travel: sakura in japan

This time of the year I know I'm bound to miss Japan like crazy. It's the cherry blossoms, the sakura, that incredibly short and powerful moment in the japanese year where nature explodes in the most amazingly beautiful full bloom. It comes, it awes you, it goes. Brief brief brief...

As I have no new images here's some links to old posts of mine...

2005: http://fromtokyowithlove.blogspot.pt/2005/04/trrrruuuuuuummmmmmm.html
2005: http://fromtokyowithlove.blogspot.pt/2005/04/primavera.html
2005: http://fromtokyowithlove.blogspot.pt/2005/04/under-cherry-tree-and-dreaming.html
2005: http://fromtokyowithlove.blogspot.pt/2005/04/oh-pra-elas-to-lindas.html
2005: http://fromtokyowithlove.blogspot.pt/2005/04/em-portugal-no-h-disto.html
2005: http://fromtokyowithlove.blogspot.pt/2005/04/end-of-party.html
2010: http://moshimoshiii.blogspot.pt/2010/04/sakura-sakura.html
2010: http://moshimoshiii.blogspot.pt/2010/04/sakura-sakura_10.html

And some beautiful images from this year's sakura...

...from hiki: http://jollygoo.blogspot.pt/2013/04/sakura-in-yutenji.html
...from hiki: http://jollygoo.blogspot.pt/2013/03/sakura-on-instagram.html
...from ros lee: http://polkaros.com/blog/hello-spring/

travel: the secret onsen

Japanese Secret Hot Spring by hiokinskywalker

He told me it would be hard to get there. "This time of the year there aren't many visitors so transport is scarce". Still he help me to figure the train + two bus it would take me to get there. It wasn't difficult. Japan is a funny mix of easy and complicated. But one thing is sure: if you can find a timetable saying there will be a train and two buses, there will be a train and two buses. While waiting for the second bus, in a stop in the middle of a deserted road where the first bus driver had left me (just pointing "get out, get out") I wondered if I was about to prove that sometimes that bus doesn't come. I was walking up and down the road nervously, thinking of a possible plan B if things went wrong. I looked for houses in the distance, I mentally calculated if we had drove that much from the train station. I thought to myself "what the hell are you doing here, sara?" alone in the middle of a road in some mountain in Japan, thousands of miles from home? But then the bus came and it drove me there. The most beautiful onsen I have ever been. Where I was served tea and bathed in the unbelievable soothing japanese waters.

(and photographed!)

from japan with love

Sou uma sortuda por ter um amigo que voa frequentemente para o Japão. Às vezes tiro proveito dessas viagens e encomendo-lhe uns produtos japoeses. Desta vez trouxe-me: 3 fitas largas de washi-tape, incluindo uma linda desenhada pela marca mina perhonen (ai, e as saudades da loja Tokyu Hands...), alguns mapas e a revista "Come Home" que estava curiosa por conhecer depois de ver nuns quantos blogs.
Um dia feliz!
-------------
I'm a lucky girl to have a friend who flies frequently to Japan. Sometimes I take advantage of his trips and ask him to bring me some japanese goodies. This time he brought me: 3 large washi tapes, one with a beautiful mina perhonen design (and how I miss Tokyu Hands...), some maps and "Come Home", a magazine I was curious to see after seeing it in a couple of blogs.
It was a happy day!

hiroshima

This is the beautiful cherry tree in tavistock square in london planted in 1967 in memory of the victims of hiroshima.
It was 67 years ago.

ps: it's not in bloom now, the picture is from late april this year.

the japanese bath

on days like this i just wish i could walk down the street and enter my local sentô. my shoulders are aching of too much seating and too much computer writing in non-ergonomic chairs... i imagine my body and all my stress melting away in the burning waters of a japanese bath.

11 march

I took the above image in Tokyo in March 11th 2008, 3 years before the horrible disaster that has changed Japan forever. 1 year now. Still no words.

Some random interesting links:

Children of the Tsunami : http://hellosandwich.blogspot.com/2012/03/children-of-tsunami.html
Inside the Meltdown: http://hellosandwich.blogspot.com/2012/03/inside-meltdown.html
A project to support: http://www.swiss-miss.com/2012/03/kasama-yaki-made-in-kasama.html
A life change (brazilian sorry): http://shigues.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/voluntariado-parte-1/

calendar for 2011

queridos leitores,

é com muito gosto que vos apresento o vosso calendário para 2011 que preparei com imenso prazer. é inteiramente dedicado ao japão, 12 meses preenchidos com delicadas imagens a preto e branco tiradas por mim neste país fascinante!

janeiro/fevereiro/março - january/february/march

 abril/maio/junho - april/may/june


quando pendurado o calendário mede cerca de 30x43 cm (aproximadamente um A3).
o preço é 15€ mas eu tenho uma pequena oferta:
quem fizer a encomendar até dia 15 de Novembro, eu ofereço um desconto de 10% e portes de correio gratuitos. é para aproveitar! um calendário é uma excelente prenda de natal. é só enviarem-me um e-mail para letterstosushilover [at] gmail.com.

-------
dear readers,


i have prepared a lovely calendar for 2011. it's interely dedicated to japan, 12 months full of delicated black & white glimpses of that amazing country. all images were captured by me.

julho/agosto/setembro - july/august/september



outubro/novembro/dezembro - october/november/december


when hanged the calendar is about 30x43cm (the size of an A3)
the price is 15€ but i have a little sweet surprise for you:
if you place your order until 15th November, i'm offering 10% discount and free shipping.
don't miss it, a calendar is a wonderful christmas gift. just send me an e-mail to letterstosushilover [at] gmail.com.

sometimes

yakuza

image copyright anton kusters.

the photography book now awards by blurb were announced today and made me discover an amazing project by a belgian photographer, anton kusters. anton somehow managed to get in touch and sort of get accepted by a group of yakuza (aka the japanese mafia) and is getting an incredible insight of this amazing culture. the yakuza is probably the most fascinating japanese subculture and i can't wait to get a copy of the book. congratulations anton! and good luck with your project.

see the book here.
see the project here.

the japan photo project

pretty impressive this task that tina baguè and toru morimoto embraced: to cover the whole of japan in one year! they started January this year and are half through the project! incredible journey must be! ganbatte!

from the website:
The Japan Photo Project is a unique in-depth documentary photo project initiated by two photographers who plan to explore Japanese society through two different perspectives: the point of view of a Japanese native and the point of view of a Westerner. This collaboration between Toru Morimoto, documentary photographer from Kobe, and Tina Bagué, travel photographer from Barcelona, is an innovative approach that will result in an incredeible body of color and black and white images that will resonate with audiences world-wide. They want to show real Japan by ceating images that embody the true spirit of Japan, which foreigners often do not see and the natives often take for granted. They will travel all over Japan for one year, 2010, by a mortor home. Once the project is completed, the works will become a photography book, and the exhibition will travel as many cities as possible.

visit site here.

sakura sakura!

oh everybody loves sakura!

sakura sakura!

é tempo de sakura no japão... todos os anos me apetece voar para lá, é uma beleza incansável.
ps: estas imagens têm 2 anos, caso pensem que eu ando numa volta ao mundo!
---------
it's sakura time in japan! every year i wish i could return, you can't get enough of the beauty.
ps: these images are from 2008, in case you're thinking i'm on some kind of around-the-world trip!





vejam os vídeos (péssimamente filmados mas transmitem uma ideia melhor do ambiente da sakura - as pétalas a voar são l-i-n-d-a-s!)
-------
watch these videos (i'm NOT good at filming but you can get a better idea of sakura mood - and the fleeting petals are a-m-a-z-i-n-g)




(funny giggling)

o japão em lisboa

Dois eventos japoneses para vos pôr a correr lisboa por estes dias!

Está decorrer o Nippon Koma, festival de cinema japonês, na Culturgest. Até ao próximo sábado!
E na Gulbenkian está patente a exposição de gravuras japonesas "As 53 estações de Tokaido"!

busy busy week

:)

encontrei esta nota nos meus diários do japão:

"são 9:16 em tokyo station e aguardo numa fila com cerca de 12 pessoas a minha vez de entrar no shinkansen. a partida está marcada para as 9:20 mas não acredito que parta a horas. 9:18. abrem as portas. entramos, procuro o lugar. ah. janela. sento-me, olho lá para fora. respiro. 9:20. partimos."

---

found this note in my japanese diaries:

"it´s 9:16 in tokyo station and I'm waiting in a line with more a less 12 people for my turn to enter the shinkansen. departure is scheduled for 9:20 but I don't think we'll make it on time. 9:18. doors open. enter, search for my seat. ah. window. i sit, looking outside. breath. 9:20. departure"

japan is so far

Tokyo Reality (Canon 5D MarkII) from utsuru on Vimeo.

aclamado pelo seu autor como "the world first non official short movie shot with the Canon EOS 5D MarkII" este vídeo tem uma qualidade assombrosa se pensarmos que foi feito com uma máquina fotográfica digital! magnífico!

(encontrado via um rebordão no japão)

o canal vimeo é 1000 vezes melhor que o Youtube, aposta principalmente em vídeos de autor e tem HD. touché.

também assombrosas foram as saudades de Tokyo que me deram ao ver este vídeo.

*suspiro*

porque é que não ficas mais perto, japão?

sejima + tokyo

líndissimo edifício da dior em omotesando, tokyo.
um deleite para os olhos a propósito da recente entrevista de Kazuyo Sejima ao El País.

obama for obama

foto kirainet

Há uma cidadezinha no Japão que se chama Obama. Obama em japonês quer dizer "pequena praia". A cidade entrou em histeria com o candidato a presidente dos estados unidos, Barack Obama e tratou de usar essa coincidência a seu favor. Ele é t-shirts, bandeiras, cartazes, bolos tudo com a cara do senador e o indispensável:

I Y OBAMA!

A publicidade tem sido tanta que o próprio Barack Obama já vei dizer umas palavrinhas simpáticas sore a relação EUA-Japão.

Ver InSight America, um projecto da magnum para retratar a américa nas eleições.

o autêntico wonderbra da dona-de-casa japonesa

Isto é o que se chama "vestir a camisola" de uma causa. A Triumph Japan lançou este soutien para alertar para o número alarmante de sacos de plástico consumidos no Japão (cerca de 3o biliões, sendo que 30% são deitados fora sem nunca serem reutilizados)

Não sei da practibilidade deste soutien, mas tenho a certeza que se o estivesse a usar e decidisse tirar o saco das compras o supermercado parava.

Rosa, fica aqui a dica para substituires esses aborrecidos da Retrosaria!

via inhabitat

nagi noda #4

Looking for a new hat?

Mais... no sítio do costume.

nagi noda #3

Surreeeaaalll.