After completing my annual Cross country cherry blossom photography tour workshops which start in mid-March and are completed in mid-April, I take time on my annual pilgrimage following the Cherry blossoms North to Hokkaido.  My destinations for that Japan photo tour include Tokyo and the likes of Ueno Park, Mt. Fuji’s Chureito Pagoda and other so-called famous places across Japan.  However, I felt the need to broaden my cross-culture sakura pursuit, so I have been scouting Northern Japan Cherry Blossom routes for over five years, and this year I will continue my pilgrimage; many of the hamlets I stop over for and spend days thoroughly scouting have never had a pro-western photographer resident or even a visitor.  And the local residents are very humble and hospitable, not speaking of authentic Japan.  They live it daily.  And I will be ready to open new cherry blossom routes for participants in 2022 or 2023, starting in Tokyo and heading North, so in the not-so-distant future, I will be extending my annual cherry blossom workshop tours from about mid-March to mid-May, completing the tours in Hokkaido.  And spring in Hokkaido is a birder's paradise with plenty of other wildlife to photograph, including mammals such as sea lions, whales, and many others.  Plus, if you enjoy landscape photography, you will love the jagged shorelines along the coast heading north; along the way, we will stop at beaches known locally as Jade Beach or Jasper Beach and others, where precious stones are bountiful and found daily, but more importantly, make for beautiful photography.

Currently, Covid-19 in the regions where I would be leading my cherry blossom photo workshop have a dozen or a couple of dozen active cases.  About ten years ago, I discontinued group Kyoto photography workshop tours due to the swamp of tourists and so-called influencers producing videos in the regions for video platforms such as Youtube. There are some other big-name places in Japan that I am thinking of dropping, as I prefer to experience the pure and peaceful photographic Zen experience that is authentic Japan, where I can drain the swamp of tourists somewhere off the beaten path.

Japanese dogma has made ‘Zen’ a word known worldwide; Japan’s aesthetics come from simplicity or natural elements from nature and Buddhist philosophies. The art of authentic Japan and a traditional lifestyle close to nature, including luxuriating healthy teas and foods daily in our gardens with their pleasing yet straightforward elegant simplicity, has inspired and fascinated generations of artisans and those seeking authentic Japan and our dogma. The spiritual master Shunryu Suzuki was born and lived a short distance from my first home once said, “Whatever you do is Zen. That is why I like Zen. In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the experts’ there are few.”

The “beginners mind” in Zen Buddhism we call ‘Shoshin,' having an attitude of openness and lack of preconceptions when approaching any study, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would. For as long as I can remember, I have striven to keep the beginner's mindset a way of life.