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.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Image
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.
Monday, February 14, 2005
J - Valentines day
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 !! For a moment I felt I faintly remember this word. I checked the date on watch, "Oh!! yes it is". My muddled mind couldn't comprehend, why she has to give this stuff to me. She put it "In Japan on Valentines day women give men cakes, its the tradition", I thanked her and she went about greeting and giving those rich cakes to all other colleagues.
Japanese feel very obligatory, they give back in some form or the other if they receive anything. A couple of months back my Japanese manager fell sick and was admitted into a hospital. We visited him and wished him speedy recovery and gave him some fruits and magazines. Once he recovered he presented gift coupons to all who made a visit to him at the hospital.
Having this incident back of my mind, I went back to Yoshida-san to figure out what should men be doing in return. She hesitantly replied " On shiro-day/white-day i.e., March 14th men give back gifts or chocolates from whom they received".
Well this is a unique way valentines day is celebrated in Japan.
Yoshida-san said that its valentines day !! For a moment I felt I faintly remember this word. I checked the date on watch, "Oh!! yes it is". My muddled mind couldn't comprehend, why she has to give this stuff to me. She put it "In Japan on Valentines day women give men cakes, its the tradition", I thanked her and she went about greeting and giving those rich cakes to all other colleagues.
Japanese feel very obligatory, they give back in some form or the other if they receive anything. A couple of months back my Japanese manager fell sick and was admitted into a hospital. We visited him and wished him speedy recovery and gave him some fruits and magazines. Once he recovered he presented gift coupons to all who made a visit to him at the hospital.
Having this incident back of my mind, I went back to Yoshida-san to figure out what should men be doing in return. She hesitantly replied " On shiro-day/white-day i.e., March 14th men give back gifts or chocolates from whom they received".
Well this is a unique way valentines day is celebrated in Japan.
I googled a bit to get a better insight : read this.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Game Time
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 pockets to the last penny for a GT Force Pro Wheel.
Of all the video games I been playing from my schooling, by far Gran Turismo 3 A- Spec is the best. The game just rocks. The sony joystick strained my right thumb to such an extent that I almost give up playing before I found the ultimate solution the GTForce Pro wheel. This is one such game that the more you play the more you enjoy. Of all the rally cars the SUBARU IMPREZA WRX turns out to be my favourite.
If one is enchanted by the GT3 then one will fall short of words for the Gran Turismo 4.
The GT3 might not be having anything educating but CASHFLOW 101"How to get out of the Rat Race" is. Not sure how and what kind of enlightenment Buddha got, but I got the financial enlightenment after playing this. This game is the fallout of the "Rich Dad Poor Dad" book by Robert T. Kiyosaki.
Last week my whimsical nature pulled me to TOYS R US and squeezed my pockets to the last penny for a GT Force Pro Wheel.
Of all the video games I been playing from my schooling, by far Gran Turismo 3 A- Spec is the best. The game just rocks. The sony joystick strained my right thumb to such an extent that I almost give up playing before I found the ultimate solution the GTForce Pro wheel. This is one such game that the more you play the more you enjoy. Of all the rally cars the SUBARU IMPREZA WRX turns out to be my favourite.
If one is enchanted by the GT3 then one will fall short of words for the Gran Turismo 4.
The GT3 might not be having anything educating but CASHFLOW 101"How to get out of the Rat Race" is. Not sure how and what kind of enlightenment Buddha got, but I got the financial enlightenment after playing this. This game is the fallout of the "Rich Dad Poor Dad" book by Robert T. Kiyosaki.
Friday, February 11, 2005
Onbashira 2004
Onbashira : A festival thats celebrated once in 6 years.
Place : Kamisuwa, Nagano-Ken, Japan.
Date : 11th,April,2004
It 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 watching a similar event on the national news channel in India. Hamma-san(my Japanese teacher) explained to me that its a famous festival called Onbashira which comes once in 6 years and is celebrated around the suwa area, when she said "its coming soon... next year", I was so exicted that I pledged to be there.
Onbashira is being celebrated for the past 1200 years in the Suwa region. On the eve men cut 200year old coniferous trees, then ride over them all the way from the forest to the temple complex and erect them where they stand for the next 6 years. The best part of the festival is the Kotoshi (yound men riding the logs as they slide down the steep slope) and Tate Onbashira (raising these logs as pillars) .
Kotoshi was on my cards, that morning I hit the road by 5:15AM and walked down to Hirooka station. The plan of the day was to watch people pulling the log down the hill, click some shots and walk back home. I bumped into Otsuki-san at the station, a bit of broken Japanese, some verbs and nouns got us along. Otsuki-san asked if I would like to join his group which was camping around the event place, I was more than pleased.
They were 30 odd from different professions and age groups, I started to wonder what connects all of them ? It didnt take long before Otsuki-san explained, that they all come from same school. ( Sanno Dai Gaku,Tokyo : The group comprises of students from the Nagano Region ). The very Japanese trait : Organized and Punctual showed up time and again. Done with the breakfast, we started walking towards the arena. On the way some were serving SAKE (Japanese rice wine), after gulping my quota I had to nod to the rest "ooishi" ( delicious ).
Place : Kamisuwa, Nagano-Ken, Japan.
Date : 11th,April,2004
It 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 watching a similar event on the national news channel in India. Hamma-san(my Japanese teacher) explained to me that its a famous festival called Onbashira which comes once in 6 years and is celebrated around the suwa area, when she said "its coming soon... next year", I was so exicted that I pledged to be there.
Onbashira is being celebrated for the past 1200 years in the Suwa region. On the eve men cut 200year old coniferous trees, then ride over them all the way from the forest to the temple complex and erect them where they stand for the next 6 years. The best part of the festival is the Kotoshi (yound men riding the logs as they slide down the steep slope) and Tate Onbashira (raising these logs as pillars) .
Kotoshi was on my cards, that morning I hit the road by 5:15AM and walked down to Hirooka station. The plan of the day was to watch people pulling the log down the hill, click some shots and walk back home. I bumped into Otsuki-san at the station, a bit of broken Japanese, some verbs and nouns got us along. Otsuki-san asked if I would like to join his group which was camping around the event place, I was more than pleased.
They were 30 odd from different professions and age groups, I started to wonder what connects all of them ? It didnt take long before Otsuki-san explained, that they all come from same school. ( Sanno Dai Gaku,Tokyo : The group comprises of students from the Nagano Region ). The very Japanese trait : Organized and Punctual showed up time and again. Done with the breakfast, we started walking towards the arena. On the way some were serving SAKE (Japanese rice wine), after gulping my quota I had to nod to the rest "ooishi" ( delicious ).
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No sooner I found myself part of the carnival. There were some 5 logs scheduled to be pulled down the slope. The 1st was at 10:00 Hrs then the second at 12 noon and the third one to which I clung myself was between 13:30-14:00 Hrs. I never even dreamt of being part of the ceremony when all I intended was just to witness it. I was elated but terrified when informed that already 2 people have died that year when the log slipped over them. The mood of the event was more like the rathyatras back in India. At around 12 we broke for lunch and then finally with all the vigor I set myself for the climax. The very sight from the pinnacle, scared me to death.
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When we started to descend the slope, I slipped twice but managed to hold on. What amazed me was a 80 year old man amuzing himself . When ever I wondered what will happens if this rope breaks apart, I reminded myself of the Fevicol Ad. Some of them who could nolong stand the ordeal took the least path of resistance. Finally when I reached the plane it was a relief. By then the log has just come to the edge of the slope, priests offered prayers and consecrated the whole path. Once the goahead was given, there was a huge uproar. They signed a red alert and adjusted the path of the log and started again. The sight was just awesome. As the log started its descent many of them rolled to safety while the brave souls were riding the log.
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Once the log reached the plane, many ran in and climbed on the log. The scene was no less than world cup soccer final match. We walked down to the station and on the way we came across logs that were all set to be errected. It was 5:00PM when I reached home , turned on the television and the event was live, the last of the logs coming down. I was pleased to know that it was a relatively safe day for the event. The event left such a lasting impact that I just love to be there to witness it in 2010.
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,
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.
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Hatao Yosuke-san, Imai Hiroki-san, Otsuki Yukihiro-san, Yoshida Emi-san, Amit Tikekar; Mahesh Inamdar; Mochizuki Katsuki-san,
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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.
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.
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
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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.
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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.
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Jochi-ji 9:40AM
This is a small temple with beautiful landscaping and is pleasant to walk around.
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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 !!
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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.
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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.
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