As previously mentioned, we stayed at the Andakira Hotel for five nights. The hotel, itself, is nice–in large part because it is new, opening less than two months before our stay. Some things may not be so nice when the place has aged a bit. (For instance the doors are really cheap, the grout was already mostly worn away in our shower, and the plates in the restaurant are quickly getting chipped.)

The pool is very cool. You can actually enter the pool directly from a few rooms. The staff is mostly friendly, but don’t count on them having excellent English skills. One morning we asked for a 6:15 wake up call that came at 6:50 due to them not understanding but pretending to. The breakfast selection was good and the food wasn’t bad, but it could have used a little more variation from day to day. While there were many things to choose from, they were pretty much the exact same things each day. We didn’t eat lunch or dinner at the hotel. Like most hotels, the prices for meals were several times what you can find elsewhere in town.

Other than the horrible location for getting to the beach, the other big surprises were the ugly views from the hotel itself. You have your choice of construction, unattractive five- or six-story apartment/hotels, or sewage (which can also be smelt if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction).

Looking at a map, beforehand, I wasn’t expecting the same view from our balcony (pictured above) as we had in Porta Vallarta, but this was ridiculous. Maybe the view isn’t quite as bad if you are lucky enough to get on the top floor.

If you want to do Patong Beach on the cheap then staying in one of the unsightly apartment/hotels on Phangmuang Sai Ko Road, right next to the Andakira, is not a bad way to go I suppose. You’ll still have to cross the street of death to get anywhere, but you’ll pay less than half of what you’ll pay at the Andakira Hotel. Best of all, you’ll have a view of the nice looking Andakira, instead of the other way around.

Posted on January 1st, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: andakira, phuket, reviews. Comments: 2

As I mentioned last time, O-EAST in the Shibuya area of Tokyo is an excellent venue. Nestled between about a dozen love hotels, don’t be surprised if you see Japanese business men (サラリーマン) in full suits and ties show up at weeknight shows. I saw several on this evening. They hadn’t even loosened their ties or taken off their suit coats to see Opeth. Perhaps Opeth shows should become completely formal in the future.

Getting to Shibuya was, by far, my shortest commute to see Opeth. It took me about 10 minutes on the train, followed by a 5 minute walk from the Hachiko Exit to O-EAST. Normally I have to drive all day to see Opeth. If you count the miles from my home base of Ashland, Oregon, rather than my current home in Tokyo, I have traveled over 21,400 miles to see Opeth. Of course I was already in Denmark when I went to Metaltown in Sweden, but even so, for the four Opeth shows I’ve gone to in the states, all included an overnight stay and, combined, logged more than 2,000 miles on my car.

I took one video which you can view below. It begins with Mikael talking and messing around with the crowd for the first minute and a half. The song Opeth then dives into is “Leper Affinity” off of Blackwater Park, perhaps their best CD. I apologize for the shakes during the first half of the video. The floor was vibrating. I adjusted my feet for a better foundation during the second half of the video so it looks much better. My TZ7 seems to take much better video (and pictures) when it is zoomed to the max.

If you do not like heavy music, but still want to take a peek, then I suggest jumping in at the 5:10 mark. When it gets too heavy jump ahead to 8:50 to see the end.

Enjoy!

Posted on November 18th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: metal, opeth, reviews, Tokyo, tz7 zs3, video. Comments Off on An evening in Shibuya with Opeth (オーペス)

Yamituki Curry is the closest restaurant to our abode. It is also quite yummy. There are 12 curry dishes to choose from and go for about 800 yen each. Unless you are extremely hungry, splitting one with a friend is the way to go. They taste quite different from typical Japanese curry. Many feature cheese in the sauce–very unique and delicious. I believe this is a chain and can be found outside of Nishi-Waseda as well although I’m not sure where.

Posted on September 3rd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: curry, food, night photography, nishi-waseda, recommendations, reviews. Comments Off on Yamituki Curry (やみつきかりー)

As promised in the prior entry, here are some photo comparisons I did on the first day after purchasing a Panasonic DMC-TZ7 to go along with my LX3.

Methodology:
I set both cameras to ia mode (which is what I use 99% of the time), 5 MP, and self timer. I placed both cameras side-by-side on my balcony ledge. Placement plus the self timer does away with any shaking that could sway the results. I have done nothing with the pictures after taking of them. They haven’t been cropped or adjusted in any way with a program like Photoshop. Nor was either camera set to something like vibrant mode. For the first set of pictures I went with maximum wide angle and received the following results.

You can click on the above images to get a better, larger view. Which one do you like better?

I like the second one better, especially the green tree in the lower right. The slightly wider angle is also nice. The differences aren’t huge however. The LX3 took the second picture.

Next I put the LX3 on maximum zoom and zoomed the TZ7 to approximate the LX3 zoom. Which do you like better of these two?

If you are biased toward the LX3 and immediately said the second image then no points for you. I swapped these images and put the LX3 image on top. I do think the top image is ever-so-slightly better.

Finally, I zoomed the TZ7 to maximum and took the final shot. The LX3 can’t take this shot at all.

In some other situations, where lighting is a bigger issue and zooming is not, I bet the LX3 wins in a landslide. The LX3 has never let me down on people pictures. To date I haven’t had the LX3 deliver a single red-eye photo. The TZ7 appears to be far inferior with respect to the flash, but I haven’t taken any people pictures yet with it to see if it avoids the dreaded red-eye results. The sensor in the TZ7 is smaller than the LX3’s so it really isn’t possible for it to take better or even the same level quality in poor lighting.

Posted on September 2nd, 2009 under Other. Tags: compare, recommendations, reviews, tz7 zs3. Comments: 19

I’m going to interrupt the normal daily post about Japan for one about cameras. Until February of 2009 nearly all of the pics on this blog were taken with my old Canon S3. A few had been captured with a crappy, little Kodak camera that was my daughter’s that I used in a pinch or when I didn’t want to carry the large S3 around. I loved that S3 camera, but its time had come. I sold it soon thereafter and have been using only the LX3 since (although many older pictures that I have posted on the blog since February were taken with the S3).

The LX3 takes great pictures, and I love the wide angle lens (24 mm), but a few things about it bug me. The cap is a hassle to take on and off manually for every time a picture is taken. Although not nearly as big and heavy as the S3 was, it still isn’t a camera I like to have in my pocket the entire day. But most of all, the 2.5x maximum zoom came to be a problem in a number of situations. 60 mm is simply not enough to photograph sports or to get some good people shots without the subject knowing you are photographing them.

Now let me introduce you to my latest purchase, the TZ7 (sold as the DMC-ZS3 in parts of the world including the USA). The TZ7 doesn’t take as high of quality of pictures in low light or indoors, the wide angle isn’t quite as wide (25mm instead of 24mm), and you can’t control your shots (setting exposure length, etc.) quite as much. But there are many reasons to possibly opt for the TZ7/ZS3 over the LX3. It weighs 229 grams instead of the LX3’s 265 grams. 36 grams may not sound like much, but the 16% lighter factor can be felt immediately. After a day of it in your pocket you’ll notice the difference even more.

The published dimensions for these two cameras are incorrect. One of the main reasons I purchased the LX3 was because of the dimensions I read on the internet. They are false. From back to front the LX3 is supposed to be only 27.1 mm. My measurements give a reading of 46 mm, and that is before taking the lens cap off and turning the camera on. The TZ7 has a published depth of 32.8 mm. My reading gives only 28 mm. In other words, the TZ7 is barely more than half as thick (due to the LX3’s protruding lens). This makes a huge difference in your pocket if you are carrying it around all day. The heights are the same and the TZ7’s width is a little more than 5 mm smaller. So, for portability, the TZ7 is much better.

The TZ7 takes much better video in most conditions. The LX3 can take great video too, but you can’t zoom in and out when recording video on the LX3. I’ll show you some sample videos with the TZ7 soon.

The TZ7 can cost anywhere from $100 to $200 less than the LX3 (assuming you can even find the LX3 in stock).

But the biggest reason why I purchased the TZ7 was not the lens cap annoyance, the better price, the better video, or the improved portability, it was the zoom. The TZ7 has 12x zoom. Cropping can only yield so much with the LX3, and I found myself cropping nearly everything I took with the LX3. Now I can zoom to 300mm and not be stuck at 60mm and a large crop.

I don’t plan on selling my LX3. I’ll use it for sunsets (and other low-light conditions), indoor pictures, and in some other situations where it may result in a substantially better picture. But given the portability and the zoom possibilities with the TZ7 I think it will be brought along more often. Have I completely sold you on the TZ7 over the LX3? I hope not, as my initial testing and photo comparisons indicate that the quality of pictures is generally better with the LX3. I’ll show you my first set of tests in my next entry.

Another reason I purchased the TZ7 is we only had one camera in Japan. My kids are going to Cambodia and Miyajima on field trips during the same week. Sending only one of them off with a camera didn’t sound so hot to me.

Posted on September 2nd, 2009 under Other. Tags: compare, photography, recommendations, reviews, tz7 zs3. Comments: 9