Saijō-chō Sake Breweries in Higashihiroshima
The last adventure and post in the VAoJ Hiroshima Research Trip Arc is about my tour of the sake breweries in Saijō-chō in Higashihiroshima. I left the big…
Tag: Photo Essay
Ekinishi
This post is the second of the Hiroshima Research Trip Arc. In keeping with my recent and ongoing tachinomi project, I wanted to experience the social/drinking nightlife of…
Hiroshima Peace Park: Photographs and JSL Video Testimonies
My research trip this summer was to Hiroshima. The first place I went to was the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park and Museum. I have been there before, on…
Kayashima Shrine Summer Matsuri (July 27, 2025) / 萱島神社夏祭り（2025年7月27日） / PLUS! A Surprise Bonus! / さらに！サプライズボーナス！
A HOT early Sunday afternoon, the deafening sound of the cicadas on the cherry tress that line the small stream behind out house, and the sound of shouting…
The Latest Hanshin Tigers Merch
Bonus(?): This picture pretty much says it all… 7 losses in a row. And on Umeno’s birthday no less (he did get a hit, but was tagged out…
When it rains hard, the water rises and litter and other debris floats down the stream, oftentimes to be caught in a web of weeds and plants on the concrete banks… Apparently someone lost their fishing pole and it ended up here. Why? Did the fish pull the pole in the water? Did the fisherman have a bad day and in a fit of rage thrust his pole into the stream? So many questions, so many stories… Like, why do so many people throw their garbage away in the stream? This is the real Japan…
UPDATE 6/18/25: It might be hard to see, but a pigeon picks the weeds and litter in search of food… Or th help clean the mess? Meanwhile (harder…
2025年の桜の反射: Reflections of the 2025 cherry blossoms…
See also: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-expected-beauty-and-awe-of-cherry.html See also: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-na-no…
2025お花見菜の花の関係子と: Na no hana relations…
Three plamts behind the family of three, all enjoying the cherry blossoms… See also: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-expected-beauty-and-awe-of-cherry.html
「とんど祭り @ 産土神社 2025」Tondo Matsuri @ Ubusuna Shrine 2025
On January 15, 2025, from 8:00 – 10:00 AM, we (the shrine elders and the recruited volutnteer/visual anthropologist) held the Tondo Matsuri at our local shrine, Ubusuna Jinja,…
New Year’s Eve 2024 / Early New Year’s Day 2025「2024年大晦日から2025年元旦」
明けましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願いします。 Happy New Year! VAoJ hopes for a wonderful, peaceful and meaningful 2025 for all! Please forgive the lateness of our New Year’s greetings. These photos span the…
Scary Halloween
I call this series “Univer(sal)ity Capitalism: Built on the Bones of Faculty, Staff and Students” (October 2024).
A call out to my friends and colleagues, visual and multimodal anthropologists, cultural anthropologists, photographers & sake and tachinomiya lovers in Tokyo and the surrounding area; VAoJ is making a rare appearance in Tokyo for a special lecture:「The Intersections of the Sensory, Multimodal and Ba: The Tachinomi Project」Please share and spread the word…
Check it out! July 17, 2024, 18:00-19:30 Room 402, 4F, Building 2 Sophia University, Tokyo Abstract:「The Tachinomi Project」is a visual ethnography based upon the con- vergence of social…
Standing Drink Bar「Tenbun」Old Boys Reunion 立ち呑みの居酒屋「天文」O.B. 会
We were on the bus, traveling through the borderlands between Osaka and Kyoto Prefectures when the imojōchū began to kick in. We had just finished an hour-and-a-half of…
The Concept and the Actual Product: An Artist of Noodle Cups, I Am Not…
Cup Noodles Museum, Ikeda, Osaka, Japan: https://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/en/osaka_ikeda/
Jalan Jalan (104): The First One of 2024
Set I Set II If you are not familiar with the Jalan Jalan series, click here.
Here’s to a better 2024…
I arrived at Ubusuna Jinja shortly after midnight. On my way I could smell the smoke from the two blazing barrel fires at the shrine. The rain had…
Shirogaki-cho Summer Festival (July, 2023)
WARNING! RAW VIDEO DATA:
VAoJ S2023RT Arc: Returning Home on the “Izakaya Shinkansen” (6/30/23)
This research trip has been in part driven by Japanese television media productions such as shows about izakaya/tachinomiya and meshi tero dramas. The influence that guided my last…
VAoJ S2023RT Arc: There’s more to Shitamachi than Izakaya and Tachinomiya (really…) – putting Monzen Nakacho into a greater context (6/27/30 – 6/30/23)
Set I: Jalan Jalan in Monzen Nakacho… Absolutely no political endorsement here; my interest is the reference to supporting shitamachi. Set II: Fukagawa Fudodo Temple …