Oeskiki is an annual buddhist festival held on the 13th of October that commemorates the death of Nichiren in 1282. He was a revered buddhist teacher who lived during the Kamakura period, about 700 years ago. Although celebrated throughout Japan, the main Oeshiki festival is held at Ikegami Honmonji Temple located in the Ota ward…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Oeshiki Festival of Light, Ikegami Tokyo
Ryōan-ji (meaning the Temple of the Dragon at Peace) is a Zen temple located in Kyoto, Japan. The Ryōan-ji garden is considered one of the finest surviving examples of Japanese Zen temple garden design generally featuring distinctive larger rock formations arranged amidst a sweep of smooth pebbles arranged in immaculate linear patterns, designed to facilitate…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Magnificent Ryoan-ji temple and gardens, Kyoto
The odd and wonderful bibliomat book vending machine
Although it’s very easy and possible to typecast people from specific countries as being (in general) bad tourists. I have neatly avoided that here. It’s a cultural thing though, for sure.
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Netsuke are uniquely Japanese and sublime in their beauty. They are tiny objects carved of ivory, ceramic, wood, tortoise-shell, gold or many other materials. They tell the story of the culture of Japan during the old Edo period and before. Netsuke featured fishermen and farmers, who rubbed shoulders with scholars, samurai warriors, royalty and even…
Continue reading ➞ Netsuke & Gashapon toys Ancient Japanese treasures and modern collectibles
https://goo.gl/maps/aVRoYzgf55E2
People seldom visit the Eastern Cape of the North Island because of its complete isolation from the rest of the country’s bustling travel routes. It’s quiet in terms of other cars – there are none, except for the occasional local farmer and logging truck ferrying wood from forests to the port in Gisborne. It’s an…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: A roadtrip through the remote Eastern Cape, New Zealand
I visited my family in Melbourne over the new year's period and tried to take some hyperlapse footage of some of St Kilda's landmarks such as the pier, Palais Theatre and the creepy, omniscient clown smile of Luna Park. The results were a bit shaky but, I think, still managed to be compelling in a…
Continue reading ➞ Atmospheric hyperlapses of St Kilda landmarks
Our new camera got a big work out on our night walks through the eastern suburbs. This looks towards the city centre and with a huge zoom on the camera we were able to capture the night-time hustle and bustle of the Ports of Auckland. A constant fixture of background activity is always going on…
Continue reading ➞ Every Picture Tells A Story: Auckland by Night Part 2
As an occasional driver along the Eastlink in Melbourne, I have had the odd experience of passing a hotel with no trace of human habitation around it. A hotel completely devoid of people and life and yet that lights up in a unique configuration of lights from fake windows each night. Located in Melbourne's south…
If you ever go to Edinburgh and find yourself in one of its countless excellent pubs, you may want to strike up a conversation with one of the grave looking, old guys at the bar drinking pints. If so, you will want to be able to hold a conversation while also not making a fanny…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: A Survival Guide to Edinburgh Slang and Scots Words
Japanese afro in Shibuya, Tokyo Copyright © Content Catnip 2018 www.contentcatnip.com This guy had the coolest hair in Tokyo. Him and his mate were so chill, just smoking and shooting the shit, talking about life in a back alley near Shibuya. People in Tokyo tend to do wild things to their appearance to differentiate themselves…
Continue reading ➞ Every picture tells a story: A pristine Japanese afro
Currently, I'm in Poland and I didn't hesitate to visit the Kolejcowo in Świebodzki Station in Wrocław. This is the largest model railway in Poland, but also a rather amazing depiction of how life in Poland actually looks. Everything, right down to the petrol stations, graffiti, and the shops actually exists in real life in…
Continue reading ➞ Kolejcowo: A cute and creepy version of Poland in Miniature
Okahu Bay yachts, Auckland © Content Catnip 2018 www.contentcatnip.com I am writing this post on the 5th of January and all going well, we will leave our current home and be residing somewhere else by the publishing date of this post at the end of March/April 2019. Back to the future indeed. Time passes so…
Continue reading ➞ Every picture tells a story: Spectacular sunset over Okahu Bay, Auckland
Something unexpected happened to me in Warsaw Zoo today. Instead of enjoying myself seeing all the animals I felt really sad. Why? Because they came across through my camera lens as being full of emotion, sensitivity and immense intelligence. I connected with them and their pain in the same way I would if I looked…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: The sensitive faces of animals in Warsaw Zoo
Asakusa, Tokyo by Night. Copyright © Content Catnip 2018 www.contentcatnip.com Here's another photo I took strolling around at night in Asakusa in Tokyo. In these little alleys, there is an air of intimate and cosy homeliness, I guess this is thanks to the locals. On a micro scale, these alleys had a really neighbourly and…
Continue reading ➞ Every picture tells a story: Rainbow neon street scene in Asakusa
Cutesy pancake shop makes me want pancakes in Shinjuku Copyright © Content Catnip 2018 www.contentcatnip.com Like most things in Tokyo, I had only a vague notion of what the hell was going on here. It looks like a pancake van on cute steroids. Apparently to sell anything the best way to do it is to…
Continue reading ➞ Every picture tells a story: Cutsey pancake van in Shinjuku
The first week that we moved to Wellington we went to see Te Papa Museum's landmark exhibition: Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality. Enshrined in darkness and dim light, the exhibition feels like being submerged into the underworld. The exhibition offers you a rare opportunity to have an intimate and immersive encounter with remarkable treasures from…
Continue reading ➞ Day out in Wellington: The Terracotta Warriors at Te Papa Museum
I set myself some daily/long-term goals on a whiteboard earlier this year. They were as follows: To practice 10 units of Polish daily on Duolingo (prior to going to Poland in a month). To finish producing 20 or so videos from my previous trip to Japan (before April). To finish the first draft of a…
*Contains no spoilers. She Rises is an erotic, sea-faring adventure by debut novelist Kate Worsley. Under the tutelage of mentor and maven of the historical novel Sarah Waters, Kate Worsley has created a beautifully sculpted jewel of a novel set in an Essex fishing village in 1740. A word to the wise, the book is…
