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A gleam in my father’s eye

My father, Kaena Pt., Oahu, Hawaii, February 4, 2004. Bessa R2, CV 35mm f/2.8 ‘Pancake,’ Ilford HP5 Plus.

Just submitted this over at the Mirror Project. It’s a 100% crop of a picture I took of my father in Hawaii. Needless to say that’s me reflected in his left-hand sunglass frame. That’s Naoko holding Kaika reflected in the other frame. A couple of notes to self: 1) I should have exploited more those reflector Aviator sunglasses my dad wears all the time (and I mean, all the time, out of doors or in); and 2) I need to ask my dad the next time I talk to him whether anyone ever says to him, “Hey, you know you look just like the FBI sketch of the Unabomber?”

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Back from vacation

Shibuya, January 11, 2004: click for larger image (43K)

Shibuya, Tokyo, January 11, 2004. Mamiya 645, 55mm/2.8.

We’re back, and as was predicted (or promised?) there was no posting done from the technological hinterland that was Hawaii. Of course Hawaii itself isn’t technologically remote, just that my time there was spent far removed from the computers and clicks the occupy far too much of my time here at home (as I’m proving to myself all too easily this week as I catch up on my emails and mailing lists and RSS feeds).

Here at home. Now there’s a strange concept, Japan as home. For better or worse, it’s here that’s home now. As much as I wanted it to be otherwise, Hawaii is no longer my home, just a vast and endless repository of memories and recollections. I suppose for some that would mean home, but for me, for various reasons, it doesn’t.

(The above pic has no direct relationship to this post, in case you were left wondering.)

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Finally, a decent-sized vacation

Looking mauka from Waikiki, February 1999

Naoko, Kaika and I are off to Hawaii in a few hours, so Kaika can meet his American grandparents and they can meet him. Posting to this will be light to non-existent for the next couple of weeks, I suspect. The above is from my last trip to Hawaii 5 years ago, a business trip I took in February of 1999.