The Wayfarer Blog

Today, I went to a school I had never been to before, but I didn’t have to. To make a long story short, I was supposed to go to the school yesterday and today, but the schedule was changed. The person at my company who handles scheduling said he had emailed me yesterday, but I didn’t get the email. That has happened before, so I’m not sure what happened. But I wasn’t upset. It was such a nice day, I enjoyed taking some pictures on the way back.

On the way to the school, I took a cab. I had checked the school’s website the night before, and seen a map, but I wasn’t too confident. I didn’t know how long the bus would take, so I just took a cab. When I got to the school, they were surprised to see me. So, I just laughed it off. I took the scenic route home. I got to see an area of Tokyo I never go to. i don’t know if I had ever been there before. Who knows if I will ever go there again.

And the best part is, I had my camera with me.

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Wow. A week’s gone by, and I haven’t really had anything exciting to report. Well, “no news is good news,” I guess. I have been busy with a lot of (boring) stuff; final exams at my high school, preparing the syllabus for next year’s classes at my college, etc. I haven’t really been out taking pictures, either.

The truth is, I have been a bit introspective, and I haven’t really had any inspiration to write. But I am doing fine and all that…I just haven’t really had anything to say. And when you don’t have anything to say, you should just be quiet, right?

But I did come across something interesting when I was looking at my bookmarks in del.icio.us this morning.

100 Photographs that Change the World by LIFE

The pictures are great, and each one has a bit of a story, so go ahead. Check it out. These pictures are classic. Unforgettable. We grew up with them. Take a trip down memory lane, and enjoy, while you are waiting for me to get my act together and do something worth writing about.

I am off to bed, but I thought I would post a few pictures I took at Kourakuen Station and Tokyo Dome today. I will finish giving them descriptions and rename them later. The first few are from Kourakuen Station, after I got off the train. They have beautiful murals along the walls. Here is a small sample. Enjoy!

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I wish I had an exciting story, but, I guess it’s true: “No news is good news.”

I took my little Canon Ixy800IS again for the first time in a long time, but I only took a few pics. One good thing is that I have been enjoying reading some Japanese literature, both in books and online. I used to read translations. It’s great to be able to read them in Japanese now. I won’t lie, though, I sometimes need to use my dictionary, and I often need to read things more than once to get the full meaning.

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Ikebukuro is a major shopping and entertainment district in Tokyo, not too far from Shinjuku. Unfortunately, I don’t go there too often, but for the next couple months I will have more chances, because of my job. I often transfer at Ikebukuro on my way to Tokyo Dome. So I’m looking forward to taking lots of pictures. Here are a few I took while I was walking around, killing time.

As always, clicking on a picture will take you to the original on my flickr page. Enjoy!

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Wow! Snow…? I woke up this morning to a surprise snow storm. Or maybe it was just a surpise to me…To be fair, I hadn’t heard the weather forecast, so maybe everyone else knew about it. But I doubt it, because I think I would have heard about it from someone.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me this morning, when the snow was fresh on the streets. I took a few pictures later in the afternoon on the way to the store, but by that time, the streets were mostly cleared–except for a slushy mess that could be pretty slick by tomorrow morning. (Luckily, I’m off in the morning!)

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As I mentioned before, I will be working at Tokyo Dome, on Wednesdays, for the next couple months. Here a few pictures I took before my class yesterday. It is a huge area, full of photo opportunities. I’m looking forward to taking a lot of pictures there! Here are just a few to get the ball rolling…

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Shinjuku. It has its own beauty.

Update: It’s late, so I just planned on posting this picture and going to bed. But looking at this picture, I just remembered that the very first blog post I ever wrote, on blogger.com, I used a picture almost like this one. That was back in May of 2005, I believe, and we had just had a pretty strong earthquake. I was in Yodobashi Camera, a huge electronics store that you can’t see in this picture. It’s in that area, to the right, a couple blocks behind those buildings. Unfortunately, I lost that early blog post (as I explained in my first post), but I will never forget the experience. It was a Saturday, and the trains were really messed up because of the earthquake. I had finished teaching, but it took me hours to get home. I remember riding the Chuo Line, which skips some stations, and seeing tons of people just sitting down on the station platform, waiting for the local train to come. One of my friends was trying to get to a friend’s wedding. I can only imagine what a fiasco that must have been. When the earthquake hit, the clerks at Yodobashi guided frightened customers to the exits. But I remember thinking there was no way I was going to go outside. I would rather be hit by a camera bag or a package of batteries than by a falling billboard!

I’ve seen this a million times, but never like this!

I took this in Shinjuku, on January 2nd. I still have some more pics (including a bunch of Christmas lights!) from that day to put up. I’ll try to get them up in the next day or so, when I have time.

If you have ever considered a DSLR camera, especially a Nikon, here is a good introductory article from Mike Davidson. He discusses how to choose a camera and lens, and why you shouldn’t worry too much about megapixels. This is pretty basic info, but well-written.

I agree with his praise of Nikon’s 50mm f/1.8 prime lens. Although I sometimes find myself wishing I could zoom in/out for a shot, it is a very sharp, fast, and powerful lens–and cheap! I still have a long way to go before I can really take full advantage of what it offers, but I agree it is an incredible value. Personally, i would recommend that anyone considering a Nikon DSLR skip the kit lens and go with the 50mm. Then, you can always add lenses later.

BTW, I have a flickr set of pics that I have taken with that 50mm lens here. It’s constantly being updated, so check back often or subscribe to the feed for my pictures and never miss them!