I do not know the exact age of this wisteria tree, but I do know it is quite old. It actually is not the oldest one here, but it has been tended to very carefully. It grows apart form the much larger, older collection of wisteria in the background.

It cannot be overstated how important rice is to Japan, and once you spend a few days here you will see. Rice fields are abound. Some are large, some are small. Beyond any first impressions looking from a train or a car, your understanding of this importance will really set in when you eat.

Rice is used in so many products. I will not even try to catalog that. You can find out more here if you like. But when you eat, you’ll probably have white rice, or perhaps melting mochi in a hot bowl of soup. If you’re fortunate, you’ll have delicately made sweets with tea, or better yet, saké, all of which needs rice.

Before the harvest, when rice is cut and bundled, is when you see people toiling to beat time, the daylight, or the coming frost. And when you see the standing bundles of rice, you almost feel like they’re people, waiting to be taken home. Rather eerie at night under a lit moon.

Japan is a country of tidiness and detail. Space is not a large commodity as the population is restricted to roughly 25% of the land. The rest is too mountainous. It is in the Japanese tenacity for detail you see little touches which amount to a lot. It can be maddening on some levels, but with food and crafts it is wondrous.

I was first drawn to Japanese rice fields by their perfectly straight rows, or the tiny little paths in between each neighboring rice field. But I really was drawn to the this manner of bundling recently. Despite Japan’s obvious modernity, seeing this done so naturally, perhaps traditionally, was refreshing.

The convenient use of the rice stalk itself to bundle the whole was quite natural, I thought. It may not seem like a big deal, but when you pass uncut fields one day, then the next they’re suddenly populated but these erected bundles of rice, you are struck a little. It must have taken a bit of effort! If you’re like me, you would ask yourself how this occurred so quickly while making use of the knot on not only one, but a multitude of bundled souls.

PS…if you eat a bowl of rice in Japan, remember not to leave a single grain in the bowl. Some people would perceive that as rude, or wasteful. Harvesting rice is usually a group effort. Perhaps you will appreciate even more the effort that went into bringing you that humble bowl.

I was never a Crocs fan. I remember ten years ago someone saying they’ll be the next big thing.

I scoffed. And, I was wrong.

Here in Japan, where you’re in and out of your shoes, Crocs or Chinese copies of Crocs have been popular enough to warrant free-standing boutiques in fancy shopping collections.

The Japanese love to personalize things like cell-phones or bags, so adding buttons to Crocs made them even more of a hit.

As far as this bright and pink pair go, I saw these left as you see them. It had rained earlier, so maybe the child ran off in haste. I’m sure the rain did them no harm.

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Chunichi Dragons fans, and a few Hiroshima Carp fans, file out en masse after a tie game.

The slow, crowded slumber down the concourse reminded of just how crowded Japan is.

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The designers of this flow-chart are credited along the right margin. ↑

“GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE.” says the chart…

Seems like a fair statement, but somehow folks still don’t think twice about using other people’s images without proper attribution.

Obviously the image I just posted is not mine. It belongs to a couple of designers. Their names are written along the lower right margin.

So I was prompted to post this after a friend on a growing social media site found out one of his pictures was used for a premium blog theme sale, without his permission.

To add insult upon insult, he was neither credited nor compensated for the use of his picture. Note that the premium theme in question sold over 700 times for $35 (each time). You can do the math.

You can see the photo and theme here (sorry, dead link since posted; the photographer and the developer were in talks over it as I wrote this).

Obviously the sale of the theme was not for the photo itself, however to measure the impact of the photo on successive sales is beyond me. All I know is that if Tommy Lee Jones found out his image was used for Boss canned coffee without his consent nor compensation, saying that Boss only sells coffee will not keep the lawyers away.

Unfortunately, my friend is not famous, and will probably get nothing out of the infringement. Under amicable terms he might get some free advertisement, but that’s all.

“What can I do to avoid this?” The answer is, “Nothing.”

But you can make it more official. US law more or less protects stuff like this without you having to file paperwork. You can set your permissions in some photo-sharing sites like Flickr.

I always close my posts here with a link to The Creative Commons (below). You can get some ideas there. You can also watermark your work, but there are ways to remove that, too, even on an iPhone.

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Nagano Prefecture is well-known for its winter sports, and of course the 1998 Winter Olympics. But summer offers pleasant reprieve from the sultry summer heat in the major city areas. In addition to simply getting away nature offers a wonderful bounty.

Driving in the highlands takes you past many places begging for a visit, like this lovely “rest stop” near Iida, Nagano Prefecture. The field was ablaze with tall, robust sunflowers in their prime. And after a brief stretch, one can pick up a few fresh vegetables, some worth eating on the spot!

I must say, for Japan’s rather extreme industry in the city centers, I really appreciate how pleasant the interior can be.

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I believe in The Creative Commons.

A local summer festival culminates in a large precession from the river to the shrine. Despite the extreme summer heat after the rainy season, these festival revelers still kept good cheer. The young boy is being carried as a spiritual totem to the shrine for the final prayer which will wrap up this two-day celebration.

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The position of the shadows on the (ubiquitous) corrugated metal caught my eye.

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