Japan. The land of the rising sun.

Apologies on the complete lack of new posts this year! Life has been quite hectic while getting organised for the year ahead. However I have settled into a new home much closer to the creativity life has to offer. Which means we hope our second year of blogging will be even more fascinating, exiting and inspiring than our first. 

Over New Years I did however make it to Japan, which was truly a wonderful experience. I have never in my life come across a race of people who dress so well and let their outfit become the true definition of who they are. People love to play with fashion in Japan, from outlandish colours to extremely fine detail. Men love to show their feminine side while women show strength and power.

My photos aren't a great example of this as my blogging time was very limited due to a rather short but intense trip. However I do hope they inspire you to sometime visit and be influenced by such a culture rich society.

M 

Yes I got extremely lucky and saw a real Geisha. I was very surprized as I was told that their are only now five hundred left in all of Japan. They say a picture tells a thousands words, well you have to take my word for it that she was simply beautiful and had a certain exticate and elegance that not even a picture could capure. It's very interesting that now in Kyoto a lot of young people are going back to wearing traditional clothing. However the hair styles and accessories they have make you feel like your taking a stroll around Disneyland.

M.

I had a good chat to this lady and she said she doesn't normally dress like this. But during traditional company meetings and events you must wear the traditional attire. Found this very interesting.

M.

We had the pleasure of skiing in Hakuba for our last week of the trip, the home of the 1998 winter Olympics. Believe me their's no such thing as a conservative skiing outfit here. You won't see any black and blues, but some of the most outrageous skiing outfits I have even seen. Skiings always seemed a pretty straight up sport to me. Where you work hard and go for the adrenaline which is the by product. Here people seemed to go to show off their style amongst the powder. Sadly I didn't capture any of this as carrying my camera while tree skiing is simply beyond my capabilities. 

M. 

Japan taught me a valuable lesson about people and their relation to photographs. People look at a photo of themselves and get a sense of self definition. People look at a photo of themselves and ask themselves how they can be better, how they can express themselves more through their fashion.
Japan may be the land of the rising sun, but the lights will never go out on self expression.
M.