hmmn: musings from the far east(erwood)
I took these photos on oomisoka, or New Year’s Eve, when the family visited Warabi Shrine to welcome in the New Year. I used my 35mm and good ol’ black & white print film (imagine that!). It was a nice evening, equal parts solemnity and festivity, which I hope is evident a little in the pictures below.
Every blogger and his/her mother has linked to this, so I’ll throw my hat into the ring and mention that I’ve been enjoying reading The Diary of Samuel Pepys. Particularly enjoyable have been the annotations, reading them makes me feel like I’m back in lit class, or more prosaically, rummaging through some old Cliffs Notes.
Speaking of diaries, found an interesting complement to Pepys’, The Diary of a Nobody, by George and Weedon Grossmith (1892). Not an actual diary, of course, but the fictionalized diary of one Charles Pooter, a London commoner. I love Pooter’s introduction:
Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see — because I do not happen to be a ‘Somebody’ — why my diary should not be interesting. My only regret is that I did not commence it when I was a youth.
Reads like a blogger’s manifesto! (found via Hugh Cook’s Website)
More images from my trip last week to Kanazawa, this time focusing on snow. I wanted to see snow during my trip…next time I’ll be more careful for what I wish for, as it was seemingly never-ending. But truthfully, I loved it. For me it was a kid in the candy store feeling, and made my trip.
