One of the things I can’t do is taking good pictures. Call it performance anxiety, but when a camera comes close to my hands, they either start shaking, or they mess up the settings, or they cover the lenses, or.
It’s frustrating, that’s what it is. Mind you, none of this is gonna stop me from enrolling in a photography course sometime in the future – I am persistent – but that’s neither here nor there. That’s not the point.
The point is that I love photography. Nature, architecture, interior decor, food, (period) clothes, small towns and bigass cities, you take a good picture of them and I’ll jazzhand all over it. With added pterodactyl noises too if it’s a really, really good one.
TL;DR living vicariously through professional photographers is my jam.
So, when I saw Connecting You to Wonderlands: Japan, by Takashi Sato, I knew I had to grab it.
Cover
It’s beautiful, ça va sans dire. Look.
Yay!
- Thank you, Takashi, for taking me on a trip through lesser-known routes. Before starting it, I was expecting a travel book that featured big cities and staple landmarks, but! Nope! Forget Tokyo or Osaka, we’re going to the countryside, up and down the travel routes 😀
- I love the practicality of the ending notes. Quick and to the point, they’re very useful to tourists, with an eye for cultural aspects and local laws.
- The descriptive parts are interesting. They range from farming bits to Japanese culture and traditions or ways to preserve the harvest.
- I kept my comment on the meat, the actual pictures, for last, because they deserve a very special praise. They are beautiful, great angles and coloring, so evocative I stared at a couple of them for a good ten minutes, trying to pick up every detail. I’m sorry I only work with e-books, because I’m sure the printed version is even more awesome. Among my favorites, Gokayama, the Kazura Bridge, Ochai Village, and the rice terraces of Oyama Senmaida.
Nay!
- Uh. Eh. It’s short 😀 I’m really sorry it only has 98 pages, haha.
5 and well-deserved stars on GR, 9/10 here. Outstanding job!
Bookshelves & Teacups 