6 posts tagged “photo”
Inbetween packing and sleeping I managed to finish editing the promised Yamakasa video. Here it is, in most of its glory:
If I had encoded it at the bitrate it deserves, it never would have finished uploading, so I hope this suffices for most. By the way, here is a direct link to the video page.
I also took the time to upload my latest batches of photos. As usual, they were prepended to my Japan in Today's World photo collection. Here they are in chronological order:
- Gyouza party photos - my Japanese Speaking class got together at the end of the semester and prepared foods from our respective countries. Lacking cooking skills, I prepared spaghetti, but the other dishes were excellent!
- Yamakasa photos - of course. The video exists because these do not do the festival justice, but there are still a few gems to be found.
Cheers, for now!
Flickr got more love today. No time to talk about it; tagging took long enough, and I have a big final tomorrow! Just look:
Rice-planting study trip photos
My middle name is "Sleepless," so in an effort to make tomorrow the worst day possible, I uploaded the photos from the Avispa soccer match I went to.
That's the photo from the only goal scored. Woo.
Dang, too tired for even a single word of Japanese now. Sorry.
My favorite part about our bike ride to Fukuoka Tower was our stop at Nishi Park on the way back.
It was a gigantic fusion of old and new in one of the strangest ways I've seen. The main stairs lead to a shrine, which I assume was the original reason for the park's creation. Shrines only ever seem to be the center of attraction. However, this shrine had bright, red, Coca-Cola--branded benches, and loudspeakers broadcasting traditional Japanese music. There were power lines running overhead, and a samurai helmet on display near the entrance as if it were in a museum. Oh, and the tiny papers used for tying wishes to trees? Those were supplied by vending machines.
Unlike the author of this review of the park, I didn't feel that it was creepy at all. However, since this is the 花見 season (はなみ - hanami - flower [cherry blossom] viewing), the place was packed with people. Every sit-onable area was sitted-on, and every slightly-less-comfortable-to-be-sitted-upon area was covered in tarp and then totally satted-upon. There were lots of open bottles and red Japanese faces.
There were also plenty of tiny shops along the road leading into the park. Many sold food, one sold video games (?), and some sold souvenirs. I wanted to buy a Stitch mask (Lilo & Stitch is everywhere in Fukuoka), but I forgot.
Anyway, go to the park when you get the chance. And look at my photos if you can't!
Is there a perfect balance between life and school?
And blogging?
Life ruled until a few days ago. I was seeing the sights around town, adding a whole new photo set to my JTW collection, called Trip to Fukuoka Tower. That was fun. Though there were no monkeys, there were swan boats and many jars of nothing. And a giant ship without explanation!
Then classes geared up and homework started becoming due. Unlike some new students I know and in some cases people I happen to be sitting next to, I haven't missed any due dates. Yet. There's always tomorrow. The readings are longer than I was expecting based on reviews of the classes from last semester's students. They all said the only classes that required time were those for Japanese. I may be busy this semester.
Anyway, that's my filler. Take it for what it's worth.
How much can happen in a week! It's been great, but communication has been so difficult!
I planned to talk with family over Skype and post to this blog soon after arrival. I knew that getting Internet access in my room would be difficult, but I thought that the computing facilities would be good or there would be wi-fi available on campus or at a cafe.
What happened was very different. I arrived to find the Internet situation very bleak. There is a computer lab right by my dorm, but it closes at 8 PM on weekdays and is closed all weekend. I also can't plug in my laptop there. There is also a computer lab on campus where I can use my own laptop, but that is 25 minutes away by bus (not counting waiting for the bus), which costs ￥220 (~$1.85) both ways.
I'm posting this from the lab on campus, where I have been for the last 3 hours, catching up. I receive e-mail newsletters, mailing lists, family, and friends faster than the Gmail quota grows, so I probably won't catch up for a while. I also haven't even touched RSS. But I have uploaded all of my photos to Flickr: here is the "Collection" for my Japan trip. Bookmark it; I will update that collection by adding photo sets as I go. It will be complete.
Videos are another issue. I am on the fence about where to put those. Thanks to my mom's 20 GB camcorder (which was on sale at woot.com a while back), I have LOTS of video---especially from the aquarium and monkey park. And it needs an online home. I'm still editing them to cut out the dead parts, but I haven't decided whether to put them on a site like Google Video or iFilm or upload them here. I guess we'll see when I get to that stage. Just know that there are some craaaaaazy antics coming soon.
I'm also writing some posts about what I was doing during The Week Without Internet. I will post those as I complete them. I hope to have the blog be caught up to the present within the next week. Until then, satisfy yourself with this photo of a Betamax player on display in Showa Town (and possibly follow up with the rest of my photos!):
