Dearest Friends,
After 25 years of traveling through Japan & Korea, I’m beginning a new art publication series built from my archives of photographs, memories, and hand-painted postcards.
Every few weeks I’ll release a small downloadable set: a painted postcard from a special place, along with a tiny printable photo zine expanding on its atmosphere and feeling.
My traveling days are mostly over for now due to chronic illness and financial limits, so this project has become a new way for me to travel — through memory, art, and sharing these places with others. As long as my computer and printer hold up (and they don’t like each other), I’ll make this happen.
The series begins where my life in Asia began: Otaru, followed by Sapporo, my first home in Japan.
If you’d like to travel alongside me and support the project, I’d love to have your company on my Ko-fi page. 🤍
Thank you so much for your time, your re-toots, your encouragement and ideas, and of course your support. You all are an incredible bunch of amazing people. ❤️🙏
https://ko-fi.com/naturenutcreations
japantravel
I just finished a mini series on one of the most iconic historical spots of Hokkaido, Japan: the Otaru Canal.
When I first arrived in Sapporo as an exchange student in 2001, it was my first time overseas and my third time out of my home state of Alaska. Twenty years of studying the culture & four years of studying the language did not prepare me for the culture shock that would hit me; I wanted out. My dream of living in Japan was a bust, or so I thought.
But one of my dearest friends from Tokyo flew up to see me and suggested we go on a tour to Otaru, and my whole experience transformed, and I fell utterly in love with the country, enough to start using my camera again, enough to find pleasure in all the details again. I left Otaru with a happy belly full of crab meat and ice cream, a 1GB Memory Stick full of photos, and a mind full of curiosity and inspiration.
When I feel stuck in my life, especially as an immigrant, I remember Otaru, and everything I found there, and feel replenished in my soul.
“Three Views of the Otaru Canal” ACEO set. Mijello Mission Gold & Kuretake Gansai Tambi on Strathmore 400 Bristol. Each piece 2.5” x 3.5” and sold as a set. A perfect set for the collector who loves Japan and the nostalgia a good journey can bring.
Available Here: https://payhip.com/b/9ZJnM
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Everyone needs more free stuff in life...
I’ve been taking my old photos of my travels throughout Japan and Korea out of The Vault, The Archives, and am making little mini zines out of them so I can enjoy them in my hands as opposed to revving up my hard drive and seeing them on a boring screen every time.
So tired of screens… So tired.
Wanna see what I’m up to?
For free? ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
You can download your own copy of Issue 3: Susukino Nights at my Ko-fi page and see for yourself. :)
Just Passing Through zines aren’t travel guides. Rather, they’re little visual experiences in paper form. Full-color but intentionally faded to make the images feel like the distant memories they are, typewriter font glued on to remind me of all the fun zines I’d make in my early college days, they take me back to all the cool visual collections my Dad had, like risograph QSL (ham radio contact confirmation) cards from Japan, old paperback sci-fi digest magazines and monochrome travel books. I intend to keep making these as long as my printer and laptop hold out.
I have 16 total made so far about Japan and will be releasing them as able. Ko-fi allows you to follow along in my progress and get notifications whenever I make a drop. Support is always welcome, but the free issue is yours regardless. ☺️
For fans of all things Japan, for globetrotters and arm chair travelers alike, for people who like collecting zines and other small publications, for folks interested in Far East Asian culture and nature, the Just Passing Through series is for you, too (though I made them primarily for myself, lol!) 😁