Art takes on new forms with each generation. What began long ago as an appreciation of the world around us has transformed into a view into places our imagination takes us beyond this world. My week in Tokyo encapsulated this in a way, beginning with the natural wonder of Chiyoda, the nostalgic facade of Odaiba, […]
As mentioned in my last post, eisa is an important aspect of Okinawan culture. So much so that it has its own festival, the 10,000 Eisa Dancers Parade. The parade took place in the city of Naha, and is less of a full parade and more of a rotating show. Eisa groups from all over […]
Right after my return from the US, our village of Onna was hosting its annual summer festival (matsuri). This festival brings with it a whole slew of activities, performances, and cuisines, culminating into a fireworks show. Most villages and towns large enough to organize a festival do so during the summer, as I have often […]
The past weekend I took a short trip to Tokyo to attend a friend’s wedding. However I had a spare day to explore, which I felt would best be served by a visit to Kamakura, a town close to the coast 1 hour south of Tokyo. The town is famous for being home to Daibutsu, […]
For the first time in my 4 years in Okinawa, I visited a Ryuku island other than Okinawa. Zamami island is a common destination, just a couple hours by ferry from Naha. Although gloomy clouds sent us off from the port, the skies parted by the afternoon revealing gorgeous islands just west of Okinawa. The […]
The dawn of the new year brought with it some exploration. Close to Cape Manza, a nearby lookout point, I followed a rocky road down to another cliff side closer to the water. The balance of clouds and sun in the sky illuminated the jagged rocks like an otherworldly landscape, an effect I tried to […]
This trip to Tokyo was special for two big reasons. Firstly, these photos are the first photos taken on film with my father’s Canon A1 in over a decade. I asked to borrow the camera after our trip to India, and decided this trip to Tokyo was a good opportunity to put it through its […]
Okinawa is known for having beautiful scenic vista along its many capes, chief of which is Cape Hedo, the northern most point of the island. Although it is almost a 2 hour drive from my home, the parking lot there provided a convenient base to set up my camera for sunset and night time photography. […]
Over the next week I will be publishing a series of posts to recap some major events from the past year, backdating them to the correct dates. I apologize for such a long lapse, and can only give the workload on my PhD and general forgetfulness as my excuse. Nevertheless, I shall carry forward with […]
Something I feel many of us take for granted is how we interact with our electronic devices. Most of us have used our smartphones with touchscreens, but perhaps more commonly interacted with our computers with keyboards, in the standard QWERTY format we all grew up with. It was not until recently that I began to […]