I’ve uploaded all the Otakon 2013 photos now, they’re available on my photo site. If you want to see all the convention photos, you can go to my Conventions gallery, or if you just want to see cosplayers close-up, go to my Cosplay gallery. There will be more as I move them from this site to that one, but it will take some time.
Well, I haven’t updated this site in a couple of weeks, last weekend I was at the 20th Otakon in Baltimore, and took a whole mess of pictures. Since then I’ve been busy working on a new website. I’ve decided to move most of my photography from this site, and make a more semi-pro portfolio site, using one of my old domains. Instead of trying to force this site into the form, either with a separate theme or try to figure out multi-site, I decided to just bite the bullet, buy a real photography theme, and build a new site. I’ll still have links from here to the new site, but the actual photos will be over on lexonia.net. Check it out!
So, I found a great spot to see the DC fireworks, that isn’t crowded and is fairly close. At the north end of the spit of land that Reagan National Airport is on is a small park and boat slip called “Gravelly Point.” It’s off the beaten path, and parking is limited so not many drivers can access it, so it gets overlooked by most fireworks watchers. However, the Mount Vernon bike trail goes right to it, and it’s easily accessible on foot from Crystal City, which has loads of parking for free after 4 PM. I scoped out this path on Wednesday night the 3rd, so I could see just how much work it would take, and what kind of view there would be.
[one_half]Gravelly Point, DC, an hour and a half before showtime![/one_half]
[one_half_last]Really not crowded, Gravelly Point has room for lots of people![/one_half_last]
[one_third]Great view of the monuments downtown (where all the crowds are)[/one_third]
[one_third]Families that kayak together, stay together[/one_third]
[one_third_last]Almost sunset, a few bikers headed further towards town[/one_third_last]
It’s just over a mile from the Crystal City path that intersects with the Mount Vernon trail, and there’s a huge grassy clearing with room for plenty of people! On the Fourth, I went there again (after persuading my buddy John that it wouldn’t be that bad) and sure enough, there were a lot of people, but nowhere near the crowding that you get on the Mall or other prime viewing spots in Virginia. The spot is right on the Potomac, so there was a nice breeze off the water to keep mosquitos away, and took the edge off the notorious DC heat and humidity. Once the fireworks started, there was a mad dash from the water’s edge (where most people were sitting in the partial shade) to the center of the field, where the best viewing was. I would say there wasn’t more than 1 or 2 thousand people total, in a space the size of 3 football fields, so no one blocked anyone elses’ view, and we definitely were not crowding each other!
I got some pretty good shots, and some good video, and really got to practice taking fireworks pictures, which is kind of tricky. Having a tripod was invaluable, but also learning what settings to make was vital.
So, I thought I’d try to be a little artistic with another one of my photos from Japan. I see all kinds of “art” photos where the photographer uses grainy black and white, so I thought I’d do the same with one of my more-or-less “artistic” photos, converting the nice clean crisp color photo to this B&W thing. This is a shot of one of the platforms at Tokyo Station. I was headed to Yokohama for the day, and it was well past rush hour so there was hardly a person there. “Crowded Tokyo” is very selective in its appearance.
I don’t know if this works as “art” or not, since I’m not an artist, but here it is anyway! I guess it kind of looks like an old photo, or something…
Be grateful you can’t hear me singing this! And I only did one verse so you can be even more thankful!
Enoshima Girls
(sung to the tune of “California Girls” by the Beach Boys)
Well Tokyo girls are hip, I really dig those styles they wear,
And Osaka girls with the way they talk, they knock me out when I’m back there.
The Tohoku farmer’s daughters really make you feel all right,
And Hokkaido girls with they way they kiss they keep their boyfriends warm at night.
I wish they all could be Enoshima
I wish they all could be Enoshima
I wish they all could be Enoshima girls!
Sun, sand, surf and cute girls, the Beach Boys would have loved Enoshima! =^_^=
So, what do you do when you have to park a lot of cars, but land is very expensive and hard to come by? If you live in Japan, there’s only one way to go: grab a bit of space and double up!
Here are two examples of how people in Tokyo deal with parking, one a parking garage in an apartment building, the other a space for a fleet of company cars. If you don’t have the space to put up a dedicated parking garage, if you have room in your space for two cars, all you have to do is get one of these things, hook up your electricity, and boom, now you’ve got room for four! A little corner that would hold 4 cars in a US neighborhood can now hold all 8 company cars just as easily. I’ve heard there are some clever ways of using space in New York City and probably in other cramped US cities, plus there’d be no need of them in the rest of the US, but it seems like these things were everywhere in Japan. Like a lot of Japan, it’s simple, efficient and convenient!
I’m a big fan of Japanese Enka music, which is an original Japanese style of music often called “Japanese blues”, because it was influenced by American blues, and because it’s usually about the same types of subjects that blues covers: Lost loves, old friends long gone, “the good old days”, drinking. Older enka songs tended to be accompanied by a few instruments, including traditional things like shamisen and flutes, but after the 70’s they became more “Las Vegas”-like. In some ways some of the songs remind me of country songs, at least for the songs of “lost love and drinking”!
“Rhythm”, the enka store, in 2007
On my first trip to Japan in 2007, I learned about an enka store in the Ameyoko shopping district of Ueno, near Tokyo, called “Rhythm” （リズム）. At the time I was pretty deficient in Japanese and only knew of one enka singer by name, but the shopkeeper was very helpful in finding a couple of CDs of the singer. I thanked them as best I could, and promised myself I’d come back. I didn’t get a chance to in 2010, but in 2012 I went back with my friend John, also an enka fan. This time I could communicate much better, and talked to both the owner, Kazuhiko Kobayashi and his wife, and was able to tell them things like where I was from, how much I liked certain singers, and to tell them in more detail what kind of enka I was interested in. They were very surprised to know that there were Americans who had even heard of enka, much less being fans of the music, and they happily let me and John get pictures made with them. Even better, they took pictures of John and me and posted them on their wall of photos.
The reason I know this, there is a cable channel called NHKWorld, which is an English-language re-broadcast of select NHK programs from Japan, and one episode of “Tokyo Eye” covered enka. The TV crew went to Rhythm and interviewed Kobayashi-san, who told them of how surprised he was that foreigners would come to his store. The cameraman happened to pan down the wall of photos, and I saw part of the photo of me and John. Needless to say, it was quite a feeling to see a picture of oneself, in a tiny store in Japan, broadcast literally all over the world.
At any rate, this is Kobayashi-san and his wife, with some ugly foreigner! My next trip, I will go back to visit them again!
