Tsunami Boats

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Five days after the March 11 tsunami I visited the south-east coast of Hokkaido to see the results. I recently got around to processing the film from that trip, which reveals the damage sustained at one tiny fishing port. The boats were out of the water during the winter. The water blasted through the inlet and up the ramp, knocking the boats off their blocks and into a twisted pile.

Kodak TRI-X 400. Nikon FM3A, Nikkor 35mm F2

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Pen & Ink Sketches Japan

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Roaming the streets in Hokkaido, Japan. These sketches are done on location with pen, brush and black Indian ink. The winter scenes show ice crystal patterns that formed in the ink wash while sketching in sub-zero conditions Read on »

Maps

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The bicycle touring experience is determined by a jagged, uninterrupted path, as opposed to an itinerary. That’s really all there is to it — a scratch in the terrain, a maze through a city, a line on a map Read on »

Asahi Shimbun, March 14

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Excerpts from Asahi Shimbun (newspaper) three days after the earthquake Read on »

Earthquake, March 11

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The magnitude of this disaster leaves me at a loss for words. The pictures speak for themselves. A big earthquake in Japan is big by world standards and this was the biggest. I live in a coastal town not dissimilar to those crunched by the tsunami and I am horrified watching the televised images just like everyone else Read on »

Packing a Luxury

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What’s your luxury item? That one thing you needn’t carry that takes up space and adds weight but you still do because you’d sooner not live without it. Even ultra lightweight travellers usually pack at least one. A book (made of paper), a memento from home, a photograph, a hackie sack, a chess set—pretty standard things, but i’ve seen some surprising stuff pulled from a rucksack Read on »

Okhotsk Sea Ice floes

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Ice floes arrive at Hokkaido on their annual migration from the north Russian coast of the Okhotsk Sea Read on »

Shark’s Fate

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An 8m basking shark (the worlds second largest shark) washed up on my beach Read on »

Bears’ Fate

The bear as Hokkaido’s emblematic animal on packs of ramen sold to tourists.

Around midday, early last week word spread quickly. It was important enough that an impromptu staff meeting was called at the junior high school I was working at. Three bears—a mother and two cubs—had wandered into town Read on »

V for Victory

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The city pictures uploaded to my Flickr page until now, were all taken in Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido, population 1.9 million. Unfortunately, that’s about all I can post at the moment, but I have a tupperware container in the fridge full of exposed film yet to be processed, featuring Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto as well Read on »