All posts filed under: Japan

KitKat Omiyage

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Omiyage are the presents that Japanese bring back to their family and colleagues when they have been away on a trip. Usually they are cookies, chocolates or senbei but I know some people that send boxes of fruit from Okinawa, and crab or salmon from Hokkaido. Even the big name brands have products specifically produced for omiyage. Nearly every place I have been to in Japan has their own Hello Kitty doll, while KitKat produces  flavors that are only available in certain prefectures. Here are a couple of boxes that are available in Nagano, Blueberry Cheesecake and Red Chili.

Nozawa Onsen Ski Area

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After a day with the snow monkeys we drove about 30 minutes north to Nozawa Onsen. We booked accommodation, rental gear and 1.5 day lift passes through Mark at Lodge Nagano . Although his lodges were full, Mark found us a place at Maruji Guesthouse just around the corner. It was good to be back on the board if only for a couple of days. There hadn’t been any fresh snow for a while, but there were not really any bare patches on the mountain. Lower areas were a little choppy and slushy at times but you can’t be guaranteed of  powder snow if you go at the end of February for just a couple of days. I liked the fact that at the top of the mountain there were areas that were “ski at own risk” rather than completely out of bounds. It is a sensible decision to provide some off piste areas, as by providing a relatively safe area it should reduce the chance of boarders going off exploring and finding themselves stuck …

Photographer John Shaw

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I happened to meet photographer John Shaw while at Jigokudani Onsen. John was leading a wildlife photography tour of Japan. They had just spent around 10 days in Hokkaido and were enjoying their last few days photographing the snow monkeys. John’s a really nice guy and great photographer. He has written numerous books on photography including John Shaw’s Nature Photography Field Guide, John Shaw’s Closeups in Nature and John Shaw’s Landscape Photography.

Return to the Valley of the Snow Monkeys

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Just got back from a few days up on the Japanese mainland. I flew from Okinawa to Niigata, met up with my friend Steve, then drove south into Nagano prefecture for a day with the snow monkeys and a couple of days snowboarding. There was much less snow than during my previous visit so the hike up the trail was no problem. At the hot springs I spent the afternoon photographing the various monkeys. You can read about my first visit to Jigokudani Onsen on my main website.  Previously I had taken most of my snow monkeys photographs with a huge 400mm telephoto lens, but this time I wanted to get even closer so I left the telephoto lens in Okinawa and brought a macro lens for some portraits. As you can see it wasn’t difficult to get very close to the monkeys. Once it was too dark to shoot, we headed over to the Korakukan Jigokudani guesthouse to relax in the onsen. I was hoping that the monkeys would come and join us in …

Pentax Optio W90 and the Countdown to the Pentax 645D

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A couple of new cameras will soon be released from Pentax. The first is the latest in their line of rugged waterproof cameras, the w90. I’m a big fan of the W-series. They’re perfect for vacations when you may forget to empty your pockets before you dive in the ocean. The bigger news is the countdown to the unveiling of Pentax’s flaship model, the long awaited Pentax 645D. I believe the sensor will be 1.7 times the size of a full frame 35mm sensor, but no news yet of how many megapixels, new lenses, the price, or the date of release.

Natsumi Photo Shoot

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Just got back from a fun photo shoot at Shikina Gardens in Naha. I was assisting fellow photographer Annya Eyestone as she photographed Japanese model Natsumi. I didn’t take my big camera, but did get a couple of shots with my little digital point and shoot. I converted a few to black and white as it hides various noise and color issues. Here’s my favorite.

Sushi Zen: Apologies, Embarrassment and Disappointment

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A couple of months ago I posted a blog entry advertising that an Okinawan photo club I belong to was having a mini exhibit at a local restaurant called Sushi Zen (see original post here). The pictures were up all January and when the month finished the owner was more than happy to have the exhibit continue on into February. Yesterday, I saw a comment on Facebook saying that Sushi Zen didn’t allow Japanese customers. I thought that something must have got lost in translation, but unfortunately, the comments made on Facebook were true. A regular customer of the restaurant told me that the Japanese owner had worked in America and on his return to Okinawa he set up a restaurant making American style sushi that would be popular with  Americans on the island. Japanese customers however demanded Japanese style sushi,  and made negative comments about the American customers when talking in Japanese. It appears that to create a comfortable atmosphere for his American clients, the owner decided to make the restaurant a private club. …

100 Yen CDs

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Japanese video stores such as Tsutaya and GEO rent DVDs, Blu-ray discs, comics, video games and CDs. Sometimes they sell off the older DVD’s and CD’s as ex-rentals and recently GEO had a big sale with whole shelves of CD’s on sale for just 100 yen each. It’s been fantastic wandering around the aisles of various stores and as an entire album is less than a single song on iTunes I’ve been quite happy to try things I wouldn’t have otherwise bought. Surprisingly a large number of the CDs were by Scatman John, which even at 100 yen, I managed to resist. So if you happen to see me in my car singing hits from the nineties you now know why. “Movin’ to the country, Gonna eat a lot of peaches. Movin’ to the country, Gonna eat me a lot of peaches”

Million Dollar Music Videos

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I came across a list of the most expensive music videos ever made on Wikipedia. 31 videos on the list cost at least a million dollars to make.  I was surprised  that along with global superstars including Michael Jackson, Madonna and Britney, four of the million dollar videos were made for Japanese singer pop star Ayumi Hamasaki. Here’s one of Ayumi’s videos, Fairyland. I expect that taking Ayumi, dancers and film crew to a tropical island probably took up a good part of the budget. The video also serves as a useful public information announcement on the dangers of candles.