October 31st, 2009 |
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 business links [...]
October 1st, 2009 |
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 outer market.
My [...]
September 23rd, 2009 |
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 in his [...]
September 15th, 2009 |
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 line runs [...]
June 16th, 2009 |
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 this man:
Japanese [...]
June 8th, 2009 |
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 back to [...]
May 11th, 2009 |
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 charge. So [...]
March 27th, 2009 |
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, I have always [...]
February 26th, 2009 |
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 [...]
February 13th, 2009 |
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 – addressing Tokyo’s [...]
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