Tag Archives: japan

Five artists to discover: May 2013 edition

This is my third monthly list of the music that’s been playing on my Ipod in the last few weeks. (Click the links to check out the lists for March and April)

Once again, expect a diverse mix with artists hailing from all parts of the world!

N.O.H.A

The acronym N.O.H.A. stands for Noise of Human Art and is the title under which a multicultural group of musicians operates. Noha is also the last name of Phillip Noha, one of the prominent members of this ensemble. Together, the band creates funky beats by mixing drum & bass with a variety of musical sounds and chants from allover the world. Their music is genre bending and defies labels, but people who usually enjoy what falls under the ‘world music’ and ‘electro’ categories should find something to enjoy.

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Photos of nature from around the world

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Just for fun, I rummaged through my travel pics and found these photos of elements of nature taken around the world (well, on 3 continents).

When we travel, we tend to mostly take pictures of architecture and famous landmarks. I do that a lot, but I also like to capture the natural environment of the place I’m in, whether it’s a city or the countryside.

Sometimes, depending on the local climate, the flora is similar to that of Montreal. Other times, it is different and exotic (to me). I’m also very bad at identifying types of plants and trees so if any of you can tell me what some of these are, I’d be really happy to learn!

Here are a few examples of images I’ve taken while wandering around:

North-America

This first image was taken in the far, exotic land called Hochelaga Maissonneuve 😉 (that’s in Montreal, the neighborhood where I used to live).

Flowers at Battery Park, New York City

Europe

The Villa Borghese park in Rome

Fallen leaves in Rome

A peaceful road in Père-Lachaise cemetary, Paris

The wild beauty of Ile Sainte-Marguerite, near Cannes in the South of France

A flowery field in beautiful Britanny, France

Buckingham palace, as seen across a pond in St-James Park, London, England

Flowers at the Barcelona municipal plant deposit (which is not open to the public but we ended up there when we got lost trying to find something else).

Asia

A Rose in Istanbul, Turkey (probably taken on the European side of Istanbul but I don’t remember so I decided to put it under Asia since most of the country is considered as being on that continent).

An art installation at Sapporo Art Park

Flower fields in Nakafurano, Farm Tomita, Hokkaido, Japan

Tree roots at Iwatayama Monkey park, Kyoto, Japan

Kinkakuji temple, Kyoto, Japan

Flowers in front of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Japan

If you enjoy this type of photography post, check out the following articles: pictures of water, pictures of winter.

Philosophizing in Kyoto

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It’s already been 4 months since we’ve been back from our trip to Japan and it occurred to me that I never came around to posting more pictures.

After our time in the crazy metropolis of Tokyo, we headed to a much more peaceful place in Japan: Kyoto.

We stayed in the city of 2000 temples and shrines for 9 humid, often rainy but very fun days. Since we had a rail pass we also took day trips to other cities near and far: Nara, Osaka and Hiroshima.

Kyoto tower, near the main train station.

The gardens of the famous Kinkakuji temple.

The Tō-ji temple,famous for its tall pagoda.

Fushimi-Inari shrine. Located on the outskirts of Kyoto, there is a mountainous sanctuary where thousands of torii doors create mazes leading to small shrines and cemeteries.

People heading to visit a temple.

A restaurant in the Gion quarter, which is known for it’s vast number of entertainment establishments, such as tea houses, restaurants and bars. It is here that you are most likely to see geishas or maikos (geishas in training) as they run through the side streets, trying to make their next appointment on time.