michael lambe

Once again, as every year, the spirits of the dead, have visited the homes of their loved ones, then whistled back over the hills around Kyoto, following the symbols written in flames that guide them back to their heavenly homes.

And I love my camera. I love it because I can take pictures like this:

And even this:

Which aren’t in themselves great pictures, and it’s not as if the world really needs yet more pictures of the firey kanji on the mountain but considering how far away I was and what a crappy viewpoint it was with tonnes of people jostling about and clickety-click-clicking with their camera phones and me with no tripod but the top of Nana-chan’s head (thanks Nana!) - I think they are pretty good. So I love my camera.

I also love my camera because I can take nice videos like the one at the bottom of this post. Last night, I went to see Satoko Okuda (of Viva Sherry) performing solo at 都雅都雅 (togatoga) which I won’t be recommending on Deep Kyoto today because as a live music venue - it kind of sucks. I’ve been there once before and the same things got to me on both occasions. The place has no atmosphere. One thing that makes a show is the interaction between the performer and their audience. But at 都雅都雅 they shine the lights into the performer’s eyes so they can’t see who they are singing to and the audience is totally unresponsive anyway. So, there is that, which would probably be enough, but they do this one little thing when you get there which really gets my back up. You pay your entry fee and you think ok. Then you go in and sit down and they say you have to buy one drink. And that’s fine too because I want a drink anyway (several probably). But then, (and this is what really winds me up) you have to buy one food item off the menu too whether you are hungry or not. So you end up buying something you don’t want, like a bowl of tasteless chocolates (they obviously got at the ￥100 shop) or some sweaty potato fries and it just gets left there uneaten and wasted. So basically, your entry fee is at least a 1000 yen more than the price stated on the ticket. Why can’t they just be honest and up the entry fee instead of wasting food and winding me up? Well, despite all this Satoko’s performance was as splendid as ever and I did get to take a couple of very nice videos. The first of which I’ll share with you today. This one is called “銀河の橋を超えて” which means something like “Crossing the Milky Way Bridge” and is about going on a date and holding hands under a starry wintry sky (just imagine it’s a starry summer sky she said)…. Anyway! Just setting the mood for you… enjoy!