other daughter and firefighter son-in- 
law visit, bringing the grandson, every other day.

That is rural Miyazaki, but the city has the same kind of community.   
My daughter and I photographed a fruit and veg seller on our photo- 
walk, who then gave my daughter half a dozen bananas.  People tend to  
watch out for one another.   Perhaps that is the side of Japan that  
Rei's grandmother described.  Here is the photo I took of her:  
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geordiepete/4614999942/sizes/l/ 
     I didn't include it with the others, but apparently it's worth  
six bananas, which is the most I have been paid for a photograph.

Peter Cheyne