Monday, September 23, 2019
Saturday, January 26, 2019
I am back! I want to share my thoughts about travel, people and photography!
Wow! I cant believe four years have passed since I wrote my last blog! I missed writing and sharing my thoughts about things. I think I do this more for myself as a reflection, but hopefully you will enjoy the read, or at least get a view as to how I see the world. This maybe different from how you see things, so I challenge you to keep an open mind and heart. I am not a person that is "politically correct", I will not sugar coat my comments and I may offend many of you. And no topic is ever off the table, so with these words of caution, read at your own risk.
For my first post I will write about my re-visit to Japan, I first visited Japan in 2012 when I lived in Hong Kong. My experience then and now are somewhat different and in many ways the same. Of course I am seven years older, and maybe my perspective has changed a bit.
We traveled and revisited Tokyo and then proceeded to the Island of Hokkaido, the second largest Island of Japan. Hokkaido being the Northern most Island is cool during the summer and extremely cold and snowy in the winter, reaching over 35 feet of snow during the winter in certain areas.
Hokkaido population has over 5.5 million people, rural and mainly agriculture, much of the food, fish and flowers come from Hokkaido.
Let's talk about the people, I will compare to Americans and the U.S. many cases. The Japanese are quiet, well dressed and the young are obsessed with selfies! In a city like Tokyo with close to 10 million people you do not hear them! There is no horn honking and they are orderly beyond belief!
I also believe that many are repressed, one cannot be that polite, quiet and "civilized" all the time.
More than 2,000 sex dolls are sold every year in Japan, that is a lot of lonely and fucked up men. Many of them have married their dolls and have spent tens of thousands of dollars on a dress for the doll bride, cake and ceremony.
The one notable difference is the Japanese way of dress, or maybe I should say it became more apparent to me how lazy Americans have become by using "athletic wear" as everyday attire. The Japanese young and old have a sense of style. Many young women still wear pantyhose and heels.
(I no longer wear pantyhose, too hot in Florida to wear them and I certainly limit my time in heels.
A side note, growing up Cuban in Florida, we did not wear flip flops as they were not seen as footwear.
Tokyo is beige and brown, the city lacks color, it is said that the Japanese look to nature to fill the environment with color. Another thing worth noting, there are no garbage cans in public spaces! There is no litter like you see in the U.S., for the most part it is incredibly clean, (air quality is another story). I had to walk around for hours with an empty cup of coffee until I found a trash can. One can say that overall the Japanese take a certain pride in themselves and their homeland.
Now Hokkaido, the Northern most island is desolate and beautiful. Driving around the island and walking through the snow, looking for images to make was a challenge. The winds were gusting, rain and snow relentless, but we had an amazing guide that made everything effortless.
Japan is a very difficult country to get around in, English is limited, signage only in Japanese, this can be very challenging to travel outside of the big cities. Let me be clear even in the big cities it is difficult to get around.
In Hokkaido we covered a large part of the Island spending two days or so in each location, then moving on to the next stop. Most of the hotels do not have t.v. channels in English and the majority of them have onsen's , thermal baths, that are part of the daily ritual of the Japanese life. The waters are thought to have healing elements in them. A word of caution, if you have heart issues or low blood pressure do not go in!
A final comment, I love the Japanese just for the way they take care of the public bathrooms! Their toilets are amazing and the bathrooms smelled and looked clean. They had wipes to wipe down the toilets before use and of course Toto toilets with every type of spray, wash and blow dry your bottom!
Here are a few photos to see mainly Hokkaido and a few of Tokyo, enjoy!
I want to thank Martyn Lucas for organizing this trip, if you are a photographer and like traveling in small groups to interesting places, reach out to Martyn on FB or let me know and I will hook you guys up!
©all images are not for use by other people. All images are the sole property of the photographer.
For my first post I will write about my re-visit to Japan, I first visited Japan in 2012 when I lived in Hong Kong. My experience then and now are somewhat different and in many ways the same. Of course I am seven years older, and maybe my perspective has changed a bit.
We traveled and revisited Tokyo and then proceeded to the Island of Hokkaido, the second largest Island of Japan. Hokkaido being the Northern most Island is cool during the summer and extremely cold and snowy in the winter, reaching over 35 feet of snow during the winter in certain areas.
Hokkaido population has over 5.5 million people, rural and mainly agriculture, much of the food, fish and flowers come from Hokkaido.
Let's talk about the people, I will compare to Americans and the U.S. many cases. The Japanese are quiet, well dressed and the young are obsessed with selfies! In a city like Tokyo with close to 10 million people you do not hear them! There is no horn honking and they are orderly beyond belief!
I also believe that many are repressed, one cannot be that polite, quiet and "civilized" all the time.
More than 2,000 sex dolls are sold every year in Japan, that is a lot of lonely and fucked up men. Many of them have married their dolls and have spent tens of thousands of dollars on a dress for the doll bride, cake and ceremony.
The one notable difference is the Japanese way of dress, or maybe I should say it became more apparent to me how lazy Americans have become by using "athletic wear" as everyday attire. The Japanese young and old have a sense of style. Many young women still wear pantyhose and heels.
(I no longer wear pantyhose, too hot in Florida to wear them and I certainly limit my time in heels.
A side note, growing up Cuban in Florida, we did not wear flip flops as they were not seen as footwear.
Tokyo is beige and brown, the city lacks color, it is said that the Japanese look to nature to fill the environment with color. Another thing worth noting, there are no garbage cans in public spaces! There is no litter like you see in the U.S., for the most part it is incredibly clean, (air quality is another story). I had to walk around for hours with an empty cup of coffee until I found a trash can. One can say that overall the Japanese take a certain pride in themselves and their homeland.
Now Hokkaido, the Northern most island is desolate and beautiful. Driving around the island and walking through the snow, looking for images to make was a challenge. The winds were gusting, rain and snow relentless, but we had an amazing guide that made everything effortless.
Japan is a very difficult country to get around in, English is limited, signage only in Japanese, this can be very challenging to travel outside of the big cities. Let me be clear even in the big cities it is difficult to get around.
In Hokkaido we covered a large part of the Island spending two days or so in each location, then moving on to the next stop. Most of the hotels do not have t.v. channels in English and the majority of them have onsen's , thermal baths, that are part of the daily ritual of the Japanese life. The waters are thought to have healing elements in them. A word of caution, if you have heart issues or low blood pressure do not go in!
A final comment, I love the Japanese just for the way they take care of the public bathrooms! Their toilets are amazing and the bathrooms smelled and looked clean. They had wipes to wipe down the toilets before use and of course Toto toilets with every type of spray, wash and blow dry your bottom!
Here are a few photos to see mainly Hokkaido and a few of Tokyo, enjoy!
I want to thank Martyn Lucas for organizing this trip, if you are a photographer and like traveling in small groups to interesting places, reach out to Martyn on FB or let me know and I will hook you guys up!
©all images are not for use by other people. All images are the sole property of the photographer.
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