kerosene tea (灯油茶) — it’s winter in Osaka

14Dec12

Winter has hit Osaka with flurries of small snow storms and frost on the neighborhood roofs in the morning.  Because Japanese houses are famously cold in the winter — a phenomenon that’s been extensively commented on by people a lot more clever than myself — all kinds of strategies have been developed to keep warm, […]

Filed under: culture, daily life, Japan, Kansai, music, Osaka, personal, sweet story of Trout Monroe   |  2 Comments
Tags: Aladdin blue flame heater, ゆきやかんこ, ダルマストーブ, ドレミノテレビ, 灯油, Daruma stove, Do-re-mi Television, kerosene, kerosene delivery truck, kerosene heater, Osaka, Thoreau, Ua, winter, 大阪

aftermath: the post-festival remains of yodogawa hanabi

01Dec12

I’ve been to see the Yodogawa Hanabi fireworks festival several times.  It’s glorious and amazing and definitely the singular largest annual display of fireworks that I’ve ever seen.  They launch something like 20,000 fireworks at Yodogawa Hanabi and hundreds of thousands of people come to watch.  It may not be as large as Osaka’s famous […]

Filed under: culture, festival, Japan, Kansai, matsuri, Osaka, photography, sweet story of Trout Monroe   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: 15mm Heliar, available light, 花火, fireworks, fireworks festival, night, Osaka, photography, Voigtlander Bessa-L, wide-angle lens, Yodo River, Yodogawa Hanabi, 大阪, 淀川, 淀川花火

two chocolate moustaches and a solar eclipse

21May12

Today’s annular solar eclipse reached its peak in Osaka at 7:30 in the morning so I set my alarm for 7:15, crawled out of bed, clutched for a couple of cameras, and stepped outside to see what I could see.  Though it was mostly cloudy yesterday, with a little bit of rain predicted for the […]

Filed under: eating, Japan, Kansai, nature, Osaka, personal, sweet story of Trout Monroe   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: annular solar eclipse, chocolate moustache, dream, eclipse, magnolia tree, Osaka, pinhole camera, pinhole projector, rare German dreamberries, solar eclipse, strange dream, sun shapes, Tom Hanks, 大阪, 日食

the disarming voluptuosity of strange and charming blossom

13Apr12

All photographs taken using a Ricoh GRD2, spontaneously and without design.

Filed under: Japan, Kansai, nature, Osaka, photography   |  2 Comments
Tags: お花見, blossom viewing, cherry blossoms, night walk, Osaka, photography, Ricoh GRD2, spring, square format, 大阪, 春, 桜

tracking the wild Billiken

11Sep11

The recent increase in popularity of Osaka’s Shinsekai area among Japanese tourists has brought with it a proliferation of the Billiken, the “God of Things as They Ought to Be.”  The original Billiken (pictured directly below) sits at the top of Tsutenkaku Tower, and there have always been one or two “false idols” in the […]

Filed under: culture, funs, Japan, Kansai, Osaka   |  2 Comments
Tags: ビリケン, Billiken, Billiken craze, cultural artifact, icon, mascot, Osaka, pop culture, Shin-sekai, Shinsekai, The God of Things as They Ought to Be, 大阪, 新世界

the earthquake, here

15Mar11

It’s been a daunting and disorienting four days in Osaka.  On Friday the 11th, Japan experienced the largest earthquake it has ever seen (magnitude 9.0), followed by a tsunami that was 10 meters high when it hit the city of Sendai, devastating large areas of the city around the coast and airport, as well as […]

Filed under: history, Japan, Kansai, Osaka, personal, society   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: disaster, earthquake, Japan, normalcy, Osaka, Sendai earthquake, tsunami, 地震, 大阪, 東北地方太平洋沖地震, 津波

snow walk

12Feb11

Yesterday, Osaka had it’s heaviest snowfall since 2008, so I took the opportunity to take the Ricoh GRD2 out for a walk.

Filed under: daily life, Japan, Kansai, Osaka, personal, sweet story of Trout Monroe   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: black and white, 白黒, 雪, 豊中市, Osaka, Ricoh GRD2, snow, snow walk, toyonaka, 大阪府