PHOTO of the DAY (JAPAN) Dial up warning

[AsahinaKimi]

Miryam Roper of Germany, white jersey, fights with Kaori Matsumoto of Japan during their men's under 57 kg category third place match at the World Judo Championships in Paris Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011. Matsumoto won bronze.(AP Photo/Michel Euler)


Bonus Photos

An 86-year-old farmer in Chiba, puts up bamboo frames to hang and dry rice on. Most rice is planted and harvested by tractor or combine these days, but some farmers still do it the old way.


Rescue workers row a life boat carrying people who were trapped in a tunnel near Tokyo International Airport at Haneda in Ota Ward after the area was hit by record rain fall on Aug. 26. In Tokyo alone, 29 structures were flooded. (Mainichi)


One of the few fishing boats that survived the March 11 tsunami in the port of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, dumps a haul from a fixed shore net into the vessel's storage bay on Aug. 25, 2011. Fishing out of the port resumed a little under a month ago, and the remaining boats have been on the water every day since. (Mainichi)


The first beef auction in Sendai since the ban on beef shipments from Miyagi Prefecture was lifted is held in Sendai's Miyagino Ward on Aug. 26, 2011. The ban had been in place for about a month after radioactive cesium was detected in Miyagi beef cattle. Although all of the beef in the Aug. 26 auction was from cattle that passed testing, the bid prices still did not reach pre-nuclear disaster levels. (Mainichi)





Voters in front of a heap of destroyed cars listen to a prefectural governor candidate's speech in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on Aug. 25, 2011. Of the three prefectures hit hardest by the March 11 disasters, Iwate will be the first to hold prefecture-wide elections. Both the governor and prefectural assembly members will be voted for on Sept. 11. (Mainichi)



The "New Shimizu" barber shop, operating out of a temporary structure brightly decorated with painted birds and flowers, is seen in tsunami-devastated Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, on Aug. 24, 2011. The lively colors and patterns were painted by artist Kensuke Miyazaki, 32, who did similar work at a refugee shelter in Miyagi Prefecture, and on other buildings. Ofunato locals, meanwhile, are full of praise for the barber shop's new look, saying, "It's like flowers have bloomed in the ruins." (Mainichi)


Elementary school students on an educational visit ride a tramcar through an underground tunnel in Chuo Ward, Fukuoka, on Aug. 24, 2011. The tunnel, which will stretch 3.9 kilometers and reach Hakata Bay when it is finished, is being constructed to drain water from the city, which has suffered from flooding in the past. (Mainichi)


Mainichi ohatu ~Something new everyday

[Oceansaway]

1. thanks...n/t

[AsahinaKimi]

2. you're welcome

[ZombieHorde]

3. I really enjoy your photo threads. Recommended. nt

[AsahinaKimi]

5. Thank you much

I enjoy posting them..
nihon no sashin wa mecha mecha kakkoii desune 日本のさしんはめちゃめちゃかこいいですね such cool photos from Japan!

[pnorman]

11. Nihon no SHASHIN

日本の写真！

[AsahinaKimi]

12. oopsie

Forgot the H, thanks! I need a Japanese spell check! ^^　私はあなたのきょうりょくにかんしゃします。　watashi wa anata no kyouryoku ni kansha shimasu!. Thank you for your assistance! よろしくね！

[Oceansaway]

4. the old farmer in Chiba is my fav....n/t

[AsahinaKimi]

6. At 86 and out in the fields...

He has lots of energy still! Genki desuyo! げんきですよう！　may we all have that kind of energy at his age!

[Sal Minella]

14. My niece's 94-yo grandfather still drives the tractor pulling the wagon

for picking sweet-corn during sweet-corn season (upper midwest).

Must be something good about the farming life-style, eh?

Wonderful photos as always, thank you so much.

[AsahinaKimi]

18. 94 wow..

That's some kinda awesome!

[WillyT]

7. K & R !!!

:kick:

[AsahinaKimi]

9. Thank you Willy san!

[Parker CA]

8. The picture of the rice farmer is gorgeous. The barber shop is also awesom! Love the spirit there!

[AsahinaKimi]

10. My favorite is the first ...

Perhaps because I took up Judo as a kid.. I loved every minute of it.

[mckara]

13. Thanks! I Love Japan!

I'd love to go back and see it again.

[AsahinaKimi]

16. Some day I would like to go back.

I was in Osaka, when I was 6 months old. I don't remember any of it. I look forward to going back some day and burn it into my memories!

[MiddleFingerMom]

15. Three things stand out for me in these pictures:

.
.
.
#1. The general sense of improvement and progress in the tsunami-ravaged areas of Japan --
so much in contrast with our Katrina fiasco.
.
.
#2. The barbershop -- such vivid and cheerful colors in the midst of devastation. And it
makes me sad to think that, here in the States, some self-important HOA official would
probably assess an expensive daily fine on the owner until it was restored to its rightful
shade of eggshell white.
.
.
#3. The rice harvest -- I once took an emergency temporary job just before moving from
Tennessee to Michigan (I had quit my job making boxcars for the railroad and realized that
I needed more money for the move). I've dug ditches for a living, but that tobacco-harvesting
is BY FAR the hardest work I've ever done in my life (ESPECIALLY lifting the plants up in
order to hang them from frames to dry). That farmer is 86!?!?!? I was mid-twenties, just out
of the service, and maybe in the best shape EVER in my life -- and that work left me just
enough energy to make it home and collapse into bed, sore and stiff (and not in a GOOD way,
neither!!!)
.
.
.

[AsahinaKimi]

17. Yes! I love the barber shop

So vibrant and alive. It truly is a flower growing in the midst of an area recovering from disaster!