Dolphin meat, Fuji and Hiroshi Sugimoto (not in that order)

Dolphin Meat (イルカ) for sale in Numazu,Shizuoka - ©Uchujin-Adrian Storey. All Rights reserved.
Dolphin Meat (イルカ) for sale in Numazu,Shizuoka

I had a full day yesterday, up bright and early to drive to Izu with Eiichi-scart, Sean Wood and Commander Ray.
We were off to the newly completed Izu photography museum to see Hiroshi Sugimotos exhibition “Naure of Light”. The drive took much longer than expected due to the express way from Tokyo not being very ‘express’ but it was worth it, Sugimotos photos in which static charges were released onto photographic film were spectacular and beautiful as was the gallery itself and Sugimotos presentation of the work.

Next it was on to Numazu in Shizuoka to visit the port and get some lunch. Thankfully we had eaten before Eiichi called me over as we were walking around the fish market telling me he had something shocking to show me.

He wasn’t wrong.

You will have to have been living in a cave not to have seen some of the interntional furor caused by the documentary “The Cove” about dolphin slaughter in Japan’s Wakayama prefecture.Hell, its even made it to an episode of South Park.
Most of the Japanese people I have spoken to said they didn’t even know people ate dolphins in Japan and they had certainly never done it.
Well, someone is, because there in plain view, at a fish market just a few hours drive on a sunny Saturday from Tokyo, was a plastic dolphin advertising a tray of Dolphin meat.
I’ll leave you to form your own opinions about the moral, ecological and health issues surrounding this emotive subject, but I have to say I was shocked and a little disturbed.

From there it was frantic rush to get a good view of Fuji before sunset, not helped by more traffic congestion.We finally made it to a lake where we had a pretty good view just in time, rounding off a beautiful sunny autumn (still autumn?? Halloween?) day.

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Just reminds me that I really should get out of Tokyo more often.

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