Japan Trip | Michael Helms Photography

Posted on December 23, 2012 Posted by pelican

Repost – Japan Trip 2011 – Final 2 days – Sendai-Fukushima-Tokyo-LAX

A final word on Minamisanriku, then on to Fukushima.

There was one building I really wanted to shoot when we went to Minamisanriku. It was the place where Miki Endo worked. She was a lovely vibrant 24 year old newly wed who worked at the Minamisanriku Disaster Response headquarters. It was her responsibility to announce the warning of an approaching tsunami.

“Tsunami warning, get to higher ground”, she repeated over and over again. In many of the videos from that fateful day, you can hear her voice echoing through the town as water rushed in and swallowed everything in it’s path. She was on the second floor of the building. Thirty people worked there and when the tsunami came they all rushed higher and higher but Miki stayed at her post issuing warnings until the very last second in an effort to save as many lives as possible. Along with others, she hurried to the roof, but the raging tsunami ripped the skin off the building and gutted it, taking everything and everyone inside, and then it rose even higher. Among the people working in that building was the Mayor of Minamisanriku. Nine people made it to the roof pushing their Mayor ahead of them…but still the tsunami rose higher. They climbed a radio antenna and clung to life while just inches beneath their feet all the places knew and people they loved disappeared beneath the roaring torrent.
Nine people will never forget that day, suspended above the furious tsunami, clinging to fragile life while 21 of their friends and coworkers, including Miki Endo, were devoured in the deluge.

This is a composite photo of the building where Miki and 29 others, worked. The top frame is as it was, the center frames show the Mayor and 8 others hanging on for the lives while the entire building is devoured, then the water begins to recede. The bottom frame, I shot, and you can see MUCH of the debris has been bulldozed away. Initially, people wanted to make the building a memorial to Miki and the tsunami victims, but her parents (who were saved by their daughters warnings), could not bear to pass by it and asked for it to be demolished.

Miki Endo’s body was recovered in April.

When we left the hotel at Minamisanriku, 3 attendants rushed out with a 10 foot long banner that said “Thank you for coming!” and then they bowed graciously as our bus pulled away. It was raining.
It was a couple of hours bus ride back to Sendai to catch a train to Fukushima. On the bus my gf got a call and turned to me,”Wanna do a shoot in Sendai!?”
Me,”Huh? Uh….OK!”
Sometimes I think she knows every single person in Japan. Someone heard we were there and knew my work. This guy SHU CHIBA represented a Taiko Drum group. This particular group has been traveling a lot doing fund raisers for the earthquake/tsunami victims. They wanted to shoot at this particular shrine in Sendai that is the grave site of Date Masamune who was the founder of Sendai. If you Google him, it’s a fun read.
Hauling all my gear and a packed suitcase, we caught a bus for a half hour bumpy ride, then walked another 6 blocks to the entrance of the shrine. When we arrived at the shrine we rounded a corner and stopped dead in our tracks, staring at 650 million wet and slippery stone steps.
“Awww…. I can’t do this” my gf whined.
“YOU got us into this, so come on…they wanna shoot up there…so let’s go!” I grumbled
When we got to the top we were sweating in the chilly drizzle. There was a kiosk where the band and their rep were hiding out, so we all exchanged greetings and headed out to our shooting location. Much to our horror, we rounded a corner and came face to face with another set of 650 million wet and slippery stone steps.
I glared at my gf but couldn’t be irritated because she looked like a soaked kitty and she was just standing transfixed staring glassy eyed at the steps.
If misery does indeed love company, it didn’t seem to exhibit itself that day. Even the Taiko Band made jokes about their location choice. But fortunately, there was a nice location at the top where we could shoot and they could be out of the rain. Unfortunately, yours truly, had to stand in the drizzle and try to get a good shot in between tourists walking through the backgrounds of my shots.

Michael Helms Photography, Actors headshot los angeles We took a taxi back to the station, caught a train for Fukushima, and watched out the window as the clouds parted in time for a lovely sunset.
Yet another bar in Fukushima. More sake tasting. More staggering back to our room…well, I staggered… my gf can put me under the table SOOOO easily. Whatever.
We are upwind and on the opposite side of the mountain range that separates Kitikata from the nuclear reactors that blew. There is less radiation here than there is in Tokyo but just the NAME ‘Fukushima” stops people in their tracks, so the economy in this area is suffering horribly. It’s so sad because the crops here are fantastic but are virtually unmarketable.
At 6 AM we received a wake up call from Mom Nature… an earthquake. I’m a kind of twisted sort – I LIKE earthquakes. Only one made me nervous and that one was the 6.7 Northridge earthquake of 1994. I lived 10 miles from the epicenter. So the Fukushima quake was kinda fun but a solemn reminder of all we had so recently seen and experienced.

We took a nice tour of the city with a local guide and he overwhelmed us with tons of information about this 1500 year old city. Many of the buildings have double roofs for insulation. Fukushima is known for it’s roof tiles, brick, soy sauce, and of course, the local sake. So, of course, part of our tour was, yet again, another sake brewery. Geeez… Japan was beating me to death… I finished the tour in a daze after sampling all the local brews.

I would like to pause for a brief second and say one thing. Of ALL the MANY and PLETHORA things I love about Japan and it’s culture… what the hell is it with their TOILET PAPER!!!! It’s so thin you can almost see through it and you have to be careful not to get a paper cut. OK…it’s not THAT bad but GEEEEZ PEOPLE… you have complicated electronic toilets but ya can’t get the paper right!??? WTF??? OK…rant over.

Now…I feel better…so back to my story. We were driven around the city by the owner of the local sake brewery YAMATOKAWA (don’t ask me how my gf knew HIM – she seems to know everyone on Earth) and we stopped at a town center where a small gathering of locals were celebrating a low key version of harvest festival. They invited all five of us to have lunch with them (by this time we had been joined by my friend Jim Beaver and his guide, Kazumi) so we sat down to a HUGE spread of marvelous marvelous food. My girlfriend’s ancestors are from this area, so as we spoke with the locals, they connected the dots and several of them, it turns out, actually knew her grandmother. “She was a good Doctor” one guy said nodding approvingly.
But then… “She was a drunk…. and she touched me!” said his friend.
Maybe it was the sake but I’m pretty sure that was one of the funniest things ever uttered by a human being. The timing couldn’t have been better.
In her defense, my girlfriend’s Grandma WAS a good doctor and was VERY aware that the locals often didn’t have the money to pay her. So they brought her food, housewares, and of course, SAKE! Being Japanese, she HAD to drink it so as not to offend. It also came to light that her “touching” was chest tapping done during an examination. But…even so, it was hysterically funny and delivered ever so perfectly by an eight hundred and thirty five year old wrinkled little Japanese man. Classic.
From the celebration we drove over to a property still owned by my girlfriend’s family. I had visions of fixing up the house there and turning it into a Bed and Breakfast and getting out of Los Angeles… going somewhere that I can’t actually see and taste the air.

We boarded a train and headed for Tokyo, our heads spinning with 11 days of madness. More than once on this trip, I had asked where we were.
Back at the Tokyo Hilton we picked up a few bags we had stored and headed for Narita Airport. We passed, I kid you not, a hotel named “First Wood”… then “Hotel Slit”… then “Hotel Rainbow”. I guess some things just don’t translate.
My friend Jim speaks a bit of Japanese so he did his best to leave a good impression. As he was getting off the bus, he MEANT to say,”Thank you for driving us”… but he attempted to use past tense and failed. What came out was, basically, “Thank you for driving us… NOT!”
We are STILL laughing WITH him over that.

I stopped in one of the tourist trap shops to buy a pen before we boarded and was a bit undecided. My gf handed one to me and said “this one!”. I guess I must have looked at her quizzically because she snapped,”Hey, I’m Japanese, I know more about pens and toilets than you do!”
I bought the pen… and by the way…she was right.

On board the plane I watched the little monitor’s trace of our flight path over the ocean. I didn’t want to leave that beautiful charming land. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend EVERYONE visit Japan. It fits the bill for something John Muir once said, “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread…places to play in and pray in…”.

Posted on December 23, 2012 Posted by pelican

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Repost – Japan Trip 2011 – Minamisanriku

A little more on Minamisanriku before I move on. It is impossible to describe what I saw there. Standing in the middle of such mass destruction is overwhelming to the point you just go numb. More than anything, what I felt was confusion. My mind could not comprehend houses in this place, I couldn’t hear children playing, smell food cooking, or touch the texture of a building… it was all scraped clean down to nothing but concrete slabs.
We had hired a cab driver to take us around. It felt invasive so we asked the cabbie if it was OK. Not only was he OK with me taking photos, he knew all the best spots because he had shuffled many people from the press to various locations. He told us that his Father in law was in the hospital when the earthquake hit, so the nurses took him up to the third floor where they thought they’d be safe. The tsunami took them all.
As we drove into the center of where the town used to be, I just got out and started walking. My gf couldn’t bring herself to even get out of the cab, she was completely heartbroken. This is her home country. I walked through meaningless piles of debris…pipes, shattered wood, chairs, tables, blankets, roof tiles… everything that constitutes a a deconstructed home. They have pushed out roads through the debris and made piles 50 feet high and half a mile long. Pile after pile. A few buildings still stand but are completely gutted and stand soulless like skeletons on a movie set.
Michael Helms Photography Los Angeles Head Shot Photographer Because the scale of things was so massive, I was a bit uncomfortable for not having a stronger emotional reaction, until I saw a little girl’s shoe. I lost it. I could hear her laughter, see her smiling little face, and could not bear to think what her final moments might have been like. I read once about a photo journalist who was covering the starvation in Africa, when asked how he dealt with the horror of what he was seeing, he said,”I am doing all I can to help. Maybe my photos will make a difference, but every now and then I just have to put my camera down and weep!” So it was for me, I shot til I couldn’t see through the lens, then I’d take a small break and just sit and look. I still can’t get it through my head.
Michael Helms Los Angeles Actors Headshot Photography The day of the destruction, our cab driver had dropped off a fare and was headed back into town when he looked up and saw the tsunami coming right at him. He slammed it into reverse and backed up as fast as he dared. He got away and drove over a hill. There were cars everywhere from people evacuating, so he just left his car where it was and started running back to town. He knew of a hiking trail through the woods, so he hiked all night, and when he broke through the forest the next morning, all he had known was gone. He couldn’t find his house, his neighbors, or his loved ones. His family, with only the exception of his Father in law, had escaped but it still took him two days to find them.
Some people had raced to the top of a hill where there was an old folks home miles from the ocean shoreline. They thought they were safe but tsunami took them all.
As I walked around that shell of a building, there were gurneys and wheelchairs twisted into death sculptures. A soccer ball with a kids name written on it sat on a window sill, carried up from the town below. Inside there were big piles of debris. One thing that caught my eye was a paper with hand prints on it. It was the kind a kid makes when they dip their hand in paint and then make a print on a piece of paper, then sign it as a gift to an elder. I had visions of an old lady cherishing the hand print of her grand daughter until the ocean came for her. Time to set the camera down again.

Our driver took us back down closer to the water where a new fishery building has already been erected. It’s a huge structure right in the midst of all this destruction. There was a salmon run going on during the time we were there and that is a large part of what used to be Minamisanriku’s livelihood, so there were the fishermen, back to work, doing what they have done for years and years. I watched as Salmon came en mass up the river to spawn and die. I’ve seen lots of Salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest but this was different because it was here, in this place, in the river than runs through the destruction. Dead Salmon littered the river banks and took on a whole new and deeper metaphorical meaning. Perhaps it is as simple as a “cycle of life” vision but somehow it all goes mad when mankind gets involved.
The town will be rebuilt but this time up on the surrounding hills while only a few boats in the harbor and a few buildings that HAVE to be near it, will venture there again. Some of the fish farms in the bay have been reconstructed and I saw fishermen motoring here and there in what must be numb routine.
As I stood up on a boat that had been torn in half, I shot photos of the fishermen going about their duties. I failed to look where I was going and stepped off the boat onto a nail, and drove it through my shoe. The nail stabbed through the rubber of my tennis shoe and luckily went right between my toes without even a scratch. I climbed the rest of the way down, looked at it, stepped on the back side of the board the nail was in and pried my foot loose. I shrugged,”Whatever”… and kept shooting. I honestly believe had it driven through the dead center of my foot I might have had the same reaction. It was a perspective check. After all, what is a stupid little nail wound in a place like this?

A young man we met is in charge of the first festival in Minamisanriku since the tsunami. We met with him and his business partner in the Hotel Kanyo where we stayed. As we sat in this luxurious place, amusingly named “Blue Line Tea Rounge” (yep they spelled it with an “r”), we asked uncomfortably if there was any way we could help. “Just let people know”, he said. The Japanese are unaccustomed to asking for help but give it graciously and abundantly when a need arises.
There is a custom on New Years in Japan where children are given decorated envelopes of money from relatives and friends. It’s called “Otoshidama”. A while before we left for Japan, my gf came up with the idea to give as many envelopes as we could to the children of Minamisanriku. Her idea was to put a $5 American bill in each envelope with a paper listing all those who donated. While it isn’t a great deal of money for each child, it is the idea that someone in America is thinking about them and that those people do care, that means more. The 5 buck bill is worth more in metaphor than in reality… especially given the exchange rate. I suspect the children in Minamisanriku will keep those bills for many years.
My gf handed them over $3000. in Otoshidama envelopes. The young man and his business partner got teary eyed and literally sat and stared at us not knowing what to say or how to say it. Michael Helms Los Angeles Actors Headshot Photography
Money had come in to the area through the Red Cross and other agencies but very very little of it had been distributed even all these months later. But here in this room there was a direct gift from a few in the US to them, with no strings, no red tape, and 100% going to the children. I was happy to be part of it.

We slept that night uncomfortably comfortable with images in our heads of hope amidst devastation, peace in the middle of chaos, and people resuming their lives surrounded by shattered pieces of what it used to be.

Tomorrow we are off to Fukushima. The dead nuclear power plant is on the other side of the mountain from where we will be.
It has started to rain.

Posted on December 23, 2012 Posted by pelican

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Repost – Japan Trip 2011 – 11/17 & 18 Sendai-Akita-Minamisanriku

Today we are back on the bullet train heading for Akita. Funny thing about bullet trains…they don’t turn around but rather go to a destination the go backwards over the same tracks. As a result of this, all the seats rotate 180 degrees so passengers can always be facing forward. But it’s odd to look for your seat and notice the numbers going up sometimes and down sometimes depending on which way you are headed.
We had a nice breakfast in Sendai. My girlfriend went ahead to our room to pack while I took a few photos. I went to the restroom in the lobby and as I sat there communing with nature and enjoying the wonderfully heated toilet seat, I noticed a narrow door in front of me. Out of curiosity, I opened it. A mop with gloves fell out of it and scared the crap out of me! Curiosity will be the death of me. As I left the restroom, I realized I couldn’t remember what room we were in, I didn’t have the key, and I most assuredly didn’t speak Japanese. Fortunately the charming young ladies at the front desk were helpful and spoke enough English to get me on my way.
Michael Helms Los Angeles Actors Headshot Photography We had purchased a JR (Japan Rail) pass for our trip and it has been wonderfully convenient. So much better than buying tickets every time. It has probably saved us over a thousand dollars in all our travels.
On the way to the airport, our cab driver told us that although he and all his family survived the tsunami, his condo was swept away. I would imagine every person in Sendai has some sort of story about that fateful day.
At the station my girlfriend struck up a conversation with a little old lady who was headed to Akita for a reunion with some of her classmates. She was 86! She was so delightful, cheery, and full of life. She declared,” I will die with my legs and brain working!” So adorable. She gave us 3 heart shaped little felt bags with lavender in them that she had made by hand. Their aroma was yummy.
Out the window of the train we are passing through beautiful autumn colors with snow capped mountains that remind me of my boyhood days in Virginia. The difference is, sticking out of the gently rolling, tree covered mountains, is an occasional steep sided, two times taller, snow covered volcanic peak! Japan is a land of fire and ice, for sure.

Again, it is an odd time displacement, that from the last words I wrote til now has been 18 hou Michael Helms Los Angeles Actors Headshot Photography rs. We arrived in Akita and had just enough time to catch a cab, throw our stuff in the hotel, and meet our ride to Akita University where my girlfriend and I are guest speakers. We’re addressing a bunch of students there on the topic ” the conditions of success in Hollywood and effective ways of cross cultural communication, image making, and self advertisement.”
One of my girlfriend’s specialities is corporate training in the area of body language, speech patterns, and intercultural communications. I spoke about corporate image making with, of course, the emphasis on photography and corporate style and marketing imagery. We opened it up after our talks for questions, and had so much fun teasing the students. We got a good laugh by calling their “Drama Club”, the “drunk club”. My girlfriend and I are a good speaking team because we banter a lot. The professor in charge, who was a co-founder of the University, told the student body,”Let’s finish this, so they can continue their argument!” Everyone laughed. It was a lovely evening and charming to see all those young faces with so much of life in front of them. It was so apparent they all had hopes and dreams and I wondered how many of them would realize even a tenth of what they hoped. Most of all, I felt so fortunate to have seen and done all the things I have in my life, including standing where I was at that moment.
Akita International University has, in only 8 years, become the number one foreign language (the students are all required to speak English) school in Japan. An amazing accomplishment.
Professor Katsumata treated us to a wonderful dinner afterwards and again, I got buried in sake. The Japanese can drink and I’m such a lightweight. After ONE day sober, here I was staggering back to my hotel room. My lovely girlfriend can easily put me under the table every time even though she’s a teeny thing. For some reason I don’t get a pounding headache from it though, so that’s good.

Another morning… right now we are on yet another bullet train heading back to Sendai and on to Minamisanriku. While I am looking forward to it, I also have grave feelings of dread. It is a city that was 95 percent destroyed by the tsunami. Fifty percent of the population was washed away. How to shoot it and put a positive spin on that sort of subject matter is clearly impossible but I hope to capture something that speaks of hope. What we are heading for , I am sure will be an immensely moving experience so I will carry a box of kleenex. Strange to be riding the train through beautiful countryside, peaceful farmlands, and lovely homes, knowing I am headed for ground zero of one of Japan’s most horrific natural disasters.

Another time displacement…we spent the night here in Minamisanriku at the gorgeous Kanyo Hotel. It’s unbelievably beautiful. The hotel sits up on a cliff about 150 feet above the ocean. The foundation structures go deep into the rock and all the way to the water. The tsunami tore apart some of the foundation and part of the first floor but the hotel held strong and has been almost completely repaired. It reminds me of Monterey, California. I hope what happened here will never occur there.
We had an amazing dinner. It’s so hard to function normally here knowing what the people in this area have experienced. After we checked in and were headed to our room, we noticed an art show in the lobby. Some wonderful paintings by artist Toshie Hashidate. She was there signing autographs, so we stopped to chat. SEVEN of her family members died in the tsunami. I noticed the head shot on her promo wasn’t very good, so I asked if I could take her photo. She was kind and gracious. I set up some lights and shot her standing next to a row of her paintings. She was gracious and grateful for her new photos. As my girlfriend chatted with her, they discovered they were from the same neighborhood in Chiba, near Tokyo. Small world.
On a side note, it’s so refreshing to be able to shoot most anywhere I want. In Los Angeles, I’d have to get a permit, hire security, and sign all sorts of waivers to shoot in a hotel lobby. Here I didn’t even ask and people were happy to see a photo shoot taking place.
Our room is on the 10th floor facing straight into the Pacific. I can’t begin to imagine the horror they must have seen coming across the water. How do you watch 95 percent of your city wash away knowing many of your friends were taken? This was a resort town but now it is a tragic skeleton. The fishermen who still had boats went right back to work. And oddly, they are building more structures right down near the water’s edge. It seems they HAVE to do this in order to ensure the catch of the day is fresh when they cut it up and prepare it for market and this is Salmon season.
The river that flows through what used to be a town is calm these days except for the fact, it is full of spawning salmon. The salmon have no idea what happened, so they have returned full force with less pressure on their numbers since most of the town has been washed away.It’s odd to see lots and lots of dead Salmon (they swim up the river,spawn, and then die) all over the river banks. It seems strangely metaphorical.. sort of a “cycle of life” kinda thing, I guess. I got very emotional watching the salmon struggle through the shallow parts of the river. I’m sure it is because, just being here, brings everything that is human and compassionate so very close to the surface.

Much of Minamsanriku cannot be rebuilt because the whole area subsided and when the tide comes in, it is now underwater. Some places went down 6 feet or more.

More on all of this when I get home. I have no more time free while we are here…
Off to have more sake! F**K sobriety…I’ll dry out when I get home!

Posted on December 23, 2012 Posted by pelican

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Repost – Japan Trip 2011 – 11/16 & 17 “Still going!”

Although I am back in LA and thoroughly jet lagged, I will continue posting my trip journals. Photos will be forthcoming, too.

Out of bed by 6:30AM and off to tour the Muromachi Sake brewery. It was fascinating. They have been brewing sake in this traditional way for over 300 years. The current owner is the 11th generation but there is a joke that some of their ancestors lived a couple hundred years. The brewery burned at one point and some of the family records were lost, so the family tree has a few sketchy spots that are filled with Japanese humor. We had White Peach Sake, Tomato Sake, Ginger Sake, Plum Sake, Yuzu, Junmai Ginjo, Red Pepper, and a few more that are now a fuzzy blur in my cloudy memory. We got to carry the steaming hot rice in these kind of burlap folder blankets. We carried it to a room where it was spread out to cool. The rice is an Omachi rice, which is called phantom rice because it is hard to grow and particular. They “polish” the rice (a sort of grinding process) until there is only 40 percent of it left. That “heart” of the rice is the best part and basically makes Muromachi Sake expensive and REALLY REALLY good! We wobbled out of there and missed our train, so we took the next one to Kyoto.
A bento box on the train helped soak up some sake, so we were approaching sober when we arrived in Kyoto. We had only two hours to tour a couple of temples near the train station because we had to be in Nagoya for another meeting and I had a talk to give. The temples in Kyoto were worth the entire trip to Japan. I was literally moved to tears to see these beautiful structures. Huge buildings built without one nail. So much tradition, so much history, and so much respect for both is obvious everywhere. If you Google the temples of Kyoto, you will see what I mean. Simply astonishing. It is my understanding there was a petition sent to our president during World War II, to please NOT bomb Kyoto because of it’s beauty and history. I am so glad this city was spared, it is full of treasures and beauty. So many cities in Japan were destroyed by US carpet bombing during the war. In my travels around the world, I see over and over again the tragedies of war and the older I get, the more of a pacifist I become. “War, good god ya’ll…what is it good for? Absolutely nothin”.

As we walked back to the train station, I noticed little piles of white stuff by doorways. My girlfriend told me they were piles of salt placed there to ward off evil. Wonder if it works?
We got back to the station just in time to hop the train for Nagoya. I gave a talk there at some sort of “Beauty School” . I babbled on about shooting fashion, head shots, marketing and self promotion, then answer questions. It was kind of fun but I was exhausted. We had another bento box on the train. I ate rice, mushrooms, salmon eggs, seaweed, daikon radish and chrysanthemum salad with a yuzu dressing, a bit of egg plant, and some cooked salmon. It was delicious and fresh. The combination of salmon egg and cooked salmon is, amusingly, called “Mother and daughter”.
My girlfriend is fairly nuts. As I’m typing, she turned to me and said,”Give me a mole!”. I adore how random and weird she is. Me,”Uh….OK”. SO I took out my ink pen and drew a mole on her face. She was happy. It’s the little things, ya know.
One of the curious things they have here is “smoking rooms” at the train stations. It’s a glass room about 15′ x 50′ where people go to smoke. It’s weird to see all these people crammed into a smoke filled goldfish bowl. Smoking is still very prominent here, so we are careful to look before we eat or reserve a train car, to make sure it is non-smoking.
There was a photo shoot going on at the school, so I checked it out. One of the teachers was shooting some fashion stills. Much to my horror, the guy who runs the school asked me what I thought. I hate that question. In LA, that means,”try to guess what I think and then agree with me”. I am a lousy politician and am a lousy liar, so that particular question has gotten me into trouble on more than one occasion.
I said,”Well..it’s like cream in your coffee, not really right or wrong, just different!”
I THOUGHT I had dodged a bullet but he cut to the chase and said,”Ah… well what would YOU do differently!”
Crap… busted.
“Well, for me, the key light is too low, the fill is too hot, he’s using the wrong lens and camera combo, he should be shooting raw files instead of jpgs, and there are some serious styling issues…the kimono is not being worn correctly !” I winced.
“Ah”, he said. And that was it.
I asked my girlfriend later if I had committed a social faux pas and she said, No…because unlike the US, they really want to know what you think because they respect you. If they didn’t respect you, they wouldn’t bother asking. I hope it helped.

Four cities in one day is exhausting. Okayama to Kyoto, to Nagoya, to Sendai. We stopped briefly in Tokyo to change trains. I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep in Sendai, ground zero of the earthquake. Tonight it will be just my girlfriend and I, so there won’t be anyone filling up my sake glass over and over. What a relief.
Tomorrow we are off to Akita.

Posted on December 23, 2012 Posted by pelican

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Repost- Japan Trip 2011 – 11/14& 15

Note to self: Getting up early does not mix well with late night drinking. The good news is, I think I’m on track for setting a new personal record for consecutive days with a hang over… wait…is that good news? It’s amazing to me that you can buy beer in vending machines everywhere here. Ugh…it’s 6:30AM, I’ll pass on the beer….for now.

My legs are sore from walking about 2,000 miles yesterday and my feet already hurt. I love it.

This morning, after crashing a little after 2AM, we got up at 6:30AM to catch the bullet train to Osaka. The train stops several times, so it doesn’t always get up to the incredible speeds other ones do. We’ll be on one this Sunday that tops out at about 180MPH! It’s hard to describe the funny experiences one has on the subways and trains. The crazy visuals of passing another train going the opposite direction when you are only a foot or so apart. Ah…these Japanese are so precise. The trains displace so much air that when we pass another train, there is an appreciable surge from the train pushing a compression wave of air in front of it. The tunnels we go through have extensions built on them that dissipate the shock wave and keeps it from going “BOOM”, not too much different than a jet breaking the sound barrier. There are other odd visuals (hey – I AM a photographer after all) such as moving the same direction as another train. It’s odd because, if you take a photo, the train you are shooting and the train you are in, don’t move (in the image) but the scenery is blurred.

On our train this morning, an older gentleman sits in front of us reading the newspaper. What’s interesting is there are ads for tit bars in the local paper that show girls with their bare breasts hanging out. That sort of thing is such a “no-no” in the States while here, they think nothing of it…literally.

The exchange rate for US dollars is HORRID. For every dollar you give, you get about 75 cents. It’s nice that there is no tipping, anywhere. And on a side note, the Japanese health care system is pretty wonderful.
And can I just say a word about the cops here. They are shining examples of how police SHOULD be. They are SOOOO gracious, kind, and helpful. I’ve had them literally RUN to help me, (crisp blue uniforms, hats, and white gloves) and not just give me directions but take me to my destination. No attitude, no posturing, and always willing to go the extra mile. I admire their social awareness and consciousness of their job.
Speaking of social awareness, if a Japanese person has a cold, they will wear a mask so they don’t spread germs. So it is quite common to see people walking around wearing what looks like surgical masks. Social and personal responsibility is a driving force in this culture. I’m big on taking responsibility for our actions, so it is wonderful to see a culture where the act of bringing a law suit against a business, because YOU spilled your coffee in your lap, does not happen. OSHA would make a mess of this place and would be laughed at anyway.

In writing journals, there is no concept of time. From the last paragraph I wrote to this one has been a day and a half. So this will be “Japan Trip…day five” too.

We enjoyed our time in Osaka. I took photos of the staff, students, and some of the clients of Osaka Mode, a “beauty school” where they teach hair, regular and air brush makeup application. There’s a lot more to it, but I’m not sure what all they do. I understand the government is involved in some form of subsidy, but I was just there to shoot and also for a speaking engagement. It was amusing, after my talk, that several students wanted to come ask all sorts of questions. One girl asked me if, in all my travels and adventures, I had ever thought I was gonna die ! lol I actually had to think about that. I can recall many times I probably SHOULD have died but I couldn’t recall any time I thought I REALLY was. It dawned on me that it was a fairly odd experience of my view of what has happened on occasion. Guess Im just weird.
One of the clients was a young man who claimed to be a palm reader. He was a cheery lad who went about reading everyone in the room. My girlfriend and I are, shall we say skeptical, of the accuracy of palm reading but for amusement she stuck her palm out. He blathered on with flagrant generalities that started to bore her, so she said,”Yea..yea..with all that positive stuff, give me something like I have liver failure or some sh*t..”
I cracked up. He looked positively baffled.
Another of her famous quotes came later that night,”WOW…this is the farthest West I have ever been…….. sober”. Little did we know we were about to remedy that.
We spent the night in a lovely condo of a friend in Osaka. Across the street was a tiny restaurant that had the most amazing beer. SO, of course, we had too much…AGAIN. Geeeez. Such an odd experience to be in a restaurant with about 10 people, knowing we will most likely never see them again. We crashed about 2AM but were had to clear the cobwebs at 6:30AM to catch the train to Okayama.

Day Six
The stewardess on the train is so lovely and she bows on her way out the door of our car thanking us all. Americans could learn a lot from the respect and work ethic of the people here.
In Okayama, we visited the Koraku-En castle and the amazing garden there. We sampled rice beer, grape beer, and had the most amazing white peach ice cream. Oh crap….not more beer….and this early!
There was a kiosk where you could buy bread to feed the koi in the lake, so we did. We were somewhat amused that the bread was a long skinny loaf that looked VERY VERY phallic. I, of course, had to make every conceivable comment about it. I turned toward the lake and accidentally broke it into what now appeared to be a decidedly obvious bread dildo. My girlfriend and the 3 other friends with us laughed our asses off. To make matters worse, when we threw pieces of it into the water, the koi would swim up, look at it, then turn away. This of course, inspired my friend Jim to comment about the Koi wanting nothing to do with “dick bread”. Basically, it went downhill from there.
I staggered into a restroom – we sampled LOTS of beer – and was having a satisfactory relief moment, when to my astonishment, a cleaning lady walked in. She ignored me and went about doing her thing, so I did too, but I must admit to a certain momentary performance anxiety. I was glad she wasn’t all that attractive.
We stayed that night at a friends parents house. I wasn’t really looking forward to it because I heard he was pretty well off and I didn’t want to deal with … well, having to behave and mind my manners.
It turns out he was HYSTERICALLY funny and we all laughed so hard we hurt. He told crazy stories about stalking his wife before they got married….for EIGHT YEARS!! On his first date, he took her swimming in the ocean, even though she couldn’t swim. They both almost drowned. He kept telling story after story that had us completely breathless. He spoke of learning how to properly apologize to his wife, so I asked him to teach me. Everyone howled at my ineptitude, but I think I finally mastered it. It’s a sort of bowing, shoulder collapsing, groveling move performed on one’s knees.
We had unbelievable sushi that we made hand rolls out of, and drank beer and sake til we were blind. I decided it was a good time to take photos of them, so I set up some lights. All went well until toward the end when I knocked over my tripod and it punched a hole in their shoji screen. I was HORRIFIED, HUMILIATED, and EMBARRASSED beyond belief. I thought my host was going to have a heart attack, he laughed so hard. Instead of even attempting to make me feel better, he told me (truthfully!) they had just replaced the shoji THREE DAYS prior to our arrival. I’m not sure I have ever seen human beings laugh so hard and long…and unfortunately, at my expense. He thanked me for bringing such good joy and laughter to his home, and then handed me a pen and asked me to SIGN IT! He added that he thought it might be a good idea to punch MORE holes since it brought so much joy into his home! ugh….I could crawl under a tatami.
He was truly one of the most remarkable human beings I have ever met. He and his wife were so gracious, warm, and wonderful. The epitome of what a host should be.
The banter between he and his wife was legendary. He turned to her and said, “Well…you know you are the sunshine of my life!” COMPLETELY DEADPAN, she looked at him and quipped,”It’s always about you, isn’t it!!” The house just shook with laughter.
Off to bed we went around 1AM, heads spinning with booze and revelry.
We had to be up at 6:30 AM… again…. I have completely crushed my previous record for consecutive days with a hangover. When I get home, I’m not gonna drink for a month…whew. But it won’t be on this trip…we tour a Sake Brewery tomorrow!

Posted on December 23, 2012 Posted by pelican

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Repost – Japan Trip 2011 – 11/13/2011

Nov 13, 2011, 8:58:37 AM

Got up early for a short meeting…admittedly a bit hung over. The meeting went well and after a couple cups of coffee, I was fully awake and the aspirin had kicked in. My gf, my friend Jim, and I, LITERALLY went to Denny’s for breakfast. Our curiosity was killing us. We HAD to know what Denny’s in Japan might offer. Well….I can tell you this… you can’t find natto in Denny’s USA but you can here. Although I like natto, I had a more traditional fare.
So what better way to spent a morning then to take a nice walk to Harajuku. It’s about 2 miles or so from where I am staying at the Tokyo Hilton. HOWEVER, the way I went , it was about 4 miles. I literally took photos on my way there so I could find my way back. Tokyo isn’t an easy place to navigate. I FINALLY found it and walked around just loving all the people watching. I gotta say, Harajuku girls are hot. They look like little dolls. I looked all over to find a Tshirt that said Harajuku” on it. I thought it might be a good one to auction off here on DA to support the Japan relief efforts. But all I could find was T shirts with “Los Angeles” or “New York” written on them!! Geeeez.
I bought my gf a cute set of pink “Hello Kitty” chopsticks. While it baffles me why a grown woman would be so enamoured of “Hello Kitty” stuff, I have no idea…but whatever. Back at our room, we were having a drink with friends when I gave them to her. Since I can’t read Kanji, I had no idea they were personalized and had name on them that was NOT hers. It would be kinda like buying your wife a coffee mug with “Mabel” written on it when her name was Fran. NOT good. It was made worse by the fact she knew a girl by that name and DID NOT like her. It was compounded by the fact she didn’t like the color. How was I to know that pink EVERYTHING is FABULOUS….EXCEPT for chopsticks. Needless to say, the teasing I had given Jim the day before about not having enough money to pay for his meal, was returned today.
I strolled around and took a few photos but not everyone likes having their photo taken, so I mostly shot places and crowds.
I had to be back at the Hilton by 3:30 for another meeting. I arrived at EXACTLY 3:30 exhausted and sore.
Los Angeles Photographer Michael Helms goes Tokyo Then I had another speaking engagement to dash off to, so there was no rest for my weary legs. Jim and I were the guest speakers and the studio where we were to speak was only about a mile away. We got lost…. again.
We had the foresight to rent cell phones for our stay in Japan, so after 3 phone calls we arrived half hour late. Part of Jim’s talk also involved him doing a monologue from “King Lear”. He played Edmond convincingly. Of course, after the applause died down I had to say,”WOW…that was amazing Jim. I had no idea Edmond was gay!” He did a double take, then burst out laughing.
We had a wonderful sushi dinner after the studio stuff was done. We found a lovely little hole in the wall resteraunt with AMAZING food. We ate til we were about to explode and then toasted Sake. Thankfully, we made our way back to the hotel without getting lost.
Jim retired for the evening but my gf and and I went to Shinjuku Hanazono to an annual festival held at a huge temple there. It was amazing. We had been there last year and remembered it was being held this time of year. I was amazed at the things you could buy there. When I get back to LA, I might post some of the photos. There was a wall of lanterns about 150 feet long and about 40 feel high and priests performing lots of rituals for luck, for family, for friends…and I think pretty much anything you could imagine.
I bought some spices to bring home. Can’t wait to cook with them. We walked up this BIG staircase, tossed some coins in a fountain, rang a bell, and clapped three times. It was charming.
Tomorrow we are off to Osaka. Sake anyone!????

Posted on December 23, 2012 Posted by pelican

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Repost – Japan Trip 2011 – Day Two – 11/12/11

Yesterday was eventful. I spent pretty much all day at a local studio. My gf, who does a lot of management, PR, scheduling, office duties, and a host of other things for my business, worked out a deal with the 3 owners of an art studio not too far from where we are staying at the Shinjuku Hilton.

We arrived at the studio, and the first thing the head dude said to me was he knew me from DA and was a fan. That seemed to me a good way to start but the next words out of his mouth were asking if I’d shoot some nudes of HIM! OK….awkward moment. I assumed the other two guys knew my work also (figured he told them) so I said,”Sure…no problem”.
I spent the entire day shooting the 3 guys and doing wacky images of them and of course, a nude of the leader of the pack. Part of the deal is, I had to shoot photos of their studio for the web. They moved into this new space just two weeks ago and were pretty excited to get the ball rolling on renting and doing their art thing. I was impressed at some of the paintings and sculpture around. There was a five foot long and 4 foot tall walking fish that was equally amusing and creepy.
Another deal that my lovely gf worked out was for me to shoot a few photos in exchange for my tour guide services and translator. So after spending the entire day shooting, I was ready to take a break.
BUT… a dinner was held here at the Hilton in honor of my friend Jim Beaver who is here with us. I mentioned in my last journal, he is one of the lead actors on “Supernatural”. I have never seen the show, so I had no idea of it’s popularity but I’ve been educated by the people mobbing him. Poor guy. He is ever so gracious to his fans.
Again, my gf did the event planning, so the dinner was wonderful. She had scheduled him time at every table, so not one fan was disappointed. Each fan got to ask him a couple of questions, have a photo op (guess who took those photos?), and be generally in the presence of someone they admired. I DO have to say that I never really understand the whole star struck thing though. Guess I’ve been living in LA and rubbing shoulders with enough celebs that I have a clear idea about them being just ordinary people with extraordinary jobs. Jim however, is an extraordinary guy.
He walked around Tokyo yesterday site seeing by himself. But it seems his iPhone GPS signal was bouncing off the buildings so was horribly inaccurate. He got lost. He was a bit frustrated but decided to sit, have a meal, and figure it out. Thing is, he had bought a rather expensive gift for his daughter and didn’t have enough money to pay for lunch! LOL His Japanese is sparse, so he struggled and struggled to try and tell the poor waitress his issue. He finally returned to his iPhone and a translation app, and was able to tell the story. The waitress was fairly upset because she said the owner would be upset at her. It was a tiny lil hole in the wall place (where the best food is always found), and so they didn’t take credit cards. He wandered around FOREVER (his words) to find an ATM, then went back and paid the balance. The waitress was ASTONISHED that he returned. I’m not… it’s exactly what I would expect of him, and of course, exactly what I would do.
He got lost on his way back to the hotel, but finally made it in time to shower for dinner.
After dinner, I was surprised to find out one of the fans had GIFTED us all with a “nice” visit to the local KARAOKE bar!!!! Can I just state for the record, how much I detest even the IDEA of karaoke?? OMFG. SO…off we go, and I ordered copious amount of Asahi to survive. Self medication was MY approach to surviving karaoke. I could write 27 entire journals about the evils of karaoke, but the Japanese are freaks for it… well, that and panchinko….but that’s another story. So there we sat, Jim, my gf and I, and a bunch of Japanese fans of Supernatural, in a room with a HUGE video screen, two unfortunate microphones, lots of beer for me, and OMFG… (you really can’t make this stuff up)…TAMBORINES!!! I no longer have any fear of hell because I certainly have been there.
Afterwards, the three of us strolled (well, THEY strolled, I staggered) back to the hotel, through streets of hookers, temples, BAD American fast food (yes – you CAN get a SPAM burger here at the local Burger King), and shop after shop of souvenirs.
How the tour guide/translator, one of our friends, Jim, my gf, and someone I still don’t know, all ended up back in our room drinking, I have no idea….but I fell asleep…content with another madhouse day in Japan.

Posted on December 23, 2012 Posted by pelican

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Re-post – Japan Trip 2011 – Day One 11/11/11

Time is certainly displaced. We’re not really suffering jet lag but it’s obvious our bodies are weirded out by being here.
My girlfriend and I traveled today to Atsugi, about an hour train ride from Tokyo. We had some business to take care of there. It was a bit frustrating because we couldn’t get everything done we needed to, but the traveling to and from was delightful.
I was amazed, looking out the train window, there was not ONE piece of litter. I think we traveled 20 miles or more before I saw so much as a tissue paper beside the tracks. The Japanese, even in the less affluent areas, are incredibly tidy.
During the morning commute, the subway trains are packed so full there are literally uniformed individuals called “pushers” whose job it is to shove people into the cars as tightly as possible. As the doors slide shut they get very aggressive and carry out their job of sardine commuter packing very seriously… and they do it with smiles and white gloves and a charm that everyone not only tolerates but respects.
It seems there is a favored practice here, especially in Tokyo, if one desires to remove himself from the gene pool, to use a swiftly moving subway train as an exit strategy. Flinging oneself in front of said speeding subway is pretty effective and dependable. It’s also an efficacious way of thumbing one’s nose at those left behind because there is a hefty fine levied on the surviving family of the jumper. Today we sat in the subway for an extra 7 minutes so the cleanup crews could gather parts and pieces of some disgruntled soul. I don’t think “cleanup crew” is a job I would ever apply for. I prefer to interact with human beings with all their parts assembled correctly and firmly attached. What amazes me is we were only delayed 7 minutes…these guys clean up fast! In Japan it is disgraceful to be late, so perhaps this manner of suicide has more implications than the obvious.
We continued our journey and it was amusing to see modern architecture blended in among old old temples. We passes mile after mile of packed high rise apartment buildings. It terrifies me to imagine what a lethal virus could do in Tokyo.
We did have a short bit of entertainment from a psychotic dude on the train. Seems a few of his personalities were along for the ride and they decided it was a good time to announce he was gonna take a singing test. He then became his teacher and said a few corrective words, then went back to being “himself” and proceeded to sing for us all. It was short and ceased to be amusing after the third or fourth time through his recital. But it was a way to pass time as we sat waiting for arms and legs to be tossed into plastic bags somewhere down the tracks.
Then there are all these young Japanese girls in school girl outfits. Perhaps it is the better part of discretion not to comment here.. Geeeeeeez
Tonight we went to Budo Kan and saw Def Tech. I had no idea what either of those things were but there I was shooting photos of the whole thing. It was loud, young, and Def Tech certainly seemed well received. Maybe I’m getting old but I’m truly not impressed by electronics. BUT there were some tunes they played that made it obvious there was talent on stage. Guess I’m an old fart… I just LIKE rock and roll.
After the concert we took a long stroll in the rain and went to a little hole in the wall restraint I love here in Tokyo. If you’ve never had shishito peppers….yum…. get some!
I passed on the horse sashimi.
I am here with my girlfriend and my dear friend, Jim Beaver, who is one of the lead cast members of a TV show called “Supernatural”. I’ve know Jim many years and it’s fun to see his career doing so well. He gets recognized a lot here in Japan and he said there was a “small mob” waiting for him when he got off the plane here. How do people find out these things??
Tomorrow night there is a dinner here for him… a bit of PR for the show.
More later… Asahi in Japan, mmmm….good beer.

Posted on December 23, 2012 Posted by pelican

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re-Post – Japan Trip 2011 Part 1 – “Off to Japan”

Nov 6, 2011, 11:44:12 PM

Well…My girlfriend and I are off to Japan next Wednesday, the 9th. We’re pretty excited. Although we’re gonna be there for more than two weeks, I think we only have two days off. We have speaking engagements teaching engagements, and I have shooting to do. We arrive in Tokyo and then head West to Osaka and Okayama. We’re gonna speak at the Osaka Mode Institute of Beauty. Then to Okayama to visit a Sake brewery that we are trying to help bring their distributorship to the US. I’ll probably shoot some of the corporate dudes there.
Then we’re off to Nagoya to visit another institute and speak. Back to Tokyo for a second then on to Sendai. We’ll stop by our house there and take a few pix and check the harbor we loved so much. Most of it is probably destroyed but I’m gonna shoot a lot there and try to get some record of the recovery efforts taking place. After that, we head North to Akita International University. My girlfriend and I are both speaking there to students about characteristics of successful international entrepreneurs. Her topics will be “body language, image, and cultural norms in corporate structure. My topics will include image making, demographic identification, and marketing – all of course with emphasis on photography. I’ll also be shooting some actress there who is evidently well known in Japan….geeez…I don’t know.
Then we’re heading back down to Sendai and Minamisanriku, which was pretty much earthquake ground zero. 95% of the town was destroyed and 50% of the population is gone. I’m gonna try to focus on the recovery and not the devastation. If you go to Google Earth and type in Minamisanriku, it is a sad sight to see.
From there we head back to Tokyo where I’ll be teaching a head shot workshop. We head home the next day. Somewhere in there we have a day off I think.If you are in Japan, please stalk us!!

OK….I mean let’s have some SAKE!!!!
Here’s our itenerary:[link]

Maybe I’ll even get lucky and get a shot of a cute Harajuku girl! I’ll be there too!

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