If you're seeing an error message:

If you are seeing "picture currently unavailable" error messages from flickr.com on this blog, don't worry. Click on the picture area and you'll be taken to my flickr page, where everything will be all right. Cheers.

写真のエリアに「現在表示できません」というFlickrのエラーメッセージが表示されていたら、そのエラーメッセージをクリックしてください。Flickrのサイトに飛びますが、写真はそこでは表示されているはずです。

28 September 2010

Yellow cosmos キバナコスモス


Yellow cosmos キバナコスモス
Originally uploaded by nofrills

Out of focus


Out of focus
Originally uploaded by nofrills

I don't exactly remember how I got this. I'm sure I was struggling with the auto-focus in a windy condition. I was shooting at an maple tree (probably the one next to this tree).

It's getting darker.


It's getting darker.
Originally uploaded by nofrills

The sunshine has gone. The sky is completely grey, covered with thick cloud. I'm standing under a large maple tree.

Westward


Westward
Originally uploaded by nofrills

Looking westward. Taken almost at the same time with the previous one.

And now, a few hours later, it's raining. :/

Eastward


Eastward
Originally uploaded by nofrills

Looking eastward. Taken almost at the same time with the next one.

花とうろこ雲 Flower, sun, autumnal cloud


花とうろこ雲 Flower, sun, autumnal cloud
Originally uploaded by nofrills

上を向いて Head held high


上を向いて Head held high
Originally uploaded by nofrills

The sky tells that it's not summer though it's as unbearably hot and humid as two weeks before.

Nature (trees) imitates nature (cloud)


Nature (trees) imitates nature (cloud)
Originally uploaded by nofrills

Sunflowers (or ex-sunflowers)


Sunflowers (or ex-sunflowers)
Originally uploaded by nofrills

Van Gogh would envy me!! (or not)

Smoldering


Smoldering
Originally uploaded by nofrills

The end of life


The end of life
Originally uploaded by nofrills

向日葵は、朝顔に絡みつかれている。

27 September 2010

It's been three years. 長井健司さん射殺から3年


It's been three years. 長井健司さん射殺から3年
Originally uploaded by nofrills

Picture of Mr Toru Yamaji's tweets:
twitter.com/yamajitoru/status/25197811156
twitter.com/yamajitoru/status/25198431157

Today marks the third anniversary of Kenji Nagai's death. On 27th September 207, the Japanese journalist was shot at the close range when he was filming the people's protest in Rangoon, Burma. See the video (raw footage):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfgRs-JII78

Or check out my archive back in 2007:
whatiseehere.blogspot.com/search/label/%E9%95%B7%E4%BA%95...

Nagai was holding a camera when he was shot. But it has been missing since. His family members and work collegues have been demanding that the camera should be returned.

Five days before the anniversary, on 22nd September 2010, Mr Toru Yamaji of the APF News with which Nagai had worked many times, visited the Foreign Ministry to ask what they had found out about Nagai's killing: where is his lost (stolen) camera? Who was the shooter, and why?

The answer Yamaji got was very disappointing. He says on Twitter (in Japanese) that he was appalled. "No new development whatsoever," he writes. "Nothing new since when he was shot dead. The Burmese government says it was a stray bullet. The Japanese government says he was deliberately targeted and shot at close range from behind. And nothing has happened."

The Japanese offficials explained that "the Burmese still say the video (of the moment Nagai was shot) was fake. We take a number of occasions to talk about the matter but they only half-heartedly responds."

"The Burmese junta are convinced that the Japanese will always act weak and do nothing," Yamaji writes.

That is (the gist of) what Yamaji reported/tweeted.

Well, the Japanese government believes that a Japanese national was deliberately killed/murdered. What have they done? Nothing. They didn't severe the ties with Burma's junta. They did not even threaten to do so as far as I know (via the mainstream media). The Official Development Assistance (ODA) has not been stopped (in Japanese) for instance.

Diplomacy? That does not exist in the Japanese government.

Follow Toru Yamaji on twitter (in Japanese):
twitter.com/yamajitoru

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Mr Kiyomu Toyota, a Japanese photo journalist, posted a picture of the footbridge in Rangoon from where at the time the photographers and videographers stood on and filmed the carnage. The bridge is closed, or sealed, to be precise.
twitpic.com/2rf91b
twitter.com/KiyomuTomita/status/25389061375

What's the story? (On a glorious day)


What's the story? (On a glorious day)
Originally uploaded by nofrills

The last remaining flowers of Asagao (morning glory).


See also:
Dance, dance, dance

Whiter than the snow


Whiter than the snow
Originally uploaded by nofrills

Foxtail, foxtail


Foxtail, foxtail
Originally uploaded by nofrills

Sun and cloud


Sun and cloud
Originally uploaded by nofrills

The sky


The sky
Originally uploaded by nofrills

台風一過


台風一過
Originally uploaded by nofrills

台風一過の空。
After a typhoon, the sky always gets clearer.

空の青


空の青
Originally uploaded by nofrills

25 September 2010.
Finally it's beautiful today! It's been a few months really, after TWO MONTHS of extraordinary heat. 35 degrees (or over) with 60 or 70 per cent humidity has been perfectly normal for Tokyo during this summer, which was extra extra extraordinary.

台風が沖を通り過ぎ、急に天気が回復した。気温も20度台、実に「何ヶ月ぶり」の爽やかで快適な晴天。今年は春の長雨がしつこく桜が咲いてから雪が降り、夏は7月半ばから9月22日まで「35度上等!」だったので、この天気はありがたい。