Operation Chiaki: Day 8 and 9(mount Takao)
Day 8:
Was just wondering around again in Shinjuku to check out that Nikkor AIS 105mm f/1.8 lens! Pretty sweet deal and the condition is pretty good! It was raining the whole day though, don’t have any photos to show for today.
Day 9:
As forecast, the weather is fantastic today! Sunny sunshine all the way! Today I went out using my Nikon F4 so no photos for now till I’ve have them developed and scanned. I managed to shoot 4 full rolls of film today. Pity that there wasn’t enough daylight time for more shooting (It gets dark at around 5pm here).
Operation Chiaki: Day 6 (Kofu) and 7 (Tokyo)
Yesterday was a fantastic day! As a result today’s planned journey to Nikko was scrapped in order to fully recover for Wednesday’s journey to Mount Takao.
The started off wonderful with lots of good weather as you can see it was clear sky during that morning.
Definitely no regret bringing my notebook with me this time, providing me access to all my usual online resources especially weather forecasting. This has allowed me to adjust my adjust my plans accordingly.
Operation Chiaki: Day 5
No new updates today. The weather was indeed crappy but at least not cold.
I went down to Yodobashi to have the film developed and scanned, it was the same guy at the counter still from 2 years before. Don’t think he remembers me but at least he was a lot more polite and could understand my crappy Japanese and replied in English! So yeah great improvement.
While there (with incredible levels of willpower to NOT buy anything) I found the Casio PRG-40 watch was selling for 14,700 yen only! (which was RM558.6! Malaysia was selling it for RM700~800) . Another interesting surprise awaited me, since I was a foreigner duty tax was waived by simply showing my passport. Yipee do! Making it 14,000 Yen (RM532) so duty tax was 4.7% percent? (more…)
Operation Chiaki: Day 4
Now I know why the Japanese love to take really hot baths at the end of the day. It really helps to soothe your mind and body. I had one hell of a rough day getting to Nikko and the trip was really not worth it. It was cloudy the whole day with occasional drizzle making photography rather hard.
First off, all the autumn leaves in the mountain above Chousen-onsen are totally gone! Also the weather was so bad that anything above that point was literally shrouded in mist. It was like being at Silent Hill minus the fear. Realizing that any high altitude shooting was not possible, I move my shooting location a little downward near the river before Chouse-onsen. But shooting opportunities were far and few, managing to only shoot off 2 rolls of film. I’ll be having them developed tomorrow since the bad weather is going to be like this till Sunday. I’ll visit Nikko again next Monday.
Which brings me to another matter, I had mistakenly said that the All Nikko pass only allowed one travel to Nikko and back ONCE only, this is INCORRECT! You can travel back and fourth between Nikko and Asakusa for 4 days and ride buses for free! So this ticket is a steal! My final day will be the 16th which is next Monday.
I’ll try to upload my developed photos tomorrow but if I remember, they will need one day to developed and have them scanned in, I prefer to let them do it as their service and quality is top-notch!
Operation Chiaki: Day 3
After acclimating myself to Japan’s Autumn weather, it was important to get the All Nikko Pass since the trip is tomorrow.
This is the market I bought my supplies.
Operation Chiaki:Day 1 and 2
The flight
“Bless the lady working at the check in counter!”
That’s all I can say after landing at Narita. I checked in last night and asked for a seat up front so I would have more leg room. She informed me that all the seats at the front had already been taken but she managed to put me into a seat that would be great for sleeping.
Operation Chiaki
No use putting it off any further. I’ll be going on another long vacation since 2007. Once again I’ll be going to Japan for a second time.
Some may wonder why Japan was my choice for a long vacation again. Well a number of other locations were considered but there was that nagging feeling.
A gal’s paradise from Kino!
Thanks to fuminari for informing me about this new magazine. Its the final one for 2009.
Sweet little thing is worth the money you pay for it. It has one of the best pics of the race queens so far for this year.
(Also, please excuse the image quality here. I took them right before I went to sleep so I wasn’t in the best of moods to setup the lighting properly)
Day 11, 12: The return to Tokyo and the journey home!
20th, 21th October 2007:
The morning was clear and sunny….where the hell were you yesterday? So with everything packed up, I checked out and made my way to the Kyoto central train station. My quest was on it’s last leg.
The train ride would take about 3~4 hours. It was rather enchanting to see daylight piercing through the clouds. I felt a sense of great sadness knowing that my vacation was coming to an end.
Day 10: Kanazawa also known as the marsh of gold
19th October 2007:
Well yesterday had been a very enlightening day. Today I would finally achieve my final goal in Japan, to visit the city of Kanazawa as well as the last of 3 famous landscape gardens in Japan namely Kenroku-en.
I’m sucker for beautiful landscapes. Anyway had before I set out early to increase my chance of meeting as few people as possible as well as to spend as much time as I can at today’s location.
Tragic struck when I stepped of the Ryokan I was staying at,
It was raining.
Day 9: Takayama
18th October 2007:
My original intention then was to actually take a trip to Himeji and check out the castle and stuff but reports indicate that there were a lot of people there and so my plans were amended to go to Takayama instead.
Anyway, having a grueling day before in Nara I woke in the morning with the most intense pain on my left hip. Upon inspection I discovered a rather large bruise on the area where I had been knocked down by the deer the day before. I had to rest a little longer after taking some pain killer to ease it. So I didn’t go out as early as I had hoped for but then its a good thing a lot of my plans are flexible.
Soon I departed and headed straight for the Kyoto station where I then place an order for a ticket to Takayama it would take me about 3~4 hours
Bon Odori 2009 Penang
You know I only go to bon odori for one reason, to indulge myself and hopefully for a brief while, to induced my mind to temporary escape the fact that the body that it is housed in is not trapped in Malaysia; and if that fails there’s always the wonderful joy of taking photos of cute girls in Kimono regardless whether they are real Japanese or local girls.
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Day 8: Nara
Post-mortem note: I know this entry has been long overdue but lately I have been very busy that I really haven’t found much time to continue with these stories of my vacation in Japan. Fortunately I still have all my notes I made and a good clear memory of my journey in Nara. There are only 2 more entries to this series.
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Bon odori
This weekend at the Panasonic Sports Complex, Shah Alam is where the 32nd Bon odori matsuri will be taking place for 2008.
I rather like this festival as it gives me a glimpse of another culture that I rarely get to see (I’m use to the Malaysian stuff which has really made me bored).
I have been to the ones in Penang (2006/2007)but I’m wondering will the one in KL be as soon as good? The reason is because from what I understand and know it seems Penang has a bigger population of Japanese from KL (if this is incorrect, please let me know and I will make an updates with credits to you).
As I was back in 2007 with my gear. Most of the same stuff is still with me minus the Lowe Pro 300 sling shot.
So until then, pleasant dreams~!
Day 7: Kyoto part 3
16th October 2007.
I decided to today that I would again travel to the Eastern are near Gion and the slowly make my way to the Western side of Kyoto as I wanted to see the life and culture here. Though I would first go to that Tower and get the perfect sunrise shot! That would HAD made my day.
I woke up again at 3am in the Morning, all was quiet, so I began once again the ritual of cleaning up and the cleaned up my gear and set up to go at 4am.
My plan today would go like this:
- Go back Shijo Kawaramachi point. But this time walk south ward on the until Kujo street.
- Then make my way to Toji temple
- Then finally head to Kinkakuji Temple.
Day 6: Kyoto part 2
15th October 2007
So after a good rest (and making some adjustment to my plans) I decided to visit the East side of Kyoto today and the West side tomorrow.
I woke up at 3am that day and went through the routine of cleaning my gear and plotting my route. It was also the first time I slept in a futon since arriving in Japan and I must say the experience was great! it was comfortable and absolutely relaxing!
I took a shot of the view outside of my window at 4am to test my gear.
Photography ethics
Whenever you take a photo especially of the homeless or those down on their luck, do you feel guilty?
Sometimes I do but most of the time I restraint from taking pictures down on their luck. I once did and got a shock when the guy who pretended to be a cripple leaped up and ran away thinking I was some sort of enforcement officer. Talk about getting better.
In any event, if I cannot resist taking photos of beggars, I would then give them about RM5 for the photo and walk away.
I took this one when I was in Japan waiting outside of Yodobashi at Akihabara waiting for my film to be delivered.
I wanted to get a good picture where everyone was moving except him but I guess I didn’t open the shutter long enough. I took this photo “blind shot” meaning I just point my lens with the focal length which I think would have captured what I wanted (Luckily I got it right) without looking through the viewfinder hence I won’t know what I took until after I’ve taken the shot.
I only took 2 shots, the first one was too blurry while this one was tacked sharp but the shutter wasn’t long enough. When I saw this guy I instantly knew I had to get a black and white shot of it along with what mood I wanted to convey.
When I think about it, I don’t know why I felt bad back then when I took the shots. I still don’t know why, I didn’t break any laws or rules. I didn’t exploit the homeless or the unfortunate.
In any event, lesson I learned here is that I should have opened the shutter long enough to blurred the surrounding environment.
So until then pleasant dreams!
Day 5: Kyoto
14th October 2007
The morning was cold and windy, I would be taking the early morning Shinkasen (Hikari) to Kyoto.
Day 4: Kamakura
13th October 2007
Day 3: Tokyo
12th October 2007
After a good night’s sleep, we felt like a million bucks and could take on Tokyo properly. We woke up at about 7am although we had agreed to only go out at 7:30am but I was too excited now to contain my excitement and wanted to make full use of that day.
I had also set myself a challenge that day, I would only use my 17-35 lens on my film building making it truly a wide angle lens (using my 17-35mm on my film body removes the crop factor of digital camera but if you want to know what it was like think of putting a 12mm on Nikon camera and you know what true wide angle mean) and an 85mm or higher zoom on my digital body.
at about 7:45am we set off, the streets were quiet and peaceful. It was at this point CC told me that he would be going to Nagoya for that prefecture’s Matsuri (festival). I decline as I don’t like events with a lot of people. Although in retrospect I should have if I wanted to see actual Japanese culture. I then decided to make a trip to Kamakura if I could see the majority of the places I wanted to go in Tokyo today first.
Here are some shots of the street in Tokyo early morning.
Day 2: In Japan
11th October 2007
We finally set down at Narita airport and had just gone through a lengthy immigration line. Though the wait was made incredibly longer due to the fact I had checked in luggage while CC didn’t.
CC went on ahead while I waited for the conveyor belt to spit out my trolley bag. In retrospect I’m glad I did bring it since I bought a lot of stuff on the day before I came back from Japan and would have died if I had to carry it.
Day 1: Getting to Japan……. (post mortem report)
10th of October 2007
So I got up early that morning at about 4am to go over all my packing details again as I had called the taxi to come pick me up at 5:30am. Since this was an international flight I needed to check in 2 hours before hand.
After going all my details for the 50th time, it was time to get going. The taxi was waiting for me as expected and drove me down to the airport. It was a good thing I did come early as planned as the crowds and line were huge and long. I managed to check in with about an hour and a half to spare. I decided to sit down at the nando’s stand which is next to the departure hall and wait for my friend CC.
Here are some shots of the airport that day.
I gave CC a call telling him he may want to come earlier then expected due to the huge crowd returning home for the coming raya next week. He was already on his way so no worries there.
A short update in Japan
I apologize to my family and to my friends for the lack of updates but for the past 3 days,I have been unable to access the Internet simply because I could not a singlecyber cafe in Tokyo!
Its amazing! Everyone one here has their own computer (AKA parsocom) and as a result there is little to no demand for a cybercafe.I do now regret not having brought my own notebook computer along with me but I do believe the weight would have killed me.
I’m now in Kyoto and they have their own Internet corner which nows allow me access to the Internet.Though I don’t think I can upload anything.But I’ll try and then add another blog entry then.
So until then, pleasant dreams!
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