First, apologies for the long delay! Finally having some free time, I decided to get out and have a look (and take some photos of course) at how the construction of the new Tokyo Tower (named the 'Tokyo Sky Tree') is coming along, then head to the original Tokyo Tower so I could compare the two. A bit premature perhaps as the Tokyo Sky Tree is only half finished, but even so, it's not that hard to visualize what it'll be like upon completion.

Overall it's an impressive bit of architecture, and will no doubt be even more so when it's done, but there are still a few things that need to be said. Ok so the name. Who is responsible for the horrible moniker 'Tokyo Sky Tree'? I did some research and apparently this is the name that the general population chose in a vote. The names they had to choose from? Tokyo Edo Tower, Tokyo Sky Tree, Mirai Tree, Yume Miyagura, Rising East Tower and Rising Tower. Wow... I guess given the names they had to choose from, choosing Tokyo Sky Tree is just making the best out of a bad situtation, although 'Edo Tower', not 'Tokyo Edo Tower' doesn't sound too bad.

Another small problem in my mind is the shape. Unlike the original Tokyo Tower which has a square base, the base of the Tokyo Sky Tree is triangular. Then as it rises, the shape gradually becomes circular. Very cool and space age looking in theory yes, but when taking pictures of it I noticed that due to this shape, the tower tends to look slightly crooked unless you're looking at it face on.

It's hard to believe, but even unfinished the Tokyo Sky Tree is already almost as tall as the original Tokyo Tower. When it's completed it'll stand at almost double its height, at 634 meters compared with Tokyo Tower's 332.5 meters.

So why even build a new tower? Apparently the old Tokyo Tower is no longer high enough to broadcast a complete digital signal when there are so many new and taller buildings around it.

The old Tokyo Tower is right next to Shiba park and Zojo-ji temple which make great viewing areas, and the red colour definitely gives it character.

It's nice to finally have the means to take some decent pictures of Tokyo Tower now that I own a dSLR camera and a wide enough lens. Before, when I shot with my old digicam's narrow field of view, I could never get right up to the tower and get the whole thing into a picture.

Tokyo Tower definitely looks great from the outside, but give going up to the observation deck a miss. I've been up twice, and both times I was severely underwhelmed. You can get a better and higher view for free in many of Tokyo's skyscrapers, or you can pay 800 yen to go up to the observatory (1600 yen if you want to go up to the second observatory) to get a ho-hum view and be surrounded by shops selling very tacky merchandise, your choice.

Maybe it's all the construction around the Tokyo Sky Tree, maybe it's the fact that the area it's being built in (Oshiage) isn't much to look at itself, maybe it's the boring white colour, but except for height, the Tokyo Sky Tree hasn't got much on Tokyo Tower, at least so far. No doubt it'll look much better in 2012 (the completion date) when they get rid of all the construction mess and Oshiage reinvents itself from an ugly little suburb to something hopefully along the lines of Roppongi Hills. Any chance of giving it a coat of paint though?

Kanazawa                                                                 (Entered Jan. 25, 2010)
Upon polling a bunch of Japanese people (my students) about the best time to go to Kanazawa, the almost unanimous answer was 'in the winter'. The main draw apparently is the famous Kenrokuen park, which apparently looks fabulous covered in snow. I'd been wanting to go to Kanazawa for years now. Why? Mainly because it's one of the few places left in Japan that I haven't yet been, plus everyone I've talked to that's been there has good things to say about it.
Located on the 'Sea of Japan' side of the country, Kanazawa doesn't seem that far from Tokyo when you look at a map, but logistically speaking, it is. It's not a stop (yet) on the famous Shinkansen (Bullet Train), so to get there you need to transfer to a more local train at Echigo Yuzawa (a ski resort in Niigata) which isn't exactly on the way....
You can also fly there if you've got money to burn.

We arrived at Kanazawa station after a 4 hour journey, quickly checked into our hotel, and without delay headed to Kenrokuen, supposedly one of the top three parks in all of Japan. The other two are Kairakuen in Ibaraki (which I went to last March) and Korakuen in Okayama, (which I went to many years before this site's creation). Kenrokuen, Kairakuen and Korakuen. If you're wondering what's up with all the Ks, I have no idea.

Although the weather forecast called for snow on both Saturday and Sunday, all we got was a bit of hail followed by intermitent rain. Snow on the ground then maybe? Unseasonably warm temperatures insured that most of the snow had already melted away. Actually this was a major disappointment for me. I'd saved Kanazawa specifically for the winter so I could see a snow covered Kenrokuen. After 10 years of living in a snowless Tokyo I find myself missing the white stuff, (which is strange because I remember hating in when living in Ottawa). It was especially galling to remember that when we passed through Etchigo Yuzawa station, there was about 3 feet of snow covering everything. We should've just gotten off there and gone skiiing in hindsight.

Even without snow however, Kenrokuen was still quite beautiful, and miles ahead of Kairakuen (whose inclusion in the top three parks of Japan remains a mystery to me). I can only imagine how much more amazing Kenrokuen would be minus the tours, the tour guides shouting into megaphones, and the general crowds milling around.

I found some time to practice, outside of a workshop, with my new sb600 (above and below shots). Still honing my technique though.

Kanazawa may be best known for Kenrokuen, but there are other interesting sights you shouldn't miss, not the least is Higashi Chaya, an area of traditional teahouses, shops, restaurants and geisha that has basically been left unchanged for hundreds of years. Kumi and I went in the evening when the shops were all closed and only a few restaurants still remained open, so we had the place almost to ourselves.

According to Kumi the restaurants here are extremely high class, and you can't even enter one of them, must less eat there, without being very highly connected and, (it goes without saying) very wealthy.

Kanazawa station was a monstrosity, towering above the skyline, and obviously designed by an architect with lots of time, and an endless supply of money on his/her hands. If you can get past that though you can't help but be impressed.

'Welcome to Kanazawa' spelled out with mini fountains. The sign changed every few seconds with various other messages, plus it showed the time. A neat gimmick. Our hotel is directly behind us.

Kumi and I also paid a visit to Kanazawa castle, another tourist destination, although fairly disappointing as far as castles go. Once you get inside there's construction going on everywhere, making for a generally ugly scene. Entry to the grounds is free however, so one can't really complain.

We headed back to Higashi Chaya in the daytime and went to a small cafe, and checked out some of the shops.

Kanazawa is located right next to the Sea of Japan, so it goes without saying that the fish is fresh, and since this isn't Tokyo, cheap. For lunch we went to a famous sushi restaurant and had a big bowl of crab (kani), sea urchin (uni) and salmon roe (ikura) on rice. Those are pretty much the top three most expensive kinds of seafood (with the exception of high grade fatty tuna). In Tokyo I'm sure you'd be paying about 4000 yen for something like this, but in Kanazawa? 2000 yen. And it was amazing.

Kanazawa might not have lived up to the super high expectations I had for it (I had dreams of it being a snow covered, photographic paradise, without crowds), but it was still a fun trip, with lots to see and do. If you're the kind of person who loves traditional Japan, such as the one that can still be found in parts of Kyoto, Kanazawa will suit you just fine, being kind of a smaller, cheaper, and more compact version of said city. And if you can wait until 2014, you won't have to put up with the long ride and heading in the wrong direction for hours, the Shinkansen will take you there directly.

Model Shoot in Ogimachi                                          (Entered Jan. 19, 2010)
Another photography related post! Sorry if you feel I've been inundating you with these recently, but due to being extremely busy with other stuff, plus a strong desire to improve my photography skills, I haven't had much time to make a purely 'Japan' themed article in a while. I haven't forgotten about them though, in the meantime, hope you're liking the photos!
Learning how to effectively use a remote flash isn't a matter of just one lesson, so I once again joined up with the Japanorama crew, and headed out to the factory district of Ogimachi for my first 'model' model shoot.

With us this week was the lovely Marissa, who, despite the bitterly cold temperatures, managed to make it through almost 5 hours of shooting in clothing designed more for autumn.

Like last weekend's capoeira shoot, there were about 12 photographers present, but with only one model we split into two groups to make sure everyone had a fair chance to get some photos. My group first headed out for an HDR and macro photography lesson courtesy of Alfie Goodrich before meeting up with Irwin Wong and working with the speedlights and Marissa.

Why shoot in Ogimachi? Two reasons. It's dead quiet on the weekends, being situated in the heart of Kanagawa's industrial area, and the factories provide interesting and unusual backdrops. The next logical step of course is to do a model shoot in a haikyo.

I would've liked to get Marissa in front of various locations, but we mainly stuck with the theme of her in posing in front of a train.
We also got to see how a photographic umbrella helps diffuse the light. You can see the difference between the top and bottom shots. One is much softer, the other harsher.

Unfortunately we only had time for a couple more shots after Marissa changed outfits and we changed locations. We had to be on the 5pm train home.

I played around in Photoshop and made this slightly blurry, sepia coloured photo. Marissa's hat and clothes, plus the train in the background, inspired me to try and make a photograph that looked like a relic from bygone years...

Once you've started down the road of flash, there is no turning back. I'm already thinking I need more gear, like a couple of light stands, another strobe, a pocket wizard... and the list goes on!

Coming of Age Day - Meiji Shrine                               (Entered Jan. 14, 2010)
Photographing young Japanese girls in kimonos on Coming of Age Day is practically a cliche nowadays. Type said holiday into google search and you'll be presented with millions of photographs of kimono clad girls celebrating their acceptance into adulthood. No doubt every person calling themselves a photographer and living in Japan has tackled this subject, excepting myself, which was my main reason for doing it.

I was totally unprepared for what awaited me when I got to Meiji Shrine however. I expected it to be full of colourful kimono wearing girls in every direction, but what I got was a massive horde of camera toting photographers who swarmed the extremely tiny percentage of girls in kimonos, maybe 1:1000, like they were movie stars walking down the red carpet at the Oscars. Seriously.

I'd expected to have to go up to some girls, and ask if I could take their pictures, but there was no need. As soon as any girl in a kimono set food inside the temple grounds, the photographers (mostly old Japanese men) rushed her, encircled her, and started taking pictures, usually whether she wanted them too or not. So I found myself following the more zealous guys and doing the same thing. I didn't feel so good about it, but when in Rome I guess.

The number of girls wearing kimonos really was extremely small, it seems that given the expense involved, it's starting to lose its popularity.

Coming of Age day isn't just for girls of course, but the days where the guys also wear kimonos along with the girls has long faded away. Only a tiny percentage of men wear traditional clothes now, most preferring to wear a suit, or just a shirt and tie.

One reason for the lack of girls in kimonos may have been the fact that the Coming of Age Day celebration is generally finished in the morning. I arrived at Meiji Shrine around 1:00 pm, but perhaps if I'd gotten there much earlier I could've seen more.
Proud father and daughter.

Some of the photographers were quite aggressive, telling the girls to pose this and that way, to take off their fur scarves and smile, etc., but the girls bore it quite well, not minding that hundreds of complete strangers had lenses pointed at them. Maybe someone had warned them beforehand. Still, there was no way for them to stop the flood of clicks except by just walking away, which they all did after a few minutes of patient posing.

And now there are 7 more pics to add to that list of 69,000,000 or so other photographs! Thanks to the girls for their patience!

Capoeira Photo Shoot                                               (Entered Jan. 11, 2010)
Wanting to take my photography to the next level I asked Santa for an SB600 (strobe) for Christmas and he kindly delivered (thanks Kumi!). Having one in hand doesn't mean knowing how to use it however, as I soon found out. If you think good photography isn't easy, (and it isn't) I estimate the difficulty level rises by a factor of 10 when you're using flashes. Or maybe I'm just saying that as a total beginner when it comes to manipulating light. Either way, there is a lot to take into consideration, and I've got a lot to learn.
To help me on that path, I met up with Irwin Wong of japanorama.co.uk, who teaches weekly photography workshops here in Tokyo. Also joining me were about 10 liked-minded photography enthusiasts.
Our two 'models' for today were PJ and Shingo, both amazingly talented capoeira practitioners, and the location was Komazawa Park.

So why use a flash at all? Even more so, why use it outdoors on a sunny day? Natural light does have its own charm of course, but it's sometimes very useful to have light coming from two, or even three directions, instead of just one. Using strobes and lightstands, you can get some awesome 'stop motion' effects.

PJ demostrates some capoeira moves. Here (above and below), an SB900 on a lightstand was set up facing the sun so that light was coming in from two directions; in front (strobe) and behind (sun). Without it, PJs face and front would've been very underexposed.

The photography session lasted 4 hours, and with 10 or so photographers, and only two subjects and two light stands, we had to take turns shooting. This meant that PJ and Shingo were doing flying kicks, flips, handstands, etc., almost non stop the whole time, each of us wanting them to repeat their moves over and over again. Both of them kept up with our demands no problem though.

We eventually split into groups of two, each group taking one light stand and one model.

Shingo didn't speak much English, but we learned that he'd studied karate for 20 years before switching to capoeira and dance, which he's studied for another 10.

Later on we experimented with the strobes in a darker environment.
If you haven't been living under a rock, you'll probably know what capoeira is. If you have however, a general way to describe it is that it's an African-Brazilian art form that combines martial arts, dance and music together.

This time, we had two strobes going off on both sides of Shingo and PJ.

As the day wore on, people started to move around more and some of the photographers would take Shingo and PJ off for short times to different locations. I convinced Adrian, one of the photographers who I met there, who is also a fan of haikyo, and who has done a haikyo with MJG before, to do some bboying for the camera, what laypeople would call breakdancing.

He was pretty damn impressive, maybe as much so as PJ and Shingo!

I think maybe my best shots of the day were of Adrian, which is kind of ironic as he wasn't even one of the hired models.

All in all I had a great time. Not only did I meet some new people and learn more about strobes and how to use them, I realized how much more versatile they are compared to regular light. I'm pretty sure I only scratched the surface today, can't wait for the next time!

Coke Breath                                                               (Entered Jan. 06, 2010)
What do you do when your breath is too minty fresh? That's the problem that the Meiji candy company put to its scientists recently, and they've finally delivered with cola flavoured gummi mints. To find out more Mike's Blender paid a visit to their head office in Chuo-ku.
"No man wants to been known as 'minty breath guy' when he's watching the game with the boys, or out at his weekly poker night," said Shoji Tanaka, the senior marketing manager, "We wanted to give guys who were concious of their breath a way to be more masculine."
When asked why they didn't invent gummi mints that make your breath smell like beer or soy sauce, Tanaka san replied that small steps were best for now, but his small smile hinted of bolder flavours to come.
Out on the street, it seems that cola gummi mints are picking up steam. It didn't take long at all to find some guys who were carrying a pack or two.
Keiji Matsumoto, a 23 year old salaryman had this to say about the situation:
"My friends always teased me when I was a kid, and when I got older, people were constantly asking me for a piece of gum. I used to eat junk food for breakfast every morning in an effort to fit in more, but now it's much simpler and faster. Thanks Meiji!"
A 24 year clerk at 7-11 who prefers to remain anonymous gave this comment:
"Meiji has come up with little gummies that make your breath smell like Coke! Just pop a few, chew, and in seconds you're ready to shout, laugh and burp with all the others!"
Tomohiro Yamaguchi, a 36 year old salesman was a bit more reserved saying that he was glad that Meiji had addressed this age old problem, but was looking forward to having more flavours to choose from.
"I like cola but I don't love it, you know what I mean? I hear that a gyoza flavour may be coming out soon though, that'll be great!"

Meiji, you've done a great service here. Domo Arigatou Gozaimasu!

Above the Clouds                                                      (Entered Jan. 04, 2010)
My last painting of 2009, which was also a commission. Thank you Su Young!

Hopefully I can keep raising the bar in 2010.

Date: 2009
Technique: Oil on canvas
Size: F8 (45.5×38 cm)
SOLD

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