Uploads from amirjina, tagged アミール, with geodata

Returning

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:15:07 -0800

amirjina posted a photo:

Recently, I received news that I had been accepted to the University of Tokyo with a full scholarship. I think I can honestly say that nothing would make me happier than to return to Japan for a few more years - and here is my chance . . . an amazing course and free money.

Unfortunately, or rather, fortunately, the chance of me getting accepted to a PhD here in Columbia seems quite high. And now I am stuck between two options - one that will make me happier in the short term, and one which will probably make me happier in the long term.

It is a difficult choice.

In light of this, I have spent a lot of time this week returning to my photos of Japan - experiencing again all of the amazing things I had seen - mundane, profane or divine.

As I try to come to my decision, I imagine that more Japan photos will follow this.

This photo was taken, obviously enough, in Shinjuku. I can remember the day clearly - it was spring, when the weather in Japan is so perfect as to be almost unbelievable. I had arrived in Tokyo in the morning and felt like walking, so I walked . . . for around 30 kilometres, from Meguro to Ikebukuro. It is amazing how the city changes so vastly beneath you - from trendy parks and gaijin hangouts, to industrial enclaves, to abandoned pre-war shacks and street layouts, to high-tech neon wonderland, to still, silent residential district - like this one in the picture. It was hard to believe that a few hundred metres away lay the beating heart of Tokyo's financial district when all around were children playing and cherry blossoms falling in the breeze.

Start!

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:09:22 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

沼津西高の潮音祭です！運動会の日に雨がふったから昼ごはんのあとやめました！ざんねんでした。(TдT) 　

Probably the best time in a Japanese school year - School Festival!

I took a lot of pictures at school festival, but obviously, most of them had students' faces in them, and I am not going to randomly post a load of those photos online - it's just not nice!

In my school, the festival takes place over three days. The first day is the school only culture performance day, where any student with musical talent (but also comedic or martial arts talent) displays it before the school. On the second day every club and team do something - selling food, performances, games - it is like a true festival. The students run the school, decorate it any way they wish, and plan everything. Students from other schools, parents, old staff members, local people alumni, all come to enjoy the day. The third day is the sports festival, featuring normal events like above, but also some crazily dangerous bamboo toppling, war mimicking type games. It is a lot of fun. The picture was from the start of the day, at the beginning of the 400m relay. Six class teams compete for the prize of school champions!

I also have some pictures from last year's festival on here if you are interested:
www.flickr.com/photos/amirjina/523117080/
www.flickr.com/photos/amirjina/2047110850/
www.flickr.com/photos/amirjina/2031635108/

ありがとう

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:15:06 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

Ｇｅｉｓａｉのあとの散歩したときに . . .

Also, after Geisai Museum 2, I had a chance to walk around Odaiba - which doesn't really feel like Tokyo at all! Exploring, shopping, talking. All in all, I had a great day.

たのしかった。ありがとう、ね。

My daily companion

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 01:50:10 -0800

amirjina posted a photo:

Fujisan. Wearing her cloak again after the summer months, she finally emerges from her protective covering of clouds. I see her everyday, when I wake up, when I cycle to work, when I go to the supermarket, everywhere. She is a national symbol and a personal one. I will spend my time watching the mountain for the next 8 months.

It will be the hardest thing I have to do to say goodbye.

Spick and Span

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 02:08:20 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

Sometimes Japan is not as squeaky clean as its image suggests. Here, old exists beside new. Next to skyscrapers you can see 50 year old wooden shacks, next to ultra-stylish kids sits an old man in traditional clothes, next to one of the Toyko's most expensive retail areas there are alleys and streets that have been forgotten and passed by.

Sometimes, I find neglected flyers more beautiful than towers of glass and steel.

At night's end

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 07:00:49 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

As the atmosphere turned to one of departure, people sat, stood, drank and reflected on what a wonderful three days they had lived. While the atmosphere still existed, they were going to bathe in it - to make it last as long as they could. After all, it will be one year until the next Fuji Rock.

Taken at Fuji Rock Festival, Japan.

Typhoon

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:58:27 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

Typhoon Man-yi, the most powerful on record in Japan for July, passed my town yesterday.

Aside from dumping an insane quantity of rain on us, we were left pretty unscathed. One worrying thing is that the level of this river was actually higher than the level that my house is on. Let's just be thankful that the engineers who built the flood defences knew what they were doing!

I believe we got 450mm of rain over the course of a few hours.

See where this picture was taken. [?]

Tsuyu

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:19:16 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

It's rainy season in Japan. The rain starts suddenly, drenches you, and leaves behind a chill clear sky. Everyday, it is just waiting.

Where will life take me if you don't

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 01:07:38 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

I can't take you home with me. I'm sorry.

Intelligent Life

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 23:12:03 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

Seen on the side of the road on one of the recycling days in my town. Someone had had fun that day.

Matsuri

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 01:16:47 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

Not even rainy season can dampen the manic revelry of a local Japanese festival. This one was in Yoshiwara, under the shadow of Mt. Fuji. These local men were pulling a carriage filled with children playing instruments through the streets.

Each festival seems to have its own theme tune The combination of a convoy of child musicians playing the withering, whispy tune along a street being lashed by rain as the sunset and the lights came on is something truly uplifting.

Electric Dandelion

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Tue, 29 May 2007 03:24:35 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

As kites fall

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Sat, 05 May 2007 22:37:48 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

In Japan, May 5th is Children's Day, celebrating the children who were born in the previous year.

In Hamamatsu, on Children's Day there is a famous Kite festival that is hundreds of years old. Hundreds of car-sized kites are flown all day and frequent battles erupt between groups vying to keep their kite in the sky.

The girl in this photo was watching in horror as the kite of her group (one of the tail ropes of which she was holding) faltered during launch as the wind rejected the efforts of the thirty men who were trying to make it soar.

For me, Saturdays in Japan mean travel, and finding a quirky local festival is always a high point of any week.

Illumination

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:24:36 -0800

amirjina posted a photo:

Last week I went for a walk around the Columbia University neighbourhood - including the Cathderal of St. John the Divine. The world's largest cathedral, it has been left unfinished, having been started in 1892. The twists and turns (and radical changes of architecture style) through which it has gone make for a fascinating story.

This photgraph was the morning light streaming through the stained glass windows, illuminating the opposite wall.The effect was beautiful. But inside this unfinished cavern of stone, lit by beautiful coloured lights, there were perhaps 15 people. Outside, in the light, thousands went about their business, enjoying a warm Manhattan Sunday.

In the playground outside, children were playing. Inside, only silence.

Lego + UNESCO = . . .

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:46:37 -0800

amirjina posted a photo:

. . . Happiness.

This was taken at a wonderful exhibition held recently in the Shibuya Parco. It was called "Piece of Peace" and featured 20 breathtaking scale-models of different UNESCO world heritage sites.

Needless to say, I was in my (nerdy) element.

To sleep . . .

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:09:32 -0800

amirjina posted a photo:

Although still bitterly cold outside as the icy cold air flows down from the snows of Fuji, the days are getting brighter and clearer. I decided to take the opportunity of a clear day to take some pictures at a local temple.

Lining the surrounding wall of the temple, enclosing a serene garden, were hundreds of small buddha statues. Some of them were weathered into unrecognisable lumps of stone. Others, like this one, were slowly being erased by time into sleep and peace.

See where this picture was taken. [?]

Frog People

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 01:30:26 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

Not really, but rather, the remnants of a day's hard work wading in the rice fields, catching frogs and clearing pests.

Hard Work and Sacrifices

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:41:43 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

Going to a high level academic school in Japan can take its toll. Day in, day out, study, juku, pressure, pressure, university, center test. But beneath the weight of society, there are children who want to have a childhood. Sometimes, like at school festival, they find that chilhood.

I'll show you how it's done

nobody@flickr.com (amirjina) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:22:40 -0700

amirjina posted a photo:

Shichi-go-san (literally seven-five-three) is a festival where three and seven year old boys and five year old girls visit shrines for a "rite of passage" ceremony. Small children in exquisite kimono try to stay on their best behaviour, probably because of the presents they have been promised by their parents.

But often, their parents pride allows the children to act as children. Despite scarily expensive kimono, they run and fight and play. It is, after all, a day for children.