photography Category Archives
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The following entries in the photography category are show in reverse chronological order. You can click on additional categories or tags within each entry to see their archives.
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Yukata Style I

I originally wanted to post some more photos of the awesome blue skies we've been having over Tokyo this summer, but first, I thought I owed a post to the lovely Kaka-chan. I know I've been really remiss in posting updates to the blog - I got super busy at work, and then my friend came to visit, and then it got up to like 36 degrees C in Tokyo and I think I passed out for lik...
Category Info: featured entry, general, photography, photoshoot, recentnews, street style
Tagged as: friends, inaka, kakachan, photography, portraits, posing, street style, summer, women, yukata
08.29.10

Street Style II

The lovely Beckz. Shot on and around the streets of Jiyugaoka and inside of the delicious Sweets Forest and Spoon Bread Cafe because she graduated pastry school, so naturally we had to hit up some cake shops....
Category Info: featured entry, general, photography, photoshoot, recentnews, street style
Tagged as: beckz, black and white, friends, jiyugaoka, photography, portraits, posing, street style, tokyo, urban, women
08.04.10

Ocean Style I

This past monday was Ocean Day and so to celebrate, I thought it only fitting to make a trek over to the beach to take in some sun, sand and of course, beautiful blue summer skies. A lot of my photography to date has centered around pictures of the sky and buildings, but recently I've been trying to expand my repertoire by taking more photos of people. So with that in...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, photoshoot, recentnews, sky worship, street style
Tagged as: beach, bethann, blue skies, clouds, friends, maya, ocean, photography, photoshoot, portraits, posing, sand, skies, summer, sunshine
07.22.10

Street Style I

A few shots of the lovely Maya taken last week in Tokyo... I really want this lens, but for the time being I'm shooting with this and this. Oh, and this for the catchlights....
Category Info: featured entry, general, photography, photoshoot, recentnews, street style
Tagged as: friends, girls, maya, photography, portraits, posing, street style, tokyo, urban, women
07.15.10

Kawaguchiko

It's been a while since I've been in a car with the lovely Risapie (in fact, I believe the last time was some 7 years ago!!) but last weekend we found ourselves in a car headed to a very rainy Kawaguchiko (Lake Kawaguchi) for a lovely overnight trip to the beautiful Fujigoko area out west of Tokyo. It's the middle of the rainy season here and as luck would have it, it ra...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, ramblings, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: cloudy, flowers, friends, herb festival, kawaguchiko, mountains, mt. fuji, rainy, risa, roadtrip, travel
07.05.10

Kichijoji

I debated for a while whether to title this a Sky Worship post or not, but in the end decided that it wasn't focused enough to merit the title. Actually, there's not much to this post in general. I stopped by Kichijoji the other day, one of my favourite neighborhoods in Tokyo to take a few photos with a friend. This random smattering of pictures is the result. ...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, main, photography, ramblings, recentnews, sky worship
Tagged as: blue skies, buildings, friends, kichijoji, maya, photography, skies, tokyo, upshots, urban
06.12.10

Tokyo B&W

I woke up at 5:20 AM this morning and decided to take the day off to attend to the huge pile of things I had to do that have built up over the past month. I started out making some pretty decent progress but then when lunch rolled around I took a break to surf the net whilst stuffing my face and sort of lost my momentum. One of the things I've been meaning to do is up...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, photography, ramblings, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: black and white, cityscapes, ebisu, ikebukuro, kichijoji, photography, shibuya, street scenes, tokyo, urban
06.02.10

Daikanyama Blue Skies - Sky Worship VIII

It's been a while since we've had a good Sky Worship post, hasn't it? Besides Harajuku, Daikanyama has got to be one of my favourite little neighborhoods in Tokyo. I actually posted a few photos of the area last year, but it occurred to me that it probably deserved its own sky-themed post as well. In addition to all the great boutiques and cafes that li...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, main, photography, sky worship
Tagged as: blue skies, buildings, daikanyama, japan, photography, skies, sunset, tokyo, upshots, urban
05.20.10

Takao-san

I did however, decided to take a quick little trip over to Takao-san, a beautiful mountain in western Tokyo. It's a popular destination amongst Tokyo-ites due to its proximity and also relative accessiblity - unlike Fuji-san, you can easily tackle it in a day without even having to get up early and you don't need any extra gear. Its popularity is a double-edged sword...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: crowded, friends, golden week, kaka, mountains, nature, sunshine, takao san, tokyo, travel
05.11.10

Tamachi Skate Park

It was beautiful weather last weekend (rare, given how freezing it's been this winter) and to take advantage of the opportunity mother nature had seen fit to bless us with, a friend and I grabbed our cameras and headed over to the Tamachi neighborhood of Tokyo to snap a few shops of some skater boys doing their thing at the local skateboard park. ...
Category Info: featured entry, general, main, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: action, photography, skateboarders, skaters, sports, tamachi, tokyo, urban
02.23.10

Fuji-Q Highland

The problem with being Japan's most awesome roller coaster park is that in general, Fuji-Q is expensive and crowded. So you know, that kind of sucks. The thing about that though, is this is Japan. And people like to do things according to the "seasons." "Roller coaster season" is usually considered to be summer for some reason which means that if you're us</e...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, travel
Tagged as: amusement, bethann, blue skies, calvin, friends, fuji-q highlands, japan, mt. fuji, roller coasters, tami
01.31.10

Quiet streets

My mind ended up turning to thoughts about my blog, life and future these days (not necessarily in that order, mind you). It's been almost 7 years since I moved to Japan and I thought that by now I'd know what I want to do with my life. Sadly, this does not appear to be the case. I think the core issue is that I'm a fickle panda: this is a blessing in that I have...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, japan - the good, memories, miscellaneous, musings, photography
Tagged as: black and white, harajuku, musings, photography, tokyo, uraharajuku, urban
01.23.10

Akihabara-Ochanomizu Pt. I

And while I have been to both places quite a few times (the former because I have an obsession with cameras (like this one, for example), and the latter for business), I had actually never walked between them - which seems a shame, given that they are located right next to each other. Plus, in most big cities, the most interesting spots are not necessarily those ...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, miscellaneous, photography
Tagged as: akihabara, black and white, buildings, ochanomizu, photography, tokyo, urban
01.16.10

2009 Year in Pictures

2009 was a pretty great year (well for me personally. For the world and the economy, err, not so much) and it was hard to choose just a few pictures as my "favourites" from the thousands that I snapped over the past 12 months. On top of that, there's the question of how to sort them? While all the pictures could be classified dozens of different wa...
Category Info: featured entry, general, memories, miscellaneous, musings, photography, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: black and white, blue skies, friends, photography, pictures, sky worship, sunrise, sunset, sunshine, urban
01.06.10

Nikko

I did manage to work in a quick trip to Nikko as a sort of consolation prize, which was nice. By the time we made it to Nikko (in the first week of December), most of the Autumn leaves had already fallen, which was kind of sad. Nikko is really beautiful in the Autumn, if you can survive the jaw dropping crowds, so I kind of regret that we didn't make it there during the prime...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: autumn, autumn leaves, friends, japan, lanterns, nikko, shrines, starbucks girl, temples, tochigi
12.14.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part IX

If you want to know more about Amanohashidate, you can feel freeto read about it online , which is something we probably should have done ourselves instead of just rolling up at 6 AM and being like "sooo... uhh, where and umm, how do we see it?" - without even a clear idea of what exactly it was (it's a long sand bar in a bay, by the way) let alone w...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, 3 great sights, amanohashidate, autumn, bicycles, japan, kyoto, roadtrip, sightseeing, skies, starbucks girl
11.17.09

A few from Tuesday

It was gorgeous autumn weather out last Tuesday, and there are few better places to take advantage of it than the myriad of cafes lining the winding streets between Shibuya and Daikanyama. Thus my spiffy new $14 puffar vest and I headed over to see how much caffeine I could cram down my throat. I managed 8 cups of espresso in various forms over the cours...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography
Tagged as: black and white, buildings, daikanyama, harajuku, photography, shibuya, tokyo, urban
11.12.09

Ura-Harajuku Part I

But for now, something a little bit different. There are a lot of fun places to see in Tokyo (one of the reasons I like it so much) - some more familiar to Westerners than others. One of the neighborhoods that got a lot of attention back in the states a few years back (thanks to Gwen Steffani, I suppose) is Harajuku. I happen to like Harajuku quite a bit as it packs a ...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography
Tagged as: black and white, buildings, cityscapes, harajuku, photography, tokyo, uraharajuku, urban
11.01.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part VIII

So when I last left off (last month...), our fearless duo had just finished stuffing themselves full of momiji manju and grilled eel bentos and decided to head into Hiroshima city proper to do a little bit of sightseeing. Now, besides Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, the other two cities in Japan that probably most people in America have heard of are Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for obv...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, ramblings, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, atomic dome, buildings, genbaku dome, hiroshima, peace memorial, peace park, roadtrip, ruins
10.17.09

2009 World Bicycle Messenger Championships

I'll be back with the next set of pictures from the Yokohama Birthday Bash and of course the next installment of the Great 2008 Cross Japan Autumn Roadtrip soon, but first I just wanted to post a few pictures from the 2009 World Bicycle Messenger Championships held in Odaiba, Tokyo last week. I had wanted to catch the track stand and skid competition...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: 2009 bicycle messenger championship, bicycles, black and white, messengers, odaiba, photography, racing, tokyo
09.27.09

Yokohama Birthday Bash - Part I

It was my birthday the other day, and slightly depressed over slowly inching towards "old old panda" status (not yet, but it's coming...), I decided to go to Yokohama with some friends to celebrate and take my mind off the ever-present press of time. As frequent readers of the pandablog may know, I love roller coasters with a passion. I've been to most of the...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews, sky worship, travel
Tagged as: amusement, bethann, blue skies, buildings, friends, kasie, minatomirai, roller coasters, sarah, summer, sunshine, terrapin, urban, yin, yokohama, zach
09.23.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part VII

Okay, I have been putting this off long enough, but seeing as how it's already the beginning of Autumn, 2009, I probably ought finish the Autumn 2008 road trip series ASAP. Part of the reason that I've been delaying this post for so long is that in this particular installment, nothing particularly shocking, funny or crazy happened. Oh well. I guess I can't end up floating...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, animals, autumn, bento, capybara, deer, eel, hiroshima, itsukushima, japan, miyajima, roadtrip, starbucks girl
09.02.09

Tanabata Matsuri

As somewhat of a consolation prize, I decided to pop over to a neighboring prefecture to catch a Tanabata festival in a smaller town. Continuing the streak of amazing summer weather we've been having recently, the skies were just a stellar mix of rich blue hues, interspersed with fantastic white clouds and the whole affair dramatically lit from up above by a sum...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: colorful, countryside, festivals, lanterns, summer, sunshine, tanabata, tanabata matsuri
08.09.09

570 Days of Summer - Sky Worship VII

The reason I even decided to calculate how many days of summer I've spent in these fair isles is that recently we've been having some absolutely kick ass summer weather in Tokyo (seriously, the skies have been ridiculously beautiful) and as I headed out the door to snap some pictures from the top of the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills (one of my favourite photograph...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, ramblings, recentnews, sky worship
Tagged as: cityscapes, japan, mori tower, photography, roppongi hills, skies, sky worship, summer, tokyo, urban
07.29.09

Summer Sunshine Redux

>Being half-panda, I'm not normally a huge fan of the sweltering summer heat (we have a tendency to melt into little quivering heaps on the floor). However, every once in a while I find myself venturing out despite the heat and usually when I do I'm rewarded with some great scenery, generally of Tokyo's gorgeous blue skies and concrete. This past week however, I thoug...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: bethann, countryside, friends, japan, ricefields, summer, sunshine, tambo
07.19.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part VI

My exertion - which flung my donut-lion modesty towel from my body and set it floating about in the current towards an old man near me who instinctively recoiled in shock (whether due to its ratty cuteness or the obvious result its loss had on my modesty at the moment of maximum floating panda-outstretchedness) - proved to be successful (thank god) and I managed to secure a b...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, autum, bathing, dogo onsen, funny, japan, matsuyama, mountains, nature, onsen, pon de lion, shikoku, starbucks girl, uchiko
07.01.09

Sunday Skies - Sky Worship VI

Speaking of taking more pictures, I happened to be out in Shinjuku last Sunday doing that whole "make the most out of my time in Japan" thing when I lucked into some of the most beautiful blue skies I have seen to date. I say "lucked into" because the weather forecast from the previous day said it was supposed to be gloomy and rainy all day - and it was anything bu...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, pandas, photography, recentnews, sky worship
Tagged as: blue skies, buildings, lifestyle, photography, shinjuku, skies, sky worship, takadanobaba, tokyo
06.11.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part V

Japanese occasionally describe clean, fresh air by saying "空気が美味しい" (kuuki ga oishii) which literally means "the air is delicious." I never understood that, because you know, you want to eat delicious things, and who wants to eat air? Well. After driving up into the mountains for about an hour, it suddenly began to make sense. Because my friends, the air up there...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, autumn, iya valley, japan, mountains, nature, shikoku, starbucks girl, vine bridges
05.12.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part IV

After was seemed an eternity of sitting in the unforgiving darkness, a disembodied voice floated out over the intercom, announcing the end of business hours and instructing anybody stupid enough to pay 500 yen to see these imaginary non-whirlpools to come to the front of the gate, or else face being locked in for the night and forced to ponder over their gullibili...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, autumn, awajishima, castles, himeji, japan, naruto uzushio, roadtrip, starbucks girl, whirlpools
04.25.09

Quick Update

Howdy. Just in case you're wondering what's with the drop off in posting frequency over the past month, let me assure you it's not because I'm abandoning the blog, but rather because I'm working hard to improve it. I know I've been talking about a site update for months now, but this time I really mean it. A 95% complete and functional version is running on my development ...
Category Info: featured entry, general, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews, webcoding
Tagged as: geekery, redesign, webdesign, website
04.05.09

Tiny Planets

Spring is slowly making its way to Japan (even though today was a freezing cold day), and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather last week to make some so-called "tiny planets" pictures. Most of these pictures were taken in the vast Showa Memorial Park in Tachikawa, out West of Tokyo. You might remember this...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, technology
Tagged as: blue skies, photography, showa no mori, tachikawa, technology, tiny planets, tokyo, tricks
03.25.09

Ameyoko

I'll post the next installment of the Great Western Japan Autumn Roadtrip soon, but for now, a quick interlude of some rainy pictures from Ameyoko in the Ueno neighborhood of Tokyo....
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: ameyoko, dark, gray, rainy, shitamachi, tokyo, ueno
03.01.09

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Part III

...aaaand we're back. So when we last left our intrepid heros, exhausted from their desperate attempts to deflect police (well, postal) attention to our secret money transfers to support the North Korean nuclear program, they had fallen asleep early in their ryokan, dreaming the fitful dreams of the falsely accused....
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, blue skies, fushimi inaritaishi, japan, kyoto, roadtrip, starbucks girl, tofukuji
02.15.09

Cold Tokyo Days

It's been cold and sort of gloomy off and on recently in Tokyo. There have been some intermittent days of sunshine as well, but for the most part it's just been that long, dull, slow drag through the middle of January. I know I haven't updated in forever, but that's because I've been working on the grand site redesign I've been talking about since last year. ...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, photography, recentnews, webcoding
Tagged as: cold, friends, selenium, starbucks girl, tokyo
02.02.09

2008 Autumn Road Trip - Part II

When I last left off, I had just covered the first day of our trip, spent merrily walking along the quiet streets of Kyoto at night. That night we retired to our ryokan and slept well, as we had a plan to wake up early the next morning and make it over to the Arashiyama area of Kyoto....
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, arashiyama, autumn, blue skies, kyoto, roadtrip, ryokan, starbucks girl
01.18.09

2008 Autumn Road Trip - Part I

Okay, so I know it's been forever and a year since I updated but I have a reason - I've been hard at work on the site redesign I keep talking about - it's about 70% of the way done and I hope to have it live in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned. But you're not here to hear about that - you're here to read about the great 2008 Autumn Road Trip, right? So...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, autumn, kyoto, nightshots, roadtrip, starbucks girl
12.28.08

2008 Autumn Roadtrip - Introduction

So I'm back from my road trip. It was an amazing and fun time. Seeing Japan in all its Autumnal splendor is really something. I have tons of pictures (like, thousands) to go through, so I'll be posting them little by little over the course of the next few weeks. But for now, alas, I have to go deal with my strangely musty-sm...
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, autumn
12.01.08

Showa Memorial Park

It's Autumn! And on top of that, only 4 more days until I set off on the great Western-Japan Autumn Road Trip 2008! I guess I should probably start thinking about packing and stuff, huh? Until then, to tide you over, here are some pictures from a recent trip out to Showa Memorial Park just west of Tokyo. I love this park - it's so huge and you would...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, travel
Tagged as: autumn, photography, showa memorial park, tachikawa, tokyo
11.16.08

Halloween Panda 2008

Sorry about the insipid Myspace-bathroom-mirror-shot quality of the affair above. Sigh. What can I say? I miss Halloween back in the states. The smell of pumpkin pie, apple cider and autumn leaves... carving jack-o-lanterns and dressing up in crazy costumes and parading through State Street (whilst trying to avoid the ...
Category Info: general, miscellaneous, musings, pandas, photography, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: halloween, lightroom, michaelpanda, myspace, narcissism, photography, self-portrait
11.01.08

Tokyo Throwaway Pics

Originally I had a moment of photographic inspiration this evening whilst taking a break from fighting my computer (Adobe InDesign to be specific) in an attempt to make a few hundred name tags for a seminar I have to organize for work. Normally this is a straightforward data merge operation, but due to a comedic series of mishaps, this task has ended up taking me the be...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: blue skies, buildings, photography, R. Kelly, tokyo, upshots
10.22.08

The Hard Light Blowout and Nuno Napkin Extravaganza

You're probably wondering about the title of today's post. Well, I've been playing around with "hard lighting" in some of my photos to give them a darker, more atmospheric feeling. I've accumulated a few over the past couple of months, and decided to post them all in one big entry so I can clear the deck for new photos in future posts. Hence the "hard light blowout".</p...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the funny, japan - the good, main, photography, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: hard light, nuno napkin, photography, sanitary pad, tokyo, video blog
10.14.08

Shinjuku Birthday Panda ver. Blue Skies

Yeah, so I haven't updated in forever...! What else is new? So what has happened recently, you ask? Well, for one thing, I became another year older. Sadly, I am starting to run out of birthdays in which I can still refer to myself as a "20-something" year old. That's not so good. Adding to the glumness of it all, if my plans for next year still hold, it means ...
Category Info: current events, featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: birthday, blue skies, buildings, shinjuku, tokyo, upshots
09.21.08

Monorail Blue Skies (Sky Worship V)

Another summer day, another beautiful round of blue skies in Japan. There's a few pictures and a quick blurb about photography tricks in this post, but if you want some other content, I just posted another article talking about an upcoming road trip this autumn. Go check it out by click here, or else checki...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, sky worship, technology
Tagged as: blue skies, camera tricks, circular polariser, geekery, monorail, photography
09.02.08

The Great Western Japan Road Trip 2008 - Planning

Another year, another road trip. As I start winding down what my be my last year in Japan, I decided I very much wished to have one trip through the country in all its stunning, beautiful Autumnal glory (the only season to travel in Japan, my friends)....
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, technology, travel
Tagged as: 2008 autumn road trip, camera equipment, geekery, japan, photography, roadtrip
09.01.08

Of cicadas and summer

Yes, I suppose it is time once again for more pictures of more blue, blue skies. What can I say? Summer turns out to be a good season for shooting pretty blue skies. It also turns out to be a pretty horrible season if, like me, you are the kind of person who hates cicadas. But I'm getting ahead of myself......
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the funny, photography, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: air conditioning, cicadas, hot, man versus insect, michaelpanda, summer, video blog
08.07.08

Another Week...

So, once again, another hot, humid summer week with nothing special to blog about except the rather exceptional fact that I am still alive. Exceptional, that is, because I am half panda and there are few things pandas dislike more than hot, humid, soul crushing Japanese summers. Ugh. You'd think that after 5+ years I'd be used to it. You'd be wrong. Jesus god, what...
Category Info: featured entry, general, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: camera tricks, cooking, food, geekery, kitchen, pasta, photography, summer
07.13.08

Nighttime in the Hood

It's been a while since I've posted some nighttime shots, so here are a few I took whilst walking around The Hood over the weekend....
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: nightshots, photography, the hood
06.30.08

Wednesday Night...

Just another Wednesday night in The Hood. Nothing particularly special to write about in this post, so for now, enjoy these random photographs. (and yes, I know I need to wash my windows in my kitchen!! haha...
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: kitchen, photography, sunset, the hood
06.26.08

Painting with Light

Thank you all for your kind wishes in the last post. I really appreciate it! ...So I took the LSAT on Sunday. In short, I don't think I did as well as I did on the practice exams, but all......
Category Info: featured entry, general, miscellaneous, photography, ramblings, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
06.18.08

Tokyo Blue Skies II (Sky Worship IV)

Damn, that title could have used some work, huh? *laughs* At first I was going to call it something like "tokyo upshots" but decided against it because that might bring in exactly the wrong kind of intarnets traffic... (see, 'upshots'......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews, sky worship
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
06.01.08

Akihabara Wideangle

First shots from the wide angle Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM. Sorry for the lack of interesting subject matter, this was kind of an off-the-cuff series of snaps as I walked around Akihabara. Pedestrians headed home after a long days......
Category Info: featured entry, general, japan - the general, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
05.25.08

More Zoo Pictures

I should probably start a category just for closeup pictures of animals making funny faces, because there are few things as amusing to me as animals staring into cameras. I don't know why. Is that weird? There is not much......
Category Info: featured entry, general, photography, recentnews, webcoding
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
05.17.08

Mistar Parrot

I spent all weekend studying for the LSAT, translating documents for work, mirroring my blog and production server onto my local machine (with varying degrees of success) and taking pictures of animals. Since only the last one is of any......
Category Info: featured entry, general, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
05.07.08

Vietnamese Chicken Panda

So I wasn't going to post any more food pictures, but this was just too delicious to pass up. Last Sunday I woke up with the strange urge to buy the (Product)RED version of the iPod shuffle for some reason.......
Category Info: featured entry, general, pandas, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
04.20.08

What a panda eats

Did you ever wonder what pandas eat in a day? Okay, probably not. But I haven't updated in about 10 days, and the only pictures I've taken recently are of food, so I guess that's today's post topic. Breakfast Kiwi......
Category Info: featured entry, general, miscellaneous, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
04.12.08

Nighttime Sakura

Nighttime sakura on a rainy, drenched sunday evening in Tokyo. Can you believe this is the only shot of the cherry blossoms I got all weekend? The irony of it is, last weekend was the last opportunity to see the......
Category Info: featured entry, japan - the general, japan - the good, photography, recentnews
Tagged as: (no tags at this time).
04.01.08

Top of the Morning

It seems like such a shame to spend 30 minutes dressing up nice and getting ready for work in the morning just to head out the door and have it all ruined by the combination of wind, rain and heat......
Category Info: featured entry, miscellaneous, musings, pandas, photography, ramblings, recentnews
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03.24.08

Snow Panda

Haha, in all the years I've kept this blog, I don't think I've posted as many photos of myself as I have in this entry (and the previous one). Is the panda blog turning into a venue for indulging my......
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03.09.08

Vainpanda

So the lovely Miss YJ sent me this equally lovely cashmere scarf out of the blue last month and I promised I would send her a picture of myself vamping deliciously for the camera with it. And now, since I......
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02.26.08

Castles and Sunsets

I happened to have my camera with me as I was walking home yesterday, so I decided to snap a few pictures of that perfect time in day when the sky rapidly changes from the brightness of afternoon to the......
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02.11.08

Panda Strap

Alas, it's been a busy week so I've not had a chance to write a post yet. Maybe this weekend? That is, after I decide whether or not to apply to law school next year. A deadline that is literally......
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01.25.08

Blue Skies over Tokyo (Sky Worship III)

Blue skies over Tokyo Yesterday was a brilliant blue day in Tokyo so I went for a walk with a friend to Harajuku to attend to some Hatsumode-ing, about 2 weeks too late. After we were done praying for happiness,......
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01.15.08

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year 2008 everyone! It's the year of the Mouse, for whatever that's worth, so umm, I hope you all have a great mouse-themed year and don't get too sloshed with the bubbly tonight ;) I'm in a good......
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01.01.08

Farmlife

I actually have been slacking a little bit when it comes to posting, not because I have a dearth of things to write about (quite the opposite, actually) but because a) I had a big test to study for earlier......
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12.26.07

Nekobukuro Kitty Kats

There have actually been some very disturbing things happening here in Japan land (not to me personally, but at the political/civil liberties level) that have put me in a severely depressed mood recently and are making me seriously - like,......
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11.04.07

Tatami Nap Panda

Mmmmm.... I could nap in this spot of sun forever. I'm going to Nekobukuro later on today for the hell of it, so I figured I might as well get my practice in cat-napping before I depart. What a beautiful......
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10.21.07

The Time Travelers Panda

Thank you all for the supar kind birthday wishes! :) An update is coming soon, just as soon as I finish up this busy week. And by "busy week" I mean watching nonstop zombie and/or vampire movies (seriously, I've watched......
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09.26.07

That's why I jump...

We'll get back to the Great Tohoku Road Trip 2007 in just a second, but first a brief interlude of some jumping pictures from Bart-in-Japan's final hurrah in, errr, Japan. Click to embiggen. Hey, what about trying it front-lit? Click......
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08.20.07

The Great Tohoku Road Trip - Part I

If there is one thing that KC and I have learned from our past adventures, it's that neither of us are much of "planners" when it comes to travel. Our general philosophy is to tack down the intended time of......
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08.15.07

The Great 2007 Tohoku Road Trip

As mentioned in my last entry, after expedia "you haven't got prayer of making your flight" dot com decided to (yoghurt) poop all over our carefully planned Mongolia expedition, my friend and I decided to make the best of a......
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08.06.07

Public Drunkenness at 50mm f1.8

Whatever I thought it would be like, I'm pretty sure I didn't think it would turn out like it did - my mind going over the laundry list of things I had to do to get ready for work tomorrow, my heart heavy with the thought of having to walk to work in a wool suit in the hot sweaty mugginess of the Japanese rainy season, my eyes just moments prior flicking over train schedules to find the fastest route home after getting off at Tokyo so as to avoid time consuming transfers and giving myself a c...
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07.02.07

Still alive... and at the beach

Yeah, I know it's been 15 days without an update. I am still alive. I just had an intensely fun but seriously sleep deprived weekend (3 hours in 3 days or so). I need to sleep now. More pictures and......
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06.24.07

Morning Tea

A bit too busy to write a full length post today, but one will be forthcoming soon. In the interim, a picture of some creepy half-naked Kewpie Mayo Babies that suddenly appeared on my breakfast table the other day. And......
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06.09.07

Lindsay, the Telemarket-stalker

What is this book, you might be asking yourself? Well, let's look at the cover: The Complete Fake History of a Bunch of People Who Don't Actually Exist I'd like to think of it as the first entry in a......
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05.24.07

More Monorail Love

New post coming soon, as in tomorrow, hopefully. But for now, here's another picture of a monorail to tide you over. I really should make a category called "monorail worship" over on the side ;)...
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05.22.07

Picture Poast

Thus dear readers, I am afraid I shall have to tempt you with the tease shot of the mystery book above: The Complete Fake History of a Bunch of People Who Don't Actually Exist, and then segue into the rest of this post, which I am afraid will consist solely of pictures that have nothing to do with the one directly above or below. But as soon as I get back from this meeting - provided I survive - I promise I wi...
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05.16.07

Crayon Post, the Time Lapse Video

Somebody asked me how long it took to make the Crayon Post I put up the other day - well as it happens, I was wondering the same thing at the outset, so I had set up my camera to......
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05.04.07

Dining Table, what what!

Table cloths, placemats and varnish - these things are artificial filters that barricade the connection between us and the immediacy of the moment. Naught but the trappings of pretension, they defy the purpose of buying furniture in the first place - to use it and to let it serve its purpose. I don't want to stop to think to put down a coaster, or spend hours trying to lay down the perfect streak-free coat of varnish and stain - I just want to kick off my shoes, set down a plain wh...
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04.24.07

Night Photos and Naughty E-mails

Which brings us back to the present, and this gigantic very explicit pornographic image plastered on my screen, right smack dab in the middle of a crowded Japanese office...! "EERGLPPPFFFHHH!!!!!" I squeak out an incomprehensible sound as my mind begins to register what the frick is happening. "OH MY CHRIST!!!" "OMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD!!!" I stammer-yell to myself as I realise I'm on a Mac and that shortcut doesn't work. Instinctively I move to hit "window" plus "l" whic...
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04.17.07

Hakone

So the weather here in Kanto has been slowly sputtering and lurching towards balmier conditions week by week. The fact that it has been an unusually warm winter - it didn't snow even once! - means that we can enjoy......
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03.24.07

Setsubun - the face smashing festival

Are you imagining that phrase? Now while keeping that image in your head, slowly replace those words until it becomes "like hurling heavy beanbags at immobile foreigners trapped in a crowd about 25 feet away from you from an elevated wooden platform." And then add "oh and you're a gigantic muscular sumo wrestler." It was, as they say, all fun and games until someone got hurt, and that someone would have been the random old lady who took one to the dome with a rather sharp and alarming plas...
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02.11.07

A Panda in London (France Pt. II)

As you may recall from my last entry, the French have somewhat of a laissez-faire attitude towards things like immigration or knowing who's in their country at any given time. In their opinion, procedures such as "passport control" or "customs" are really nothing more than minor irritants impinging upon their cigar-smoking, cheese-consuming time, not to be taken seriously, or perhaps even done away with all together...
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02.04.07

France Adventure Pt. I

Okay. So I should probably just change the name of this blog to "Watch Panda take pictures of shit at night", because once again this poast is sporting a bunch of night pictures - and it won't be the last......
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01.24.07

Narita-san Temple

Wow, so the first post of 2007, huh? I suppose it's a bit cheap that it's gonna be primarily a photo entry, but as previously mentioned I'm heading off to Paris this Thursday - Thursday people - and I've not......
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01.02.07

No Chicken, No Life

Sign spotted outside a downtown Izakaya (Japanese-style bar). Hard to argue with this sentiment I suppose! Speaking of chickens everlasting - (actually, this has nothing to do with eterna chickans, that was a horrible transition) - I am planning on......
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12.21.06

Early Morning Photography

Off to Tokyo for some random adventures today. But first, some equally random early morning photos. Cufflinks and collar stays... God damn I love tiny furniture... This picture looked better uncropped. (Click here for uncropped version at different angle) Sigh.........
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12.16.06

Delphinium Days (Skyworship II)

I imagine he may have been thinking of days like this past weekend, when it seems like all you can see when you look up are endless expanses of blue - blue for which there are no boundaries - seas of soaring topaz, vast swaths of azure splashed with milk clouds, indigo pigments ground up and soaking into the parchment of the sky. Such blue skies are like a perfect backdrop for the sharp intercut of the earthy relief of jagged man made constructs daring to jab upwards into the heavens...
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10.09.06

Sky Worship

People sometimes ask why I like tall buildings. This picture from the Mori Tower pretty much sums it all up. More sky worship after the jump......
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10.01.06

Sky Monkah!

Monkah and I scope out the view from the top of the mountain. Look at all that beautiful sunlight pouring down! It might not seem like much at first, but three weeks into the rainy season with nothing but gray skies and thunderstorms night and day, it's quite possibly one of the most beautiful things you'll ever see....
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07.07.06

Sunny Road Trip!

On the way back we passed by this random 35 foot tall statue of a Tyrannosaurs Rex growling fearsomely at a curve in the road, apparently as an enticement to come visit the nearby dinosaur museum. What is mildly amusing about this picture is the sign beneath the T-Rex's feet. It reads: "Are you driving safely?" And all I could think was "No, man, a goddamn dinosaur that just scared the shit out of me when I rounded the blind curve here! What do you expect!!?"...
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05.06.06

Great Takayama Road Trip II

After our adventures frolicking in the "downtown" area of Takayama (population like 200) and running away in screaming terror from the stuffed knife wielding animatronic denzins of the "Eco TeddyBear Village", we looked at our cheesy tourist map and realized we still hadn't been to the "Hida Folk Village". The "Hida Folk Village" is basically a small enclave of old traditional Japanese houses which have been carefully preserved in their (more or less) original state. They are gathere...
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04.22.06

Yokohama Chinatown

....until I saw these. Oh my god!! This was the first of what would soon spin into an incredibly propitious string of Yokohama Chinatown panda spottings! These are steamed dumplings with are stamped in the shape of cute little panda faces! I squealed like a school girl when I saw them and ran over to purchase one. They were pretty steep (like $3USD each) but I was all set to plop down for them, when I saw to my disappointment that they were filled with chocolate and bean paste instead of...
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04.10.06

Great Takayama Road Trip Part I

It's spring break! With no big plans in the works, my ever faithful travel companion and I decided that a quickie road trip up to Takayama in nearby Gifu Prefecture would be the perfect way to spend a Saturday. What's......
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04.03.06

Sun and Rain...

It was simultaneously beautifully sunny and gloomily rainy one day earlier in the week. How crazy! Since I'm suffering from massive writers block lately, I'm afraid you're just going to have to settle for a picture post! The day started......
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03.26.06

Kyoto Road Trip

This picture was taken atop the mountain at Iwatayama Monkey Park (see below) by a man carrying a broom and a slingshot. We were actually just looking at the monkeys when he snatched the camera from our hands and shoved us over towards the couple of fanged screaming simians you see on the branch behind us. "You stand there. I take picture." "...b...but, those monkeys have fangs...!" we pro...
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02.28.06

Random Photos

It was worth it though, to see everything bathed in amber sunlight on the way back down. I've gone up and down this road a hundred times before, and each time thought it was ugly and filled with concrete. But like so many things in Japan, sometimes the beauty is hidden deep down inside of it, and you just have to catch it at the right angle to see it, I suppose....
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02.14.06

Eiheiji and the Depressed Panda

Monk central command. As mentioned above, taking pictures of the monks was strictly off limits, but we just couldn't resist a single furtive shot as we headed out the door of the "front office", one of the most surreal scenes I have seen since coming to Japan. Behind the counter lay a fully equipped business office with one major exception - it was staffed entirely by Zen Buddhist monks dressed in flowing black robes from head to toe. As we walked by, Yasu started giggling uncontrollably a...
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12.31.05

Himeji-jo and Acclimatization

What starts as a simple comparison of differences between cultures quickly spins out of control into a series of increasingly disconnected judgments, finally culminating in a bizarre tangent about the supposed submissive role of women in Japanese society! In the process a fully painted - yet completely falsified - picture of moral drama unfolds, complete with villains (Japanese teachers, "repressive Japanese system"), heroes ("I'm not going to sit down and do nothing"), treacherous deeds ("b...
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12.06.05

Autumn Thursday

It was a beautiful autumn Thursday yesterday and due to a fortuitous coincidence in my schedule, I happened to be free for most of it. Somewhat on the road to recovering from the horrible cold that laid me out......
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11.11.05

Panda Tripping in Tokyo...

I headed over to Tokyo for a couple days on business, then stayed an extra day with a fellow Panda loving friend to go to the zoo and look at the pandas. Not much to write about, so instead you......
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09.04.05

Pandas at play...

Work has been piling up at a frantic rate, but I decided I really needed to do something to relax. Tennis in tow, I headed up north to visit my good friend KC (yeah, I just threw you a......
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08.29.05

Monkah's latest Tokyo Trip

An update is coming soon, I swear. I'm trying to hold myself up to a higher standard when it comes to posting (i.e. I'm going to spell check it this time and try and make sure things sorta' make sense),......
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08.16.05

A Day in the Life of Panda - Part II

Having relaxed and destressed a little bit, I realized I was supposed to meet a friend in a little while, so I hopped back on the trusty panda peddlar and headed over to one of the local Starbucks. Yes......
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07.10.05

A Day in the Life of Panda - Part I

Having encountered a major case of writers block recently, I decided to do a couple of entries showing what I do on a typical day. Actually, the day in question happens to be Sunday, since if I showed you what......
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07.05.05

Pictures from Tokyo RCA 2005

As promised, a random smatter of pictures from the Tokyo Conference last week. Click on the thumbnails for a larger picture. Sorry if the clearing div screws things up on IE, I dun have time to mess with it. .......
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06.15.05

Chayamachi

Winter in the hood is dark and depressing - moreover the constant see-sawing between dry, harsh blowing winter winds and incessant torrential downpours is anything but nice to my hair. In a moment that made me seriously question my sexuality,......
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03.03.05

Bunka no hi

Today was "Cultural Day" so no school. I didn't actually do anything exciting today, however, on Saturday I went over to Kenrokuen park. As some of you may recall, my initial impression of Kenrokuen was somewhat less than spectacular (I......
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11.03.03

Pictars

too sleepy to write anything clever, so I`m just gonna throw up some random pictures from the school undokai and my enkai later on that evening. A fellow member of team Midori - we won a complete sweep, by the......
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09.20.03

Pictures...!

Sorry for the rather depressive quality of the last few posts - things were much brighter yesterday as I taught a couple of very enjoyable adult classes (they actually want to learn english!) and some of the third year students......
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09.03.03

Friday morning Ryoko Hirosue montage

Nothing starts Friday off better than gratuitous shots of Ryoko Hirosue... (I swear every japanese 'idol' has done at least a million pictures with this pose.) And, as long as we're posting up (sexy?) pictures, Bill wasn't feeling the......
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04.25.03

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