KAPOK TREE
Nikon FE2 + Kodak Elitechrome 400 (Expired, Cross-Processed)
This is a kapok tree, also known as a Java cotton or Java kapok. I just found out that it’s an important symbol in Maya mythology, regarded as a sacred Tree of Life.
In a quiet mountainside village where we have a resthouse, trees like this surround our street. My childhood friend’s late grandmother planted all of them and they’ve been around for as long as I can remember. Every summer, when the kapok fruits are brown, plump, and ready to burst just like in the photo, she would start harvesting them, one by one. My friends and I would help her, climbing the trees or using a sungkit or kalawit (I don’t know the English counterpart, but it’s a long pole-like apparatus used to pick fruits on high, hard to reach areas of trees). By the end of the week, the kapok trees would be free of their fruits, and sacks of kapok cotton would be lined up outside my friend’s house, waiting to be sold.
When she died several years ago, no one bothered to harvest the kapok fruits in her place, not even my childhood friend or his parents. So every summer, most of the kapok trees remain heavy with their fruits. When the afternoon breeze prods them strong enough, the fruits crash on the ground and break open to release balls of cotton in the air, much to the dismay of villagers who find kapok cotton stuck on their laundry and floating on their basins of water.
I’m not sure if anyone else thinks of it this way, but I’ve always found the balls of cotton floating in the air and around the grassy areas a pretty sight. When I saw hordes of floating kapok cotton this summer, I was reminded of my childhood, and the diligent grandmother who planted the kapok trees.
KAITEN-ZUSHI
Nikon FE2 + Kodacolor 200
Dining in a conveyor belt sushi restaurant (kaiten-zushi) is no doubt a must-try for every gustatory traveler, especially for someone who loves Japanese cuisine. Of course, I’ve always wanted to try dining in sushi-go-rounds, but I have no idea where to go. Japanese restaurants are common here in the Philippines, but I’ve never heard of a kaiten-zushi restaurant anywhere here. Until one night, my brother and I discovered this affordable kaiten-zushi restaurant in one of the biggest malls in Metro Manila. We dragged our mom for a sushi dinner in this restaurant, and since she’s tolerant of Japanese food, she obliged.
We were ushered to a table for four with the conveyor belt server beside our table and seats, unlike in most kaiten-zushi restaurants in Japan, where diners are facing the conveyor belt. Being the first timer that I was, I kept snapping photos of the sushi plates on the conveyor belt even while eating! The sushi was great, we couldn’t stop stuffing our mouths full! I should have taken a photo of our pile of plates.
Someday, I hope I’ll get to try the kaiten-zushi restaurants in Japan!
FISHING VILLAGE
FED 3 + Lucky B&W 100
During my birthday trip to Vigan, my companions and I spent a night in a seaside hotel in Barangay Mindoro, a coastal village near the town proper. Mindoro Beach, as I have mentioned and shown in previous blog posts and photos, is not perfect for swimming because of its strong waves. Nevertheless, we got soaked as we frolicked along the seashore early the next morning, playing along with the rolling waves while taking snapshots here and there. This photo of some fishermen getting their nets ready is one of the shots I took using my then newly-purchased FED 3 rangefinder.
According to Jennie (she was one of my companions during the trip), she was told that when these village fishermen are able to get a good catch, other villagers help pull the nets closer to the shore. If you are able to help pull the nets, the fishermen will share some of their catch with you. Too bad we already left the hotel when we learned about this. Maybe we’ll get to try it once we go back to Vigan!
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