Big in Japan

Konichiwa Japan!


After a pretty decent flight and a short stop in Tokyo, I came in last night at Osaka airport and had my first Japanese snack. Onigiri are a conglomerate of rice and fish and are very neatly pakaged. Today, it is time to discover this place. Sayonara!

Preparing for Japan

For all those who have managed NOT to hear: I'm going to Japan for two weeks!
Flight leaves on Thursday for Osaka.

Sorry that I can't really say goodbye to most people: So little time, so much work!

I'll try to get some updates up here from Japan, but can't promise anything!

The Biggins Rock Alki

Sunday saw a car-free event at Alki Beach in West Seattle.
Time to get hot with some Ska action. The Biggins is a Ska band from Federal Way (about an hour south of Seattle) and Sax player Heather who had been with us at Sasquatch music festival the weekend before has been promising me a Sax performance forever!



They sure did radiate energy from that stage!


Brass man Mikey is in tune with the music both on and off stage.




... and Austin got so carried away he went Brian Adams sytle ("bled until my fingers bled")


When we went to hang near the beach, I had one of their tunes stuck in my head - funny enough their cover of "Would you be Impressed" by Street Light.

Crowd Funding Is a Piece of the Raft

... of the raft that will save journalism!

After hard hours of editing and format struggles, the finished work can finally be appreciated online. Incredible what you can do with the most primitive tools! Find my Video on community funded journalism and spot.us on youtube. This is for my class on Digital Journalism.

If you are curious to see the whole interview with David, check it out here. Also take a look at how the story developed, how the question poll turned out, see my recap and what the story board for the video originally used to be.

Northwest Folklife Festival & Sasquatch

Here are some pictures from the Nortwest Folklife Festival in Seattle. It's a free event that happens every year and that brings the craziest and funnestest people together ;-)


Like these free-huggers. How could you not love them?


A lot of work is done by the volunteers - to keep the festival free.


And of course the musicians and other artists like Riley the fiddler, acompanied by his Dad on the guitar.


This is Million Dollar Nile, a bluegrass band from SEattle (full discoosure, singer Nicole is my supervisor at FIUTS, but their music really DOES rock! see here. My favorite is "Kilowatt")



Beyond the Blue Grass Hill, the visitors (and their personal "classifieds" got a little more exotic.


And so did the music.



In the true hippie spirit that is carried throughout the festival, an outdoor shower was the best way to cool off from the hot Seattle sun.

Featured today: ME!

Yay, I'm famous! (Oh, I'm so humble ;-))

Well, maybe not quite yet! But I'm working on it! Meanwhile, check out this interview with me. FIUTS is the Foundation of International Understanding at the University of Washington. I have volunteered there on many projects to foster international understanding. I've also taken pictures for them and just finished editing this video teaser for an upcoming event.I will also do a little video of the event itself.

And right now, I'm on the non-profit's front page!

In the interview I talk about being an international student, Germany and my travel to Mexico. There's also a number of random Q&As. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Bizarre Landscapes: Mt.St. Hellens&The Oregon Coast

Bizarre Landscapes on the West Coast



With my visiting friends from Germany, I used the last weekend to explore one of the strangest places in the Pacific Northwest: Mount St. Hellens.



Since the erruption of May 1980, the arrea seems very surreal. Until today, the devastation is quite obvious and everything reminds of the massive explosion.



Where the lave floated down the mountain it formed a valley and left marks on the earth that make it appear very unreal, almost like on another planet.



It is hard to imagine the force of nature that created these landscapes, but nature has also started to claim back the territory. It creates new beautiful landscapes.

We spent another day along the rough West coast for more if its beautiful landscape.



In Oceanside, we used the "tropical" setting for some relaxation at the beach. Here, the wind was creator of all landscapes. After a couple of hours, it had changed the appearance of the sand, shifted dunes from one place to another.



Of course, these populated coast areas cannot deny the human impact on the landscape.
HEre it is a little harder for nature to make its claim.



steel and metal dominate the landscape where politics has drawn the state line between Oregon and Washington: on the Bridge over the Colombia River