Operation Chiaki: Day 15 (Takao) and Day 16 (Yoshimine-dera)
Day 15 at Takao
No I didn’t go back to mount Takao in Tokyo, it appears that Kyoto also has it’s own Takao, its actually a mountainous region. You can basically ride the JR bus all the way to the end of Takao but the real places to visits are the temples as Kozenji.
Unfortunately it was an extremely cloudy day, making any photos I take totally boring! It was so bad, none of the photos I took are worth posting up hence I decided to chuck it up to my second failure since Nikko.
Day 16 at Yoshiminedera
Now this was a diferent story!
Operation Chiaki: Day 14 (Kyoto)
"Today was the longest day yet" was my last thought before falling asleep last night.
It all began innocently enough, waking up at 6am, heading out to the Western region at 7am. The weather was cloudy and cold though it was forecast to be sunny. But since I was up already and here, I tried to make the best of it. Using film and all my old Provia 100F supplies, (I never did like that damn film) I tried to enjoy myself.
Operation Chiaki: Day 13 (Kyoto)
Today was rather short as the sun soon disappeared behind clouds with only a few short hours of daylight. Then followed by rain till now. These few shots are what are I took for today. Tomorrow I’ll be visiting the Western region, something I’ve never did in my last trip.
Operation Chiaki: Day 12 (Kyoto)
Well here I am again. This really brings back memories, the long train ride, the hustle and bustle, heck even the smell is great!
Though I had forgotten that check in time is 3pm and not 1pm. With that much time to kill, I left all my luggage and just took my D700 and 50mm f/1.8 to the Toji temple where I was informed that they were having their monthly (only on the 21st of each month) flea market there.
Operation Chiaki: Day 11 (Tokyo towers and kenrokuen)
The weather forecast said it would be a sunny day so made Tokyo Tower my target today.
Standing at 330 meters tall, it is one of the tallest structure in Tokyo. Going up cost about 1470 Yen for both the Main observatory and Special deck.
Operation Chiaki : Day 4 (Nikko) Photos
Finally have the scans back from Yodobashi though it did cost quite an amount but their workmanship is worth the money.
But being a cheapskate, I’ll scan the rest of them when I’m back in Malaysia. Here are the shots from Nikko, it was raining pretty bad that day so I took a rather unorthodox method to getting my shots.
Operation Chiaki: Day 10 (Jinbocho)
Yumiko Readman, yes I have a thing for girls wearing glasses or meganekko.
Jinbocho
Jinbocho was more than I could chew off. The whole area does not consist of a stretch of road with bookstores. It consist of 4 freaking city blocks! There are so many second hand book shops that it would take me a week to explore them!
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.
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
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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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.
Kuala Lumpur
On Tuesday I had the pleasure of going down to KL for an interview as the company was paying for both my hotel stay as well as my plane tickets. They had booked me into Pearl International Hotel at Bukit Jalil.
After the interview I returned to the hotel to rest, I only slept at 1am and woke up at 5am last night as I attended a friend’s funeral the night before.
So after a few hours rest I got up and saw the view was beautiful and decided to pull out my camera and take some shots of it.
It was a bit hazy so not all the shots are daylight clear as a result
So until then pleasant dreams~
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.
Heading off for Christmas
I will be heading down to KL today to spend Christmas with my brother and sister.
I will be taking the bus down tonight so I can try and get some sleep on the bus later, the only thing I am terrify by is not the traffic nor the long journey but the crying babies.
Please let there be no crying babies on board the bus. Let those pathetic people with kids too cheap to take the plane be NOT there with their kids. Especially the single fathers whose wife probably left him for someone richer like the last time I was on the plane back to Labuan last year and the dang thing wouldn’t stop crying all the way to Labuan from KL >_<;;;;;;
So hopefully like you and for me, pleasant dreams!
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.
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