It’s hard to believe I’ve been on the road for almost a month already, first to Chicago and Michigan, then to Tokyo, and now Taipei. As time does when you travel, it has both crawled and somehow flown by.
Due to the heat and humidity, the days here feel long right now. I try and find something to do first thing in the morning, a long walk through a park or to breakfast, some tourist exhibit… something like that. Then, I tend to hole up for the afternoon and work. The schedule has been kind of perfect. I get a little exercise in the morning while the clouds build up and prepare themselves to downpour. Then, while I sit on my computer in the afternoon, the sky drenches the world on the other side of the window.
However, this trip has been primarily characterized by spending time outside, at night, after most of the heat and rain have concluded. Thus, pretty much all of the photographs are after dark.
That’s turned out to be a gift, though, as both Tokyo and Taipei are particularly photogenic after the sun goes down.
Also, I’m not the only one who has developed this pattern; the locals also seem to swarm the streets after 5 p.m.
Cafe Latte - カフェラテ - 拿铁咖啡
One thing I am particularly happy about on this trip, however, is that I faced my fear of ordering things in Japanese and braved some cafes. I am proud to say that I managed it more or less, even answering some of the questions right in Japanese (emphasis on some). This also opened up a whole new world for me, work-wise, as it enabled me to get out of the AirBnB and spend time with my laptop in cafes. Make no mistake, I don’t SPEAK Japanese. But I’m really glad some of my language-learning efforts have opened the door, even just a little wider.
I tried to carry over this practice to Taiwan. But uh, let’s just say the results have been more—mixed. From Starbucks I can consistently walk away with… a latte—so that’s cool.
It might be hot, it might be cold, it might be for here or to go. Total crap-shoot. Even though I keep looking up how to say these things and order in Chinese, the language is quite challenging to pronounce. Clearly, I am not well understood. It’s pretty funny most of the time.
Fujifilm X-E3 and the 27mm F2.8
One thing I’ve really been enjoying is shooting with the little X-E3 I picked up before I left. I decided to pare things down on this trip and only travel with a small camera and one pancake lens. While I am missing some of my other lenses a bit, I always find that limiting my equipment is often freeing and enjoyable.
It’s all just for fun anyway, so there’s no need to obsess over the photographs I missed with this more limited kit.
Flying to Thailand
My feelings on arrival in Taipei were sort of mixed, so I booked a flight to Thailand only a few days into being here. I regret this decision a little, as the place has grown on me considerably. I think I need to remember that I am always a bit uncertain of a new location in the first few days of arrival. That’s ok, though; what’s done is done. I would love to come back; there is so much more to explore here.
Hope you all are well. Take care.
With my trip to Japan concluded, I figure it’s time to wrap things up here on the blog. So, let’s begin where we left off.
Kanazawa
I had heard that Kanazawa was an interesting place in Japan. Popular sites there include some large and sprawling castle grounds, nationally renowned gardens, and a Kyoto-like old town. So, I dragged Thomas there by train. He seemed neither enthused nor unenthused by the prospect, just a more-or-less willing participant. Which is kind of how he is most of the time. So, we went.
When we got there, we found the train station packed with tourists. Though we had a lovely time during our week there, we never did really figure out why so many people go to visit. Kanazawa was just kind of… fine. Nice, but—fine.
We saw the castle, wandered through the gardens, and made our way through the quiet streets of the old neighborhoods, but I hardly took any photos. Maybe it was just the trip winding down, but I didn’t feel the urge to capture much of it.
It was peaceful there, though, and that was nice.
Really, the highlight of Kanazawa was our random and unexpected trip to Tsurugi.
Where is that, you say? That is also what we said when I found it randomly on the map. So, the next day we got on the most busted-up old train I’ve ever been on and went to see another random small town in Japan.
This excursion included the discovery of melon soda (the best soda flavor on Earth, IMHO), a pointless yet exhilarating walk across a river, and an equally pointless and slightly less exhilarating hike to the base of the mountains (which we could not hike into because they were… closed. I guess.)
Traveling to these random towns and villages became a thing for us. I don’t know why we both found it so interesting. Maybe it was just being in a place that most foreigners don’t go. Additionally, I find it fascinating to see how people actually live outside of Japan’s sprawling concrete landscapes and electric cities.
I find the Japanese countryside deeply endearing in its own way.
After we left Kanazawa, our collective adventure was basically at an end. We spent two days in Tokyo, and then Thomas flew home. Though I was sad to see him go, I was also looking forward to some alone time and the opportunity to do some more photography in Tokyo.
Cyberpunk Photos
I spent my final two weeks in Japan eating ramen and taking lots of night photos. I decided to edit said photos with a cyberpunk feel. I’m not sure why, but I figured I’d do something different. So, I will leave you with those to consume. Thanks for following along and reading.
If you ever get the chance to visit Japan, go.
Alright, time for another travel update.
Osaka was our second stop on this trip. We went there because Thomas was curious about the culture and because I thought there might be some interesting photographic possibilities there. Since we’d spent a decent amount of time in Tokyo on both this trip and the last, we decided to branch out a little more and spend two weeks in Osaka.
Unfortunately, our initial impressions were lackluster. One of our first stops was Dotonbori, which is a famous tourist spot. Admittedly, I’m not too fond of touristy areas, but sometimes I can see why people are drawn to a place. In this case, not so much. There were some lights, some food, and some bars. But the aesthetic didn’t inspire me in the photo department. Thomas wasn’t into it either. So, we only spent a little bit of time there.
The Yakitori Chef
A few days later, we went to a restaurant to try Yakitori (a food Osaka is known for) and had a… questionable time. One of the customers there helped us translate the menu, which was so nice of him, but after that, things mostly went downhill.
Once our order was done, the gentleman who helped us left, and the chef took over. Our first order of chicken was pretty much just flashed on the grill; it was almost entirely raw in the middle. However, from my VERY limited understanding of Japanese food culture, I thought it would be impolite to send it back or not eat it. So, Thomas and I looked at each other, made strange faces, and ate it. The next round was chicken heart. It was actually cooked that time, but the texture was awful. This was when we discovered that the chef had been watching us intently as we ate—while we made weird faces and tried to get the food down.
We spent the next 30 minutes mostly suffering through the rest of the dishes. During this process, the chef kept coming back to our table asking us if we liked it (using Google Translate.) We didn’t, but we kept saying it was great so as not to be rude. He didn’t believe us, so he kept checking. At one point, he typed something in Japanese into his phone, and it translated to English as, “Am I in your mouth?” Thomas read it and just laughed, kind of at him, but not on purpose. I just… sat there—lost. It was so awkward. Pretty sure that chef went home very angry or very depressed. We felt so bad.
Eventually, we paid and left. At this point, I thought perhaps Osaka just wasn’t for me.
Ups and Downs
As often happens while traveling, though, things turned around.
We braved another restaurant, an izakia-style place (where you eat at a small bar in front of the chefs.) This establishment was run by an older couple. They didn’t speak a word of English, but they were so cheery, receptive, and helpful. We used what little Japanese we had and enjoyed ourselves immensely.
Another great encounter happened during our visit to Osaka castle. An older gentleman stopped to ask if a glove he had found on the ground was mine. It wasn’t, but then he started asking us all kinds of questions about where we were from and what we were doing in Japan. It was very endearing, and he seemed genuinely curious about our lives, California, the US, etc… This was the first stranger that had ever struck up a conversation with us in Japan. We finished that evening at yet another izakia restaurant, where the nicest of families greeted us warmly, talked to us extensively through Google translate, and served us multiple dishes of free food on top of our meal.
So even though things started pretty cold, and I probably woudn’t return to Osaka for the photography, the people really sold it. I won’t tell all the stories here, but the kindness and friendliness of strangers were really apparent in our time there, and it left us with an even greater appreciation for the Japanese.
While in Osaka, we also picked up our Japan Rail Passes, which allow unlimited free transport by train (not all trains.) So, we put those to use immediately by just getting on random trains into the countryside and riding them till the end—just seeing where we ended up. The looks we got while wandering around some of the smaller towns were priceless. This was also our first chance to be in a forest or to stand in a field in Japan. Both of which were bucket list items for me (I know I’m weird).
Osaka also had a pretty neat aquarium with Japanese Spider Crabs in it. These things are insanely large and scary looking. Totally worth the price of admission.
There were some missteps, for sure. We got yelled at for accidentally taking photos in a red-light district. I completely failed at navigating the trains one day and turned a three-hour trip into an eight-hour one. But overall, we very much enjoyed ourselves here.
Nara Deer
On our final day, we went to Nara. In the park, thousands of wild deer live in close proximity to humans. Over time, they have become somewhat domesticated but are still free to roam and go where they please. You can visit the area and buy deer crackers/cookies to feed them as you wander around the park. This is an entire story and experience unto itself, so I’ll save that for a video, but it was both endearing and hilarious: Thomas got head butted and bitten multiple times as some of the more bold deer pursued his tasty cookies, and at one point I just threw the rest of my crackers on the ground and ran away. We also met a tiny deer who I named Brunhilda; she followed us around for 45 minutes—long after we ran out of food.
Kanazawa is next. We’ve never been to the other side of Japan, so hoping to have some more interesting experiences there.
