You live in Kyoto? How wonderful. You’re so lucky. I’ve always wanted to live in a city like Kyoto… Me too. It’s a strange experience, living in a place that is very well worn on the tourist trail. I’ve visited (and loved) New York, London, Paris, and have lived in some moderately well-known cities too (Hiroshima, Toronto). Once I started…
About a month ago I saw a notice for a sumi-e workshop in Nara with a well-known sumi-e artist, Christine Flint Sato. Eager to try my hand at some traditional Japanese crafts, I signed up. And on a warm November morning, I found myself grinding a sumi stick on an ink stone in a workshop with about 12 other students.…
So you want to buy film in Japan. Well, the obvious choice would be Yodobashi Camera. The flagship store in Shinjuku is a mecca for photographers everywhere, but especially if you are a film user, you will love the film and darkroom floors (both in separate buildings). There are Yodobashi Cameras in most major Japanese cities and I think all…
Japan is a photographer’s paradise. Naturally, it has a lot of appeal to photographers in terms of the subjects it offers: old, traditional buildings, modern cityscapes, quirky Japanese goods and fashion, and more. And more importantly, it has cameras, lots and lots of cameras. I first moved here in 1999. Back then you’d be hard-pressed to find an internet cafe…
Every now and again people post links to articles about how film is the new cool. How young people enjoy it’s “I don’t know what I’m going to get” factor, shooting expired colour film or overpriced lomo film in their lomo cameras, or spending (equally) too much money on the Impossible Project’s Polaroid film (a worthy cause to be sure)*.…
Do you ever feel that it’s too late to visit some places that have become overly popular? I just recently read an article about visiting Angkor Wat (for the first-time tourist), and while it explained a lot about the site itself, it conveniently omitted the realities of what it means to visit that complex (and the area in general). I…
Falling Off the Map 