Improvement

Hasselbla 503CX, Planar 80mm F2.8, Portra 160 VC )




I am going to write about a very serious subject.

I have nothing to do with mechanics. I have never studies, or even tried to learn. In my opinion, there are two aspects in terms of the advancement in machinery. First of all, the function of the machine gets better and better. Secondly, the energy source of the machine keeps improving.

I bought a little device to cut hair in my nostrils 25 years ago. If I had told my sister who likes “brand” about this cutter, she might have been drooling although she would not have interested in the cutter itself, because it was made by famous Henkel.

The way how it works is very simple. It is a triangle in shape. The tip of the triangle is the part that actually cut hair in your nostrils. The tip is made of an outer tube and an inner tube. Both tubes have slits, just like your comb. When you insert the tip of the cutter, these slits tease hair in your nostril. Then you squeeze the body of the triangle. The outer tube is fixed. However, the inner tube rotates as you squeeze the body of the triangle. This is how you cut your hair in your nostrils. It is just like you cut bushes in your yard.

It was early this year when I started having a problem with this cutter. It just doesn’t cut very well. Nose hair is caught between the outer and the inner tubes. It pulls the hair! It is not a cutter. It is rather a puller, so to speak. It is quite easy to imagine how painful when it happens, even though you have no experience. I burst into tear with pain. At the same time, I feel like I want to sneeze.

I made a big decision to renew my cutter the first time in 25 years, since this is my birth day.

I have to admit that the cutter have made great improvement in the last 25 years. The improvement in machinery is very quick. Twenty five years for nostril hair cutter is equivalent to the progress in 2000 years in chinaware.

First of all, it cuts very well. You can’t feel it is cutting but it is. It reminds me of ancient samurai sword. Second of all, now it works with AA battery. You do not need squeeze triangle any longer. It satisfies two aspects of the improvement of machinery that I can think of.

This is great. I don’t have to deal with pain when I use it. I do not need to tear any more.

If it progress further, we will have nuclear nose hair cutter that you can use generation after generation. When you think your ancestors were using nose hair cutter that you are using now, it is kind of romantic.


( Japanese translation )

Sentimental journey

I had been trying to recall the very first camera I had had. I was in the third grade in the elementary school.

Unfortunately, I do not have that camera any longer. I don’t remember when I lost it. It is not even in my memory. I remember neither the name of the camera nor the company who made it. All I remember is the shape of the camera, weight of the camera (I should say lightness of the camera, rather), and cheapness when press its shutter. They, however, can’t be a clue to find what it was.

It is as if I am trying to find a girl who I fell in love the first time in my life. I want to see her, but I don’t at the same time. Several months had passed without any success to find my very first camera.

My first lover should live only in my sweet memory. The very first camera might be the same.

One day when I was in the bathroom, very important clue to find my first camera came to my mind all of sudden. I would like to mention that bathrobe is not just a place for excretion. It is at the same time the sacred meditation field for me.

My first camera was using the film called “Bolta film”. It was a 35mm film without perforation, was fixed onto a backing paper. Only B&W was available. The name was “Lightpan SS”

After the extensive search, I eventually manage to find the camera. It was Anny 10 which was made by Hoei Industrial Company in Japan. This is it! This is the camera that I had the very first time in my life.

I did a bit of net surfing. I found photos of this camera. I obtained permission from the people who are running these web sites.


(http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~akanyan/camera001.html )


(http://aya-2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/anny-10_ca.)


(http://aya-2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/anny-10_ca.)

Nowadays, we call this kind of things "Toy camera". In those days, however, there weren't such a word like toy camera.

Focal length was 50mm. It was made of single lens, fixed focus. Therefore, there was no need for focusing. You can switch the aperture between F8 and F11. To believe it or not, it had a connector for strobe. Yes, we had to change strobe bulb each time after we fired.

I must say that this toy camera did a tremendous job for me. I still remember that I shot a picture of my father in underwear under summer shine. He, by the way, owned Olympus Pen F at that time. He has taken eternal residence in the better place.

Well, forks! What was your very first camera in your life?

Run as fast as you can

( Canon F-1, FD 50mm F1.4, RXP )




Running is the nature of children. They run in summer or winter. Under the sunshine or rain, here they run. You can say they are energetic. At the same time, they can be annoyingly restless.

Restless children are not only the fact of human being. When you watch some programs on Discovery channel, you realize even infant animals run around beside their sedentary adult counterparts.

Even though I used to be a kid, I can’t recall why we were running all the time. There must have been a very good reason why we were running around. The reason, however, has been buried into the deepest part of my memory that I can’t dig up.

I remember there were many banners on the hall way in my elementary school. Most of them were seasonal, such as “take care of the first graders” in spring, or “ware your caps” in summer, and so on. In addition to those seasonal banners, there were some that stayed the same all year. They said “do not run the hall way”.

In our class room meeting, we used to decide the motto of the week. From educational stand point, I would imagine that must have meant a lot of things: e.g. to find out the problems, to make it as the motto of the week, to choose one motto from the candidates by democratic way, etc. For pupils, it did not matter to us. All we wanted was to finish the meeting ASAP. The problem that was the easiest to sort out was nominated, and we decided it as the motto without through discussion. We did have a skill to wrap up the boring meeting quickly despite the educational theory teachers had.

There was no rules that the same motto could not be chosen. I remember that the motto that was most frequently chosen was “do not run the hall way”. There were two reasons I can think of. One was that a lot of pupils were running around the hall way, which must be the fact since prehistoric era. The other reason was that it seemed that it was such an easy motto to achieve. I can tell one thing, though. The fact that “do not run the hall way” was the one that was most frequently chosen exactly meant how difficult it was to achieve.

It is strange in a sense that I can’t tell when we stopped running around like those days. There is one thing, however, that I can vividly remember.


There were no banners on the hall way said “do not run the hall way” in my medical school.

( Japanese translation )

Japanese man in Alabama

( Hasselblad 503CX, Planar 80mm F2.8, RXP )




I have been away from Japan on and off for about 20 years. I am pretty confident that I can adjust myself more or less to most of the circumstances. I used to live in U.K. for three and a half years. Toward the end of my stay in Britain, I was able to eat British dishes cheerfully. As you all know British foods have notorious reputation. I think this is worth being proud of. My taste buds must have degenerated. This is my theory of retrogression.

I, as a human being, have things that I can’t enjoy in abroad. Olympic game is what it is. The opening or closing ceremonies are OK. But I just can’t fully enjoy watching games.

No doubt broadcasting is a business. More the people watch, the better off. Inevitably, Games that you can watch on TV will be skewed. It is very reasonable that they put spotlight on athletes from your country. It is, however, a little bit boring for foreigner like me to be able to watch only a few selected kinds of games on TV. As a Japanese, I would like to watch marathon that we regard the finale of Olympic. I would like to watch Judo, gymnastics, etc.

In the U.S., Most of broadcasting is swimming and track. The U.S. indeed has many distinguished athletes in these fields. During Olympic period, however, it makes me feel that Olympic has only swimming and track, nothing else.

Well, U.S. is better, as a matter of fact. In Britain, the degree of skewed broadcasting becomes even worse. To add insult to injury, it looks kind of peculiar at least to me. The ones you see very often on TV is equitation and rowing. Every now and then, you can also watch archery or fencing.

Where’s marathon? Where has judo gone? I feel like I want to raise my fist in the air and shout. But I have to be very careful. If somebody who doesn’t understand Japanese saw me shouting with my fist up in the air every night, he would misunderstood I am a member of Japanese sector of Al-Queda. I should just shut up.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I have to make myself enjoying watching swimming and track for the next a couple of weeks. Then again, it is much better than in Britain.

Everything is relative. Olympic is not an exception.

(Japanese translation )

The result show.

( Rolleicord Vb, Xenar 75mm F3.5, Infrarot filter, Efke IR820 )




For those who expected too much from the word “result show”, I have to apologize. It is not like “Mr. John Doe who kindly wrote a comment in this log won the prize”.

The infrared I tried the other day under scorching Alabama summer has come back from processing. I would like to show you here how it came out.

The film was Efke IR 820. I put this film in my good old Rolleicord Vb with infrarot filter on. The ISO setting of my lightmeter was 3. Even with this extremely low ISO setting, I ended up with lot of underexposed shots. It seems to be better off with 2more steps over exposed. My slow style of photographing is becoming even slower. It sounds against the trend. But I am very happy to be an odd guy.

The biggest problem, I think, of this film is that its grain is not suitable for flathead scanner. I don’t meant to make an excuse, but the actual result is much better than you can see on the computer screen.

Obviously, infrared light is not visible to our eyes. In addition, photo lightmeters don’t sense infrared, either. What you read on your lightmeter is actually just a guide. You are guessing the exposure from the lightmeter readings. No wonder it is not easy. I need a lot practice and need to find out from the hard way.

No doubt infrared photography will be another strong armamentarium for my photography.

(Japanese translation)

Those days.........

( Rollei 35SE, Sonnar 40mm F2.8, Neopan SS )



Summer means sunflowers in my mind. I was still an elementary school pupil. No need for fancy penmanship. Just a sound of the word “sunflower” is good enough.

I am not even sure why summer is equal to sunflower for me. I do not have any sweet memories about those days that sunflower reminds me. I have no real reason that I can explain.

When I was a child, blooming sunflowers automatically meant they have kids in their houses. Those sunflowers were way taller than me and brick walls. Huge flowers were smiling at me with the background of deep blue summer sky.

I had a brainwave this spring that I decided to plant sunflower seeds. I planned to bring myself back to those old days. Once I went into the shop, however, I was kind of petrified because of the fact that there are millions of kinds of sunflower seed on the shelves. It was totally out of my expectation. When I was a kid, sunflowers simply meant sunflowers. Yes, I mean, those big tall sunflowers! I did not have to choose. After many decades have passed, now we have so many kinds of sunflowers, thanks for hybridization technology or whatever you call it. This reminded me of the first time when I walked into the American supermarket. I was totally lost which peanut butter to choose.

Again, my sunflowers have to be those big tall ones. It does not matter how old I am now. I carefully avoided small kinds with very fancy names that you can even grow on the tables. My choice was, as you can imagine, “GIANT”. This must be it!

I planted the seeds, waited, waited, and waited patiently. When I saw their seed leaves, I was very excited. They were already big. That’s it! That is my sunflowers!

Well, I can’t proceed any further without mentioning one important fact. My wife was the one who took care of these sunflowers. I did not.

In any case, my sunflowers. They have bloomed. I noticed something was not right. My sunflowers should have more massive stalks, their height should be much taller, and the flowers should be much bigger. Since I expected so much, that was a complete shock to me. I almost had to lie down in bed for three days to recover.

It was only today when I found the reason. I am now much taller than those days. Sunflowers should not be blamed. Those days when I, with straw hat, was looking up the huge sunflowers against blue summer sky can’t come back. I am missing those old days. They are gone forever.


( Japanese translation )