Monday Goat Blogging (1965)

Goats - Okinawa  1965

I don't think that these photos have been posted on the blog before. One of my fellow servicemen in the U.S. Army was from Hyannisport, MA. He had somehow acquired a small sailboat and then somehow convinced me that it was a good idea to sail from the main island of Okinawa to one of the very smaller islands nearby.

Crazy, of course, since I can't swim, and we had no life vests.

Photos taken with a Nikon F, using Kodachrome film.

Boat - Okinawa  1965

Monday Pigeon Blogging

Little Girl, Pigeons (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Taken with a Nikon F during my first visit to Japan, in 1966. Hm. Let's do the math . . . why, that was 50 years ago! How time flies, like pigeons about to be rousted by a little girl.

Scooter, Okinawa - January, 1966

Motor Scooter (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

Who among us can pinpoint exactly where we were 50 years ago this month?

I don't know, maybe a lot! Maybe some weren't even born 50 years ago.

Anyway, 50 years ago this month Mike was motor scootering down a rural byway in Okinawa with his Nikon F slung over his shoulder*. At one point he impulsively stopped and clambered up a nearby hillside through the pampas grass to get a photo of his older, but still serviceable, motor scooter.


*Maybe. Can't exactly remember how the camera was carried.

Monday Pigeon and Gull Blogging

Little Girl, Pigeons (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Little Girl, Seagull - San Francisco  2015

Little Girl, Seagull - San Francisco  2015

. . . and little girls chasing them.

Boats, Reflections Okinawa 1966

Boat, Reflections (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

Boats, Reflections (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

Down by the harbor.

I recall one episode when the local longshoremen went on strike and members of the U.S. Army were ordered in to help unload the ships. I walked onto one of the boats, tiptoed over to a hold and peered down. Yikes! It was like looking into a bottomless black pit.

Needless to say I put my hands into my pockets, sauntered away then quickly hid. It worked!

Kyoto Sightems 1966

Photographers (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Caboose (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Photographers at work at a temple courtyard and  . . . a caboose!

Movie Posters 1966

Movie Posters - Japan  1966

Movie Posters - Japan  1966

I've tried to translate some of this, but alas, I'm totally not up to the task.

Street Scene, Casks Kyoto 1966

Street Scene (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Casks (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Some of these older photos I remember taking, but some I don't. Like the above.

Kids, Japan 1966

Kid Throwing (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Kids, Ditch (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

Some Nikon F black and white street photos.

Steps, Shrine 1966

Steps (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Shrine (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Kyoto in 1966, in these scenes looking much the same as it does today.

Monday Cat Blogging

Lady, Cat (Kyoto) - Japan 1966

Cat was scampering away, but she managed to catch up and snag it.

Katsura Gardens

Katsura Villa (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Garden Detail (Kyoto) - Japan  1966

Outside of Kyoto. On my way back from Okinawa I cleverly managed to route myself through the main island of Japan, spending a week in Kyoto.

The above photos were taken with a Nikon F film camera. Compare to a somewhat similar subject taken last year in Tokyo using an Olympus digital camera.

Turkish Bath 1966

Turkish Bath (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

". . . the pleasant place . . ."

Somewhat cryptic messaging.

Boy, Tatami Mats, Okinawa

Boy (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

Tatami Mats (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

Photos taken during my language visits in Okinawa. A very traditional house, with tatami mats.

Per Wikipedia: "Houses built in Japan today often have very few tatami-floored rooms, if any. Having just one is not uncommon."

Cemetery, Okinawa

Cemetery (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

So . . . is this the cemetery seen in yesterday's photo? I like to think that it is.

Forest Scene, Okinawa

Forest Scene (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

While I was stationed in Okinawa I started to study the Japanese language. Somehow I got in touch with a Okinawan resident about my age (can't remember how) for the purpose of exchanging language skills. (Needless to say, his English was far superior to my Japanese.) On the weekends I took a bus to a particular stop outside of town and walked to his house in the country. I could be wrong, but this might have been the scene: a forested hillside with haze in the distance, some clothes drying and an overgrown cemetery down at the bottom.

Then again, maybe not!

Okinawa Barracks

Barracks (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

A hot, humid afternoon. Hazy sunshine and indistinct clouds high overhead. Taken on the weekend.

All the above is pure speculation, of course. Don't remember this one at all.

Monday Cat Blogging

Cat, Tatami Mat (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

Taken in Okinawa. I was stationed there from 1964 to 1966. This was at a friend's house; we were trying to exchange language skills.

Pampas Grass

Pampas Grass (Okinawa) - Japan 1966

Pampas Grass, Clouds (Okinawa) - Japan  1966

Taken in Okinawa, year somewhat uncertain, although I'm labeling them as made in 1966.

I was using a Nikon F film SLR camera, with 50mm and 135mm lenses.

(I recently discovered some unscanned slides with Okinawa and Kyoto locales. Maybe I should wait until next year to post them, since then they'll be 50 year old photos. Oh well . . . I'll just do some reposting.)

Déjà vu All Over Again

I visited the Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji) in Japan back in the 60’s: I had routed myself through Japan as I returned to the U.S. from Okinawa.

I’ve posted one of my photos from that trip previously, here. (See below, as well.) Man Sweeping—Kyoto.

So it was that as Hali and I approached the entrance to Ginkaku-ji last year I suddenly halted, struck by the similarity between memory and reality as I came upon the same scene I had observed over 40 years ago.

But there wasn’t anyone sweeping! Keeping this in mind I continued to look for a man sweeping pix, finally finding one. I wonder if it's the same guy.

Photos: Ginkaku-ji Entrance—Kyoto, 2008; Man Sweeping—Kyoto, 2008; Man Sweeping—Kyoto, 1966