Portraits - Ayaka

Every person is different

Every person needs to be represented differently

But is it possible to catch someone’s true self in a camera lens.

The task of this particular entry was to take pictures of a Japanese person, and display who they are as a person, straight away I was doubtful if this was possible, people have many different aspects of who they are, so I never believe you can completely catch someone’s personality in one photo…honestly, I don’t think you can capture a person’s entire personality no matter how many pictures you take.

And in the case of Ayaka, this thought is intensified in my mind.

A picture taken during a photoshoot, but it was just while I was fixing my settings, so its kind of a unintentional shot
but Ayaka's expression in this is amazing

Many people would say she does not fit the mold of the typical Japanese girl.

Her fashion style is her own, she is relaxed, calm and very easy going.

She is a indiviualist

She is able to joke around and have fun, and is a great person to talk to about anything.

You can talk to her knowing you will get a honest opinion and support if you need it, or you can talk to her about nothing in particular to just kill time

Sharing her heart

But as easy going and relaxed a person as she is, she also does have a serious side.

She is a hard worker, determined to archive her goals in life, which I am sure she will.

I am not sure if she realizes it, but she is also a very loyal and protective friend, if its someone who she considers a friend, you can count on her being there for you, also when she talks about her friends she does so with such fondness



Doing homework, I just wish I had a picture of her in her suit for job hunting



But those are only several aspects of what kind of person Ayaka is, I feel like I could write thousands and thousands more words, post millions upon millions more pictures, and still not get close of showing all of who she is.

But I can say with all honesty, I love taking photos of Ayaka, because I know whenever I take a picture of her there is no fake-ness behind it, in every photo of her she is just being herself…or one aspect of herself.

A great model, and a great friend

My Neighbourhood - Yamanouekitamachi

My current neighbourhood is an area called Yamanouekitamachi (山之上北町)  which is part of Hirakata shi, and is roughly around 10 minutes by bus from Hirakata city station, but whenever asking many of my Japanese friends if they know where Yamanouekitamachi is, I get blank expressions or a sudden quick search on a iphone, which leads to the impression that Yamanouekitamachi  is a small neighbourhood.

But in reality Yamanouekitamachi  is a neighbourhood with several large pachinko parlours, a love hotel, a swimming lesson building, internet café’s and a various range of café’s and restaurants, as well as the combini’s such as Lawson’s and family mart.

But sadly, the most I really see and experience of the Yamanouekitamachi  neighbourhood starts from around the door of my homestay family house, until the bus stop about a four minute walk away (two minutes if you are going to be late and run instead)

A common sight for me

But it is hard to not notice a few things about this neighbourhood during that four minute walk, first of all, the area is a mixture of really nice big well cared for houses (by Japanese standard) and the smaller apartments, and the less cared for small houses and apartments, with random warehouses thrown in around the way.

A assortment of  nice houses

A block of apartments that have probably seen better days

Then you also bring in the pachinko parlours, combini’s and various restaurants, leading to a rather mixed message of what kind of neighbourhood Yamanouekitamachi it.

A huge pachinko place in a small neighbourhood???

But unfortunately with the pictures I took on my quick two minute dash to university (because as usual I was running late) I am afraid that I was unable to capture what kind of neighbourhood Yamanouekitamachi is.

All I have provided here are pictures of houses and apartments, sure they are a big part of a neighbourhood, but the most important part of a neighbourhood is the people that live in it.

And here there are no pictures of the people I meet on the quick dash to the bus stop, the people like the grandmother and her young granddaughter that greet me with a happy “ohayo gozaimasu” and tell me to have a safe day at school and return in good health and spirits, the kids that play in the empty lot near my house, my host brother fiancés family (who also live in the neighbourhood) who saw me walking to the bus stop one day and insisted they give me a ride to the university.

Buildings are only part of a neighbourhood, what good would a house or apartment be without the people living in it.

I will once again end this blog on a slightly different but connected note.

Every morning when I walk to the bus station, there is one house that has a plum tree out the front, usually the flowers are bloomed a lovely pink, but once again, in Japan things can change so suddenly.

Such a lovely bloom

But even they hide in the snow

Japan: First Impressions x2

They say you can only ever have one first impression, but in this blog entry I am going to debate this fact by arguing the fact that I have been able to get two different “first impressions” of Japan and Japanese culture.

Currently I am a second semester international student at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka prefecture Japan (this blog is actually part of one of my classes) but this isn’t my first time coming to and experiencing Japan, when I was 18 years old I made my first trip to Japan through a youth exchange program, and upon landing in Narita airport in Tokyo I was itching to get out there and experience Japan. No matter what time it was, what the weather was like or even how tired I was.

But instead my first experience in Japan was locked up in a hotel room (that we weren’t allowed to leave) and waking up to this view.



not exactly a wonderful sight



But I managed to cope with this negative first impression and more than lack lustre sight, because I was going to catch another plane to Osaka then a train to Fukui, a small country prefecture in Japan that I had honestly never heard of before.

The plane trip itself was rather uneventful apart from seeing Mount Fuji and watching a fellow Australian shamelessly flirt with the flight attendants.

But it was on the train ride from Osaka to Fukui that I saw what will always remain one of my strongest memories of Japan.

Before going under a short tunnel the view around me looked like this



pretty nice, green and normal right?

But when the train exited the tunnel, suddenly I was greeted by this site

so much snow, I was stunned

To this day I look back on that moment in wonder, not only was it the first time that I had even seen snow in my life (because I am Australian) but also the first time I had witnessed just how flawlessly and suddenly things in Japan could change

The rest of my time in Fukui I literally and honestly had a wonderful time, I meet so many wonderful and kind people, as well as a few people who were much less than pleasant, and because Fukui is a smaller country prefecture I got to experience many different things.

My impression remains today, that the Japan I experienced in Fukui was filled (mostly) of great people, I got to experience many things that people would associate more with the western idea of “traditional Japan” where I spent time either looking after and playing with children or talking to the older adults because there was really no youth culture (in the area of Fukui I was living in for a majority of the time) that I could inject myself into, but still managed to have a wonderful time.

But moving to the present day.

Well let’s not quite say the present day, more so around seven months ago when I arrived in Japan to start my year study abroad in Kansai Gaidai.

I think this is really an example that the impression of where you are, and in one context you are entering a culture can change the perspective and impressions.

Because literally as soon as I entered Japan this time, and even more so when I entered Kansai Gaidai I realized the “cool young” Japan that I had previously missed out on.

Where smoking is cool, because all the cool kids do it (plus there are even special flavours!!!!)

dont follow my lead kiddies, its a bad thing, even if all the cool kids are doing it!

Everyone takes fashion very seriously, every aspect of it, but somehow everyone’s fashion styles seem to somehow stand out but fit together all at the same time

who ever said a girl could own too many pairs of earings~

Where people are one moment loud and crazy, then relaxed and chilled the next

after a hard day of classes (the ones that actually were attened anyway) and probably more than a healthy amount of smokes!

But with all of this being said, even though the I had many different experiences due to the youth culture that I was surrounded in this time around, I was still able to see many of the more traditional aspects of Japan, and much like Japan I once again realized I was surrounded by many amazing and kind people (along with a hand full of less than pleasant people)

But after all of this, what I am trying to say with all of this is that I think you can have two first impressions of the same country depending on in which context you enter it and what sub culture you enter it in.

But if I needed to make one general first impression on Japan, I would need to go back to my first memory of Japan with the tunnel and the snow.

Japan is a country that can change/shift in the blink of the eye, even the way it moves between the old and the new so seamlessly can be considered part of this amazing skill.

And I shall leave this blog entry with this last picture

(sorry if this was a long and drawn out read, next one will be shorter ne~~~)

expect anything in japan, and always carry a camera, never did I expect to see a chicken standing ontop of the roof of the car in one of downtown Osaka's busiest area's