More on the Japanese Album Project

Most of my blogging and online time has been spent on my Japanese photo album project. I've done a bit of knitting here and there, and even spent 30 glorious minutes fiber-fondling in a yarn shop, but when I'm online, I'm sleuthing. Unfortunately, I still don't know much more about the photo album than I knew a month ago. Japanese Kanji is not easily translated into the western alphabet. I've requested a book from the library, so when it comes in maybe I can decipher some bits and pieces.

The one thing I noticed about the album was the degree of care that went in to the photo placement, the manner in which the photos were mounted, and the elegance of the captions. It really is beautiful and is a striking contrast to my grandfather's album from the same period of time. Not that my grandfather's album is sloppy and unelegant, but the photos are taped in and captions are few and scrawled in pencil. The subject matter of the two albums is also quite different. The Japanese album contains very few action photos and there are many formal portraits of people and fellow soldiers. There's almost a sense of serenity eminating from the album. My grandfather's album, on the other hand, contains rather disturbing deptictions of the aftermath of the battle, photos of men working and no keepsake photos of those at home. It makes for an interesting comparison. I wish I had asked my grandfather more questions about it.

I'm just about ready to start decreasing for the toe on the blue/purple/teal socks. I'd take a photo but my camera is AWOL.