Japan! My journey home.

[Loupey]

Thanks for taking the time to look and comment, everyone! It's been 25 years since I last visited Japan and I considered this a once-in-a-lifetime trip (with the kids able to go at the stage they are in before they get too wrapped up with school/activities/friends) - so to say I was excited about going would be an understatement

A thoroughly enjoyable time virtually every minute we were there. We were worried about the weather because their monsoon season starts late May and lasts through the end of July. Everyone figured we would be rained out every day; but luck was on our side the entire time as it rained (lightly) on us only two or three partial days. Seems we were always ahead or behind the rains. There was even an earthquake on my son’s birthday there. This earthquake (magnitude 7.2) occurred shortly after we first arrived in Tokyo in the city of Sendai – the city of my father’s family and our next to last stop of the trip. Japan is earthquake-ready as they get minor quakes somewhere daily so this quake did no real damage.

Nice shots. I love Asian imagery. Always a fun excercise in perception, as what's absolutely normal, even run-of-the-mill to the locals can seem highly exotic to Western eyes...

Steve, so true! I took my son to a sword museum there and the other people were all westerners. As for shooting the cities, I’m sure that people were watching me thinking “what is he shooting?” Probably like someone coming here and sitting next to a freeway photographing cars drive by. The “test” for me is what my hosts think of my images when I send them.

When I started shooting, I would get looks that I can only describe as a combination of wonder/humor/disdain/disgust/embarrassment all rolled into one. Well actually something like what this fellow is giving below. The foreigners (me included) were so easy to pick out in more ways than one