Restless 13 - A Kiso-ji Book and Plans for 2022
Hello, and Happy 2022.
Kiso-ji Photo Book
It’s been two months or so since I finished walking the Kiso-ji and I’m starting to get the urge to return because I’ve been going through photos and making edits for a personal book. Printing out photos to view as a physical format instead of staring at pixels on a screen makes it easier to determine what works and what doesn’t, and where the gaps in the ‘story’ are. There are so many gaps in what I currently have but I’m fine with that, it’s the filling of those gaps that has kindled the urge to start walking it again and much sooner than originally planned.
I made prints in both colour and black and white and picked the ones that seem to work best but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. You don’t see that many photo books that work using both colour and black and white (tell me if you know any good ones) so I need a friend or a ruthless second pair of eyes to help out with the editing. The best solution for now is to make three books - colour, black and white, and one with both colour and black and white - and see what works. Live with them for a while, let them mature and see how they look in a few years time. In the meantime I can start the walk again, continue to refine the project over and over until I end up with something I like. Then I’ll probably stash the whole thing away for thirty years where nobody will ever see it. I have a decent-sized collection of photo books on my shelves and one underlying trait amongst the ones I like most is that they have had years to mature.
New Year
On New Years Day we went to the local shrine as usual. We do so every year and I always take my camera as I’ve been photographing there regularly for a number of years. Visiting at New Year is an integral part of that project (although I tend to walk away with the same photos every time) and is, of course, an important marker for the end of the previous year and a starting point for new goals.
First and foremost amongst those goals is a trip back to the UK in March/April. At last! My family get to see our daughter and I get to eat a Cornish pasty and a real curry, and maybe, just maybe, go to a real game of football with my dad while he still has the ability to do so - my first since the early 1990s. I stopped going because I didn’t want to pay Premier League prices and saving for a working holiday visa to Australia was far more important back then and for numerous reasons have never been since.
In August there is a real possibility of restarting our Australia homestay in Queensland which was one of the things I enjoyed doing the most in the pre-pandemic era. Dispersed between those two trips will be walking the Kiso-ji again as mentioned earlier, but this time with my daughter (when the weather warms up), as well as to continue on the Nakasendō, do regular hikes alone (more 3000m peaks I hope), and run a new hiking club I’ve started for children in my neighborhood. The first club hike outing is this weekend (although Omicron is currently ravaging the neighbourhood) and there are about 20 children/parents taking part, far more than I ever expected.
I intend to journal, journal, journal, print, print, print, walk, hike, walk, hike and repeat until I’m exhausted, and if there’s time left ride my bike too.
What are your plans for 2022? Feel free to email me at sean@seanbreslin.net. I enjoy hearing from you.
P.S. I don’t watch much Japanese television but one thing I always make an exception for in Tanaka Yōki’s Great Traverse. It’s currently on every weekday morning on BS at 07:45. Nothing much ever happens - he hikes to the top of a mountain with a small camera crew and then does it again the next day. Simple and totally addictive. Highly recommended if you like hiking in the mountains.
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Books Read:
Winter – Karl Ove Knausgaard
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
The View From Breast Pocket Mountain – Karen Anton Hill
This Life: Why Mortality Makes Us Free – Martin Hägglund