This is Tokyo

I'm not a fan of the Tokyo stereotypes. Especially the selectively chosen ones deliberately chosen to entice tourists and otaku, while deliberately hiding the harsh, rude, dirty realities of the city. But stereotypes exist for a reason, and sometimes, Tokyo really can look like the post cards.

Kitamoto Matsuri

A tiny local Nebuta matsuri that nobody besides residents and participants know/care about. Those are usually the best kind of matsuri.

Hatakeyama Museum Garden / 畠山記念美術館の庭園

Hatakeyama Museum Garden: Seasonal, Natural Beauty in Central Tokyo • 畠山記念美術館の庭園：東京の真ん中で四季を感じられる自然の美しさ

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(日本語の説明は下にある)
History and seasonal beauty in the garden of the Hatakeyama Memorial Museum of Fine Art.

About the Museum:
The Hatakeyama Memorial Museum of Fine Art was established as a private art museum to display Japanese, Chinese, and Korean historical art objects, focusing on arts related to the tea ceremony. The collections also include paintings, calligraphy, pottery, lacquerware, and Noh costumes.

このビデオは畠山記念美術館の庭園の歴史と四季の美しさを紹介します。

記念館について：
畠山記念館が所蔵する主な作品をご紹介します。収蔵品は、国宝6件、重要文化財32件を含む1300件に及び、茶道具を中心に、書画、陶磁、漆芸、能装束など多岐にわたります。

CONNECT: www.ebara.co.jp/csr/hatakeyama/

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Hatakeyama Museum Garden: Seasonal, Natural Beauty in Central Tokyo is a DigitalHub.JP Production • 畠山記念美術館の庭園：東京の真ん中で四季を感じられる自然の美しさの制作：デジタルハブJPプロダクション

Tokyo-based DigitalHub.JP produces and promotes made-to-order multimedia products of the highest quality, leveraging longstanding tech industry contacts and co-publishing relationships with Japan-focused news sources, offering both content production services and a multilayered distribution point.

DigitalHub.JPは、オンラインニュースやコンテンツの作成・配信分野での豊富な経験を踏まえ、クライアント様のニーズに応じたオーダーメイドのマルチメディアコンテンツを制作する会社です。当社には、電気機械メーカーを始めとするテク企業とのコネクション、互いのコンテンツを共有配信する国内ニュースサイトや日本関連ニュースを配信する海外サイトとのパートナーシップ提携があり、これらの長年に渡って築いた大切な繋がりを事業に最大限活用しています。

CONNECT WITH DIGITALHUB.JP:
www.digitalhub.jp
Twitter: @digitalhubjp
Facebook: www.facebook.com/digitalhub.jp
Instagram: @digitalhub.jp
YouTube: bit.ly/dhjpyoutube

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In case you're wondering. This is what I do at work.

More of my stuff here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darcnoodles/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/darcnoodles

More from the Japanese Underground:
web: http://darc.jp
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darc.jp/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/darcjp666

On patrol - The Sony a7S owns the night #RandomJapan

I know the camera is only a part of the image making  process. Give me a shitty camera and I'll still give you an excellent image. Conversely, give the average Taro a Hasselblad and you'' get a blurry 50 megapixel duck-face selfie. But there are times when the technology becomes more than just a medium with which to create, but actually enables creativity in conditions that other cameras just can't handle. IS0 32000 in the outskirts of town, surrounded by rice fields. Lit only by a single, weak, incandescent streetlight. I have always been a fan of shooting in low light, but with my a7S I no longer shoot at night... I own the night.

Kyoto - Gion Matsuri #RandomJapan

I was in Kyoto after a shoot so I took some time to walk around... As it turns out, It was in the middle of Gion Matsuri, so I got some quick shots.

Enjoy.

Kanonyama, Takasaki, Gunma #RealJapan

Feel free to use this pic as a wallpaper (If you want to use it for anything else, contact me please.)

Caption This! #RandomJapan

shot at Haruna Shrine, Takasaki, Gunma, Japan

DARUMA!

shot at the Daruma Buddhist Temple in Takasaki, Gunma, Japan.

The leaning sweets shop of Nagasaki

Iwanaga Baijuken in Nagasaki is a shop that makes and sells traditional Japanese sweets and confectionaries. It's been at it since 1830.

The store as it stands now was built in 1902.

The sweets lineup runs the gamut from classical recipes to modern reworkings of those recipes.

But beyond the traditional deliciousness. What struck me, were two 5 yen coins suspended from strings on one of the shop's central supports. 

The pull of gravity means the strings are perfectly veritcal, But the posts aren't.

The shop has had this slight lean since August 9th, 1945.

Kokura Castle, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka - #JapanScapes

Kyoto, Autumn, Slipknot & more... | 7 Days, 7 Minutes (2014-11-10)

MUSIC: 者の形 by MannyMarx
00:00 MONDAY Autumn Colours
01:00 TUESDAY Kiyomizu-dera
02:00 WEDNESDAY Gion
03:00 THURSDAY Shinjuku shakey cam
04:00 FRIDAY Shibuya shakey cam
05:00 notSATURDAY Knotfest
06:00 SUNDAY Jump The Fuck Up!

Kiyomizu-dera	Gion
Shinjuku Station East Exit	Shibuya Scramble Crossing
Makuhari Messe

Japan How It Is - Kurokabe Shopping District - Nagahama, Shiga

I took a stroll through Nagahama's Kurokabe Shopping District. One of the oldest Shopping districts in Japan.

Sturgeon general's warning: I shot this handheld so if you're prone to motion sickness, don't fullscreen this vid.

Music by Manny Marx

7 Days 7 Minutes (2014-08-11) Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri, Obon Rituals and more...

00:00 MONDAY Ashes to Ashes
01:00 notTUESDAY Web Surfing
01:22 WEDNESDAY Obon Rituals
02:03 THURSDAY Caffenation
03:22 FRIDAY Homecoming
04:23 SATURDAY Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri - Day 1
05:32 SUNDAY Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri - Day 2

7 Days 7 Minutes (2014-06-30) Nagano, A Holy Vending Machine, Driving and More...

00:00 notMONDAY Nagano is Beautiful
01:00 TUESDAY Just Driving
02:00 WEDNESDAY First World Problems
03:00 THURSDAY Bird Watching
04:00 FRIDAY Holy Vending Machine
00:00 notSATURDAY Anti-Nuclear Protest
00:00 notSUNDAY Always the best part of the trip.

Tuesday music was all shuffled form my iPod while driving.

Thursday Tune by Manny Marx. Support him and his epic music.

Locations:

Chikuma City, Nagano


Zenko-ji, Nagano City, Nagano (fri & sat)

Shots#112 Spring Peach Blossom Festival in Nagano.

While the Sakura had come and were starting to go in Tokyo, further north, in Chikuma City, Nagano, The apricot blossoms had just started to bloom. The city is known for it's apricots and as a result Spring is heralded in by the apricot, rather than the Cherry blossom (which comes a bit later). There is also a small event at a local shrine to commemorate the blooming of the apricot trees and the coming of spring... But the weather decided that spring can wait. It must be said though, that these ladies deserve som emad props for continuing to dance even as biting cold winds stirred a blizzard around them.

An Unmistakable Aroma - 750 years of soy sauce tradition takes to the tables of Europe’s finest restaurants (Highlighting Japan)

The new issue of highlighting Japan is out and the the piece I did when I went to Wakayama (after I snapped that Dotonbori video and Osaka street shots) is up.

An Unmistakable Aroma

750 years of soy sauce tradition takes to the tables of Europe’s finest restaurants

Soy sauce, or shoyu, is almost indispensable to the Japanese dining experience. There are over 1,000 large and small soy sauce companies throughout the country, each with its own unique recipe and flavor. Out of this large field of competitors, how does a small brand from the quaint town of Yuasa in Wakayama Prefecture find its way into the kitchens of not one but nine Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe? And how has a company that makes up an estimated 0.01 percent of Japan’s soy sauce supply won Belgium’s prestigious Monde Selection Gold Quality Award every year since 2006?

According to Toshio Shinko, the warm-hearted and down-to-earth president of Yuasa Soy Sauce Co., Ltd., it comes down to a combination of history, tradition, dedication and passion. 

Read the rest On Highlighting Japan.

This is probably the best assignment I've had. In truth through the Highlighting Japan project and the JETRO project (not yet published) Ive had the opportunity to visit some amazing places and meet some truly inspirational people, but I would say that Toshio Shinko, the president of the Yuasa Soy Sauce company is at the top of that list.

His passion for his work aside, it's his passion for his home town, it's traditions and the younger generations growing up there that I liked best about him. His vision and goal have nothing to do with expanding his business (and being that they make the best soy sauce on the planet, there is plenty of potential for expansion). Rather he wants to educate the children in his community and instil a sense of pride in them that he hopes will inspire them to continue to live and work in Yuasa instead of migrating to the urban centres to work for the faceless corporations that built them.

He is especially critical of the way the leaders are removed from the realities of life on the ground in Japan and as a result they are unable to truly deal with the actual problems the country is facing.
as you may have guessed.. this scheduled 1 hour interview became a much longer conversation between he and I about some very deep and meaningful topics that we pretty much agree wholeheartedly on.

He was also very generous. he gave me a bottle of his fine soy sauce, 2 bags of the local, exquisitely delicious mandarin oranges, and a tub of unique miso that they make there.

It's assignments like this that make the stresses worthwhile. To get paid to meet and talk to interesting people and share their stories with the world... It brings me many feels.

Now to find more work like this... and hopefully get paid for it too!

7 Days 7 Minutes (2014-02-17) Singers in Osaka, my opinion Fukushima and more...

00:00:00 MONDAY Bloovem (Tennoji, Osaka)
00:01:00 TUESDAY Hina Museum (Yuasa, Wakayama)
00:01:36 WEDNESDAY Thoughts on Fukushima
00:02:36 THURSDAY blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
00:04:26 FRIDAY Yokohama Blue Line
00:05:00 notSAURDAY Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line
00:06:00 SUNDAY Shinjuku Pedestrian Paradise

7 Days 7 Minutes (2013-12-16)

 

MONDAY 00:00:00 - My cam timing is off.
TUESDAY 00:01:00 - More Tech Woes
WEDNESDAY 00:02:00 - Mission Mungness - Yokohama to Osaka to Akita in a day
THURSDAY 00:03:00 - North of the Wall
notFRIDAY 00:04:00 - Freestyle BMX
SATURDAY 00:05:00 - Forever Alone
notSUNDAY 00:06:00 - Sheer Beauty

 

Dont wanna G+? Comment here instead!

7 Days 7 Minutes (2013-09-02)

0:00:00 MONDAY RatRace
0:01:00 TUESDAY UENO
0:02:00 notWEDNESDAY Flashback to 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon
0:03:00 THURSDAY Fukuroda Station Ibaraki Prefecture
0:04:00 FRIDAY Fukuroda Falls Ibaraki Prefecture
0:05:00 SATURDAY METAL!!!!
0:06:00 notSUNDAY I miss my car

Mochi - Beating the **** out of rice! (It's Not Sushi 02)

Mochi is one of my favorite foodstuffs in Japan.
Check out how it is made (the traditional way)

 

Special thanks to the Shimogo community
for welcoming me as one of your own.

下郷地区のみなさん、
私を下郷地区の一員として迎えてくださり、
ありがとうございます。

Shimogo has become my home
because of your warmth and hospitality.

みなさんの暖かさとおもてなしがあって、
下郷は私のふるさとになりました。