Author: travel67

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

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Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is the second largest aquarium in the world, and has the world’s largest aquarium window measuring 8.2 by 22.5 meters. I have been many times but usually without my camera as I was showing friends or relatives around the island. (The issue of being a good photographer versus a good travel companion will have to wait for a future post.) What this meant was that I didn’t have any really good images of the main tank which is a real oversight when the aquarium is one of Japan’s top tourist attractions. So a few weeks ago I went along and took some shots with my main Pentax 67II camera. I used Fuji Provia 100F film and pushed it two stops to ISO 400 as it is so dark inside. The film was processed but there was still too much motion blur in the shots from the slow shutter speeds. I ordered some faster film on-line and last week went back again and shot a second roll. This time I used Fuji Provia …

Another new beginning (part 2)

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Back in October I started teaching a couple of days a week at Meio University. It’s about 40 kilometers from my house to university and using the toll road expressway it takes 45-50 minutes door to door. The drive isn’t bad, but it’s a lot of time to be spending in the car, and quite an expensive commute. I decided that it might be possible to do the commute at least once a week by bicycle. I would save the money I normally spend on fuel and toll charges and I would get fit at the same time. So one sunny day, my friend Ken and I decided to ride from my house to Meio and back. I road on my beat up old mountain bike.   We peddled at a slow but steady pace and took several brief stops at convenience stores along the way. It took 3 hours 15 minutes to get to Meio and 2 hours 45 minutes to get home. At this point it looked like the commute would be unfeasible. …

The joys of overtaking

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This week it was announced that Honda is ending its Formula 1 racing programme. It’s a shame that they are leaving the sport, but when the majority of their cars are sensible compacts and 660cc kei cars maybe they no longer feel the need to associate themselves with a motorsport that requires millions to shave mere hundredths of a second off lap times. Or maybe it’s that Forumla 1 was just getting boring. After the first couple of corners some races appear to be little more than a procession, albeit a very fast one. What Forumla 1 needs is more overtaking.  Something like the following…  

On the bookshelf

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My fascination with photography  began  in 1999 when I arrived in Japan. I bought my first SLR camera, put in some film and started taking pictures. I didn’t have any photographer friends, know of any photography clubs or really have any clear idea of what I was doing. For the first few months my new camera remained in the auto everything mode, but slowly I started experimenting seeing what all the other buttons did and working my way through the camera’s manual. Taking more and more photographs is a great way to improve, but I still didn’t have anyone that could offer me advice on subjects like which lenses to use or the best way to shoot a portrait. It turned out however that there were hundreds of fantastic mentors out there who had distilled their wisdom into books. It didn’t matter that I was living in a snowdrift in northern Japan as those magical brown cardboard boxes from Amazon always managed to get through. And so in a country where I can’t even read the children’s …

New York Times assignment

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  In early September I took photographs of the Okinawan home of Japanese theater producer Amon Miyamoto for The New York Times. It was the first time I had worked for them and both a fascinating but challenging experience. Normally when doing travel photography I am happily working at my own pace and I can wait until the conditions are perfect. On this assignment I had only a couple of hours to shoot five rolls of 220 film and get a decent selection of shots of the house’s interior, exterior and some portraits of Amon Miyamoto. The house was constructed from concrete and had a minimalist design. The photos are now online at the New York Times website you can see them here:   The New York Times – In Okinawa, Staging the View

Connect Magazine assignment

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Most of the articles I have written about Japan have been based on a particular city or region. However recently I did a feature titled “Ultimate Guide: Japan” for CONNECT the business travel magazine of Carlson Wagonlit Travel. It was interesting trying to condense a whole county into just a few pages, but it meant that many great places to visit had to be left unmentioned.  You can see the article here: Ultimate Guide: Japan I also wrote the city guides for Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto and Fukuoka that are later on in the magazine. One of the interesting things I learned while writing the piece was that since my last visit a year ago Osaka’s most famous restaurant Kuiadore has closed down however Kuidaore’s iconic clown figure that used to stand outside the restaurant will continue to live on albeit at a new location outside the C’est la vie SQUARE Nakaza Building.