Experimental Fisheye Photography

After Dan's birthday(documented here) we went clubbing in A-Life: A club in Roppongi.

Apart from the usual chanting and disco dancing (disco STU loves the sexy disco laydeez) I took my fisheye lomo and new colorsplash flash out for some fun. The results were unpredictable and fairly random, partly because I decided to try slide film in there as an experiment.


For the funky long exposure shots, I put the camera in B [Bulb] mode and took a couple of exposures of people dancing, then just kept the shutter open and pointed the camera at the lights for a while.

I'm quite happy with the results and apart from the difficulty of framing exactly what I wanted to capture (there is no viewfinder on the camera) it mostly worked. The slide film - although very colourful - was a mistake. It has taken about a month to get them developed then scanned. Grrr. Also - given that the lens really isn't that sharp, I just have some very colourful but blurry fisheye shots.

Decacentenery

Reading the Card,
originally uploaded by sab-chan.

My Flickr stream recently hit 10,000 views. To celebrate I thought I'd put up one of my better photos from the last couple of batches.

This one was taken at Cherry's Birthday. I really like the bokeh on the wine glass front right.

Thats all folks
SAB

What kind of Cheese are you?

I guess that sums me up...

Up We Go

up we go,
originally uploaded by DJChan.

(Photo courtesy of DJChan)

I went outdoor rock climbing for the first time on Sunday the 12th of November 06. Thanks to DJC, we were able to get down out to a big park with lots of routes and try our hand at a couple of climbs. Its hard work, and quite different from climbing in the gym. For a start, I'm covered in scratches and insect bites. But its totally worth it.

The weather was fantastic and those of us that were able to make it had a great time. The wall in the picture actually beat me in the end, despite a good first haul up the lower section, I just couldn't make use of the footholds to get the leverage I needed. I eventually made it up a much easier wall, but it was still a bit of a hair-raiser. I was much more afraid of falling than I was in the gym... maybe because it was my first time outdoors or maybe because I was out of practice.

The surprising aspect of the whole experience (to me anyway) was that there were so many people there. I wasn't counting but there were probably thirty climbers nearby: young, old, japanese, gaijin, men and women. Everyone was taking part. There were also vending machines selling hot drinks (trust me, hot corn soup kicks ass when you are half way up a mountain) as well as sports drinks. The convenience of Japan came through yet again.

Looking forward to the next trip...

SAB

Fisheye Karaoke

Karaoke Crew
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Had a great time on Friday thanks to Andy and co.

For posterity's sake -
- Zero east is a good live venue. Cut Chemist absolutely rocked.
- The K place next to Don Quijote ain't bad. I expected any non-shidax places to suck
- I took my new fish-eye camera along for fun. The photo you see was taken with four exposures I think. Tried to squeeze in as much of hte sensation of Karaoke as possible in one distorted image...
- Muse is better when its late on a Friday or Saturday. But still pretty lame. It makes up for it with the Table Tennis though!

Its bright in here

Its bright in here
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

There really is no food in my fridge (just wine, chuhai, water and japanese tea)

Update. Those shades were broken at the weekend. I bought them in HK about a year ago and unfortunately they got mashed during a game of park american football.

Nev and Jim (in a Fridge)

The less said the better I think.

Just a variation on this group, which caught my eye. Take a look...

If you want to send me a gift...

Please don't send me Money Orders or Cheques. I've heard this a couple of times now but the anecdote is still good. Sometimes Japan can suck:

"[He] got a 10 GBP cheque sent to him as a present.

It was going to cost him 3000 yen to cash.

They were effectively saying 'You give us 1000 yen, and we'll throw this nasty piece of paper away for you!'"

Great huh?

Just send me Irn Bru instead...

I want... GREEN JELLY!

Purple Jelly
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This one is for Nev. There was an aquarium display next to my office on Monday night. There was quite a bit of variety but the surprising thing were the Jelly Fish tanks. I've never seen that before. There were a few of tanks there and they all had these glowing jelly fish. Very cool.

They also had some specialist tanks - Disco, Goth, Titanic... all terribly bad taste.

Nev - when can I expect your order?

Abstract Sunset

Abstract Sunset
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

In the office last night (sigh - it was meant to be a TKO holiday). I looked out the window around 5.30 and saw the beginnings of this sunset.

It was amazing - there had been a storm through the night, crazy high winds, rain, and bizarre clouds all day.

I took a couple of hours out to watch it and snap some photos. Click on the picture to see the results. The photo set is on Flickr as usual.

Enjoy
SAB

Onjuku Surfing Trip

Some of you know i've been off surfing recently.

Here are a couple of the videos I've taken:





And here is the Flickr badge:

www.flickr.com sab-chan's Surfing - Onjuku Set 2 photoset

Guess The Movie II

Guess The Movie II
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Go on... you know you want too!

Plus, its really obvious

Take Anything You Want

Thanks to Stuart Croy for pointing me towards this gem:



I honestly can't comment. It speaks for itself.

Rock Climbing Photos

I took a trip back to Fuchinobe with the crew for another rock climbing trip. Pretty much the same as before but these photos were taking with my shiny (actually, matte black) new camera. I actually gave some of the safety and starter lessons to the newcomers which was fun. I'm slightly worried that the Japanese only speakers might not have understood me very well but they seemed safe enough (for the rock gym). Anyway - below is a photo of one of the rock gym regulars. This guy looks well over 60 but is able to hang upside down for at least five minutes:

Hawaii Rocks and the rocks of Hawaii

Don't have much time to fill out the details here so I'll mostly link to my photos of Hawaii and point out how much of a surprise the place is...

(update, I've fixed that link...)

I had a great time in Hawaii. Mostly thanks to the great company (Thanks again Akane and Dave for Organising most of it, and Yuka too of course for the car rental). I feel kind of bad that I couldn't really organise much so next time I'll make a bit more effort.

Trip highlights included: a surprising amount of rain, volcanic wastelands, golf lessons, beautiful golf courses, great food, lack of extreme tourist nonsense (as expected in European resorts), sea turtles and of course the volcanoes.

Hawaii really wasn't what I expected. That despite the research I did on-line. Most of the stuff I looked up was focused on surfing (which I didn't do anyway) and golf. The thing that shocked me was the landscape. The beaches in Hawaii are really _nice_. Like most beaches. Hawaii stands apart by its incredibly variable ecology and geography. Specifically Big Island. The north of the island is a mix of North American coniferous forests, arable farmland and sub-tropical foliage. The South is a mix of desert, volcanic wasteland, rolling plains and volcano. In a five hour drive its possible to see much of the worlds geology and ecology on one island.

So my advice is that if you ever go to Hawaii for more than a week, try to take a plane to Kona or Hilo and rent a car to go up to the volcano park. We trekked across an old crater and looked down into a more recent but still old crater. [I'll link to the photos here if I get a chance].

Apart from that, if you are a golfer - be sure to golf. Surf if you can because I stupidly missed out and snorkel/swim/dive/photograph your heart out. You'll have a great time.

Oh, and make sure to eat the local version of sashimi. Spicy raw tuna... Mmmm.

SPIFF OUT

ps, This is my favourit photo of the volcanic area we went to:

A Scanner Darkly

Want to see my brain? Then click below.



I highly recommend you visit the Brain Scan Set page and click on the 'View Sideshow' button. You can set the transition time to be 1 second.

Three days tilll Vacation!!

Yes yes, I'm looking forward to my vacation. In fact, its about all I can think about right now. Health problems excepting of course. I went back to the GP yesterday and they gave me a random MRI (not that random, I have an ear infection, but the symptoms could have been attributed to something directly affecting the brain. When you go to the correct Doctor, they can be very thorough). I ordered the CD so hopefully I'll be able to upload some images tomorrow. So if there is one reason I'm looking forward to my Vacation its because I'll get a chance to rest. Also, I'll get a chance to get away from work which has increasingly become a chore. In fact, I'm tempted to believe that work is what is making me sick - even if its psychosomatic - because as soon as I left the office today my mood was vastly increased and my symptoms were easier to ingore.

Anyway, another random bit of news. I bought a Digital SLR today. I've uploaded the results at The usual place so feel free to take a look. So why the new camera? Three reasons 1) I've been thinking about it for a while out of genuine photography interest (I'm sure you've noticed the 600 odd shots on Flickr) and 2) I haven't been able to take a lot of the Macro shots I've wanted. Finally 3) I just wanted to cheer myself up with a new toy to play with in Hawaii.

Oh, didn't I mention. My holidays will be in Hawaii. Watch this space for updates.

SPIFF OUT

OH! PRETTY!!

OH! PRETTY!!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Thought the juxtaposition here was worth sharing. This pass was obviously designed for cute Japanese kids, not hulking face pulling gaijin.

Anyway, as theme parks go, Fuji-Q is pretty good. If you are here for a long time, it might be worth a visit (on a quiet day)

Artists Impression

Artists Impression
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Artists impression of the diagnosis as performed by my Doctor in Fuchinobe...

M*A*S*H

Some news for the people back home: I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't too bad - I took a couple of days off for rest over the weekend and thought I was back on track. So when I went to Fuchinobe at the weekend I didn't expect to be knocked flat by a sudden spasm that rendered me incapable of standing never mind walking.

I'd spent the day with the Rock Climbing club learning how to tie the different knots we'll be using in the upcoming outdoor rock climbing trip. I couldn't climb obviously - bad back and all, so I just generally sat around and rested. By the time we'd went for lunch and started back I was feeling about my old self. Suddenly I felt something spasm in below my shoulder blades and my entire back started to cramp. I couldn't stand up. I couldn't even support my own weight. No one else noticed (I was at the back of the line and couldn't speak) so I was left hanging onto the bicycle rack next to the train station by myself. Eventually everyone else realised something was wrong.

"Stu - are you okay?"

"Nnngggh"

The cramp had been on for about a minute at this stage. I could feel the sweat starting to bead on my forehead and the look on everyone else’s face was pretty serious.

Shortly afterwards I recovered the power of speech and we tried to figure out what to do. My limited knowledge of self administered chiropracty failed to produce any viable avenues of treatment. Therefore, a taxi was arranged to bring me to the nearest hospital. So far so good. This is the standard response to this kind of situation right? Its not an emergency so lets not get an ambulance, but still, its bad enough that I need to get treatment soon.

Dave and Andre went to get the taxi... apparently they got in and asked to pick me up, then go to the nearest big hospital. The response wasn't hopeful: "Hospitals are closed on Sunday". WTF?? How can hospitals be closed on Sundays?? Do people not have heart attacks, strokes, unfortunate zipper accidents and chiropratic emergencies on Sundays in Japan? Apparently not. As soon as the driver understood our predicament though he came through for us. After talking to a local hospital on the phone for 10 mins the driver took over the call and just told them we'd be there in 10 minutes. Once we got there though the place did look a bit closed. I say a bit because although the Emergency Ward doors were closed, there were some lights on. The driver new what to do though as he led us (Dave and Andre supporting me) into the side entrance. Parting ways (the driver 3000 yen richer) the guys got me into the emergency room.

The first thing we had to do was fill out a form. Now, I can't read Japanese, much less write it, and the kind of pain I was in wholly prevented me from even writing in English. On this point the hospital was oblivious. I've heard from other sources that everyone who goes to hospital has to fill out a form. And its a different form for every hospital. I also discovered that they then generate a medical card (like a medical insurance card) for your 'convenience' which will only work in that hospital. Another waste of time. Andre took great pleasure in running through the form with me (the guy seems to be easy to please).

After about forty minutes I was taken to be examined by the on staff doctor. The so called doctor looked like a character from Pokemon. He had big hair, a pair of sandals, an un-shaved face (OK, that’s standard issue for Emergency doctors these days) and a Lab coat. After the initial barrage of diagnosis questions I took a look around the room. Everything was so small. And old. And the nurse plainly didn't look like the kind of Japanese 'nurses' I've been led to believe work in Japanese hospitals. In fact, she was clearly only there to gawp at the Gaijin (this was a local hospital for local people after all) and spent more time playing with the Doctor's desk toys than helping with the examination.

Anyway, whilst this was going on, the Doctor took up a big rubber stamp, opened my nice new file, and used the stamp to put a picture of a torso from behind on the page. Taking his red pen, he circled the areas I had indicated as suffering from pain, drew a line to the blank page and wrote "Pain". That was it. That was his diagnosis. I only managed to stifle my laughter with the aid of the spasms of pain shooting up my back. The guys noticed it too. After about a minute of contemplation though the Doc actually seemed to know what he was talking about.

I'd never been manhandled before. But, the X-Ray technician couldn't speak English. He gave up trying to explain which postures I was meant to take and just pushed me around whilst I was lying on the slab with mumblings of "gomenasai" and "onegaishimasu". Still he was fast and the x-rays came out quite nice (I saw them later, and I'm glad to say my organs looked pretty healthy).

Finally we made it back to the examination room and the Doctor wrote up a prescription. He also gave some explanations of what he thought the issue was, how I should treat it (rest for the next few weeks) and explained what the drugs were. He'd prescribed me two suppositories (for the serious pain over the next day or so) and Ibuprofen. I've never been prescribed suppositories before! Turns out they're pretty effective.

Back in the reception Nursey gave me my prescription and asked us to wait. So wait we did. I didn't know why we were waiting for about the first 15 minutes but then Andre pointed out I'd have to pay for the prescription. Good point. But why did I have to wait? The receptionist was just chatting on the phone to his Mum as far as we could tell. I could pay for the prescription at any time right? No... they needed to finish printing my Hospital card before they would let me pay... right. I had to sit in pain for an extra 30 minutes because the system was working its way through my application form. Grrr.

Finally, about three hours after we first arrived, we paid and got on our way.

~~~

Lessons For the Sick Gaijin in Japan:

1. Don't get sick on Sunday
   
2. Learn to read and write the kanji for allergies, and any serious illness you've had in the past. Better yet, get a native Japanese who can do this otherwise you can't fill out the form.
   
3. Prepare to wait
   
4. Don't go to a hospital in the sticks. They are old, the doorways are too low and the staff are more interested in your colour than your condition
   
5. Don't get Sick.
   

SPIFF OUT

FujiQ video II

Hey, this is pretty easy!

Fuji-yama Video

Playing with the narrowcast medium of the intarweb, please enjoy this SAB-chan productions special release of "The Fuji-yama Incident":

So Big!

So Big!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Not sure what to say here... Any guy thats in need of a confidence boost should go to Fuji-Q and use this bathroom (next to the Gundam simulator). For me it was merely a reflection of the truth... honest.

MSwaps

My mates from b1te entertainment just launched a new app called MSwaps. It allows you to swap collectors cards on your mobile phone. They are launching with the England footy squad (they are English afterall) so if you are following the World Cup be sure to get it on your phone (for free) and start collecting.

SPIFF OUT

Guess the Movie

Go ahead - guess the movies. I used the random toys I've picked up whilst here to recreate some famous movies/movie moments. Some are obvious, some aren't. Feel free to make a few suggestions. Definitely make a few guesses.

SPIFF OUT

Pi-ta-go-ra-su-i-chi`

Or Pythagoras Switch. Ever wanted to build the kind of contraptions you saw in the goonies when you were a kid? These guys do it, but they do it sooo much better! The ones with the magnets are just awesome: Pythagoras Switch on Transbuddha. Thanks to Stuart Croy for bringing this to my attention.

Kagoshima Trip

On April 21st I had to get up at the inhuman hour of five am to get ready for the weekend trip. Some friends from work had kindly organised a trip to Kagoshima. We had originally intended to visit Okinawa - some of the islands at the very southern point of Japan, but there were no flights available. Kagoshima is as close to Okinawa as we could get in the end but as I discovered it has plenty to do and see anyway. For example (click on that link for evidence) it has a VOLCANO! If nothing else, I was able to practice my evil laugh whilst prospecting for locations for my evil lair…. MUAHAHAHA!

Travelling in Japan is, like most things (I may have harped on about this before) very convenient. Our group of seven arrived at the conveniently located domestic airport - Haneda - to go through the conveniently simple check in procedure that requires no ID, before boarding the plane, which was conveniently quick and completely lacking in inconvenient delays. At Kagoshima airport we just got on the conveniently located bus outside the conveniently small terminal and within an hour we were strolling around the centre of the city. Total elapsed time four hours. The same trip in the UK would have had me tearing my hair out and probably two hours late thanks to Easy jet.

My travelling companions were ghosts with empty sockets. No hang, on, I'm listening to Paul Simon while I write so I may break into lyric at any moment. My travelling companions weren't the children of my first marriage, but six friends variously from work or met through work friends: Steph, Mun, Amy, Yuka, Yen and Naho. That’s right, it was just SABchan plus six laydeez. Oh yeah… Actually, we met up with Toan in Kagoshima. So the official M/F ratio was 3:1. Excellent… MUAHAHAHA.

Our first stop was for Lunch at the main shopping centre in Kagoshima. Shopping centres usually have decent restaurants included in Japan and this place was no different. I love the fact its possible to go to any department store and have a decent lunch. Post lunch we struck out for Sakurajima - the Volcano. The weather was a rainy, so whilst we should have seen something like this, we actually saw this. For those too lazy to click on the links: clouds. The visitor centre was OK though. We got to watch videos of the most recent eruptions. Yes, its an active Volcano - which only increased my desire to set up an evil headquarters there. The evil deeds I could perform with fresh hot molten magma… We also took a trip round a volcanic garden. As you geologists know, volcanic soil is very rich in nitrates, but its also high in Ash. The garden looked dark and grungy (probably due to the weather) with all the ash on the pathways and by the beach.

Afterwards we did some more shopping before getting on the train to our Hotel. Surprisingly, the train journey took a while. We were on a local train that looked like it was old in the fifties never mind today. We eventually arrived at the town (I really can't remember its name now) and stopped for dinner at a local Japanese restaurant. Have you ever been to a restaurant with tanks of fresh fish/lobster etc? This was one of those places, except pretty small so that in total it could sit maybe thirty customers. Every time I've been to one of those places, the tanked food pretty much sits there unmolested - especially in the west where too many people are squeamish about ordering live food. Well, this time I got the chance to watch some poor chef climb up on a wobbly stepladder with a giant fish net to catch the huge fish sitting at the bottom of the tank. It disappeared into the kitchen never to be seen again. I think we had all our food before it was extracted so I'm pretty sure it wasn't served to us.

On to the hotel which despite its age and obvious signs of mould, water damage, and overpowering smell of dying flowers (probably to cover an even more off-putting smell), was quite nice and better decked out than I expected. I'd gotten so use to staying in Ryokan that I was dreading another back-breaking night on a futon. So finding decent western style beds and a lush balcony view was a treat. Our organisers had done a good job… The view was of the ocean, as the hotel is on one of the southern most peninsulas of Kyushu. Anyway, it was a Japanese Hotel, so we put on our Yukata, went to the Onsen, then went for a late night stroll along the beach before snacking on Haagen Das. Mmmm, chocolatey ice cream goodness.

Next morning we went to a nearby garden. This was my favourite part of the trip. The gardens were pretty rich and varied, with waterfalls, ponds, cliff top ocean views, huge butterflies and cool little statues dotted around. I took the opportunity to fill my memory card with as many snaps as I could. My favourite photo is here. I still haven't figured out what kind of flower it is, but I'm too lazy to make the effort so if anyone knows feel free to post a comment. In fact, please post the comments on the pictures themselves as it will improve their ratings and hopefully encourage others on flickr to take a look.

I had my first taste of Soshomen for lunch on the Sunday. Its kind of like Soba, except the noodles are dropped into a tank of swirling water (the traditional version is a stream, or pipe coming out from a stream) so that you can just stick your chopsticks for the noodles to collect onto. The noodles bind due to the water so its really easy to eat. You dip them in a soy based soup (also cold - and laced with spring onions and wasabi) for flavour. Slurpingly tasty. From there it was onto the nearby lake (god I'm terrible with names - I can't remember what its called!!) for a brief stopover and finally to another nearby tourist attraction (we were running out of time at this stage) for a look at the traditional Samurai style houses and gardens that exist in good condition nearby. I got a couple of good shots there too so take a look.

After a trip back to the same old shopping centre for souvenirs we waved goodbye to Toan and went to the airport. We were back in Tokyo by ten o'clock and I was in bed by 11. Another busy weekend….

I AM A NED

Check out http://www.thetruthrockets.net - The Truth Rockets and download their song "I am a Ned". If you listen to The Tartan Podcast then you may have heard of them. So far I've only listened to one track: "I am a Ned" done in a 50s rock stylee. Its a pretty awesome dig at Nedism without going over the top about the wee nyaffs. Although, if you aren't from Scotland you might not follow this thread at all...

Update
In other music news: Weird Rocks. That is all.

Hanami 2006

Cherry Blossoms
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This week brought on hayfever, Hanami and the start of the spring weather I remembered from my trip to Tokyo last year. I now know why the surgical mask's that people wear are so popular. A whole lot of hayfever blues are avoided by wrapping your mug in an air filter, and the small price of looking like an extra from Holby City is totally worth it for allergy sufferers.

But the talk all week was Hanami. Hanami (if you haven't been paying attention) is the time of the year when people appreciate the Cherry Blossoms trees (Sakura) whilst they are blossoming. The blossoms are only as depicted for about a week so you can imagine the anarchy as most of Tokyo's populace descend on its few parks to make the most of it. Of course, its not just about viewing the trees but also about getting drunk in the park with your friends. Nice. If you want to re-live those moments of illicit under-age alcoholic indulgence then Hanami is a good way to do it.

My hanami line up was as follows:

1) Work sponsered event in Aoyama Cemetery on Thursday (perfect for the morbit among us)
2) The Ark Hills Hanami festival on Friday (perfect for the family guy)
3) Kinuta Koen with an organised TKO tech folks/games programers event (perfect for geeks like me!)

However, the promised spring weather was slow in kicking in. Thursday started with grey clouds and high winds. High winds are fine, but high winds in Roppongi hills (the only office apparantly modelled after an aerofoil) are really dangerous. When I got to work people were leaning into the wind and falling over with random updraughts.

Anyway, knowing this I went home after work to change into something warmer. I'm pretty close to the cemetery, but I decided to cab it once I was ready. I got there and started to look for everyone. The first thing I noticed is how quiet it was (I was in a cemetery so I was a little freaked out) but I eventually spotted a few people. None, however, were part of the work event. Damn, I called someone who told me they'd packed up early and went to the work bar. Bastards! I'd been walking about in the cold for 20 minutes and no one called me to let me know they were moving! Well, I just went to the bar and got pissed anyway. This meant I never managed to get any of the promised photographs... although I did take a few of drunk colleagues that I couldn't possibly post on the web. They are available to view for a small fee however... ;)

OK, I still had the Ark hills event to get the night photos... but NO. I forgot my frackin camera. I took a few on my phone and some using Yuka's camera (I'll post a link to her Flickr account if she uploads them) but all I have now are my keitei snaps. They suck. Never mind, we all went to a great Thai restaurant near Ark Hills and then went back to my place for a music video marathon and Project Gotham blow out. So the night turned out to be good fun.

At last, day 3: The Hanami that was. Dave had invited us along to a Tokyopia (games and geeky/tech forum in Japan) Hanami event. This was to be in Kinuta Koen which is pretty far out of the centre of Tokyo but was totally worth it.

After starting the day with a Double Double Freshness Burger (mmmm) at about 2pm, we got on a train to Yoga. The area is a fairly quiet suburban part of outer Tokyo, which is no doubt how they managed to fit such a big park there. Kinuta Koen (Koen means park btw) is the first park I've been to with lots of space for grass and the associated games you'd expect to see people playing in parks. If you go to other parks in Tokyo, they tend to be heavy on trees, short on space and full of winding paths. Kinuta Koen had people playing footy. Awesome!

We eventually made camp with the Tokyopia group which included a few familiar faces. By the time we arrived people were well on the way to either a food coma or alcohol coma. Actually, most people in our group were holding out quite well, but there were plenty of Frat-like chanting and drinking games on the go. There were also a few patches of vomit and a long queue outside the obligatory disgusting chemical toilets.

So we drank our drink till we started feeling drunk, ate our food till we started getting too full to drink, and generally made merry whilst enjoying the company and the blossoms. I was actually put in mind of the Lund spring festival Matt and I attended with Linus the past couple of years, but surprisingly less crowded.

As our evening appointment approached, we packed up and headed to Greg's place on the other side of Tokyo to play cranium, watch Chappelle's show and also watch Walk the Line. This meant in total I drank from about 3pm to 3am. As far as I know, a lot of the people who stuck around at Kinuta Koen had been drinking since about 7am and probably went on till that time the next day.

Did I ever mention that I love Japan? Well... I do. The opportunities to eat and drink all day are boundless and usually involve great company.

Oh, and on Sunday, I went to a party with a bunch of my Doki at Yasu's place to meet his new baby daughter. Another day of drinking... and it was really nice. If the family's don't mind, I'll post a picture from that day too.

SPIFF OUT

Sakura Season is Here

Sakura
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Just an FYI - this week there will be lots of Cherry Blossoms opening in Japan. The sakura tree blossoms for about two weeks at the start of Spring and signals the start of two months of really fantastic weather. If I get a chance, I'll head out and take some photos. There are a few famous spots for Sakura photos and I reckon tomorrow morning could be a good opportunity to go out and capture some of them.

If anyone in Japan is reading this - then let me know of your favourite places in and around Tokyo and I'll see if I can get out there and get a few snaps for you!

PS, this photo comes courtesy of the Shinkansen Vagabond. Thanks Dave.

Update:Bah, I didn't get out for photos on Sunday. Between feeling ill and going to pick up my new glasses I didn't have time. Stay tuned though... I'll be out and about during the week

Final Fantasy Potion

Final Fantasy Potion II
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

After lunch I stopped at a combini (convenience store) to pick up a soft drink to have at the office. Tae pointed out The Final Fantasy Potion drink.

It tastes like [insert generic health/medicine drink here]. Suntory is clearly planning to cash in on all the hype. After gettting back to the office, I opened the package to discover a cool blue bottle with apropriate RPG stopper. As far as I can tell, the ingredients are Royal Jelly, elderberry, cammomile, sage, thyme, fennel, hemp... plus some others I can't translate

Check out the commercial here - this is a taste of what advertising is in Japan.

Hakone Trip

Edo highway
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I uploaded the photos from the Trip to Hakone. I think the photos cover the day pretty well. Thanks to Jeff, Dave and Yong for coming. And also, farewell to Yong who is leaving Tokyo next week.

This weekend will be another snowboarding trip... Nozawa Onsen: THE REVENGE. I'll try to take some photos/footage and upload it for you. I'm not sure how the footage will work out though.

The actual Ro-ma-n-su ka

The actual Ro-ma-n-su ka
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This train looks like a 1950s space shuttle design. It even has a cockpit for the pilot to climb into. They major cool thing is that if you sit up front, you can look straight out of the train. The lame side is that it is pink, old (made the same year as me) and doesn't actually go very fast.

In case you haven't figured it out. The title is "Romance Car". Sadly, I took the trip with three other guys for sight seeing in Hakone. Check out flickr soon for more photos...

Pull the other one...

Pull the other one...
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Not to be confused with the Door Handle...

Nozawa Onsen (AKA - Cliffhanger)

Its been a while eh? Between working like a mule and boarding like a lunatic I haven't had much time to update the blog. However, I couldn't not to fill you in my little adventure the weekend of the 18th.

Last Friday, a brave crew of seven boarders set off on a trip to the famous Nozawa Onsen village. Nozawa is north west of Tokyo near to many of the places I've already visited. However, the resort is famous for its many onsen (hence the name). We were also looking forward to some fantastic off piste runs as promised by our guide Eric (from now on referred to as GBE).

We set off on the Friday from work in two Subaru legacy station wagons. Stuart Croy tore up the road with the sport mode on the automatic gear box. I swear we used twice as much petrol getting to Nozawa than we did returning. But I'm grateful for it. We left the Rental place after 8.30 and had a five hour drive to look forward to. Its a testament to the lackadaisical traffic police in Japan (and almost complete lack of speed cameras) that we got there at 1am despite getting lost up some dodgy side road on the face of a mountain that looked like it was ready to avalanche any second...

Special mention to GBE for his ipod broadcaster and the "Tra la la" song. Words can't describe. No, hang on, they can. The lyrics went something like: "Ooh, you touched my tra la la. My ding ding dong." Now, imagine a greasy deep voiced camp lothario whispering that in your ear... no, not GBE - this was just the lyrics. I can't imagine how GBE discovered it, but its one of the stupidest songs I've heard. I tried googling it but didn't find anything that wasn't porn.

Anyway, we got there at 1am, crashed in the ryokan and got up bright and early for boarding the next day. The weather was very good. Bright, not too cold and no wind. Unfortunately that meant the pistes were packed and a lack of recent snowfall meant they were icy too. Undeterred we did a few runs between the trails and eventually met up with the eighth member of our party. With that, we set off down what I'm calling 'The Brown Streak Run'.

The plan was simple: From the peak, head down the right most valley in the resort, hugging the right face of the valley and eventually dropping into the powder bowl that leads back into the main runs. The execution of said plan was a complete disaster! We actually went down the valley next to our target. This means we were technically outside the resort. Take a look at the map I've uploaded. Our target is the pleasant green line. The route we took was somewhat similar to the brown skid-mark smeared to the right. To be fair, it was a very interesting run, with lots of scenery. For example:

1) The view from the top was amazing
2) About 10 minutes into the run we encountered a waterfall. Its lucky we didn't just go over what we thought was a short drop. After stopping Jay heard the water rushing below. We had to go around the waterfall hugging the side of the valley which was at about an 80% incline (check out GBE on his own trying to get round). Once we got round we discovered the waterfall was actually pretty high - maybe about 20ft.
3) A tree covered river run that we had to board VERY carefully round..
4) densely packed trees with only ice (not snow) covering the ground between the trunks
5) Avalanche damage. There were huge chunks of ice that had clearly formed by rolling down the sides of the valley in what experts call an 'avalanche'. These chunks were perfect for causing a boarder to fall on his/her head. Lucky I was wearing a helmet!
6) A twenty minute uphill hike through waist deep powder
7) Last - a full scale Olympic cross country ski course. Complete with a shooting range and a few trainee ski-ers trying to get round. We went down it the wrong way (i.e. downhill) and really pissed the ski folks off.

After the 20 minute uphill climb in deep powder I was totally beat. When we got back to the resort I had a headache and wanted to give up for the day. Fortunately, the wonders of Japanese food and plenty of water had me back on my board and doing jumps in the snow park. Pretty awesome stuff. There are no photos of me, but check out Jun going over one of the jumps.

We got back to the Ryokan at about five. Just in time to get dinner and go to one of the famous onsen. As I've mentioned before, onsen rocks. So after relaxing in the hot springs for about an hour, we got changed and went out to see the town. Nozawa is pretty cool for tourists so we ended up in a Karaoke bar (five guys singing karaoke you say? Nev - I can tell you are going to comment on this, well you'll be glad. We had a contest to see who could sing the gay-est song. My butch version of 'Eternal Flame' was a clear winner). At this stage Andy was abducted by a random Japanese guy and taken to another Karaoke room to sing Beatles songs with some crusty old folks. We left him to it and decided to get some snackage. Cup Noodles are awesome... Imagine a Pot Noodle that actually tasted like decent ramen. For people that allegedly can't handle their drink, the Japanese have good post-pub food.

Day two was a slightly subdued affair. We managed a few more runs in the morning but I was beat so went back to the Ryokan. The others actually made it onto the run we aimed for yesterday and reported that it was pretty good. Ho hum, I went souvenir shopping instead and bought some nice chocolates.

We left for Tokyo in the evening and got back just after 9, again, thanks to Stuart C's driving. We paid for the car, and with that,I went home, and promptly fell asleep.

Until Next time - SPIFF OUT.

ps, I'll quickly mention Snow Jam - the work Ski/Snowboarding event. We went to Shiga Kogen last weekend with the work. There were forty people and 6 serious injuries. Always wear a helmet folks. I'll also be buying knee pads, elbow pads and an ass pad for my next trip. Trust me, I've seen the bruises. It'll be worth it.

GONG XI FA CAI

Mun's birthday Nabe
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

I just had a busy weekend and I'm pretty tired right now. So I thought I'd try to get some info up as soon as possible before forgetting it all. This weekend is the FIRST weekend I haven't been snowboarding since Christmas. I was so exhausted after the trip to Niseko that I decided to let my body recover instead of throwing it down the slopes a few more times. That means this is the first weekend I've had available to do anything other than wash my clothes in time for work and sleep.

So what did I do? Well, work has been a bit of a pain the last two weeks so I was in till 10.30 on Friday. I was so tired I just went home and slept off my stress. Saturday was reserved for shopping with Yuka. I was helping someone by a laptop, and considering getting an XBox 360 now that PGR3 is available. After about four hours in Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara (this has to be the biggest electronics store I've been in - they have EVERYTHING the aspiring geek could possibly want) we narrowed the laptop choices down to three, balked on the queue in the games section, ate salmon pizza and managed to buy a golf bag (?!?) So, mission failed on the first half of the trip.

The second half of the trip was to visit Jimbocho to find thermal gear for the next snowboarding trip (which is 10 days from now). This was kind of embarrassing. My shopping partner had no issues - being japanese she found stuff that fits straight away. I on the other hand discovered that there were no clothing items in Jimbocho that would fit me. My only hope is to go to an international outdoor wear store like Mont-Bell. I also kinda stretched the thermal gear I tried on so I don't think the shop owners want me to return... I did spot some very nice snowboards though. I'm very tempted to get the new Vapour all-round board from Burton. My current board is meant for powder which means its not great on the piste. Hmm...

That reminds me, I've been thinking about the following shopping list

1. XBox 360 (If only for Project Gotham 3)
   
2. New Snowboard + Boots + Bindings. I'd like to get Flow Bindings, but my current bindings are only a year old so its hard to justify.
   
3. A canon kiss 350D Digital SLR. This is purely technolust. I want a Digital SLR to take round Japan on photography trips - but I don't really _need_ one. Sigh..

Decisions, decisions...

Finally - Sunday saw Chinese New Year, and a surprise birthday party for Miranda (Mun). Its not her birthday yet and the surprise was ruined by last minute scrambling to trick her into coming late. I don't think it will be possible to trick Mun that way. For example, the party was to be at 7:30 but she tried to get there at 5. Steph did her best to save the day but since Mun was calling the office - which is where Steph claimed to be - she started to grow suspicious. So when the door finally opened all we could hear was Mun shouting "I knew it! I knew it!". Still, the party was fun and Eric cooked up some great Nabe.

I got home at about 11. Just in time to hang up my washing, go to bed and set my alarm for 5.15 (ugh).

SPIFF OUT

View from the top (Ezo-fuji)

View from the top (Ezo-fuji)
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Greetings fellow earthlings

Last weekend I visited the famed Niseko ski and snowboarding resort and boarded till my legs wouldn't work anymore. The downside of this was that I crashed into a tree. Lucky I have a helmet eh?

The trip was arranged by Amy and we were accompanied by Yoko, Mun, Colin and Michael. Thanks guys for a great weekend!

You can view the complete photo set at the by looking at my Niseko Photo Set.

Enjoy

(ps, I may post some other choice snaps from the other participants if they are OK)

Kotatsu!

Kotatsu!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This is some of the furniture I bought myself last week. The thing in the middle (a kotatsu), and the book shelves.

A kotatsu is a little table with a heater underneath it. You sit under the blanket and the heater keeps you all warm. You can cook Nabe or Shabu Shabu on top... Mmm, nice. And of course, you can play footsie with your opposite number. This one sits four so there could be plenty of footsy going on.

Christmas, New Year, Boarding Boarding Boarding (Oh, and my birthday)

First off, thanks to Nev, Sam, Steve, Michelle, Craig, Niall, Stelly, Jim, Sian, Purves, Alan, Vicki and Dan for my food parcel/birthday gift. Last Friday a hyuge box landed on my desk (I'd asked to get it redelivered to the office) which contained the following:

• A Calendar with pictures of Scotland to make me feel homesick
  
• A box of highland fudge to make me feel sick after eating it all in one day
  
• Three bottles of awesome beer I drank on Sunday
  
• A box of shortbread that I managed to make last the weekend
  
• A tin of Haggis I'm saving for a week on Wednesday (Burns night! Wahey!)
  
• And SIX CANS OF IRN BRU BABY YES OH YES OH YES...
  

I've managed to string out the Bru so far. I have two cans left which I'm saving to push on unsuspecting locals. I don't think the Japanese pallette can handle the sugar overload that one sip of the Amber Nectar will provide.

Also - Thanks to Dave, Akane, Yuka, Miranda, Yong, Amy and Pollen for the Surprise party they threw for me at Dave's place. Well - it wasn't much of a surprise (I already knew we were at least having a Nabe party) and Amy gave the game away by shouting "Surprise" every few minutes. Saying that - when a round of "Happy Birthday" started and the cake came out I didn't know what to say (as usual).

What else has been happening? I have to reach back to the dimmest recesses of memory to recall what I was doing four weeks ago... Christmas! Thats right - I went on a Snowboarding trip over the Christmas weekend with some of my work colleagues. Antony organised a great trip to Hakuba in Nagano (where the Winter Olympics were held so many years ago) and we stayed in a cottage for three days near the slopes. The trip was so good in fact, that I've been boarding EVERY weekend since then. You see, in Japan, snow sports (like everything else) are incredibly convenient. For example, on Hogmanay, a group of ten of us got on a Shinkansen (bullet train) at 6:20 am to Joetsu-Kokusai. We were on the slopes by 9 am. We boarded till we could board no more at around 4:30 pm, then went to the Onsen (I've already mentioned how awesome Onsen is), then got the Shinkansen back to Tokyo for about 8:30 pm, had dinner and got back to my apartment for 11:30! I was so exhausted I slept till about 11 am the next day.

The only bad thing about sleeping over New Year was that I missed some of the culture. I'd been planning to go out to take late night photos of all the people visiting Temples over New Year. For the Japanese New Year is very important, but it is important as a spiritual day rather than a day of partying sans Ecosse. I hear that Meiji Jingu temple is packed all night and day with people making prayers, buying fortunes and doing other New Year-ish things. I managed to get to the Temple at Tokyo Tower at about 4 pm on the 1st and things were winding down. Still - that atmosphere was quite spiritual. I saw photos from Meiji Jingu in which the police have to wear riot gear to protect them from the offerings that the crowds throw into the temple. Since most offerings are handfuls of coins I'm not surprised.

So the week of my birthday came round and I went to buy some furniture. I bought a kotatsu (very japanese), some shelves and new curtains for the living room. I also bought a rug and a light for my bedroom. The apartment feels much more homely now they've arrived (as of Monday the 16th) and I look forward to having a Shabu-Shabu party with my kotatsu. I'll need to buy a Shabu-Shabu+Nabe kit though. Oh, and I still need to buy some floor seats... All in good time.

What did I do that weekend? Oh yeah, I went boarding on Kagura-san. And last weekend? Back to Kagura-san it was so good. I love Japan...

ps, this weekend I'm flying to Hokkaido with five friends. I'll let you guess what for. Four days in Hokkaido. Awesome.

pps, Happy Birthday HN-san

Asse Nuggets

Asse
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I went to see King Kong last night... very good. However, on the way home I stopped into the Convenience store near to the office where I saw the product mentioned on the right.

"asse: Strawberry and Mocha Flavour"

Do you think Chris Rock would switch from Surf? Maybe...

Nouvo Spugna

Nouvo Spugna
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I love shopping in Japan...

On that day...

I thought I'd post a selection of stories from the 4th of January from the BBC site. Most interesting is probably the story on Donald Campbell - who died attempting to break the water speed record.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Thanks to Yuka, Miranda, Akane, Amy, Pollen, Dave and Yong!