theQuest,theFun and theExperience

Backyard photography

2006-05-25T06:25:00.000+09:00

Black-browed Reed Warbler (Ko-yoshikiri)Early summer days ideal for trekking. The seasonal flowers seem to be at their best. Cloudy sunday afternoon pulled my self out of my den to shoot the flora, when I came across this pleasant pond the warble of the birds drew my attention. Switched the lenses and started hunting the birds. All the reads on birding ethics & tips (INP) for the past year and

Pollen & Pollen.

2006-05-15T09:02:00.000+09:00

Yesterday evening I just wanted to shoot macro. Bi-cycled around the fields of Hirooka-yoshida. An bee flew into the frame which resulted in the above capture.Now, whats the flower ID ?Another macro shot. So what`s this ?

Guess Me II

2006-03-04T16:53:00.000+09:00

Macro Shot.In recent past I was a bit rusty with the camera and it shows no signs of bettering. With work in balance and spring on the offset its time I hit the road.

Kamisuwa Shrine

2006-02-14T20:40:00.000+09:00

Almost a year back I attended the Onbashira (Kotoshi) at shimo-suwa along with Otsuki-san. Incidentally this weekend I went along with him for ice-skating to Okaya. After having a maiden ice-skating experience , we went to the Kami-suwa shrine.I was rather pleased to find those logs installed at the entrance of the shrine and these logs stand here for another 6 years.

Vizag : Rushikonda Beach

2006-01-28T11:21:00.000+09:00

My last memory of this place doesnt concur with what it turned out.The only think that ever came to my mind about this place is that my college GITAM is opposite to it and secondly its one of those standard picnic spots of Vizag.I was pleasantly surprised to find a mela kind of atmosphere, all said and done I got down to my business of photography.An anchor taking some timeoff.A fishermen mending

Fisherman

2006-01-21T21:38:00.000+09:00

D70 + 70-200mm VR f2.8 : 1/320 Sec, F4, 160mmRushikonda Beach, Visakhapatnam, India.The old man was busy lost in his job. I positioned myself,took a couple of shots, not pleased I started correcting the camera settings when the old man acknowledged my presence. He was rather pleased by his facial expression and giving his best to pose for the shot, the end resulted in a rather over exposed

HNY 06

2006-01-01T11:36:00.000+09:00

2005 : goodbye, 2006 : welcome Visakhapatnam,Andhra Pradesh,India. Wish you a happy and prosperous new year 2006.

Cute

2005-12-30T10:11:00.000+09:00

My friend Sudhakar's daughters Pragyna and Samanvitha.Samanvitha the laughing machine :

Darkness to Light

2005-11-06T16:43:00.000+09:00

[Tamron 90 mm macro f/14 , 3 secs , ISO 400]Asatoma SadgamayaTamasoma JyotirgamayaMrityorma Amritamgamaya Check out: Sameer started C-blogging at Random Sketches, and don't miss his bird flu cartoon its quite amusing.

Tateshina : a refreshing spot

2005-09-24T15:07:00.000+09:00

Lake Tateshina,on a cloudy Sunday afternoon, June 11th 2005. Its one of those lovely weekend getaway spots, opposite to the lake is an Indian Vegetarian Restaurant "Nataraj", probably the only veg restaurant I ever heard of todate in Japan.

Lunar ecstasy continues..

2005-09-23T16:46:00.001+09:00

2005,SEPTEMBER,16th2005,SEPTEMBER,18thGuess 18th was a full moon day. Both the pictures are 100% crop, shot withCamera : D70Lens : 70-200mm F2.8 + TC 2x.HBD : Blog-san.17th ,September 2005 this blog incremented its count to 1.Better late than never; belated birthday wishes.

Lunar ecstasy !!

2005-09-12T20:04:00.000+09:00

Image as recorded on 9th September 2005, 17:26 hrs JST. Its been a while I looked at the moon. Last time when I shot him with the 70-200mm VR lens, I felt the need of a 400mm, so finally I bought the 2x teleconvertor that I promised my self. As expected the teleconvertor softened the image considerably. Sharpening and applying a slight S curve in Nikon Capture revealed some more detail as

Ganesh Chaturthi 2005

2005-09-06T09:40:00.000+09:00

For the past 2 years I was lucky to have a Ganesh Chaturthi day concur with a National Holiday or a weekend out in Japan. But this year it was a weekday and above all its a peak time at office. Virtually paralyzing me on many fronts.Ganesh pooja 2005, Hirooka, Nagano-ken, Japan. For the past 30 days I was working 15/6 week which I really hate to do so. Hopefully from this week onwards I will be

Cricket in Japan

2005-09-04T21:02:00.002+09:00

Mr Stamina, Deepu with eyes on the ball.I was never good at it, nor nostalgic about the Indian national obsession "Cricket", but I just loved watching the sport through my childhood and teens. Lack of physical activity and the mudane lifestyle , resulted in me prodding Sajithi to get the basic cricket kit on way back from India.So finally from last weekend we started playing cricket. Its been

Rain crashes Matsumoto Bon Bon

2005-08-06T23:54:00.001+09:00

松本　ぼんぼん [A*, 86mm, 1/125s, f/2.8 ] This being the third consecutive year that I been attending the Matsumoto Bon Bon festival. Matsumoto is a city in Japan where I reside. Bon Bon is more like a street carnival, people from different institutes and offices form groups and dance to the tune of "Bon Bon Matsumoto, Matsumoto Bon Bon....". It takes place on the first saturday of August every year.

Ontake San: The trek

2005-07-30T23:25:00.000+09:00

Hike date 23rd and 24th July 2005.Ontake Mountain (3067 meters). 35.53°N/137.28°E, Japan.Active Valcano, Last erupted 1979.6:49AM : Took the train from Hirooka Station, Sanjay joined me at Shiojiri.7:37AM : Reached Kiso-Fukushima.7:50AM : Took a Bus to Ontake Sancho9:20AM : Reached Ontake Sancho9:30AM : Started trekkingOntake San happens to be a very holy mountain, one can find pilgrims dressed

Ontake San: Sunrise

2005-07-25T23:01:00.000+09:00

Hike date 23rd and 24th July 2005.Ontake Mountain (3067 meters).35.53°N/137.28°E, Japan.Active Valcano, Last erupted 1979.[A*, 48mm, 1/250s, f/6.3, 4:49AM ][A*, 35mm, 1/100s, f/8.0, 4:52AM ] [A*, 18mm, 1/500s, f/8.0,, 5:01 AM ] [A*, 70mm, 1/640s, f/8.0, 5:14AM ][A*, 18mm, 1/1250s, f/8.0, 5:15 AM ]Camera: D70 NikonLens: 18-70mm DX NikkorFilter: NoneTripod: NOA*: Aperture Priority

Weekend Getaway : Oyashirazu

2005-07-05T09:09:00.001+09:00

Sea Of JapanMillion I sculpted the gigantic sea turtle "Million" with the vision that these turtles symbolize the civilization of the Japan Sea and that they have lived for ten thousand years. The Sphere on the right hand side expresses this eternal time.With thanks for the merciful sea. Kiyoshi Awazu.

Guess Me

2005-06-26T18:34:00.000+09:00

[D70,Tamron macro f2.8 90mm @ F4.5, 1/4 sec]It was one of those days when I was shooting macro. Shot a flower and was reviewing it on the camera LCD when this pleasant blur turned up, didnt have a clue when this crept in.The last 2 weekends I locked myself at home. The summer heat is going out of bounds. The only leeway that the summer gives is to tolerate it and hike those aweing mountain peaks.

Road Trip : Fuji Parikrama

2005-06-14T01:52:00.000+09:00

Courtesy : http://www.jnto.go.jpIn the August of 2003, I trekked Mt. Fuji with a goal of watching the early morning sun and then make a full circle of the crater on the top, neither of this was possible on account of a typhoon, call it bad timing. But last sunday I joined Bharat and Eisha in completing the "Fuji Parikrama" if not at the summit.We set out at 8:00 AM on the chou expressway. It was

Fuji Safari Park

2005-06-05T13:31:00.004+09:00

[AP*, f2.8, 1/1250, 200m ]Yesterday I made it to the Fuji safari park along with Mahesh, Amit and Prasad Joshi. This park is somewhat unique for the very reason that it allows you enter in your own car to the proximity of the carnivores. It was a cloudy day and in the evening we were greeted by some rain. The safari park is situated at the foot of Mt Fuji. Once again clouds enveloped fuji-san

US Times : Boston

2005-06-02T09:44:00.000+09:00

John Harvard [ Founder 1638 ]Last month [ 18th-22nd May 2005 ] I was on a small business trip to Chicago, USA. I was at my sluggish best on account of jetlag. A 11/12 hr difference [Japan-EST US] literally made my days into nights and the vice verse. No sooner I was done in Chicago, I took a flight to Boston. The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library [ Harvard, Boston ]Boston been loaded with

On Assignment

2005-05-29T19:37:00.001+09:00

[ f2.8 ,1/1000s @ 200mm ]Handheld ,Nikon D70, Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 VRFinally I have my dream lens and with no further delay today I planned to get a feel of it. With no shooting location in mind I was at the mercy of wind. Amit , Mahesh and myself checked out of the house around noon and had a lunch at "Maharaja Indian & Nepali Restaurant" around suwa region. [ f8 ,1/30s @ 18mm ]Handheld ,Nikon

Mr Cool

2005-05-26T09:32:00.000+09:00

( f/2.8, 1/1000 @ 200mm ) 100% Crop.Last Night I was testing my new Nikkor lens and tried a shot at Mr Cool the Moon.Camera : D70Lens : AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8GTripod : Yes

Macro : A Rose

2005-05-05T16:10:00.000+09:00

I was shopping at MaxValu, when I found the flower section inundated with fresh flowers like never before, only for me to realize that Mothers day is around the corner. [1/5 sec , f22] There were a multitude of rose plants to choose from and I picked a bonzai rose plant if I can call it so, back home I put myself to work with my macro lens on the tripod. The end result was rather OK kind of

Utsukushigahara and Mount Asama

2005-05-04T08:18:00.001+09:00

It is Golden Week and thereby a holiday time out here, April 29th-May 5th. Probably these are one of those wasted holidays as I plan to stay home, not without a reason the Markins Q-ball ( Head for my tripod ) shipment got stuck somewhere in the transit and I vowed to shoot only with my tripod. Finally it arrived this sunday but the weather kept me home. Mt AsamaSo today I set myself to test my

Spring Barbeque '05

2005-04-23T19:00:00.000+09:00

I was lazy all the way to sit before the dashboard and scribble a bit, well better late than never. Spring is suppose to be the best season in Japan. The onset of the spring is greeted by the blooming Sakura flowers. If your in Japan at this point of time then you cant miss the Spring Barbeque parties. We set the table for the Barbeque Party at the Skypark near Matsumoto Airport. It was an

Sakura

2005-04-16T11:50:00.003+09:00

[ 1/200 sec , f10]The Sakura (Cherry blossom) started blooming around my region, running from shades of light pink to white, they form quite a hotspot . I planned to move around to Matsumoto and the hills around but thats when it struck me, do I need to travel that far ? when all I intend was to shoot Macro. To be honest I was bit lazy to travel, so I jumped onto my bicycle and rallied towards

Portrait of a simian

2005-04-12T09:25:00.000+09:00

Browsing through all the potrait shots shot in the last 2 years, I came across this which I shot when I was climbing up the Seven Hills, Tirumala to the Lords Abode on Feb 14th 2004.The monkeys out here are least afraid of humans, that gave me a chance to approach the monkey with ease and shoot it from 2 feet away with a Sony P-10 cybershot.

Spring is in the air '05

2005-04-10T19:32:00.000+09:00

[D70, 90mm F2.8 Macro, 1/250 sec , f7.1]Spring starts to set in after the rocking winter. The air is so comforting that I got onto the street in shots. Well finally my new macro lense (Tamron SP AF 90mm F2.8 Macro 1:1) arrived on saturday, but I'm a bit unlucky with the tripod and the Q-ball, they ran out of stock.Saturday I scouted for some flowers around my apartment, figured some real good

The very me in me

2005-04-08T20:18:00.000+09:00

"The Journey should be as interesting as the destination."not sure whos quote it is but what if that very "interesting" turns into a adventure or rather a mis-adventure !!Last month I was on my way back from India to my foster home out in Matsumoto. Since we(I and Amit) couldnt get a decent mode of transportation that evening from Tokyo, we booked our luggage with a luggage service, which was

Vizag Times : Beach II

2005-04-03T19:13:00.001+09:00

Rushikonda BeachSun Set from Simhachalam Temple

Vizag Times : Aruku Tribal Dance

2005-04-02T16:39:00.002+09:00

Aruku Valley is 100Kms away from Visakhapatnam(Vizag).I along with my parents,mamayya and cousin vinod set out on a trip to Aruku Valley and Borra Caves. We booked for the AP Tourism Rail-cum-Road sightseeing.The train pulled out of the Vizag Station at around 8A.M. The guide gave an account of the days schedule. I munched the garama garam Idly Vada that were served in the train. An hour latter

Vizag Times : Sagar Nagar

2005-04-02T09:53:00.002+09:00

I and my cousin vinod set out on a road trip along the coast line. We started from Ramakirshna beach and went upto INS kalinga. This is for the first time that I been this far as INS kalinga in vizag.In retro I sense that these places never popped up on my travelling radar. The scorching heat was taking its toll on me, somehow we got ourselves going on and on. Two boats sailing caught my

Vizag Times : Borra Caves

2005-04-01T19:53:00.000+09:00

Borra Caves, located 90 Kms to the ~North of Visakhapatnam(Vizag) in the Aruku Valley Region. These caves are more than a million year old. There are innumerable stalactites. The caves are some 900mts above the sea level. All my childhood I been hearing about these caves but it took me 20 long years to make it to this awesome place. The caves are prefectly lit to give the desired visual impact.

Its been 12 years

2005-04-01T00:20:00.000+09:00

Back in my schooling days I used to paint with all the passion in the world.I hardly won any painting competition but enjoyed it as much as a kindergarden kid would when he gets hands on his first crayon. Last week when I was in Vizag, I came across a painting, hanging on the wall in my aunts house. It was one of those painting that I painted exactly 12 years from that day. It looked more like a

Vizag Times : Beach I

2005-03-31T09:07:00.001+09:00

Kailashgiri View PointAt the Far End is Rushikonda, where my engineering college GITAM is situated. This road along the coastline was what we used to run along for 4 years. The road has been widened and it looks awesome. They have set up a rope way to Kailashgiri hill top. All of a sudden some how vizag looks much cleaner and beautiful to me. But the only thing that disgusts me is the

India times

2005-03-30T16:34:00.000+09:00

At last here I am. A place where I can reinstate that WorkDone is zero.It was 1st week of March and nothing seemed working for me as I was at the onset of a new project. All I could meditate is of a vacation before I get dirty in couple of months. Some XYZ god/godess came to my rescue and I was on vacation to India for 2 weeks. There are a zillion things that transpired which itch me to blog

Image

2005-02-15T00:25:00.000+09:00

Place : Pizarria Restaurant, Murai,Japan.Date : 29th September 2004.This image dates back to the early days of my D70. When I used to flaunt it at every party I attend.

J - Valentines day

2005-02-14T13:43:00.000+09:00

Well its 13:40 hrs and Amit was just done with his sweets distribution that he got from Hiroshima over the weekend. Shortly Yoshida-San approached me with a well decorated cake pack, I was about to ask her "where have you been over the weekend ?" because its a tradition out in Japan that people get some chocolates or cakes when they visit any faroff places.Yoshida-san said that its valentines day

Game Time

2005-02-13T11:38:00.000+09:00

3 holidays in a row and I was all set for a long drive, down south, when last minute bug reports dispirited me to their best.The fallout of fatigue called for a homealone. On friday morning it was 9:00 hrs and I was still on bed gazing at the ceiling. Not in a mood to plunge into books, I looked back at my sony Playstation [PS2].Last week my whimsical nature pulled me to TOYS R US and squeezed my

Onbashira 2004

2005-02-11T21:48:00.000+09:00

Onbashira : A festival thats celebrated once in 6 years.Place : Kamisuwa, Nagano-Ken, Japan.Date : 11th,April,2004It was hardly a week that I landed in Japan and was prodded to a Japanese class on a snowy saturday of April`03. I took a train to Kamisuwa and was walking down to the class when I saw a poster in Kanji with a hazy image depicting men riding a huge log down a hummock, I remembered

Ski-Japan 2005

2005-01-26T17:47:00.000+09:00

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

Not so blue

2005-01-08T09:13:00.000+09:00

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

Intuitive Interfaces

2005-01-05T15:11:00.000+09:00

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,

Tokyo Yokohama Kamakura jaunt.

2005-01-04T02:09:00.000+09:00

December 30th 2004 - January 3rd 2005No matter how clandestine I plan my itinerary the rain gods get a hand on it.30th Dec 2004Mahesh, 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

1 2 2 5 2 0 0 4

2004-12-25T18:32:00.000+09:00

Walking down the memory lane, as a kid dec25th was more than a holiday, one of my uncles used to host a Christmas party every year in vizag. The undergraduation days were more of humming George Michaels : Last Christmas I gave u my heart....... with nothing much to loose., the end result was the obvious.Those days every day was a christmas day. Last year, far-east mummified me with the Christmas

358 of 366

2004-12-23T23:23:00.000+09:00

The temperature as well as the days remaining for the leap year to end are running in single digit. I don't remember any long vacation like the one I am about to have from 30th Dec 2004 - 4th Jan 2005, other than those college "mass bunk"s in the name of "exam prep". As my camera returned from its maternal home (NIKON SERVICE CENTER) , and its been awhile that I pulled my travel cap on, I plan

Japlish titbits

2004-12-19T21:30:00.000+09:00

Today I been to a Indo-Nepalies Restaurant in the suwa area. When I pulled out the Take Out à la carte, this is whats in print : The Indian food all learned in the home which a chef makes can bring home as it is except drinks ____________________December 25th is not a National holiday in Japan. I was wondering what could be the reason: A . Christians are in minority in Japan,as they hardly

Trekking : Mount Fuji 20030813

2004-12-11T13:10:00.000+09:00

Mount Fuji (3776 meters) the tallest mountain in Japan. Japanese suffix mountain names with Yama/Dake(mountain) but Mt Fuji is called Fuji-san with reverence. The 5000Yen currency notes carry Fuji-sans Image.In 2002 Nov when I first visited Japan and was travelling by the Shinkansen( bullet train) from Tokyo to Osaka, my Japanese colleague exclaimed "look look ..thats fuji-san". "A snow clad

"First Snow Fall" : Winter'04

2004-12-01T22:35:00.000+09:00

Click Info : Hirooka-Yoshida, Shijoiri-Shi, Nagano-Ken, Japan. 30th Nov 2004. The snowfall has started and that doesnt excite me , my near death experience in shimla(1999), when I skidded to the edge of a cliff literally left me gasping and crawling to the other end of the road. Last year it started snowing on Dec 21st, this year its pretty early. One of my Japanese colleague remarked : the

Sayonara Autumn '04

2004-11-28T20:22:00.000+09:00

Click Info : October 24, 2004 Akazawa,Nagano-ken,Japan.

Wonder Years

2004-11-27T16:07:00.000+09:00

Couple of days back I came across a "Mahabarath"(BR Chopra's famed television serial) DVD video. The esoteric phrases, gaudy sets gave me a "multitude" to wonder and complain about. Rather than morphing into a "complaint box" , I started hiking down the timeline from my first glimpse of the TV which was once a synonym of Doordharsan. 1983 was the year when television proliferated in the

Movie Time : NRIs

2004-11-23T19:57:00.000+09:00

96hrs of weekend with the ambient temperature in single digit and the six's thermometer showing no great differencial left me no option but to stay home. Since the internet connection is not yet restored at my place I dubbed into a parasite for my neighbour. Offlate I turned into a movie buff and the testimony :4 movies in 24hrs and going. Flavours, Legally Desi,Murder and STOP. Each of their

Godzilla : 50 and still rocking

2004-11-20T22:55:00.000+09:00

Godzilla Statue , Ginza ,Tokyo.Its been 50yrs since the Godzilla hit the Japanese silver screen. The BS2 channel called it the 50yrs of Godzilla week and screened the movies every night.I was not that lucky to view all of them as I was breaking my back at office.I managed to view the first Godzilla (1954) movie and today the Godzilla 2000: Millennium.Godzilla is the creation of Tomoyuki Tanaka.

Going Offline

2004-11-18T08:56:00.000+09:00

"Roti, Kapada aur Makaan" might have been the essentials for the human race with the usual eccentrics publishing their own versions. Everything looked normal till 800hrs(yesterday), all set to logon to news.google.com when I realized that I am off the network!! Courtesy : my ISP provider has unplugged me. Subscribed to Yahoo Broadband and was kinda "lived happily everaafter",but all of a sudden

Digital Click : Picasa

2004-11-14T14:24:00.000+09:00

Organizing every day growing digital photographs was a grueling task for me for years. I been trying various kinds of archiving and viewing softwares but nothing ever came close to what I wanted as Picasa did. Picasa is a freeware. Its interface and feature sets are simply the best what one wants in the process of archiving and viewing.Needless to say that quality and innovative software is

Chukchi : whale hunting

2004-11-13T10:45:00.000+09:00

There are no universal rules without exceptions. I was lazying around with the idoit box and came across an interesting documentary, its wrt the whalehunting by the chukchi. Chukchi is eastern part of siberia where the winter temperatures go down to -30 degrees Celsius. Chukchis staple food had been whales for the past 2100yrs. As everyone is aware that whales went into the endangered species

Digital Click : diwali timeout

2004-11-12T01:24:00.000+09:00

To the best of my memory for the past 4 yrs I was never home for diwali, and for the last couple I ended up celebrating "Hanabi" the Japanese version of festival of lights. Well Hanabi here is more like the July 4th Fireworks display,the only diffence being that many japanese tend to dress more traditionally. Copious mails of diwali wishes gave me a "Chelo kuch karte hey" kind of "josh" which

KISS : The Fluid Focus Lense

2004-11-11T23:24:00.000+09:00

I was an advocate of KISS, acknowledging my inablity to comprehend complex theories. Not many innovations look as simple as the Philips FluidFocus lens. Philips Research Labs cameup with a Fluid focus lense. The concept was something like emulating the human eye.To understand the design all one needs is basic school physics.Why not hear it from the horses mouth fluid focus.Dont forget to

Digital Click : Road So Far

2004-11-08T23:42:00.000+09:00

Shortly there is going to be a population explosion in the file formats you guess which file format is going to outsmart Chinese+Indian population by leaps and bounds? .....??? No need to strain your grey cells its the one and only one JPEG. In the winter of 1998 when I was flipping though a tech magazine at the college library I came across a term "Digital Still Camera", the concept was

So Lost And So At Home

2004-11-03T22:03:00.000+09:00

Well today is "bunka no hi" i.e., CULTURE DAY (A day for promotion of culture and the love for freedom and peace. On the culture day, schools and the government award certain persons for their special, cultural activities)but for me its one more day to lock myself up at home. For the past 10days I was trying to mimic Mahesh Room environment(what they call the perfect Bachelors Room), by just

Kamikochi : Autumn

2004-10-31T09:11:00.001+09:00

I guess Lady luck knocks my door only on weekends : got an invitation from sahu for a drive down to kamikochi the following day, I had no reason to say NO. Last time I been to this place was on 19Aug`03. Kamikochi tends to be busier than Shinjuku around the peak summer. This is one of the starting points for hiking and trekking the Japan Alps.We started off around 9:30AM. The route had vivid

Basking in Akazawa

2004-10-24T20:40:00.000+09:00

Its FALL and what can be worst if one doesnt spend time with those wonderful colors. So not to disappoint outselves we planned to go to "Akazawa", some 70Kms away from my home. "Aka" in japanese is "Red", so is this place all RED in Fall ?? I with my good old company Anand and Priya set out on a drive to find out.We crisscrossed the kiso valley river to reach Akazawa, the autumn leaves were just

Earthquake III

2004-10-23T18:04:00.000+09:00

Just some 6 minutes <5:56PM JST> back I felt the tremors of another earthquake. This is for the third time that I am experiencing an earthquake. I tried to call some of my friends but the phones are dead. So turned on the TV to find the earthquake warning is already on. The epicenter tends to be very close by. The neighbourhood prefecture : Nigata seems to record 6 on a japanese richter scale

Panoramic Attempt

2004-10-17T21:46:00.000+09:00

I was waiting for Anand to come and pick me up for a long drive to Utsukushigahara,but at 9:30 he called it off. Once more my plans of going for a panoramic view shootout seem drenched, but finally we moved out for a new Indian Restaurant "Turmeric" (dishes complemented the name), near the Asama Onsen ,Matsumoto City. After luch we drove down to the utsukushigahara heights. One of the stop overs

J-Version of Bharatanatyam

2004-09-28T08:29:00.000+09:00

Sunday,26 September 2004, Otsuki-san asked us if we would like to join him for the Indian dance, with nothing better to do on a weekend, we a batch of 8 drove towards north of Matsumoto, enroute we visited Toyoshina Museum of Modern Art(a little known painter early 19th century, Y. Miyo's paintings interested me, his style was unique, oil canvas,either complete dark/light colors form his

Software Bargaining !!

2004-09-21T11:21:00.000+09:00

One place one can vouch for "that can never be perfect is" -Software Development.Its a never ending process of development. Out here for the first time in 11months I am streaching my legs at office.Though I cant take any credit for the current state of the product. After a marathon bug reporting for 3 months, the testers seem to have hit a cul de sac. For a software developer a BUG a DAY keeps

Ganesh Chaturdhi 2004

2004-09-19T11:08:00.000+09:00

Life can never be more beautiful than today, munching yesterdays memories and trekking for tomorrows wonders.We were celeberating GANESH CHATURDHI<18th> for the second time out here in Japan last time it was on 31st August 2003.The sun was mild and air was gentle, that was a perfect setting for things to start off.Sundar the High Priest of the day, Amit-san turning out to be the chief-chef.