Saturday, September 24, 2011

The calm after the fury...


Went for a walk in the neighborhood with my love...
The view up in the hills was spectacularly beautiful...
So blue was the sky...
and so serene and peaceful was the Japan Inland Sea...
Still, Typhoon Number 15 had left its unmistakably destructive marks in the hills...
Landslides big and small, here and there, waiting to be cleared...
Drains choked and clogged... water still spilling...

Had a wonderful opportunity this weekend to meet up with some former and current students...
They were/are members of a university club that I had established...
We met up at a restaurant in Takamatsu city... one that serves delicacies using ingredients predominantly sourced from the local area...

While bicycling back home, took a snapshot of this rice field...
To me, this is so typically Japan...
Rice fields in the foreground, and houses lined up in the background...

Another shutter chance came up as I was crossing a river...
Wooh... what a lovely sight, I thought to myself...
The brackish water in the river is actually quite 'black'...
But the reflection from the early evening sun plays magic on it...
I stood there for many minutes... doing nothing but soaking in the scene...

16 comments:

  1. The last photo & the reflection on the river - awesome! :)

    Hope the restoration after the typhoon went well and affected residents are all OK now.

    How's your potager doing?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9/24/2011

    I'm impressed by the last beautiful photo.
    After a typhoon passed, the sky is clear and it's a sunny day. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm so with you on that one. For so many of my compatriots (and so many people in the world) Japan is Shibuya crossing or Akihabara, but for me Japan is definitely a rice paddy in the foreground with more or less traditional houses in the background. :-)

    Where is this restaurant? I'd like to give it a try next time I'm in town.

    ReplyDelete
  4. lina... I am very happy with this shot too... the place is normally so plain... restoration works is going on, simultaneously in several locations... even in my potager...

    cocomino... thank you my friend... you are right on the typhoon... after their passing, the air seems cleaner and fresher...

    david... the restaurant is called 'Yasashi Shokutaku' やさしい食卓...
    it is in Marugame-machi, very near the Dome... vegetables is the main fare and it is no smoking...

    ReplyDelete
  5. bubbayeow9/25/2011

    Glad to hear that you and Yoshimi came through the typhoons without a scratch.

    Nice photos. Compliments to the photog. So, which camera do you carry around for these "shots of opportunity"?

    ReplyDelete
  6. amerm... this is an honor...
    danke for the compliments... I carry the point and shoot Olympus 8000... the same one that I use to shoot underwater... would like to carry the SLR but too bulky...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow you turned the brackish 'beast' into a beauty. Lovely nice rice field which Bananaz presume is green not yellow yet.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bananazஇ... thank you my friend... when the rice paddies turn golden color, I shall be there to record the scene...

    ReplyDelete
  9. I guess... the 3rd pic of the padi field would remind u alot of ur hometown in kedah.. which is surrounded by such serene padi fields as well

    ReplyDelete
  10. DT... you are very right about the padi fields reminding me of Kedah... I cannot wait to return in December to shoot some pictures of them in my village...

    ReplyDelete
  11. These are all wonderful pictures. You've certainly captured the beauty of Japan from the coast to the rice fields. Your picture of the river is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  12. George... thank you very much... I am very lucky to have the privilege to live in a place that is close to the sea and the hills...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Beautiful photos! The last one with reflection is just fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Icy BC... danke, danke... I enjoy looking at that picture too...

    ReplyDelete
  15. Great pictures of the paddy field and the river.A good eye.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Keats The Sunshine Girl... thank you for your comments...

    ReplyDelete