All posts filed under: Okinawa

Island Icons: Hip-Hop Heroes

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Teppan and Popo are two freestyle dancers who are bringing American funk and hip-hop to Okinawa’s streets. “Teppan” (Tetsuya Yamauchi), “Popo” (Masato Ishikawa) and “Taiga” (Taiga Ishioka) have been friends since elementary school. They grew up in the small, laid-back seaside city Ishikawa, and while most of their classmates were more interested in baseball or basketball their passion was street dance. They formed their own dance team “Sound Terror” and their slick moves have taken them to competitions and events across Japan, and recently to the United States and the United Kingdom. In 2005, they set up their own SKF Dance Studio in Ishikawa, teaching freestyle dance classes to a new generation of kids with big dreams. Teppan and Popo talk about their inspiration, their dreams and their love of dance. Where did you learn to dance? “We went to various classes while we were at high school. Teppan studied hip-hop, Popo was into locking, and Taiga did breaking. After six months, we quit the school classes and started dancing together as a team. Our …

Ishigaki-Japan.com

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Quick announcement to say that fellow Brit Richard Shaw has created www.Ishigaki-Japan.com a great new website about Ishigaki and the surrounding islands. Ishigaki is one Okinawa prefectures southern islands. I spent three weeks there a few years ago, and it remains one of my favorite places in Japan. If you haven’t seen them already please check out “ Southern Comfort – Life on Ishigaki Island” and the “A tale of two islands -Taketomi & Iriomote” over at http://www.TRAVEL67.com

Noguchi-gera ( Pryer’s Woodpecker )

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Just got back the film from the couple of days I spent trying to photograph the Noguchi-gera. The Noguchi-gera is a rare woodpecker that is endemic to the forests of  northern Okinawa. It is the prefectural bird of Okinawa and is designated as a natural treasure of Japan. The photographs I’d taken were disappointing, but this was hardly surprising. There were several factors that made this a difficult shot. The bird was far away, the bird was moving, the day was overcast, and above all, I was using the wrong tools for the job. A large piece of film or a large sensor isn’t much use if you have to heavily crop the image to see the bird. I would have been better using my little 35mm film camera with a 67 to 35mm adapter on the lens. Even better would have been to have used a cropped sensor digital camera which would have increased the size of the bird in the image even further. Here’s the best of the images. It serves as a …

Protecting your Camera Equipment from Mould

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Here’s an email I received today from a friend based on Ishigaki (one of Okinawa’s southern islands). I’ve just discovered the power of Ishigaki’s mould. I left my favorite  macro lens out on the desk for about 2 weeks….every day I told myself that I should pack it away before it gets mouldy. I finally got around it to and guess what – inner element completely smeared with mould which looks like it might have cut into the glass. How stupid. Lesson learned. I really need to get some dry-storage, especially as I’m about to buy a nice Tokina 11-16mm wide lens which I really don’t want to suffer the same fate. Mould is a serious problem in Okinawa, especially during rainy season. Lenses and film are particularly vulnerable. A mouldy lens can be sent to a specialist for cleaning but more than likely the mould will have etched itself into the coatings and a repair will be more than the cost of the lens. I imagine mould could easily create havoc on a digital sensor. The cheap solution is to store …

Island Icon: Wildlife Illustrator (and birdwatching guru) Ichiro Kikuta

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Having talked about Ichiro Kikuta in my last post I realized I hadn’t put up an Island Icon interview I did with Ichiro three years ago. Here it is. Wildlife Illustrator Ichiro Kikuta Wildlife Illustrator   Ichiro Kikuta is an artist trying to capture the spirit of Okinawa’s wildlife. When he was only an elementary school student, Ichiro Kikuta loved to sketch and paint the birds that nested near his home. During high school, he was inspired by the work of British wildlife artist Charles Tunnicliffe. At that point,he knew what he wanted to do with his life. After graduation, he spent 6 months traveling around Britain exploring the landscapes and animals that had inspired Tunnicliffe. Upon his return to Japan, Ichiro began to explore his own country with sketchbook in hand. For the past 25 years, he has journeyed from Hokkaido to the Ryukyu Islands capturing the beauty of animals ranging from snow-covered crested cranes to the Okinawan rail. He now lives in the northern part of Okinawa known as Yanbaru. There, he continues …

In search of the Noguchi-gera

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The Noguchi-gera or Pryer’s Woodpecker is a rare bird species, endemic to the forests of northern Okinawa. I’ve been hoping to photograph one for a while but in general you’ve probably got a better chance of spotting a Yeti. However as is often the case it’s not what you know, but who you know and my friend Ichiro Kikuta is a birdwatching guru living near the northernmost tip of the island. A couple of days ago Ichiro gave me a call saying he’d found a nest and I headed up north to get some shots. We set up  our cameras not far from the tree. Due to the size and weight of my 400mm lens and the addition of a 2X converter I brought along a 20 liter water container and hung it from the underside of the tripod to provide some stability. The Noguchi-gera did appear on several occasions over the course of the afternoon. Unfortunately we were shooting into the sun so although I may have some nice backlit images of the birds …

A tale of two cameras

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Here’s a quick game of spot the difference between two images of the same lizard. The first is the one I put up a couple of months earlier. Taken with the Pentax W60 compact point and shoot. The second image was taken just a few minutes later in the same lighting conditions with my medium format Pentax 67II and Provia 100F slide film. Together these are a great example of how sensor / film size influences the depth of field. It is also interesting to see just how different the level of contrast is between the two shots.

A little help for vegetarians in Japan

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If you are vegetarian or vegan and living in Japan shopping can be tricky, especially  if you can’t read ingredients labels. I ate what I thought was vegetarian Miso (bean paste) ramen for many months before I found out that it also contained ポークエキス (pork extract). I hope the following list of words will make things a little easier for others. Gelatin ゼラチン Beef　ビーフ　　Beef Extract　ビーフエキス Chicken 鶏  or チキン　Chicken Extract　チキンエキス Pork ポーク　Pork Extract　ポークエキス Katsuobushi (fish sprinkles)　鰹ぶし Another useful thing to know is that when you are buying eggs in Japan the most expensive ones are not free range eggs but rather fertilized eggs. These are labelled 有精卵 yuu-sei-ran. There doesn’t appear to be any particular labelling for free range eggs, but they are usually priced between the battery eggs and the fertilized eggs. At my local supermarket the free range eggs have a photo on the box showing chickens wandering around in the dirt.