最近の写真・Recent Photos

最近、あまり日記を書いていないね。もう、モチベーションがなくなったかと思うところかもしれないけど、モチベーションじゃなくて、時間の問題だ。確かに、１年、２年間前より、日記を書く気が減ったけど、まだまだ書きたいことがあるぞ。

でも、この日記の中に、あまり書かない。それより、写真を発表したいと思う。
 
田舎に住んでいるから、あまりいい被写体がないと思うかもしれないけど、違う。逆に、田舎に興味があって、田舎の本体を詳しく記録したい。なので、田舎の写真を集めていて、この日記で少し発表する。

Recently I haven’t written much in my blog. You might be thinking that I’ve run out of motivation to write, but it hasn’t been so much about motivation as it has been about time. For sure, my enthusiasm for writing has gone down compared to a year or two ago, but there are still many things I want to write about.

However, for this entry, I don’t really want to write much. Rather than writing, I’d rather present some photos.

I live in a rural area, so you might think that there aren’t many interesting things to photograph, but that’s not true. It’s the reverse. I’m quite interested in rural Japan, so I want to document it in detail. So, I’ll present some photos that I have put together of rural Japan.

これは多久市。田んぼが多いど田舎だ。この写真を撮ったとき、立入禁止のところに立ち入りした。笑

This is Taku. This area has many rice paddies. When I took this picture, I had ignored a sign that said “No Trespassing!”

多久といえば、田んぼや山や青い空は頭に浮かぶ。僕は多久に住む前、稲を実際に見たことが無かった。

When you say Taku, rice paddies, mountains, and blue skies come to mind. Before living in Taku, I had actually never seen a rice plant in real life.

田んぼは生き物で群がっている。鳥、クモ、トンボやカエル、野生の動物で騒がしい。このカエルは僕のカメラのシャッターを聞いたら、逃げなくて、逆に寄った！シャッターの音はカエルの鳴き声に近いかな？それとも、テンズのガラスの反省で、カエルは他のカエルを見えたと思ったのだろう？

Rice paddies are teeming with different kinds of wildlife. They are alive with birds, spiders, dragonflies, and frogs, to name a few. When this frog heard the sound of my camera’s shutter, rather than running away, it actually came closer to me. I wonder if the shutter noise is similar to the noise those frogs make? Or maybe it saw its own reflection in the glass of the lens and thought it was another frog?

今月、青い田んぼは金色になって、いよいよ米の収穫期になったね。この田んぼを何回見ても、綺麗だと思った。

This month, the green rice paddy fields turned to gold, which means that it is time to harvest the rice. Every time I saw this field, I always thought it was really beautiful.

でも、田んぼはいつか切り倒され、収穫される運命がある。この機械は掃除機のように稲を吸い込んで、米を外して、タンクの中に置く。

But, rice plants are destined to be cut down and harvest. This machine was sucking up the plants like a vacuum, separating the rice from the plant, and then stored the rice in a tank.

稲刈りしている人を見たら、面白くて新しいカメラレンズを試してみたかった。この機械はもう切り倒された稲を食い込んで、稲の干し草を俵にして出す機械だ。荷造り機と呼ばれるものなのだろう。とりあえず、面白かった。

When I saw the guy harvesting the rice, I thought it was interesting and decided to test out my new camera lens. This machine was sucking up the leftover part of the rice plant after the rice had been separated and wrapping it into bales.

先週末、多久祭りがあったから、見に行った。日本とアメリカの祭りを比べたら、日本の祭りは大体食べ物を中心とするけど、アメリカの祭りは食べもやゲームや商品、ジェットコースターまである。日本の祭りは大きかったら、特別な物事があるかもしれないけど、多久祭りのような小さな祭りは一般だという気がする。

Last week, there was a festival that I went to. Compared to American festivals/fairs, festivals in Japan seem to be mostly centered on food, whereas American fairs tend to include food as well as games, booths selling products, and even roller coasters. If Japanese festivals are big, then they might have something special, but I get the feeling that the one here in Taku was fairly typical of festivals throughout Japan.

食べ物を中心とするけど、演奏もあった。

It was centered around food, but there were also some small stage performances.

真剣な顔。A serious face.

このばあさんは典型的な田舎人だ。彼女の顔のしわとか、丸めている背中とか、低い身長を見れば、日本の歴史を見える感じがする。

This old lady looks like a stereotypical farmer’s wife. You feel like you can see Japan’s history in the wrinkles in her face, her hunched back, and short stature.

ひょっとこ。

These are called hyottoko. They basically are people that dress up in ridiculous costumes and do a weird dance.

正直に言えば、そのひょっとこはあまり印象を与えなかった。でも、まあいっか。

多久のアルバムを見たかったら、どうぞこちらへクリックしてください。


I’d have to say that these hyottoko were not that impressive. But, whatever.

If you’re interested in seeing the rest of my Taku album, feel free to check it out here.