Shizuoka: Daidogei Street Art Performance World Cup 2012

It is definitely not getting boring in Japan. There is always something going and last weekend it was the Daidogei Street Art Performance World which is held annually in the city of Shizuoka. Obviously a great opportunity to go out enjoy the sun, eat some good food, watch all the amazing performers and of course take a picture or two.
The festival lasted for 3 days with performances scheduled from the early morning to 11 o'clock at night. The main stages and events took place in the Sumpu Castle Park which definitely was the busiest place in Shizuoka. But furthermore artists were staging all over the downtown area of the city, which really brought the otherwise quite quiet town of Shizuoka to see some life. There were jugglers, pantomimes, comedians, musicians and all sorts of artists taking part in the festivities. It definitely was a load of fun and if I'm still going to be in Japan by this time next year, I could imagine myself going there again.

However, here a some impressions of the festival. As always, just click the picture to move on to the Flickr Slideshow.

Maurice

P.S.: Too lazy for Japanese right now. ^^

Kaikan: Portrait Time

As part of my 'I should take more pictures' phase I took the risk of taking out my camera to partying last Saturday. The risk probably lies more with me dropping or smashing my camera while being too excited, but it was definitely worth it. Gladly my fellow companions did not mind being snapshotted and to their approval I left out the embarrassing pictures in this set.

Life in Shizuoka is getting more interesting day by day and I plan on capturing these moments on camera more often than I used to in the past. For another effort of improving my Japanese I'm going to start making this blog bilingual, because in the end that is the point why I came to Japan in the first place. For you Japanese people who might read this, please be gentle with my less than perfect language skills.

 今、僕は’写真を撮らないといけない’フェース中ので、土曜の出かける時に冒険に持っていった。たぶんリスクは楽しくなる時、自分でカメラを破ると思うけど、本当いい予定だった。一緒に出かけたみんなさんは恰も好し写真を撮ってあげるのは大丈夫感じだった。それで、大変な写真をアップしなかった。

静岡の生活は毎日さらに面白くなったら、そんな環境がたくさんあるんで、フォトを多く撮りたい。だから、今から過去と比べて、カメラをよく持って出そうと思う。さて、日本に来た理由は日本語でペラペラになりたいので、今後でこのブログで日本語と英語で書く。日本人、よろしくねー。

Shizuoka: a new dawn

So dramatic, right? Like some of you guys might now, I'm back in Japan now and safely arrived in my new home, Shizuoka City. This town is probably unknown to most of you, so I'll give just a brief introduction.

Shizuoka is situated almost right in between Tokyo and Nagoya and is about 1,5 hrs by train from both of these cities. The prefecture which is also called Shizuoka is famous for it's tea, seafood and Mt.Fuji which you can actually get awesome views from the city itself. I definitely going to try to get some good shots of Japans highest mountain and some point or the other. The city reaches from the seashore till the first hills of the Southern Japanese Alps and is quite spread out, but Downtown Shizuoka is fairly compact and easy to navigate.

So, I'm going to stay here for another year of exchange at Shizuoka University, mainly studying Japanese and enjoying the last year of my Bachelor's. If the money is not going to run out soon, Japan is quite expensive, I hope I'll get the chance to travel around Japan and maybe stop by the surrounding countries such as Korea or China during our Spring Break.

If you click the picture to the right, you'll get a first impression of Shizuoka at least of some of the sights worth visiting.

So far,

Maurice

P.S.: I also uploaded some pictures of my visit to Nara earlier this summer. Just click here.

Istanbul: Between Orient and Oxident

Istanbul, former Konstantinopel, is the only city that is situated on two distinct continents. It is the gateway to the black sea, covering both the eastern and western side of the Bosporus. The geographic characteristic being caught between the Orient and Oxident is also more than visible in the city itself. Landscape wise the city really reminds you of the bigger, southern European cities, but this is really well balanced by the all the Arabic style mosques which are spread all over the city and one distinct feature of this metropolis.

For you adventurous people, there is a lot to do and discover in Istanbul, ranging from the standard sights, such as the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque or the Grand Bazaar. I really enjoyed this part, it was really one of the relaxed places to visit, without permanent 'buy from me', 'hey, my friend' or whatever else people at other popular tourist spots over the world yell at you to get your attention.

However, the most impressive and enjoyable part during our trip to Turkey was literally just strolling around the city, discovering the small side streets, Turkish coffee shops, shopping in general and of course awesome food. The atmosphere of the city is just really relaxed, open-minded, vibrant and full of life. You will never encounter a spare second, when there's nothing to see, nothing to hear or smell, that doesn't get your attention.

If your looking out for a short trip in close proximity to Europe, I'd definitely recommend going to Istanbul. The night life is also very enjoyable. ^^ Also here are the first few shots from the streets of Konstantinopel.

Maurice

P.S.: Just click the image to the right to get to the Istanbul Gallery

Relaunch: Rorschach Photography

Hey! So now that I'm back in Germany I had some time to reorganize and redesign my old blog which hasn't been touched for quite some time now. I hope in the future I'm more capable of keeping it up to date. Apart from a new name and new layout not that much has changed. I added some new pictures in the people's gallery and will keep them coming as soon as I leave to Japan.

Also my external harddrive crashed with loads of untouched pictures I did not have the time to take a look at. So, as soon as I get that one running again there should be a lot more to come. I hope you guys will stay, take a look around and drop by from time to time. I'll keep you updated.