This is where I can improve

My latest hobby is photography.  I'm self trained, which means that I read a few books and I don't receive any advice from real people.  In truth, my photography is worse for the lack of photography friends.  Further, my results are stymied in another way that I've recently realized: my "process" does not include examining every shot.

In the great olden times of photography, each shutter activation was tied to a fair amount of expense and effort.  Every *click* was soon followed by an hour in the darkroom.  Failing that, each shot would at least be developed at the drugstore and the results would all be delivered in hardcopy.  Either method cost enough money/time that only the rarest photographer would be willing to shoot many photos of the same scene.

The result was that the older photographer would take time to frame a shot, viewing the scene their mind, making sure all the settings were right, and taking a single photo with their fingers crossed.  Once prints were made, a good photographer might look each one over and decide how they would have improved the shots that failed.

And this is something I rarely do.  Instead, I'll have 10 photos in a series, each taken in rapid succession, each with minor changes in settings.  I'll modify the exposure slightly in search of a good setup.  I'll take a few photos in hopes that one will be in focus.

And then I go to my computer and choose the best one of twenty, and discard the remainder.  I rarely make prints.  I don't look at the results too often, and the bad results are ignored before they were even half seen.

And this moment, when the photos are done, when nothing remains to adjust and all the light meant to be captured was captured, and all the light that could have been is lost, this is the moment where I have not been taking my lessons.  Instead, I discard the results.

I know that print examination makes a difference.  I know because my office has a dozen prints on the wall.  And I look at each print and I know where I got things wrong.  And each print tells me what to improve the next time I shoot.  And I remember some of these lessons the next time I shoot.

But these few are the only prints I exmine.  Thousands of photos and only a dozen get critique.

This is where I can improve.

Spring Break Collection

Jingu Stadium, Japanese Baseball.  We caught the season opener on a half-rainy day at the ballpark.  The Tokyo Dome ballpark is right next door, and is protected against rain.  Jingu Stadium, however, gets wet.

Natasha and I discussed the possibility of seeing baseball while we were still outside of Japan, but it wasn't in our itinerary.  I think I was inspired, at least partially, by seeing the stadiums from the top of the world.  The next morning, I looked to buy tickets online using the hotel's computer in the lobby.  Buying tickets is the hardest part, so I'll explain the whole process.

First, I checked the Yakult Swallows website and was unable to find instructions in english.  I did find a schedule, and it clearly labeled the first game as 6:00 pm on that very day.  Lucky us.

Next, I tried to talk the hotel clerk into showing us how to buy tickets.  He began by pretending to call someone to get a schedule, and told me, "so sorry, no game today at Tokyo Dome."  I think he tried to get himself off the hook without lying.  There was no game at Tokyo Dome, but there was a game at Jingu Stadium.  He was probably still bitter with me for eating twice as much food as anybody else during the free breakfast.  Also, I couldn't tell the difference between combustible waste-product and non-combustible.  The yogurt packages, for example, look like waxy paper or maybe a plastic or part-styrofoam cup — and I have no way of knowing where to put it.  It might burn if the temperature was high enough, but so would styrofoam, and I wouldn't want them to burn styrofoam.  I'm pretty sure that guy was looking at me funny when I'd try to categorize my waste.

I told him that I had found a schedule online, and then showed him the webpage with all the info, and then asked him how we can buy tickets.  He read through the webpage and told us that we would need to buy the tickets at a convenience store, such as 7-Eleven or AM/PM.  Luckily, these are all over the place.  There were probably a dozen within two city blocks.  It was like trying to find a Starbucks in downtown USA.

At 7-Eleven, following the usual communication by gesture and endless repeating of a single word, the clerk communicated that we would use a special phone in the back of their store, hit the blue button, and then work out a deal with the person on the other end.  So I tried this, and using a handy book of phrases I asked if the person on the other end spoke english.  No.  Nobody there speaks english.  The phone jockeys probably speak Japanese and Malay.  I tried calling a few times, got different people, and nobody could speak with me.

I'm not so egotistic as to believe that they should speak english.  But it was frustrating, because we'd spent half of the morning getting this far.  So we carried on with our business for the time being, toured Roppongi and other areas, and decided to wait and see if we could make it to the stadium to buy tickets in person.

Luckily, that afternoon, we were in a 7-Eleven and I found a guy who spoke english and was willing to help us.  He was clearly not Japanese.  He used the special Bat-Phone and dialed the red button instead of the blue, and he talked for a couple minutes with the person and found us tickets.  He wanted ¥3000 (about $30) in cash.  When he got the money, he went behind the counter and disappeared for a while, without telling us what was going on or providing a receipt.  We both had that feeling you get when someone has just robbed you and you can't do anything about it.

After about 5 minutes, their electronic ticket machine behind the counter started working, the guy came back, and he processed the sale and gave us our tickets.

At that point, we had a plan.  So we continued our sightseeing and began a long trek toward the stadium on aching feet.  On the way, we found Honda's world headquarters where they have everything Honda makes on display, from cars to motorcycles to lawnmowers.  We also found Sony's HQ, which had many large TVs hooked up to PS3s playing unreleased games like Gran Turismo 5.

We arrived at the stadium well ahead of schedule, and were still too late to get the good cheap seats.  The first-come-first-served seating fills up early.  We ended up behind the foul post in right field.

The teams playing were the Yakult Swallows and the Yomiuri Giants, Tokyo's two biggest teams.  We sat in the Yakult section, but Natasha's bright orange jacket was better suited to the Giants colors.  "Swallows" is, apparently, a very difficult word to say for the Japanese people.  The fans were doing some cheers in english which I couldn't even tell was english until the tune set in.  I first discovered that they were saying "swallows", then I figured the rest out.  These small breakthroughs excite me.

Our section had flag wavers and head cheerleaders.  When the team scored everybody would bring out their mini umbrellas and sing and dance.

Good thing they all brought umbrellas.  It rained pretty hard during the first half of the game.  I stood in a line to buy a garbage-bag marketed as a rain jacket.  When I was close enough to touch, they sold out.  The second half of the game was dry, though.

Natasha ate a funny looking soup.  I ate an expensive bento box of mediocre food.  Garlic fries would have been a welcome addition.

The scoreboard was high tech.  It looked like an old card-based scoreboard, then turned into a super high-res video screen.  Very neat.

We had a great time at the ballpark, and I highly recommend that you visit.

Spring Break Collection

Hamarikyuu Gardens.  These gardens have better flora than the imperial garden.  We arrived just as the cherry trees blossomed, which is a result of lucky timing rather than skillful planning.  There is a saltwater lake and accommodations for shogun duck hunting.  I took some shots at the ducks, but I used a camera instead of a NES Zapper.

This photo was taken before Natasha became angry with me for taking too many photos.  As I type this, I'm left with only photos and memories, and if experience has taught me anything, I've learned to trust photos better than memories.  Sorting through these photos brings me back there as if it were yesterday.  Additionally, being in charge of the camera gives me an important task which keeps me occupied, happy, and less irritable.

Here is a photo of Natasha after I'd take too many photos of her:

The ducks were channelled into stream-lets, where a wealthy landowner would use rice and cunning to catch the duck in a net. This is the samurai way.   I didn't know this until I began writing this blog.  During out visit,  I couldn't see the utility of the small channels, but it all makes sense now.

Here is a photo from a duck blind.  I think they threw the rice out from these stealthy positions.

This area was also designed to train falcons.  Go Mordecai!

Finally, earlier that morning I was watching their version of Saturday morning cartoons.  They had options similar to Sesame Street, but what interested me more was a show about programming a computer to draw fractals.  This was taught at a high enough level that even children might be interested.  It speaks volumes for their culture (or at least speaks to my misunderstanding of their culture).

I think "maru" means "round" and google says that "hankei" means "radius".

Pretty neat, if you ask me.  I've never seen its equal on American TV.

Spring Break Collection

Park Hyatt, Shinjuku.  This is the bar where the movie "Lost in Translation" was filmed.

You can see two baseball stadiums on the right hand side, one is the Tokyo Dome and the other is Jingu Stadium.  More on that later.

We found ourselves on the "back" side of this building, looking for this building, confused by the signs on the building which made it sound like it was something else entirely.  This sort of confusion was an every day occurrence, but this time we had professional help.  Natasha asked a delivery lady on a scooter where the building was.  The lady was super nice — she phoned her boss and asked for directions, then she asked some of the other locals where it was.  She simply would not give up.  5 minutes is way past my attention span for gaijin charades, so I wandered off while Natasha negotiated the farce.  Eventually Natasha escaped and the delivery lady zipped off.  We circumnavigated the imposing structure to see what was on the other side, and then we saw another sign that told us we had already arrived.

We came before 8pm, so there was no cover charge.  We had to order drinks, though, and that will set you back 15+ dollars even for a non-alcoholic beverage.  On the bright side, they had free munchies with wasabi peas and puffed rice.  As the sun set, the view got even better.  This was a relaxing way to spend an evening, resting our feet and looking out over the world.

All toilets in Japan are good.  Most have bidets, showers, seat warmers, and flush ferociously.  The toilets at this hotel were even better.  These had massage modes, joysticks to control spray aim, the mens toilets lifted the seat automatically, and an LCD screen provided system status.

If you are wealthy or crazy, you could also order dinner here.  I'll be saving that option for the next time I'm on business with a company credit card.

The streets of Shinjuku are famous for being shockingly busy with light.  You'll see these streets in the scenes from Lost in Translation.  It was very neat to walk about at night, but we were too tired to carry on and we didn't really explore the nightlife, and instead walked a couple blocks to get to our train and retire.

Video Games

Here are the video games I've played sometime during the last year:

Final Fantasy X (2001).  Pretty cool game, great music.  I wish I could tell the "level" of each character so I could try to keep them balanced.

Planet Puzzle League.  This is the same as Pokémon Puzzle Challenge and Tetris Attack.  2 player mode is outstanding when your opponent is good.  Back in undergrad, Frank and I would play epic games with chains going well into the "?" zone.

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (1998).  Zelda 3 for SNES was one of my favorite games of all time.  This one is A-OK, but not in the same league.  I might get around to its sequel,Majora's Mask, preferably before 2018.

Gran Turismo 4 (2004).  I like to see how long it takes to get all the gold medals for the Super License.  On the day this game was released, Clint and I took vacation and played until our eyeballs fell out.  I haven't done either of the Sarthe 24 hour races, but I tag-teamed Neubergring with Clint nearly two years ago.

Dragon Warrior (1989, US).  In 1989, my brother and I subscribed to Nintendo Power and received this game as our free gift.  Neato.  I recently re-played it on an emulator.  This one brings back the memories.

Clearly, I'm not a modern gamer.  I don't have a current system (except for the Nintendo DS portable).  I haven't played computer games in a while, and I'm not as thrilled to play video games as I used to be.  But my slow adoption of old classics means that I play only quality games, ones that are or should be Game of the Year, ones that are old news and $10 in the bargain bin, ones that emphasize gameplay and fun, and even if they did push pixels in their heyday, they don't depend on graphics to tell a story.

I'll happily accept game recommendations, but don't be surprised if I wait another decade before I get around to it.

Spring Break Collection

Natasha and I went to Taiwan and Japan over spring break.  I didn't write anything about the break because it was so vast that any faithful attempt to describe things would take too long.  So this may be the first in a series where I show a photo and describe a small portion of the break.

The first photo was taken at the Tokyo Imperial Palace gardens.  The palace is in the center of Tokyo, the property value is near priceless due to location and size.  We ate lunch near here, too, and the locals believe that sandwiches sold near the Palace are also priceless.

This destination is easy to get to, was free to explore, and was well maintained in the typical Japanese fashion.  Visitors can only see the gardens, as guards and trees block the palace grounds.  The biggest draw for this location is that it is a park in the heart of a huge city, surrounded by moats and castle-like walls.  The other parks in Tokyo had better looking flora, and I'm sure there are better sites in Japan to look at trees.

As a historic destination, or if you really love castles and vast open spaces located in the bustle of a city, the Imperial Palace is a neat place to visit.  But I will probably not be back there on my next trip, unless the actual palace grounds are opened.

Dream Theater Greatest Hit CD

Dream Theater released a CD called "Greatest Hit (and 21 other pretty cool songs)".  Pretty funny, because only one of their songs was ever popular.  I like DT a whole bunch, but I acknowledge that it takes a while to train your ear to enjoy it.  I listen to DT frequently, and I really like them, but few other people enjoy it.

Speaking of acquired tastes, there is an interesting episode of Radio Lab which talks about the international appeal of country music.  I found the story interesting because I grew up listening to country music with my parents, I really liked it, and it certainly wasn't cool.  I don't listen to country often these days, although some of the old songs are still good for more than nostalgia.  Here is a link to the program, available free on iTunes: iTunes Link

And now, back to the books!