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A Quiet Year of Recovery
In 2005, I spent New Year's Day in a Sri Lankan village
devastated by the tsunami. Days later I was in Aceh,
Indonesia. 2006 first promised to become a similarly busy and demanding year.
Soon after New Year's Day I left for my second trip to Pakistan to cover the aftermath of the devastating earthquake there. My October trip had been my hardest assignment so far. Both physically and mentally. I tore a calf muscle and was only able to walk with very strong pain killers.
Soon after my return, I tore my other calf muscle... Worst was having to see the terrible plight of all the children. Many had limbs amputated, because doctors couldn't reach their isolated villages and treat their simple wounds. They got infected and hospitals were just not ready for that.
The January trip turned out to be easier, even though my legs had not recovered yet and I was still suffering from diarrhoea. The isolated village that I visited in October could now be reached by car, albeit after a rough trip only possible with a four wheel drive. During the trip, a small rock fell on the bonnet. If we had arrived at that spot a fraction of a second earlier, I don't know what would have happened. Lucky again!
The day after we arrived in the village, big storms washed away the road and we were stuck. A snow leopard was stalking the village and the villagers feared for their dogs and cattle. One dog vanished during the night. The last that was heard was a scary yelp.
After several days my guide and I decided to walk out of the mountains. We left our driver and the jeep behind. It would take him about ten days before he was finally able to drive out...
Once again I had just returned to Japan when I had to step on a plane to help Cherry in Australia. My health was pretty bad at this time, so I wasn't able to enjoy my stay in Australia as much as last year.
March brought another Japan Fashion Week. Paul-Vincent McInnes and I had a lot of fun with this one. There were some excellent shows. Unfortunately, also here my bad health kind of limited me.
It would take me until August until I found out that I have a gluten intolerance. Even after cutting out all food containing even a hint of gluten, I still have some problems, though. Hopefully, I can figure out the problem soon, because it affects me a lot. Very often I am hardly able to function... My apologies to all those I have inconvenienced with that during the past year.
Spending more time at home, I was able to do some much needed cleaning, though. My office was a mess and the huge table in the dining room was completely covered with unanswered mail. There were even New Year cards from 2004... It felt so good to clear all that away.
In spite of my bad health, I was still able to do some fun jobs this year. I did quite a few radio reports as well as a few unique assignments.
Through World Press Photo I was asked by the Dutch National Archive (Nationaal Archief) and the Kunsthal Rotterdam to shoot photographs of Osaka for an exhibition about 17th century cartographer Johannes Vingboons.
I rented a helicopter for this and spent quite some time in the skies above this huge industrial city. Osaka somehow seemed a lot smaller from the air. It is just a few minutes from Universal Studios to Osaka Castle. On the ground this takes close to an hour!
September brought another Fashion Week, meetings with new JapaneseStreets team members Pippa Griffiths and Jennifer Pierce and lots of attempts to work on the redesign of JapaneseStreets.com.
2006 felt a bit like a lost year. But I was also able to recover, recharge my batteries and make plans for the coming years. Most importantly, I was able to re-unite with several old -and deeply loved- friends and make a few great new ones. 2007 should be a lot more fun and productive!
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