Author: travel67

Tokyo Intersections

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Tokyo has several iconic intersections. They turn up again and again in movies whenever cinematographers want to show a dazzling display of neon lights, traffic, pedestrians and undecipherable kanji. You’ve probably seen them in Lost in Translation, The Fast and the Furious – Tokyo Drift and most recently in Jumper I’ve taken photographs at the same intersections. Here’s one of Ginza yon-chome and one of Shinjuku Perhaps the most famous intersection is the one in Shibuya known as Hachiko Square Crossing (named for the nearby statue of the dog Hachiko) Akihabara intersection is at the heart of the electronics district but rather than show a photo I thought I would post a video by fellow Japan blogger Danny Choo who likes to spend his time free time bringing a smile to the faces of tired salarymen and office ladies.

First 10 km run.

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Yesterday I went out on my bike and, using the bike’s odometer to measure the distance, rode up the coast  for 5 kilometers. This morning I put on my old sneakers and my new Polar heart rate monitor (thank you little brother for my X-mas present) and jogged the 5 kilometers up the coast and back again. My first ever 10 km run. My heart rate monitor gave me my total time as 1 hr 4 mins with an average heart rate of 165 bpm. Now I am sure that taking over an hour to run 10 kilometers is not a good time, but this just leaves me a lot of room for improvement. One thing I do need to sort out is that my heart rate monitor seemed to suggest that I should be training with a heart rate of  between 140 and 160 bpm. Unfortunately, for almost the entire run my heart insisted on beating at around 166 bpm. This resulted in the watch continually flashing and beeping a warning signal, the watch …

Sapporo Snow Festival

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One frustration I have with some travel blogs is that you usually hear about exciting events after they have happened. Several times I have read about a fantastic festival, and wish that I’d known about it previously. So here’s one that’s coming up. The 2009 Sapporo Snow Festival ( Sapporo Yuki Matsuri ) will be held February 5 through February 11. You can read more details about visiting Hokkaido in winter here.   This photograph brings back a lot of memories for me as it came from the first roll of film I put in my first SLR camera way back in February 2000.

The joys of a “waterproof” camera.

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The photograph of Pudding and I playing fetch the stick reminded me about the joys of a “waterproof” camera. A few years ago Pentax came out with a point and shoot digital camera called the w10 that was waterproof to 1.5 meters. My girlfriend, Seiko, got one thinking it would be a great thing to take to the beach or even snorkeling and it has been really fun to use.    Of course the picture quality is not as good as a larger digital SLR (or higher-end compact digital cameras), however, it’s a camera you simply don’t have to worry about. Use it and abuse it. Leave it in you jacket pocket when it rains, let the dog slobber on it, throw it in the bag full of sandy wet clothes, or simply forget to take it out of your pocket when you jump in the ocean.  I recommended the camera  first to my sister and later my dad so we now have a range of models and colors in my family.  The latest model the Pentax …

Pudding makes it into 2009

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Pudding is our 13 year old cream coloured Labrador. When my girlfriend, Seiko,  moved from Hokkaido to live with me in Okinawa  she brought Pudding with her.  Pudding’s favorite thing about Okinawa is getting to go in the ocean regularly. In summer, both Pudding and I could go for a swim together  although this tended to result in me being covered in scratches.    Over the last year Pudding has being sleeping more and more. She is quite happy to relax on the sofa all day while Bear explores the house / sink  / trash cans / laundry basket.  A few months ago we found a lump on her elbow. For a while we didn’t have it removed to avoid an operation on an elderly dog, but when the lump had grown to the size of an egg, it was excised and diagnosed as Synovial sarcoma. Pudding has recovered from the operation and after a few weeks was back to her normal sleepy self.  On around the 30th of December, Pudding seemed to get very old very quickly. She didn’t want to …

Where the Hell is Matt?

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It started as a regular guy (Matt) using his digital camera to take videos of himself doing funny little dances while on his travels around the world. His dances became a You Tube phenomenon and now he travels to more and more places doing his funny little dances.  Looking for something to make you smile? Here it is…

Why the “67” in Travel 67?

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The short answer: 67  refers to the frame size of the film my Pentax 67II camera uses. The much longer answer:  Just as digital cameras have different sizes of sensor, film cameras use varying sizes of film. The vast majority of film cameras use 35mm film. One step larger than 35mm are the medium format cameras that use roll film. Roll film always has the same width (56mm), but different medium format cameras vary in how much of the roll they use in each frame. The most popular medium format cameras are 6×4.5, 6×6 and 6×7. The image below shows how the frame sizes compare.       35mm     24x36mm    864 sq.mm             6×4.5           56x42mm         2352 sq.mm    (2.7x as large as 35mm         format)                6×7            56x67mm         3752 sq. mm.  (4.3x as large as 35mm format;            1.6x larger than 6×4.5)   …

Shuri Castle New Year Festival

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From the 1st to the 3rd of January you can see the Shuri Castle New Year Festival in Naha, Okinawa. Shuri Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an interesting place to visit on a normal day, but it is spectacular with hundreds of people dressed in traditional costumes. Here are some photographs from previous years. The second photograph of the Ryukyu Queen was taken backstage when I was one of the events official photographers.         

Veyron v Euro Fighter

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Top Gear is a British car show that is hated with gusto by a large section of the British public. Its reviews of cars are biased and often ridiculous. Jeremy Clarkson’s hatred of vegetarians, the environment and subtlety are almost legendary. The show is, however, one of the best programmes on television. The reasons are several: Opinions  and hyperboles are more interesting than facts. The three presenters have a fantastic chemistry between them. The show understands that it is just as much about entertainment as documentary. The camera, sound, lighting and editing work are done to a standard normally associated with movies rather than TV. And finally, a fan base of loyal viewers who love the show just as much as others hate it.   When reviewing a supercar such as the Bugatti Veyron it would be too easy to simply race it around a track or compare it to another ludicrously priced sports car. Top Gear takes the matter a stage further…

Grumpy Bear

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  Another of the idiosyncrasies of still using film (especially professional side film) is that once you put a roll in the camera you need to use the entire roll and process it in a short amount of time. Shoot half a roll of film one day and the other half a few weeks later and your images start to get strange colour shifts. Although I only get 10 shots on a 120 roll of film and 21 shots on a 220 roll of film I am still often left with a few frames left on the camera when I get back home. Rather than waste the film, I usually take a few photographs of the dogs as they are always available and work for dog treats. Bear, however, does not smile for the camera. In fact, Bear only seems to stare grumpily at me until she gets her snack. The perils of being a photographer’s dog.