As promised, I took some cherry blossom (sakura) pictures of the Kanda River this morning. In the above photo some people are staking out a spot for flower viewing (hanami). Blue tarps are always used for some reason.

We sat on one of the blue tarps this past weekend at a hanami we were invited to attend. There weren’t many flowers yet, but the food was great, the company much more pleasant than the non-smiling faces above indicate, and we played loads of tennis with them too.

Everyone (except those suffering from allergies I suppose) loves sakura, but there are three groups who really love the cherry blossoms. They are the photographers, …

… the kids, …

and especially the (old) ladies (with a camera).

Kansenen Koen (甘泉園公園) has only one cherry tree. What it lacks in numbers it makes up for in magnificence as that one tree is really spectacular.

Basho’s hermitage is in the background of the above photo. The river is once again the Kanda.

Watching this guy try to get a picture of his bulldog along with the cherry blossoms brought a bigger smile to my face than the blossoms themselves. Everyone is happy when the blossoms are out. It’s a great time to take a walk and see everyone smiling, even if you can’t get your pet to grin.

Posted on March 30th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: cherry blossoms, ellie, people, pets, ryan, sakura, 甘泉園公園. Comments Off on Sakura

The purpose of our recent experience on Odaiba was not to take this picture. Rather, we went to Joypolis for Ryan’s 14th birthday party.

Posted on March 7th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: ellie, odaiba, people, ryan. Comments: 1

I have finally figured out how to take this shot. How many times have you wanted to take a picture of someone indoors in front of a bright, outdoor background only to have one of the following three things happen?

1) Person comes out OK; background is completely white
2) Background comes out OK; person is completely black
3) Flash bounces off window making the background look like it just got sucked into a wormhole

I have had the above three items occur on many an occasion. Through trail and error and error and error… I have found the solution. First, make sure your flash is on. You may even need to force it to flash. Second, focus on outside target. Third, move so that you are not directly pointing camera at outside window anymore. (i.e., you should become more parallel to the window than your initial perpendicular focus required in the second part above) Finally, center the picture between the outside and your person and take the picture.

The outside should look good as it was your focus. The flash should not hit the window since your camera is no longer directly pointing at the window. Your person should also look good as the flash lightened them up.

By the way, this is Ellie on the 14th floor of a building on the Waseda University campus with the Shinjuku skyscrapers in the background.

Posted on February 9th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: ellie, shinjuku, waseda university. Comments: 2

Our flight back to Japan, from Phuket through Bangkok, was a “red eye” so we didn’t need to arrive at the airport until late afternoon. We hired a taxi to take us to a few places before dropping us off at the airport. The first place we went was to the south, to the top of Mount Nagakerd, where Phuket’s Big Buddha is being constructed.

The bronze Buddha on the left is dedicated to the queen of Thailand. The Big Buddha is, you guessed it, dedicated to the king.

This is what the grounds are supposed to look like when everything is finished. Like most things we encountered in Thailand, I’m guessing this place will be partially finished for years to come.

Ellie, once again, couldn’t enter without covering up.

Posted on January 22nd, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: buddhist, ellie, phuket. Comments Off on Big Buddha of Phuket

The Sea Hag was our favorite restaurant on Phuket. We went two nights in a row. After the first night I took the above photo of Ellie enjoying the warm evening.

I made friends with this guy. He set up our chairs on the beach. Later on he noticed I was reading a book in Japanese so after we chatted for a while I ended up teaching him some phrases in Japanese that he could use on Japanese tourists. He practiced them every time he approached me the rest of the day, but I don’t think they were sticking too well.

Posted on January 21st, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: beach, ellie, people, phuket. Comments: 1