I formed a dream to travel around the world before I die, so I made a plan to visit at least one new place each year. According to Chinese traveling ten-thousand miles is equivalent to reading ten-thousand books. Traveling is a process of learning new things and uncovering previous unknowns, especially through my camera lenses. … Continue reading Then and Now
Wherever I have gone, I always tried to immerse myself in local tradition. During one of the trips we visited beautiful sacred bridge (神桥) standing at the entrance to Nikko 's shrines and temples (东照宫). The bridge is ranked as one of Japan's three finest bridges together with Iwakuni 's Kintaikyo and Saruhashi in Yamanashi Prefecture. … Continue reading Japan #13 – Tatami and Clothes Hanging
We started smelling sulphur in the air even before we arrived at Owakudani. Owakudani (大涌谷) is a volcanic valley with active sulphur vents and hot springs in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It was created around 3000 years ago, as a result of the explosion of the Hakone volcano. Today, much of the area is an active … Continue reading Japan #12 – One for Seven Years
At Ueno Zoo (上野動物園) , I not only visited the famous Japanese snow monkeys (Snow Monkeys), but also saw some beautiful exotic birds. I got their brief information (at least their names) while I took their pictures. Later I checked more detailed information after I was back to US. Here are some of them. Here are the summary … Continue reading Japan #11- Exotic Birds
Lake Kawaguchi (河口湖) is located in the border Fujikawaguchiko and Minobu, southern Yamanashi Prefecture near Mount Fuji, Japan. It is the second largest of the Fuji Five Lakes in terms of surface area, and is located at the lowest elevation. Our trip to the lake was scheduled before I arrived at Tokyo. We were very … Continue reading Japan #10 – Trip to Lake Kawaguchiko in a Rainy Day
There is a lovely garden for black-tailed prairie dogs at Ueno Zoo. The place is just like a wonderland for those tiny creatures, where they can play on the ground or underneath. The day we were there was a pleasant sunny day, all prairie dogs came out of their underground tunnels to enjoy the warmth. … Continue reading Japan #9 – The Love Story between Two Prairie Dogs
Senso-ji (浅草寺) is not too far from the place we stayed at Tokyo, we went there because I really like to experience the real local culture from one of the best sources: night market. The most crowed path there is Nakamise-dori (仲見世通り) street leading to Senso-ji temple with lots of souvenir stores along it. It is … Continue reading Japan #8 – The Night Markets at Senso-ji
I am usually not a big fun of any zoos, but at Tokyo I insisted in visiting Ueno Zoo (上野動物園) . The reason of that was to see Japanese snow monkeys. Here is a brief introduction of these amazing animals: the Japanese snow monkey, also known as Japanese macaque, is a terrestrial Old World monkey species … Continue reading Japan #7- Snow Monkeys
In my previous post Ginza and Issey Miyake, I talked about the shopping experience in Ginza. In the store of Issey Miyake, it was the first time for me to see all clothes with only one size. Actually Issey Miyake is not only designer with one size, many other brands in Japan have the same feature - … Continue reading Japan #6 – Only One Size
Different kinds of Japanese traditional garment became my obsession a long time ago. I have enjoyed looking at people in kimonos. During the trip to Japan I got a chance to photography the Japanese, women, men and kids wearing kimonos. In addition the hairstyles coming with the garment also have unique beauties. Here is a … Continue reading Japan #5 – The Beauties in Kimonos
From Hiding to Blogging 