Tsukiji Fish Market (2)

Two more Tsukiji images.

—The hustle and bustle of trucks and carts coming at you in the narrow lanes.

—An extremely formidable-looking knife.

Photos: Cart, Tsukiji—Tokyo, 2008; Knife, Tsukiji—Tokyo, 2008

Tsukiji Fish Market (1)

The Tsukiji Fish Market is widely considered to be a must-see in Tokyo. Luckily, our hotel in Shidome was within easy walking distance of the market, so we made our way over there early Saturday morning.

Hundreds of stalls in a large factory-style building, open at the sides. Water sluicing through the aisles. Mini-trucks whizzing back and forth. Workers wielding knifes the length of samurai swords.

Difficult to take photos, certainly.

Afterwards, sushi for breakfast.

Photos: Truck, Tsukiji—Tokyo, 2008; Knifes, Tsukiji—Tokyo, 2008; Warning Sign, Tsukiji—Tokyo, 2008

. . . from the archives #31: Amargosa Hotel—Death Valley, 1995

Taken as I was just driving by. The hotel is actually a tourist destination, with its own web site.

The evident grain structure in the photo means, to me, that it’s probably made with a Tri-X negative. Good low-light sensitivity, but very high grain. It’s a nice look—nowadays you can get software programs to add "grain" to digital files which are of course grainless. (Digital files have "noise.")

The question remains: what was I doing with low-light sensitive film in Death Valley!?

Photo: Amargosa Hotel—Death Valley, 1995

Storm Clouds

Mike had to run out to the stable to reconfigure the hay in Tuffy’s hay shed.

During the pouring rain.

Too much hay in too little of a space was the situation, so he had to move several flakes of hay from the shed to the tack room.

In the rain.

In the rain, and also, dodging and weaving around Tuffy who insisted on standing directly in front of the tack room door.

Afterwards, on the way home, Mike glimpsed clearing skies directly behind him, so he pulled over and took this picture of eastbound traffic in the San Geronimo Valley.

Photo: Storm Clouds, San Geronimo Valley—Marin County, 2008

Meiji Shrine (More)

Two extra photos from the Meiji Shrine visit. (Update: Pix are somewhat noisy . . . had to use a high ISO. If only I had had a Nikon!)

Photos: Umbrellas—Tokyo, 2008; Umbrella—Tokyo, 2008

Nandina

Very cold around these parts. Had to string some extra tree lights onto our lemon tree in the back yard and prop up some boards to shield the lettuce as anti-frost measures. While out there I noticed these nandina leaves. (Seen before . . . here.)

Photos: Nandina Leaves—Marin County, 2008; Lemon Tree—Marin County, 2008

Tokyo Afternoon and Evening

After visiting the Meiji Shrine, our soaked group ended up at the upscale Omotosando Hills Mall: cutting-edge architecture with spirally floors ala the Guggenheim Museum. We dried off during lunch at a top-notch ramen restaurant.

Thence by subway over to the Ginza district for shopping in one of those enormous department-store-basement-food-emporiums. By this time I was starting to drag, so I elected to walk back to our hotel utilizing my trusty REI keychain compass. It was still raining when I saw some nice stone jars against a bright red background, and again when I crossed over into Shiodome via one of the district’s ubiquitous overhead crossings.

Back at the hotel in our 33rd-floor room I contemplated the lights of Tokyo spread out before me. Later that night Hali and I spent some time packing our suitcases; then had dinner at a nice little beef tongue restaurant.

Photos: Stone Jars—Tokyo, 2008; Shiodome Rain—Tokyo, 2008; Mike Overlooking Tokyo—Tokyo, 2008

Meiji Shrine

Later that morning we visited the Meiji Shrine (dedicated to the Emperor Meiji) in the pouring rain.

I managed to shelter my camera inside my parka, bringing it out rather frequently in response to the wet scene in front of me.

At one point, Hali took off on a solo stroll across one of the inundated squares, her red umbrella and blue parka punctuating the overall drabness for the benefit of the camera.

Photos: Rocks & Leaves—Tokyo, 2008; Red Umbrella—Tokyo, 2008

Red Skies At Dawning, Sailors Fix Their Awning

Or is it, Red Skies At Night, Sailors Take Fright?

Or Red Skies At Dawn, Sailors Mow Their Lawn?

Yesterday saw red skies over the Marin County Civic Center, where Mike was setting up his exquisite artisan’s booth.

Well, it didn’t snow, nor did it hail. But, and this is a big but, there was plenty of wind and rain. It cut Mike’s display time down by a little over an hour. But, and this is a big but, he still managed to sell some stuff . . . enough stuff to cover the daily booth fee, anyway.

A number of artisans (including Mike) left early, especially those whose work would be considered water-sensitive. Also leaving early were the inflatable kid house people. Their puffy structures had been standing there sad and vacant, kidless. So they left, alas, to the utter dismay of one little boy who, rounding the corner in his red wagon and seeing the lifeless vinyl, burst into tears. Can anything match the disappointment of a child losing his coveted bouncing time?

Photos: Red Skies & Civic Center—Marin County, 2008; Vacant Inflatable Structure—Marin County, 2008; Mike & Rain, Farmers Market—Marin County, 2008

Morning Rain—Shinbashi

Morning came with still more rain. Of course, that meant that I had to scoot over to Shinbashi Station and get some early AM rain pix. It was raining harder than people expected!


Photos: Morning Commuters in Rain—Tokyo, 2008; Loading Beer Kegs in Rain—Tokyo, 2008; Tokyo Tower, Rain—Tokyo, 2008

Gifts Versus Acquisitions

Sales at the Farmers Market have been, um, rather slow. And they promise to be even slower this weekend, given the weather forecast of rain and possibly hail.

Giving me time to do a little product analysis.

My new theory (or is it my new hypothesis?) is that the purchase of one of my photos can be almost always categorized as a personal acquisition. Very rarely has one been sold to be used as a gift. (Of course, I’ve had some photos used as gifts. Unusual, though.) I’m therefore wondering if acquisition-type art would sell better during Spring and Summer, when people are not thinking primarily about gift-purchasing. Under this idea, gift-type art would do better in Autumn and Winter.

Of course, some arts and crafts can fit under both categories. Nice!

***

Yes, I could do with a nice Vietnamese sandwich right about now.

***

In other biz-type issues, there’s a very interesting essay by Alain Briot at Luminous Landscape . . . here.

Photo: Vietnamese Sandwiches—San Francisco, 2008

Japan: Culinary Adventures (10): Marunouchi Beef

Marunouchi (pro. Maru-no-uchi) is a heavy-duty financial district in Tokyo, but also the site of some great new shopping areas—it's adjacent to Tokyo Station, only two stops away from Shinbashi Station. So it was relatively easy for us to meet Shawna and Maz and head out in search of . . . beef! (And, incidentally, to avoid the rain.)

We had all heard of Kobe beef, and wanted some.

We finally decided on a Korean-style restaurant that offered a multiplicity of beef offerings—various cuts and selections (as indicated by the menu.) You cooked your food at individual hibachis. Very satisfying. No Kobe beef, as such, but selections equally as good.

And yes, the beef was all well and good, but I found the most intriguing thing to be the automatic draft beer machines. After glasses were inserted, these machines automatically tilted them while the draft beer was dispensed. As the beer flowed, the glasses were gradually brought back to the level. Wow!

Afterwards I had some famous dessert vinegar (with ice cream) in one of the maze-like underground floors of Tokyo Station.

Photos: Beef Menu—Tokyo, 2008; Dessert Vinegar—Tokyo, 2008; Draft Beer Machine—Tokyo, 2008

Night Rain—Shinbashi

After our arrival at Shinbashi Station the rain had gotten steadily worse. I elected to wander around a bit taking these photos of homebound commuters and a rain-soaked street with a Yamanote Line train speeding by in the background.

Photos: Evening Commuters in Rain—Tokyo, 2008; Street in Rain—Tokyo, 2008

Recent Work (2008): Truck & Building

This was taken in back of the feed store in Novato; the sun was low in the west.

Another in the series of "photorealist" pix, as I like to call them. Not sure what makes them photorealist . . . I guess subject matter, mainly.

Taken with the Olympus C-8080. Since I was pointing the camera up, the verticals in the picture converged, with a sloping-inwards look. But! I've recently become aware of the "Distort" filter in Photoshop which allows you to not necessarily distort, but to correct distortion. Used here.

Photo: Truck & Building—Marin County, 2008

Bamboo & Hummingbird

I saw my one and only bamboo grove during our Kamakura trip. Imagined Ziyi Zhang (in House of Flying Daggers) up there in the branches, fighting off the imperial troops. (As director Zhang Yimou is said to have remarked: "Bamboo groves are an inextricable part of martial arts films. It is as though you have to fight in the bamboo forest before you can be considered a true warrior.")

At Tokei-ji we saw the tiniest hummingbird ever. At first we thought that it was a bumblebee, but no: a hummingbird. Although I’m really not equipped to take bird pix I did my best.

Featured Comment: From Hali--If you click on the hummingbird picture, you can really see it much better.

[Update: Not a hummingbird! It's a moth!]

Photos: Bamboo Grove—Kamakura, 2008; Hummingbird, Tokei-ji—Kamakura, 2008

Kamakura Kids

In Kamakura we reached, I think, the maximum kid count of any spot during our trip.

There were kids in all the temples, kids at the money-washing shrine, and kids running up and down the trail.

There were even kids with questionnaires, wanting to know where we came from and if they could take our picture (as part of a school assignment.) They had forms to complete!

Photos: Kid Running—Kamakura, 2008; Hali with Kid Taking Pix—Kamakura, 2008

Kamakura

Hali and I left our hotel early, walked though the vast underground Shiodome spaces to Shinbashi Station and took the train for Kamakura. We had read that there was an interesting hiking trail there . . . another one of those anticipation-turning-into-reality experiences.

The train took us past Yokohama to the small station of Kita Kamakura (North Kamakura.) We got out our guidebook pages and fussed a bit, but eventually headed off in the right direction, towards the Zen temple complex of Engaku-ji. Very pretty place, but I don’t see how anyone could possibly attain satori with the noise of the trains and all the schoolkids running around.

After I bought a T-shirt at Engaku-ji we walked to Tokei-ji, a former nunnery. Nicely landscaped spot with a statue of the Buddha surrounded by colorful foliage.

From Tokei-ji we embarked on a real hike, past a weathered gate and up into the hills with some steep going at times. We eventually ended up at the Zeniarai Benten Shrine, a "money washing" shrine. If you wash your money there, it will double. Or something like that. The wooden toriis leading to the entrance caught my photographer’s attention.

We had already hiked up, now it was time to hike down into the town of Kamakura. The forecast called for rain; under threatening skies we stopped for lunch at a very pleasant teahouse chosen at random. Most of what the proprietress offered was sweet, but we were able to order a satisfying lunch.

Finally, rain drops and the train station in Kamakura where we hopped on an incorrect train (of course) ending up somewhere in Tokyo, but eventually finding our way back to Shinbashi.

Photos: Buddha, Tokei-ji, Kamakura, 2008; Lantern, Engaku-ji—Kamakura, 2008; Gate—Kamakura, 2008; Toriis—Kamakura, 2008; Teahouse—Kamakura, 2008

Blog Notes

Over to the right you can see a new section called "Labels." Easier now to find blog entries on particular subjects. Wow!

My Backup Plan—Report

Back in early October I laid out my backup strategy for the upcoming Japan trip. Back then I stated that:

Travelling, I’ve got a Hyperdrive, a small iPod-like device, and several CompactFlash cards (see above.) As the cards are utilized, they’re downloaded onto the Hyperdrive. Once all cards have been filled up, then I start reformatting them. This would in no way satisfy a true backup devotee, but I think it works for me.

Well, it in fact did work for me.

The expected: I ended up using all CompactFlash cards for the digital SLR, but I never had to reformat any of the cards. As I switched to a new card I backed up the old card onto the Hyperdrive; by the end of the trip I was on the last CompactFlash card but wasn’t close to filling it up.

The unexpected: I used the Canon G9 more heavily than anticipated, thereby consistently filling up the SD memory cards that it used and therefore having to reformat rather frequently. In fact I started to reformat cards within the first two days of the trip, in Kyoto. I had the G9 with me during the rainy-day tour we took there and took quite a few pix!

In both cases the Hyperdrive worked fine, especially in its backup function. (I never did figure out how to effectively preview the day’s shots.) I ended up using it to download my photos onto the computer.

But here’s the thing. The function of the Hyperdrive is to let you save enormous quantities of photos, for example, when you’re travelling through Japan for two weeks with camera constantly in hand. Once that particular event is over, then the need for the Hyperdrive is gone.

So I may end up selling it, so as not to have a somewhat expensive device just sitting around on the shelf. For regular vacations—bird-watching, backpacks, etc.—the storage on my CompactFlash cards is more than sufficient.

Photo: Maple & Redwoods—Marin County, 2008

Shinbashi

One side of Shinbashi Station is upper-scale: department stores and nice restaurants.

The other side is much nicer, that is to say: run-down, grittier and more picturesque with pachinko parlors and adult movie houses.

Photos: Pachinko Parlor—Tokyo, 2008; Adult Movie Theater—Tokyo, 2008

Shiodome Underground

We were staying in the Tokyo area known as Shiodome (pron. Shee-oh-dough-may), actually, a quite modern business complex, with underground and overhead walkways.

We accessed Shinbashi Station via these vast underground passageways, sometimes crowded with commuters, sometimes not.

Photo: Shiodome Underground—Tokyo, 2008

Japan: Culinary Adventures (9): Shinjuku Night

I met Hali, Maz and Shawna at the Shinbashi Station as they were returning from their sushi class. Hali went back to the hotel for some well-deserved relaxation; the rest of us, along with John (a fellow-student from the class) took the, yes, Yamanote Line to Shinjuku Station ("busiest train station in the world.")

We plunged through the crowds following John, who seemed to know his way around—or at least he gave that impression. Past the crowds, out onto the street, a right turn and then down a narrow alleyway lined with tiny countertop restaurants.

Very, very atmospheric.

Our countertop restaurant was, in fact, pretty crowded. On one side, you had your Sapporo beer reps, and on the other, your K2 snowboard rep. Behind the counter you had your nesan thoroughly in charge. The air was redolent with cigarette smoke, which of course only added to the mystique of the place.

I had a plateful of skewered chicken and some sake, but in deference to the Sapporo reps, we all started drinking quantities of beer. Have I mentioned how well Japanese beer goes with Japanese food?


Off to another restaurant for some sashimi and sake, and then back to Shinjuku Station for a late night train ride back to the hotel.



Photos: Shinjuku Alley—Tokyo, 2008; John & Nesan (Shinjuku)—Tokyo, 2008; Sapporo Reps (Shinjuku)—Tokyo, 2008; Yamanote Line (Late Night)—Tokyo, 2008

Recent Work (2008): Geese; Glide Memorial

—A sunrise photo looking towards the San Rafael-Richmond Bridge. (Olympus C8080.)

—An evening shot of the exterior of Glide Memorial church in San Francisco. (Canon G9.)

Photos: Geese—San Rafael, 2008; Glide Memorial Church—San Francisco, 2008

The Yamanote Line

Now the Yamanote Line she’s a mighty good road
Oh the Yamanote Line she’s the road to ride
Oh the Yamanote Line she’s a mighty good road
Well if you want to ride you gotta ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station for the Yamanote Line.

I’m sure that we all recall Stan Freberg’s version of "The Rock Island Line."

***

The Yamanote Line runs clockwise and counter-clockwise around Tokyo, stopping at all of the major neighborhoods, but I never did quite figure out how to tell which direction to take. Access to our hotel was from the Shinbashi station; getting off the train one is confronted by a maze of buildings, wires and signs. I took a three-photo panorama from the station platform.

Down at street level there are small businesses as part of the station, with trains rushing overhead and the buildings of Shiodome in the distance.

Photos: Shinbashi Station Platform—Tokyo, 2008; Restaurant, Shinbashi Station—Tokyo, 2008