It’s been said that the kouyou phenomenon, or the turning of the autumn leaves in Japan, inspires people to write beautiful poems and prose. It can even make amateur photographers produce photos like pros.
Tottering precariously in my four-inch okobo (wooden platform slippers), I strolled along the streets of Kyoto’s Gion district one drizzly afternoon, leaving a trail of admiring glances from foreigners and locals alike.
As my feet touched the Boracay sand, the aria of Grizabella from “Cats” started playing in my head as memories of old Boracay fill my weary mind. Am I getting old, or is there a new generation of tourists invading the island?
What is so exciting and unique about the art of photography? With brain and hands, photography seizes the moment, captures a fragment of eternity, and preserves it forever. We immortalize beautiful sceneries and memories.
It seems like every year, more and more beachgoers both local and foreign find their way to Boracay, so it is a little unrealistic to expect to find a beach with no people.
At the dawning of the new year of the Dragon, I found myself consulting the many articles dealing with Chinese cosmology. Some of what I read made sense.
I see sun, leaves, plants, a nipa hut, and mountains. The carefree strokes, colors, lines—I believe I’ve seen this scene more than a few times. The picture looks like every other drawing plastered on our refrigerator, cubicle and office, a reminder of how our little ones see this world.
Most travelers pass through Tarlac province without a second look, save for the requisite pit stop at a roadside combo of lavatory, gas station and restaurants.
The town of Kiangan in Ifugao is reached after a long drive through landscapes of forested mountains and rushing streams. I had the sense that we were far from everything else, but in truth we were but a few hours outside the bustling cities of the Cagayan Valley.
More than 2,000 years ago, ancestors of the Ifugao, using only primitive tools and their ingenuity, carved their mountains into what is now known as the Rice Terraces of the Cordilleras. Located 5,000 m above sea level and some 300 km from Metro Manila, the rice terraces are considered an architectural wonder unmatched anywhere in the world. Recognized by Unesco World Heritage Center as a World Heritage Site in 1995, they cover over 10,000 sq km of mountainside, and are a testament to the Ifugao spirit and their cultural heritage.
Stories are told and retold. They can enmesh a place in a net so fine that it becomes difficult to distinguish between what had transpired and what was conjured.
