Daioni's life in (really) rural japan - photo thread

[Parag0n]

Bahaha

[Sciby]

Mmmmm... beer cave.

[West]

BIG FOOT, watchout Daioni LOL. If anychances Binny Laden is in there then you've just score yourself $16 Million.

[DaiOni]

$16 million???

It's nearly A$70million atm

and, yes, I've already looked.

[mcnamg]

dai oni do you see any nicely done up stageas around your area?

if you do could you post up some pics please

[DaiOni]

mcnamg: there's plenty of nice ones about - if I have a chance, I'll take a few pics

Okay, here's a quick update. No car pics in this lot (sorry - though it's not the central purpose of this thread, anyway - but I'll endeavour to try harder)

first up, a bit of subtle engrish:

[DaiOni]

...because the robots are a little busy at the moment...

smoko! :Pimp: wonder what he has in that pipe?

[DaiOni]

more buddhas!

another shrine to lost babies/children - with an interesting collection of toys clustered around statuettes

[DaiOni]

from the tiny, to the gigantic:

another massive statue in the middle of nowhere!

[DaiOni]

I touched on this subject a little earlier (with reference to a very interesting book on the 'destruction' of 'old japan' - dogs and demons, by alex kerr)...

On my island you can find examples of this 'destruction' everywhere - though moreso the destruction of the natural environment, as opposed to the destruction of heritage buildings and areas that occurs in more urban centres. Typical sights are pointless rows of tetrapods (conrete blocks that are designed to protect the coast against typhoon damage - but tend to do more damage to the environment), unneccesary dams (lots of them), mazes of roads in the mountains (going nowhere, simply a way to obtain budget money and provide kickbacks to companies), beautiful rivers turned into concrete canals, gigantic breakwalls (I'll get some pics of these - they can be over thirty feet high, and utilise massive amounts of concrete - another major kickback)...

and this - one of the more common sights, mountainsides that have been concreted up (ostensibly, to stop landslides):

the thing is - this is in the middle of a very extensive, useless, mountain road (a long-cut, instead of a short-cut, with no residences, no business use...). So immense amounts of money are poured into the road, immense amounts of money are poured into the upkeep of the road/adjacent areas - yet they are never used! It's crazy, and the environment gets the worst deal of the lot.

[DaiOni]

on the other hand, once in a while, the intrusive hand of man and the simplicity of nature combine to paint a pretty picture or two

[Demon Dave]

that last picture, of the mountain road is disheartening...almost sickening.

Yamanashi has it's fair share of pointless projects, like a new tunnel, cutting right through a mountain connecting point A (in the middle of nowhere, a place frequented only by farmers) to point B (also in the middle of nowhere and again, frequented only by farmers).

After graduating Uni with a Environmental Science degree, the kind of wanton destruction of the countryside, seen frequently here in Japan, really pi55es me off :cuss:

[DaiOni]

school sports days: (this one's at junior high) contain the usual collection of relays and so on, but also some whacky events that make you say "only in japan". AT most schools, the students are divided into two teams (or more) who compete against each other for a variety of trophies and overall glory. They take it VERY seriously - always ends in tears for one team.

Every year I pop into the school sports day of my wife's base school. Simply because this one event (pictured below) is quite a spectacle.

Every boy in the school lines up against the opposing team. Half of them form a protective scrum around a bamboo pole (with a flag on the top), the other half charge across the field to take on the other team - the objective: to claim the opposing flag. It's a chaotic mix of red rover/rugby/combat...

[Demon Dave]

DaiOni, I got to say you've got a talent for taking photos. What camera do you use BTW?

[DaiOni]

Dave: sony dsc F717 for most of them

back to the sports festival...

of course, the girls have their own version of 'fight sports':

probably more violent than the boys (those girls can be bitchy!) - this is a piggy-back fight where the objective is to pull the headbands off the opposing team (usually involves a fair amount of scratching, slapping, hair pulling, crying...)

[Demon Dave]

Great camera - I used to have the F707 before replacing it with the F828.

I've just realized I'm missing all the action at Undoukai's - the three I have to attend every year (all yochien's) are tame by comparison!

[DaiOni]

just a little snapshot to finish off:

a pretty typical view around here - we live amongst a sea of ricefields.

added this one with a touch of sadness - it's harvest time, so these beautiful wavy fields of almost fluorescent green (which have long turned straw yellow) are rapidly being replaced by stripped mud fields... and, I guess, it won't be too long before the blanket of white snow arrives to provide another aspect of life in japan...

[mcnamg]

its great to see the raw human aspect of japan the type of which you dont see in the tour guides or brochures. i guess that it would be a bit silly for us to think that wanton environmental destruction only occurs in places that arent as beautiful as japan but i guess where the hand of man can reach it does some damage. That mountainside looks hideous. I am sure that in its previous state it was a site to behold.

thanks for the great and rich pictures youre a great photographer

keep up the good work

[carlo]

dude.. awesome thread..

I want to move to japan.. hrm