Categories
Photography

Unzen

I loved this photo of Mainichi that shows the commemoration for the victims of the volcano Unzen eruption in 1991.

Unzen volcano
In the foreground children are praying in front of candles while on the background you can see the silhouette of mount Unzen.

Photo by Mainichi

Categories
Tokyo

Jimbocho, the neighbourhood of the old books

I had been several times around Jimbocho, near Tokyo Station, but up until recently I hadn’t had the time to enjoy the famous streets where you can find plenty of second hand books. Last month, I could finally go there and snoop around the bookstores. I wasn’t expecting to find so many stores! There are dozens of stores full of books from decades and even centuries ago, manuscripts, scrolls, old magazines, ukiyo-e art, drafts of novels by famous authors (I saw drafts of Haruki Murakami novels!), developed photographs of famous photographers, etc. I ended up buying a couple of old maps from Tokyo (handwritten maps from 90 years ago), a Daido Moriyama photograph book and another one by Nobuyoshi Araki.

These are some of the photos that I took during my visit, using my new iPhone 4.

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Jimbocho

Categories
Travel

A week in Fukuoka

Soon after the earthquake of last March, many foreigners decided to leave Tokyo; some went to places like Kyoto, Osaka or even outside of Japan. Although it was not really necessary, me and some friends decided to break away from the stress of Tokyo life, and to calm down our families we decided to head to Fukuoka, more than 1000 kilometers away from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

We stayed at the house of karawapo, who was kind enough to host us during several days, helping us feel like at home while being so far from our Tokyo houses.

Nuclear shelter far from Fukushima, in Fukuoka
This was our “nuclear shelter” near Fukuoka during several days.

In Fukuoka we breathed tranquility. Not paying attention to a Geiger counter all day, not watching the news every minute of the day to see what was happening in Fukushima and not feeling the earthquake aftershocks all day, helped us release some of the stress accumulated. However, we were still very concerned about the situation in the north of the country.

We spent the days working from karawapo’s kitchen, walking on the beach and going to a couple of great onsens (volcanic hot springs) from around the area.

These are some of the wonderful memories from Fukuoka that we brought back to Tokyo as photos:

タコ部屋の状況

Collecting spinach in Fukuoka

Survivors in Fukuoka

The Pacific in Fukuoka

ランチのところ探しに行く

Shelter in Fukuoka

Shelter in Fukuoka

Shelter in Fukuoka

Fukuoka was awesome

Fukuoka was awesome

Fukuoka photo

Fukuoka photo

Fukuoka photo

Fukuoka

Fukuoka

Fukuoka

More posts about the March 2011 Earthquake: