hi, I'm Gesina

I stop in the middle of the street so you don't have to.

And then I write it all down for you. The food (most importantly), how to get around on your own, and the little things other people walk right past.

Start with Japan
Gesina photographing the crowds in Dotonbori, Osaka, with her Canon camera, under the big dragon of a ramen shop
stopped in the middle of the street
A man in a red shirt crouches for a smoke break in a back alley in Kobe, while a restaurant worker pulls a crate of bottles past a blue Thai restaurant
real cities, not just pretty ones

Start here: Japan

where it all started

I've been to Japan many times. These stories come from all those trips, put in an order you could actually travel. Follow the route, or jump in anywhere.

  1. from Korea Busan

    Coming from Korea? The ferry drops you right in Fukuoka.

  2. by ferry Fukuoka

    Lost wallet, best walk. Plus the ramen rules.

  3. by Shinkansen Kobe

    A food scientist walks into a beef museum.

  4. by train Osaka

    The famous things I still haven't done.

Places

the rest is still in my booklet box

Japan first. Ireland is next, and more will follow.

Visitors walk through golden mist next to the red pagoda of Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto at sunset

Japan

4 stories

Ireland

coming soon

What I notice

or pick what you love

Food 3 Getting around 2 Good to know 2 Places to stay 1 Shops and finds 1 Day trips soon The booklet box 1

Latest stories

The corner of a gyoza restaurant in Fukuoka at night, its red and white signs glowing above people walking by

Fukuoka

Fukuoka by accident

A ferry from Busan, a lost wallet, and the best walk into a city I've ever had.
A man with a backpack walks through the market under the train tracks in Sannomiya, Kobe, past old shop signs

Kobe · coming soon

A food scientist walks into a beef museum

Not much of a meat eater. Ended up nerding out over fatty acids anyway.

A crowded shopping street in Osaka at golden hour, lined with lamps, bicycles and colorful signs

Osaka

The famous things I still haven't done

And why the free rooftop sometimes wins.
A long row of brightly lit pachinko machines and empty chairs in a Maruhan pachinko parlor

Osaka · coming soon

My first pachinko parlor

Two very confused Dutch people versus one very loud machine.

the box behind it all

Why I always take the booklets

Everyone leaves them in the hotel lobby. I take them home. Most of these stories started with a little map or a folded flyer.

Story coming soon
Gesina pretending to take a bite out of a giant burger statue in a shop in Osaka
the food, most importantly

hi again

Photographer, food scientist, professional noticer.

Eighteen years behind the camera, based in Rotterdam. If it's overlooked, I'm already looking.

See my photography

A letter from the in-between

Once a month: new stories, one find, and a photo nobody has seen yet.