In the White Breeze: Tamashima, Kurashiki, Okayama

Yesterday, I went out with my camera for the first time in quite a while.

Since early October, so many things have happened, including some that were almost unbelievable, and I completely lost the motivation to take out my camera and go shooting on my own.

Even so, things have finally begun to settle down a little, so I visited Tamashima in Kurashiki, Okayama—a place I often go and once introduced on this blog in an article titled “In the Blue Breeze: Tamashima, Kurashiki, Okayama”—to photograph again.

Autumn is already nearing its end.

I had not been visiting lately at all, but the truth is that this summer I often came to Sami Beach, not only on my days off but also early in the mornings before work, to swim. It has been about eleven years since I moved my base of activities from Shinjuku, Tokyo, to my hometown of Kurashiki, Okayama. In all those eleven years, I have never come here to swim as often as I did this year. Perhaps the heat was simply too intense, or perhaps beach swimming is becoming less popular, because there were not many people around. It feels like such a waste, considering how wonderful this beach is.

Kurashiki has both the Takahashi River and the Seto Inland Sea. The Takahashi River, which I have been familiar with since childhood, soothes my heart just by looking at it, and the Seto Inland Sea always gives me a quiet sense of richness whenever I visit. Yesterday, when I talked with someone fishing at Tamashima Port, he sighed and said, “The mamakari just are not biting at all this year.”

This outing reminded me once again how important it is not to shut myself indoors just because I am busy, but to make the time on sunny days to go outside, be inspired, and let myself be healed.

There are words from someone that I still cannot forget: “It is nice to have a big river nearby.”

I feel encouraged to take my camera out more often and go shooting again.