• Thaipusam: Masochistic Mayhem

    Thaipusam: Masochistic Mayhem

    Warning This post contains some graphic images. If blood makes you queasy, you may want to skip it. I’ve mentioned a few times how, although I do travel mostly without plans, I also do so […]

  • Into the Lion's Den

    Into the Lion’s Den

    How many of you have heard the name “Transdniestr?” Not too many, I’m guessing. Transdniester – also known as Pridnestrovie in Russian – is a small rogue nation occupying a narrow strip of land along […]

  • The Mega Trip Part 9 (The Great Wall)

    The Mega Trip Part 9 (The Great Wall)

    With the land-based portion of my adventure through China nearly over, I realized that I was still missing a significant piece of what I wanted to see before returning to Japan. Kung Fu. So, after […]

  • Dare to Dream

    Dare to Dream

    Somewhere around six months ago, I was sitting in my apartment talking on the phone with my mom. From just outside my window I could hear Buddhist monks chanting at Ninnaji, an enormous wooden temple […]

  • A Different Experience

    A Different Experience

    I’m here. In Tokyo. Finally. During my idle time on the flight over I kept on thinking, “what am I going to write to everyone once I finally get to Japan?” Most of you already […]

  • Huashan: The Danger Trail

    Huashan: The Danger Trail

    On December 20th of 2006, I received an e-mail from my dad. It contained this Powerpoint file. The forwarding messages all included such phrases as: “I CANT EVEN LOOK AT THE PICTURES WITHOUT GETTING DIZZY!!” […]

I was last seen 5 months ago in Los Angeles, .

Photography

 Japan, Public  7 Responses »
Apr 252007
 
I like my new D40. I like my new D40.

As I mentioned in the last post, I just recently purchased my first ever Digital SLR camera: A Nikon D40. And I love it. Although there are a few things I miss about my S2 IS (i.e. the mega-zoom), shooting with a real SLR just feels so much more…satisfying. Or “real.” Or something.

In any case, it’s done exactly what I was hoping it would: revitalized my interest in exploring and photographing Japan. It’s also shown me just how much I’ve got to learn about taking photos, so in addition to real-life practice I’ve spent quite a bit of time reading whatever I can get my hands on (eg KenRockwell.com) for tips on everything from actual shooting to the post-processing workflow. I’ve since picked up countless new Photoshop techniques, as well as adapted IrfanView as my new viewer-of-choice. Highly recommended.

The influx of new pictures has motivated me to get rid of the site’s Gallery (unmaintained for well over a year now) and replace it with a Photo of the Day section (idea stolen from Sushicam.com). My hope is that this’ll have the added benefit of keeping the site interesting even when I don’t have time for regular blogging. Although I’ll probably end up extracting some of the photos from previous posts (occasionally, until I’ve built up a better archive) the ability to queue up pictures in advance should help keep them fresh every single day.
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Q1, 2007

 Japan, Public  9 Responses »
Apr 052007
 
A Heavenly Bridge. A Heavenly Bridge.

My apologies for the lack of updates recently; I’ve been extremely busy these last few months, and (although I’d love to say otherwise) that’s not something likely to change anytime soon. While glancing back at some previous posts I realized it’s now been over 16 weeks since I’ve managed to write anything in the real time. Perhaps that’s just how it’ll have to be as long as I’m working in this long-hours Japanese company…

In any case, here comes yet another way overdue catch-up post!

A giant bridge. A giant bridge.

After my action-packed trip to Tokyo for New Year’s, life pretty much went back to normal – working all week, partying on weekends, regular trips to the gym, and trying to keep up with a number of personal projects on the side. Project #1 was the code revamp of this site, followed by another website I’ve started building for Dean. As of about 1 month ago, I also decided to make a real effort to get back into studying Japanese on a daily basis. Although I’ve been in Japan for nearly six months, work has kept me so busy/tired that I’ve been completely neglecting one of the main reasons I’m here. But not anymore. From now on I’m setting my goal at around 20 new words a day, and so far it’s been going quite well. I found that getting started was all I needed to re-awaken that passion for learning that mysteriously faded away along with most of my free time 😛
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Kanazawa

 Japan, Public  4 Responses »
Feb 162007
 
Dean and I taking a break from our survey of some Miyazaki burial chambers last Winter. Dean and I taking a break from our survey of some Miyazaki burial chambers last Winter.

Kanazawa. Japan’s second largest city to escape destruction by the World War 2 air raids. Home to some pretty well-preserved samurai, temple, and pleasure districts. Justin’s destination for his first day trip since moving to Kyoto. And the topic of a 2.5 month late blog post.

On December 3rd ’06, Dean, a previous employer, friend, and ex-resident of Japan was in town for one of this year’s archaeological surveys and for a brief visit with his in-laws. And he invited me to join him. Of course, I obliged.

Towering modernity in the evening air. Towering modernity in the evening air.

After glancing over some of my previous posts, I realized that I’ve talked a lot about Dean without even mentioning how we met. The two of us were actually introduced by total chance: when my dad ran into his sister at a party and mentioned that his son was studying in Japan, she recommended that I e-mail her brother who used to live here. When I finally I shot him a message a few months later, it just so happened that he was in need of a programmer who could write a piece of software to produce some 3D fly-through animations of Ground-Penetrating Radar data. Bada-bing, bada-boom. The rest is history.
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New Year 2007: Bagus

 Japan, Public  6 Responses »
Feb 082007
 
Shirahama. I’ve really gotta get back there in the summer. Shirahama. I’ve really gotta get back there in the summer.

In a country as densely packed as Japan, it’s incredibly easy to completely miss out on the best it has to offer. That’s one of the reasons I love riding my bike so much – you never know when you’ll stumble on an absolutely awesome bathhouse, a delicious family-owned restaurant, or an exciting all-night club tucked away in an alley or under a train station. Literally nine out of ten cool spots that I frequent on a regular basis are hidden away in some obscure corner; very different from the US where it’s all about tons of land and prominent locations. I know that travelers often head home saying something like “I think I got a pretty good taste of Japanese culture these last few weeks”…but I gotta tell ya, you truly haven’t even scratched the surface unless you stayed with a local 😉
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