23rd November – 18th December 2011

A review of my set taken on a three week journey from Sapa to Saigon.

China ah! Good times! It didn’t seem the best when we arrived from Japan, but in retrospect it’s easy to see why. We’d come from one of the cleanest, pragmatic countries in the world into a still developing nation. The air in Beijing was so thick with smog you could barely see beyond a quarter mile, traffic was hectic and raging with the sound of constant beeping horns and gobbing phlegm. Culture shock came on pretty fast, but acclimatising to this new environment didn’t take long.

Our visit to the Great Wall at Jinshaglin was brilliant. Much of the wall here is still original which meant we had a great time clambering over crumbling sections, it felt like a proper heritage experience. Pity I can’t say the same of the Summer Palace we visited on our penultimate day; it was rammed with tourists and it’s been raped by cheap merchandise and shitty restaurants.

Xian was second-up on the journey. The city is home to the greatest number of manufacturing plants in the country, you could feel it in the air – by the end of our stay here I was feeling pretty sick and black bogeys were rife.  Having said that though, the people we met here were awesome. On one bike ride through the city we were invited by some locals to sit with them and learn the game ‘Ma jong’, drinking copious amounts of tea and making interpreted conversation via a fella who works for Volvo. It was a turning point for our travel experience; having the opportunity to mix with locals and being welcomed so warmly.

We took a bus to The Terracota Warriors a couple of days into our stay in Xian, but unfortunately it wasn’t the incredible “8th wonder of the world” we’d been led to expect. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s grand; the scale of mass-production achieved by the Chinese hundreds of years before they started making Tellys and iPods is very impressive. It’s just the legions of tour groups and lack of physical proximity to the Warriors didn’t make it feel tangible. Just over-hyped I guess.

Tokyo / Mt. Fuji / Kyoto / Nara / Ito / Takayama

Traveling in Japan has been a genuinely awesome experience. Elle and I have seen as much as possible in the two weeks we’ve had, rinsing our JR Rail passes to their full potential. In every place visited we’ve met kind and interesting characters, helpful, interesting and unique. The sights have been diverse and spectacular, events and experiences even more so.

Tokyo

Shortly after checking in to our hotel I was capable of taking full advantage of the toilet. It was a special moment. Japanese toilet technology is revered for being a bit bonkers and to be honest I was a little apprehensive, but this was short- lived. These are thrones fit for gods! Having the rest of the world adopt this technology will be to the betterment of all humankind. Seriously.

Fat Jap Clawing for Ritz

Visiting a cliche Tokyo Arcade in “Electric City” I dived straight into a game of Street Fighter II and Final Fight, whilst Elle tapped Mario World. These entertainment towers are chockers with several floors of arcade chaos, most of which are indecipherable as to their purpose or reward. The ground floor is home to a myriad of claw prize-grabbing machines at which many a patron empty their wallets. I watched in awe as a fat guy tried his best to retrieve a packet of Ritz crackers from one of these machines, sadly to no avail. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Soot

Ghibli Museum, Mitaka. Made a welcome alternative to walking around Tokyo in the pissing rain. The place is a marvel; the creation of a true genius. Every surface of the building is adorned with a unique decoration. Meandering stairwells and specialist rooms -particularly one dedicated to visualising the magic of animation are captivating. Even our complete lack of Japanese didn’t stop us from enjoying the short movie we watched in the Saturn Theater “Mai and the Mini-Catbus”.

Traveling back from Mitaka to Tokyo on the train, Elle pointed out a Japanese fella opposite us on the train, who was sporting a bag with the Lewisham Council logo – represent! (small world) We then bore witness to a rare incident of a man conducting a conversation on his mobile phone, much to the distaste of an old man standing beside him, who violently elbowed his arm; provoking the most intense passive-aggressive argument I’ve ever seen. Magic.

Mt Fuji

Fuji-san

By day three we’d decided Tokyo didn’t have much else to offer, plus we’d be returning towards the end of our journey anyway. Off to Mt. Fuji… Met a crazy Italian climber who’d just returned from a full assent of Fuji in near constant rain for 12 hours. The poor sod apparently couldn’t see the ground beneath his feet, let alone the majestic views from the summit at sunrise. And because he climbed it to take photos at the peak, he returned again the next day to do the same climb, but this time with good weather. His gumption made me feel incredibly pathetic for only going halfway up in a tour bus. Each time I saw Fuji thereafter was a stab to the ego. Greg told me before I came here that it was a piss of piss too. Why didn’t I Listen! It’s now a ‘before I die’ mission.

Kyoto

Fushimiinari Shrine

My first Shinkensan: traveling to Kyoto on day five. This is the definitive way to travel. Beats any form of transport hands-down. Except for the smoking car, they’ve still got some work to do on progressing ventilation technology. Might as well open a window, but then again, it’s probably not a good idea whilst traveling at nearly  200mph.

Kyoto tuned out to be the real Japan, it’s a brilliant city, probably now my favorite city in the world – and I’ve been to Reading. It seems to have everything Tokyo has, but it’s more restrained (not so many neon signs waiting to burn your retinas out as every turn). Overall, it’s more authentic, pretty, and far more interesting. The people too are more approachable; here is where we started to properly meet actual Japanese. I took a naked hot spa bath with one old man, and even though he couldn’t speak a word of English, insisted that I must be “USA” and try to tell me about baseball, it was still a lot of fun, hilarious even.

Kawaii!

We took a couple of bikes and cycled round parts of the city taking in miscellaneous temples and shrines, I began to try and take proper photos, most of which just look like postcards, but still. At one particular temple, I was focusing on a shot and waiting for some people to pass (not on my postcard!), I didn’t notice, but a gang of Japanese schoolgirls were waiting patiently for me to finish taking the photo. As I did, I heard girly giggles and shouts of “Kawaii!” as they asked for severance for their patience by posing with typical peace signs. Excellent.

Brief: Design a front-end which would appeal to new, young drivers.

The Illustration for a printed flyer would be distributed at sixth form colleges within the WayFWD driving school catchment area. This Illustration was then adapted for the website header.

Additional printed materials were also produced, including business cards and a promotional voucher.

All materials created in Adobe Illustrator CS5

Website code/dev by Designseeds:

www.wayfwd.com