Today, a bold experiment in Tokyo street photography. All these images were taken and edited with my iPhone.
Cats of Yanaka
No parking for cats
Ikebukuro from game center, 6th floor
Fattykuma
The promise
Lunch
Self portrait, berserk style
The lion inside
A drink with friends
Cassanova
There is an origami ‘museum’ not too far from where we are staying. Naturally, since Bernard is an origamist, we visited yesterday.
The museum, which is in the building of a company that makes traditional washi paper, consists of a small gallery, an impressive store, the area where the paper is made and died, and rooms for instruction. It is all very impressive, and the staff were very friendly and helpful.
As we were leaving, a friendly old fellow intercepted us at the lift and told us he would give us a demonstration. This was none other than the chairman, and we were treated to a private demonstration of his skills (and his English!) for the next 20 minutes or so. It was wonderful!
If you’re ever in Japan, this place is worth a look.
The above is a random sketch in one of many sketchbooks in one of many arcades (‘game centers’) in Akihabara, where we spent the rest of the day. I didn’t take a great deal of photos throughout many hours of shopping, eating, UFO Catching and gaming, but I’m quite pleased to say many of the items on my shopping list were found in that several hour period. The rate at which my wallet bled cash was amazing!
Notable pickups included;
– The two DS Wizardry games that were never translated
– Musha Gundam 2
– Vast amounts of monster hunter figurines
– the new Yamashita art book
– certain souvenir items for friends that I was after
The latest and unquestionably greatest of the current crop of UFO figures is a magical girl Kirino from Ore no Imouto. Here’s a picture of an advert for it outside of one of the mega-arcades:
Bernard and I both won one 🙂
The monster hunter cat mascots (‘airou’) are a very big deal here, with vast amount of available merchandise. Twice now KLS has joked (?) about buying one of the big guys seen above!
Game Center highlights included the dozens of classic game posters on display at a Sega arcade, a punching game which nearly broke my hand, and Y200 for what seemed like an hour of darts 🙂
It was another very long and active day, and I fear Bernard may be at the apex of ruination. Even I am in an advanced state of decrepitude, and as I lay here early the next morning writing this the question of how to even rise from the futon is a challenging one!
But I’ll soldier on. As I always say on vacation, I can rest when I get home 😉
I love postcards. They are more than just a piece of paper with a picture on them, sent through the mail. They are little time capsules that can be revisited time and time again. Over the years I have sent hundreds, many to myself. And I have kept them all.
The ideal postcard, to me:
1) Is funny
2) Could be potentially embarassing to purchase
3) Contains nudity, and
4) Is dated
As you can see, the fine example above – sent by me to KLS in 2001 – satisfies 75% of the criteria. (Although since Chimps are almost always nude, I suppose this is an example of the rare ‘reverse nudity’ card). Here’s an example, received in 2007 from SFL when she went to Paris, of all four criteria:
Tasteful isn’t it? I have many cards far less tasteful than this one, since I can’t help but purchase ‘nudey cards’, especially now they are going out of vogue. But this being a family friendly blog (?), I dare not post any! Well, maybe this one is ok…
The back of the card is at least as important as the front, and I like to think I have become increasingly innovative over the years. Here is one such example from my recent trip. Note the strong relationship between the photo and the writing on the back 🙂
Here’s another example of an innovative back. I have tried this technique successfully twice now in two separate countries (USA and Australia):
The above cards betray nothing about what I was doing at the time, and that’s perfectly fine. But sometimes nuggets of memory make there way onto these cards that will never be forgotten and are a joy to read so many years later. If it wasn’t for a scrawled message on the back of a postcard, I may have forgotten that I weighed 215 lbs in 2001 (!) and on one day in January 2000 spent A$120 on MTG cards at Charlestown Square with my brother 🙂
Over the last few years of travels, I have been averaging more than one postcard per day, sent to most everyone who reads this blog. Do you enjoy them I wonder? Actually I don’t wonder, or rather your enjoyment is immaterial, for I will continue to send them.
My rules for effectively postcarding are as follows:
1) While traveling, always have a pen and addresses with you. Keep them in your pocket!
2) Purchase postcard stamps as soon as possibly, preferably the first day of your trip
3) Obtain postcards. Buy more than you think you’ll need. If you find really great ones, buy a few copies!
4) Write and send them whenever the opportunity arises. In a restaurant! On a train! On the toilet! (<- never done this, but should)
5) Sending the postcard is paramount! If you can’t think of anything at all to write, just write anything!
In a little over a week we’re off to Japan again. This will be our fifth trip, and I’m looking forward to it like a child on Christmas eve. Trips to Japan are different from ‘normal’ vacations in many ways, and one is the difficulty in finding postcards.
Indeed, in four previous trips I have only ever sent myself two postcards, one in 2002 and one in 2009. Here’s the 2002 one:
Cute isn’t it? But postcards like this – at all! – are very difficult to find over there, as the past three trips demonstrated. My determination is greater than ever though, and here’s hoping you’ll be receiving some in the mail from that fair island in the very near future 🙂
The other day, we purchase two new digital cameras, both because of our upcoming trip. They are the Nikon Coolpix S-01 and the Sony DSC-WX80. Here is a photo of me holding both on my palm:
As you can see, they are both very small. Even the Sony is about as small as any camera we have ever owned, and the Nikon is just tiny! Both cameras are smaller than and weigh less than an iPhone.
Nikon Coolpix S01
This 10.1 megapixel camera is remarkable for it’s size, and is indeed so small you could easily take it with you anywhere. It is rechargeable, and the 16GB of memory is internal and non expandable. Some may view both of these as negatives, but considering the size and cost (under $100) I don’t. The camera has 3x optical zoom, a touch screen and can record up to 30 minutes of 720p video.
DSC-WX80
This camera is 16.2 megapixel and can record full HD (1080, 60 fps) video. It has 8x optical zoom and a whole host of shooting modes including burst mode and full 360 degree panoramas. It also has built in wi-fi which turns the camera into a wi-fi transmitter than can then send photos or video to my iphone via a (free) app I have already downloaded and tested. And then there is the beauty correction, which I will get to later 🙂
Let’s compare shots from both cameras:
Two shots of my dinner last night. The first is the Nikon, second is the Sony. Aside from the slight difference in focal length, both cameras performed well in low light, with the Sony perhaps capturing more detail. I didn’t notice until doing this blog that the Sony had defaulted to 16:9 mode, which can be changed. As an aside, that food looks delicious doesn’t it? I may have it for dinner again tonight 🙂
Here’s another subject, this time using three different cameras:
From the top, the Nikon, Sony and my iPhone (also a 10.1 megapixel camera). Hard to tell any significant difference in these scaled down to 1000 pixel versions is there? At full resolution, the Nikon had more noise and the Sony was clearest overall. But for all intents and purposes the cameras all perform very well.
For all intents and purposes both of these cameras take remarkable photographs under various conditions. They were inexpensive (the Sony was under $150), easy to use and easy to get the photos off. Both will be used to take many hundreds or thousands of photos in Japan in a little over two weeks!
And so I move on to the bushel in Sony’s basket, the beauty correction mode! Take any photo of a human face, and built in software can make them more beautiful. For instance, take this dour shot of yours truly:
Ugly isn’t it? Well, through a miracle of modern technology, the camera magically makes me look beautiful:
AMAZING!
Here’s a few other examples, showing how the camera can remove blemishes, make eyes more attractive and even change skin tone:
What’s that you say? We went overboard, posing in unnatural ways and cranking all the settings up to maximum and effectively making us look inhuman? Furthermore – detractors may claim – these photos just look like bad use of a Photoshop blur tool and this technology should remain in the ???? machines where it was pioneered.
To me, saying such things is tantamount to saying “I hate beauty”. But if you insist, I will present a more subtle example. In this case I eschewed most of the beauty options, and allowed my vanity to permit only one. I think you’ll admit the effect is striking…
Can you hear it? That’s the sound of excitement…
Can you feel it? That buzzing in the air? That’s the sound of anticipation…
The moment foretold by history has (once again) arrived:
Yes my friends, it’s all booked and paid for. Japan trip #5 commences early June, and promises to be even more special than ever. Why is this?
Monster Hunter! Mizube! Manga! Yakitori! Futons! Apple Pies! Sentai! Circle-Heart-Star! Odaiba! Figma! Enoshima! Deer! Gashapon! 3DS Streetpass! Lopeway! Otaku! Yamanote! Gondoliers! Gundam! Dedicate Bronchus! Guyver! Monkeys! Bullet Trains! Kawaii! Spaghetti! Anime! Neko! Mount Takao! UFO Catchers! Chip Stars! Kit-Kats! Trading Cards! Mr Donut! Nendroid! Universal Studios! Idols! Arcades! Vending Machines! Rice! Crows! Fried Rice! Rilakkuma!
Bernard is going to be awestruck. And having him with us will make it like the first time all over again 🙂
I can, quite literally, hardly wait!