Life in Japan - Pictures galore !! Arcades, Temples, Rainy days, etc

[Yakumo]

:) I'm happy others enjoy our photos.

[GaijinPunch]

Not been getting out much. Maybe I'll do that that this week.


Sleepy (3) (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Summer Bubbles 01 by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Summer Bubbles 03 by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Mt. Fuji Bird by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Singing in the Park 01 by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Shibuya Sewer by gaijin_punch, on Flickr

[graciano1337]

Any more pics from Mt. Fuji? It looks like you reached quite an elevation.

[GaijinPunch]

Any more pics from Mt. Fuji? It looks like you reached quite an elevation.

Only a couple. I dehydrated at station 8 (about 80% the way up) and never recovered. Got the shits, shakes, nausea (but fought that off as I knew I had to keep the fluids down). I sweat through my entire backpack, so my last dry shirt was not dry by the time I got up there. :( So, I wasn't really in a picture mood on the way down (alone). The toilets were worse than Thailand as well.

[Legion]

Sorry to hear that Gaijin Punch...
I actually got more energized the further up I went - maybe due to all the cardio pushing my illness aside and stimulating me for once. It rained a few times on the way up then went really hot on the way down so perhaps that helped wit the fluids too (on the way up).
A friend though gets altitude sickness and felt like dying on the way up.

[GaijinPunch]

I'm usually fine on mountains -- I snowboard and whatnot. Note I was carrying an extra zoom lens at 1.4k (stupid, in hind sight, but I knew it would make it the jog tougher) and some other stuff. Perhaps that's what pushed me?

[GaijinPunch]

Some B&W. I wrote a Javascript to resize these in PS but I don't like the results. Gotta figure that shit out.


Kokusai Forum From Above(BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Reading in the Kokusai Forum (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Taiko (1) (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Waiting in Yukata (1) (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Young Girl in Yukata (1) (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Kokusai Forum Vertical (1) (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Kokusai Forum Vertical (2) (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr

[Yakumo]

Beautiful as always. That place really reminds me of the areas in games such as Mind Jack and Binary Domain. Two games set in a futuristic Tokyo where everything is shiny metallic colours and glass. I love that look.

[Legion]

Id like to go there - I dont know that place

[GaijinPunch]

Kokusai Forum, in Yurakucho - can't miss it.

Two games set in a futuristic Tokyo where everything is shiny metallic colours and glass. I love that look.

Ah, cool.. unlike the real future where everything will be run down, a la Kowloon in Shenmue II. :D:D:D

[SuperGrafx]

Kokusai Forum, in Yurakucho - can't miss it.



Ah, cool.. unlike the real future where everything will be run down, a la Kowloon in Shenmue II. :D:D:D

lol! :)

[ave]

the real future where everything will be run down, a la Kowloon in Shenmue II. :D:D:D

The Kowloon apartments in Shenmue II feel like the creepy alternate world in Silent Hill 2, no kidding. Does it really look like that?? Dear God.

Great pictures by the way! I remember Tokyo International Forum all too well, took similar pictures when I was there. With a much worse camera though, a Canon PowerShot G1 from 2000. A time when digital DSLRs hadn't even been hit mass production I think :P









Coincidentally, these pictures were taken almost EXACTLY five years ago, on August 22nd 2007. Oh boy, how I miss Japan.

[GaijinPunch]

It's one of the few buildings in Tokyo which is interesting based on it's structure alone. Architecture here is really drab up until like 10 years ago, and even then out of the ordinary buildings are rare.

[Yakumo]

No photo today but a video. Mainly because I couldn't get the setting right for taking nice firework shots. But the video is better anyway plus the DSLR takes fantastic night videos with no noise on the image.



watch on YouTube for full 1080p excitement.

[Johnny]

Great pictures. I know that forum from GT4 photo mode. =]

[XerdoPwerko]

So... I finally made the trip.

http://photobucket.com/Xerdo_in_Japan

I suck at taking pictures, and my camera leaves much to be desired... but I finally went over there.

For every thing I took pictures of, there were like five things I couldn't.

Still, my album is full of pics of the trip I took (thanks to the Japanese school attended by my best friend, who might show up in some of the pictures. She's quite the dashing young lady, and like a little sister to me)

So, sorry if most of my pictures suck, but I did want to share with you guys, that after years, I finally went there.

And yes, it is the promised land for geeks in the world.

[Superbitsandbob]

As someone who is very interested in Japanese culture but has never been, this is a wonderful thread to look through. Some fantastic photo's.

Not sure if this is the right thread but would anyone have any camera recommendations for someone who is using a digital (Canon Powershot SX220) but wants to take the next step up? I guess budget is the big thing and I'd probably want to start at the lower end to see how I got on.

[GaijinPunch]

Well, if you like Canon, you basically have 3 tiers

3: Rebel/Kiss
2: 50D/60D/70D [soon?]
1: 7D*/5D/1D/1Ds/1DX

I know nothing of Tier 3, as I've never messed with those.

My thoughts on Tier 2:
If you want something on the cheap, I think the 50D is a great camera and can be had used quite cheaply for the quality it outputs. $500? Maybe less now. The successor to the 60D is surely not too far down the road, so that would drive the price down further. I like it better than the 60D as it still uses CF instead of SD, and is largely metal instead of plastic. The screen is far better than the 40D, which helps when you're trying to figure out if you're in focus or not.

Thoughts on Tier 1:
The 7D gets an asterisk b/c it has a cropped sensor like Tiers 3 & 2. (Google that to see the differences between it and the full frame sensors of the rest of that tier). It is a good camera for sports & wildlife as it is built for speed. I believe it's about $1200-$1300 new, and of course cheaper used. It could have a successor reasonably in 12-18 months, but maybe longer.

The 5D, 1D, and 1Ds have many "mark" upgrades. All of them are pretty pricey though so if you're starting out, overkill. I will say this though. For me, the biggest feature I "needed" after finally understanding how the camera worked and what I wanted was ISO performance. You will not see brilliant ISO performance on any Canon body until you get into the 5D range. once you have it, it's hard to go back. ;)

[Superbitsandbob]

Thanks for the help. Time for some reading and studying I think.

[Yakumo]

A photo of the local tower, it's basically used as a convention center most of the time while at the top there's a gift shop.

It's known locally as the "Giant Penis". I guess you can see why.


Yakumo