Japan

Last year was not my most productive year as a photographer. I still took over 20000 images but it’s half what I did in 2014. And it’s not because I have not traveled abroad (I went to Ethiopia, Japan, France and Turkey) but I did not go out locally as much as I usually do. My day job kept me busy and I did not have much spare time. Even this blog is suffering from my lack of free time. Finally at the end of February, I was able to compile my best images for 2015. Better late than never is one my motto in life. Interestingly enough, there is a theme that is emerging from my images, I love cityscape (my top 4 images are Tokyo, San Francisco, Nice and San Francisco again). I love man-made structures, you have to go to my volcano image to find a purely...

Yudanaka Onsen is a small mountain town known in Japan for two things: its hot spring and the snow monkey park. There are many hot springs in the Yamanouchi area where Yudanaka is, including the more known Yudanaka Onsen and Shibu Onsen. The Japanese have been enjoying the water from these hot springs for centuries in bath houses. Shibu Onsen has 9 public bath houses (each with its figurine in front) and countless of private ones. The monkeys are the emblem of the area. Monkeys are drawn everywhere: on signs, on hotel logos, even on the manholes for the hot spring water pipes. We were looking for a Japanese style hotel called ryokan for our stay. The best roykan in town is the Kokuya, the hotel is literally on the hot spring source (5 meters away) and offer eggs...

I’m currently in Japan and we are starting 2014 ahead of almost everybody else. As we entered the new year, I wish that 2014 will bring you health, and of course photographical inspiration. I cannot do anything for your health but I can definitely try to inspire you: I have started this year by visiting Japan and the famous snow monkeys near Nagano (Jigokudani Yaen-Koen). Snow is falling, it’s all white and cold but really nice. Japan took a bit of time for me to enjoy but now I love this country. It was an adventure for us to drive on our own to the snow monkeys park (driving on the left, with road signs in a different alphabet, I really do not recommend it unless you are an experience left-side driver and you know some basic Japanese). We are...