First of all, the important stuff: Happy New Year! I trust al of you had a relaxing and rejuvenating holiday period? I hope so.

I’ve finally gotten the blog design done and figured out how to move the database over to the new host. I thought it would never end! Things are still shaky over there, but I’ll nail it down and get things regularly up and running again.

Please go to the new Laughing Knees home page (http://laughing-knees.com) and if it still interests you, please update your URL note for Laughing Knees.

It would be great to finally see everyone again.

peace and good medicine,
Miguel

Please click on the images to enlarge them and see them closer to the way they were intended.

The wind that issued from the mouth of the tunnel tasted stale and acrid.

Though the camera could see in the dark, I walked almost blind, feeling for the rough surprise of ogre skin.

End of the line: even as an adult coming across a human relic overgrown with the encroaching wood still conjures up the excitement of discovery of lost cities.

This was just a small one!

There is a whole different sense of privacy in Japan.

Something about tunnels, especially abandoned train tunnels, that flushes out the willies in me.

On such an innocent trail, even there, the spirits lurk.

Sundays have always been the time for the droning of a lone airplane, passing overhead outside the window.

When I read The Lord of the Rings as a teenager I often walked in the woods and imagined the denizens of the books hiding behind tree trunks and boulders.

When I lived in Naruto I would go on very long walks. One place that would bring me peace and make me feel less lonely was this quiet nature reserve about 20 minutes walk from my apartment.

I hardly ever saw anyone in this area. So few people passed through that the egrets and night herons and grey herons relaxed and settled down here to roost. I would sit for hours listening to their calls at night.

People often talk of their secret hideaways when they were kids, but seem to think they are unnecessary when we get older, but I think such places are even more important as adults. They help center us and soften the harshness of everyday life.

A different tack, back in the city, into the heart of gods and fate.

I’m not sure how I would feel with all those strangers and tourists taking pictures of my wedding…

Dusk fell and the gate guard began industriously shooing us out.

No matter how many times I turn up at them, many shrines have a way of instilling great peace.

I began to see spirits in every nook and cranny.

I was on a ghost walk… but the truth is that it was raining so hard and the air so humid that my lens fogged up at this point. The rest of the trip was taking pictures through a mist…

...and though I was irritated at first, I began to have fun seeing everything in a different way.