Most Japanese women prefer to drink green tea rather than soda. This is good for their health but bad for soda companies. But then big business had a cunning plan….. On June 8th, Coca-Cola Plus Green Tea Flavor appeared in stores across Japan.
As I mentioned in a previous post it’s probably more useful to learn about festivals before they occur rather than seeing photos of an event you just missed. In exactly one month, on July 17th the main parade of floats will take place as part of Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri. The huge floats are called Yamaboko and are dragged through the streets by teams of men. They do not go through the cobbled streets of Gion but rather trundle along the main shopping streets Shijo, Kawaramachi and Oike. The streets are packed with spectators but usually you can find a spot where you can get a decent view. I recommend the main intersections as this is where the floats have to be rotated 90 degrees, an impressive feat of strength and teamwork. You can read more about visiting Kyoto in my article The Best of Kyoto.
I needed to get some examples of using natural framing in photographs for a future photo tips article I am writing. Luckily I knew of a suitable location that would allow me to get the images I wanted. Shots taken at 7.30 AM at Zakimi Castle, a UNESCO world heritage site that’s about 15 minutes from where I live. Zakimi Castle has no entry fee, and is permanently open. A fantastic place to take photographs.
Picked up a couple of rolls of film I had dropped off at Kitamura Camera for processing. Processing for one roll of 220 film (without any pushing or pulling) is 1740 yen. A box of 5 rolls of Provia 220 is 5080 yen. That means film plus processing comes to 2756 yen per roll or 131 yen per frame when using my camera (21 shots on a 220 roll). Film photographers have to deal with a rapidly reducing number of places that they can process film, and increasing prices of both film and processing. However, rumors of the imminent demise of film are a little premature. Not only is film still sold and processed, a new film camera was being advertised in the store. The Fujifilm GF670 is a brand new rangefinder camera with a clever collapsible lens. Weighing just 1kg it shoots in the same 6×7 format as my Pentax 67II. If you want those big beautiful 6×7 transparencies, but don’t want the weight of a Pentax system this could be well worth checking out. It …
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Gundam robot anime series, an 18 meter Gundam model has just been erected in Odaiba, Tokyo. Various Tokyo bloggers have started to put up images on the net. In most photos it is difficult to judge the actual scale of this bohemoth, but this one at punynari.wordpress.com gives you a good idea. The robot will only be up for two months before being moved to an undisclosed location…. I wonder if the marketing people at DreamWorks are kicking themselves for not doing something similar for the latest Transformers movie.
It was announced on the news today that David Carradine is dead. I am a little too young to have grown up watching the TV show Kung Fu, but I am sure that for many this will be a sad day. In recent years Carradine returned to fame as Bill in Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies. For those who haven’t seen the movies, in one of the scenes in Kill Bill Part 1, Uma Thurman travels to Okinawa to get a samurai sword made by sword smith Hattori Hanzo. A couple of years ago I did an interview with the only real sword smith in Okinawa – Kanehama Kiyochika. I even got to ask him about Kill Bill… From the age of 22 to 31, Kiyochika Kanehama trained as an apprentice swordsmith. At a forge in the Japanese Alps, his sensei Kiyomune Miyairi taught him how to create a blade from lumps of iron ore. For years, he studied the process of folding and honing metal to produce edges so sharp that they are considered a …
Gran Turismo is a car racing simulator for the Sony Playstation. As the Playstation evolved from PS1 to Ps3, the game also grew in size and complexity, each time amazing gamers with super realistic graphics and incredibly realistic driving. The popularity and importance of this game to Sony is huge, over 50 million units have been sold. The release of Gran Turismo 5 is comparable to that of a hollywood blockbuster. Although there is no set release date, the first trailers have appeared. Things have certainly come along way since the days of Pong.
At the 2009 MTV Video Awards Japan, the Beastie Boys were presented with the Street Icons Award by Nigo. Not sure how this award was decided as most young Japanese have no idea who the Beastie Boys are. The Beastie Boys are however obvious fans of Japan. Why else would you dress up as Japanese construction workers and dance in Shibuya and Shinjuku train stations. And who better to defend Tokyo from an enormous octopus headed monster than the Beastie Boys at the helm of a giant robot.
As some people have pointed out, a few months ago the prices for limited edition prints available on my website suddenly changed from US dollars to Japanese yen. At exhibitions in Japan all the prices for my prints are in yen. With fluctuating exchange rates, the only way to guarantee that the prices are the same whether you purchase on the website or through a gallery was to have everything in the same currency. You can check the prices in your local currency using a universal currency converter. Paypal will convert the amount from yen to your local currency when checking out, along with taking all the necessary shipping details. As always, A2 and A3 size prints include free international shipping and insurance.
During the summer months bull fighting takes place in several bull rings on Okinawa. I have mixed feelings on the whole situation. Compared to Spanish bull fighting it is delightful. Okinawan bull fighting is a battle between equals rather than men against beast. The Okinawan bulls lock horns and then push each other until the weaker bull turns and runs. The bulls are not killed, and are looked after by their owners better than many pets. Near where I live, you regularly see the bulls being taken for walks. ( Something I really should photograph now that I think about it. ) Some bulls however do get injured, which is hardly surprising when both combatants have a big pointy horn on either side of their head. With the potential for animals to be injured or even killed is the cost of this entertainment too great?
