Japan photos

I recently had a chance to spend two weeks in Japan with my mother, who was there for the International Political Science Association
conference in Fukuoka. Here are a few of the photos I took (with a disposable camera, so forgive the poor quality.)




Traditional clothing is quite trendy among young women right now, at least in Kyoto. These women are eating sweet potato chips in the Nishijin market.








These are workers cleaning out the lotus pond at a Zen temple in Kyoto. It takes a lot of work to maintain that "artless" look! (These aren't monks, incidentally -- they just do the actual lotus-picking.)




The peace memorial (or part of it) in Nagasaki. Anyone familiar with story of Sadako Sasaki, or who was in the peace movement in the '80s, will recognize the golden origami crane on top, and the streams of paper cranes hanging inside.
















A moment in the Yamakasa festival in Fukuoka, which I was lucky enough to catch.

Those are my favourite photos -- let me know if you enjoyed them and I'll post some more, and maybe even some of my lousy sketches.