Gabriel visited his family in Los Angeles during the last week of October to the first week of November. Two days after he arrived, I departed for a one-week trip to Japan. Amused by the dates we have chosen for our respective trips, we agreed to take souvenir photos that we can merge to signify that although we were not able to take the trips together, we were with each other in spirit. :))
The idea first came to us when we talked about how we would both visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, he in Hollywood, and me in Osaka. I told him the "similar itineraries, different time zones" montage reminded me of the
Half & Half series of the Korean artist couple,
ShinliArt. I wanted to call our series [
Double Trouble], but it did not pass QC. 😂
And so the months of planning for our separate trips included thinking of places and things we would photograph. The priority, though, were photos* in Hogsmeade and Hogwarts.
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| Osaka ❌ Hollywood |
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| Hufflepuff ❌ Ravenclaw |
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| Day ❌ Night |
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| Dervish and Banges |
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| Universal City Osaka ❌ Universal City Hollywood |
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| $ ❌ ¥ |
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| J. Paul Getty Museum ❌ Osaka Museum of Housing and Living |
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| Breakfast ❌ Dinner |
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| Osaka Science Museum ❌ Hollywood Wax Museum |
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| Tenryu-ji Temple ❌ J. Paul Getty Museum |
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| Osaka Museum of Housing and Living ❌ Caesars Palace Las Vegas |
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| Burger ❌ Takoyaki |
I didn't know it could be quite a challenge not only to take photos of scenes as Gabriel had, but also to find the energy to think through those shots in the middle of sightseeing and endless walking Claire and I did in Osaka and Kyoto. (But more on that on a separate post, haha!) Merging a select few of the photos that matched was quite fun, though. This last one of the skylines is my favorite:
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| Mojave Desert ❌ Umeda Sky Garden |
Gabriel and I first bonded over Harry Potter, back in 2013. We are both huge Potterheads, and we think that's probably one of the biggest reasons why we clicked in the first place. And so we were both so excited about visiting WWHP even if we regret not going together. Taking similar photos kind of consoled us, but we're definitely bent on going to the WWHP in Orlando with each other in tow someday soon.
*Props to Claire for patiently taking photos of me despite our cray cray walkathons. :))
