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| Wednesday, 19-May-2004 00:00 |
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Japan - Tokyo International Forum
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January 24 2004
A young child playing with the interactive board courtesy of Bloomberg in the Tokyo International Forum.
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| Tuesday, 18-May-2004 00:00 |
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This is East Perth
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I said I was going to hibernate, but I spent the most part of my winter holidays working in a farm instead! Farm work officially ended for me last week...alas, instead of hibernating the remaining 2 weeks of my break, I've decided to make good use of my time instead. No, I'm not about to go on some extreme bush walking in the Aussie outback, but I am going to be good and organise and update all the back logs in my photopage. Time to pull those folders upon folders of photos of Japan out from the dusty pile-o!
-posted on July 22nd. Just decided to make use of these available back-date entries.
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| Monday, 17-May-2004 00:00 |
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Hibernation is a long, long way away...
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SHAME
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Or this: Sleep is a state of mind.
This is perhaps, an attempt at a small delurking post.
I was walking to Uni this morning, and the morning chill got to me. It's May, and its good halfway through the year. Here in the southish part of Australia, it's starting to get a little chilly. Not blizzard-strength type of chill, but compared to most part of the year, it is chilly anyhow.
It's amazing how seasonal changes put a marker to the time in a year. Here I am, in WA, still a rather unfamiliar sight and territory to my good'ol Sydney, I realised how caught up I was with adjusting to the new Uni life, new faces and places that I've really been removed from my old habits and general involvements. But never fear, the winter holidays are coming - only a few pages away in my nifty student guild organiser - where I plan to hibernate for at least 2 weeks to make up for the sleep lost.
Until then, I will be making sporadic appearance. Moko, I don't know if you still keep tabs of this page, but if you read this, I'm really sorry I never got round to replying your email. The Usyd account expired since I'm no longer an enrolled student there. Will catch up pretty soon, after I get all these submissions out of the way. I still have stacks of photos from Japan to share, not to mention some ethereal pink skies from this part of the world.
Ellen.
P/s: I took the liberty of including a group photo taken outside the Entertainment Centre in Sydney a few weeks ago in April right after a mind blowing concert by Radiohead. It was the best weekend I ever had for a very, very long time. The boys were spectacular, and I haven't had the pleasure of seeing them play before that night, but I must say, that night, the 23rd April, they looked comfortable, and happy to be rocking. For a band used to being known as complaint-rockers, they just managed to make my year seem a bit brighter. lost child, while not a song, is a big thing of theirs in the OK Computer era. Hail to the people who flawlessly delivered a confident paranoid android right after a melancholic exit music.
See you all soon!
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| Monday, 26-Jan-2004 00:00 |
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Japan - The Fish Market
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We decided to brave Tokyo's morning chill and visit the fish market one day, walking to the subway station just past 5 a.m. to get to Tsukiji, where the fish market is. By the time we got there, the morning's auction was already over and done with, but we still got to witness the hustle and bustle of activities within and around the market place.
Commentaries:
1. Small laneway market
It's perhaps something that merely feeds my curiosity, but I love browsing through these back alley markets. Here leading towards the fish market, assortments of bizzare looking (delicious, I'm certain) dried, raw, wet, pickled sea creatures can be purchased.
2. Arranging her sale
Here's an old lady arranging her trays-full of seafood for sale. As expected, the fish market is wet everywhere, but one must be extremely careful in dodging stinky water tossed out by the vendors onto the pathway.
3. Portioning tuna
The frozen tuna is literally sawed into smaller marketable pieces using a bandsaw.
4. Digging out scallops
See. For your cooking convenience, they even de-shell it for you.
5. Auction house
Here's where the predawn auction takes place for tuna fresh from the sea.
6. In queue
Tunas, still frozen, lay wait in queue for their turn at the band saw. It's a morbid thought.
7. This job done
Having been sawed into halfs, then quarters, then into smaller quarters, I see a middle-aged man struggle to balance the weight of the tuna pieces on his trolley. The book Snow Falling on Cedars has a good description of how fishermen utilise a steel hook on their fishes to help haul them around.
8. Suction pods
I must be naive, I've only see octopus the size of a fifty cent coin, grilled with onion and butter, so seeing these were rather amazing. Once again, the striking hue reminds us that the underwater world is certainly very colourful.
9. Light
The main structure of the fish market is shaped like a fan. By the time we finished our tour from one end to the other, the sun is already high, and its rays filters through openings in the roof, and perhaps the tuna would have began to thaw.
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| Sunday, 25-Jan-2004 00:00 |
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Japan - Fruits
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About a year ago, I attended an exhibition by a Japanese photographer at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, titled Fruits. It documents the colourful and alternative attires and make up of the teenagers that like to frequent a strip of pedestrian mall in Harajuku. Today, a major portion of the mall has been opened to vehicle traffic, dispersing the gathering. However, we still managed to catch a number of them in film, despite the sun already near setting.
Mostly girls, they dress up as their favourite anime heroes, Jrock singers, or hell, just in the most eclectic ensemble they can find. The sight is easier to grasp for those who are familiar with cosplays at anime conventions. Nonetheless, some of them are pretty scary.
Commentaries:
1 It is cold, but hey, nothing beats the excitement of hanging around with like-minded friends to gush over this Jrocker or that animated bishounen, sing their favourite songs, and of course, get ogled by awestruck tourists.
2 I have enough troubles with normal heels (see previous posts), but check out the footwear on those girls.
3 A happy, dark (!) group photo.
4 Trench coat and roses, strike their poses.
5 Goldilocks.
6 These girls seem to alternate between running away from lenses and happily posing for them. For us, it is the catch that is the thrill.
7 The only potrait shot of the set, she is simply too good to be left out. From her face make up, I was expecting a dark, unfriendly scowling face for the shot. Instead, she pulled this...almost maniacal grin and flicked the peace sign.
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| Saturday, 24-Jan-2004 00:00 |
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Japan - Tokyo
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Commentaries:
1 Someone's laundry drying on a second floor balcony. They call their ground floor first floor here.
2 An interesting rust to a corner building that we came across on our walk to Asakusa Temple.
3 The grounds were filled with high school students on a field trip. They were very entertaining to watch; lively, confident and never misses a chance to pose for photographs
4 The temple market is filled with Japanese souvenirs and delicacies which you can sample. We bought rice crackers that were coated in shoyu (soy sauce) thinking it was caramelised. Almost did a backflip when I tasted the saltiness, but once the tastebuds adjusts, they were quite alright, really.
5 The youth of Kenshin-land. Japanese schoolboys mucking around with mock katanas.
6 Pigeon princess.
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| Friday, 23-Jan-2004 00:00 |
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Japan - Tokyo
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Hello everyone. No, I haven't disappeared from the face of the earth, but in fact, I have disappeared for a while to Japan. Seeing that we will be returning to our lives as underpaid part-time office plebs, as well as full-time university students, me and 2 other mates decided to throw in our warmest garbs in our backpacks and train-and-bunk hopped around Japan for a bit.
Japan is a very intriguing place. It simply amazes me that this country can be so technologically advanced, and yet still manage to hold on so strongly to their culture, be it in their beliefs, or behaviour.
The photos will be coming 'round. SLR shots will have to wait a bit to get scanned, but meanwhile, I'll post the more interesting ones that I have taken with my digi. Please bear with me if the updates are slow, Uni is starting in a week's time. Naturally, I'm quite preoccupied. Hope you enjoy the shots. I sure did enjoy taking them.
Take care all!
Commentaries:
1 2004, Tokyo Tower. Pray let this be a smashing year.
2 Jose, mesmerised by the dance of the bubbles. At a bar, somewhere in Roppongi.
3 Jose, yet again, getting intimate with the mother of all tonsils. Roppongi.
4 Julien, proudly showing off his Gloria which he purchased for 120Yen, off the vending maching.
5 There are apparently 4.5 million vending machines in Japan, the largest amount in the world. Why? Because here, they have to endure the least vandalism. It is amazing what you can get from vending machines. We've seen vendors for asahi, sake, milk, flowers (yes, flowers.), batteries, ice-cream, chewing gum, hot food like chiko rolls and chips, and of course, canned drinks like coffee, which also come warm!
6 Beautiful rice paper lanterns adorns a shop front. Seemingly traditional, but note the vending machine out the front.
7 It took us a while to guess what these are, but they appear to be a whole loaf-bread, topped with scoops of ice cream, cream, chocolate sauce and cherries. Of course, we could be completely wrong.
We never asked for the locals' confirmation.
8 An overhead bridge somewhere at the edge of Roppongi. It buckled like crazy each time traffic passes.
9 Small, teppanyaki and kebab (Japanese kebab) places hidden in the back lanes. Here you can enjoy your beer while the cook prepares your meal behind the counter. These places are usually extremely small, occupying a floor space your normally wouldn't even dream of converting into a spare bedroom. Patron sit single file along the counter, and your back is literally against the partition wall, or worst, the entry door where you are treated to cold drafts of the outside air each time someone come and go.
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| Saturday, 15-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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Wet Surface
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| Friday, 14-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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Heavily Grounded
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| Thursday, 13-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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Psychedelic, moi?
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Hello dears.
I have indeed been missing in action. Apologies to all who've been keeping tabs!  Between working, and getting my documents together to go back to Uni, 24 hours a day is meagre. And to all those who sent well wishes, thank you very much! But no fear, I will get back into the scheme of things shortly. I do miss shooting and all of you. Take care for now!
Tom, yes, I made an irreversible error in that particular post. Now I just can't wait till the first of December when everything will be 'normal' again! 
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