city university of hong kong

ruinas de sao paulo, macau

april's first weekend

travelers and fliers

going around historic intramuros

visit to mike's university of sto. tomas

taking it slow in serendra piazza

holy week 2012

Last 2010, Mike and I satisfied our curiosity and flew to Batanes, the northernmost province of the country. A combination of photo shoot opportunity and the chance to embrace local tourism, we knew we had to pass on the thirst for travel and learning to the girls.

So the family had started a little tradition to go out of town when the time and budget would allow. Last year, we took Annika and Angela for a few days to Singapore during the Holy Week. Understandably so, since that's the only time of the year when Mike can leave work and really focus on some serious family get-together.

This year, we will just take it slow in the national capital region and highlight the Holy Week with a Visita Iglesia in a number of churches of pre-war Intramuros. Guide map to be printed in a while.

On the side, while Mike wants to shop for golf accessories and apparel for Annika, Angela's main purpose is to shop till she finds the book of the boy band, One Direction. I just want to point out to the girls some swanky boutiques within Makati and let them enjoy the absence of trisikads within the business district. But on top of it all, I will savor the time of us four camping and cramping it inside one hotel room.

It will be fun and I promise to be sloppy and not mind whatever it is that shall not be perfect, according to my standards. Holy Week and time away from home with the family, as it is, is perfect enough.

summer in singapore

waitin' and laughin' and posin' and bondin'

the four women in mike's life

with the maaaaaaaaaan!

the tourists.. on foot

the city of cebu

with my airline official seatmate, angela

silent city hall in a non-working holiday

the family that poses together, stays together

four glorious jumps in historic fort san pedro

around batanes islands

All photos courtesy of Mike Mendoza.

taking travel portraits

Packing for travel is a never-ending thing for me until the last minute that I get on the car and drive to the airport. Make that almost an impossible task this time when I have to discuss and argue and cajole with my husband who will share one luggage with me because we plan to travel light. We are bound for the Batanes Islands tomorrow.

We planned to make this vacation just to shoot the place. So add to the packing nightmare the equally scary 11th hour lessons on how to use the Canon 40D, since we just decided that I must outgrow the Canon 1000D for this trip.

I have tucked my camera bag in the dusty part of our room for more than four months already. And I was amazed how the mind forgets. I couldn't set the proper ISO. I even forgot how to view and move from one image to the other!

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Getting off from my online games, I brought to the table all the magazines and photography books from the shelves for a quick scan.

At the end, I decided on settle on a few notes from Manny Librodo on taking travel portraits:

1. interact with the subject

2. get close with the subject

3. set the stage, then be spontaneous

4. look for a face with character

5. watch out for light and shadow

6. train your eyes to see colors

7. tell a story

I haven't even started on how to shoot landscapes!

Yes, the single luggage will be crammed. The photography tips are in a jumble in my head. But the heart beats with anticipation. Vacation and photography with the best man in the world - I am a lucky woman!

photo: it's about the hat

a bangkok photo diary

September 24 International Symposium on Heritage Tourism
with Sally, Mike and Melissa

September 24 Thailand Ministry of Tourism & Sports Welcome Dinner
with Girard


September 25 Bangkok Street Walks
and the tuktuk

September 25 Tourism Authority of Thailand Luncheon Cruise
along Chao Phraya River


September 26 Heritage Tourism Symposium Plenary Chairmanship
at the Prince Damrong Auditorium


September 26 Rose Garden Floating Market
during the field trip


September 27 7th Thailand Tourism Awards
at the Bangkok Convention Centre

September 27 Shopping and Dining
at the Bangkok Convention Centre

autumn in japan

Trying to capture our joint experience in the ENCI-1 Training Program for Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Japan. Being the fourth in our team was one of the best times I ever had.

For Teri, Vic and Jake. Yours always, Heidi



Soundtrack:
Final Fantasy Tifa's Theme
Everything by Michael Buble

right... so desu ne!

The study tour of Japan three years ago for the period March 24 – April 15 was made possible by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under its 2003 Japan-ASEAN Youth Friendship Programme for the 21st century. For many years now, Filipino youth have been sent to Japan under various studies to experience the country, its culture and its people through a programme of a little less than one month. I was a participant in the Local Development Group, representing the NEDA Region 10 Northern Mindanao Office.

The study tour started off with General Orientation for 5 days in Osaka. This was followed by the Tokyo Program for 5 days. An inhouse seminar for 3 days made up the Osio, Kanagawa Programme, followed by the 7 days Tokuyama, Yamaguchi Program. It ended with the 3 days evaluation programme back in Osaka.

The opening ceremony in Osaka launched the friendship program. Attending were JICA officers, the Philippine ambassador, all the Filipino participants and even the Vietnamese participants who were also in a similar study tour. During the Osaka Programme, lectures were given to deepen the participants’ general view of the country as well as their knowledge of the present situation of the Japanese people, culture and economy especially after World War II. Three sessions of Japanese lessons were also conducted to enhance the already acquired minimum Japanese expressions of the participants. This was necessary for the one-day exercise of the Filipino participants with the Japanese youth volunteers.

... all around me was the soft chill of early spring. And everyone we met happily awaited the first buds of the cherry blossoms. It was a heady combination.

The Tokyo programme began with the ride in the Shinkansen, the famous bullet train of Japan. The trip from Osaka to Tokyo indulged everyone with a view of Mount Fuji, the most revered mountain in the country. Moreover, the ride presented to the Filipino participants the hustle and bustle of the everyday life of a working person in the country. It also showed the ingenuity of the Japanese infrastructure, from their buildings to bridges, to tunnels and to road networks.

The Tokyo programme was filled with visits, lectures, briefings and excursions to include the Roppongi Hills; Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications; ASEAN-Japan Promotion Centre on Trade, Investment and Tourism; Edo Tokyo Museum; and, Honjo Life Safety Learning Center.

... spreading its two arms of buzzing city streets and silent cobbled nooks, Tokyo welcomed me, who, like a petulant child, wouldn’t believe this place existed until she finally steps down and breathes its cool breeze.

The Kanagawa programme was a three-day in-house seminar which was conducted in the Oiso Prince Hotel. Aside from the Filipino party, the seminar also had twenty other Japanese youth who participated in a one-on-one sharing and discussion sessions.

The Kanagawa programme enabled a closer encounter between the Filipino and Japanese participants. The in-house seminar brought about a personal understanding of the similarities of peoples despite the differences – not only through the workshops but also during the informal sharing during mealtimes and evening get-togethers.

... up and down the hill, through hedgerows, down the lane, around the azure pool, and into the warmth of the extended hands of friendship – that’s how we went.

The Yamaguchi Programme started on April 6 and was hosted by the organization, World Youth Friendship in Tokuyama. While in Yamaguchi, the group stayed in the Ad Hoc Marufuku Hotel in Shunan City. It was where the welcome party was held together with all the officers and members of the sponsoring organization.

Like in the Tokyo programme, various lectures and on-site visits were conducted during the Yamaguchi programme, to include the Tokuyama Technical Junior College, Kudamatsu Street Redevelopment Project, Mazda Auto Company, Horikoshigama Pottery, Yanai Power Plant, and Kisan Elementary School.

... the gray sand in the stretch of beach and the sunshine in the sea mimic the warmth of my home; but there the similarities ended, because this indeed, is a different place with its distinct agenda, and moving on its own cadence.

The Youth Invitation Programme provided the participants priceless opportunities to observe Japan’s local development and posed a lot of challenges for the young civil servants of the Philippines.

This would mean though that participants from the central or the national government would have bigger responsibilities in terms of applying the various lessons because most of the local development policies in the Philippines come from the central government.

From the perspective of the participants from the local government units and regional line agencies, the application of experiences would be on the formulation and advocacy of policies that promote good practices of Japan and applying these in the Philippine setting, and, capacity building program on key areas of local governance and development. Referring to the highlights of good Japanese practices and utilization of experiences would be helpful in the promotion of local development.

As the biggest challenge for the participants to this programme would be the translation of these experiences to the local setting, and replication of these learnings to the offices and local government units, the first steps to its realization would initially be done through testimonials in various public seminars or briefings, policy discussions, conduct of advocacy campaigns and project development.

... each day a new lesson was bestowed upon us – and we received them all with amazement and acceptance – and we wondered, what else is there? And then we wondered some more, what can we learn from this?

Japan welcomed us with the first tinges of spring, and as I listened and embraced the sessions and the activities, I realized that I too, was waking up. Japan, to me, did not boast of its development. The surrounding cleanliness and the industry of the people have been there, and I was just given the chance to see it. All along, they’ve been busy planning and creating and building and preserving, and it was a pleasure to view it and just be a part of it all for a few days.

If for anything else, I have created with this study tour a new network of acquaintances and friends. My host family was a delight, I found out that the Japanese volunteers and the youth during our in-house seminar have similar interests with me, and most of all, the local group I belonged to was more than I could bargain for. When at the beginning of the programme, there were nineteen other participants for the Local Development Group, at the end of it, there were already nineteen friends for me from all over the country: Jason, Nadz, Loren, Marge, Sosty, Rommel, Jane, Weng, Jhoe, Alvin, Rizan, Didi, Laryx, Milay, Dhonn, Sandy, Liza, Rex and Eunice.

The Japan study tour was a superb experience. Undeniably, I have gathered lessons and expanded my horizons. And though I believe that there is no place like home, I think that it also would not hurt for the home to learn a few good things from that place which played as our host for fantastic twenty-three days.

... nihon e kite yokatta desu. Ii omoide ga dekimashita. Taisetsu ni shimasu.

* An excerpt from my study tour report. In salute to a group now celebrating an anniversary of a great friendship.