From the time I started looking for a place to stay in Berlin, hotels quickly informed me that it would be difficult to find a place to stay during ITB -- or even to find a flat to rent if it covered those days within my four months! So naturally, I was curious about what could draw that many people to the city so I made the trek across the city to attend.
172,132 people visited the world this week at the ITB, which is an acronym for the International Travel Trade Fair or something along that line. Over 10,000 companies related to enticing people to travel the world were there. At first, I thought, "people come here and think they've traveled the world?" But quickly, I found myself talking to a company that arranges bike/boat/hotel packages at the beautiful lake, Bodensee, that included luggage transportation and I was interested.
I came to the Japan area and I heard the music of my childhood home -- Okinawa, a tiny island that wasn't even part of Japan, post war until 1972. It has a distinct culture with music, dance, language, food that is quite different from the rest of Japan. When I heard the music and saw the fair attendees dancing, beating on the drums and joining in the festivities, I felt gratitude that so many people were interested and willing to engage with my homeland.
Then, I found these relatives to my Swiss Carved Family and an official photographer photographed ME photographing the carvings. I lamented to the photographer that I had brought the wrong lens, to which he quickly responded, no, you just have to get closer to your subject if you brought your wide angle. So, I did. Here's my up-close view.
I love the tale you tell in both this post and the original l one showing your carved family. The travel fair sounds like a fun, special experience, I'm glad you took the time to see it.
I really like the angle you used for this photo, I think it seems more active, especially for the far figure and his gesture.
I really like the angle you used for this photo, I think it seems more active, especially for the far figure and his gesture.