Reflections in the Aratama

Taken from the Shin Yokohama Doori bridge over the Aratama River near Okanomachi in Yokohama.

Why isn't there a year of the lion?

The Word Works New Year card for 2009. The model is granddaughter Fiona, the copy by Aono Yoshiko, and the design and layout by Ruth McCreery.

Yokomizo Yashiki

Yokomizo Yashiki, now a designated Yokohama cultural property, is a complex of farm buildings from the early to mid nineteenth century.

The Yokomizo family were the headmen of their village and had a very substantial property, which their heirs donated to Yokohama.

The city has restored the five surviving buildings—the gate (with built-in storerooms, shown here), the handsome main house, a separate building for raising silkworms, a granary, and a document storehouse—and opened them to the public as a park/history museum. The interior is preserved to show what farm life (farm life on the high end of the scale, to be sure) was like in the past.

In addition to touring the main building, Yokohama residents are welcome to rent its sitting room for events.

Seedpod

This is what I was photographing when John caught me in the act.

Taken just outside a hotel on the Pacific Ocean side of Chiba Nov. 6, 2005. I have no idea what the seedpods are.

VoteFromAbroad Koinobori

May 5 was both Children’s Day in Japan and the launch date for the new Democrats Abroad voting assistance site, http://www.VoteFromAbroad.org.

Photographer at Work

Ruth absorbed in shooting an interesting plant.