Confined to my home office as the second typhoon of the 2011 season rolls through Kobe on this Sunday afternoon,  I finally find myself with some time to catch up.  So here is a slightly overdue blog post after being incommunicado for almost two weeks. Today’s post is a short series of street photos taken in the Kyomachi area of Osaka.

Most of the architecture in this set predates the end of the war.   I love the details and textures of these old buildings, and they make lovely studies in black and white.  Sadly, these treasures are disappearing all the time.

The muggy rainy season – typically May and June – is one facet of living in Japan that I find especially hard to tolerate.  Ask anyone around me, and they will testify to the fact that as the heat and humidity rise, so does my irritability. However, the one upshot of the moist climate is its oxidizing effect on all things metal, turning mundane objects from their erstwhile boring, sterile selves into a rainbow of  rusty and decrepit hues. Here is a fine example of a weather-worn mailbox in an industrial section of Amagasaki where I work.

And since I was in the neighborhood, a monochrome shot of a deserted junior high school hallway. All the kids must have been in class. If these walls could talk…

In case you’re wondering, 100 million yen is roughly equivalent to the American notion of a “Million Dollar View.”  Actually, thanks to a strong yen and weak dollar, the hyaku-man doru view (the expression caught on in Japan, but was adapted to their number system) will cost you considerably more than a million U.S. dollars these days, and has for most of the past two years. When I first moved to Japan back in 2001, each dollar I brought with me bought about 120 yen, and now in May 2011 a buck only fetches a measly 81 yen. So today that view will actually cost you $1,234,567.  And 90 cents.  You can make the check payable to me.  The view of East Kobe and across Osaka Bay is from my balcony.

Here’s a pseudo-panoramic of the same scene, actually just cropped to a 3:1 aspect ratio, so not technically a panoramic.  Soon we will be heading into the tsuyu (梅雨 = plum rain ) season, in which it rains almost every day for a month or longer.  As a result, I probably won’t be seeing this view for much of the later half of May and well into June.

And, just for good measure, a rendition in monochrome.

Today’s post consists of a few street scenes I took during an April outing in Kobe.

Just an ordinary crosswalk. But I love the lines and contrast.

Built in 1908, the old Kitano Elementary School building is now a collection of artisan shops called Kitano Meister Garden.

One of the interesting shops in Kitano Meister Garden sells matches packaged in retro containers from the early 20th Century.

Going subterranean, the next few photos were taken in Metro Kobe, the aging underground shopping arcade that connects Kosoku Kobe and Shinkaichi Stations.

There’s just something so film noire about these old train station lockers.

In Japan, May 5th is Children’s Day, the last in a string of national holidays that begin at the end of April and make up the annual reprieve known as Golden Week. In honor of that day, here is a shot of some youngsters at play in Edo Period garb, taken last month at the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living.

A couple with such magical chemistry when they are together, Akiko and Ethan are simply too irresistible for only one blog post.  Here are a few more shots from Akiko and Ethan’s wedding celebration in Kobe and in Phuket, Thailand.

First a few from Phuket…

At the conclusion of the beach side wedding reception, Ethan and Akiko lit a lantern on Bangtao  Beach.  Like a hot air balloon, the air inside the lantern heats up, sending it off into the night sky and out to sea. Super romantic!

And a few more frames from Kobe…

I love the next two, taken in the taxi on the way to the wedding party. Akiko, you are simply gorgeous!

Today’s post is a collection of photos that I took on a leisurely stroll in Kyoto on March 30th. Although the sakura – cherry blossoms – hadn’t bloomed yet due to an unusually chilly month of March, the ume – plum blossoms – were near their peak, and plenty of young ladies were impeccably decked out in their spring kimono.  The photos here were taken in the vicinity of Kiyomizudera Temple on Kyoto’s eastern side.

Dateline: March 30th, 2011, Kyoto.

On a recent trip to Kyoto, some friends and I took a morning walk through the legendary Nishiki Ichiba, known locally as “Kyoto’s Kitchen.”  An ichiba is simply a street market with shops selling all manner of groceries and goods for use in the home.  Each shop specializes in a certain item. For example, there are shops selling fish, others selling pickled vegetables, and still others selling fresh vegetables and fruit.  There are shops selling rice crackers, liquor shops, tea shops, tofu shops, and small restaurants serving everything from noodles to sushi.  But what you won’t find is a general grocer or a convenience store. Nishiki Ichiba is about 700 years old.  The photos in this post give a hint of what it’s like, but if you click on this link, you can take a virtual tour of Nishiki Ichiba. Click on the little mascot guy on in the lower right for a full-screen view and then use your mouse to move through the market.

Although they still exist throughout Japan, and big cities like Osaka and Kyoto proudly lay claim to their own famous and very prosperous street markets, the advent of large supermarket chains and a demographic shift for younger families away from city centers and toward the suburbs have turned many smaller ichibas into ghost towns.  A casual observer will notice that most of the customers shopping at ichiba these days are likely to be older, at least in their 60s, as these generally are the folks who (1) still live in the city center; and (2) are free during the ichiba’s business hours. Their shops typically close by around 6 p.m., or whenever they run out of the day’s supply of merchandise.  Fortunately, Nishiki, and its bigger cousin, Osaka’s Kuromon Ichiba, are among a handful of these traditional markets that are still vibrant and thriving after hundreds of years.

At the east end of Nishiki Ichiba, there is a shrine where locals go to pray. This is the fountain where you wash your hands before going into the shrine.

Catch of the Day

Iwashi (sardines) – Some people like them in a can, packed in oil. Others apparently prefer them raw on a bed of bloody ice.

Nothing says “delicious” like baby octopus lolipops. 200 yen ($2.50) a pop.

A 1960s era advertisement for shochu, Japanese distilled spirits.

Piping hot oden, perfect comfort food on a cold day.

Old Timers out for a stroll in Nishiki Ichiba.

Some patrons checking out the senbei shop. Senbei are rice crackers.

Ichigo, strawberries, can be really expensive in Japan. This package of 35 neatly aligned strawberries sells for 3,800 yen – about  $45. If that’s too much for you, just get the two pack above for 630 yen, or about $3.75 per strawberry.

As you cross from one section of the market to another, better keep your eyes out for cross-traffic. Taxi drivers are notoriously aggressive. But isn’t that the case everywhere?

Juxtaposition seems to exist everywhere in Japan.  Here in front of the Nishiki Tenmangu shrine, a young geisha crosses paths with a yanki, which are kind of obnoxious wannabe street punks, who typically wear garish hip-hop outfits and do their best to be a public nuisance, usually succeeding. Incidentally, coming across a geisha out for a stroll like that in the shopping arcade was a stroke of pure luck. It’s always good to have the camera at the ready in Kyoto.

Welcome to the brand new blog, a companion to the Jim Valencia Photography website. It’s so new it’s still got that new blog smell.  Actually, I just built it today and added a little content to kick it off, including a few posts with some recent (and some not-so-recent) photos that I hope you will enjoy.

Also this past week, I launched a new website for Jim Valencia Photography. Please check that out as well.

Please add me to your RSS, bookmarks and favorites, and come by on a regular basis.  I will be posting much more frequently than I did with my previous blog, although I will keep it open as sort of an archive.