What’s better than a personalized meal in Japan by a master chef? Not much else, as far as I can surmise. This is a photo from our tour across Japan where we visited several different locations all around the country. I think if I had to choose one country’s food for the rest of my life, it would probably be Japan. Most people think it’s just sushi, but the broad range of options is never-ending.
Okinawa, although an island by itself as part of Japan, is like a country of its own. The culture there is like a small parallel universe of Japan, which is like its own parallel universe. The country does not have much of a “beach culture” where families go out to hang out on the beach, so most of them are quite empty. In the middle of the summer, the weather is still pretty hot, but the beaches are mostly empty and ready for you to explore. Like many islands, the clouds are often multilayered and idyllic for photography.
I think this guy is hilarious…
This is one of my favorite little alleys in Tokyo, and it is very close to Shinjuku. I’ve been there a few times, but I often forget exactly where it is. Sometimes, I purposefully set out to find this place, and I get completely lost and end up in a different area. I mean, that’s okay. I guess I could mark it on Google Maps, but I like the challenge of trying to find this little treasure again.
What’s better than spending the evening in an adorable Japanese snowy town, taking photos for most of the night, then heading back to get in some natural hot springs with an Asahi? Not much, I tell ya… not much. I was happy that I decided to stay here two nights rather than rush it. I don’t like being rushed from place to place, and I love the idea of ending the day in the hot pools, laughing with random Japanese people.
My first trip after things calm down a little will be to visit the family and then I’ll probably go to Japan! 🙂 I’ll probably stay in a bunch of my old favorite spots as well get out into the countryside like this again. This magical area is in Ginzan Onsen.
Sometimes when I get bored, I listen to all sorts of podcasts about the nature of reality. It’s also been influenced a lot by my morning meditations with the Sam Harris Waking Up app. Once you start to just notice things appearing in your sensorium, it can be quite the spectacle. So, I started working on this fractal based on a more organic formula to explore this idea further. The music I coupled it with is also a favorite that was introduced to me by a shaman in LA and it’s called “Devi Prayer” by Craig Preuss & Ananda. Enjoy the journey! 🙂
How awesome is the rain in Tokyo? It’s one of my favorite times to go out and take photos. The Blade Runner reflections go off the chart and all these cool Japanese people carry interesting umbrellas. I think I stayed up till around 2AM taking photos and walking the streets to find different subjects. By the time I got back to the hotel with Ethan, I was completely soaked and freezing, but it was worth it! 🙂
I’ve been lucky enough to take Ethan to Japan twice… I’m glad he has fallen in love with the country as much as I have! When we were in Osaka, we got into a pretty extreme street fight, since these kinds of things happen a lot in Japan. Unfortunately, Ethan lost the fight because I was too busy taking photos. I feel kind of bad about that, but he’ll always live on in my memory.
Watching a lemur get high! 🙂
I thought these guys were pretty cute. Zoboomafoo! As cute as I thought they were, Japanese people thought they were even cuter. They would watch them for hours and hours and just giggle. Hearing them giggle and watching them point were just as entertaining as the actual mammal itself!
I feel lucky to have gone to Okinawa twice in one year! Lucky me! Regular readers know I love Japan, and Okinawa is a special little island that has its own little cultural ecosystem. Things are a little bit different here and it’s fun to notice the delta between the two. This is a photo of the Ritz-Carlton where we stayed on both occasions. What a cool spot, eh? It’s also just a short walk down to the beach where you can relax… Most Japanese people don’t go to the beach to relax, but it’s more common down here on this island.
This one recently broke the world record!
Here’s kind of a cool trick! If you click on this photo, you’ll get all the interesting info including a satellite photo of where it was taken from. This is a super cool feature of the DJI drones in that it records the GPS data of every photo. After you get over to Smugmug, click the three lines on the left and it will open up all the EXIF including a cool map down at the bottom.
