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Camera Roll
Another couple of months in photos from my Instagram Stories. Week by week the seasons change while daily life remains “same-same but different.” Scroll to see nature (including my best ever photos of a snail and a grasshopper) and art. Always plenty of cats.
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Festival Spider
When my sister read my previous post, she wrote some encouragement to me. Not a classic “you can do it” message, instead it reframed my perception of my role at Kozuka Art Festival. You are the spider of the festival. You have put yourself in a shady spot where there are trees and tenderness to…
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Kozuka Art Festival 2026 (first half)
Art festival in the forest! A magical week full of artists arriving and displaying their wares and their work. Restaurants come to us on a daily rotation. There are performances and impromptu encounters. Workshops, crafts for sale, art on display. It’s very cool. But from my point of view, its been a lonely four days.…
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Haruka Ueno, 1929
Last December I was shopping in the thrift store for picture frames. I am always on the lookout for interesting old frames with ugly art in them. I repurpose the art and use the frames for my own work. One frame had a rough-hewn rustic look, with cracked glass and nails holding the back on.…
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Waterfall Deluxe
There’s great delight in encountering a place for the first time and for over ten years now, Kamogawa has been revealing new treats. This week was a waterfall that took my breath away. Yomogi Fudou Taki is about half an hour from home and it rivals Yoro Keikoku, the famous river valley up in Otaki,…
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My First Pride
I have a long and complicated history with my sexuality. I’ve tried it all; I’ve had mixed feelings about most of it. Knowing what I know now about neurodiversity and my personal spicy blend of mental traits, that makes perfect sense. But allowing myself a label is relatively recent self-identity that I shared when I…
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The Mysterious Awa Agricultural Highway
This week we explored the “will it ever be completed?” agricultural highway that is slated to open the mountainous area of southern Boso to commercial traffic. 安房地域広域農道 or Awa Region Wide-Area Agricultural Road is a massive project that’s been built in short stretches since 1991 (35 years!) and it still isn’t done. But it’s not…
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I Hugged a Politician
It wasn’t weird. This Sunday, Kamogawa is having elections for the sixteen member city council. The election boards show nineteen candidates: thirteen running for re-election and six new faces. And as always, I spent some time checking out the posters. Hilarious poses, funny quotes, earnest campaign promises. These are our neighbors and they are all…
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Extending Pension Payments
In Japan, when you turn 60 you officially stop paying into the Nenkin national pension system and you can choose to take “early retirement” at a reduced rate (76%), or opt to wait until 65, 70, or 75 to receive monthly payments at higher rates. If you haven’t reached the 480 month contribution maximum, you…
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Five Ideas That I Can’t Do Alone
五つのアイデア、一人ではできない I have been overflowing with project concepts recently – maybe it’s spring, maybe my brain has a burst of good sense for a change – and these five ideas keep coming back to me. I am sharing them here in English and Japanese. 最近、プロジェクトのアイデアがあふれています。春のせいかな、それとも珍しく頭が冴えているのかな。その中でも、五つのアイデアが繰り返し頭に浮かびます。どれも共通するテーマがあります。 These are largely ideas around: Akiya Recycle Village 空家リサイクル村 Let’s…
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