Kyoto Insights ⎈

2021-06-22 16:19:15 Yes, it's my fourth year in Japan but school kids in uniform still get me excited. Please don't get me wrong, I mean esthetically excited, all these shojo manga vibes. Not in a nostalgic kind of way, because I suspect they must have a pretty difficult time surviving in Japanese society, not having enough knowledge about how life works and already being stressed out about succeeding and pressured into making difficult choices. Maybe that's why looking at them makes me feel that my problems are not all that bad? Open / Comment

2021-06-17 19:35:07 Conferences in 2019 vs conferences in 2021. Presenting my danchi research at Optimistic Suburbia II tonight: note my zoom-style shirt + yoga pants combination, a yoga block as a microphone stand and a Japanese-style umbrella acting as a reflector. I was very happy to see three other Russian scholars in two other sessions, wasn't expecting such a big coverage of soviet mass housing. Wish me luck! Open / Comment

2021-05-31 12:57:45 Good news: my first publication, a lengthy essay on my danchi fieldwork discoveries, is in print! You can read it in Log, an independent magazine on architecture founded and edited by Cynthia Davidson, an architecture editor/critic based in New York and Peter Eisenman’s wife (I mention him since those of you who aren’t into theory of architecture and criticism may be more familiar with his work). Anyway, huuge success. The teal/turquoise cover color of this issue is one of my favorites, too... On top of high-quality literary content, Log always has extremely satisfying typography and binding. I have five other issues and they are so nicely done I posted them on IG several times, no kidding. Hope I managed to sell it to you! You can order the issue with my text via this link here, they ship worldwide.
https://www.anycorp.com/store/log51 Open / Comment

2021-05-26 09:59:47 Time to share some photos from my trip to the least populated prefecture in Japan — Tottori. One of my Japanese teachers was born and raised in the biggest city in Tottori (named Tottori… with population of 190,000), and when trying to present his hometown he said: “We are famous for several things — the Sand Dunes, the Sand Museum… That’s it. And yeah, the manga artist who drew Detective Conan was born there, too.” His description turned out very, very accurate. Tottori city is not much to look at, your average Japanese suburbia with a hint of economic recession and maybe two or three hipsterish low-budget cafes. But the sand dunes are definitely worth the long trip through the mountains. Since 100,000 years ago a combination of sea currents and strong wind have been pushing large amounts of sand up the shore, forming the only dune system in Japan. Didn't bother going to the Sand Museum though, there was enough sand outside already. Open / Comment

2021-05-19 15:29:07 Open / Comment

2021-04-26 18:02:20 Mount Yoshino (吉野山) in Nara Prefecture is yet another UNESCO heritage site I wasn't aware of until my friends took me there for a sakura watching hike despite terrible weather. I would never go hiking in the rain alone, but since we already decided on the date in advance I couldn't bail out. Which was good, because the trip was unexpectedly enjoyable — the light was great for photos and low clouds adorned the hills just like in traditional ink paintings. Open / Comment

2021-04-20 13:34:26 Came across two rare sights on Giontatsumi bridge: a majestic heron resting in the middle of the city and a geiko not running away from cameras. + Tons of sakura as a bonus. Open / Comment

2021-04-18 16:54:08 April is the most hectic month in Japan — the start of the academic and fiscal years, new anime season, everyone’s moving houses, cities, changing jobs, entering or graduating schools/universities. And whoever is not busy with the above-mentioned mundanities is most likely traveling around the country to appreciate (=take tons of pictures of) sakura in full bloom. This year foreign tourists couldn’t join the race, but because of that Kyoto was swarmed by domestic visitors who were naive enough to think they would avoid the usual crowds this way. The flowers were still breathtaking and I borrowed my good friend’s little Fuji XT30 to capture it for you in between several hardcore deadlines. Can’t believe that my fourth year in Japan just began. Open / Comment

2021-03-23 11:05:39 I don’t know how most people operate when they do street photography, but I need to immerse myself in a weird state of observing the city as a flow of aesthetically meaningful symbols, disregarding particular details or physical properties of the landscape. Contrary to what you might expect from a person processing data from the outside world, my favorite pictures are taken in a complete dispersal of attention and lack of acute visual focus due to an ongoing introverted search for references and meanings. Does that gas station remind me of some movie set in Detroit that I watched back in 2015?.. Wait, that street’s width and buildings’ heights proportion is so typical for small towns in southern Russia. But this courtyard looks a bit like Italy. Aren’t these rusty window shutters colored exactly like the front gate at my grandparents’ house? To me Hakodate became the most photogenic city in Japan because of the amount of references at every corner that I could decipher and appreciate with my past experiences of living in Russia and Europe. No wonder I completely zoned out and slipped on an icy slope with my camera at some point. "I was looking for the great beauty" and I guess I found it. Open / Comment

2021-03-23 11:02:48 As I am still saving up money and courage to buy a new camera I’ll make a few more posts about Hakodate with the last photos that my old canon 5D took before it met its end on an icy asphalt road one fateful day in January. Open / Comment