I didn’t get to go in 2024, due to concerns about my health (it was less than a year since my open heart surgery, quadruple cardiac bypass) but now I feel a lot healthier, and gotten into even better shape, so now the planning begins for Spring 2025!
I already have an apartment in Tokyo reserved for 2 months, starting near the end of March, and going through the middle of May, so 2 months in Japan! I’ll try to post more updates here, at least better than I have been about updating!
So, it’s been a few months or more since I updated this blog, but now I’m going to try to be better about it, since I’m taking a break from Facebook for a while.
Recently I joined folks from the project I’m on for an “all-hands meeting” which actually ended up being a nature hike/problem-solving adventure in a local park. I took it on myself to be the photographer, but I didn’t get to take all the pictures I wanted since we broke up into small teams, and I participated more in some exercises than others. I also refused (despite much attempts to persuade me otherwise) to take part in the zip-line exercise.
A good time was had by all, and we finished up at a winery that was right next to the park, plus the weather was comfortable for a late Fall day, so all in all it was one of the best all-hands I’ve been in!
Enjoy the pictures!
So, after riding the Enoden for a few minutes, it was time to get off at the station in Hase town, where the Great Buddha (Daibutsu) of Kamakura is situated. Like most of the towns along the Enoden, Hase is a tourist town, making the most of the local attraction. A lot of tourists come because of the Buddhist aspect, and a lot more come just to gawk (yeah, I’m guilty of the latter.)
Not being Buddhist myself, I didn’t get the spiritual feeling, but as a techie, to me the Great Buddha is an impressive engineering feat! Cast in bronze sometime in the 13th Century, the statue is hollow, allowing people to go inside for a mere 20 yen (about 30 cents US). The temple grounds around are also very impressive, with sculptures both man-made and natural.
This day was particularly fun, because there was a tour group from an elementary school, and some of the kids were split up into groups, each group assigned to speak to a foreigner in order to practice their English. The group that approached me and my buddy John did a very good job of introducing themselves, asking if they could ask questions, and handled their English fairly well. The questions were basic, “Where are you from?” type questions. It was fun watching them “ambush” other foreigners, too, although I have to wonder if all of the foreign tourists spoke English.
So, here is the gallery of photos I took in and around Hase and the Great Buddha of Kamakura.
I just added a few photos from Katsucon 2012, I re-edited them and re-cleaned them using Lightroom. I think these came out much better than the earlier versions I have on my other website.
Cosplay photographers, capturing the captors =^_^=
A photoshoot with some friends who love to cosplay Final Fantasy characters
This is the new site where I will be hosting a whole lot of my photographs, in galleries and portfolios. This domain is one that I once used for my webhosting company, but kept because it’s so unique. I decided that my Nerdwatch website was getting too cumbersome for just showcasing photos, so I bought a WordPress theme and installed it on this domain. I think it’s going to work out much better in the long run.
Make sure to check the comments RSS feed, and see what comes next!
