Notes to Myself

Kyoto 2008

Though I stayed in Kyoto for a couple of nights I only spent three quarters of a day in Kyoto itself. Here are some photos from that day.

Close to shijyou there is a famous market which is just full of all sorts of weird and wonderful Japanese foods, particularly seafood. In order of food, the photos include: an osembei shop, squid, octopus, bamboo root, real wasabi and tako-yaki.

Walking along the back streets of Kyoto is a rewarding experience. At the end of the market there is an area of more modern shops but five minutes away there are at least a dozen small shrines/temples along small streets which appear to double as normal houses.

My favourite site was of a shrine which was built into a block of flats! (photo 13). Not far from there I was walking along a charming local road only to come across a building named 'Puyo' which charged services by the hour... what an interesting mixture of culture all within a five minute walk.

A short ride from Kyoto station is Fushimi Inari-taisha, a shrine with thousands of red torii lined up along the paths around the shrine complex. I'd wanted to visit this shrine for years and the rain did little to spoil the trip. To walk around the entire shrine you have to walk up into the mountain and according to a map the full round trip takes over two hours - next time!

I've been to Kyoto quite a few times now but there is always something new to see.

> Kyoto, Spring 2008 Photo Gallery
> Photo Gallery Index

Privacy Filter

The last time I was in Japan I was looking for a 'privacy filter' for my PSP. They're basically the same as the plastic sheets you can buy for keitai in Japan - they stop you being able to see the screen unless you are looking at it more or less straight-on. But the only one I could find was 1200 yen - what a rip-off!

But after a further six months of annoying people sitting next to me peering at my PSP screen on the train, enough was enough. So this time I shelled out the £6 for this wonderous piece of privacy kit!

I have to say it works pretty well, though it does obscure the screen output very slightly. I'm sure I'll get used to it and take satisfaction in blocking out those unwanted viewers.

Yoshino Sakura

Following my visit to Kobe, next on the list was Yoshino in Nara. Yoshino is mountainous area famous for sakura blossoms which gradually move up the mountains during the spring.

The train journey from Kyoto to Yoshino was spectacular. As you move away from the city and into the mountains you are suddenly surrounded by fields, beautiful bamboo forests and rivers.

Yoshino itself wasn't bad either! Take a look at the amount of sakura that was blooming on the lower parts of the mountain. Again, it was a shame about the cloudy weather but even so it was well worth the trip.

> Yoshino Photo Gallery
> Photo Gallery Index

Kobe 2008

Here are some of the photos I took a few weeks back on my first visit to Kobe.

Early in the morning I 'scaled' Rokkousan, the mountains overlooking Kobe. Where the cable car stopped, buses waited to take sight-seers right to the top of the mountain. The weather at the top, however, was absolutely atrocious and you could bearly see 30 metres in front of you with the mist and cold swirling winds, nevermind a beautiful view. A real shame.

Back in Kobe city I visited 'Merikan Park', named can you believe after America - what kind of spelling is that? A memorial serves to show the destruction caused by the huge earthquake that hit Kobe. You can see concrete ripped apart and lamp posts at uncomfortable angles.

In the end I didn't go to the famous 'foreigners town' or China Town but instead headed to Osaka for a friendly tennis match with a friend. I got a real lesson losing 6-2, 2-2. After that, I arrived in Kyoto after midnight. Quite a hectic day.

> Kobe Photo Gallery
> Photo Gallery Index

Lovers' Tricks

Are you ready to be rich again?

Himeji Sakura

Here's the first set of pictures from my spring trip to Japan, Himeji castle grounds covered with sakura. Even though the weather was poor, it was still a beautiful place to visit, particularly with the sakura in full bloom.

> Himeji Castle & Sakura
> Photo Gallery Index

Out of Space

This week I've been busy settling back into work and at home I've been playing the excellent Mario Kart Wii. It's already Thursday and I'd planned on so many blogs!

I was going to upload photos from the trip but I brought back over 10GB's worth of photos! This is mainly due to the fact that I was shooting in RAW+JPEG for much of the time. I've now run out of hard drive space on my external drive so I'm having a bit of a drive reshuffle. I hope to start processing and uploading some images soon.

Mobile Phones

I came across some old phones the other day and had to take a photo of them before throwing them out (left in the picture). The old Nokia 3210 weighed a ton!

In order to compare the size of them I took a picture with two relatively 'modern' handsets (to the right!). On the far right is a Nokia phone from work. The menus are pretty sluggish and the reception is poor - not recommended.

The Sony Ericsson w850i is my current phone, though I'd really love an upgrade. Now that I have a dedicated mp3 player I no longer need a Walkman Sony Ericsson phone. I'm waiting to see what the next Cybershot phone is like. You could say that I have a camera so don't need a Cybershot phone either but I don't always have a camera on me.

Toblerone

Take a look at the size of this Toblerone! 100 years? Is that really true? What a great chocolate. In case you are wondering, I included the tennis ball for a sense of scale.

London Sakura

It's not just Japan which has cherry blossoms. I guess this must be a different variety from those in Japan but here's a road lined with cherry trees which have just started to blossom near my house in London.

I am looking forward to the 'real' cherry blossom experience in Japan though.

Tennis Sketch

Mario Galaxy

I bought Super Mario Galaxy on a friend's recommendation and so far it hasn't disappointed.

The controls feel natural after a few minutes of play. You've got all the usual Mario moves plus an additional spin attack activated by a brief shake of the controller. The ability to point at the screen adds to the game, too.

On top of the controls, it's the quirky 'hyper 3D' graphic worlds and and great Nintendo presentation that really impacts your experience. Jumping around on tiny planets and flying between them constantly changes the flow of game, even if you are chasing stars within the same galaxy.

The only downside I can find in the game so far is that it's easy. Mind you, I've only just started playing so perhaps the difficulty gradually increases. Also, I think that Mario Sunshine suffered from being too fiddly and time consuming. Maybe gamers these days really do require quick satisfaction or do I just have a decreasing attention span?!

Though the game is only just unfolding I can still already say one thing of Mario Galaxy - creative genius!

ShopTo

A special note must go to www.ShopTo.net who held up to their promise of 'Shop late - play tomorrow'. I ordered at 5:20pm and Mario Galaxy arrived the next morning - with free registered delivery!

Kit Kat Little

Thanks to a friend's kind gesture, I've received a parcel containing a few goodies from Japan. Amongst them we have my favourite Hi-Chew sweets - in yoghurt flavours - and something I've never seen before, Kit Kat Little!

Kit Kat Little (or Little Kit Kat?) come in white and pink as shown on the packet. It looks like they represent sakura - are they limited edition? On the bottom of the packet it says 'lucky little'. So what's so lucky about them? On the back of the packet it says that you can check your luckiness rating by counting the number of white and pink little kit kats you have and then visiting www.breaktown.com

If you go to the Kit Kat shop you can see just how many different Kit Kat products you can buy in Japan. Check out the golf club bag!

Here's one of my old posts - Banana Kit Kat

40D PC Control

Instead of using my USB card reader like I usually do, I decided to try plugging my Canon EOS 40D into my PC via the USB cable.

The file manager software I use failed to pick up the camera, probably because it wasn't designed for XP. In Windows Explorer the camera appeared under 'Cameras and Scanners' instead of a removable drive. That wouldn't bother me except that you can't see any of the folders on the camera. This is useless if you want to manually drag and drop files, though the Canon EOS utility included with the camera allows you to view each of the folders.

Although I wasn't impressed with all of this I did uncover some other camera functionality. While plugged into the PC you can control almost all aspects of the camera. You can scroll through white balance settings, shutter speeds, apertures, ISO ratings, well you name it! As you change the settings you can see the display on the camera update in sync.

Why might all of this be useful? You can also take pictures via your PC using the camera's Live View functionality! Using this you can save photos straight to your PC as well as the camera.This is probably of use to professionals in studio environments but realistically of limited use to amateurs like me.

While fiddling with this software I once again felt that the manual focus in Live View (manually controlled via the software) lets the camera down slightly. Then again, if you were doing studio work I imagine you'd normally have time to use manual focus.

In summary, some cool features that I'll probably never use. In fact, I may go back to using my card reader for ease of use in copying photos.

New Colleague

What would you do if you entered the office to find a new colleague in your seat?

Japanese Water

It first struck me as odd when I put my special Japanese water bottle on the exam desk at the JLPT site at the beginning of December.

Why was I still refilling the Japanese Suntory Natural Mineral Water bottle that I'd originally bought on holiday in Japan at the beginning of November?

We are well into January and I'm still rinsing out my little water bottle and refilling it - filtered water these days, I'll have you know! It's become something of a personal treasure. How weird.

Receiver

I happened across a BT phone in a pretty sorry state. It makes you wonder how it ended up like this considering it's inside a book shop!

The insides of a telephone receiver are quite underwhelming, wouldn't you say?

Wii Mii

Meet Mii Darren! What a good looking guy and already a Wii Sports 'pro' tennis player!

I haven't been able to create a fantastic likeness - the choice of beards/facial hair for a start was somewhat underwhelming. Then again, after joining the Mii Contest Channel I was amazed at the creativity of some people. Snoopy, Darth Vader and Mr T from the A-Team are particularly good. The most recent competition challenges Mii creators to make a Mii for 'someone who's just won the lottery.'

It's great how your Miis are accessible in games and how your friend's Miis can migrate and wonder into your Mii Channel. It makes games like Baseball in Wii Sports good when all family and friends' Wiis make up the line-up.

Frosty Sunrise

A frosty winter morning brought a beautifully warm feeling sunrise to London. These photos were taken this morning at about 8:16, just before teeing off on hole 1 (or 10 in our case) at Stockey Park Golf Club, London.

The ground was frostry and our spikes picked up ice like we were walking in a massive freezer. As the sun rose the frost and ice began to melt and by the time we reached the last hole the course was a beautiful green.

Today was the first outing with my new clubs and on the whole it went really well, with a couple of miraculous long puts, in other words flukes, good irons and an improving feel for the driver/woods. My putting in general is awful, though.

My score was approximately 106, though I forgot to mark my score for one hole and another hole was reduced to a par 3 due to green improvements. In any case, it was a marked improvement over scoring 125 last time on the same course.

I think I'll make it my goal to be consistently scoring around 110 before the year is out. Hopefully I'll be able to play golf at least once every six weeks. Practice, practice, practice!

Wireless Remote

With no inbuilt IR receiver Canon have designed the Canon 40D and presumably other EOS models to use their Wireless Controller LC-5. A mere £350! Compare this to my sister's simple UV transmitter for her Nikon D80 which set her back a few quid...

I came across a slightly more unofficial looking version of the LC-5, simply named 'Wireless Remote Controls.' This pretty generic looking device was delivered from Hong Kong for a very reasonable £15 inc. p&p. and it works a treat!

Wireless remote shutter control! So it's a cable release without the cable. Simply press the button half way to focus and all the way to take the shot, just like having your finger on the shutter but without the camera shake.

This will be great for low-light photography once I get a tripod. I can also see this as being useful for group shots where you want to jump in without running around from the back of the camera after setting the timer.

Pain on Ice

Fancy a spot of ice skating just two minutes from Liverpool Street Station in London? Then head over to Broadgate ICE before it closes this coming Sunday.

I took a few photos as I walked by and took a couple of shots (pictured) which showed that it's not all fun and games. Be careful, now.

You can also ice skate at the Tower of London until Sunday 13 January. Just make sure you don't mind shelling out £12 if you go during peak hours.

Spring Cleaning

Even though I 'dusted' my PC not long back just look at the state it was in when I opened it up this afternoon. It was time for some early spring cleaning.

A Japanese friend asked me why we have 'spring cleaning' whilst in Japan everyone has a big clean up over the New Year. My answer was that it's a time for starting afresh and that it's starting to get a little warmer so you can open all the doors and windows. What would your answer be?

London Fog

London was covered on fog for pretty much the whole weekend. Here you can see a photo I took in a park fading into nothingness.

The Japanese have an unrealistic image of 'foggy London' but having said that, this is the second Decemeber of fog in a row now. Thank heavens I'm not supposed to be taking any of the cancelled flights unlike last year.

When I was ready to go outside this evening to take a few foggy photos I looked out of the window and the fog had all but gone. That's good news for travellers anyway, at least unless the fog returns by the morning.

My Old Dutch

If you fancy a massive 'old dutch' pancake with a choice of toppings then I recommend a trip to My Old Dutch. I've just come back from the Holborn restaurant and boy, am I stuffed!

Just look at the size of that thing. Yes, it's thin but it's also surprisingly filling. When we asked for the dessert menu the waiter looked dumbfounded!

Prawns

Near work there's an interesting billboard.

Get into the Christmas spirit with some prawns!

Decorations

At the end of last week we put up some Christmas decorations at work. Our team clearly outshone the rest of the department, though perhaps more in tackiness than anything else. I think these decorations get used over and over each year. Still, it's better than nothing!

Over the past few weeks everyone has been using up their remaining holidays and I don't think there'll be many people around over the Christmas period. As for me, I'm working much as normal apart from one half day off before the new year.

In fact, I'm also scheduled to work on Boxing Day and and through the night on New Year's Eve. Hopefully that should take the sting out of such a expensive December when my January pay packet arrives. I'm not that bothered about missing New Year's as more often than not it seems to be a let down.

Chips and Curry

This week I saw someone eat chips and curry (or is that curry and chips?) for the first time ever! Now that is just pure class.

Japanese Maids

A trip to the unique Donki in Japan, apparently more properly 'Don Quijote', will leave you feel dazed and confused. Even though the shops themselves are big, often with four or five floors, every narrow aisle is so packed with items that there's barely room to move. You can buy practically anything there.

During my last visit I wandered into a section full of costumes. There were all sorts on offer, from police uniforms to stewardess outfits. Without a doubt, though, most were Japanese maid costumes. Here you can see one for 9000 yen, which equates to about £40.

On another floor I passed by a maid cafe! If only I'd had the guts to go in. But one guy on his own? Or is that better than two guys?

Ebi Chilli Man

Since coming back from my most recent trip to Japan I've been too busy to go through the pictures I took. Let's get back on track with something I hadn't seen before, ebi chilli man!

You've probably seen or heard of niku-man (meat in a bun of sorts) and may have seen me sing the praises of pizza-man, but ebi-chilli man (spicy prawn)?

After chomping this down my opinion: stick to niku-man and pizza-man!

Prison Break

Some poor soul at work has seen one too many episodes of Prison Break.

Beautiful Moon

My recently purchased Canon EOS 40D now has its debut photograph on my photoblog, Dripping Lotus.

This image was taken at full zoom on an 80mm lens with IS on, without a tripod! Next time I'll try my telephoto lens at 300mm - I can't even begin to imagine what kind of photos it will produce.

Compare this with the best image my Sony Cybershot H1 could take of the lunar eclipse during spring this year. To be fair though, the H1 costs about 80% less than the Canon 40D and it should be noted that there is far less light during an eclipse than a normal full moon. I still love my H1 - it's relatively compact, has 12x optical zoom and takes very decent photos.

Extreme III 4GB

As the price of memory continues to fall 4GB memory cards are very reasonably priced. I've just bought a Sandisk Extreme III 4GB Compact Flash memory card for use with my Canon EOS 40D. Currently available online for approximately £35, this card is cheaper per megabyte than a 2GB Extreme III card!

'Ideal for demanding photo shoots under severe weather conditions-heat, cold, wind, rain, snow, etc. It is built to perform in the most extreme environments and temperatures-from -13º F to 185º F , -25º C to 85º C. It has a minimum 20MB/second sequential read and write [133X speed].'

-25º C to 85º C - that is pretty extreme!!! (III exclamation marks... oh nevermind)

Although there are even higher spec cards available this one is more than fast enough for my needs. The maximum write speed of the Canon 40D is probably somewhere less than 10MB/s. The higher speeds would come in handy if you were a serious photographer wanting to transfer large numbers of images to your PC in the shortest amount of time possible. To do this, you'd need an expensive card reader in any case.

At the time I purchased my 40D I bought a 1GB Ultra II card which will probably just start gathering dust, now. As I noted last year, memory card prices are surprisingly significantly higher in Japan so I settled on a smaller card as a temporary measure.

Now it's time to start shooting simultaneously in RAW format and L-size JPEGs. Let the fun begin!

Canon 40D

Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera

My yearly digital compact camera upgrade went a little differently this year with my decision to move to a fully featured digital SLR. Though I'd actually planned on buying a Nikon D80, I soon changed my mind after arriving at Yodobashi in Shinjuku (Tokyo, Japan). A few days later and I'd purchased the recently released Canon EOS 40D.

Canon EOS 40D

Canon 40D key features:

• 10.1 MP APS-C CMOS sensor
• 6.5fps, 75 JPEG image burst
• High precision 9 point AF
• 3.0" LCD with Live View mode
• EOS Integrated Cleaning System
• DIGIC III processor
• Image Stablisation lenses

Lens Kits

There are two lens kits available but the more expensive kit, the Canon EOS 40D + EF-S 17-85 f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens, provides you with a superior lens and greater flexibility with increased zoom compared to the 18-55mm non USM lens kit (appox. £850 online). To top things off I was actually given a second lens by an acquaintance, a Canon 200-300mm telephoto lens!

Fabulous Features

When you try out the high speed shooting mode you get blown away. Although it depends on the lighting and so on this camera really can shoot a lot of high quality pictures in no time at all - useful for say, Wimbledon, for example.

The other special features are the Live View mode on a massive three inch screen, where you can use the LCD screen to take pictures like on digital compacts and the inbuilt anti-dust cleaning system. When you also consider the image stabilisation lenses, you have all the latest popular DSLR features.

With ISO settings up to 3200 I simply can't get over you can take such great photos in low light. Of course, the IS lens helps with this, too. Very nice.

One thing I did notice was that images are not that sharp compared to my other cameras. Although you can change the settings via Picture Styles, the default settings don't give overly-crisp images. Presumably that's because a greater level of post-processing is anticipated.

The build quality of the camera is excellent. It feels heavy and rugged, with waterproofed seals and great ergonomics. One thing I would say is that this isn't a small camera and can feel heavy when carrying it around all day.

Autumn Colours

Calligraphy - 紅葉 (Kouyou/Momiji) - Autumn Colours.

British Omiyage

With my trip to Japan just around the corner I've started buying some gifts for my Japanese friends. I've been back and forth between the UK and Japan quite a few times and often find myself carrying boxes and boxes of tea.

But there is only so much tea you can buy people. I'm getting bored of buying tea and the people I give to are probably bored of being given tea.

I don't really want to buy too many tacky souvenirs, either. Frankly, I'm running short of ideas.

Y-kun & M-chan, I'm sure you'll sleep well at night after seeing that I've got your favourite prawn cocktail crisps. =)

Library Visit

For the first time in years I thought I'd see what it would be like to study in a library. Proud of my commitment to study, I wandered up to my local library only to find a heavy set of closed wooden doors.

Ok, so I was unfortunate to pick one of the days when the library closes at 5 o'clock but still, how irritating. Perhaps it was quite silly of me expecting it to be open at 6 in the evening, perhaps. Maybe I'll try tomorrow.

I didn't really mind though, it was another excuse to head off in search of coffee!

Chinese 5 Pence

Today I treated myself to a cheap lunch in one of China Town's restaurants. I can't remember the last time I sat down to eat alone in a restaurant - I always end up going to sandwich shops.

Anyway, I didn't notice at the time but I was cheated out of 5p. Yes, a whole 5p (not to mention the extra £1 for choosing choosing chicken instead of beef). In my change was the coin pictured above, an old style five pence.

I haven't seen one of these in years. The newer small type of five pence came out in 1990. Was it really that long ago?

Umbrella Vendor

I thought I'd seen every type of vending machine possible in Japan but this one is in London, next to Trocadero.

An umbrella vending machine. Genius!

Brick Wall

It's like talking to a brick wall.

Racket Rage

People get so upset when they lose to me...

Window Cleaner

Dolphin Friendly

Pret have changed their tuna baguettes to a 'dophin friendly' variety. Don't tuna normally like dolphins?!

No Heels

In stark contrast to the height of the sexy high heels I wrote about the other day, here's an interesting piece of footware popular in Japan at the moment.

Any clue as to the reasoning behind them?

Twenty's Plenty

Kind of clever, don't you think? I took this picture in East London in a 20 mph zone.

Venice Photos

On the side bar to the right you should find a new gallery: Venice 2007!

> All Photo Galleries

Disabled

How about this for a well timed photograph I took from the passenger seat of a car? I don't know why exactly, but I really like this picture.

Lunar Eclipse

Last night was beautifully clear and I was admiring the stars in the countryside near Basingstoke. A full moon was also shining down on us as we drove down a pitch black road towards a homely country pub.

After leaving the pub people noticed that the moon no longer appeared quite so 'full'. Then I got a text telling me about the eclipse. By then a friend and I were trying to take photos.

I took the photo above when the the moon was bathed in a dark red during the full eclipse at about 11:30pm. Before shooting this image with a makeshift tripod consisting of a stick I must have taken at least 50 pictures. Quite a cool picture, even if I do say so myself.

>Lunar eclipse: 'Wonder of nature'
>Reader's Pictures - much better than mine

Why Worry

This came with a souvenir from Ireland. How good is that?!

Dirty Heart

Somebody drew a heart in the dirt on the outside of a District Line train. Touching, no?

Soccer Shoes

The designer got confused after being asked to make unique women's soccer shoes.