Minsk city

I went for a walk along with Andrei until my flight time.

 

My very fundamental impression about Minsk remains the same as 4 years ago. Whole the city is quite flat and spacious. Buildings are so large. A lot of nature less people and silence. It is a peaceful city as it was. You can find same buildings in those days at my website (takayukimurakami.com).
Meanwhile, I have notice some changes for example, there were a military sign on Bel Swiss bank's building and people looking like soldiers on the street but I didn't see this time. And I witnessed some Chinese for sure.

It was a very short time to walk around the city but it had various aspects.
Behind the images above, this city is guradually modernised in particular in the outskirt of the city. In fact, the RG competition took place at a foreign capital arena right next to a hotel run by the same company.
Depite this, I have seen some couples haveing a photo session in the park. And some mothers taking care of their kids as well. That means local life hasn't changed that much yet.
And also Belarusian history in the world war second is symbolised in spots.

All in all, I was very happy to come back here to see my good friend Andrei, to follow my favourite sport and to look through Minsk city properly.

Reunion in Minsk

I have come back to Minsk for the first time since 2012, this time from Japan to Minsk. It was to photograph a rhythmic gymanstcs world cup taken place there.

Andrei is one of my friends who I got acquainted with in Minsk back in 2012 when I was following RG like this time before London 2012. He was a news papter writer at that time and that was the reason he was quite closed to me and had a chance to talk with. Although many of Blarusian people are not good at English, he was able to do it along with his brave heart. And probably Asian people were rare to find in those days and then it helped him a lot to speak to me.

4 years have alrady have passed since then. We were keeping intouch and finally reunited. He became cooler than before, looking like an urban man. Well, perhaps because he got married in the 4 years of time.

While I was visiting Minsk for 3 days, I had a spare time to look around the city centre with him as he made some time for me. In 2012, I had no time. Minsk is actually such a small city, it doesn't take that long to look around. But it was very fun to recall places and places by his guide where I had seen last time. You can see how Andrei was excited our requnion from the photos above.
More images will be out in another post.

Chizuru

I have joined in another wedding party of my other study mate Chizuru.

We have got to know each other at British Councila as well as Yohei. As far as I concerned, she joined in the course in order to realise her short term study abroad in the UK and for this reason, she had to have the IELTS exam.

She was also a smart student (unlike me) and she got an enough overall score for her study.  I had more opportunities to see her in Japan after my study in the UK if anything. She is quite kind to everyone and these photos represent her personality nicely.

Yohei

Yohei Kubo was one of my study mates when I was studying at British Council at Iidabashi before my study abroad in the UK. And he married her girlfriend. And I was invited his after party.

It was a quite large scale party, maybe the biggest one I have ever joined in. Perhaps even it was a sort of business for them...
Yohei is originally a really exellent man. When I was studying with him, he was not struggling from getting a good mark of IELTS exams unlike me. I am not sure exactly however, he went to LSE or somewhere in London and also another university in Paris to have his MBA degree after passing a criteria not only that of the IELTS but also GMAT while he was working.
It was actually unexpected that he invited me. But I simply couldn't stop photographing them corresponding to my passion. And of course his personality made me go.

HANAMI 2016

It makes me always happy to have Hanami every year.

An year-end mach

I have come across a really good badminton match at a park near to my home.

Abroad in Japan

I have met my favourite youtuber, Chris Broad at an event.

One day he was advertising the event on his youtube channel and I watched it and got interested soon. As it was first come first served, I applied for a seat quickly. This particular event has been organised by a company which is presumabuly created by Google quire recently. Because some other Japanese and foreign youtubers are invited to the event and have a live talkshow.

The talkshow itself was quite normal and common. Each youtubers introduces own youtube channel and talks about some topics related to.

After the show, the organiser provided free food and drinks including Sushi and alcholes. Surprisingly Sushi chefs came and cook Sushi in front of us. OMG, the organiser has got a lot of money! This was my impression.

The most fun moment to me was that I have seen Chris and Natsuki and had a picture taken with them.
Chris was actually tall much taller than I expected. And Natsuki was a nice guy as expected. He seemed quite a normal person however once he popoed up in a camera frame, he turned on his character.
And finally, I have managed to get their contact details especially Natsuki has responded to me via email!