Japanese Picture - Matsuri Float

Here's a float that was built for a festival held in my wife's hometown of Ajiro. I have a number of wonderful pictures from this event and many more great festivals in Japan.

Photographer: Tetsuya Tanaka

First Among Sequels

The new Thursday Next novel by Welsh author Jasper Fforde was released this past July. I have not read it yet myself, but I have read the previous installments in the series. If you have not discovered the incredible writing of Jasper Fforde you are missing out on a wonderful experience. I hope to go into detail on the story of Thursday Next and why you should read these books in a later post. For now I will simply direct you to one of the places you can find a copy of Thursday Next: First Among Sequels. Please check it out...after you've read the first four installments, of course. (Trust me, this is a series worth investing in. Or at least worth visiting your local library.)

Amazon.com - Thursday Next: First Among Sequels

Japanese Picture - Catch of the Day

Ajiro is my wife's hometown. It's where she was born and where she grew up. Ajiro is a small town on the southern tip of a small city called Atami, located in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Dried fish is one of the specialties prepared in this small fishing village. Any morning you choose to go for a walk along the seaside you will see countless drying racks with a wide variety of fish, squid, and other catches from the previous day and night. I hope you enjoy this picture, taken by Tetsuya Tanaka, looking out toward the lighthouse in Ajiro.

Japanese Expansion

Well, friends, I've decided to expand on my content. I am planning on including pictures and articles about Japan, it's culture, people, literature, etc. I am doing this for a number of reasons. One of which is simply the desire to provide more material for my readers. Looking beyond that, though, is the fact that I am doing some research on all things Japanese right now. I am planning on writing a novel-length work that is taking place primarily in Japan. I am hoping, in fact, to write it for future publication as a podcast novel.

Why Japan? Well, I fell in love with the country when I lived there for a couple of years. The Japanese people, existing in their melded world of ancient tradition and modern technology, fascinate me. Also, I have some great sources I can call upon for information. Not only is my wife a very well-educated native of Japan, but her family and numerous friends of our are still living over there.

To start this off I will present you with a picture that was taken by my father-in-law, Tetsuya Tanaka. Tetsuya is an amateur photographer. And I use the word amateur to mean that he simply doesn't get paid for his incredible pictures. He has an eye for the artistic side of Japanese nature. I think that you will love his pictures.

The following picture is kind of a tribute to my good friend Jason Heath over at the Double Bass Blog. Jason has two cats and has numerous posts on his blog related to cats. Check out the page for cat labeled posts. You'll love watching the Cats listening to various styles of music post. This is a picture of a cat sitting on a wall with Mt. Fuji in the background. The photo was taken on January 2, 2005. I believe this is a view of the south face of the mountain, though I may be wrong about that. I hope you enjoy it.