Some interesting waste for sure. Not sure what it is, but I would love to think it is felt waiting for me to be its owner.

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If anyone wants to help let me know.

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This is all very promising.

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I was just scouring an old hard drive and I came across this. And yes this really was me. I did not respond.

Oops

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Well the farming project has been going quite well, this is a still from the fifth installation. I am not sure exactly where the focus is yet as far as end product, but I like the daily task of creating something out of almost nothing. And returning the next day to hopefully nothing again. I did just look out the window though and three out to the four bamboo stands are still standing and as the will until they fall I suppose.

Once the entire project is finished I will post it to my vimeo. Here is day 1 ( http://www.vimeo.com/10280572 )

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This is a snap shot of last nights snacking. I did eat some chocolate, and I finally got ahold of some cereal. A little more then half a life ago I went through a serious kiwi phase, and I am back on it again. There is a farmers market about a half mile away from here that has some very delicious local produce and the kiwi grower has found a dedicated customer.

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This is a ceiling shot of a local theater in Kamiyama, Japan.

“Yorii-za

There are almost no documents about the building of the Yorii-za Theater, but according to the memories of local senior residents, it was built in 1929. There was a fire in Yorii in 1918, and 65 houses and 120 buildings were burned (according to the Great Fire of Jinryo published by Nishimada Kinotaro in November of 1918) Ten years after the great fire, people’s lives had returned to normal and a doctor living in Yorii named Sasaki Kosuke built four two-storied houses to rent out, and in the middle made a passage leading to Yorii-za Theater, which he also built.

When it was built, there was a staff with regular shows held twice weekly, and it became the entertainment center for the village. Some people even walked the long distance from other villages just to watch a show.

The Shinwa Gakudan theater group made entirely of amateurs

After the war, there wasn’t much entertainment but amateur performing groups put on shows at the theater. However, in the 1950s with the introduction of television, interest in the theater waned and the building was used as a textile factory for some time. Now, as previously mentioned, the theater has been repaired by a local NPO and is being used again in its original capacity.

The Advertisements on the Yorii-za Ceiling
On the wall to the right of the stage is a panel with the names of the seven people who were responsible for the theater. They were the ones who assembled the advertisements.

People Responsible for the Ceiling Advertisements

The ceiling is made up of square frames, with thirteen vertical and twelve horizontal, making for a total of 156 frames. Subtract nine blank frames, and there are 147 filled-in frames left in the ceiling today.

The industry most represented is the thread industry. Oguchi Thread (6 frames), Tsutsui Thread (5), Hinode Thread (5), Kataoka Thread (5), and so on. During the 1920s and 30s, sericulture was the main industry in the area, and most of the fields were taken up with mulberry plants to feed the silkworms in order to harvest their silk cocoons.

Cocoons were exported three or four times per year, and the local farmers depended on that for most of their income. Many towns along the Yoshinogawa River did the same, and most of the fields on both sides of the railway tracks leading to Tokushima City were taken up by mulberry plants. At that time, the thread produced from silkworm cocoons was one of Japan’s biggest exports.

An advertisement for a thread factory

Oguchi Thread was a company based in Suwa-gun, Nagano Prefecture, and set up their Tokushima Factory in Kamome-cho (present day Shimada-cho) in Tokushima City in 1908. Tsutsui Thread set up a factory in Kamojima-cho in 1910. In the Kataoka Thread advertisement it lists Chiejima, Kakijima-son, Awa-gun (present day Yoshinogawa City). Hinode Thread had a factory in Tokushima City, and used cocoons produced in Kamiyama. That the thread producing companies of the prefecture displayed their names here indicate that they had high hopes for Kamiyama’s sericulture industry.”

This was taken from ( http://www.in-kamiyama.jp/author/inai-e/ )

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Today I had an amazing run in the morning it was about 45 minutes through Kamiyama. It is hard not to enjoy a town that looks like it is straight out of the movies. I have plenty of photos up on my flickr site, and I think there are a couple of links on the blog to get you there.

Soon I am going to take some photos of the interior of where I am staying, but it is a rather simple traditional japanese style house. There is no couch, the toilet is in the ground (which makes it terrible for reading, especially since I am not flexible due to sports injuries and general stretching laziness), and the tub and shower room look over this river that runs right next to my place. Hopefully I will be able to get the garden out back going soon. I doubt I will plant anything but just the idea of plowing a field and having an actual meditation patch sounds like a good thing to wake up to in the morning. I am sure I will add more as the days go on, I don’t want it to be too boring, but if you have any questions please ask. And if you have any art gestures that would take less then 5 minutes that you have always wanted to do in rural Japan let me know, I think I should have time to do a few a day.

Thanks!

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This is a shot down the atrium of the aquarium. It was taken on a trip there with some friends from Iwaki. It was a pretty sweet time. I did however see some things I would rather not think about when I am sitting atop my surfboard awaiting waves.

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