On September 29th, Danish band Sing Sing Sing will release their new album The Crossover. Great music, and the group chose my Into the Mist photograph of Akashi Kaikyo Ohashi for the CD cover. Fantastisk! If you’d like a print of this image in color (or B&W on request) check out some of the prints I have available on the TRAVEL67 website.
The National Art Center in Roppongi, Tokyo. Designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa. Lovely.
Dancing in the streets at the 33rd Asakusa Samba Festival in Tokyo. 22 teams including local Japanese and Brazilians bring Samba to the roads around Asakusa Shrine. The event is watched by around 500,000 spectators so the streets do get a little crowded. Some participants went with the iconic sparkly Carnival outfits, while others wore costumes more representative of their region in Japan. This is why you have dancing okonomiyaki. Overall, a fun event, very different from the traditional religious festivals that I usually cover. Maybe I should start checking out the prices of flights to Rio.
Fuji Television Studios Building, Odaiba, Tokyo designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. Photographed using the Pentax 645Z with 25mm and 90mm lenses, with polarizer.
There’s an 18-meter Gundam statue in front of DiverCity Tokyo Plaza, Odaiba, Tokyo. I know nothing about Gundam, so I shall turn to Wikipedia. The Gundam Series (ガンダムシリーズ ) is a metaseries of space opera anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots (or “mecha”) called “Mobile Suits” (MS); usually the protagonist’s MS will carry the name “Gundam.” Sounds a bit like the giant robot suits in the very mediocre Pacific Rim movie. The statue was pretty impressive, and worth checking out if you’re visiting Odaiba.
I’m starting a new project documenting the traditional dancers of Okinawa. The first group I have met with is Udui Haru and their teacher Keiko Miyagi. The group were part of a performance of Macbeth on Friday along with the theater group Ryukyu Cirque. The director of the production is Makoto Inoue, who also plays the role of Macbeth. Dancers Riko Sugama, Hitoshi Tamaki, and Chinatsu Higa play the roles of Lady Macbeth, the gatekeeper, and King Duncan. The performances are at the National Theater Okinawa, in Urasoe on Sept 19, Dec 17 and Feb 6. Curtain up at 7pm. Well worth checking out, a unique blend of Shakespeare and the traditional Okinawan arts.
Along with Pepper, Aldebaran Robotics produce Nao, an autonomous, programmable humanoid robot. Nao is far more advanced than it’s younger sibling. At around US$8000 dollars, it is not really a consumer product, but an innovative way to study robotics. Nao has taken over from Aibo as the robot of choice for educators, and teams of Nao compete in the Robot Soccer World Cup. Of course, Nao is far from human. In fact, as I told the robot at the Softbank store in Tokyo, “You’ll never be a real boy”. Nao made his opinions on the matter quite clear…
Pepper is a humanoid robot by Aldebaran Robotics and SoftBank Mobile. They are currently on display at a few special Softbank stores in Tokyo. Pepper will go on sale in Japan in 2015 with a price tag of around US$2000 dollars. This is a lot of money for a household gadget, but amazingly cheap for high-tech robotics. It is a fraction of the price of Paro the robotic seal or Aibo the robotic dog. My guess is that there will be some kind of obligatory monthly wifi contract you need to sign up for when purchasing Pepper. This would provide updates for the robot and be the main source of income for Softbank.
At 6PM I left the 5th Station and started the climb up Fuji. There were many other hikers on the trail, including several larger groups with a leader at the front and an assistant at the rear. Following the trail is very easy. It’s well signposted and there are plenty of people around. By 7PM it was dark, but I’d brought with me a great new LED Lenser headlamp and a spare flashlight. I’d also brought my full size tripod, the 645Z, and three lenses so my pack was a little on the heavy side. Hauling all my camera gear up the mountain did mean that I could get some interesting light painting shots on the climb. The sign above was lit with the flashlight, while the background had a 30 second exposure. The following shot was a three minute exposure as a group of hikers wound up the trail past me. The leader and assistant had the red LED stick and the green LED globe. The other hikers between them were using white LED headlamps. At 12.30 …
Morio Higaonna, 10th dan Okinawa Goju-ryu karate. Photographed at the Naha Budokan on September 1st 2014. Higaonna is the founder and Chief Instructor of the International Okinawan Goju-ryu Karate-do Federation. He is also a Living National Treasure. Described by some as the most dangerous person in Japan in a real fight. Morio Higaonna produced a blood curdling kiai (shout) when demonstrating techniques. He was also a lovely humble man, who was praised the project, and encouraging in what we are undertaking. His smile grew over the brief photo session as I kept asking him to punch again, or do a different technique.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 