On Your Way
Something I haven’t gotten to do in a long time is go somewhere and shoot that isn’t my hometown, or Japan. Having fresh eyes for somewhere is a luxury most take for granted. Having lived in Tokyo for 10 years now the fresh eyes have worn off. Photos that seemed interesting to me in the past aren’t interesting anymore because all of this is just everyday stuff and that’s just how it goes. I don’t have to go that far to find stuff I want to shoot. I can go down to the Shonan area and it’s a whole different vibe than Tokyo that I love!
Anyway, I was in Berlin for 11 days to celebrate my Grandmother’s 90th birthday in her hometown with family from there and my parents from The U.S. It was a good time and lots of good food and beer. Berlin is a fantastic big city to compare to Tokyo. Both were firebombed and nearly completely rebuilt. Where Tokyo is now a concrete monster city, Berlin has lots of green spaces and can be very quiet. Tokyo always has a slight background roar of the city anywhere you go, but in Berlin you would never know how big the city was just based on the sound when you are in living areas of town.
Something that I didn’t know was a thing in Berlin (or Germany for that matter) are garden houses. My Uncle and Aunt in Berlin have an amazing one in Westend that we spent a day (the hottest day at 38C) at. There they had all kinds of organic fruits growing that we could just pick and eat at will. It was really nice and inspiring. We have a pretty large balcony that we don’t use for anything really at home. Maybe we might try and grow some stuff in pots like tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, etc. It could be fun!
In conclusion, it was a nice trip with the kids and was great to see my Grandmother still doing well for 90 years old. I hope I can be as lucky to live that long and hopefully be in at least that good of health. I would also like to continue to travel more with my family as these trips seem to have a really positive impact on them. We’ve been home for a week and they still are talking about all the things we did and saw on the trip.
For those that are interested, you can follow me on Instagram at: @the_real_jason_combs
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