kamakiri and semi hear to see

if you want to hear our free interpretation of praying mantis or japanese cicada, visit my myspace-address:
www.myspace.com/heininukari

kyoto full of water

it has been raining for three days in kyoto. luckily our guest house has lots of transparent umbrellas for everybody to use. yesterday we made a kyoto-marathon. under our umbrellas, we criss-crossed the city by visiting numerous shrines, temples and zen-gardens. bamboo, moss and pines in their various greens and the mountains around kyoto steaming out the dampness makes you feel you want to breath in the landscape. it was a fine walk but little bit too long. in the we were so exhausted that our legs hardly carried us back up to our tatami room.
today we just stayed in our cosy neighbourhood up in the north of kyoto. i visited an old onsen which happens to be opposite our place. there is almost nothing better in the world than to be sitting in the hot outside bath, surrounded by stones and pines and feel the rain pouring down on the steaming skin.

spider above the akiyoshidai skyline

in the backround you see the mountain with the cobwebed trail.

temple dog

this is MIDORI-CHAN, a real japan dog. MIDORI CHAN is already 10 years old and lives in a small buddhist temple in the countryside. he never barks. his main occupation is to guard the temple and its 800-year-wooden sitting buddha silently. his past-time occupation is to be patient with the three small children of the temple's family. MIDORI-CHAN is also friends with a raccoon dog family (the famous TANUKI!). every evening the TANUKI mother with her kids is coming out of the forest to share MIDORI-CHAN's dinner cup outside the temple.

places of spirit

we have visited many homes. we have been wellcomed by warm people who open their kitchens, gardens, tatami rooms and holy places for us. they guide us the through their rooms, reveal their best recipies and let us document a piece of their life.
we document pictures and sounds but i also wish we could capture the quality of air and smell. i have tuned myself and my field mike on every level of sound which is flowing in from all directions. cicadas seducing, kitchen knives cutting, mothers talking to themself, bells being shaked, nuts cracking, people laughing, radios and televisions sets singing on and on. and there in the middle of all this maybe one moment of silence and contemplation. the pictures of those places capture that moment.