Saturday

"Sun Coming" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/3800 sec, ISO400
“Sun Coming” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは!How’s it going?

Today’s photo is of this morning’s clouds, and the sun coming up. Not too long after, the overcast skies were gone and we had a beautiful day.

Tomorrow is the annual “Undoukai” or Sports Day at the Japanese school 🇯🇵, so today Mariko spent a lot of time in the kitchen preparing our food. Lunch is kind of a fun part of the day, after half of the sporting events are over and all the families relax for a bit and get to eat yummy bento. I always look forward to our bento because it’s so delicious!

Anyways, she was very busy so I helped out by going to the grocery store and then grilling burgers for dinner. 🍔 Of course she had to contribute to dinner too, and for the burger dinner, she baked fresh sesame-seed buns. I have to say, the burgers turned out great. 😄

More about Undoukai tomorrow, so for now, have a good evening!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Changing Season

"Swirling Clouds" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/10, 1/750 sec, ISO200
“Swirling Clouds” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは!How’s it going?

Did you know that it’s already Autumn? It’s been so hot lately that I thought it was still Summer! How time flies.

Today’s photo was taken this afternoon, looking straight up. There was a swirling cloud right above our house, and it was changing so rapidly that for a moment I wondered if it was the beginning of a tornado. 🌀 But no, thankfully it was not.

Today my sons and I watched the ceremony the Dodgers had to honor Vin Scully. It was great, and I had a tear in my eye a couple times. Scully has been announcing Dodger games for 67 years now, but this will be his final year. For so many people who grew up in Los Angeles, Vin’s voice was the soundtrack of Summer. He will be missed!

"Vin's Ceremony" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/10, 1/4 sec, ISO800
“Vin’s Ceremony” Cedar Park, 2016

Have a great weekend!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Cultural Shift

"Austin Clouds" Austin, 2016
Photo info: Motorola XT1064, 3.54mm, f/2, 1/270 sec, ISO80
“Austin Clouds” Austin, 2016

こんばんは!How’s it going this evening?

Today was day 2 of my company’s annual customer conference and I was in downtown Austin all day, taking photographs and helping out with the event. It was a great experience talking with our customers and getting to know them. I am not an expert in what our product can do, so I wasn’t able to interact with the customers on that level, but at the social event it was mostly just shooting the breeze about non-work-related topics. It was great fun!

When I got home, I was thinking about watching the Japanese drama/mystery series I am into, and it got me thinking about how it’s such a cultural mindshift to switch over to that show. It’s hard to describe, but these past two days I was 100% in “America mode” 🇺🇸, surrounded by professionals talking about business and socializing as Americans do.

But what I really enjoy and am attracted to is Japanese culture 🇯🇵, and things like watching Japanese tv shows, listening to Japanese music, and following Japanese Instagram feeds… I am definitely a Japanophile. And although I am American, I love Japanese culture so much! I cannot wait for my life to shift over to that culture again.

During my normal workday, I often check up on Japanese blogs, Twitter, and Instagram accounts but these past two days I have been busy at the conference all day so I haven’t had time to do my normal routine. So I miss my Japanese “alter ego”! 😆 It’s funny but I feel like I am straying away from my desired life. I know it is just temporary, but it’s an interesting feeling to experience!

Anyways, those are just some thoughts going through my head this evening. I’ll have to think about it some more to make some kind of sense of it. But for now… I am in a happy mood.

Take it easy, and see you tomorrow!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

In a Rut, or Obsessed?

"Low" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/1500 sec, ISO200
“Low” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは!How’s it going?

So, I’ve been looking back at my Instagram feed and I noticed that half my photos lately have been of clouds. ☁ As you may know, I am taking part in a 365 project, which is where you take one photo 📸 per day for a whole year 🗓. So, there is a little bit of pressure to find a subject to shoot each day.

And clouds are an easy subject to capture, especially if there are really nice ones hanging around in the sky. Part of me is thinking that I am just not looking hard enough for other subjects to shoot, but another part of me thinks that clouds are so cool-looking, ever-changing, and fascinating that I need to make photos of them.

My kids know that I am kind of obsessed… when we are driving I might hand the camera to one of them and ask them to take a photo. Luckily for me, they haven’t been too annoyed. In fact, I think Koa might have gotten the cloud bug as well! This afternoon as we were driving home, he pulled out his phone to take a photo of the “cool” clouds. 😄

I think I’ve come to terms with taking cloud photos… I’ll continue without hesitation since I just love them. Why not?

********

In other news, I saw this notification pop up in WordPress saying I have earned a new achievement:

1337

Pretty funny, huh! WordPress has its own social network of bloggers, and it’s fun to read and “like” posts. It’s similar to “liking” on Instagram, but instead of pictures, they are blog posts. Anyways, it was kind of fun to get this notification. ☺️

I hope you had a nice Wednesday!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Today’s ⛅

"Today's Cloud" Leander, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/5000 sec, ISO400
“Today’s Cloud” Leander, 2016

Had a great day today, but I think I’ll just share this photo of a cloud that Bay and I saw when we went to his school’s open house this evening. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of making cloud photos. 😄

おやすみなさい!

– バロン Barron Fujimoto