Food for thought
Share I’ve had a few stories in the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan magazine before now, but this is the first time on the cover. A project close to my heart too. As I wrote in the text (see below) to go with these portraits, I have enormous respect for the people producing Japan’s fantastic [...]
work place
Share The magazine I edit, EURObiZ Japan, has been running a monthly column on Europeans working in Tokyo, and I’ve been taking the photos. These are the first five portraits. There’s a lady who sells foie gras, two architects, a pattisier, a man who imports Dutch goods and a scuba diving instructor. (Thanks to our [...]
Popping round for tea
Share One thing the English (I’m from England) and the Japanese share in common – other than constantly talking about the weather – is a love of tea. Last year I was asked to write about green tea and interview Masamitsu Takau, a registered “tea sommelier”. When I checked out his website I was surprised [...]
The oldest city in Japan
Share For a notably low-key city, Fukuoka has a fair few superlatives to its name. It is Japan’s closest city to Korea which means it can lay claim to being Japan’s oldest city. In other words, it was the first beachhead of civilization from the Asian mainland. These days Fukuoka has some of the strongest [...]
All you ever wanted to know about Kamaboko (likely more)
Share There are some photographic subjects that are not exactly obviously photogenic. This was definitely one: Kamaboko AKA Japanese fish cake. I was shooting the white pasty food for an airline magazine. So what to do? I visited a kamaboko factory in the inner Tsujiki fish market and the same company’s kamaboko shop in the [...]
Karl Bengs, German-Japanese Architecture
Share This story was on the way back from Niigata early spring this year. Karl Bengs is a German architect who first visited Japan in 1966. He buys old Japanese farmhouses, dismantles them then rebuilds them in his own distinctive style and with all mod cons (like proper insulation and heating). This photo was taken [...]
Mr Tanaka’s railway
Share My Rough Guide to Japan tells me that the Joetsu Shinkansen from Tokyo to Niigata was the most expensive train track in the world to build. It cost some 6 billion yen per kilometer and about one third of the journey is through tunnels. Built by LDP pork-barrel legend Tanaka Kakuei, the bullet train [...]
The Seiko-Epson Micro Artist Studio
Share The Micro Artist Studio in Nagano prefecture is where Seiko-Epson make their Sonnerie luxury watch. I was up there for a story earlier this year. Each Sonnnerie costs 15.7 million yen and is made from 630 parts over 12 months. There are 12 “micro-artists” in the workshop but all the watches are assembled by [...]
Miso photos
Share One of the best things about being a journalist are the tit-bits of knowledge pick up along the way and which can really enrich your life. This story I recently did on miso is a good example. I’m not sure I’d ever had proper miso before, but I doubt I’ll be able to go [...]
Seeking Photographers
Share Tokyo Photojournalist welcomes applications for photo exhibitions at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan in Tokyo (FCCJ). I am the current chair of the exhibition committee. To cut a long story short, the club doesn’t have a budget for prints, but we do have simple frames and the month long exhibitions are free of [...]
photo “licensing” and working for free
Share I had no idea that pictures of astronaut underpants were in such demand. This week, I’ve had three websites pick up on my blog post and story about Koichi Wakata’s experiments on the International Space Station. One was a large Finish website who linked to my blog and sent several thousand visitors. Welcome Finns, [...]
Lighthouses of the West Coast
Share Superb photos by my friend and partner in crime Mattias Westfalk of lighthouses on the West Coast of the US. Last Spring we spent 2 weeks travelling from San Francicso to Seattle and visiting every lighthouse we could for an inflight magazine. I was on a relatively rare these days text-only gig. (The story [...]
Foodie photos
Share I spent the early part of this week at “Tokyo Taste The World Summit of Gastronomy 2009″. Held at the International Forum in Yurakucho, the event was billed as a fashion show for haute cuisine, and sold out all three days. A picture of Joel Robuchon – probably the world’s most famous chef – [...]
More Showa photos
Share Hans Brinckmann has very kindly provided some more of his and Ysbrand Rogge’s fantastic Showa-era photos. They are from his on-going exhibition at the FCCJ. Hans has added some captions. If you have any questions for Hans about the photos, or about life in Japan in the 1950s and ’60s you might want post [...]
Photos of Showa Japan
Share One of my jobs when I’m not researching, writing, photographing, or washing the dishes at home is running the exhibition committee of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan. Each month we have a different photo exhibition. I’m going to blog them as they happen. Here are two photos from this month’s show, “Showa Japan [...]
Creepy crawly cuisine
Share Earlier this week I photographed probably the sweetest middle aged couple I have met in Japan. On a gorgeous Autumn morning I visited them at their cosy little detached Japanese house in a pretty part of Western Tokyo. As we talked they introduced me to their pets, told me about their hobbies and plied [...]
Local Festival
Share This is the second time I’ve taken part in the shinto festival near my house. It happens every two years and involves hefting a 1 ton portable shrine around the neighbourhood with regular stops for sake and snacks. We start off at the local shrine 9am and finish around dusk at 5pm. I took [...]
Tokyo Game Show 2008
Share I survived Tokyo Game Show 2008! Imagine 8 hours imprisoned in a dark cavernous space packed with hundreds of excited Japanese otaku. Two winges: 1) Why was there a queue of about a hundred journalists at the press desk come 10am opening. Surely the world’s largest game expo could organise online registration? 2) Why [...]
Akihabara tour
Share More photos from “otaku Mecca” Akihabara. Last week I took a tour organized by a startup called GI Jane. I was surprised to see so many foreigners on the streets. I’m not sure where these guys were from (maybe Italy?) but they certainly looked the part. I caught them outside the Radio Kaikan which [...]
apologies to Moriyama Daido
Share I was back on the otaku trail yesterday, taking photos on an Akihabara tour. (Thank to Jane of GI Jane!) This is a photo my tireless guide leading me down a side-street to a tiny Shinto shrine hidden between the electronics shops and canned-oden vending machines. Moriyama Daido fans sense something a little familiar. [...]
