I haven’t posted a single thing the entire Summer break and now that it’s over I’m embarrassed. The thing was that the good intentions were always there, but somehow my summer was hi-jacked by books, travel, and a special girl who I’ve come to like very much. I suppose that’s not all that bad. I mean coming out of one month of summer vacation I’ve  read a number of wonderful short stories, 4 books, traveled up and down Northern Japan, and got to spend that time with someone I really enjoy. All in all I would say that while the shame of not posting a single word on the adventure is grave, I had the most delightful summer break in a long long time.

So what’s in store for fall? More books, more Japanese study, more talk time over the phone, more travel, and (God willing) a chance to continue building up my amateur photography.

Speaking of photos… I’m putting together an album of “Black and White Views of Mutsu.” So far my album (which I’m editing) has nearly 56 photos of Mutsu city and is slowly growing. There’s a few places I need to shoot more of, and some places I need to shoot at certain times of the day & night. I can’t promise it’ll be finished soon or posted soon… But I hope to get a small Gallery up where I can post “draft pictures.”

As of the moment… My latest activity has been experimenting in the field of late night, macro, flash photography. I’ve order a flash for my Sony DSLR and lately I’ve been testing diffused & bouncing light shots with the pop-up flash… using only a folded piece of paper and a folded tissue. The results have been just above average I suppose, but I’m looking forward to getting better with each shot I take.

~J out for now..

Read More