Daily Photo: Kendo practitioner stands guard
December 22, 2008
On a balmy December Sunday afternoon in Yoyogi Park, I rolled past a group of kendo practitioners going at it pretty aggressively. I hoped off my Trek 7.3 FX and pulled out my Nikon D80 with Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8 lens. This presented a good photography challenge, as they were pretty much standing in shade and moving very quickly. Even when they stood still it was hard to get a shot as I had to switch between AF-C and AF-S, or rather remember to do that!
BE KIND REWIND [2008] review
December 21, 2008
I very rarely find movies boring as I am pretty careful about what I watch, as I don’t have infinite time to watch movies. So when I waste time watching something like BE KIND REWIND, it feels like a missed opportunity to actually see something good.
Happy 50th Anniversary Tokyo Tower!
December 21, 2008
I will soon enter my sixth year of living in Tokyo, and before yesterday, I had never visited Tokyo Tower. Amazingly, Aya had also never visited Tokyo Tower since perhaps an elementary school trip. I had ridden in its general neighborhood on my bike once or twice, but that didn’t do it justice. Now I can claim to not only have visited this Tokyo landmark on its 50th anniversary, but also to have walked up the 600 steps to its observatory decks!
Tokyo Christmas lights up-close
December 20, 2008
Holiday lights, or “illumination” as they are referred to by Japanese, are big in Japan. I still think of them just as Christmas lights myself. I live right in one of the largest concentrations of lights in the city. Shinjuku has the illuminated windows of the Odakyu Department Store, the random lights amongst the skyscrapers, and of course all the light displays on Shinjuku Southern Terrace and Takashimaya Department Store. Thought I won’t admit it, I like them all.
Daily Photo: Can she really see me?
December 16, 2008
I was walking over my favorite pedestrian bridge in Shinjuku with my D80 and Nikkor 80-200mm out when I saw this group of model-looking western girls, quite a rare site, even in Shinjuku. I actually think I recognized two of them, or at least the blonde girl, from a few days earlier when I was walking to Shinjuku and passed them. Naturally I paused and snapped a few shots. Maybe I was taking shots of them for about a minute, waiting for people to pass by to get a good clear shot. Now, does the blonde girl’s expression say I see you and let me make a nice funny face for you?
Faces of Tokyo Series: Country Line Dancers
December 12, 2008
The only reason why I know about the country line dancing scene in Tokyo (and it’s much bigger than you might think) is because one of my longtime private students is the Queen of Country Dancing in Japan (my given title for her). The name she uses is Lily, which suits her well. Another longtime private student of mine, Mami, is one of the stars of the country line dancing scene. They run CLUB HOWDY, and on this past Sunday they threw their largest dancing event of the year, the Club Howdy Christmas Party (attended by 220+ people). They hired me to take group photos of the dancing teams and other portraits. This was my first official photography job of my burgeoning photography career!
WALL-E [2008] review
December 7, 2008
I have said that CG animation will never be able to portray the emotion and real-ness and poetry that Miyazaki’s traditional 2D animation does. I am already wrong. WALL-E is a masterpiece of filmmaking, animation, poetry and beauty on screen. I had to wait months to see WALL-E as Tokyo only got it this very day. It was really hard to wait. I am so glad I did though because seeing it projected beautifully on the largest screen in Tokyo was a theater going experience I will always remember and rank with the best of them.
Yellow Ginko Leaves Fall On Shinjuku
December 6, 2008
A majority of Shinjuku’s ginko trees’ leaves have finally turned yellow and begun their annual descent back to the earth, as all things do in time. I just happened to be walking around with my trusty D80, and had enough time before an unwelcome downpour arrived, to take a few random shots of a rare thing that actually beautifies Shinjuku.
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