Tag: history

by jad

Japan Trip: Hiroshima (Part III)

Another interesting feature of Hiroshima’s topography that I learned on Tommy’s tour is that the reason why the city has so many iconic trams is that it’s simply not possible to dig any subways here, given that it was built on reclaimed marshland. We rode trams of all vintages, including one of the only two trams that survived the bomb still running today. This is one of Hiroshima’s hibakujumoku (被爆樹木) or survivor trees, an a-bombed camphor at the base of the hill leading up to the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art. I’ll post a highlight video from that visit shortly. … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Hiroshima (Part III)” →

by jad

Japan Trip: Hiroshima, August 6 (Part II)

Very soon after the official Peace Day ceremony, we joined Tommy on a walking tour of the city center, learning about the history and geography of Hiroshima and stopping at various landmarks from that fateful day 80 years ago. One thing I didn’t know before Tommy’s tour was that Hiroshima was literally carved out from the sea. The Hiroshima Delta, where the Ota River fans into multiple channels before entering the Seto Inland Sea, was originally a marshy estuary. For centuries, much of what is now central Hiroshima, including the area near the Peace Memorial Park, didn’t exist as solid … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Hiroshima, August 6 (Part II)” →

by jad

Japan Trip: Hiroshima, August 6 (Part I)

We woke up very early on August 6. Our guest house was about a 30-minute walk from Hiroshima’s Peace Park and we wanted to be there as the gates opened to welcome attendees and participants in the 80th commemoration. You can see highlights from that event from the Reel I posted earlier today (tap the tab on my profile to see it). The walk itself was almost as good as the event itself. The 6:00 am sun was still a gentle glow, bathing everything in golden light. There were way more people there than I’d expected, with the sound of … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Hiroshima, August 6 (Part I)” →

by jad

Japan Trip: Nara

But even before going to the Expo 70 Commemorative Park, we took the train to Nara. I am unashamed to say that this was completely Instagram’s influence; one does not simply pass up the opportunity to feed a deer that bows in gratitude. Luckily, Nara was more than just that! We would have explored this cute town even more, but it was only our second morning, and we had an appointment with the Tower of the Sun later that afternoon. And boy did we sacrifice enough sweat and tears (not crying, just sweating from our eye sockets) to the solar … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Nara” →

by jad

Japan Trip: Palestine at the Expo

I must say I was very pleasantly surprised to see Palestine represented in one of the Common Halls at @expo2025japan. So much so that I didn’t really absorb how sad and spartan the booth was until I looked at my photos later. The space looks like a placeholder, making the surreality of this mega-event almost two years into a g—de even more poignant. I was swept up in the energy of the event and didn’t stop to reflect on that on the day. I was just so happy to see this flag in that space, with so many interested looking visitors … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Palestine at the Expo” →

by jad

Japan Trip: Expo 70

The day before we went to @expo2025japan, we made a pilgrimage to @expo70park and the @tower_of_the_sun_museum_shop in particular. I’ll post a Reel from inside of the Tower in a bit. Despite the heat, this place was full of visitors and was truly worth the effort; even though it was a little out of the way, it had Seattle City Center post-Expo vibes – a real destination, not just a curio. My favorite part was, of course, the Tower of the Sun itself, a truly iconic piece of art that we saw echoes of elsewhere in our travels. The Tower has three faces: the Golden Mask … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Expo 70” →

by jad

Japan Trip: Photography & Expos

Today is #WorldPhotographyDay, a day I’ve marked before, seeing others posting about it, but as it comes this year in the midst of my Expo musings, I thought I should probably read up on it a bit. Every August 19, photographers celebrate the strange and enduring power of this craft that’s become so synonymous with modernity—a medium that’s been shaping how we see, remember, and share the world for nearly two centuries. The date honors a turning point: in 1839, the French government publicly announced the daguerreotype, a photographic process developed by Louis Daguerre, and offered it as a “free gift … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Photography & Expos” →

by jad

The Red Thread

The other day, I shared a post I’d made 5 years ago as part of a writing challenge I’d given myself in 2020 called Twenty Weeks of Gratitude. It was a memory of project I worked on in 2015, which had roots in prior work I’d started 5 years before that, so you can imagine how everything might feel like a lifetime ago. Like a door that keeps revolving in a half-forgotten dream, or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream, etc. I recorded these videos when these threads unexpectedly came together while I was in Lebanon … Continue reading “The Red Thread” →

by jad

Fragments of a Fair

We sailed through constellationsand were rutted by the stormI crumpled under cudgel blowsand finally came ashore I spent the next two years or morejust staring at the wallWe went to sea to see the world,what do you think we saw? We went to the state fair within three months of my immigrating here and have been back every year since, except for those two pandemic years when it was closed or too weird. I’ve brought a Holga, a Polaroid, as well as a Fujifilm XT4 here, but this year, I reached for the Canon PowerShot A710IS I found in Lebanon … Continue reading “Fragments of a Fair” →

by jad

Ecotone

I learned a word when I was trying to find more information about this hidden gem of wilderness, encircled all around by private property and technosocial infrastructure—like when it was established, who maintains it, etc.: the word was “ecotone.” Ecotone refers to “a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate.” They’re natural formations; swamps, marshes, and other wetlands are by definition “ecotones” because they are the crossfade between dry land and bodies of water. They’re home to a mashup of species from both environments, along with those specially adapted to that particular mix. But you … Continue reading “Ecotone” →