High End Audio in Japan, Part Six: A Photographic Conclusion
I can’t resist ending this essay with a little photo gallery of some of the breathtakingly beautiful things I saw during my stay in Japan.
The first printed above is a photo of the gate leading to the Kitain Temple in Kawagoe. The second (below) is a photo of the garden path inside the gate.
Below is a beautiful copse of trees with a red Japanese bridge in the distance.
One of my favorites, a genuine Japanese garden taken from the porch of Kawagoe Castle. Earth, air, water, and mind are herein mixed to make an idea of the world—and the world into idea.
The Gohyaku-Rakan Statues on the Kitain grounds are a genuine wonderment. Five-hundred-and-thirty-four individual statues, each unique, each representing one of the five hundred disciples of Buddha. The story goes that you’re supposed to visit this statue garden at night and touch the head of each statue with your hand. The one that feels warmest you should mark. When you return in daylight the particular statue you marked will be the one that looks most like you!
I have scores of photos—Japan is a photographer’s paradise—but I’ll end this essay with two that I think rather symbolize the Japan I saw and would love to see again: A Japanese man in stately traditional garb riding a very twentieth-century bicycle, and a statue of the Buddha in a garden.
Comments
Thanks Jon. I've very much enjoyed your blogs about your Japanese trip.
Thank you, Zeb.
Great pictures Jonathan,
Can I assume you had a blast :-)
-Peder Beckman-
Electrocompaniet Inc.
Thank you, Peder. I did, indeed, have a wonderful time. It's such a beautiful place.
I have spent time in Japan and can say that similar images abound across the land. It is likely the oddest mix in the world - the most technology driven country is also one of the most traditional. Endlessly intriguiing. Go back again and spend time in different places - you'll find better photos each time.
Foxtrot,
Your comment about the oddest mix of new and old is exactly so. And it does make Japan uniquely intriguing.
I'd love to go back.
Jon
Mr Valin,
I enjoyed your blogs. I hope to make my first trip to Japan this year and perhaps enjoy my two passions,
audio and jazz. Getting to know Mr Ikeda thru your writings was an honor.
Yours truly,
R Lopez
Hi Valin
I live in Brasil, but I went to Japan two times, in the last 12 yeras, this is the mos respectful and calm peoople I know, some , and the garden are fantatstic, the ols person are the most importat person in the family, great fotos, I think Japan is like a big aquarium, each coner, each street is a big suprise .
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