ross-hori - Tumblr blog

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Interesting detail in the concrete

Study

Madrid, Spain -- 3/8/12

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With today's addition to the collection, it was time for a bit of a reorganization.

Fortunately none of the latest releases tickle the fancy.

Really should photograph this lot at some point.

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Bought a new car.

Bit of a classic. Only 2 left on display.

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Kikuchi Kan.

A statue in Takamatsu, the place of his birth.

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There's this thing in public services about "best value for taxpayer money".

Side effect is godawful city buildings that look like boxes with bits cut of them. So dull and dreary they're best hidden away.

I say spend a little extra on city hall. Build something to be proud of. That's aspirational. That you'd happily see on the front of a brochure or spoken about in "certain circles."

This is Kagawa Prefectural Hall in Takamatsu.

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Randoms.

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🎵 To-ri, up the mountain.🎵

[To the tune of Ferry cross the Mersey]

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Flowers on a wall.

Takamatsu

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A few weeks ago I went to Himeji armed with a history book. Within its bilingual pages was a map of the city from the 1800s showing how it probably was laid out at the end of the 1700s.

I spent a while with the map (see below), walking the streets and working out what was what. The modern map aligns reasonably well with this drawn one, and it is possible to see where plots of land have merged and how part of the moat has been taken over by a road.

A whole island has been lost after being infilled and now serves as a zoo, and large parts of the outer moat have been lost under roads.

If I'm right, the three temples in the photos are the purple blocks on the right hand side of the map. Much of the road layout around them looks intact too. Where it has been lost there appear to be echoes of it in shortened side roads and property boundaries.

I'll head back there in a month or three and take another look. The area on the backside of the castle from the station looks interesting. It's now a library and driving school (I think).

If you're interested in Japanese Castles and how they are laid out and evolved, The Castles and Castle Towns of Japan by HIRAI Kiyosi and translated by Watanabe Hiroshi is my source. It's a bilingual book that's part of a series covering different aspects of Japanese architecture.

(I posted a version of this on my blog)

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We've had a couple of days threatening rain, so walks have been more functional than enjoyable. A quick trot to the shops and back was about my limit.

Today we had sun.

I went a long route to the shops and back. Spring's definitely in full swing.

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Randoms from Sapporo I forgot to post and I know you were desperate to see.

First one is a couple of churches and chapels now used as museums.

Second one I bumbled into after leaving a shopping mall through the wrong exit.

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Osaka's alleyways.

(See, it isn't just Kobe's side streets I'm obsessed with)

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Found this on my wander around Osaka. Looks like another part of the abandoned lock I came across.

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If you're wandering the hills or standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to a shrine, you might come across something like this.

The walking sticks are there for you to borrow, just make sure you put it back when you're done. You don't have to put it back in the same place, there will be another one somewhere along the trail.

Same with umbrellas at bus stops. You can pop it open while you wait, just put it back where you found it.

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Never look straight into the sun

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Simple

tie &

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Spent a whole load of time last night editing old >cough< glamor >cough< photos. No idea why I did this because it isn't like I'm about to take a sharp turn thematically into that territory.

Not entirely sure what I was thinking. For the most part I seem to have chosen blurry shots, or ones where I managed to miss bits of the model.

A couple I don't remember doing.

Current theory is this was photographic doodling. Something must have been on my mind.

When I remember what it is, I'll let you know.