Missing Japan

June 11th, 2008

It’s been three months since I visited Japan and I still think about it every day. It’s the little things that I remember – the conversations or the meals or the sensations that I don’t necessarily have preserved with photographs.

I remember our first morning in Japan, eating at a cafe that we noticed the night before while searching for the hostel, and how the sunlight poured through the windows and onto my waffles, surely making them taste better. The coffee was rich and strong, too.

I remember the night we stumbled into an Irish pub, exhausted after bicycling all over Kyoto, and laughing together over the inauthentic menu. It felt so relieving to sit and I could have fallen asleep in the dimly lit booth.

And I remember the ten short minutes that Eric and I spent in a small cafe in Osaka that reminded me of the Nighthawks painting by Edward Hopper and sincerely feeling like I belonged in Japan, proud of how well we had traveled together in a foreign country. I couldn’t believe how easy it was.

We walked a lot in Japan and I had blisters on my feet by the time we left, but I needed the exercise and after the first two days, I became accustomed to it.

I didn’t realize how little time I spend outside until I returned home from Japan. In Japan, we were outside most of the day, walking from one place to another. The fresh air and the warm sunlight made me feel alive and energetic. I realize how important that is to me now; I feel lazy and lethargic sitting in front of a computer in an air-conditioned office all day.

We also spent a lot of time on trains in Japan. There wasn’t much worth photographing on the trains, but I will always remember the way the electric lines would dip between each pole as we passed them, almost in rhythm with the repetitive sound of the wheels on the train rolling over the tracks.

I remember smiling to other Japanese tourists at a temple in Kyoto and responding with “Konnichiwa!” when they cheerily greeted me as we passed on the trail. I hope I return to Japan soon.

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DelFest 2008

June 4th, 2008

My dad drove our family to DelFest in his motorhome on the Memorial Day weekend. We were on the road for five hours. My sister and I played with Photo Booth on my MacBook for at least half of the journey.

I didn’t know many of the bands performing at this bluegrass festival and the few I had heard of – Sam Bush, David Grisman, Chris Thile – I’d seen at other festivals a dozen times. I went to DelFest not necessarily for the music, but for a weekend in the mountains with my family.

The festival was held at the Allegany County Fairgrounds in Cumberland, Maryland. It was on the Potomac River.

I love bluegrass festivals. I love the colors and the sounds and the people.

We camped next to a man who owned an old school bus that had been “renovated” into an RV. Its license plate was accurately “FUBAR”.

He hung hammocks inside for extra sleeping space.

For the first annual DelFest, I was impressed with the number of attendees.

My mom snuck backstage twice and met some of the performers. This is my mom with Sam Bush. Sam Bush was my favorite performer at this festival.

But my favorite part of the festival – more than listening to the live music – was exploring the fairgrounds with Eric, the faint sound of bluegrass music in the background and the backdrop of mountains in the foreground.

My DelFest 2008 Flickr set is here.

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