| | | | | | I saw a doll lying on the side of the road. Her face white and shiny, like porcelain, her green kimono was dated, and fading.
As a routine I took a picture, recorded the location and documented it with my PDA. I was going to leave her like that, but the doll was staring at me, begging me to pick her up. Through her dark little eyes, I saw her soul. Her little soul gave me the permission to steal her from the graveyard.
Technically I wasn't stealing. I've checked the tombs around, they belonged to some old men or women, too old to play dolls. She was clearly abandoned, probably by a local kid who just bought a Nintendo Wii.
I picked her up and gave her a name. I called her Midori, after a sushi restaurant I visited in Tokyo. I whispered her name in her ear, but then I found out she didn't have ears.
I wrapped her up in a 7-eleven plastic bag and the whole package fitted nicely into my backpack.
*After note: Later when I returned to the hotel, I found her photo was missing, probably deleted accidentally when I tried to clear some space so I can take pictures of some ducks. But the doll was still in my backpack, so I thought I could always take a picture later. I kept procrastinating. Eventually, I donated her to the Awashima Jinja and forgot about the picture until it was too late. The picture you see here is from the same shrine I donated her to. She was a bit smaller than this doll, but much prettier. My doll was wearing a green kimono, but the doll in this picture was wearing a blue kimono (which I painted green artificially). Also the doll I got was made of wood. I'm not sure the doll in this picture is made of wood or ceramic. | | | | | |
| | | | | |
| model | Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT |
| date | Tue 2006-10-31 08:47:38 |
| focal | 85.0mm (35mm equivalent: 442mm) |
| exposure | aperture priority (semi-auto) |
| city | Bangkok, Hong Kong, Vancouver |
| distant | walk 0.09 km (or 1 mins) SE from last photo |
| location | Map of "ichimatsu doll i picked up in the cemetery" |
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| width | 687 |
height | 1077 |
| flash | No |
timing | 0.020 s (1/50) |
| aperture | f/5.6 |
iso | 200 |
| whitebalance | Manual |
latitude | N 41d 44.83m 0s |
| longitude | E 140d 43.18m 0s |
continent | Asia |
| country | Thailand |
region | South East Asia |
| itinerary | Exit Bangkok |
activity | Home - End of trip |
| weather | Rain |
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