Thursday, March 29, 2012

兎の冬 - Tokyo

This is a story about a Rabbit Stalker who stalked The Human (a photojournalist) throughout his winter backpacking in Japan.


Seven nights in Tokyo wasn't enough for The Human.
At night the city is a brilliant grid of lights that includes the colouful signboards, the Pachinkos and the busy subway stations.
Seems like the night in Tokyo would never sleeps.


The Human spent days looking for vintage camera shops...The Rabbit was so exhausted of stalking The Human as he got lost all the time and ended up asking for directions in a local police station. 
All together the 4 policemen surrounded The Human wandering what shop was he describing about and only one of the policemen were able to speak English. 
At last, his prayer was answered and he was able to find the heaven of old cameras!


The first thing to survive in any metropolitan city is to study the city train loop and ask for direction if you are unsure or lost.
The Human did, with his broken Japanese he said:" KONICHIWA, OLEH WA... IKURA DESU KA???"
Most of the Japanese understood him because they have got used to tourists' broken Japanese.


He were hosted by Eijiro San, Yoshiko and Kaji San, who all offered him with warm welcome, showed him around Tokyo, cooked him nice breakfasts and dinners and even printed him the maps for his destinations. "Japanese are so helpful and polite!" he thought:" Who would never fall in love with Japan?" Of course, there are surprises on everything at everywhere!


The Human's forth dream has came true - a visit to the Ghibli Museum! Oh he had heard about it was very hard to get a ticket but he was  lucky enough to get a ticket! The nearer he walked to Ghibli Museum the more excited he got and he sobbed for happiness as he explored the museum...


What made his trip more extraordinary was visiting to the Sumo tournament in Ryogoku Kokugikan, tried the Sumo hot pot Chanko Nabe, had lunch at a Maid Cafe in Akihabara and being treated like a Prince, had some lucks in flea markets, experience nights at a compact Japanese backpackers hotel  and figured out the cheapest way to shoot Mt. Fuji was to shoot it from Shin-Fuji Station.


In stead of visiting Tokyo Disney Land, he chose Tokyo DisneySea which is celebrating it's 10th anniversary this year. Jaw dropping shows, professional performances and creative lightings, so much to see too many to watch! 
"Be Magical!" The slogan for DisneySea's 10th anniversary, inspiring, magnificient! 


If you have not grown up with Disney cartoons and not love Disney Land you are clearly missing out something in your life. We see the creators' hard work in each sketch each stroke and every second they spent on their dreams, just  to share the happiness in their dreams. 


The Human was definitely not having an ordinary trip in Japan, he shot at back alleys, he stayed with the locals (next to red light district) and he shopped for second hand goods. 


His last night in Tokyo he spent 30 minutes shooting the busiest pedestrian cross in Shibuya followed by loading up more camera books and films from Yodobashi in Shinjuku.


On the 20th Jan, 6 am in the morning, he woke up and packed his stuff, looked out the window and saw the first snow in Tokyo in 2012...
The Human then went back to Melbourne and scanned his photos, he couldn't believe it!
 There was a RABBIT in every single of his photos!








































Friday, March 23, 2012

兎の冬 - Gokayama

This is a story about a Rabbit Stalker who stalked The Human (a photojournalist) throughout his winter backpacking in Japan.

As he walks,
she stalks.

The human needed a true escape, he needs to feel the tranquility in mother nature.
He took a train followed by a bus from Kyoto to Gokayama, he was lucky to be able to experience a stay in a Japanese Gasho house.
When he saw the panorama of snow covered hills, he couldn't breath, he cried , he shouted for joy and he thanked God for providing him such a place like heaven, how magnificent is this!
He played with snow, he made snow man, he slipped on the snow, he tried mushroom soup with udon, he drank green tea, he lighted the fire with charcoal, and he caught a bad flu...