Cormorant

At a beach by the Pacific Ocean I saw this Japanese Cormorant (Phalacrocorax capillatus). It didn’t seem too scared of people. I wonder if it could have been one of the domesticated birds that are used for fishing by the masters at Nagara River in Gifu Prefecture?

Kamakura – Pacific Ocean View

A couple of weeks ago I spent a few minutes looking out at the sea from Yuigahama Beach in Kamakura city just south of Tokyo. The beach faces south so you are always going to see the sun over the ocean from this point, I always wonder what Kamakura would like like from a boat in the ocean? Someday I need to find myself a spot on one of those boats I sometimes see on the horizon here. It’s an unseasonably cold early April afternoon but already some windsurfers and surfers are out there.

Okinawa Wedding Photographers

On my last trip to Okinawa I visited the relatively new Chura-Sun beach (美らSUNビーチ) right to the south of Naha Airport and saw this group of wedding photographers doing their best to capture a young couple in the classic “groom getting blown away”. If you have ever been to a wedding in Okinawa, you know this pose! I was there in the winter and the beach was quite deserted, not least due to the cold winds. Even Okinawa gets chilly in the winter. I always thought of Okinawa as Japan’s own paradise. It is quite expensive to go there from the mainland but I am sure the locals are happy to keep it that way. I wouldn’t mind spending a few months there in spring or summer!

Hyuga Beach – Miyazaki

It is easy to forget when you live all your life in Tokyo, that there is another Japan, a slower and in many ways more human Japan. Take this beach near Huyga city in the southern Miyazaki prefecture on the big island of Kyushu. I took these photos when I visited in September. This beach is very famous with surfers and I saw a few really good waves. Not being a surfer myself I don’t know how good it really is though. I do know that there are a few international surfing competitions here every year. It’s also not only humans, a few birds also feed of the beach, and these cute little birds got spooked when I got too close to them. I hope you like these relaxing (for me at least) photos! And by the way, this is the 1401st post!