When I turned 23, my uncle offered me my first DSLR, a Nikon D70. After spending several years experimenting with my family’s digital compact camera, I felt an entire realm of new possibilities was opening in front of me. This period just so coincided with my first trip to Japan. As I had been practicing diligently Aikido during my college years, my primary goal was to spend as much time as possible training at Hombu dojo. Nevertheless, during my free time I would go exploring the streets of Tokyo with my camera. Towards the end of my stay, I eventually took some time off backpacking throughout the country, discovering its spectacular sights as well as the depth of Japanese culture and society. This life-changing experience would eventually lead me to move permanently to Tokyo from April 2005.

At the time SNS was just nascent, so I decided to build my own website to share my experience through photos with family and friends. And so Nipponitude.com came to existence in October 2006. I posted regularly photos until end of 2008. Eventually the maintenance process became too tedious and soon after, I joined the crowds who were flocking to the new shiny thing that was Facebook. Fast forward a few years, the technology (Flash) I built the website became obsolete and Nipponitude went into hibernation.

Now and then, I fondly recall my first encounters in Japan. I have been eager to revisit those early shots and revive Nipponitude for quite some time, but always procrastinated to get things done. If you are reading those lines today, this means I somehow managed to muster sufficient courage and time to organize the clutter on my hard drive. Although most photos were taken in Japan, I have also included some photos taken during short side trips mostly in Asia and in Europe as well as some very early shots from my first compact camera (Nikon Coolpix 990).

I do realize that these days, there is an abundance of high quality images available at anyone’s fingertips. As an amateur photographer, this portfolio website has no other pretention than to share a few moments I have been privileged and lucky enough to witness and capture.

Thank you for taking the time to drop by.