Månad: juli 2024

Lens-Artists Challenge #307- Tourist Attractions

/ Leya / 21 kommentarer

Leanne Cole is our fantastic host this week, and she invites us to show what the normal tourist wants to see – but in another way. ”You might go to the same place, but you are after something different.”

So her challenge is to look for those photos that are of tourist attractions, but where we have tried to get the untypical image of it. They can be near or far away in other countries.

I have just returned from a trip to England, so I am a bit late, but here we go…with Japan! Japan was a delightful country to visit this spring, and the first gallery shows some famous attractions – my way:

The superfast Shinkansen train, Fushimi Inari-taisha in Kyoto (Inari is the god of rice and sake and the messenger is a fox), Kawachi Fujien (The world famous wisteria garden in Kitakyushu), the Shibuya crossing in rain (- the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world with about 2300 crossings every 3,3 minute) and lastly, Tokyo Sky Tree.

From Sweden then, not that many:

Stockholm in double exposure (City Hall and Central Station). The Doll Museum was closed, but my shot was taken through the window.

Thank you to Tina for her beautiful and thought provoking challenge on Habitats two weeks ago, and I hope you all had a lovely week off too! Thank you again to Leanne Cole for leading us this week – please visit her site for always amazing photography.

I hope you want to join in next week when our next guest host, Elizabeth of Albatz Travel Adventures, challenges us to share Pairs.

Thursday Thoughts – More Culture Fun

/ Leya / 15 kommentarer

He will run safely with you through the streets – don’t worry! And here’s a gallery with old and new – A tram conductor in white gloves, real people, stiff dolls and and pop-ups.

Then teamLab Planets Tokyo – a fantastic experience in led lights, water, mirrors, film and much more. You lose yourself all the time – using all your senses. Exciting, and especially appealing to young people. We spent some interesting hours there.

Thursday Thoughts – Culture Fun

/ Leya / 17 kommentarer

The Japanese culture is very much beauty and refined custom – but also so much more. What do you think is hiding behind these glass doors?

Pachinko! Pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan. It is used as an archade game and for gambling. These parlors are widespread in Japan, and is comparable to slot machine palaces in the West. Althought it has now declined in popularity, in 1994 the sales and revenues from Pachinko parlors contributed 5.6% of Japan’s 500 trillion yen GDP and employed 330000 people. (Wikipedia)

Gambling for cash is illegal in Japan, but the popularity has enabled a legal loophole allowing it to exist.

Machines for children wanting toys and candy? We have some quite similar ones here in the West.

In Japan, Karaoke is extremely popular – and maybe posing with pretty girls! This guy posed with paper girls, happily smiling, while his little son ran away from the scene – I wonder why…

I must post a piece of the young Japanese literature and film culture too. Anime. Manga. And a couple of girls dressed in stylish street fashion. (There are MANY styles – from Dolly Key to Genderless)

There’s no end to the popularity of these stories and charachters in Japan – you see them everywhere. In Sweden they enjoy massive attention. I know. My daughter and her friends still watch some of those movies, and I have watched a couple of them, because I wanted to understand why youngsters love them. In fact I found them very intricate, well written, and morally and ethically wise. But on the other hand, I haven’t seen them all…

Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece Spirited Away teaches friendship, love and bravery in a universal way which made the movie famous world wide. I must say I liked it. It is worth seeing even if you are an adult or an elderly person.