Japan Nostalgia

It’s coming up to two years since I visited Japan for the first, and as yet only, time. As ever, I am feeling huge nostalgia towards my Japan trip. I keep looking back over my photos (check out my full travel journal if you haven’t before) and wishing myself back in Japan…

Love Japan Magazine shared this wonderful video of a 3-week railway journey through Japan on their Facebook page. It’s a beautifully filmed and edited 4 minute video. I can definitely envisage this, or bits of it, being used for a promotional video for tourism in Japan – I’m sold anyway!

In Japan – 2015 from Vincent Urban on Vimeo.

This film is a collection of audiovisual moments and memories of a 3-week railway journey through Japan in 2015. We were whizzing through the country with the Shinkansen visiting Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kyoto as well as lots of wonderful little places along the way, meeting the most friendly people and experiencing a culture that somehow balances it’s rich tradition with a very futuristic present.

Japan: 100 years ago

It’s been almost 2 months since I last posted here on my blog – and even then it wasn’t much of a post! As I mentioned then, I don’t really have time to be updating so often… BUT I came across these lovely Japanese postcards at the weekend and bookmarked them to share – they are too good not to.

This set of colour postcards, all issued in the first decades of the 20th century, show a different pre-war Japan. The signs of technological progress are everywhere: overhead power, telegraph or telephone lines, utility poles with multiple arms, trolley cars, steam boats, huge cranes, steel bridges, factories, and modern office buildings are all part of Japan’s cityscapes. And the visual effect of these coloured postcards make me feel like I might understand where the best Japanese anime movies have their roots. – Gizmodo

I’ve now delved into the original source of the images – New York Public Library’s digital collection of Pacific Pursuits: Postcards – and spent some time admiring even more stunning scenes from early 20th century Japan.

Those that Gizmodo picked out are great and certainly do show Japan making their technological advancements but I love those that show a more traditional Japan as well. I’ve picked out some that show places that I’ve been to myself, alongside some places that I haven’t but would love to visit. In contrast to the other images, these places do still look like this – temples, shrines, castles etc. It is, afterall, the traditional side of Japan that I love more than anything else.

Those that I’ve been to…

Maybe next time…

It’s here!

As of today, Love Japan magazine issue 2 is now available to buy in print and is also free to read online! (Although, I’d recommend getting it in print… because it’s a magazine.)
I got my copy earlier in the week and it looks great.

I’ve worked alongside some super talented and passionate people over the last few months and I’m really excited for the world to see the magazine, at last. I designed this issue but also look out for my own article in the Travel section!

Love Japan Magazine Issue 2 is jam packed full of interesting articles and interviews covering a wide range of topics from food, fashion and art, to lifestyle, travel and events.

Our first 20 print orders get a free gift of either a ‘I ♥ Japan’ pin badge, or Japanese food stickers. Click here to make the jump and grab a copy of the mag!

We hope you enjoy reading the magazine as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it!

Kew Gardens

To celebrate sending Issue #2 of Love Japan magazine to print, Emily and I decided to visit the famous Kew Gardens in west London yesterday. Of course we were mostly there to see the Japanese garden and its ten-storey pagoda but the whole gardens were amazing.

There was just so much to see and so much that appealed to me, as well as the Japanese bits: trees, a treetop trail, wood carvings, giant greenhouses, ponds, bridges, bamboo – it was literally the perfect day out for me! Aside from the fact that the weather was really quite dull, we did have a lovely day and I would highly recommend the gardens. I can’t wait to go back again on a sunny day!

The pagoda is about to go through some big regeneration work but it still looks impressive.

Certainly the most authentic Japanese gardens that I’ve seen outside of Japan.

Typically Japanese stone lantern.

And another with a little water feature.

A gatehouse-style structure inspired by a real part of a temple in Kyoto.

Great architectural details.

Raked gravel – an essential in any Japanese garden.

At the top of a giant greenhouse – very warm.

More typical garden spaces.

In the lily pad house.

Looking up at the treetop trail. Scared? Not one bit!

I love being up in the trees.

Minka house – sort of Japanese (a bit like a gasshō house).

Emily taking lots of photographs (on a real camera unlike me with my iPhone).

I love wood carvings.

I did some climbing. My balance is pretty good but I didn’t attempt every single log.

Learning which tree/wood is which.

Emily and I always seem to find peacocks.

The centre of a giant redwood…

…and this would be the width of it.

HUGE!

And just a final reminder of what the pagoda looks like.