Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Ski-Japan 2005

Place : kashimiyari ski resort, Nagano-Ken,Japan.
Date : 22nd January 2005.

By virtue of CCP [Cut Copy Paste], I ended loosing all the writeup of this post.
Some Reverse Engineering lead to the retrieval of the urls of the photos.Now I need to rewrite this,as of now I will leave it for another cool sunday afternoon.





Hatao Yosuke-san, Imai Hiroki-san, Otsuki Yukihiro-san, Yoshida Emi-san, Amit Tikekar; Mahesh Inamdar; Mochizuki Katsuki-san,






















Saturday, January 08, 2005

Not so blue

Last weekend trying to beat the cold wave on the streets of tokyo I struck a conversation with chetan, when out of the blue he made a statement that he detests the renowned Indian painter MF Hussain. Curious about his contempt, I queried, to which he wavered a bit and remarked "Hussian just mints money like hell when there are lot more talented out there" he stood firm on his statement with no further logical claim.

Over the years I found many people envying the successful in oneway or the other. I failed to understand on most of the counts, but one thing looks obvious to me : in most cases people undermine the ability of marketing themselves. Given a set of equally talented pupils in a discipline, successful are those, who have the ability to market themselves better.

That night Chetan showed me his caricatures. That was a real decent work. One of the caricatures happened to be that of MF Hussians and thats when I recollected what I called "his out of the blue statement" is not so blue.


MF Hussian's caricature by Chetan.

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Intuitive Interfaces

Offlate the 2004 reviews mentioned "the gadget of year 2004 : iPod". I was wondering what makes this so special that it turned out to be an instant hit. I bought an iPod mini to check it out.

iPod stands as a testimony to apples outstanding designs. The moment I unwrapped the iPod I was searching for the Power On/Off button, which sounded missing. The iPod has an audio socket, one hold button, USB cum Firewire socket, a sleek body and a membrane interface for all the selections(MENU, Fwd, Rwd, Play/Pause). The interface was so intuitive that in couple of minutes I was at home with the operations.

Taking this intuitive interface a step further was Sony`s Qualia series. I had a hands on experience at the Sony Building in Ginza. The gadgets in this series are named "Qualia xxx", xxx is a three digit number.The digital camera "Qualia 016" was one of the smallest in the world.



It had a whole range of accessories :
a. Tele and macro lense extenders.
b. A flash unit.
c. A remote.
d. A view finder extender.
e. Built in image stabilizer.



The sales lady was good enough to explain the features. When asked about the price, she said "Its 4000 USD, we start manufacturing it once you place an order and its completely handmade."

Now all this justifies the price, but something that really defies your imagination is that this doesn't have any power on/off buttons around, instead it has a strip of sensors which operate as you slide your fingers on them. One can do zoom in and out, exposure compensate and browse through the previous clicks. Though I was not able to completely comprehend the technology behind this implementation, it gave me a hint of whats installed for the future.



The above image is the bread board of Qualia 016 on display.


She was kind enough to pose for a snap and I was good enough to goofed it up.

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Tokyo Yokohama Kamakura jaunt.

December 30th 2004 - January 3rd 2005

No matter how clandestine I plan my itinerary the rain gods get a hand on it.

30th Dec 2004

Mahesh, Amit and myself left for Shinjuku from Matsumoto Bus Terminal around 10:20AM. First things first, as we reached Shinjuku[2:00PM] we first moved to Yodobashi Camera shop(the Largest Camera shop in Japan).

Yodobashi is a Photographers Paradise. The building that's opposite to the Shinjuku bus terminal mostly vends consumer cameras,while the adjacent 4 storied building handles all the professional equipment. After the window shopping we moved on to Akihabara where we met our elxsi colleagues from Kawasaki(Mushashi-Nakahara) and for the next 3 hrs it was gadget shopping.


One of the pamphlets we came across had a full page ad of Tokyo Millenario,with no further thought we moved to Tokyo Station. A 800m street across the station was lit with incandescent and fluorescent lamps. A reminiscent of Ganesha/Durga festival times in India. People were thronging, I was not able to shoot without being pushed at some point or the other. One can find hundreds of digital camera mobiles floating to capture the moment.

Tokyo Millenario








It was freezing cold by the time we reached our den(Musashi-Nakahara).'Sala' made us feel at home and introduced us to his room mates : Harsha, Chetan, Prakash, Sourav and Mangesh. Well SALA(not SAALA) is not a nickname its the surname of Sala Rajsekhar.

We were all set to make it to Yokohama Minato Mirai 21 and to spend the 31st night in a cruise.

31st Dec 2004

One week of research on how best to spend the 31st at the Yokohama Minato Mirai 21 , China town, the bay bridge cruise and Yamashita went in vain as it turned out to be an overcast followed by showers.

As planned all of us hopped a couple of trains, took the minato mirai line and popped out at the Queens Plaza in Yokohama Minaoto Mirai 21 ( Minato Mirai means a port town of the future) . We walked out of the Plaza to find ourselves engulfed in sub zero winds, as we couldnt endure the cold wave we moved into the Landmark Tower Plaza. We dispersed to meet at 45 minutes past noon. I played around for sometime trying to get a decent composition for the click, then spent the rest of the time skimming through some english books in a book shop on the 4th floor.














It started snowing out by then so we wrapped up our modest plans, googled around for the Khazaana Indian Restaurant in the Queens Plaza and had a relishing lunch.

Street Performer
A Street Performer showed up at the Queens Plaza and I had a field day with my camera. Though most of the shots turned blurred I loved some compositions.









It was 3:00 PM by then, so some moved to Roppongi (Tokoy's Night life avenue) to spend a memorable 31st night.I hanged around Landmark tower with Prakash for the evening. I accompanied Prakash who was elated to photograph from the 69th floor of Landmark tower. The elevator which was once the worlds fastest, it took 40secs to reach the 69th floor, travelling at 45kmph/750meters per sec.

The 69th floor observatory was masked by clouds, with nothing much to view I slept on a sofa for a couple of hours while the optimistic Prakash was waiting for the clouds to breakup. We logged out of the Landmark Tower and took a ride on the worlds largest Ferris Wheel which took 15 minutes to complete a rotation. Most of the couples were liplocked in their respective gondolas. We started strolling towards the china town and on the way we came across the Aka Renga Park (Red Brick Warehouse Park). I experimented for a while trying to capture the dim lit building but with little success and freezing cold we moved in, to have some coffee. This building was flooded with coffee cafes and restaurants. I placed myself in a vantage point, sipping the coffee and ogling at the cute Japanese waitress. With the climate not showing any signs of bettering we retired to our den for the day.

Aka Renga Park





As the clock on the windows laptop clicked 12:00 I cheered the newyear and slumbered.

1st Jan 2005

Though the forecast was promising I was skeptical and thereby cancled my Kamakura trip and planned to shop around tokyo. Around 10:00AM we(Harsha,Sala,Chetan) checked out and reached Shibuya. Spent some time at Big Camera where the gadget I worked on was on display : EPSON P-2000. Then hopped into Shinjuku's Yodobashi Camera shop where I bought a Nikon Circular Polarizer filter. I and Harsha continued our shopping spree and thereby hit the electroic district of Tokyo, Akihabara.

You can find the Laox shop flooded with Indians and other foreigners working out cheap deals, but the truth is that there are other shops along the by-lanes of Akihabara. A better way to get a cool deal on computer hardware is to logon to kakaku.com and check for the shops that offer the best price.

I picked up a 80GB 2.5 inch HDD to take a back up of my bulging image library. With no more plans to empty my wallet I confined myself to window shopping, but when I stumbled onto an iPod mini I bagged it with no second thought.

At the end of the day the forecast seemed to be accurate, so I and Harsha planned to pack our bags for Kamakura the next day.

2nd Jan 2005
Kamakura is dotted with more than 70 temples, we picked up some prime temples to visit.

Breaking my notion that "There is hardly anyone who can keep pace with my travel schedules" was Harsha. We pulled out of the den at around 6:50AM took the 7:02AM train from MushashiNakahara enroute Kawasaki and Ofuna to Kita Kamakura. We faltered in one of the transits but managed to reach Kita Kamakura by 8:24PM. The sun was bright but the air still was cold enough to freeze a man. With the Lonely Planet Japan book in hand we reached Engaku-ji (ji in japanese means temple).

Engaku-ji 8:30AM

A septuagenarian monk greeted us with a smile who was on his morning walk and cheerfully posed for a snap. I paid the price for my persistance to shoot in Manual mode by making a wrong exposure. Even when the monk gave me a second chance I goofed up, what could have turned into a wonderful potrait. What amazed me was that the sparsely clothed monk showed no signs of shivering.






Tokei-ji 9:15AM

This place more or less looked like a cemetery. We wandered around the tombstones for a while. Many of them were decorated with flowers. I made some compositions out there for a while and moved on to Jochi-ji which was across the street.









Jochi-ji 9:40AM

This is a small temple with beautiful landscaping and is pleasant to walk around.











Kencho-ji 10:10AM

This was a large zen temple and one of the main temples in Kamakura. The shrines were of Japanese and chinese architecture. We started climbing up the hill that was in the backyard. When we reached a view point we were awed by Mt Fuji. A clear day with a splendid view of Mt Fuji what better can I ask for !!














Enno-ji 00:10 PM

Enno-ji is devoted to Yama ( The Indian god of Hell ). Photography is strictly prohibited for religious reasons.


Tsurugako Hachiman-gu 1:00PM

This is suppose to be the prime spot in kamakura which is quite near to the Kamakura station. As we moved towards Hachiman-gu we were confronted by large crowds of Japanese walking into the temple. Its was a major festival day and as we were already behind schedule we walked towards the station. I filled my tummy with some japanese veg-noodles and took a train to Hase.


Daibutsu 2:20PM

The train to Hase was very crowded. We walked straight to the Great Buddha Statue "Daibutsu" which happens to be the icon of Kamakura. Its a bronze statue and hollow from inside which dates back to 1252 AD.











Information as published on the ticket : "The bronze statue of Amita Buddha was cast in 1252 A.D. by the sculptors Ono-Goroemon and Tanji-Hisatomo at the request of Miss Inadano-Tsubone and Prist Joko, who not only originated the idea of building this large statue and the temple covering it,but also collected donations for it.

In 1498, a tidal wave( Tsunami ) swept away the great temple of Buddha, leaving only the foundation stones. In the 500years since then, the holy statue has been exposed to sunshine,storms and snow.

The latest repair was done in 1960-1961,to strengthen the Buddha`s neck and to make it possible for the Buddha`s body to move freely on the base to prevent a damaging shock to the statue in case of an earthquake.

The statue is 13.35 meters tall, and weighs 121tons."

Hase-dera 3:20PM

Running short of time we walked into the Hasedera temple. This is when I realized that I erred in my time allocation for this place. Hasedera is one of the most beautiful of all the temples in Kamakura. One needs to allocate atleast 2 hours. If one is on a tight schedule and still want to make it to kamakura then all he needs to visit is Hasedera and Daibutsu. The urchin statues, clothed by women who lost their children by abortion caught my attention and spent some time photographing them.
One endsup holding his breath when he sees the prime statue at Hasedera(Photography is prohibited).Walking around the temple will present lots of rituals which quite depict the hindu cultural influence.










Yokohama Landmark Tower revisited 5:00PM

We found our way back to the Yokohama Landmark tower`s 69th floor observatory, but it turned out to be dark by then. The observatory was extremely corwded and with much difficulty I could get some space to slip my camera to capture the night view of Yokohama and Tokyo.
But what I realized is that even the circular polaizer filter was not able to cut out the reflections on the glass window. With Harsha assisting I mangaged to cut down some reflections and get some sun set shots of Fuji san.
It was 6:00PM when Harsha called off for the day. I took a little nap in Landmark Plaza while he was shopping around. All in all it was one of those rare days where things went as per schedule and one more educating session with the camera.






3rd Jan 2005

I padded myself on the futon and was meddling with the iPod and iTunes till noon. I paid a deaf ear to my travel rules and had no plans other than taking the 8:20PM bus to Matsumoto. Amit finally managed to pull me out of the den by 3:30PM. We reached Shinjuku, locked our luggage in a locker, confirmed our return tickets as we submitted our return journey tickets in the onward journey(the invincible japanese language) and took a train to Ginza.

Ginza

Ginza startled me with its vibrance. We made it to the sony building with a little assistance and watched the latest gadgets from SONY on display.

Sony Building

The seven floor building was worked out in a spiral fashion. The plasma televisions and Home theaters took the top honors, but what snatched my attention was a small digital camera. I got a bit curious and checked the specs with the attendent out there,she spoke decent english and explained to me that its the worlds smallest digital camera by giving an account of its specifications. Rightly named as QUALIA its a defying experience. I reserve this to detail it in a separate blog session.

Godzilla Statue

With nothing on schedule and couple of hours to spare, I remembered the Lonely Planet Guide's mention of a small Godzilla Statue in Hibiya's cinema district.It Took less than 20 minutes to figure out its co-ordinates. I was elated as if I was done with some lasting archeological excavation.




We finally reached Shinjuku station, loitered around Yodobashi and then took the 8:20PM Highland Express bus to Matsumoto. At 11:00PM from Matsumoto Bus terminal we checked into a taxi to reach home. I was informed that on 31st Dec there was a heavy snowfall (80cms) out here in Matsumoto and most of them had to stay indoor and calloff their year end plans.