So IBM was once a big player in the Japanese rugby scene and as such, they commissioned promotional videos of their team whenever the new season started.
Along with the photographs and other associated silliness, they've kept that tradition alive and as such, here is this years video.
I can't get the video to embed in this post so you'll have to make do with the above link. Sorry about that.
Friday 29 August 2014
Wednesday 27 August 2014
Nagasaki
So I'd vowed to check out both Nagasaki and Hiroshima during my stay in Japan. This Summer I managed to finish my pilgrimage - heading to Nagasaki by train.
It's a long, long way from Tokyo to Nagasaki. It took the best part of 9 hours on bullet and express trains meaning it's probably in the order of a thousand kilometres between the two cities. Japan may only have the inhabitable land space of the U.K. but it's almost as long as america is tall.
I took a fair number of pictures during the trip, but truth be told very few were up to scratch. Whenever I go outside with my camera I set myself some challenges; this time it was to take as few pictures as possible, to try and get a 'keeper,' on the first attempt at each subject. I didn't always stick to this plan, but it turned out to be quite thought provoking. For the first time ever I have an album where each picture tends to be entirely different from the last and this is something of a novelty for me. As always, it was my intention to walk away from a days shoot with one single picture that, when looked at in 60 years time, will remind me of the day and fill me with pride at having taken it. It's always been my intention to have enough quality pictures to one day fill a book, and taking the slow and steady approach is about the only way I can think of achieving this goal.
You can judge whether I've succeeded in that aim.
I'll start off with the tackiest picture imaginable. Aside from the scene in Schindlers list that has become infamous, black and white with a single source of colour rarely affects people in the way the creator intends. Maybe they've become so common that no one cares anymore. Maybe, like the tilted angle photograph of the 90's, it's a fashion that was never going to live beyond the inaugural years of photoshop.
So this was an interesting picture to edit. At first I darkened both the sky and the trees somewhat - the intention was to highlight the woman (due to the angle of the picture, mostly ignoring the child she is carrying) at the expense of everything else. It looked okay, but it lacked any kind of interest beyond the statue. The sky was interesting enough (see: had clouds) that I felt the light (sky)/dark (trees)/light (statue) scheme worked to the point of acceptability. Making her stand out without distorting the entire picture was the challenge, and I don't really know if I've succeeded in that endeavour.
With a portrait format the focus shifts away from encompassing the setting to settle on the figure. I found the woman a much more interesting subject (literally everyone else was taking pictures of the child with the woman as an incidental point of focus) than the child. It is her saving the child, but it is her generation, her peers that caused the child suffering in the first place.
At this point it is worth pointing out that the artist intended the woman to represent some kind of peaceful deity. Knowing god and or gods are a lie, I see her as the embodiment of peaceful thoughts or actions within humanity. She is not a child, so doesn't hold the innocence of the child and as such, is as culpable as the rest of us for the actions of our equals. The somber look on her face isn't so much sadness at the loss of that child, or the actions of that time - it's the inescapable truth that humanity is destined to continue doing this over and over again.
As such, I find her expression much more revealing than the body of the child is saddening.
This is the last pillar standing at the church in Nagasaki. Much like the dome in Hiroshima it stands as a monument to the devastation of war and much like the dome in Hiroshima, it stands as a symbol of hope.
This guy is symbolic of peace versus war. One of his arms represents war, the other peace. When I heard which was which, I couldn't reconcile the idea of why each one was as it was, so I could never commit to memory which arm symbolised what.
This is probably my favourite picture. You could absolutely miss the pidgeon sitting on her arm, but the expression in the statue alone makes it worthwhile. Much like the ruminations about the woman above, I couldn't decide how to edit this picture in post. In the end I went much the same route, but this time trying to get the viewer to look at her face as much as possible before looking at the other details in the picture.
To be honest I don't think any of these are worthy of more than a couple of seconds of perusal but you never know. Everyone has different tastes after all.
I'll hopefully be adding a number of blog posts in the coming days with (fingers crossed) a lot of pictures to accompany.
If you haven't already seen the videos of the festival and my thirty second montage of Japan this Summer, check out the posts prior to this one.
It's a long, long way from Tokyo to Nagasaki. It took the best part of 9 hours on bullet and express trains meaning it's probably in the order of a thousand kilometres between the two cities. Japan may only have the inhabitable land space of the U.K. but it's almost as long as america is tall.
I took a fair number of pictures during the trip, but truth be told very few were up to scratch. Whenever I go outside with my camera I set myself some challenges; this time it was to take as few pictures as possible, to try and get a 'keeper,' on the first attempt at each subject. I didn't always stick to this plan, but it turned out to be quite thought provoking. For the first time ever I have an album where each picture tends to be entirely different from the last and this is something of a novelty for me. As always, it was my intention to walk away from a days shoot with one single picture that, when looked at in 60 years time, will remind me of the day and fill me with pride at having taken it. It's always been my intention to have enough quality pictures to one day fill a book, and taking the slow and steady approach is about the only way I can think of achieving this goal.
You can judge whether I've succeeded in that aim.
I'll start off with the tackiest picture imaginable. Aside from the scene in Schindlers list that has become infamous, black and white with a single source of colour rarely affects people in the way the creator intends. Maybe they've become so common that no one cares anymore. Maybe, like the tilted angle photograph of the 90's, it's a fashion that was never going to live beyond the inaugural years of photoshop.
So this was an interesting picture to edit. At first I darkened both the sky and the trees somewhat - the intention was to highlight the woman (due to the angle of the picture, mostly ignoring the child she is carrying) at the expense of everything else. It looked okay, but it lacked any kind of interest beyond the statue. The sky was interesting enough (see: had clouds) that I felt the light (sky)/dark (trees)/light (statue) scheme worked to the point of acceptability. Making her stand out without distorting the entire picture was the challenge, and I don't really know if I've succeeded in that endeavour.
With a portrait format the focus shifts away from encompassing the setting to settle on the figure. I found the woman a much more interesting subject (literally everyone else was taking pictures of the child with the woman as an incidental point of focus) than the child. It is her saving the child, but it is her generation, her peers that caused the child suffering in the first place.
At this point it is worth pointing out that the artist intended the woman to represent some kind of peaceful deity. Knowing god and or gods are a lie, I see her as the embodiment of peaceful thoughts or actions within humanity. She is not a child, so doesn't hold the innocence of the child and as such, is as culpable as the rest of us for the actions of our equals. The somber look on her face isn't so much sadness at the loss of that child, or the actions of that time - it's the inescapable truth that humanity is destined to continue doing this over and over again.
As such, I find her expression much more revealing than the body of the child is saddening.
This is the last pillar standing at the church in Nagasaki. Much like the dome in Hiroshima it stands as a monument to the devastation of war and much like the dome in Hiroshima, it stands as a symbol of hope.
This guy is symbolic of peace versus war. One of his arms represents war, the other peace. When I heard which was which, I couldn't reconcile the idea of why each one was as it was, so I could never commit to memory which arm symbolised what.
This is probably my favourite picture. You could absolutely miss the pidgeon sitting on her arm, but the expression in the statue alone makes it worthwhile. Much like the ruminations about the woman above, I couldn't decide how to edit this picture in post. In the end I went much the same route, but this time trying to get the viewer to look at her face as much as possible before looking at the other details in the picture.
To be honest I don't think any of these are worthy of more than a couple of seconds of perusal but you never know. Everyone has different tastes after all.
I'll hopefully be adding a number of blog posts in the coming days with (fingers crossed) a lot of pictures to accompany.
If you haven't already seen the videos of the festival and my thirty second montage of Japan this Summer, check out the posts prior to this one.
Tuesday 26 August 2014
My Summer, 30 Seconds
Just a quick video of some of my exploits these past few weeks. An awful lot of travelling around Japan was done by me, my mum and Aunt. I managed to capture a few videos which I've thrown together in this 30 second video.
Enjoy!
(P.S. a more substantial post including some of the pictures I've taken will go up sometime this week. I've started writing but it's nearly midnight so this will have to suffice for today.)
Enjoy!
(P.S. a more substantial post including some of the pictures I've taken will go up sometime this week. I've started writing but it's nearly midnight so this will have to suffice for today.)
Saturday 9 August 2014
Baraki-Nakayama Festival
So my town is relatively small, despite being situated within the megalopolis of Tokyo (it's not really Tokyo, but it may as well be). They held a local festival sponsored by the shops around the community (the lanterns in the video below have the shop names as a form of advertisment).
The centre stage was a drum, struck by various people throughout the performance. Hopefully you'll get an idea of the relative repetitiveness of the song, despite the changing background music. They seemed to be content with their accompaniment regardless of what the DJ decided to put on, I think they'd choreographed their dance and didn't have any backup plans for when the folk music gave way to a more dance orientated tune.
You'll also see the kind of laid back circle dancing that is quite common in Japan at these kinds of smaller festivals. In Japanese schools they sometimes organise dances around a bonfire (often made of the detritus from the festival, wooden boards, signs and stands - that kind of thing) in which dances similar to the ones in the video are performed.
If they're feeling particularly risque they might even allow couples to dance together (don't think slow dancing, think a dance very similar to the one in the video).
And without any further ado, here it is:
Sunday 3 August 2014
The Ninja Warrior
So some of you might know the TV show from Japan known as Ninja Warrior. It's one of the many included in the gameshow pantheon, others being Takeshis castle and Viking along with some lesser known varities. Ninja Warrior (hereon referred to as Sasuke (because it's easier to write)) is the serious big brother to the goofy shows we are occasionally privy to in the west.
There are no pranks here - no people dressed up as giant monsters, no ritual humiliation (well okay, a little humiliation) and no jokes. This series is serious.
The Takeshi's Castle classic 'knock knock,' epitomises the fun side of Japanese 'sporty,' gameshows.
Viking is the halfway point between serious challenge and comedic wipeouts. Incidentally if you were wondering how the BBC came up with the concept of Wipeout (or whatever it's called now) then look no further than the above clips. Genesis!
Anyway, Sasuke is very difficult. The first stage is open to a hundred competitors; some famous, some comedic, some hopeful. If you can pass the first stage you move onto the second and so forth.
The challenges often change, but the competition is always very difficult. In the twenty odd series that have been made, only four or five people have ever completed the course.
If you can look past the stupid commentator (not present in the English version, thankfully) then the challenges show how athletic the participants are.
Upon close inspection you'll also see a huge bias towards smaller, lighter, more gymnastic sorts.
Anyway, you're wondering why I'm writing all this.
Well, they opened a park where you can try your hand at some of the events as shown in the programme, so I went along and had a go. I took footage of my attempts and I'm in the process of editing those videos now, but in the meantime here is a picture:
There are no pranks here - no people dressed up as giant monsters, no ritual humiliation (well okay, a little humiliation) and no jokes. This series is serious.
Takeshi's castle is voiced by Craig Charles, who is absolutely perfect for the kind of stupidity found within.
Viking is primarily celebrities and thus nowhere near the level of competition of Sasuke.
Anyway, Sasuke is very difficult. The first stage is open to a hundred competitors; some famous, some comedic, some hopeful. If you can pass the first stage you move onto the second and so forth.
If you can look past the stupid commentator (not present in the English version, thankfully) then the challenges show how athletic the participants are.
Upon close inspection you'll also see a huge bias towards smaller, lighter, more gymnastic sorts.
Anyway, you're wondering why I'm writing all this.
Well, they opened a park where you can try your hand at some of the events as shown in the programme, so I went along and had a go. I took footage of my attempts and I'm in the process of editing those videos now, but in the meantime here is a picture:
Spoilers for when the next post (and hopefully the video) are up: I didn't finish the course but I nearly finished stage 3. The cliffhanger is a killer for someone who weighs as much as me!
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