I just returned from a little road trip with my friend Bill. When I first met him, he was a young-looking, blonde, blue-eyed, 18 old, and I was a 40-something man trying to learn to fly. Bill, you see, was my instructor ... and I was his first student! He had (still has) a passion for flying and got his pilot's license before his driver's license. We got along great,and some of the adventures I treasure most in my life were done sitting shoulder to shoulder together in a small airplane ... like the time I was learning short-field landing and takeoff techniques on a dirt strip in the middle of nowhere in a brand-new expensive airplane not built for dirt strips! But, that's a story for another time and another audience.
It seems like only yesterday but really it was a long time ago since we played like that. Bill is now 40-something and I don't talk about my age! He graduated from those little single-engine planes a long-time ago, and is now flying those big, long, metal-tube jobbies across the Pacific for one of our national air carriers. Mostly, he flies to Japan from the "States." Once there, he then flies loops to other parts of Asia for 7 to 10 days. At the end of that, he comes home for the rest of the month (well, it is a bit more complicated). He's into photography, too, ... even buying some of my used gear from me.
Are you starting to get the picture?
About 6 months ago, we started talking about a little road trip of our own to do some photography together ... and surprise! He suggested going to Japan to capture their fall color ... a place he knows well. I am not one to argue with logic like that! So, one Sunday last month I, myself, got in one of those long, metal- tube jobbies and flew to Honolulu to meet him, and fly on to Japan as he completed the last-leg of one of his trips. Then for a week (well, really just 5 days as you loose one day going each way), Bill led me about exploring Narita, Osaka, Kyoto, and Hiroshima.
It was a great time as we were unencumbered by schedules or people, etc. I don't know how many pictures he took, but I came home with about 5,000 new images and a whole lot more memories!
So, in the next few months, I'll be blogging about those images... but, I'll try to intersperse some other stuff, too! The themes and emphasis of the various entries will mainly focus on:
Fall color
The trip was timed to try hit the period in Japan when the fall colors were their best. I think we succeeded:
Street scenes
The density of people in Japan seems much higher than in the United States. There were lots of people out and about, and I tried to capture the feel of what I was seeing and feeling in the streets. Here's an example:
Temples
There are a lot of Buddhist and Shinto temples in Japan. They are immaculately kept and surrounded by beautifully landscaped, clean grounds:
Countryside shots from train
Given the short time we were there, we traveled by train using Osaka as our hub city and venturing forth each day. I didn't really get to photograph in the countryside but managed to get a few shots from train as we sped by that reflect some of the potential of actually getting out there and slogging through the villages and smaller cities.
Cityscapes
Of course there are those city images that I couldn't ignore. Here's a shot of Osaka from my hotel room at Sunrise:
People
Like my trip to Myanmar, I was surprised by the people ... my preconceived notion of them was completely wrong. I found them to be warm, friendly, and open people. Here's a child on one of our train rides playing with me ... she had just awakened from a nap:
Riding-the-rails
I couldn't help but marvel at the Japanese rail system. It's fabulous in all regards! And, of course, I couldn't resist trying to document that ...
So I hope you stay with me as I re-visit Japan with my images.
Bye for now,
adam
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