Looking at the new, new thing for me - photoblogs. Of Japan, mostly. Since I haven't been there yet, can't get there yet, I'm trying to figure out what it's going to look like, what the streets will be like, different looks, configurations, sensibilities. I know that "crowded" and "busy" are terms applied often - Kerr was pretty harsh on contemporary Japanese architecture and the urban environment, but some of that, I think is just differing senses of outdoor decoration and vision. Busy visuals always seem to figure in any East Asian streets I've seen in pictures.

And of course, the idealized "emptiness" of Zen should make things simple and clean, right? Clean lines and white space... But Japan is also Shinto's home - processions, the paper tassles, banners, and crowds doing symbolic gestures, and the drinking of sake. A long way from nothingness.

If I can pick out .jp photoblogs I settle on revisiting, I'll post 'em. Nothing until I make them a habit, though.