The Flickr Movotpm100Mic Image Generatr

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The microphone picks up the squeal, laughter, shouts and conversations from the late afternoon scene at the city's Central Park (chuo koen) on a Sunday a few days after the New Year holiday in 2025.

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After days and days of rain there is a brief hour or so to get out and walk. Seeing the river surging this way is thrilling. By attaching an external mic, the spectrum of sound records better than with the smartphone's own mics. As a result (if listening with earphones or earbuds), not only is there high, crisp "white noise" but also a mid-range and a bass sound, as well.

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Business is steady in all seasons at this small establishments in its 2nd or more generations of service now. In the unseasonable cold damp of this week the atmosphere is cozy and warm, thanks to an overhead blower with hot hair supplied. In the corner near the umbrella rack and door outside is this stone well with trickle of cold water - a cooling sound in warm weather, but even in wintry conditions it seems soothing. Besides the sound effect and the vitality of moss growing on the stone for those who stop to admire the view, the water bath also cools bottles placed there. But in cold weather, most people cling to the warm tea cups rather than to order a cold beverage.

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Now 30 minutes before breaking for lunch, the microphone picks up the amplified voice of the lead priest in the annual ceremony as he chants with certain lines reinforced by the voices of the four supporting priests. Certain points in the reading involve parishioners' choral responses, too.

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At the end of the morning chanting for the annual ceremony, the hosting priest invites one and all to share a meal together in the vegetarian, Buddhist style of 'devotional cuisine' (Shojin Ryori, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_cuisine), 精進料理.

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From a distance the melodic sound of lead priest's voice floats on the air of the Jodo-sect temple grounds during a break in the day-long rains.

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The Eiheiji-gawa races past the temple buildings after several days of intermittent rain. The dam located 1 km or so upstream is full and so a steady cascade of water is being released at the time of this video recording.

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Missing from the photo are a 7x monocular and the cellphone used to snap this collection of gear. The external mic goes into the cellphone to add clarity and depth to the audio channel when recording video clips with an important sound dimension. Or it can make sound recorder files of higher quality, too. The shiny background that the pieces rest upon is the Chromebook (laptop) PC for backing up camera files from cellphone, enthusiast (Canon gx9 mark ii), and the orange toy camera (Pieni ii). Rather than edit images to final form, though, they go into a draft album online. So the PC is both backup and the method for uploading selected files. Additional backup copies of the files goes to Amazon Photos (cellphone) and Canon image gateway (cloud sharing service). Probably another layer of backups will go to DVD-R and/or HDD or USB memory stick, too.

The compass gives reliable orientation to know which way will take me from present location to the destination or path that I have in mind. The cellphone (offline, no data plan) also reads GPS and cell tower data to show a virtual compass. Likewise offline the Maps.Me app allows downloaded map data to place your present location on the screen.

The memo book is a kind of "working memory" since details of trains, prices, questions and observations sometimes disappear from the mind without making a written note.

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What looks like static fishing poles are clustered at this part of the timeline. Commercial fishing coopers claim exclusive rights to defined sections of coastline, but people fishing for pleasure or personal consumption seem to be unhindered in places along the waterline.

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The small van carried tofu into the neighborhoods so that the residents need not come to the store to buy theirs. At some point the company must have estimated that the costs of providing this service would be profitable, or at least covers the cost of driver and vehicle so that customers would increase their appreciation for the business.

In this video clips the car turns to the left instead of coming any closer to the camera position at the intersection. Note that several houses have solar panels or solar-waterheaters visible on the south-facing roofs.

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Adding the external mic gives a clearer sound portrait to this moment on Saturday morning in central Imari-city.

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In the fading light the mind is less distracted with surrounding details. The imagination can more easily wander forward and backward in time to wonder who in the past and who in the future will pause to see this sight and listen to its sound.

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With the emergency entrance a minute or less from here, the steady but quick pace of the driver brings the patient to the doctors.

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The rhythm of the nearby gravel factory along the river course floats into this view of a small solar farm at the outskirts of Hitoyoshi. Civilization built of concrete is one thing, but one centered on silicon (for solar panels and electricity to produce, distribute, and consume) is altogether a different basis for living. Instead of physical materials being produced and used, now the important thing is the services that electricity makes possible: telecommunication, storing and retrieving and analyzing data for real-time status and decisions in response. This video clip marries the two civilizations, one about products and the other about information and services performed.

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The mic picks up the range of water sounds as cars rolls across the Mizu-no-te Bridge at the middle of the castle grounds in the gathering evening dusk.

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