Author: travel67

Words of Warning and Wisdom – Interview with Dr. Andrew Weil

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Dr. Andrew Weil is the director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. He’s been on the cover of Time magazine, written several best selling books and was recently described as one of the twenty most influential people in America. During his visit to Okinawa I talked to him briefly about his thoughts and views on healthy living and the longevity of Okinawans. What do you think are the major problems with the western diet? “Too much meat and animal products in general. Too few vegetables and too few fruits, the wrong kind of fats especially too much refined vegetable oil, margarine and artificially hardened fats, and too few of the Omega-3 fats from fish. Also too much refined carbohydrates, highly processed wheat flour and in general too much processed food, not enough fresh natural food, I’d say they were the main problems.” What can we learn from the Okinawan diet? “Many more vegetables and a greater variety of vegetables, more legumes especially soy and other special Okinawan foods, goya and …

The Okinawan Elixir

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  The secrets of longevity are found not in Shangri-la, but in the homes and hearts of the people of Okinawa. Large numbers of people on Okinawa remain strong and active well into their eighties, nineties and even as centenarians. They have amazingly low occurrences of cancer, heart disease, and strokes. And, on Okinawa the proportion of life that is spent with chronic disease is also much less than the average American. This means that Okinawans, in addition to having a longer lifespan, have more healthy years free from medical problems during which they can live a full and active life. Everyday Keiko gets up at 5 a.m. and prepares breakfast for her family. She spends most of the morning in a small field near their home tending the vegetables and fruit trees. Later, she will prepare the evening meal, and then spend the remainder of the day chatting with her friends. The fact that Keiko is over ninety years old is impressive, but there are exceptionally old people all over the world. What is …

Karate Masters Portrait Project Volume 1 – Get your copy now!

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The Karate Masters Portrait Project Volume 1 is now available from Blurb.com You can buy your copy here!! After receiving your order Blurb will print your copy and can mail it worldwide. We do not plan to have a stock of books on sale in Okinawa. If a karate organization would like to gift a copy of the book to a particular master this is possible. We can order the copy, have it sent to Okinawa, sign it, and present it in person to the karate master from you. If you’d like to include a message with the book, then I can print out a message and place it inside the book. Please contact me at chris@travel67.com if this is something we can help you with. You can read more about the project, and see the list of all the karate masters in the Karate section of the blog.

Karate Masters Portrait Project Volume 1 – Nearly Ready!

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There have been fewer than usual blog posts over the last 3 months. In fact the amount of shooting I’ve done has been somewhat limited. The reason is that I’ve been focused on producing the Karate Masters Portrait Project Volume 1. Images from the Karate Masters Portrait Project can be seen on the web at either Facebook or Flickr. However, Karate masters and their students around the world began to ask if we could produce a print book of the project. I decided to make the kind of book that I’d like to own myself. A large, high quality, coffee-table book with images of all 58 sensei that we’d photographed. It quickly became clear that traditional publishers would want orders of several thousand books. Book production would simply be too expensive to undertake, and too risky if I couldn’t sell all of the books. It might have even compromised the future of project as I would have had to concentrate on being a bookseller rather than a photographer. The solution was to use the U.S. …

USO Color Blast Okinawa 2014

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This morning was the USO Color Blast 5km Fun Run on Okinawa. The Color Blast is very similar to the Indian festival of Holi. Participants throw powdered paint at each other and everyone comes away from the event a lot more colorful than when they arrived. The Color Blast combines throwing paint with a 5km run, and the paints used are waterbased and non-toxic. (This is not always the case in India. I had to throw away most of my clothes and scrub off a couple of layers of skin to remove the paint after shooting Holi in Jaipur.)

Friday Night Lights

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My friend Chris said his son was playing football on Friday night and invited me to come along and take a few pics. Jonathan is a Tiny Mite football player. This is tackle football for kids aged 5 to 8. They put on their pads, helmets, and mouthguards then attempt to decimate the competition. We had a few minutes before the game so I took the Pentax 645Z, a 25mm wide angle, and the B1 strobe onto the edge of the field. A few quick shots while there was a little color still in the sky and we were done. I don’t know anything about American Football (I believe one team used a refrigerator as a player in the ’80’s). However, when I wanted Jonathan to give me his game face I simply said show me Hulk and got exactly what I wanted.

Yotsudake Dancers, Ryukyu Dynasty Parade, Kokusai Street.

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Yotsudake is one of the traditional Ryukyu dances. The dancers wear a flower shaped hat, and a bingata kimono. They hold a pair of instruments similar to castanets which are made from four (yotsu) pieces of bamboo (take). They clap the yotsudake in time to the music. These images were all shot with the Pentax 645Z and the 90mm lens. The 90mm lens is an excellent portrait lens, allowing a shallow depth of field when needed and also has image stabilization to reduce motion blur due to camera shake.

Shurijo Castle Festival – Traditional Procession November 3rd 2014

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Before my more linguistically minded friends point it out, I realize that as jo means castle saying Shurijo Castle is a tautology, and may cause annoyance. However as the official title of the festival on posters and leaflets was Shurjo Castle Festival, I shall use their version. On November 3rd the ceremony begins in the courtyard of Shurijo. The procession of courtiers, envoys, guards, regents, and of course the king and queen then parade out of the castle. They descend through the various gateways and along the main road almost to the monorail station. Monday was a gorgeously sunny November day, but it did mean I was looking for patches of shade when shooting portraits. There were many excellent  fake beards on show. There were also several priestesses (yuta) who were once the religious counsel to the royal family. They still play a role in modern Okinawa as mediums and advisers.

Halloween in Mihama

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Mihama’s American Village in Chatan Town is the place to be on Halloween. The fancy dress competition is probably the most popular event of the year. I stopped by on the way home from helping set up the Okinawa 9 exhibition in Naha and took a few pics. I used the Pentax 645Z, 90mm lens and the Profoto B1 strobe with a beauty dish for light. Spooky fun.