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.