Memories of the Aomori Autumn, 2010

Tohoku was the only region in Japan I did not set foot on during my one-year university exchange programme in 2007/2008. Which was why I decided to visit one of the prefectures in the region – Aomori – last October.

I also wrote about the trip in a travel piece for The Straits Times.

Little did I expect to go back again this March, so soon after the previous trip. This time round, I was sent by my company to report on the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated vast stretches of Tohoku’s east coast. Of course, it later developed into a major nuclear disaster, which led to an early return flight for me. I wrote about that disappointing trip here.

Well, about three months after that, I made the decision to visit Japan again. Since the triple disasters, airfares to Japan have plunged, with travellers all over the world avoiding the country. At the time of my flight booking, Singapore Airlines was charging just over $500 for a return ticket. I have wanted to go for Tohoku’s 3 major summer festivals since my trip last year, and this year was as good a time as any to go.

But before leaving for the latest trip, , I thought it might be worth sharing some of my favourite pictures from the 2010 trip:

Aomori prefecture is known as the apple capital of Japan. Half of the apples grown in Japan can be found here. This picture was taken at the Hirosaki Apple Park.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Something a little different for a change – I’m writing about the police and kids.

Have you seen the latest Singapore Police Force commercials? I happened to see one of them on TV the other day, and Joanne pointed out that she and her female colleagues recently crowded around one computer swooning over this particular one for ten minutes:

For more, you can go to the Singapore Police Force Facebook page or their YouTube channel  for the rest of the 2011 recruitment drive vids.

Coincidentally, I was actually planning to write a post about something I’d spotted a month ago during my visit to the National Museum, and it’s related to the police as well.

There was this activity corner on the second storey, where kids were invited to draw out their personal hopes and vision for Singapore, and put it up as part of an interactive exhibition. And one common thread I found was that many of kids wanted to be policemen and women when they grow up!

Farewell, Tanjong Pagar Railway Station

The last train rolled into Tanjong Pagar Railway Station last night  (June 30). Hundreds of people crowded the historic building yesterday, for their last chance to see trains arriving at the tracks. If we count the many others who have streamed in over the past month, the figure would probably be closer to thousands, or even tens of thousands.

Although I was on afternoon duty yesterday, I’d toyed with the idea of heading out to the King Albert Park area to grab some shots of the 8am train headed for Johor. However, I had worked the late shift the night before, and stayed up till late to finish up the previous blog post. I decided that I would be too tired to work if I went. As it turned out, it rained cats and dogs in the morning, and I would have been drenched from head to toe, and dead like zombie at the office if I had gone.

Anyway, here’s the best of the other photos I took during my visit there earlier this week. All photos on Kodak Portra 160VC, taken with the Nikon F6 and AFS 24mm f1.4.

A train driver on the walkie talkie as the train pulls out of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.