hmmn: musings from the far east(erwood)
Today some photos of my father-in-law. We like to joke that he is a bit Yakuza-ppoi (meaning there’s a certain Yakuza-ness to his appearance), which the sunglasses and cigarettes seem to highlight. That’s probably why I love the photos of him from this trip where he’s holding the umbrella, which help bring out what a sweet and kind man he really is.
This week I will be presenting some photos of the family that were taken during our trip to Hitachi last week. All images were originally shot on 35mm film. Today, Kaika with his grandparents:
I should probably change that to “going to introduce Kaika to more relatives.” At any rate, Kaika, Naoko, her parents and I are heading out in about 6 hours (got to get to bed!) for a 2-day, 1-night stay in Hitachi, about three hours north of here in Ibaraki prefecture. Hitachi is where Naoko was born, and where my mother-in-law is from. The ostensible occasion of the visit is the 10-year anniversary of Naoko’s grandfather’s funeral (called houji in Japanese).
By all accounts Hitachi is not the most beautiful city in Japan, it being a port city and home to some 600 industrial companies, not to mention one of Japan’s largest copper mines. Nevertheless I’ve got the cameras in tow and we’ll see what comes of it. And of course I’m bringing the mobile phone, and plan on posting from the road on the progress of our trip/visit, so come back and check the “Wandering Muses” sidebar to the left to see how the trip is going.