So I'm struggling to think of anything to write about.
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I went rugby training on Sunday, just a quick mess-around really. Sunburnt my arms (again). Not too serious this time, at least.
The only time I seem to remember sun tan lotion is when I get that tingly/burning feeling, that signals late-stage stupidity.
My hair is the longest it's ever been. I can nearly pony-tail it. There's nowhere in my town to get a cut, and I'm sure as hell not travelling on the train to find somewhere that does cut hair. Getting the train anywhere takes an hour, because I inevitably arrive at the station just as the train I want to catch departs. This leaves me stranded on the station for the better part of an hour, while another train slowly pootles its' way towards me. I then hop on that one, travel for five/ten minutes and arrive at my destination. The percentage of inefficiency related to trains in my area is ridiculous. For a comparison, take a plane. You travel to the airport, wait for hours at the airport, fly, wait for hours at the airport, then arrive at your destination. Waiting and travelling to and from the airport is probably upwards of seven hours. A typical flight will be four or five hours. This results in a ratio of waiting to flying of 4/7.
My train travel: a ratio of 1/5. Then again, sometimes I don't have to pay, or at least not the full fare. Cool.
Showing posts with label travelling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travelling. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Friday, 10 September 2010
Never Trust a Woman with Directions
Don't trust women with directions. I've been walking around in the rain for two hours, trying to find this place. It's 1.30 AM. Actually, make that an hour and a half.
I had to wake up a work colleague in the dead of night, and I'm certain I've got myriad diseases.
I was trailing a comedy pool of water behind me, as I trudged up the final set of stairs. My umbrella was soaked through, a sign that the waterproofing had been washed away; presumably when I took a swim in a giant puddle.
My MP3 player, housing all the photos I've taken in the last 5 years, went flying into the middle of the street, into four inches of water. This, as a hundred or so cars went flying over the top of it. When the traffic calmed down, I ran to retrieve the player, which was still in one piece. The comedy continued however, as I picked it up and water came pouring out of the housing. It's now a high-tech watering can - albeit of a limited capacity. (It was only 16 gigs in the first place.)
So despite, misdirection, falling over, destroying all my year 6's homework (oh I forgot to mention, all their marking was in my bag, with the intention of finishing it on the homeward leg.) when I went for an impromptu swim, being soaked through for two and a half hours, waking up a colleague in the dead of night (hell is to pay, I'm sure) destroying my MP3 player with half a decade of memories on it, and getting a taxi with an imbecile who got lost twice, it was a fun trip.
On the plus side, a shining light came from an employee of seven-eleven, the ubiquitous convenience store from the states. I couldn't find a single person to help, as they all shyed away from the big scary foreigner, or they just middle-fingered me because I looked like a hobo. The one man in the convenience store, I salute you for letting me borrow your mobile phone. (Everyone has several mobile phones here, so there are no payphones.) It turns out, the only nice Korean in Seoul, willing to help someone in obvious distress, was Australian. Go figure...
Say what you want about Aussies, this guy is awesome.
I had to wake up a work colleague in the dead of night, and I'm certain I've got myriad diseases.
I was trailing a comedy pool of water behind me, as I trudged up the final set of stairs. My umbrella was soaked through, a sign that the waterproofing had been washed away; presumably when I took a swim in a giant puddle.
My MP3 player, housing all the photos I've taken in the last 5 years, went flying into the middle of the street, into four inches of water. This, as a hundred or so cars went flying over the top of it. When the traffic calmed down, I ran to retrieve the player, which was still in one piece. The comedy continued however, as I picked it up and water came pouring out of the housing. It's now a high-tech watering can - albeit of a limited capacity. (It was only 16 gigs in the first place.)
So despite, misdirection, falling over, destroying all my year 6's homework (oh I forgot to mention, all their marking was in my bag, with the intention of finishing it on the homeward leg.) when I went for an impromptu swim, being soaked through for two and a half hours, waking up a colleague in the dead of night (hell is to pay, I'm sure) destroying my MP3 player with half a decade of memories on it, and getting a taxi with an imbecile who got lost twice, it was a fun trip.
On the plus side, a shining light came from an employee of seven-eleven, the ubiquitous convenience store from the states. I couldn't find a single person to help, as they all shyed away from the big scary foreigner, or they just middle-fingered me because I looked like a hobo. The one man in the convenience store, I salute you for letting me borrow your mobile phone. (Everyone has several mobile phones here, so there are no payphones.) It turns out, the only nice Korean in Seoul, willing to help someone in obvious distress, was Australian. Go figure...
Say what you want about Aussies, this guy is awesome.
Sunday, 23 May 2010
The Seoul Trip, Then
So I went up to Seoul over the weekend. It was the birthday of the Buddha on Friday, so everyone takes a day off. I decided to test the capital cities' waters, as it were.
The coach trip is a tortuous five+ hours, (traffic dependent) so I took some marking to tide me over. On the way up it was dark, so I couldn't see anything. On the way back though, wow. The middle of the country is entirely mountainous and seemingly devoid of human life. The hillsides are covered in trees or fields, and for large swathes there are no houses, save for the occasional hermitage. It's incredible how they've managed to slide a road through the hills, but they've managed it, and it's a testament to the ingenuity on display, that I ended up putting my book down and simply stared at the hills as they rolled past. The road generally followed the contours of the land, so we didn't end up going through many tunnels. One of the gauges of development (at least in my world) is the length and number of tunnels a country has. The Alps in Europe, for example, have huge numbers of tunnels, and some that are extremely long. Ergo, the countries through which these tunnels pass are rich, if not entirely developed (see: Italy). The road I was on had a sufficient number to suggest they have the ability to build big, but for some reason I didn't get the same sense of endeavour that you feel when passing through the Alps. Maybe their mountains just aren't tall enough.
Another great thing about the road is that it's pretty high, so you can see the fog and clouds rolling down the mountainsides. It rained for most of the trip back, but far from being detrimental, it allowed me to watch these rolling clouds.
The actual visitation was bitter sweet. The tower was awesome, and a lot of the time was extremely fun; just a few moments spoiled the occasion (entirely my own doing). Plus the fact that I have no money was a bummer. Luckily, thanks to internet banking, all parties have been reimbursed, and I thank them for their generosity. For the most part, it was extremely good fun, and I definitely want to go back there again. To the same place or otherwise, I don't mind; as long as it's with the same people.
Check out the pictures from the previous post to see pictures of Seoul from the tower. Ironically I think the city is a little soulless, despite being tagged as 'the Seoul of Asia,' by the city planners. It's a big, sprawling city too, which makes using public transport less fun. The tube stations are four or five minutes apart, which equates to fifteen+ minutes of walking - just to give you a sense of scale.
The underground trains are easily the longest I've ever seen; just as a side-note.
The coach trip is a tortuous five+ hours, (traffic dependent) so I took some marking to tide me over. On the way up it was dark, so I couldn't see anything. On the way back though, wow. The middle of the country is entirely mountainous and seemingly devoid of human life. The hillsides are covered in trees or fields, and for large swathes there are no houses, save for the occasional hermitage. It's incredible how they've managed to slide a road through the hills, but they've managed it, and it's a testament to the ingenuity on display, that I ended up putting my book down and simply stared at the hills as they rolled past. The road generally followed the contours of the land, so we didn't end up going through many tunnels. One of the gauges of development (at least in my world) is the length and number of tunnels a country has. The Alps in Europe, for example, have huge numbers of tunnels, and some that are extremely long. Ergo, the countries through which these tunnels pass are rich, if not entirely developed (see: Italy). The road I was on had a sufficient number to suggest they have the ability to build big, but for some reason I didn't get the same sense of endeavour that you feel when passing through the Alps. Maybe their mountains just aren't tall enough.
Another great thing about the road is that it's pretty high, so you can see the fog and clouds rolling down the mountainsides. It rained for most of the trip back, but far from being detrimental, it allowed me to watch these rolling clouds.
The actual visitation was bitter sweet. The tower was awesome, and a lot of the time was extremely fun; just a few moments spoiled the occasion (entirely my own doing). Plus the fact that I have no money was a bummer. Luckily, thanks to internet banking, all parties have been reimbursed, and I thank them for their generosity. For the most part, it was extremely good fun, and I definitely want to go back there again. To the same place or otherwise, I don't mind; as long as it's with the same people.
Check out the pictures from the previous post to see pictures of Seoul from the tower. Ironically I think the city is a little soulless, despite being tagged as 'the Seoul of Asia,' by the city planners. It's a big, sprawling city too, which makes using public transport less fun. The tube stations are four or five minutes apart, which equates to fifteen+ minutes of walking - just to give you a sense of scale.
The underground trains are easily the longest I've ever seen; just as a side-note.
Saturday, 22 May 2010
I Have Pictures!
So I've been in Seoul for a couple of days.
I've not done many tourist activities, (as is my general trend when visiting capital cities) but I did manage to sneak to the top of Seoul tower. The tower itself is relatively small:
I managed to wangle a night-time visit (I prefer the neon cityscape to the concrete sea, as seen during daylight hours) and managed to take a few pictures that encapsulate roughly one fiftieth of the beauty of the nighttime scenery. I had neither the skill, nor the photographic equipment to capture a greater amount of the beauty.
This is the tower itself. On an interesting photographic side-note; the next group of pictures might be an interesting way to learn about the digital equivalent of film grain. At higher ISO settings, digital cameras produce 'noise,' this noise is odd colour pixels appearing because the wrong information has been created by the sensor. This happens at higher ISO's because the signal is amplified. Amplification causes darker colours to appear brighter, (the sensor is actually analog) but also amplifies errors (just as in audio terms). The effect is most noticeable in large blocks of single colours (large areas of deep, dark shadow, for example).
I include this one primarily because of the figure flying into the tower. There were a number of suspended flying meshwork persons around the place, running along wires in tune with the wind. I'm not sure how they were secured, but they moved quite freely when the wind blew. It was quite nice watching them float around.
This is probably my favourite picture of the tower itself. Like I said before, I had neither the talent nor the equipment to take a picture that truly did justice to the surroundings, but at least with this picture you get a sense of the shape and design that ordered this building.
Aside from demonstrating another photographic ailment (or effect, if so inclined) (see: vignetting (an ailment that appears to be common with lower quality lenses (at least as far as I can tell)))
I include this picture to demonstrate the hill, upon which myself and the tower exist(ed). It's a park, and has few to no buildings on it. The dark area is the park, and shows how much higher than the surrounding city it actually is. Now factor in that we are looking down at the hill, and realise just how far above city level it is. Cool right?
This picture is reasonably self-explanatory. Each window had world cities attached, showing how far, and in which direction, each city is located. I'm roughly (see: exactly) 8,872.64km from England. The .64 is preposterous, but it's nice to know it'll only take a decade of walking to get back home, should it hit the fan. I also know the exact direction I need to take, too. Handy stuff. Why did they write 'Paris,' in bigger letters than London?
Busan is the nearest city to my island, and is, incidentally, the second city of Korea. I've not been there yet, but will dutifully report on here when I do. A handy 328.12km from Seoul.
This is the most skyscraper filled shot I could find. They're all tall buildings (tall enough to stand out against the background noise of lots of other tall buildings) and probably represent a business district. There were a few pockets like this one, but this had the highest density, and represented everything asian cities stand for. (Phallic misrepresentation, primarily)
But this graphic belies the true height (and by association, awesomeness) of the tower, because it stands on a large hill in the middle of the city. It essentially doubles the height of the tower (at least) relative to this chart, because the tower is twice the height, and the rest of the city is in a divot. The resulting view is, put quite simply, amazing.
I managed to wangle a night-time visit (I prefer the neon cityscape to the concrete sea, as seen during daylight hours) and managed to take a few pictures that encapsulate roughly one fiftieth of the beauty of the nighttime scenery. I had neither the skill, nor the photographic equipment to capture a greater amount of the beauty.
Anyway.
The tower isn't that tall, but the climb up there is pretty steep and long, making me suspect that it's at least as tall again, by being placed upon a great big hill. There were old stone ruins of (presumably) an old wall that was built along the same path as the road. It would have been the perfect place to build a castle to defend the city, and were I emporer way back when, I would definitely have placed a castle atop this hill.
I include this one primarily because of the figure flying into the tower. There were a number of suspended flying meshwork persons around the place, running along wires in tune with the wind. I'm not sure how they were secured, but they moved quite freely when the wind blew. It was quite nice watching them float around.
This is probably my favourite picture of the tower itself. Like I said before, I had neither the talent nor the equipment to take a picture that truly did justice to the surroundings, but at least with this picture you get a sense of the shape and design that ordered this building.
Aside from demonstrating another photographic ailment (or effect, if so inclined) (see: vignetting (an ailment that appears to be common with lower quality lenses (at least as far as I can tell)))This picture also show 1/50th of the awesomenss of the view I talked about earlier. It really is spectacular, and I would recommend anyone who visits Seoul to come and view it from this angle. It's just plain great.
The river has dozens of bridges spanning it (just like in London) and they're all frenetically lit by cars.
I include this picture to demonstrate the hill, upon which myself and the tower exist(ed). It's a park, and has few to no buildings on it. The dark area is the park, and shows how much higher than the surrounding city it actually is. Now factor in that we are looking down at the hill, and realise just how far above city level it is. Cool right?
This picture is reasonably self-explanatory. Each window had world cities attached, showing how far, and in which direction, each city is located. I'm roughly (see: exactly) 8,872.64km from England. The .64 is preposterous, but it's nice to know it'll only take a decade of walking to get back home, should it hit the fan. I also know the exact direction I need to take, too. Handy stuff. Why did they write 'Paris,' in bigger letters than London?
Busan is the nearest city to my island, and is, incidentally, the second city of Korea. I've not been there yet, but will dutifully report on here when I do. A handy 328.12km from Seoul.
This is the most skyscraper filled shot I could find. They're all tall buildings (tall enough to stand out against the background noise of lots of other tall buildings) and probably represent a business district. There were a few pockets like this one, but this had the highest density, and represented everything asian cities stand for. (Phallic misrepresentation, primarily)Of the journey up here: I will write more once I've made it back down to Goeje. It was a five and a half hour bus journey I've to repeat in reverse, so I don't want to reopen fresh wounds, for fear of making the journey worse for myself on the way back down.
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Time to Run!
So I'm Korea bound on Monday. The news is somewhat sudden, and I only found out when I was in Hull. Unfortunately I'm only due back from Hull today, on the Sunday.
Monday is also the day I'm supposed to pick up my visa.
So I turn up at the visa office upon opening, pick up my visa, run headlong to the airport (at a guess, 50 miles away) and dive onto a plane. This plane (which I suspect is a new Airbus A-380!) heads to Dubai, I then jump off, run onto another plane heading for Korea and swan in, as nonchalantly as is possible. I then jump onto another plane, head down the country, roll off the final plane (because I'm now too tired to jump) and drive down to wherever my final destination is. Not literally me driving, although I'm now qualified to do so...
And that short paragraph is how the day should proceed. I'm far too nervous about any number of things going wrong, so I daren't commit any to paper. However, from the above, I'm sure you could surmise any number of problems.
Just don't utter them aloud, otherwise they may well come true.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Germany いきましょ！
I think the title of this post means, 'Let's go to Germany!' Germany, by the way, is: ドイツ。I think....
So I'm (hopefully) heading towards the land of litre-beer and sausages soon, in order to gain some insight into what makes the single largest portion of the EU economy tick.
Ok enough joking, I'm just going there to have a nose around, check out some museums, and eat some sausages. Hopefully I'll be able to take some good pictures too; but there's no real guarantee about that. Come to think of it, maybe that's what separates a good photographer from me - the knowledge that at any given moment a good picture will be taken, no matter the circumstances or situation.
What things are there to see in Berlin? It's only a short stay of a few days, so I guess we can't duck and dive through the undergrowth, hoping to come across something good, a planned approach is necessary.
Any ideas, internet?
And here, without further ado, is stalking cat 2: Hi-Def.
P.S This is the first hi-def youtube video that's actually worthy of the title of 'hi-def.' I'm reliably informed that this is due to reasons of a source nature, that is to say; while many cameras will shoot at a higher resolution, they sacrifice picture quality to do so. Being Japanese, the camera this guy is using is probably a few years from market here, so this is the future! Revel in its' glory.
So I'm (hopefully) heading towards the land of litre-beer and sausages soon, in order to gain some insight into what makes the single largest portion of the EU economy tick.
Ok enough joking, I'm just going there to have a nose around, check out some museums, and eat some sausages. Hopefully I'll be able to take some good pictures too; but there's no real guarantee about that. Come to think of it, maybe that's what separates a good photographer from me - the knowledge that at any given moment a good picture will be taken, no matter the circumstances or situation.
What things are there to see in Berlin? It's only a short stay of a few days, so I guess we can't duck and dive through the undergrowth, hoping to come across something good, a planned approach is necessary.
Any ideas, internet?
And here, without further ado, is stalking cat 2: Hi-Def.
P.S This is the first hi-def youtube video that's actually worthy of the title of 'hi-def.' I'm reliably informed that this is due to reasons of a source nature, that is to say; while many cameras will shoot at a higher resolution, they sacrifice picture quality to do so. Being Japanese, the camera this guy is using is probably a few years from market here, so this is the future! Revel in its' glory.
Saturday, 7 November 2009
What is there to Write about in England?
So I'm debating whether to keep this blog running.
My thinking is that, generally speaking, there are very few interesting things to write about while in England. This is not to say England is disinteresting. I'm sure it's got a lot to offer anyone who is interested and willing to put themselves out and about; I am not one of these people however, and I feel a blog of my time in England would simply deteriorate into a monotonous, moan laden diatribe.
On the other hand - a moan laden diatribe posted on the internet would plot my trajectory perfectly. The highs of Japan will contrast the monotony of England perfectly; and everything has highs and lows. A skewed view of my situation may give rise to resentment at a later stage, and should I ever feel Japan has treated me badly, I can look back at my diary and see just where it ranks among past experiences. Should I find myself unemployed while in Japan, I can look back at the job I will (hopefully) hold in England, and say: 'well teaching here is a damned sight better than stacking shelves in England.' Or I might say, 'well teaching here is a damned sight worse than winning the lottery in England.' Of course, one might be wishful thinking, and the other might be wishful thinking.
So for this episode of 'Sam, the chronicles thereof,' I'm going to show you all some pictures of my journey homeward bound.
I flew back on a jumbo jet which was nice, although I did pay a premium for this. I think I've finally made some sense of the pricing system put in place by the airline companies. Essentially, the bigger the plane you fly on, the more expensive it is. The size of the plane is dictated by the length of the journey. Therefore, a journey with a stop costs less! My theory is being patented as we speak.
There's a cartoon called 'gundam,' over in Japan, and it has a dozen different spin-off series. It's so popular that a giant life sized robot (the series' trademark) was erected in Tokyo. Unfortunately it was dismantled a month before I arrived, but it was enormous.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up: This ship (see: train) looks like it has been styled on the mythical gundam. It's due to hit the rails in 2010, and will serve as one of the express trains (I think.)
I can't wait to hop on one of these mean looking things when I come back!
The last thing you see before boarding the plane back home...
Hope to see you soon too, Japan... *cry*
This is the plane I flew back in on.
This is taken from Heathrow, and for possessing a camera inside an airport, I was half expecting to be shot on sight.
Luckily I survived, to bring you this.
My views on HSBC have changed somewhat since they refused to send me a replacement card in Japan. The world bank, my arse. They tried their best to strand me in the middle of Japan with no money. Good going, guys.
Boycot all HSBC products people!
The plane was comfortable though, and crewed by a large number of very nice people. Even though none of you will ever read this, thank you very much.
The reason the checks will take longer. Not because they're making it harder to get in. Not because they're turning away more people. Not because there's more, harder work to be done in order to arrive in England.
It's because they want to ask more questions.
Good going guys.
And on that note; this is the end of my travel home section.
Or is it?
My thinking is that, generally speaking, there are very few interesting things to write about while in England. This is not to say England is disinteresting. I'm sure it's got a lot to offer anyone who is interested and willing to put themselves out and about; I am not one of these people however, and I feel a blog of my time in England would simply deteriorate into a monotonous, moan laden diatribe.
On the other hand - a moan laden diatribe posted on the internet would plot my trajectory perfectly. The highs of Japan will contrast the monotony of England perfectly; and everything has highs and lows. A skewed view of my situation may give rise to resentment at a later stage, and should I ever feel Japan has treated me badly, I can look back at my diary and see just where it ranks among past experiences. Should I find myself unemployed while in Japan, I can look back at the job I will (hopefully) hold in England, and say: 'well teaching here is a damned sight better than stacking shelves in England.' Or I might say, 'well teaching here is a damned sight worse than winning the lottery in England.' Of course, one might be wishful thinking, and the other might be wishful thinking.
So for this episode of 'Sam, the chronicles thereof,' I'm going to show you all some pictures of my journey homeward bound.
I flew back on a jumbo jet which was nice, although I did pay a premium for this. I think I've finally made some sense of the pricing system put in place by the airline companies. Essentially, the bigger the plane you fly on, the more expensive it is. The size of the plane is dictated by the length of the journey. Therefore, a journey with a stop costs less! My theory is being patented as we speak.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up: This ship (see: train) looks like it has been styled on the mythical gundam. It's due to hit the rails in 2010, and will serve as one of the express trains (I think.)
I can't wait to hop on one of these mean looking things when I come back!
Hope to see you soon too, Japan... *cry*
This is taken from Heathrow, and for possessing a camera inside an airport, I was half expecting to be shot on sight.
Luckily I survived, to bring you this.
My views on HSBC have changed somewhat since they refused to send me a replacement card in Japan. The world bank, my arse. They tried their best to strand me in the middle of Japan with no money. Good going, guys.
Boycot all HSBC products people!
The plane was comfortable though, and crewed by a large number of very nice people. Even though none of you will ever read this, thank you very much.
It's because they want to ask more questions.
Good going guys.
And on that note; this is the end of my travel home section.
Or is it?
Thursday, 29 October 2009
The Great Camera Review!
In importing this post from openoffice there were a number of formatting errors, as a result the following post is probably going to be all kinds of screwed up. Sorry about that.
So in Japan there's a department store called Yodobashi camera. I don't know how to spell Yodobashi in Japanese, if I did I would write it here now. This begs the rather obvious question of how I know which store is Yodobashi, and which isn't. This is easily answered by a Japanese phenomenon I am going to call, 'jingle fever.'
It begins when you leave the airport on the first day, and continues until you leave the airport on your final day. I suspect however, that the jingles continue long into the memory. I know the final lines of the Yodobashi theme tune for example, and I've only been in there a few times to peruse their goods and buy a mouse.
Cute sells here, cute sells a lot of things. If porsche wrapped their latest hypercar in a fluffy hello kitty outfit and bought it here, they would sell out in seconds. 'It's okay dear, we can live in the car...' This barrage of cute doesn't stop at the visual and endorsement aspects of daily life, it also hits your eardrums. If eardrums could acquire plaque...
The train stations have a little jingle when a train is coming in, and when an announcement is being made. Every department store has its' own theme. The convenience stores here even have their own themes; seven 11s is particularly funny, as they manage to leverage the final three syllables of e-le-ven into a two syllable tune – becoming le-ven. Therefore, all Japanese people call se-ven e-le-ven, 'se-ven lev-en.' It makes me smile, no matter how many times I hear it.
So coming full circle to the beginning of this post; I can spot a Ydobashi from fifty paces, not by the visual cues, but because of the jingle that rings out around the shop.
I've taken a number of pictures of the business district around here, because there's some serious work going on. There are more department stores (presumably department stores) going up, and they are gargantuan. The Yodobashi is twelve storeys of shopping floors with a further four or five of storage (at a guess) with five floors below ground, two for shopping, three for parking. This sounds very tame height-wise, by Japanese standards; but the surface area is enormous. Everything here has an american influence, and their street design is no different; so everything is arranged in blocks. The Yodobashi takes up half a block in all directions. It's massive.
So now we arrive at the actual point of this post. Drumroll please... The great camera review!
I've wanted a DSLR for some time now, but haven't really had the need for one. (Need is subjective of course. I don't need a camera like I need, for example, air.) Coming to Japan has shown me that actually, having an exceptional camera would afford great picture taking opportunities; and I've steeled myself for some kind of DSLR purchase.
So Yodobashi camera, despite the name, aren't solely camera based. It is however in their origins, and they have an entire floor dedicated to photography equipment, so there's no better place to go in order to try them out bar perhaps being a camera reviewer of sorts.
Depending on your approach, the first choice is either make or model. If you go with Canon, you are stuck with a few 3rd party lenses and Canon lenses only. If you take the Nikon route you have a larger range of lenses in the Nikon range, and a large number of third party lense manufacturers. Having nosed around the lense section though, it seems Canon, despite having a smaller range, is still well catered for.
This is important for the simple reason that once you've got a couple of lenses for whichever model, switching to a different manufacturer is going to be far more costly. No one wants to replace lenses when they have perfectly good ones sitting on their desk.
This makes the manufacturer choice all the more important.
The Nikon D3000 caught my eye; so I tried that out. From the top down, both Canon and Nikon (the two I narrowed it down to) have an identical menu system from the top of their range through to the bottom. This means if you've picked up one of their other cameras, you're immediately familiar with the one you're holding now. This is extremely good in theory, and works particularly well for Canon. Not for Nikon however, as their menu system is not very intuitive. After finding the setting for 'change me to English,'(日本語) (Japanese I think) navigating is easy enough, but changing settings can prove to be a pain in the backside. And finding them was a little tricky too. That's not to say this system is impossible to use; with a little practice, and some custom menu settings in place I'm sure changing what needs to be changed would be easy enough. I believe the Canon does have the advantage here though.
I think this is primarily due to the Canons' menu layout. The Canon has a two menu system, where half a dozen different menus are selectable at the top, then depending on which has been chosen, a number of options are displayed. The Nikon seems to just throw everything at you all at once.
Both have customisable menus, which means you can put the settings you change most often right at the top of the menu list, for immediate access. I think overall Canon gets the nod here, but after a little practice they'd both be usable.
The D3000 was pretty light, and easy to use overall. The body was a little small, but that's probably good in the long run. One complaint I have about all the Nikon lenses I tested was the fuzziness of the focus ring. It felt like it'd been oiled one too many times, it slid around with no effort and required a more delicate touch than the Canon equivalents; I don't do delicate.
The D3000 was pretty solid overall; but then I moved from there onto the big daddy. The D3. This is the camera for professionals, and has the professional price tag. It's heavy, and big, and generally feels great to hold. This is where I move on to complain about the Nikon cameras a little more. All the cameras have a large number of focus points to choose from; but being able to choose which the camera should use is a pain in the backside with the Nikon, where it's simply a single button press with the Canon models.
The Nikon has so many buttons and things to press and twiddle that I spent five minutes figuring out how to get it to autofocus on what I wanted; when I managed to set this up however, it was amazing. I don't know how many fps it shoots, but it was too fast to review them all. Obviously I can't talk about image quality, but they seemed sharp when I reviewed them on the screen, and the focus worked perfectly every time. Of course it's indoors and the conditions are perfect, but the cheaper Canon SLR's missed a trick every now and again when continuous shooting; one would turn up a little blurred. Maybe it's just because it's in the shop and has probably been brutalised by the customers.
Overall, I think the D3000 is a little too whimpy. The D3 is probably out of my price range, considering it costs as much as a car...
The big daddy Canon offering wasn't available on the shop floor, but the next best thing, the D7 was available.
In a nutshell. I want this camera. It's brilliant. The menu is a piece of cake to run through, the settings are easy to change on the fly, even for a complete beginner like myself. The focus options are intuitive to use, being mapped to a single button on the body, instead of being buried inside the menus like the Nikons. The zoom and manual focus of the lenses were a treat, while the autofocus was damned near instant. I want this camera! It's a shame about the price though... Another car would sit on the forecourt if I bought this camera.
If a millionaire is reading this, please buy me the D1 mk4 when it comes out. If Jesus is reading this, please buy me the D7 or the D5 mk2. I can't afford either, but one can dream, right?
In light of the entire post being about cameras, and not my travels, it is worth pointing out that Osaka is not very nice. It doesn't have as many big attractions as the other areas (it has a zoo and stuff like that) besides the Osaka castle, which is fantastic, there's not a lot else to do other than shop, eat and drink. (Well, to this untrained eye it seems this is all Osaka has to offer. (Of course there will be more under the surface)
Maybe that's why it's hedonistic?
On a separate note, I'm back to Kyoto tomorrow. Yay!
So in Japan there's a department store called Yodobashi camera. I don't know how to spell Yodobashi in Japanese, if I did I would write it here now. This begs the rather obvious question of how I know which store is Yodobashi, and which isn't. This is easily answered by a Japanese phenomenon I am going to call, 'jingle fever.'
It begins when you leave the airport on the first day, and continues until you leave the airport on your final day. I suspect however, that the jingles continue long into the memory. I know the final lines of the Yodobashi theme tune for example, and I've only been in there a few times to peruse their goods and buy a mouse.
Cute sells here, cute sells a lot of things. If porsche wrapped their latest hypercar in a fluffy hello kitty outfit and bought it here, they would sell out in seconds. 'It's okay dear, we can live in the car...' This barrage of cute doesn't stop at the visual and endorsement aspects of daily life, it also hits your eardrums. If eardrums could acquire plaque...
The train stations have a little jingle when a train is coming in, and when an announcement is being made. Every department store has its' own theme. The convenience stores here even have their own themes; seven 11s is particularly funny, as they manage to leverage the final three syllables of e-le-ven into a two syllable tune – becoming le-ven. Therefore, all Japanese people call se-ven e-le-ven, 'se-ven lev-en.' It makes me smile, no matter how many times I hear it.
So coming full circle to the beginning of this post; I can spot a Ydobashi from fifty paces, not by the visual cues, but because of the jingle that rings out around the shop.
I've taken a number of pictures of the business district around here, because there's some serious work going on. There are more department stores (presumably department stores) going up, and they are gargantuan. The Yodobashi is twelve storeys of shopping floors with a further four or five of storage (at a guess) with five floors below ground, two for shopping, three for parking. This sounds very tame height-wise, by Japanese standards; but the surface area is enormous. Everything here has an american influence, and their street design is no different; so everything is arranged in blocks. The Yodobashi takes up half a block in all directions. It's massive.
So now we arrive at the actual point of this post. Drumroll please... The great camera review!
I've wanted a DSLR for some time now, but haven't really had the need for one. (Need is subjective of course. I don't need a camera like I need, for example, air.) Coming to Japan has shown me that actually, having an exceptional camera would afford great picture taking opportunities; and I've steeled myself for some kind of DSLR purchase.
So Yodobashi camera, despite the name, aren't solely camera based. It is however in their origins, and they have an entire floor dedicated to photography equipment, so there's no better place to go in order to try them out bar perhaps being a camera reviewer of sorts.
Depending on your approach, the first choice is either make or model. If you go with Canon, you are stuck with a few 3rd party lenses and Canon lenses only. If you take the Nikon route you have a larger range of lenses in the Nikon range, and a large number of third party lense manufacturers. Having nosed around the lense section though, it seems Canon, despite having a smaller range, is still well catered for.
This is important for the simple reason that once you've got a couple of lenses for whichever model, switching to a different manufacturer is going to be far more costly. No one wants to replace lenses when they have perfectly good ones sitting on their desk.
This makes the manufacturer choice all the more important.
The Nikon D3000 caught my eye; so I tried that out. From the top down, both Canon and Nikon (the two I narrowed it down to) have an identical menu system from the top of their range through to the bottom. This means if you've picked up one of their other cameras, you're immediately familiar with the one you're holding now. This is extremely good in theory, and works particularly well for Canon. Not for Nikon however, as their menu system is not very intuitive. After finding the setting for 'change me to English,'(日本語) (Japanese I think) navigating is easy enough, but changing settings can prove to be a pain in the backside. And finding them was a little tricky too. That's not to say this system is impossible to use; with a little practice, and some custom menu settings in place I'm sure changing what needs to be changed would be easy enough. I believe the Canon does have the advantage here though.
I think this is primarily due to the Canons' menu layout. The Canon has a two menu system, where half a dozen different menus are selectable at the top, then depending on which has been chosen, a number of options are displayed. The Nikon seems to just throw everything at you all at once.
Both have customisable menus, which means you can put the settings you change most often right at the top of the menu list, for immediate access. I think overall Canon gets the nod here, but after a little practice they'd both be usable.
The D3000 was pretty light, and easy to use overall. The body was a little small, but that's probably good in the long run. One complaint I have about all the Nikon lenses I tested was the fuzziness of the focus ring. It felt like it'd been oiled one too many times, it slid around with no effort and required a more delicate touch than the Canon equivalents; I don't do delicate.
The D3000 was pretty solid overall; but then I moved from there onto the big daddy. The D3. This is the camera for professionals, and has the professional price tag. It's heavy, and big, and generally feels great to hold. This is where I move on to complain about the Nikon cameras a little more. All the cameras have a large number of focus points to choose from; but being able to choose which the camera should use is a pain in the backside with the Nikon, where it's simply a single button press with the Canon models.
The Nikon has so many buttons and things to press and twiddle that I spent five minutes figuring out how to get it to autofocus on what I wanted; when I managed to set this up however, it was amazing. I don't know how many fps it shoots, but it was too fast to review them all. Obviously I can't talk about image quality, but they seemed sharp when I reviewed them on the screen, and the focus worked perfectly every time. Of course it's indoors and the conditions are perfect, but the cheaper Canon SLR's missed a trick every now and again when continuous shooting; one would turn up a little blurred. Maybe it's just because it's in the shop and has probably been brutalised by the customers.
Overall, I think the D3000 is a little too whimpy. The D3 is probably out of my price range, considering it costs as much as a car...
The big daddy Canon offering wasn't available on the shop floor, but the next best thing, the D7 was available.
In a nutshell. I want this camera. It's brilliant. The menu is a piece of cake to run through, the settings are easy to change on the fly, even for a complete beginner like myself. The focus options are intuitive to use, being mapped to a single button on the body, instead of being buried inside the menus like the Nikons. The zoom and manual focus of the lenses were a treat, while the autofocus was damned near instant. I want this camera! It's a shame about the price though... Another car would sit on the forecourt if I bought this camera.
If a millionaire is reading this, please buy me the D1 mk4 when it comes out. If Jesus is reading this, please buy me the D7 or the D5 mk2. I can't afford either, but one can dream, right?
In light of the entire post being about cameras, and not my travels, it is worth pointing out that Osaka is not very nice. It doesn't have as many big attractions as the other areas (it has a zoo and stuff like that) besides the Osaka castle, which is fantastic, there's not a lot else to do other than shop, eat and drink. (Well, to this untrained eye it seems this is all Osaka has to offer. (Of course there will be more under the surface)
Maybe that's why it's hedonistic?
On a separate note, I'm back to Kyoto tomorrow. Yay!
Sunday, 18 October 2009
The Onsen! Oh the Onsen...
So me and Pascal went to an onsen here, which is essentially a natural spring water outdoor bath! They're a national obsession here in Japan so I decided from the outset that I wanted to see what all the fuss is about.
To go to a 'proper' onsen you must travel to the countryside, away from the big cities. This involved a number of forms of transport, and a fair amount of uphill walking. I've said before that Japan is mountainous, but you only find this out properly when you move away from the cities. The reason being, cities are densely populated areas, and areas of dense population in Japan reside around the plains and flatlands. The countryside is anywhere without city, and is therefore invariably on the side of a mountain. Anyway, I digress.
We yomped around the mountainside before we hit the hotspring, and this is what the photographs are of. Obviously, I couldn't take my camera into the onsen with me; so here are the photographs of the town:
I really loved the rural areas we travelled through. I could definitely live in these areas as well. The local train was one carriage in size, and was more of a tram than a train. Everyone was friendly, if a little short (because of our lack of Japanese) and all the children ran up to us saying stupid, barely intelligible things in English. Perfect English teacher territory I think.
The whole place had a country feel, it was exceptional.
Our cute little train!
One carriage.
I think ours actually had two, but it's the point here that matters!
I hope the entire country has areas like this. It's something else entirely.
This ugly fellow is called a tengu. It's kind of like a devil thing; I'm not really sure how to define it.
This town had a disproportionate number of these masks all over the place, so it's probably a protective deity or some such thing.
It's ugly though, and there's no way they can be perceived of as anything but ugly, yet a lot of the people think they're cute here. I don't understand
I think living in one of these houses would be great, you're as close to nature as is possible in Japan if you live here.
Even the cute little train stops running at a reasonably time, so you wouldn't lose sleep over the constant noise of wheels on a track.
I don't think a commute is a viable option though; it's a twenty minute walk from the other end of the trainline to a main trainline, so there's lots of changes before you even get to a main line in order to begin your 'proper' commute. You would need a car, and owning a car here may cost you organs.
So we began our ascent of mt.Japan (a name I just came up with) around 1PM, having eaten in a small Japanese style cafe (I looked in one opposite, left, then went back to it for dinner!). We went halfway around mount Japan, then to the onsen for a few hours.
Yeah we sat in the bath for a few hours. It's too relaxing.
It's far too relaxing, seriously.
So I'd advise anyone to go and check out an onsen while they're here. I'd imagine one with a decent view would help.
So like I said, the mountainside was my main photograph focus, nakedness is not photogenic; that's why this post is so short!
To go to a 'proper' onsen you must travel to the countryside, away from the big cities. This involved a number of forms of transport, and a fair amount of uphill walking. I've said before that Japan is mountainous, but you only find this out properly when you move away from the cities. The reason being, cities are densely populated areas, and areas of dense population in Japan reside around the plains and flatlands. The countryside is anywhere without city, and is therefore invariably on the side of a mountain. Anyway, I digress.
We yomped around the mountainside before we hit the hotspring, and this is what the photographs are of. Obviously, I couldn't take my camera into the onsen with me; so here are the photographs of the town:
The whole place had a country feel, it was exceptional.
One carriage.
I think ours actually had two, but it's the point here that matters!
I hope the entire country has areas like this. It's something else entirely.
This town had a disproportionate number of these masks all over the place, so it's probably a protective deity or some such thing.
It's ugly though, and there's no way they can be perceived of as anything but ugly, yet a lot of the people think they're cute here. I don't understand
Even the cute little train stops running at a reasonably time, so you wouldn't lose sleep over the constant noise of wheels on a track.
I don't think a commute is a viable option though; it's a twenty minute walk from the other end of the trainline to a main trainline, so there's lots of changes before you even get to a main line in order to begin your 'proper' commute. You would need a car, and owning a car here may cost you organs.
Yeah we sat in the bath for a few hours. It's too relaxing.
It's far too relaxing, seriously.
So I'd advise anyone to go and check out an onsen while they're here. I'd imagine one with a decent view would help.
So like I said, the mountainside was my main photograph focus, nakedness is not photogenic; that's why this post is so short!
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