Aoi Hitorigoto - 35. Sand - by Katô Shigeaki
Aoi Hitorigoto - 35. Sand
I want to take pictures. It's only been a little over 2 years since I genuinely began taking pictures,and without my feeling
having changed, I'm looking for a subject. Last year I went to various places for that reason.
Cairns*, Hawaii, Okinawa and New York. I'm aware that basically I'm the stay-at-home type of person, but last year's
activism was enough for the colour of the mileage card** to move up a rank. And then last month. When looking through
some fashion magazine where it was mentioned, I was driven by the impulse of wanting to go to that certain place no
matter what, and was heading there the following day. It took less than 12 hours to book the airline ticket and fly to the
destination.
Upon arriving at the airport, I rented a car and first of all headed to a market that seemed to be nearby. Even though this
time is the season of the snow crab, I decided to save that for dinner, sushi first. Something like sushi for lunch is luxury,
but I can't fight a hungry stomach. A prawn specialty*** and squid lined up with crab and octopus, caught on that very same
day, and sea bream and amberjack and whatnot. After stuffing my mouth with loads of sushi, and concluding the meal
with the miso soup of crab, I finally headed to the intended location. The Tottori Dune. That's the place that was
mentioned in the magazine. I surely didn't think that the first domestic travel destination I reserve airline tickets for and go
to would become Tottori, but in that magazine the desert-like sandy soil was spread out completely, and I thought that I
too want to capture the scenery, that appears not likely to be in Japan at all, on film.
After I parked the car in the parking lot in front of the Tottori Dune, I went up the stairs. What gradually came into view
was not the dune but the raging Sea of Japan. The day was blessed with such good weather that it wasn't even cold, but
the occasionally raging sea strangely made my body freeze. The Tottori Dune finally came into sight. It's too wide to call it
a beach, and too small to call it a desert. That was my first impression
In the middle is a 48-meter-high sandhill called “Horseback”, and there is an oasis under that. Is it a desert after all?
What I think when looking at the Sea of Japan over there is, that it sure enough is a beach. At any rate I tried to walk,
because I couldn't quite grasp the situation in this rather strange scenery. With the ground being more soft than I
imagined, I lost my balance, and even though I walked and walked the gap to the many tourists less visible in the
distance didn't decrease. As a result I was completely worn out, but the curiosity about the subject for my photo let me
forget about that. Moving along for a while I eagerly pressed the shutter and winded the film.
It felt good. However, it might be due to the late winter period but this condition was not just beautiful, but also somewhat
empty and cold. Such an expression is appropriate. The innumerable sand was spread out and shining brilliantly, and the
light and shadows that showed through the cloudy sky made this remarkable. Grass is growing around the oasis as if it
doesn't know whether to be withering or to be going to grow tall in the future, and before the Sea of Japan, that is raging
in a loud wave, is the dignified Tottori Dune. Despair and hope, beginning and end, life and death. Here is a repetition of
such contradictory things. And me standing there some time again, such an existence maybe.
While thinking that I'l miss picking up the sand, that then scattered from my hand, getting carried away by the wind, I looked
through the finder of the camera once more. It was a trip I suddenly thought of without really planning it, but even though
only the dune was seen, I'm glad I went. I stayed the night at a hotel near the dune, as mentioned above I ate so much
snow crab that I had enough of it, and at last the day was finished by me soaking in Tottori's famous hot spring. The very
moment of excellence. Eh? It was really just for the crabs and the hot spring rather than the dune? ...Now, now. What
does it matter? It's because I didn't want to think like “chewing on sand” about trip I looked forward to so much.
Annotation: “like chewing on sand”.....something with a complete lack of any flavour or fun , for example “the food felt like
it had no flavour”
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Translator's note: 砂を噛むよう (suna wo kamu yô) - it's a little japanese proverb used when expressing that something
was so boring it felt like “chewing on sand” = not good. So he was playing with the words there, because the theme was
“sand” and all, you get the point. ;)
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* It's a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia
** Given out when you sign up for the Frequent Flyer Program, to collect air miles that you then can use to upgrade your flight or to
reduce the price of another flight and so on
*** He wrote モサエビ (mosa ebi) which is a special type of prawn - be educated here please
Please note that English is not my native language. Although it doesn't feel like a foreign language to me, I'm aware that sometimes the phrasing might not be completely correct. So, I'm open for any corrections, regarding the Japanese-English translation or just the English in general.
And please don't take/re-post my translation without my permission, thanx.
That's all the essays I wanted to translate (because they hadn't been translated yet), and now,.....i'm out of material for further translations >.<. Well, will just have to look for something I guess....
:)