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

[DCharlie]

awesome photos as always everyone.

[GaijinPunch]

The night shots came out very nice -- what settings you got?

[Yakumo]

You sure do love that Taito Station :)

Another crappy iPhone shot today. This is Kamon Walf in Shimonoseki. In other words the very end of Honshu. You can see Kyushu on the other side.



Anyway, tonight they had a fireworks show. Not the big arse 1 hour special which all of our city tax goes on (It is an amazing sight though) but a special company sponsored event. Check out the YouTube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNEdSFA4jPc

[Vosse]

Japan always looks more and more fascinating everytime I see new pictures.

It just makes my childhood dream of living there for a time pop up more in my brain ha

[Tatsujin]

Here some pics from the fireworks today :)
Unfortunately we had a damn tree in our front, so here are only the higher shots.

[handofg0d]

Amazing shots Tatsujin! Especially the fireworks, I can never capture them like that, its always a big blur for me :/ I'll assume you had a tripod with you?


On a side note, I'd love to see some people post nice high res shots from Disney TokyoSea. The architecture of that place is just amazing but there's no real good photos out there that I can find (definitely not in the abundance that there is for WDW or DL)

[DCharlie]

i might have some pics - definitely have HD video of DisneySea.

Bit sick today - so will have to wait, but will see what i can find tomorrow

[Tatsujin]

Amazing shots Tatsujin! Especially the fireworks, I can never capture them like that, its always a big blur for me :/ I'll assume you had a tripod with you?

Thx hand.

Sure a tripod is the A&O for nice firework shots, w/o it it will never work out.
A long exposure (shutter speed: 5~10sec) is essenitial as well.
Then put the Focus on infinity and choose some smart ISO and Aperture settings (kinda try and error on place).
The rest is just a good timming of pushing the shutter.

here some high(er) res pics of my little bit more "lucky shots":

[graciano1337]

Dazzling!

[GaijinPunch]

Very nice.

Fun fact: I'm on year 11 here in Japan now I think, and I've never been to a fireworks show...despite the fact they have them all the time.

[handofg0d]

DCharlie - HD video would be even better! :) Of course some nice shots for my wallpaper are always welcome

Thanks for the fireworks tips Tatsujin a tripod is definitely something I need to invest in at some point, my camera (Canon EOS Rebel) is terribly under utilized.

[Tchoin]

Great pics Tatsujin !!

[Tatsujin]

some semi etc. shots :)

[Oldgamingfart]

Detail we like. Great stuff :thumbsup:

[Yakumo]

Just got back from a 2 day road trip to Aso and Beppu (near Oita) so here's a few pictures that don't feature family members :) Sorry, no fancy SLR camera shots although I wish they were.

This waterfall is situated at the bottom of a steep hill drop that we had to climb down. Well worth it though. Very cool too which was welcome relief from the hot sun.


We could walk behind it too.


This area in Aso was created by a meteor thousands of years ago. It's hard to grasp just how deep it is from the pictures. Now it's a town however it's still surrounded by what was the normal ground level for that area but now classed as a mountain area.




While in Beppu we paid a visit to Takasakiyama or Monkey Mountain as I like to call it. Here you are amongst the monkeys unlike in a Zoo where they are in their own little area. My son was almost attacked by one of the monkeys. There was this one loner monkey sitting by a pole which my son approached. My son is only 3 so he didn't understand about looking in to monkey's eyes is a challenge. I did tell him but I didn't expect him to understand. Anyway, this monkey ran to attack my son so I picked him up and shouted at the monkey. It took one look at me then ran off. :lol: Just goes to show that they are intelligent after all.







Being a keen driver I had a fantastic time on the Aso mountain pass. It's just like those roads the guys from Top Gear drive on through parts of Europe. Fantastic fun!!

Here I am parked in the only place I could find. See how the road twists? It's like this all the way down.







The above pictures were actually taken on the 2nd day. The first day looked like this!!


Yep, the fog was so thick, I couldn't see a thing plus it was raining heavily. That was sure one of the most nerve wrecking drives I'd ever done. Couldn't see anything with the rain hitting the windscreen and the thick fog.



Also on the Aso mountain express way is the main HQ for what was the cult religion, Orm. This "Church" is now abandoned but just how the hell did people reach it in the first place? There's no road to it unless there was a hidden back track. This picture was taken with a 8x Zoom as well and yet it's still seems miles away.


Yakumo

[graciano1337]

We could walk behind it too.

Oh man! The backside of water! Love it.

[GaijinPunch]

[Yakumo]

classic. Dumb ass Japanese English strikes again. Over the last few months I've seriously began to think that Japanese should be banned from using English. They either completely miss use the word or use a word in the most pointless way as stated above.

Yakumo

[GaijinPunch]

I don't think it's a question of their English ability as much as it is that the culture lacks subtlety and encouragement to use your fucking head.

Examples:
1: Sign at my gym: Be careful going up and down the stairs (in E/J)
2: Narita Express: For those taking a flight from Airport Terminal 2, get off at the stop Airport Terminal 2 (E/J)
3: Every construction site in the country: at least one (sometimes 2 or 3) people preventing people from walking into a gigantic fucking hole.

[Yakumo]

I don't think it's a question of their English ability as much as it is that the culture lacks subtlety and encouragement to use your fucking head.

You got that right. Only yesterday some guard man was "escorting" me out of the car park. I don't need some slow arse guy telling me how to pull out on to the main road. I just drove off on my own accord in the end. His decision time was way too slow.

Another one that gets me is the guy waving his flag in front of some massive road works. Shit, if I never noticed the massive truck, big hole, and barriers all over the place then I'm sure as hell not going to notice some guy on the side of the road waving a flag.