That’s what happened to me when I started taking photos of my stuffed Kogepan toys on my vacations. I took them with me to California, to New York City, and around the monuments and museums of Washington DC. I thought I was original and maybe a little bit odd. Then I went to post the photos online and discovered there was more than one Flickr group devoted to traveling stuffed toys.

And now, I’m kicking myself for not realizing that this was actually evidence of a huge under-served market. Sadly, I was not as brilliant as Sonoe Azuma, who three years ago opened a travel agency for stuffed toys in Japan.

It’s called Unagi Travel, and it started out because Sonoe Azuma had the same hobby I did: she took photos of her stuffed eel Unasha and blogged about it. Now Unasha serves as stuffed animal tour guide and together they’ve taken about 450 stuffed toys from all over the world on trips around Tokyo as well as excursions to other areas. Her customers are so satisfied that more than half come back for another trip, and one, a hippo named Kaba-san from Osaka, has been on six trips.

Customers can choose from various options: a tour around Tokyo including Asakusa, Meiji Jingu Shrine and Tokyo Tower, a one-day tour to an onsen, a weekend in Kyoto, and special tours that are sometimes offered, including to the Tohoku region. While you follow along via social media, your stuffed animal will see the sights and learn about Japanese culture, like calligraphy:

…and have Japanese meals that you will envy:

If your toy is a real free spirit, you can surprise it with a Mystery Tour. The Mystery Tour may visit other parts of Tokyo, Azuma told us, such as Shibuya, Ginza, or Roppongi, or places in nearby prefectures such as Kawagoe or Odawara. Or it may have a cultural theme, and your toy may come home knowing more than you do about architecture of the Meiji period or bronze statues.

Tours are limited to ten so everyone gets enough personal attention. You’re assured that your animal will never be placed directly on the ground, and asked whether your toy has any food allergies, whether it gets seasick or carsick, and if there’s anything in particular your creature wants to see or do on the tour.

The form that customers fill out also asks how long you’ve been together and has you tell something about the toy’s character. Along with the photos, the answers to these questions often show up on Unagi’s Facebook page, so it’s fun to follow even if you’re not sending a toy on a trip yourself. People have all sorts of creative stories about their toys, and there’s often the hint of interesting human stories behind them as well.

One toy from France on a recent trip was said to have been with its thirty year old owner since she was one day old, and loves chocolate and knitting. A pair of handmade cats from Nara Prefecture called Custard-san and Hana-san from Nara Prefecture were said to be on a mother-daughter trip together. They’re supportive of each other, and the mom loves to listen to enka. And a toy called Little Brother Bear was returning to Tokyo where he had lived sixty years ago.

All sorts of creatures are allowed, as long as they weigh under 250 grams, and you need to mail your toy to Tokyo. The Tokyo tour is $45; special tours cost more, like $95 for two days in Kyoto.

Do you have more questions about this? So did we. Azuma was kind enough to answer a few questions for Tofugu:

Tofugu: What kinds of toys do foreigners send? Are they different from Japanese, or does everyone like the same kind of stuffed animal?

Unagi: Foreigners tend to send us realistic animal toys, whereas Japanese tend to send us cute toys. Regardless of whether it’s from Japan or overseas, the teddy bear accounts for a large percentage.

Tofugu: What’s the most unusual toy you have taken on a tour?

Unagi: It was a Japanese spiny lobster.

Tofugu: When you go on overnight trips, how do the innkeepers feel about having stuffed animals as customers?

Unagi: Once the business understands the concept, we are very welcome.

Tofugu: Your job sounds like so much fun. What do you like about it?

Unagi: I’m happy that I can make my customers happy and energetic. For example, there was a man who applied for our trip in order to make his wife happy, who was very busy raising their child. After the trip, he gave us the feedback that our trip became a good pastime for her and she really enjoyed it. Although this is a small business, it’s very satisfying for me because I can do something for someone else. This job also requires imagination, creativity, and interpersonal skills. That part of it is also fun for me.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: “What is the matter with these people? What normal adult would pay good money to send a stuffed animal on vacation?” If you don’t get the fun of this, maybe what you need are some of the heartwarming tales: One customer who was in a wheelchair wanted her toy to go down narrow alleys that she was unable to navigate. Or you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be touched by Connor the Chemo Duck from Tennessee, a stuffed therapy animal for children with cancer, especially when he went to Senso-ji temple to fan himself with the healing smoke.

And if you’re thinking this is one of those uniquely weird Japanese things, not so fast: right now, Azuma says that half of her customers are from overseas.

There was actually once a similar business in Prague – the owner was half-Japanese, and it eventually failed, and one in Berlin seems to be hanging on, although they seem to do tours far less often. But I think there’s global potential here. I’m thinking maybe I need to open a company like this of my own. Don’t you think Japanese stuffed animals would love to come see the cherry blossoms in Washington DC?

If you’d like to send your stuffed animal on a tour of Japan, be sure to visit Unagi Travel’s website to get more information.

Bonus Wallpapers!

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Links:

• http://unagi-travel.net/
• https://www.facebook.com/unagitravel
• https://twitter.com/unagitravel

References:

• http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20…
• http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/japan…
• http://kotaku.com/a-japanese-trav…
• http://www.japantimes.co.jp/communi…

You can see what I’m talking about in our post last week about the Tokyo Maker Fair.

One of the coolest DIY projects that’s come out of Japan recently has been the “Last Camera.” It’s a little, built-it-yourself film camera that’s so named because in a world of Instagram and DSLRs, it feels like it might be the last film camera in the world.

You can buy the Last Camera kit for about ^$45 and assemble it yourself. It has an interchangeable lens and light leak switch to give your pictures a little more flair.

But the real story here is the customization of Last Camera. The builders encourage you to customize it as much as you want, and some Last Camera owners have taken that suggestion as a mission.

Here’s what a stock Last Camera looks like:

Before

Here’s what the Last Camera looks like after artists get a hold of them:

After

Sure, most of these are more art installations than actual, functioning cameras, but I think that it’s great that so many artists have been able to turn one of the last film cameras into something memorable.

You can find the Last Camera website here.

Via the Mescale Newsletter (still in alpha)

Fortunately, Misao finds a companion in Fukumaru (福丸), an odd-eyed kitten that Misao finds in a shed on her property. Misao, who apparently lives alone in her house in rural Japan, becomes inseparable from Fukumaru, and vice versa.

Not only do I love this photo series because it’s adorable, but it offers up a vision of rural Japan that you normally don’t get to see. Every day, this old woman continues to work the fields, even though she’s way past retirement age. It’s admirable that Misao still works so hard and really owns her land.

You can find the book, Misao and Fukumaru, here.

Although her photoblog has changed over time, the two main features are the “levitation” photos and the 3D photos. Both are really cool, and her regular photos (though you’ll have to go back in time for those) are nice too. Personally, I was captured by the levitation side of things.

Magic?

The thing that mainly amazes me is how natural she makes the levitation look. It’s not photoshopped, and there aren’t really any tricks. According to her About Section, she sets the timer on her camera, uses intuition, and jumps right when she thinks the photo’s going to take (though sometimes she uses a friend for the button pushing for far-away shots). Obviously she’s had quite a bit of practice, but just imagine having to take the above picture over and over again in the middle of a train. Good thing Japanese train-riders will just ignore you, no matter what you’re doing.

Still though, the “levitation” is really natural. I can’t jump in the air and make it look like I belong up there. You’d just end up with a dumb picture of me jumping while making a stupid face…

It’s not just levitating she does, though – there’s also flying.

Seriously, though. How do you look so calm and relaxed while jumping like that?

When she’s not doing levitation photos, she’ll occasionally dabble in the third dimension as well. THREE dimensions, you ask? How is that possible with a photo? Actually, this technology has been around for a long time (and is even present in the oldest pictures of Japan). The hard part is the setup, though. You need two identical cameras that take pictures at the same exact time (so you need something that presses both picture-taking buttons at once). You put the two cameras next to each other (just like eyeballs) and then put the two pictures you’ve taken next to each other too.

In order to see the 3D, you have to cross your eyes until the two pictures come together as one. Then, relax, and enjoy the three dimensions. I think it really adds a lot to the photos in a quirky sort of way. Here, give the 3d a try for yourself – click on the pictures to get a bigger view:

In fact, these are all half levitation, half three dimensions. What more could you ask for in photography?

If you go through her blog, you’ll definitely find a lot of gems. I think she’s gotten better at levitating over time, so I hope she continues to post. Maybe one day she’ll discover that if you forget to fall you’ll just be able to fly all the time…

Vacuuming just got a whole lot easier

You can find Natsumi’s blog over at yowayowacamera.com. She’s also on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Levitate on over to your favorite social network and give her a “hallo.”

The Eulenburg Expedition

Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg (I hope this guy had a nickname) was born in 1815, and started his international relations career as a Prussian Counsul-General in Antwerp. In 1859, he was chosen to go to Japan, China, and Siam to negotiate trade agreements. Of course, we’ll be looking at the Japanese one.

The weird thing about him, apparently, was that he brought along a camera (not too many cameras going around these days), and apparently, he took some of the first (if not the first) pictures of Japan. He brought with him “impressive” and “up-to-date” photographic equipment (not digital cameras, for those of you born after 2000), three photographers (Carl Wilhelm Heine Bismarck, John Wilson and August Sachtler), and two artists (who painted and drew artsy fartsy stuff, I imagine).

Either way, it’s pretty awesome of him to have brought all those photographers. Sadly, not too many of the photographs exist today (or they just weren’t well preserved). Still, there are a few of them.

The First Photos Of Japan

Eulenburg’s photos were mostly of Tokyo (Edo) and the surrounding areas. It was tough for him to take pictures of things (because, of course, the Japanese didn’t like them all that much and were very suspicious of espionage), but they were at least able to take some pictures of people and other “random” things. Apparently, they weren’t allowed to take a picture of the city because they were afraid they’d take pictures of the Shogun in the castle. Obviously the Japanese didn’t know how low of a resolution their cameras were, which is probably why the Japanese overcompensated by making so many camera companies later on (still can’t take pictures of the Shogun, sadly).

In order to do this, they had to carry their equipment around which required four porters (so you stop complaining about how heavy your DSLR is), some Japanese officials (so they don’t get in trouble), and local police officers (to keep crowds and people away). It wasn’t all that safe, either. One of his interpretors was killed by shishi (anti-foreigner, anti-shogun, pro-emperor group) in a raid while they were walking around (that would have been a cool photo if it didn’t take forever to set everything up).

Update: HOLY CRAP. The first three pictures are in 3D! I was wondering why there were two pictures. This guy was like the Michael Bay of old Japanese photographs. As Sally Ward in the comments explains, “Just sit back and gaze through them until the images merge.” And you thought the whole 3D movie thing was new…

Picture Notes: “Priests of the fuoko temple in Oghee”

Picture Notes: “Travelling Japanese in Tagu”

Picture Notes: “Farmers from Omono”

I really like the (following) square shaped pictures by Bismark. Although some of them have people, they seem to be more focused on buildings and architecture, which is pretty cool.

Picture Notes: “Japanese Fountain”

Picture Notes: “Prayer column from Icegami”

Picture Notes: “Ozi”

“Temple from Fucegami”

Update: Thank you to Kirsten Winkler and Ingrid for the translations of the notes jotted on the pictures. Note that they do their romaji pretty weird, which is why you should never bother with romaji and learn hiragana instead.

What I want to know is where are all the school girls doing weird peace signs everywhere? Just doesn’t seem like a Japanese picture without them. Also curious how many of these places are still around and visitable.

While taking these pictures, Eulenburg negotiated a “Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation” in 1861, pretty much putting them on par with the other Western powers in terms of agreements with Japan. I don’t think Japan was all too happy with these agreements, but we had all the big cameras cannons.

Want to know more about these pictures (and are able to read German?) Here’s the original article. Even better than this, you can learn how to turn your photos into Meiji Era photos (a little later than this, but only by around 40-50 years).