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Photo by Byron Smith

A few months ago, I made a post about a photographer named Byron Smith, who works extensively in conflict zones around the world. Currently, I believe he’s covering wildfires in Greece during these hot, dry, summer months. That’s a region where he has quite a bit of experience.

If you recall, Byron published a photo book called Testament ’22. It documents the first year of the war between Russia and Ukraine, when the invasion was just beginning. Byron’s photos are haunting and beautiful, and sometimes even painful. They tell a deeper story than just the occasional news article.

If anyone is thinking of purchasing the book, Byron kindly made us a discount code for 10% off. It’s available here: smittysbooks.com. Please use the code “Vasta” if you’re interested.

I showed some of Byron’s pictures from Newsweek in class, and a few people commented that his dark, moody photos reminded them of Rembrandt. When I mentioned that to him, Byron said he was more influenced by Caravaggio – but he loved the compliment.

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In other news, I’ll be heading home to New Jersey for the Obon break. I’m looking forward to seeing you all again when I get back to Japan. I’ll have plenty of stories to tell!

How often do you get together with friends from school?

私の学年にとって今年１年は大きな節目になるため、大学時代の友人たち１１人と集まる計画を立て、倉敷で勢揃いしました。１年か２年に一度、県外に住んでいる誰かが岡山へ帰省する際に声をかけて数人で集まることはありましたが１１人が揃うことはなかなかありません。皆が家庭を持ち、仕事をしていると、家を空けることが難しくなります。子供に手がかからなくなればお金がかかります。

今回の集まりは地元の倉敷美観地区にある老舗旅館に宿泊。流石に老舗とあってお安くありませんが節目の年に記念となる集まりでした。美観地区にはン年も行っていなかったのでその変貌ぶりにビックリしました。小売店の数も増え、道も歩きやすくなり、商店街の空き店舗も減っているではありませんか。大原美術館も綺麗になって以来足を踏み入れていませんでした。美観地区は風情あって美しい。ただいくら美しかろうが日中の暑さは34℃です。なので早朝のひとけのない時間にみんなで散策をしました。女が１１人も集まれば正直なところ、場所はどこでも良いのです。お喋りの内容は仕事から家族、愚痴も健康話もなんでもありです。学生時代の思い出話にも花が咲きました。卒業アルバムのページを写真で見ながらお互いの若さに苦笑いです。

さて、なんでこんな暑い時期に集まろうと思ったの？と一番の言いだしっぺに尋ねたら、やはりきっかけがあったのです。妙齢になった今、今健康で普通にいる相手が、来年同じようにそこにいるとは限らないのです。会いたいと思った時に会う努力をすることなのです。

丁度去年、NEOで働いてくれていた日本人講師のRさんがまだ３０代の若さで逝ってしまいました。東京へ引っ越して以来、毎年私の誕生日がある秋頃に連絡をくれていたのに、今年は連絡が無いなと思ったままにしていました。その彼女から連絡をもらった去年の夏には、もう彼女の残り時間が短くなっていました。なので、もし誰かの顔が脳裏に浮かんだら、それはその人に連絡をしてはどうですか？という意味です。そしてそう思われる人でありたいと思います。

Last Saturday, I went downtown for dinner and jazz with some Neo students and Nick-sensei.

We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant called Appetito on Holland Dori. This restaurant is well known for their authentic Neopolitan-style pizza.

We had several types of pizza and all of them were excellent. We also tried a few different Italian beers and soft drinks.

After dinner we walked to the nearby jazz cafe Bird.

We watched a group called BaOLA, which plays all original jazz songs. There are some core members and sometimes guests are invited to play with them. This time it was a jazz quartet, drums, bass, saxophone and piano.

The music was wonderful, and it was a full audience. They played for about two hours.

It was a great night with good food, good music and good people. Please join us the next time we plan a dinner event.

July 21 was “Marine Day” in Japan, a time to head to the sea and enjoy beach life. This year we had a boy’s trip to Shiraishi Island off the coast of Kasaoka.

Nick and I and 5 other guys who formerly lived in Okayama City plus Tatsuki and Satoshi. People joined us from Fukuoka, Kurashiki, Tokyo, Hiroshima and San Diego, California.

We stayed at a place right on the beach this year and had a beachside bbq for dinner, watched a gorgeous sunset, enjoyed a mini local beer fest, and played cards until all hours of the night.

The next morning, we did SUP (stand up paddle boarding), but it was hard and we fell into the ocean a lot. Satoshi probably did the best out of all of us.

After coming back to Okayama, we had Indian curry and saw the new Superman movie at the mall.

Recently Nick posted about his experience at the Osaka Expo. During the NEO break I had the chance to go there myself and it really impressed me. So, I thought I would share some of my own experiences there.

I managed to go to a lot more than I expected within a day. Yet there is so much there that I feel like I only saw a small percentage of the Expo. None the less, I managed to go to six large pavilions. Some of them really stood out such as Germany, Austria and Poland. Many of them used music, sound and technology to show off their unique ideas and visions. Germany used a mascot character as a cute audio device to teach about their ideas for cities of the future, while Austria allowed visitors to mix sounds of different instruments and create their own symphonies. There were also pavilions unique in their concept such as the Pasona pavilion with its ideas about the future of medical technology. It was also a lot of fun just to see the design of all the pavilions from the outside. It was like being in a bizarre city full of strange buildings.

There are also a lot of smaller sized pavilions that are easy and quick to get into and are for smaller countries you might not know much about. We managed to walk straight into the pavilions for Bangladesh and Cambodia. Both were a single room but well designed with good visual elements and information about the countries. We also spent some time in the commons, which very small countries might have a small space or booth. You can learn and see some fascinating things about tiny countries you might know almost nothing about.

After only a day there, I had figured out some tricks to queuing and started to understand my way around the expo. But there is still a lot I would like to see there, and I hope I may get the chance to go again.