Mystic Travelling

As you may have noticed, I have not been adding new posts for some time. This has been partly due to developing my website, as well as being somewhat busy with both the Christmas holidays and work. The hiatus is now over, and regular updates will return.

I am busy preparing for my third trip to Burma (Myanmar) for a month this March. Of course, that means lots of new photography and adventures to share. As you may know, I adore the Burmese people enormously, and I look forward to meeting friends both there and in Thailand. I may also squeeze in another trip to Cambodia.

In the meantime, you can see some of my latest Japan photography HERE. I hope that you like them.

The Mystic Traveller Has Just Got Bigger!

As you may have noticed, the last few days have been somewhat lacking in new posts. This has been due to my efforts to build a more satisfactory website, with a few extra bells and whistles. You can gain a preview glimpse at www.themystictraveller.com.

The main reason for this development was really out of dissatisfaction with the current showcasing of my photography. I think you will agree that the new presentation is far more professional looking. You can get a preview glimpse of one of my new photography pages here. Photography from other countries, as well as my artwork, will follow shortly.

The Mystic Traveller blog will remain unchanged, but will now be linked within the main site. I hope that you will enjoy the results and that, perhaps, you would be kind enough to link with my new website. I will be adding links to other sites shortly.

The Beauty Con

This video from Dove, shows how our perceptions of beauty are being manipulated. It isn't really a revelation, but it is a reminder that genuine beauty exists not on the covers of magazines. Perhaps, it is time to rediscover the beauty in a freckle, wrinkle or curve. Take a look at this fascinating transformation.

Site Updates

The Mystic Traveller site is introducing new features, so please bear with me as I go through the painfully slow process of updating everything. Hopefully soon, there will be a comprehensive Categories Section, which will allow easy access to posts related to Sacred Places, Photography, Archaeology and Anthropology, and a whole host of other groupings.

Keep smiling,

*UPDATE: All posts have now been categorised.

The Mystic Traveller Is Spreading Across Cyberspace

For a while now, I have been a member of MySpace - the current internet phenomenon. However, I always thought that the page I had there was too dull to really connect with this site. Well, it has been upgraded to keep in with the spirit I have tried to invoke here. You can visit it by clicking on the following link: The Mystic Traveller At MySpace.

Please do feel free to join my friends there.

Bright Blessings,

A Challenge To The Mystic Traveller

The Mystic Traveller Caught In Action
Photography By El-Branden Brazil

A Japanese friend of mine wrote to me yesterday praising my recent photography in Egypt. He especially liked the portraits I had taken there. However, he lamented at how few images of Japanese people appear on my photography site in contrast.

It is very strange, but when I was building the SPIRIT site in Britain, I realised how few shots I had taken in Japan after living there for 9 years. I suppose I was not as motivated to photograph the place I lived, as much as the places I travelled to; which is crazy, because Japan is highly photogenic on many, many levels.

In response to my friend, I have taken up his challenge to improve the Japan section of my website. I intend to capture more images of modern Japan and its people. They will be posted on Mystic Japan.

*UPDATE: The mission has begun and I think I managed to get a few successful shots in Harajuku and Shibuya. This is but the start...

A Clean Cut Mystic Traveller

Yesterday, quite spontaneously, I decided to remove my goatee beard. Once a year, perhaps out of boredom with the face that reflects back at me in the mirror, I find myself impulsively lifting a razor to the course hair protruding from my upper lip and chin. Everytime I do so, I am amazed at how youthful my beard's removal makes me.

Beneath is revealed a face that has a chin dimple to match that of John Travolta; although my chin is a weak, receding affair that gives me zero hope of ever being cast as Batman or Superman! My dear lost goatee has always been a veiled attempt to compensate for what is lacking below the pale, tanless skin.

The downside of removing facial hair is the preparation required to cope with the reactions from friends and colleagues. It is hard enough to adjust to the 'new' look, without the continual attention. I am always amazed at how so much verbiage can be generated by simply removing some whiskers. Then again, I remember how obsessed my entire class was at primary school when the deputy head teacher shaved off his ginger chin mullet.

Well, one day of facial baldness has passed and I am already considering growing the beard back; a process that takes about two weeks. I am sure that I could get used to being beardless, but I do feel so naked.

Exciting Things Happening At The Mystic Traveller Site

As many of you may be aware, the site has been going through somewhat of a facelift, recently. This is in preparation to relaunch the site.

Whilst it has been a pleasure to share my own work and adventures over the past year, I would very much like to open the site to other people's spiritual adventures whilst travelling. If you have any interesting tales, photography, travel book reviews, spiritual musings and the like that you would like published on this site, then please send me an e-mail at tibetkanagawa@hotmail.com

I will most likely be returning to Japan in January, so rather than send my large collection of photography back to Tokyo, I have decided to assemble a website displaying images from a variety of countries for my convenience and hopefully your pleasure. It is in its early stages, and there is a lot of selecting, adding and deleting of photographs in each of the categories. As the days go on, there will be new country sections attached. Please visit: Spirit: Photography By El-Branden Brazil

Photography By The Mystic Traveller

Over the years, I have received a lot of praise for my travel photography. Many shots have appeared on this website. However, please visit El-Branden Brazil's Cyber Exhibition for a collection of my favourite material.

What I have realised, is that it is time to move over to digital. I am very tired of paying extortionate prices to have film developed; and often not to my liking. I do think that digital photography takes away the reliance of the photographer's eye to get the perfect shot. In many ways, going digital can make a photographer lazy. That said, the art of photography also lies in the selection process. A bad shot will always be a bad shot.

The Mystic Traveller Alive and Kicking

As you may have noticed over the last few months, the level of posting has been infrequent, to say the least. This has been due to distractions elsewhere, such as trying to crack into the steel-coated shell of the media industry in Britain. After hundreds of applications and a couple of very close successes, it appears that my efforts have been somewhat of a disaster. What has become sadly apparent to me, is while I have some contacts in the media industry in Japan, I am absolutely out of the loop in Britain, and cannot effectively network.

There was some excitement during August, when I was shortlisted out of 400 candidates to be a programme developer for Thames Television. They seemed to like the programme ideas on my application form, but after having an interview with the producer of The X-Factor, it seemed that at the ripe old age of 33, I was a touch too old for them. I am starting to think that the media industry is only looking for foetuses, which can be easily molded into shape.

Unfortunately, all the ideas I submitted to Thames had to be signed over to them for their own legal protection. This means that Thames can do whatever they like with my concepts and I will get nothing in return!

During the seven months I have been back in Britain, I have been able to reassess my life in Japan, and consider how much I sacrificed by returning to the UK. Japan was never perfect, but I enjoyed a certain level of comfort, as well as a fantastic social life. The exotic locale was always far more stimulating to me than Britain could ever be.

My heart is driving me back to Asia. I miss it so much, and just cannot wait to step off the airplane on to that continent again. Tomorrow, I am going to London for an interview that could provide a foot back into Japan. On Tuesday, I will partake in another interview in Cambridge for a job in Bangkok. Both have their attractions and I am confident that I may find myself in an awful pickle having to decide which to take.

It has not all been doom and gloom, as I have had a wonderful opportunity to spend time with my incredibly patient and supportive parents, as well as meet up with my brother and friends. I have also just become the godfather of my best friend's newly born daughter. I cannot tell you how much that has cheered me up. I am so looking forward to being the doting godfather who sends gifts from faraway lands.

As for this site, the regular posting will return, as the spice returns to my life....

Beer Aplenty

Finally, the sun has managed to breach the perpetual overcast skies that have been present almost everyday in Britain, since I left Japan. Over the past two days, I have been staying in Devon, with my best friend from school and college, enjoying the hot weather.

Having only seen James five or six times over the last decade, it is great to spend time together and find that the friendship still remains strong. He invited me to the small village of Axminister, where he now resides with his very pregnant wife. The village had a large beer festival, so he thought that a whiff of the old ales might tempt me to his locale. Like all good friends, he judged me accurately.

On Saturday, we relaxed out in a field, chatting and quenching our unquenchable thirsts with the local ales provided. Beer and humidity do indeed make for such an excellent partnership!

An Englishman In A Foreign Land Called Britain

For sometime, I have wanted to write about my experiences moving back to Britain from the Far East. Unfortunately, there have been all kinds of incidents that have pulled away my attentions from this site. To put it bluntly, 2005 has not been a good year for me, so far. Life has a tendency of fluctuating from the great to the downright rotten. The more I am aware of this flux, the more I am convinced that there is a force called Karma.

I am in no hurry to repeat the rushed packing that I went through during the last two weeks in Tokyo. It was absolute mayhem. I never imagined or wanted to leave Tokyo in such an unceremonial fashion. It seemed such an anticlimax to a wonderful period of my life. There was no time for farewell parties, and many of my dear friends still have no idea that I left.

If I am honest though, leaving felt like a good chance for a new start. I felt like I was stagnating, because I could not find a constant ready supply of work in the industry I wish to be in. The idea of returning to Britain was never appealing, but I thought that it would perhaps reawaken me from the comfortable, but non-progressive dream I was living in Tokyo.

On returning back to Britain, I was suddenly overcome by reverse culture shock. It is strange, but when I arrived in Japan for the first time, I did not even get a wink of discomfort. In fact, I was rather disappointed at how easy it was to settle in Japan.

There are several aspects that caused me the shock I felt on returning home. The incessant chatter that goes on all around me has been particularly startling. I missed "small talk" in Japan, and noted how this was not a custom for the Japanese. However, I was not prepared for the endless stream of words that burst forth from the lips of shop assistants, when purchasing something so mundane as a Crunchie.

Perhaps, the most disturbing item to purchase is a lottery ticket, because I find myself having exactly the same conversation with every shop assistant that has served me. It is almost like a mantra, as I find myself boringly say, 'Yep, I'm going to win today.' And every time I think, 'I bet she's not heard that one before.' Sometimes, silence is a far more golden.

If there is one thing that the Japanese do better, that is dressing well. I had forgotten how terribly dressed the British are. On top of the fashion crisis that is prevalent here, the introduction of American-sized food portions has done little to improve things. Obesity is becoming a growing concern in Britain. The results of this trend are all too apparent.

When I went to a cinema recently, I ordered regular size popcorn. I thought that I would be served a normal, old-fashion cup, but was instead given a bucket that could quite easily have fed an entire school of kids for a month and a half. One elderly lady was absolutely stunned by the size of the popcorn beast I held embarrassingly under my arm. Conveniently, but entirely by accident, I spilt half the popcorn, as I got up from my seat in the waiting corridor. It made a horrific scene of white-yellow flecks all over the floor and seat. I felt very sorry for the poor cinema worker who had to clean up, but a warm tingle of relief dominated my emotions, in knowing that I had escaped from having to consume it all!

Since being back, most of my time, inevitably, has been spent applying for employment. Rather naively, I had assumed that headhunters, recruitment agents and employers would throw me a street parade, in very much the same vain as Neil Armstrong's, when he returned from the moon. In mistaken flights of fancy, I visualised employers tripping over themselves trying to get me into their businesses. In fact, it seems that it will take time and perseverance to achieve the results I want.

It has been great to see my family and friends again. I wish that I could be more upbeat for them. Unfortunately, I miss my exotic life in Tokyo. I feel like I have lost a lot. It was not perfect by any means, but I had an excellent lifestyle and social life. I feel like I have stepped back in time to a period of my life before university. Recent events, such as the death of my dear friend, have done little to relieve the general frustration I have. Anyway, if things do not work out in Britain over the coming year, I can always go back to Tokyo, or to some new pastures away from these shores.

Breathing

Hi, everyone! After a long hiatus, the site will be up and running again this week. I must say, returning back to Britain, after nine years in Japan, has been an emotional ride.

In so many ways, it is easier to live here, but I miss the challenges that I faced daily in Tokyo, as well as the wonderful lifestyle and friends I had there. Part of my heart feels like it has remained on the opposite side of the planet. I will write more about what has happened since we last met, in the coming days. There will also be further reports on mystical adventures and exotic travels, as well as my photography.

In the meantime, check out my macabre artwork at the Gallery Of The Bizarre. I put this together as an internet portfolio, as I continue in my quest for that elusive creative career, I so crave for.

Gink Gonk - The King Kong Parody

For some time, I have been parodying the exploits of Peter Jackson and his crew on the current project, King Kong, at the excellent fansite Kong Is It!

In the persona of a diabolically snobby character actor, called Sir Richard Karlson Ogilvy (aka RKO Classic), I have had an enormous amount of pleasure creating outlandish tales of on-set antics. This has now developed into a blog devoted to Sir Richard and his filmic adventures with Peter Jackson and the gang. So, if you feel inclined, why don't you pop over for a visit to Gink Gonk.

Due to other engagements, I have been unable to post regularly on the Mystic Traveller site. However, expect more posts to come this week, as well as more of my travel photography.

The Lonely Planet Culture

The Lonely Planet books are by far the finest travel guides on the market. They are consistently well researched and clearly written. That said, they should not be overly relied upon, because there are wonderful hotels, restaurants and places of interest that are often omitted from its hallowed pages.

The Lonely Planet has been a welcomed travel companion over the years. However, I have some concerns about it. As I travel throughout the world, I am discovering that the planet is now transforming into The Lonely Planet!

Whether it be Copacabana in Bolivia, Kochi in India, Pokhara in Nepal, or Luang Prabang in Laos, it seems that places of unique culture and history are being transformed into places that fit a general backpacking standard, as defined by everyone's favourite guidebook. The same hemp leaf adorned shops, vegetarian restaurants and Internet cafes, are now replacing the traditional face that made these spots so special in the first place. For the sake of business, the locals are forced out and the backpackers swooned in.

I don't blame The Lonely Planet, because this is clearly an unintentional result of their enormous success. But, their mass appeal has led to people around the world using the guidebook as an insight for developing businesses appealing to backpackers.

Backpacking culture has always promoted itself, rather snobbishly, as one looking for experiences that the average package tour visitor is not privy to. Ironically, as The Lonely Planet culture invades the most isolated corners of the world, it would now seem that backpackers are merely on The Lonely Planet package tour.

Predicting The Blues

Dr Cliff Arnall, of Cardiff University, has suggested that Monday, January 24th, will be the most depressing day of the year for British people, based on an equation he has devised.

His formula of melancholy is 1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA. In plain English, this is a calculation, which takes into account several factors of influence on mood: The ‘W’ stands for weather, whilst ‘D-d’ represents debt minus money due on payday. ‘T’ is the time since Christmas. ‘Q’ is the failure to quit a bad habit. ‘M’ is general motivation. And ‘NA’ is the need to take action to make changes.

Since the introduction of the Puritanical work ethic, Mondays have ritually become a day of mourning for the lost excesses of freedom allowed on weekends. However, next Monday is predicted to be a particularly bleak one for the Brits. The dark, and often wet, January days, with the fresh memories of the relaxing Christmas period, disappointment with broken New Year’s resolutions, and the debts that come in tow with the season, make for a grim combination. That is certainly what the good doctor thinks.

Thankfully, I live in Tokyo. So, rather smugly, I will enjoy the usual crisp, dry, slightly warmer winters that occur here. On top of this, travelling in India was not expensive, and so very little debt was incurred over the Christmas season. Having learnt from previous failures, I also refrained from making any unsustainable New Year’s promises. All in all, January 24th is looking good for me here in Japan. It may even turn out to be the best day of my life. But then, a Monday is always a Monday, wherever you may be!

The Petronas Towers

The Petronas Towers Reflected In A Pool, Kuala Lumpur (2004)
Photography By El-Branden Brazil

Dominating the skyline of Kuala Lumpur, stand the symbols of Malayasia's economic success and ambitions - The Petronas Towers. Under the auspices of former Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir, the towers were designed by Cesar Pelli and constructed by an international team.

Skyscrapers were the great Twentieth Century icons of wealth, and so Mahathir aimed to reach heights that would dwarf towers found in the USA. When the buildings were completed in 1997, they reached a height of 452 meters (1483 feet). To date, they remain the highest buildings in the world, although this title will shortly be acquired by Shanghai.

The design of the buildings marvellously incorporates an Islamic-influenced geometrical polygonal plan, accompanied with 32,000 shimmering windows to the top. No doubt, higher buildings await us in the future, but it will be very difficult to match the aesthetic beauty that is imbued in these modern marvels.

Don't Mess With My Tutu!

El-Branden Brazil Backstage On The
Production Of 'Swan Lake'

Many years ago, I was employed to work for the Birmingham Ballet Company and The Royal Ballet Company, as an actor. Having been a professional performer from the age of ten, I was very excited to have the opportunity to experience working for these prestigious companies.

Apart from a very brief stint of ballet lessons, at the ripe old age of three, I had absolutely no skill in the pirouette to contribute to any professional production. However, both ballet and opera productions require professional actors to support the dancers, either working as background movement or as small featured roles. The opportunity provides no chance of fame, but it does allow a wonderful insight into the workings of a ballet production from behind-the-scenes.

The first I worked on, was Cinderella for the Birmingham Ballet Company. In this particular production, I had the respectable role of 'Footman'. This required me to don 18th. Century attire, as well as a short powdered wig. There was some responsibility, as I had to be on cue to open the door on Cinderella's coach, as she arrived for the Prince's ball.

Timing is crucial, as the orchestra stops for no one. Unfortunately, on the first night, I forgot that the coach's door handle needed to be pushed up, rather than the more natural action of down. I could hear from the wings, the stage manager screaming, "UP!!! UP!!!", and Cinderella, looking so graceful, whispering, "Get the fucking door open!" Finally, after what seemed like minutes, but was actually seconds, the door opened, and Cinderella leapt out to catch-up with her missed cues.

People have many misconceptions about ballet dancers. The first is that they are incredibly fit. In so many ways they are, but it seemed ironic to catch the ballet dancers coming off stage, bent over and exhausted, but immediately lighting up a cigarette to "clear" the lungs.

The second misconception, is that they are snobby, serious and distant. Nothing could be further from the truth. On the production of Swan Lake I worked on, for the Royal Ballet Company at the Bristol Hippodrome, it was difficult to keep a straight face on the stage.

In one scene, I played a lord arriving at the Swan Queen's ball in the Second Act. After entering and bowing nobly to the Queen, I then had to spend a torturous ten minutes, standing stoically in the background. This should have been a simple task, had it not been for the ballet dancers' insatiable desire to make me laugh by pulling silly faces, as they pirouetted by!