Early Autumn Home Light

Days are full of making and though I spend more time indoors, the early autumn light floods through the shojigami and tiptoes onto the walls. It is a magical light time of year and the house still smells of the sun on wood and warm tatami. I anticipate the turning of the leaves during koyo and feasting on chestnut rice and the fruits of the ginkgo tree. October marks the rice harvest, matsuri, bamboo lanterns, pumpkins and the welcome return of steaming onsen on crisp cold days.  It's a time of year to love. 

Shift.

As we drain the last of our shared summer days, we make time to look, time to make, time to rest, time to read, time to love, time to rearrange. We see everything anew as September beckons us with less balmy arms and promises of a shift, a return to feeling free. I embrace (with all my might) the opportunity to draw, carve, print, sculpt, write and notice all the wonder of here. I am fierce with it. 

Nagasaki gateway

Three Chinatown kakunimanju

Misplaced canal-side yatai

Wooden historical Dejima

Cable-car nun-nightscape

Peace peace park

rose shaped ice

Koi river wonder

Texting sailor high-rise

Hashima / Gunkanjima / Battleship Island

Set sail from Nagasaki port to a tiny island abandoned, 
Coal mining community long gone,  
architectural skeletal remnants. 
The 'Nations first high' rise still standing, concrete.
But sea beaten, typhoon whipped, sun bleached. 
Haunting emptiness, tempting exploration.
Decades of decay prompt snapshot narratives, 
BondJamesBond villain comparison.
Head count on, head count off.
Head full of Bond girl fantasies.

On Okinawan time

Okinawa tastes of ice cold 'Orion B', of satiating Awamori roku, of prickly goya cucumber, of juicy green skiikwaasaa, of sweet purple benimo. The soundtrack to everywhere is a captivating Sanshin, the beat of a drum, the melodic chant of locals.   

 Snaking a line from Naha to Nago, past the long U.S bases we see shisa lion-dragons, we feast on miniature tacos, we visit ingenious kilns and pottery workshops.

Nago is early Obon. Nago is Eisa dances at dusk. It's waking from a tatami hut and padding to a cove for a pre-breakfast swim. Nago is the generosity of new friends, of secret snorkelling spots, of burning sun and shady tropical trees and the cooling taste of love.

Ishigaki jima

Dining on famed Okinawa soba and coffee kakigori. Secret breakfast tofu sets in the heart of inaka.

Hours under the sea at Yonehara beach befriending schools of luminous species. 

Eye-swimming in Kabira bay's turquoise sea and moonscape coral seen through glass-bottomed boats. Stray David Bowie eyed cats beg for a lick of ben-imo soft cream.

Cycling around Taketomi island, counting 'shisa' lined roofs, swerving ox, searching for star shaped sand.

 Dusk snorkelling at Sunset Beach in the company of poisonous yet shy scorpion fish and bikini-matching zebra varieties.

*Ishigaki jima is a short flight south from mainland Okinawa, closer to Taiwan and China, geographically and culturally, than the rest of Japan, and absolute paradise.