While combing the beach in Okitsu for broken bits of celadon and bits of pottery with blue glazes I came across a rather odd little circular object.  When I first spied it the disk in the sand I thought it was a washer from one of the fishing boats that dock on both ends of the beach.

I reached over and picked it up, to next think that I had found a modern 5 yen coin that someone had dropped in the water and had tarnished.  Part of the disk was missing, and the hole in the middle was square.  I thought that was a bit odd because modern five yen coins have a round hole, and have the look more off brass rather than copper.

I showed it to some of my mates back at are BBQ area and they said I had found a bit of Japanese treasure.  After doing a little digging around on the internet, I can determine that the coin is at least pre-Meiji era (1868).  it is most likely from Edo era (1603-1868).

I have beach combed in Florida for years always dreaming of finding a little piece of pirate booty, only to travel halfway around the world to find a piece of Japanese treasure.

It has happened again.  A lone masked fighter for the underdogs has fallen by the wayside.  He once stood for justice, now he only hopes to be found once again.

He championed for those that has no where else to turn.  For the motherless children, for the those that have fallen through the cracks of society, he was there for them.

Who will be there for him now that he has been forgotten?  Who will be there to say his eulogy as he is buried in his grave. 

He was a hero.  He will forever be a hero to me.  Let us not forget the mortality of our heroes.  We shouldn’t forget their humanness. Raise your glasses high and say a toast to the fallen masked hero of Kasai.

This lost and found object spoke to me on my way home from the station.  I haven’t been focusing too much on the lost and found items recently as I have been searching out new subjects.  However, this one spoke to me.

The tiny golden heart on a cold winter day was surrounded my the warm ring of fuzz.  The gold reflected the gentle dusk twilight.  As I looked into the heart I could see so much that is to come.  There are opportunities that will open up.

The unseen will be seen.  Those new subjects that I am searching for will be found.  Not only what I am searching for, but I pray that our communities will find them too.  There is so much distractions in the world.  People lust after the precious metals. Humans devour the earth in search for them.

But, this tiny scrap of gold is not what I desire.  In fact it is not what we all should be desiring.  We should be looking at the reflection.  We should be contemplating our path, and our place in this world.  We should be seeking our voice and perfection in what we choose to pursue.

Look into the golden heart. and see what it will show you.

This lost and found object really caught my eye today.  I haven’t taken many of the lost and found images over that last nine months or so as I have been exploring other subjects.  This little caught me by surprise.  He was just there.  Perched on the edge of a high brick wall in Ichikawa.  He was laying on his side, with a house key attached to him.  Even though he was lost, on his side and out and the cold, he still managed to smile.  His smiling made me smile.  Because of these chain reaction of events I knew I needed to take his portrait.

We need to never loose our sense of humor.  The unique human quality to laugh and refresh ourselves though our laughter.  I needed a good laugh today.  And this little guy gave it to me.  Even though he is made of plastic, he does not have a plastic smile to me.  His smile was genuine.  His smile was from the heart.

Laugh and smile.

Today was one of those days that I just didn’t want to get out of bed.  It was 6:30 in the morning and the skies were so overcast that it seemed like it was still night.  Not only was it rather gloomy outside, but it was pretty nippy for my south Floridian blood.  I struggled to get out of bed, and made my way to the kitchen to fix up a bowl of granola.  When I was sick I couldn’t eat any milk so I have been craving cereal over steaming oatmeal the last week or so.  I ate quickly as I caught the morning’s international news.  Waited at the bus stop which was more crowded than the day before.   I guess the people were preparing for the rainy weather that was going to come later in the day.

Even though I was wearing a big fluffy fleece hat, I put my headphones on and pushed play on Sekajipo and the Jungle’s first album Revolution of the Mind-State.  I thought that I needed a bit of a boost on this gray Thursday morning.  Sekajipo definitely delivered the goods and helped to elevate my spirits.

I was walking along the path with the song Revolutionary Love coming though my Sennheiser PX 200 headphones.  The vibrations were coming through so clear even though they had to pass though my fleece hat.  That is when I spotted a tiny heart on the side of the road.  A heart that had been placed there by some one.  It was an amazing synchronous moment.  I’ve got Sekajipo in my mind, singing about Revolutionary Love, and then I spy a heart.  I would have said that it was a lost heart.  One of the many lost and found items that I have taken over the years.  But today I saw this heart in completely new way.

This was not a lost heart.  It was a found heart.  It was part of the Revolutionary Love I have been searching for.  There it was.  The love had manifested itself in front of my lens.  Just another reason to be thankful.  I have found a bit of Revolutionary Love that I am sharing with all of you.

The light is in a transitional phase now.  As the sun grows more distant, the temperature begins to drop the quality of the light changes.  The light of this early winter in the late afternoon shifts towards yellow.  I really am attracted to that yellowing light.  Even in the full glare of the sun colors are rich.  Hues pop out and speak to me though my senses.  Even as my throat ached I couldn’t help but reach for my Ricoh GR IV and capture some of that light.

The use of space is amazing in Japan.  The Japanese aesthetic manifests itself in sometimes the most unlikely places like small roadside gardens that are wedged into spaces that would just be discarded in other countries.  Here the space, any space, goes to some use.  I am always amazed how the zig zags of a home are often loaded with potted plants in a tightly manicured gardens.  Actually, they might not be so manicured.  Some of them go rather wild and free.  To my eye they represent the to dichotomies of Japanese aesthetics.  The reverence of nature, and the attempt to tame nature.  I see both in the way the Japanese create their personal gardens.  These are not the Japanese gardens that are listed as national treasures. They are the homeowner’s personal treasure.  A tiny space that reflects their love and interest in the natural world even if it may be surrounded by concrete and asphalt.  The flowers rise to greet the sun, and I stop and pause to admire their beauty.

The simple elegance of (your) neighbors friendly garden.

A pair of leather gloves, waiting to be worn by their owner once again.  There they were.  They were just perched ever so gently on a rough cinderblock wall.  There they sat just half a block from the entrance to Urayasu station.

This is a statue in my neighborhood. It is literally with in a 30 second walk from my front door.  I have passed it countless times.  I think I may have even photographed her once or twice, but today was something else.  Her cold stone face, with long double braids was adorned with a warm lost knitted cap.  She looked much less cold than usual.  We cool stone skin was kept a bit warmer.  At least a bit warmer until the owner of the lost cap finds it again resting atop her head.  Still this other sculpture has captured my heart, but this one did for the time that she was wearing the knitted cap.

me and my girl

Found this poor little doll early in the morning suffering from a crack in her head.  I hope she finds someone to take care of her soon.

In my continuing series of lost and found objects, I came across this rhinestone studded hair clip in my neighborhood. It was just shinning in the setting sun.  The sparkles of those rhinestones, and the glint of the golden paint.  Such a gaudy and beautiful object.  Just sitting there on top of a electrical box at a traffic light.  Sometimes it is the simplest of pleasures to brighten my day.  So, be on the look out for that shine.

Rain was splattering away for most of the night and into the afternoon.  Luckily as I headed back to the station the sun was struggling to poke out from behind the clouds.  It didn’t show us that yellow light for very long, but I was thankful that it wasn’t raining.

We all need to search and find the key to our happiness, and be thankful once we found it.  And once we find what we are suppose to be doing, we must pursue it with our whole heart.

Amen

This image is a constant reminder to me how much I rely on my sight to be able to voice myself as an artist.  I will be without a voice if I ever should suddenly be unable to see.  I want to be able to us the gifts that have been given to me.

I Speak with my eyes.

The trick is is wether or not these spheres can see their owner coming back to claim them.

A Chubby Wubby Eye, smiling and just waiting under the overpass.

Two lost and found objects I captured in my camera today before the sky turned black and the skies just opened up and poured down cold stinging rain.