The last time I boarded a flight out of Japan was January 2020. This was a much welcomed change from the previous 20 years of traveling out of Japan every few weeks on business trips. I’ve secretly had a goal to not make my airline status each year for the past many years. I’m finally glad that I have achieved that goal for the past two years and likely for a 3rd for 2022. I’ve very happy with my new post-COVID outbreak lifestyle. I work in the office a few days a week and home a few days a week. I keep a healthy balance of exercise in my life with jiu jitsu and cycling and a much better diet thanks to my wife Mayumi’s amazing cooking. It’s great to be spending much more time at home.

When I was only working from home at the start of COVID and I was spending 10-12 hours a day, 5 days a week on Zoom, my head was in a fog. I was feeling very drained mentally, as many people were. I needed something to challenge myself mentally and inspire professionally. Reading books wasn’t enough. I started looked at various online courses to see if those would fit was I was looking for. After a lot of research, I applied for Stanford’s Graduate School of Business LEAD Program. It’s a 12 month online executive education program focused on leadership, strategy, finance, innovation, negotiation and so much more. I was happy to get in. 12 months and hundreds of hours of study later, I can say it was a very good use of time and a productive way to ride out COVID. Lots of practical learnings that I can apply in work and life.

I haven’t gone out shooting for the past few years as I’m avoiding large crowds but my wife and I have made some trips to some of our favorites getaways outside of Tokyo.

Today’s Configuration: Leica M10-P, Leica M-11 and iPhone.

This is one of our favorite getaways in Gunma prefecture, a few hours north of Tokyo.

This is a beautiful little garden off the back of our room.

This ski resort was converted into a flower garden for the summer. A great way to build an additional revenue stream during the off season. Very clever.

We saw these beautiful summer houses up in Karuizawa while out on a walk. Beautiful and crazy expensive. Another fun getaway about 180 kilometers north of Tokyo. This town became famous as John Lennon lived here with Yoko Ono for a while.

A short walk around Yokohama Bayside

I captured this image on another trip up to Karuizawa. I had to pull over and take this shot. The scene was just too beautiful. There an amazing grocery store in Karuizawa where you can buy all sorts of local fruits, vegetables, meats and more. It’s worth the day trip just for the grocery shopping. I wish I saw the shadow of the torii gates in my framing and I would have taken a few steps back to capture all of it in the image.

Beautiful scenes in early January in Hakone. When Fuji is snow capped and the sky is clear.

We found this beautiful antique shop that always has amazing things. Some of their items are 400 to 500 years old.

On another trip to Gunma, Mayumi and I went for a long drive and pass this apple orchid that had a long row of Cherry Blossoms at the back of the field before the base of the mountain. It was a bit misty and foggy making it a beautiful scene to shoot.

The beautiful Fujiya Hotel in Hakone.

Sadly my hotel closed.

Meet Masa from Acu.place. Someone in my Jiu Jitsu class introduced me to Masa a few years ago. Given I hurt myself all the time in Jiu Jitsu and Cycling, it’s helpful having Masa near by. He offers a mix of physical therapy and acupuncture. I always feel 200% better after spending a bit of time with Masa.

I was lucky enough to catch up with my good friend John for breakfast when he was in town for business a few weeks back. It was good to see him in person.