Japan & Hawaii, A Dream on 120

Ryan and I took a four week trip where we took a very quick stop in Hawaii to visit his cousin who is on deployment there. He graciously showed us around for five days. If you visit Hawaii, I highly recommend taking a very committed stop to The Bishop Museum to learn seriously about the history of Hawaii. Then we headed to Japan, a destination that has been on our minds individually and collectively for a long time.

I decided to rent a Hasselblad to take with me, for the hopes of slowing down my time. Over the last few years in visiting places, I will take out the notes app on my phone and quickly type in what I do that day because time is WEIRD! On my notes from Thursday April 6th: Did a film tour with David, who introduced me to Shinjuku. I am overwhelmed with happiness to be here. I hope to not regret taking this camera, because I want to shoot everything, all of it, and all at once.

The camera did fail on me about half way through the trip with a busted shutter (bah!) I still managed to take a few rolls which I was so happy to do. Even in having the camera fail on me and even in writing about how much I wanted to ‘shoot shoot shoot’, there was something so profoundly mechanical about the whole experience. It truly slowed me down. If you cannot rent or have no interest in having a medium format with you on your trips, may I recommend the next best thing— phone on airplane mode. Just for a few fleeting moments.

Here’s a few of my favorites from both Hawaii and Japan. If you need any recommendations, please reach out. Happy May and happy adventures <3