Hirosaki Lantern Snow festival

Last February, I visited Aomori Prefecture with Becca.
I have only been to Aomori in the summer so it was really different being there in the winter time.

The Hirosaki Lantern Snow festival is one of the big five snow festivals on the Tohoku region.
The other festivals are in Hachinohe(Aomori), Iwate(iwate), Yokote(Akita), and Oga(Akita). Out of the five festivals I have been to Yokote and Oga and now HIrosaki.

On the side of the lanterns are pictures which are made from Japanese Traditional paper called "washi". The pictures are hand drawn and the paper is hand made.

Aomori Prefecture is famous of festivals called "Nebuta" or "Neputa". both of them are really alike but have very different origins: one is a festival about going to war and the other was coming back.

At night, every thing was lit up and beautiful. There was a projector light performance and there were many people looking at it and enjoying it.

I very enjoyed and had a good time in the snow!

I actually for the first time Vlogged some of the festival. If you would like to see me being nervous filming myself in public or/and want to see a little bit of the festival click here to have a look :)

I hope you will enjoy it!

See you!
Ellen ;)

Reunited with my camera!

I LOVE taking photos and I love cameras.
Especially my DSLR Pentax camera!

I was traveling around Europe last year after my Study Abroad in the UK.  At that time, I was in Sweden. I just changed the settings from photos and I heard a strange click. I thought it was nothing and looked though the view finder to take a photo. The shutter clicks and then I go to see how the photo looks like. But there was nothing. I mean it was a BLACK SCREEN. I could not believe what was going on. I was in panic, I changed every settings in the camera. Somewhere in my mind I knew some thing went wrong and I had to get it fixed by a professional. For the time being I used my iPad and my friends did took photos for me. This made me realized how much my camera and photography meant to me. 

For the time being i have been using a small Canon which I got in Belgium but I am so glad that I have my DSLR back :) 

Now, I can have fun taking more photos and capture special moments!

Have you had a moment you realized something was really important to you?
Let me know :)

See you!
Ellen

Between Worlds

Have you ever been in between something?

I have(am) been between at least two worlds for my entire life: Japan and Australia.
This is not only theses countries but also language and culture, identity… and many more!  

My name is Ellen. I am a Hafu (someone who is half Japanese) who have lived in Japan for a long time. 

I love many things like, music, art, theater, photography, traveling, cooking, backing and more!

I am a curious person, I ask many questions to understand things and I love looking things up.

I will be looking at Japan from a point of view of an insider and a outsider. I do not mean any harm towards anyone and what I will start and write here is my opinion about things in my life.In this blog I would like to share some of my experiences from my life.
I hope you will like it and enjoy it!

See you :)
Ellen