* Every year on January 13th of the lunar calendar, a peaceful and sleepy town of Inazawa, turns into the craziest place in Japan. The Naoi Shinji (儺追神事) also known as Naked Man Festival, held annually in cold winter weather, is one of the oldest Japanese festivals dating back to the Nara Period…
* Strangely enough, I was commissioned to write another shopping article – I’m not really much of a shopper… This time it was for a winter edition of UO travel magazine from Hong Kong. As I dislike going to big shopping malls I decided to focus on small artisan shops instead. Thankfully we have plenty of these…
Last year I got to shoot a Sengoku (Warring States) period costume show at Nagoya Castle. The Omotenashi Busho-Tai, known as Nagoya Samurai Performers in English, are a theatrical troupe which gained popularity similar to a pop band. * * The performers portray the three great unifiers of Japan: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu; their commanders: Maeda Toshiie, Kato…
New Year’s Day in Japan is considered to be the most important holiday of the year, in the traditional belief that years should be viewed separately and each new year provides a fresh start. For the last few years, on the New Year’s Day morning, I have been visiting and observing festivities at a local neighborhood shinto shrine, Suwa…
ユリアンの記事および写真はジェットスタージャパンマガジンの10月号に収録されています。 This September I was commissioned by Ink Publishing to interview a few random people about their favourite shops and restaurants in Nagoya City. Following the interviewees advice I found quite a few interesting spots I didn’t know existed – even though I have been living here for over a decade. The article was published in October/November 2014…
One of the most interesting photo assignments I had this year, was photographing an operation performed by a skilled surgeon and vein specialist Dr. Hamera and his medical team. * The operating room is a place with very tight rules both formal and informal. In order to effectively and safely do my work in this…
In the modern world, many local and traditional sports have disappeared, or are at least under threat of disappearing, as they are being eliminated by the profit driven global sports industry. Japan is one of the few countries where local and traditional sports still survive today. The cultivation of traditional sports and games is…