Japan, Andrew Funderburg and My Bucket List

5/16/2014

Koi at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo

My first trip to Japan was in 1983 and since then I've been back five times, three more while I was at Polaroid and twice during my Rangefinder/WPPI days. There's something I can't explain the minute I get off the plan at Narita Airport, but essentially it's a feeling that I'm finally home. Maybe in a previous life I lived in Japan.

I fell in love with the country and the people on that first trip and the mystique has never faded. My image on the left is hanging over our fireplace and every time I look at I remember that day in Tokyo and walking around the grounds of the Imperial Palace.

Skype helped to make the world feel smaller, when Taka's (past VP of Asukabook in Hiroshima) son needed a little help practicing his English. We'd Skype once a week and I'd wander around the house with my iPad, pronouncing the English word for whatever I'd point to and then he'd repeat it.

Getting Sheila to Japan is at the very top of my bucket list and this morning on a phone call with Andrew Funderburg, founder of Fundy Software, I learned an interesting fact about his background. Who am I kidding? It's interesting, but I couldn't be more jealous. Andrew lived in Japan, ran an English school and had the experience I was trying hard to get, back in my Polaroid days, living in Japan.

Andrew and I got on the subject when I was talking about a guest post the other day about a photographer making a major career change. The point is we've all done it and while it might not always be obvious, everything always works out for the better.

A few minutes after our conversation, Andrew sent me the link to some of his images of Japan and here's one more point to remember. I'm constantly reminding photographers to make sure you have some of the staff at the companies you work with in your network, because they have experiences that eventually you might need to draw from.

In Andrew's case he's not only the founder of Fundy Software, but a photographer and in his business background you can count on a whole lot of experiences that every business owner can relate to. In the mean time, with his permission, meet Andrew Funderburg the photographer and one of my most favorite places on the planet, Japan!