Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Living on the Kamo River, Kyoto








While bicycling along the Kamo River in Kyoto, and stopping to photograph... I noticed "encampments" under the bridges. The first I saw looked like small flea markets or rummage sales that were out of place. The people living there were collecting all sorts of stuff, probably a lot of it given to them. It looked like an art installation and from a distance I wasn't sure what to make of them until getting closer and realizing that the city was allowing people to build housing. I'll be posting more pictures of a few of the settings that included major pack rat mode. The pictures here are of the camp of a relatively ordered couple. They weren't there when I started to photograph, but arrived soon after. Fortunately, they were quite friendly and mostly went about their business at first, and answered questions when I asked... the man spoke a fair amount of English. He had cut himself while setting up for the night and his wife immediately dressed the wound. I didn't get their names, but he proudly told me their dog's name was "Daisuke, number one dog in Kyoto."

1 comment:

janetgalore said...

I saw this same encampment -- you can't call them homeless! It was a real home, but a little more outdoorsy. I saw the same sort of tidy, well maintained tarp house in the park at Osaka Castle.