Bob's Blog

Canyonlands day 3

2010-10-18T13:17:00.001-07:00

After doing all of the short trails, we decided to take the trail out into the Needles to Chesler Park. The trail is a 6 mile round trip over slickrock, through stream beds and generally going through a broad selection of them possible terrain in the area.

The trail starts at the base of Elephant hill and goes up a bit before leveling out for a while.

This is the view from the rock ledge where we ate lunch.

It took a while to find a place where we could sit and eat. The problem was the cyanobiotic crust. Stepping on it damages the crust and it take decades to repair itself. You can see it at the bottom of the photo of the park area. It kinda looks like a blackish crust.

Still, the hike was well worth it. The view once you cross into the park is of a green oasis in the middle of the red sand desert.

After we spent about an hour eating and walking bout we headed back. This is the last part of the climb out of Elephant creek. It is a steep ascent, but not overly difficult. Although I would recommend a hiking staff to help with balance and bracing.

The next section was what is called the Wedge. It's a narrow crack in the ridge about 3' at the narrowist and maybe 20-30' high. It was really easy to pass through and was actually one of the most fun places on the trail. For me.

One of the things that made this hike so interesting was that you got views like this after passing through the ridges. A new ridge meant a new and different view.

There was one other spot where the trail narrowed. The trail passed through a short narrow spot in a rock. It was so narrow I had to turn sideways to fit through.

The next two are examples of the scenery along the trail.

And finally, our last evening. I've already showed out the view from our campsite to the west. Here is the view to the east and a fond fair well, at least until the next trip :)

Day 2 Needles Unit

2010-10-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

Both Sal and I can't believe that it took us so long to visit here. I can guarantee that we won't wait so long for a return trip. If you want to know more about Canyonlands I suggest that you try to site at www.nps.gov as a starting point.

Now, first there are a couple of warnings. First, it's a desert folks. There is NO water. Bring lots and Drink it! Second, the best stuff in the park requires hiking...in the desert...where it is rocky...and there is NO water, or cell phone coverage either. So come prepared.

So after stopping at the visitor center and asking the nice folks there about the park, we decided to start by taking all of the short hikes. In the Needles there are four. I'll describe them in the order in which we did them.

First was roadside ruin. It's probably the shortest and easiest of the hikes. The map said it was about .3 of a mile. But it seemed shorter. It's a good introduction to the area and you get a chance to see local plants (helpfully labeled in many cases) and some of the wildlife.

The trail takes you into a shallow wash and to a small ruin. The ruin is Puebloan and is a granary. It's also pretty much the only ruin that you can see without a long hike.

The second hike was Cave spring. The hike is .6 of a mile. Here you get to see an actual cowboy line camp. For you non-westerners, a line camp was a semi permanent camp or cabin that was used when the hands were out on the far edges of a ranch and needed a place to base camp while dealing with the cattle. In this case the line camp was placed under an overhang of rock near a small spring. From what I recall from the sign, the camp was in use from the 1890's until the 1960's.

The next thing that you get to see is a series of petroglyphs. There was no information on them. But here they are.

The rest of the loop continues up and out of the canyon onto the slickrock and then back into the canyon.

After lunch we took the longest of the 4 trails. Slickrock is a 2.4 mile loop. The recommended time is 2 hours. It will take that long. Hiking on the slickrock is like hiking on lava. It looks smooth from a distance but isn't. For those taking the hike, keep an eye out for Desert bighorn sheep as they are known to frequent his area. Although your chances to see one are slim at best.

This shot should give you an small idea of what the slickrock is like. And this is a smooth stretch :)

The final short trail is Pothole point. The trail is .6 of a mile. The best part of this isn't the views...

But the chance to see things like the Fairy shrimp.

Fairy shrimp are a species that lives breeds and dies during the rainy season. They live in vernal ponds (or in this case potholes in the rock). It was pretty cool getting to see one and to see the other small red shrimp and the snails.

The last place that we stopped was Newspaper rock. Its not in the park but on BLM land on the road leading to the park. I'll just let the photo show you one small part.

And on a final note, here is what the sunset looked like from our campsite.

And a look at the stars as well :)

2010-10-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

Day 1

Today is a travel day. It's about 13 hours (without stops). So, of couse we had to stop. The only major stop was Monument valley. Its definitely a must stop and see on any trip through this area.

We even met a little friend while eating lunch in the parking lot of the visitors center.

We finally arrived in Canyonlands late in the afternoon. Only to find out that the campground was full. Fortunately there are a fair amount of options available. We decided to stay at Needles Outpost campground. If you can't get in the park this is the place to stay. it's 1 1/2 miles from the park entrance and right next to the park boundary. There are 20 sites with showers ($3 for campers, $7 for others) and a small store. The owners are good folks. Our campsite had an incredible view to the west and was up against a huge red bluff.

(insert site photo)

Thus endeth the first day :)
.

Canyonlands National Park

2010-10-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

So, on my way to Canyonlands. This is my first trip to this particular park. Its a 13 hour trip. We're going to stop for the night in Phoenix and head in tomorrow. We expect to explore the southern unit, the Needles. The campgrounds are on a first come basis.

I don't know how often I'll be able to post since I don't expect to get much of a signal. We'll see :)

Day 44

2009-08-28T23:57:00.000-07:00

So, I'm finally caught up. (there is no day 45 shot)

Last night I went down to the Pt. Loma Sport Fishing Docks for dinner with friends. We sat out at the rail at the Hudson Bay Seafood restaurant. The food was good. I like the crabcakes :)

While we sat there I played with the camera and was adjusting for exposure using the brow. The Auo exposure had this shot as bright as daylight. So I stopped the speed down until I got an exposure I liked.

There are 2 elements that I really like about this one. The subtle colors and shadows. And the pattern.

Now, I could crop to better accentuate the pattern. And I think that I'll try that. Just to see what happens. But not tonight :)

Day 43

2009-08-28T23:56:00.000-07:00

I really don't like this photo. The only reason it's here is so the folks in it can download it if they want to. I really botched this one.

Day 42

2009-08-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

Well, somewhere in here I lost about 25 photos. For the life of me I can't figure out what the hell I did with them. If I find them I'll fill in the missing days. This is days 37 to 41. Oh well.

So on to day 42.

There are 2 photos today. We were in Torrey Pines State park. I caugt a picture of the Cliffside buckwheat.

I like this one for 2 reasons. The color of the ripening head is brighter than the other buckwheat I shot. And I didn't even realize that there was a species that grew only within a few feet of the cliffs edge overlooking the ocean. So I though I'd share.

The second shot was of new growth on a Coastal Prickly Pear (Opuntia littoralis).

I like the combination of the colors, composition (it just looks right to me), and detail (the silk strand).

Day 31 and 32

2009-08-28T23:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I lied in the last post. I decided to do 1 photo from each day.

Day 31. Since this was the friday open practice, we went out after for food. I caught this photo of Erik as he sat next to me.

I like the expression on his face. The color adds a certain urgency to the photo as well :) This was just playing around. So you should call this a snapshot. But hey, a good snapshot can be a photograph is you're lucky.

Day 32.

I took this shot of the dinner table. I really liked the pattern that the candles and napkins made.

I used a narrow depth of field to add to the feeling of a long table. I like this one.

Day 30-35

2009-08-22T17:40:00.001-07:00

Well, I was shooting here. Mostly is was for our annual seminar. While I'll post photos, I don't think that I'll blog them. I was pretty busy :)

Day 29

2009-08-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

Once more I was playing with the in camera controls for this series. For this group I was trying the Picture controls. There are 4 of them:

Standard - DSC_1729.jpg
Neutral - DSC_1730.jpg
Vivid - DSC_1731.jpg
Monochrome - DSC_1732.jpg

As you can see there are some differences :)

I think what I'll need to do is find a better subject and try this one again.

Day 28

2009-08-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

Another shot of Buckwheat. Well, it is what's blooming at the moment. This one was taken at Torrey Pines SP.

So what is better about this one? Let's see... the background is dark. This sets the subjet apart. It also is more buckwheat. This helps establish both continuity of subject and environment. It keeps the subject grounded and isolates it, but doesn't remove it from it's habitat.

What could be better? Depth of field. This would have benefited from a bit deeper DoF and a tripod.

Still, It is an improvement over the last one.

Day 26/27

2009-08-22T17:26:00.000-07:00

No post

Day 25

2009-08-22T17:23:00.001-07:00

Day 25
Originally uploaded by bmorris1313

I'm trying something new. Flickr has a function to blog the photo straight to a site. So let's try it out and see what happens.

This photo was taken as a curiosity because of this jokers bad parking. I thought the ticket was funny. Although the author could have left off the comment about the car.

Man, What a bad job of html. I think I'll stick to using the blogs editor for now.

Day 24

2009-08-22T17:09:00.000-07:00

We're in La Jolla for lunch. I'd been playing with the in camera controls and wasn't happy with the previous photos I was playing with. The Quality was set to RAW and jpeg fine. As we pulled up to a light I saw the lady at the bus stop. So I grabbed a quick shot and started to play with it in the camera.

What attracted me to this was the street quality to the situation. If I hadn't mentioned La Jolla, you could have placed this at any bus stop.

So the first setting that I played with was Monochrome. Once I changed it I saved. That gave me 2 jpegs of the scene. Then I tried the crop. Especially since there was a lot of extraneous crap around the edges. As I went through the setting I found that I could do only use 3 settings: 4/3, 5/4, 3/2. I chose 5/4ths. I tried to crop vertical but there is no setting for that. It would be a useful thing to have I think.

Still, it really is pretty usefull to be able to do corrections and basic editing right in the camera.

Day 23

2009-08-22T17:02:00.000-07:00

So, I got hungry and decided to get a snack. So I go to Wendy's to get some fries and they tell me to please pull forward. Guess what I see?

As I sat around waiting I decided to try a bit more gritty look that I'm used to. So I used the 5 minutes to play with various settings and took a bunch of exposures. I wanted a darker more saturated feel to this one. So I dropped down the ISO and aperture until I had several exposures that looked adequate in the camera. One I got a chance to look at them in Lightroom I chose this one. I think I at least captured some of the feel I was looking for.

Day 22

2009-08-13T23:04:00.000-07:00

Right now we're at the tail end of the blooming of our local Bottlebrush trees. We also have quite a large hive of honeybees around here as well. For the past couple of months the bees have been really going after the pollen from these trees. You can hear the buzzing and it's pretty loud.

Since most of the blossoms have fallen. I decided to try to get a macro of a bee on the flower.

The problem with this is...

I wasn't using a tripod.
The bees were moving quick.
The focus kept going for the outer edges of the flowers while the bees were down inside.
I had the depth of field too shallow.

So the lessons are...

Use a tripod (duh)
Patience
Watch the focus and use manual if necessary
Watch the depth of field
Use a ladder

Day 21

2009-08-13T22:51:00.000-07:00

I've finally got more than 2 days in a row. Its going to be busy this weekend so I'll try to put up a couple of posts tonight.

The photo today is of ripening buckwheat. Or at least that's what I remember this as.

This was taken in Mission Trails park. At the moment there are thousands of these plants going from white to golden brown. The first few attempts were to try to get the feel of the broad swaths of color and texture these plants show. Unfortunately I didn't get it. So I tried to do the next step. It goes something like this (in my brain anyway :) ):

"What is it about this that attracted my attention? Was it the color? Form? Pattern? Light? The image is too busy. Simplify. I like the golden brown. Maybe just a head?"

And that was it. I chimped a few to check composition and exposure and then shot around what I thought was a good setting. As it turned out it kinda captured what was the simplest image.

I also like the brown over the green background.

Is it great...no. But it is adequate. And I do like it.

Day 20

2009-08-12T23:50:00.001-07:00

Missed.

But on the bright side I did get 3 posts in tonight.

Day 19

2009-08-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

I tried once again to get a shot of a white flower.

I can't seem to figure out how to get a decent shot of something white. I'm going to have to try to find some techniques that work eventually. Maybe buy a flowering plant as a prop would help.

Day 17/18

2009-08-12T23:39:00.000-07:00

Once again we get to skip another day. I won't go into details on these. It'll take up too much time and sound like an excuse.

Day 18.

I was walking the dog when these 2 flew up out of the grass.

I guess I caught them making little butterflies. While it isn't much of a shot. It was the closest I could get to these 2 without using a long lens. And I didn't want to disturb them more than we already had.

I did crop this one down to better show the butterflies.

Day 15/16

2009-08-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

Not much happened on day 15.

Day 16 was a bit different. For the past couple of days I've been hearing the screech of several raptors. Today I finally spotted them in some Eucalyptus. So I ran inside and grabbed a cheap lens to see if I could capture one of them.

Well, I did.

While identifiable, the cheap ass lens sure shows how bad it is. No detail. Soft focus. It is so true that you get what you pay for.

The lens is a Quantaray 70-300mm macro. I got it for $130. It was advertised as a Sigma. So I took the chance. I guess a Quantaray is a Sigma. But it sure is the cheap end. Later I learned that Sigma sells rejects as Quantaray. Live and learn. This lesson is well learned ;)

And I do hope that someone can tell me what the bird is. I'm pretty bad at bird identification.

Note: this is the last photo in July

Day 14

2009-08-10T22:41:00.000-07:00

2 weeks in. So far only 2 days missed. Not too bad. I suspect that I'll miss maybe 5% of the days deadlines for various reasons. So once I catch up it should run better.

On to the next photo.

For this one I broke out the 60mm micro. I've been seeing a lot of suckers on the local trees. I like the bright green against the gray bark. So far this is the best I've captured.

I like the green/gray color. But I don't feel I caught the brightness I was looking for. That would be a factor of either white balance tweaking or (more likely) a slightly darker exposure. I also don't really like the composition. I think that a more vertical format would give a feeling of height. Maybe a single/double leaf in vertical.

Maybe I'll retry this one in the near future.

Day 13

2009-08-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

Today I tried to take a portrait of my dog. Well, I got a couple of ok shots. But not what I was looking for. While I was able to get an adequate exposure and focus. The background left something to be desired. To make a sorta short story shorter...this is what happens when your dog finally gets bored :)

Day 12

2009-08-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

Last day of the Con. Exhaustion rules. So my choice is limited. Again I chose a model under glass.

Day 11

2009-08-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday. Long day. Here's the photo I chose.

This is a close up of a model about a foot tall. It was lit from multiple angles. I really like the depth of field and the way the camera captured the colors. This was taken through a plexiglass housing.

Day 11+

2009-08-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while. I have been shooting. Problem has been time to sit down and do something with all of the photos. So I'll be taking a bit of time to get things together tonight and get some new photos uploaded.

Day 10

2009-07-31T23:03:00.000-07:00

This will be the last post tonight as I'm pretty tired. First Con then working all week without a break wears on you.

So without further ado:

I like this one (even though it's posed). Cindy is a lot of fun. I think this shot captures a bit of her attitude. I also like the feel of it. An author, holding her book, in a book shop, as a game character. This is Comic Con :)

Also, notice that the background softens due to depth of field. Damn but I like the D700. It nailed the exposure and white balance in the cavernous room.

Day 9

2009-07-31T22:52:00.000-07:00

The first full day at Con.

So, why this one? Well, it was a tossup between this one and the Star Trek Ladies. I chose this one for the lighting and sense of scale. When I took the picture it was before opening and not all of the lights were on. There was a spot shining down on Bumblebee. It gives a very dramatic feel to the light. once they turned on all of the lights it softened it a bit.

Day 8: Comic Con 2009

2009-07-31T22:41:00.000-07:00

For the next 5 days I was at Comic Con. It really tests the low light capability of the camera. It also tested my ability to find photos out of the chaos. As on of the Wired photogs said, every guy with a camera takes photos of the girls in costume. I do too. But rather than be scatter shot, I try to find interesting subjects. It doesn't mean I don't' occasionally break down and do it, but I don't spend Con trying to capture only that.

Each day I'll pick the photo I like best and try to describe the situation.

Today was setup and preview night.

I took this photo from the foyer as we were picking things up from one of the cars. I don't like it as much as Inkistas shot through the circles from the escalators. But I like it in that it gives a feeling of the size of the Con.

Day 7

2009-07-31T22:40:00.000-07:00

Prep for Comic Con 2009.

Day 6

2009-07-20T23:41:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of filler until I post the photo. It's a re-shoot of the Flower done around 8 in the morning. I don't really like it as much as the other but there it is. That's how we learn :)

Well here it finally is. See what I mean. The colors of the flowers are better. But the fence is now blah.

On a side note. I am shooting regularly. I'll update as quick as I can. There will also be days when photography is not possible. I'll make note of those :)

Day 4 and 5

2009-07-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

Well, looks like I'm a bit behind. Doesn't mean that I haven't done anything.

This shot was taken on Saturday (day 4) around 11:30 am. I saw the vine growing through the fence and decided to give it a go. Not too bad. I'm happy with the leaves but I feel the flowers were a bit too washed out. I tried again and I'll post that tomorrow. The focus and depth of field are good. And the sharpness is pretty good as well. I like the composition. Mostly vertical lines with simple colors. The vine stands out nicely from the boards.

Sunday. Ahhh, Sunday. About all that I accomplished was to read about 120 pages of the manual. Still, it was something to do with improving my skills.

This week is going to be interesting. I'll be at Comic Con for 5 days. I'll have lots too choose from and I'll post at least the best shot of the day. I have an acquaintance who does cosplay so you should get to see some costumes :)

Day 3 : White Balance

2009-07-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

One of the final checks is white balance. The contact sheet shows all 8 default settings on the camera.

As you can see by the numbering, photoshop can sometimes do strange things to contact sheets :) So I'll set up the data by photo number from 1-8.

1: Automatic - 4000 temp
2: Incandescent - 2950
3: Florescent - 3950
4: Sunlight - 5000
5: Flash - 6150
6: Cloudy - 5700
7: Shade - 7300
8: K (5000) - 4800

The setup was on a desk next to a large window with a single florescent tube overhead. The sheet in front of the items is a neutral gray/white card.

There is a table in the manual that gives the values for the average value. It roughly corresponds to the measurements above. Although it looks like I'm about 200 off. Still, it's in the acceptable range. I mat try fine tuning under the lamps I have. But that will be for another day. I think it's cool to be able to correct the color setting in the camera.

Day 2

2009-07-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

So, on to day 2. Which is really today the 16th.

I spent most of today reviewing the first 100 pages of the manual and setting up the basic functions. Date, time, mode, quality, etc... The quality is the type of file the camera saves to. In my case I'll be doing most of my shooting in 14 bit non-compressed RAW format. Ill do other file types as I learn the in camera editing functions. But that's for later.

First, today's shot.

This is a simple shot to test out a couple of things. First was the default white balance(WB) vs. a preset. Second was the noise at a moderate ISO. And lastly was the Depth of Field (DoF) for the 50mm. Real nice bokeh. And this shot was hand-held too.

This shot uses ISO 800, F1.8 and the incandescent WB. It's odd. But the auto WB for both of my Nikons was a bit reddish. Setting the WB to incandescent fixed it. But I would have thought it would be closer. Especially with the white areas in the field of view (FOV).

I'll do a future post on the equiptment I intend to use. But I gotta admit, I really like this camera :)

365 day project

2009-07-16T21:33:00.000-07:00

So you have to be wondering, what the heck is a 365 day project?

Well, the concept is simple. Pick something - Martial arts, painting running, photos :-) - and every day for a year, do something new. Create something, use a new technique, do something...

Well, what I'm doing is, for the next year I'm going to take a photograph every day and post it here. I will describe what I did and why I did it. Simple.

Why? Well, because I feel my photography is missing something.

So here is the situation. I have a new camera. I graduated from a Nikon D70s to a D700. This is important for a couple of reasons. First, the D700 is a pro level camera. and secondly, the D700 has a manual with over 400 pages of instructions! So for the first month I'll be learning the camera.

I'll start off with my first photo with the camera.

This shot was taken around 9 in the morning with memory and battery dropped into the camera. There was nothing set or done other than to turn it on, point it at the dog and shoot. Not very exciting I know. But it does finish day 1. And it does show how good the camera is on default settings.

Trips

2009-02-16T22:13:00.000-08:00

Well, due to rain I didn't get down to the bay. So I guess I'll post about the National Parks for a bit.

The last 2 trips I took were to Bryce Canyon and Yosemite. I'll cover Bryce first.

Bryce Canyon NP is located in southern Utah. The park is basically a series of tall rock spires formed from erosion from the rim of a canyon. That's kinda like saying that water is wet or that the sky is blue. So let us do a bit better with this:

That's better.

Bryce is red rocks, blue sky, stunning vistas, deep canyons and soaring hoodoos. In Winter it's dusted with white as well. Any time of year it's spectacular. Rain brings forth the Thunderbird and his light shows.

Now you have an idea of what Bryce is about.

On this trip I went with a couple of friends. We camped out over a long weekend in late September. The weather was good. Although there were thunderstorms (duh, look at the pictures:) ) It was warm during the day and cold at night. It is after all at 7000 ft. We spent our days on different trails. We hit the Queens garden and the Bristlecone loop. Trails that I've done before. This time we decided to try a trail that was closed the last time I was there. Navaho loop. The Wall street section was closed due to a rock fall. But they reopened the trail again.

This is the best trail I've been on in the park (so far). We even hit it as the aspens were starting to turn. The trail isn't for folks who can't climb. The first part is a steep downhill to get to wall street.

What this photo doesn't show is the remains of the rock fall. A bolder the size of a Diesel rig (sans trailer) is just before the tree. I think that I was standing next to the boulder when I took this shot. Oh, and the tree is rather tall.

Let's talk about photography here. If you look at the data on the photos, you'll notice that most of them were shot with a 24mm lens. This was a conscious choice. On this trip I decided that I would stick to a prime lens and the 24 was the best for the subjects. Wide angles allow for dramatic shots in the narrow canyons and wide vistas in the more open areas. Perfect for Bryce.

Lightning. A bit of a warning and a tip. Lightning on the rim is dangerous. Especially when you are carrying metal objects...Like cameras and tripods :) So be aware of your surroundings at all times during stormy weather. Now the tip. Lightning is rarely a single bolt. From what I've read it is almost always a series. What I did to get the shots here was to try to get the second/third/fourth strikes. I got lucky. And just so you know, I was about a mile from where the edge of the storm was and we left long before it came close to us.

Well, that should do it for Bryce. Next time I'll post on my trip in December to Yosemite.

Well...

2009-02-15T23:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a while. I think that it's time to start posting again. Since Japan I've been doing mostly local travel. The last 2 trips have been to (relatively) local National parks. Bryce Canyon and Yosemite. I'll be posting on those soon.

I'll also be covering a bit of practice with my D70s. I haven't been happy with the exposures that I've been getting lately. In an article (I forget where I read it) it was suggested that I take a series of exposures to see what my camera does with the light. Think of it as looking at the sensors output and then calibrating it. Tomorrow I'll run down to the Harbor and take a look at the Surprise. The Surprise is the ship From Master and Commander. It's docked next to the Star of India. Should be interesting.

Well that should do it for now. I'll leave you with this shot from the zoo.

End of the US Open

2008-06-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

*sigh* What a let down.

The traffic was actually better than normal most days. So I decided to stop the project on Thursday due to uninteresting photos. I gotta hand it to the US Open planners. They did a fantastic job with the traffic up here. At the stadium...I'm not so sure. Traffic in Mission valley is dicey at best. Still, they've had lots of practice at Qualcomm.

The Open was pretty good though. Tied on the last shot of regulation play. Followed by another 18 holes tied at the end (deja vu). Followed by a sudden death playoff.

Congratulations to Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate for a fantastic series of Golf.

Day 3/4

2008-06-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of the Qualifying rounds. Traffic around Qualcomm is pretty bad according to the radio. Traffic on the freeway coming in was moderate. Although the bus route into La Jolla (Yes the buses go down ~~Ardath rd~~ La Jolla Pkwy) was pretty bad. It was backed up down the ramps almost to the I-52 when I passed by.

I do have some photos of the trip in and will post them tonight.

I decided to go in via Gilman drive. Gilman was pretty clear. Lots more bicycles today. And then I went up La Jolla Village Dr/ N.Torrey Pines Rd.

That was more what I expected. Phil and Tiger were already on the course when I went in. So I expect traffic through there was a lot heavier a couple of hours earlier.

The other thing I noticed was SDPD. They're all over the place. Writing tickets and towing cars. So if you plan on being in the area, be alert and obey ALL of the signs. Getting towed is expensive and the nearest yard is over by Miramar.

Day 2/3

2008-06-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

So it's Wednesday lunch. Things are starting to ramp up a bit. Traffic still isn't above the normal variation... yet. Although the signs are there that it's going to be worse. I'm starting to see a lot more folks wandering off towards the side streets and the Detour signs are starting to appear.

Starting tomorrow I'll be biking in part way to avoid the worst of the expected build ups. So far I have to say "Good Job" the the traffic planners. We'll see how well they did in the next 2 days :)

US Open Day 0 and Day 1

2008-06-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

Since I work in Torrey Pines I thought it might be a fun (or at least amusing to me) idea to chronicle how the US Open affects my daily commute. What I did was to walk around last Friday and take pictures around the outside of the Golf course at 6pm. Then each day I'll take pictures of my commute and post the interesting ones with commentary about the drive.

Day 0 (Friday)

The first thing I noticed was all of the myriad signs that have appeared in the last few days. Everything from Extreme delay warnings and No Parking to Shuttle direction signs.

For some reason traffic was extremely light Friday.

Day 1 (Monday)

Monday was pretty light. I managed to get to work with no problems. I didn't even see any buses.

And the evening commute was light as well...or at least no worse than normal :)

This morning I didn't take any photos. The Commute and traffic were pretty normal. The only difference was the half dozen or so large buses on I-52.

Now for the bad news.

The tourists are here. On my way out to lunch I saw 4 near accidents and at least 10 major traffic violations before I got to UCSD. And to think I want to ride my bike in with this traffic....

What I'm planning

2008-05-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

I really didn't set out to run a permanent Blog. But I decided that I'll use this as a pace to show off my photography and special events. I'm guessing that anyone who's read this realizes that I'm also Koryu Bugeisha.

For those who don't understand the term. Koryu Bugeisha roughly translates as Traditional warfare practitioner. More simply, trainee Samurai.

So expect to see posts on events for the Jikishin Kai. (I'd also expect posts on other subjects as well)

And I haven't forgotten the lessons learned post :)

Hotel Review

2008-05-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

At long last we get to our promised review of our accommodation's. These notes are taken from the ~~complaints~~ input of my fellow travelers. But they are filtered through me. So on to the data.

Fujita Hotel
city: Kyoto

Good:

Location. Right next to the river. Short walk from several major sites.
Great staff.
Best breakfast of any of the hotels we were at.
Nice rooms. Even with 3 shoehorned in.

Bad:

No internet in the rooms (I know...engineers. Still, everyone likes to check email) Computers are in the lobby - 2 - at 1000 yen for 10 minutes.
2 outlets in the room. And 1 was for the TV.
1000 yen TV cards
1 KEY per room (that's right, no cards)

Emus Business Hotel
Shin-Fuji

Good:

Price! about $50 a night. Cash only though.
Free wireless
Rooms were good for the price. Think Motel 6.
Roof access (view of Mt Fuji)

Bad:

Long walk from the station (not my complaint) and signs were in katakana.
1 Room smelled smoky (cigarettes)
Owner spoke no english (not a problem for us but...)

Takayama Best Western
Takayama

Good:

Great location
Good staff
Good Breakfast

Bad:

Spendy . Well over $100 each a night.
No exchange service (but post office nearby)
Staff spoke little/no english (Yes, I know this is Japan. Still, this is a tourist area)

Comfort ~~Inn~~ Hotel
Toyama

Good:

Location. Close to station.
Clean.
Staff (remembered us and our room numbers right away)

Bad:

1 card per room. With room number on it. (I mean it wasn't a disposable card)
Small rooms.
Pillows were horrible. Weird things about an inch thick...with instructions on how to use them. Still, for some unknown reason Mark liked them.
No exchange service. (in a business hotel? Come on...)

Manten Kanzawa
Kanazawa

Good:

Ummmm.....the Japanese bath on the second floor.
Good staff.

Bad:

Tiny rooms.
No exchange
Expensive breakfast...and POWDERED EGGS for gods sake.
Bit of a walk from the station

Rihga Royal
Kyoto

Good:

Best rooms. Especially at the price :)
Great Staff
Shuttle bus
Biggest tubs
Great location for travelers. (right next to the station)
Really good restaurant (Top of Kyoto) according to Jo. But expensive.

Bad:

1000 yen fee for most services (internet, pool, hot tub, etc...) I think they keep the room cost low but they do it by nickel and dimeing you for services.

So the verdicts are:

Best hotel - Rihga Royal
Best for price - Emus (really)
Stay away from - Manten

Could be better still - Fujita. And all it needs is a bit of moderizing. Like more outlets, wireless access, and keycard doorlocks. Other than that it was great.

So there you have it. That's the quick rundown on the hotels. We all liked the Rihga best. And I'd surely stay there again. If I wanted to be closer to the center of the city I'd probably use the Fujita again. But since I like to take day trips out of the station I prefer the Rihga.

Next post will be lessons learned - 2008 edition.

Home

2008-05-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that we're home safely. I'll get the remainder up tomorrow.

Final day...almost

2008-05-13T05:17:00.000-07:00

It's our last full day here. Today we decided to split up and go see whatever we wanted. Becky went to Himeji Ko-koen. Mark to the Philosophers walk. Jo went shopping. And I went to Arashiyama again.

I decided that I wanted to take the scenic "Romantic Train" of the Sagano Sight-seeing Tram. Why? Because it looked fun and it runs through the Hozu River gorge. So I bought a ticket and wandered around Arashiyama until train time.

So I got on the train. The seats were wood and not very comfortable. And what is it with ticketing? Half the car was empty and the other half was full. So we spread out and enjoyed the trip.

The gorge is a lot smaller that the one I'm used to. The Columbia is a bit bigger than the Hozu :)

And there are a lot fewer rapids on the Columbia as well.

So it was pretty cool to see the River boats shooting the rapids.

After that was a bit of shopping and then we all met at the station for dinner after Becky got back from Himeji.

So that will pretty much wrap up our trip. Tomorrow is mostly check out, final shopping, travel to the airport and fly home. Once we're back and have had a bit to recover I'll wrap up the trip with the Hotel review (I haven't forgotten) and a set of guidelines for those who might be traveling here in the near future.

See you all in the States :)

Bob

Final days

2008-05-12T05:04:00.000-07:00

We're down to our final day and a half. Thank God! We're road weary, sore and are ready to come home :)

We decided to go easy today. The only places we went were to the Imperial Palace and to the Handicraft center. The Imperial Palace is a huge park that includes the Kyoto residence of the Emperor. Think of it as an upscale central park with Royalty. It was very nice and soothing.

From there we decided to get lunch. Yes we got a very late start today. The place we found is some kind of new chain. Kinda neat. Best food prices in town so far. And as an added bonus it was pretty good.

From there we decided to hit the Kyoto Handicraft center and do some last minute shopping.

Along the way we crossed over the Kano river. Guess what? The raptors are still there. I think we spent an hour watching them play along the river from the bridge.

A brief word about the Kyoto Handicraft center. They have some excellent items...and some real crap. (don't buy swords here, go across the street to Meirin or Tozando) The stuff is also a bit overpriced. Still, it's an easy way to pick up items at the last minute, and some of the stuff is pretty good. After a couple of hours there we split. Jo went to the hotel. I followed shortly thereafter. Becky and Mark went to see the Maiko dance at Shimogamo shrine. And ended up seeing part of the upcoming festival.

Funny thing was, they didn't get to see Maiko. But I did. There was one performing in the lobby when I got here. Now if my Iai was half as smooth as she was....

So here are the plans for the last days. Tomorrow we all go separate ways to see things we want to. Wednesday we get until noon before we head for the airport. Then it's homeward bound for us. I'll post tomorrow night and again sometime after we get back. And I recover enough to think :)

And before I forget. Jason, I'll get you directions to the shop that I picked up a Bizen-yaki Muzusashi for a hundred bucks when I get back ;)

Uji and Nara

2008-05-11T06:36:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to take a light day and wander over to Uji. And if we felt like it we thought we might go over to Nara and see Todaiji as well.

So we hopped a local to Uji.

The main things for us here where Byodoin, tea shops and pottery. So we scouted out the tourist lady and headed out to Byodoin under gray skies. Fortunately this time it wasn't destined to rain all over me :)

It looks like we just missed the flowers. Still It's a beautiful place. We wandered around a bit taking photos and finally got to the Museum. Since the last time (2005) they've finished a restoration of the canopy over the Buddha inside the temple. There was an exhibit of how they did the intricate inlay of mother of pearl. Neat stuff.

Once we finished wandering about we headed across the river to visit a pottery shop. We found out that the potter is a Nat'l treasure. His stuff is exquisite....with a price to match. So, we went to lunch and decided to head over to Nara and see Todaiji.

Todaiji is located in a large park. That park is populated by temple deer. The deer have become habituated to man and the things will eat just about anything. Like toilet paper, clothing, passports, etc...

It's stuff like this that get tourists in our National Parks hurt and even killed every year. Wild animals are all too east for these folk to think of as what they have back home.

After we escaped the horde of locusts, we headed through the gate.

And arrived at the temple. To give you an idea of the size of this place, the ants at the bottom of the building are people. This is the largest free standing wooden structure in the world.

Inside the temple is the wooden statue of Buddha.

The scale: The thumb is approx. 5'high.

An interesting side note is in one of the pillars. There is a hole there carved to the size of one of the Buddhas nostril holes. It's said that going through this hole cleanses you of all sins (or something to that effect). Last time Mark was here he crawled through...barely. So in a fit of ... whatever, Mark decided to do it again. Even though he's older, and bigger. Well, see for yourself.

A VERY tight fit. But he made it...this time. Becky missed this turn of events so we had to explain it to her. The final explanation was along the lines of "Mark fit through a hole the size of the Buddhas nostril". And now all she can see whenever she looks at a picture of the statue is Mark coming out of the statues nostril like...well, you get the picture :)

After this we decided to call it a day and head back. Only to see this once we hit the gate.

Yup, a whole city blocks worth of kids. With about the same amount behind us. This is common during this time of year as the kids get to go to historical places for school.

After a harrowing escape ;) we started to wander back to the station. Only to find our way to a second hand store. Since none of us are capable of passing something like this up we went in. Somehow I don't think that the owners really understood all of what they had. I found a Bizen ware Mizu-hashi for 1/6th of the normal price. And that was only one of MANY things there. Now that I know where it is I'll be going back again next trip.

That'll be it for tonight. Tomorrow we'll be staying in town.

Happy Mothers day Mom.

Another rainy day...

2008-05-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

Today's trip was to Iseshi. Well it was supposed to be.

The day started out by going to Nagoya and switching to the JR train to Iseshi. We ended up with a 1 hour layover (that we later found could have been avoided). The trip cost an additional 490 yen because the train uses another railways line for a bit.

Boy, I was really glad we planned for cold and rain. The farther we got from Nagoya the darker the clouds got. We ended up rolling through misty, rain shrouded hills. Wisps of clouds caught in the treetops as rain dimpled the streams and pods as we passed by. Everywhere we looked there were greening fields of newly planted rice.

And unfortunately for me the camera wants to auto-focus on the rain spotted glass instead of the afore mentioned scenery :)

After about 2 1/2 hours we arrived in Iseshi. Only to find out that to see the Pearl museum (Jo's destination of choice) we needed to be in Toba. 4 stops further on. The fun thing was that while we had half an hour to kill, there was a street market just a few yards from the station. So we wandered around a bit, were accosted by the local International society, and got some lunch. Then, off to Toba.

The place we were going to was Mikimoto Pearl Island. The basic story is that he was one of the first to set things up for the cultured pearl industry. And if you like pearls you'd be in heaven here. Any question you might have about how pearls are formed, found, etc... can be answered by someone here. The sheer amount of pearls on display is mind boggling. And there are tons on display...from 60 yen to over 36,000,000 yen (that's $360,000) for one the size of a Quail egg.

The other attraction here is the Ama.

Ama are the women who dive for oysters. Those of us who are old enough will remember them from Sea World. It was really cool to see them dive again. However, It is almost finished. Pearls are now cultured on rafts and no diving is required.

So, after the show we were at a loss for something to do until our train arrived. So we went to the Toba Aquarium. I'm not sure what I expected...but this place sure wasn't it. First it was huge. Second, the number of species that where on display was phenomenal. While the Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best, this place holds it's own. Not as nice or animal friendly. Still it really does a nice job.

A few of the things we got to see where:

Manatees

Leafy Sea Dragons

Cones

one of these

deep water specimens

and giant dinner..ummm...lobsters

We could easily have spent most of the day just in the aquarium. Still, we had to come "home". So on the trip we decided that tomorrow will be a trip to Uji.

Hiroshima and Himeji

2008-05-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

We leave for Ise/Toba in a few so this will be short.

Yesterday we went to Hiroshima. Becky wanted to see the Peace park. There really isn't much I can say to those who haven't been there. Just go.

This trip has been full of surprises. When we arrived in Himeji it was really busy. We didn't think much of it until we hit the castle. It looked like a holiday. We found out that the National Sweets Exposition was being held there. Big crowds. I'm glad we got there late or we wouldn't have been able to move. The only disappointing note was that all of the big crowd barriers where in place so we couldn't wander freely. Still, it was a nice change from Hiroshima and everyones spirits were lifted.

Arashiyama

2008-05-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

Today was new for everyone...except me. As I mentioned yesterday, we decided to go to Arashiyama today. And we managed to hit every place on out list except for Diakakuji. I have so many photos I had to switch cards after Ryoanji. So with no further ado, off to our tour.

To day we started early. we left the hotel about 8 and headed for the local train to Arashiyama. For those thinking of going there take the JR west platforms 32 or 33. Since the train leaves off in the middle of the neighborhood (I take us to the most exciting places) we had to walk a bit to get to Tenryuji. I thought I should get everyone oriented so we headed out to the bridge.

After playing there for a few minutes we decided that we'd go to Tenryuji, the Bamboo forest and back to the main drag for some shopping and lunch.

Tenryuji is a temple complex with wonderful gardens.

The main garden goes around to the back of the temple and you can exit out of the north side into the Bamboo groves. The main path takes you up the side of the hill to the back gate and then brings you back to the pond and out through the main gate. The flowers were in bloom here as well. Although the rhododendrons are starting to die out. There is even wildlife.

After a bit we wandered out the north gate and headed into the forest. I hope that my shot giv you some idea what it was like. The bamboo stretches up to 40-50 ft and goes back as far as tou can see...not that that's very far :)

The new shoots are coming in and are about 12" around and grow very fast. They start out black and loose their outer leaf as the grow. A guide was explaining that they have to watch out under some of the houses because the shoots can push through the floor and roof it not caught in time.

We wandered back to the river and then down to the bridge for lunch and shopping. And then we headed out to Ryoanji. We decided to skip both Diakakuji and Ninnaji this time around. Although may go back and see them on my own at the end. I think I'd like to get to the Imperial palace on this trip as well.

As we entered Ryoanji I noticed something was off. The pond had been drained. It looked like a big mud hole (ok, it was a big mud hole). Looks like they were repairing something on the upper side.

Still, the main attraction is the Abbots garden.

This is supposed to be the best example of a dry landscape garden. It's neat, but unlike those who do little more than gaze rapturously at a pile of rocks (no matter how pretty they are) and try for enlightenment (along with a hundred or so tourists around) I was done after about 5 minutes.

Maybe I'm too cynical but enlightenment can't be attained by staring at a bunch of rocks. Get a teacher and a life folks. From all I've read an been told, the only way to get enlightened is to study, study, study and push yourself. Sorry, rant off. I guess there's something about some of the people who go to this place that sets me on edge. It would probably be best then if I don't go there again :)

So, cynicism well in hand we went on to Kinkakuji. This time the Iris' were in bloom. I don't know what is is about his place, but every time I come here it gets better. Maybe next time I'll try in fall or winter. I'll just let the photo tell the story here.

When we left Jo decided she had had enough for one day and headed for the barn. The rest of us decided to visit a calligraphy shop near the Fujita and to stop at a Hirishimayaki bar we'd found in the Teramachi.

The Hiroshimayaki place is called Takeya and it's address is ... in kanji. Crap. Well, lets make it simple, Just circle the The Teramatchi and look for the food stand with the vacuum packed turtles and turn in there. Alternately, you can enter the Teramatchi from the Fujita hotel side and turn left toward the Police office. Or you can wait until I can get someone to translate it :)

The place sits a dozen along the bar which is really one big griddle. It really is a locals type place but they have been very welcoming to us and even have a rudimentary English menu. The food is fantastic. There are few places here I would go to twice or more in a trip. This is one I'd do again.

I'd bore you with the details of the trip back to the hotel but I really don't want to type them out. So you'll just have to imagine it :)

Tomorrow will be an early day for Mark, Becky and I. We're going to Hiroshima and Himeji while Jo takes a day off to go shopping before we go to the Pearl place on the coast.

Later.

P.S. I just finished the first cut of todays photos. 104. You guys get 12. And I don't think I want DSL. Upload speed sucks.

Wiped out

2008-05-07T04:51:00.000-07:00

Today is our first whole day in Kyoto. So we decided to take the 100 Raku tourist bus towards Ginkakuji. Since we figured most places wouldn't open until 9 we left about 8:30ish.

Our first stop was Sanjusangen-do. It was established in 1482. The temple houses 1000 Kannon (statues of Buddha) and the most complete set of 28 deities in the world. The statues where made between the 12th and 14th centuries. The work is incredible. The expressions are so real it seems that they could come to life at any time. Even the eyes are made from crystal.

You'll have to look up official photos since there is no photography inside the hall.

Some of you have probably heard about the archery that takes place on the porch. Well, it still does.

I finally figured out which end they used because of this:

The record is something like 18000+ shots and 13000+ hits in 24 hours. When you see the porch and realize the low arc that must be used...Well, I couldn't do it:) And to really get a feel for it pace off the 120 meters length of the porch....

Our next stop would have been Kiyumizu. But we decided to skip it today and go to Heian shrine. Yeah, I know that I was there last week. Still, Becky hadn't seen it and Jo hadn't been there in 7 years. I sometimes forget what a difference a week makes.

With the Iris' and lotus blooming and nobody there it was a completely different place. I think we took over an hour to stroll through the garden. It was rejuvenating. Especially after the crowds everywhere else.

When we finished Mark and I took the ladies to see the Budo center and Butokuden. from there we just had to go to Meirin and Tozando. Since Mark and I had already been there we let Becky and Jo have at it.

About now we decided to have lunch and to head to Ginkakuji and maybe to even try for Kinkakuji. (although we pooped out and made an early day of it)

Unfortunately for us the Kannonden (2 storied building in all the photos) was being renovated. It was kinda neat to see the structure of the building but a bummer for taking photos :)

Still, there is always good photos to be taken there.

So we finally ended up going back to the station and raiding the basement of Isetan for food. One small surprise has been the price of food. The average price for a meal 3 yeas ago was about 1200 yen. Now it's closer to 1600. Makes a bit of a dent in the food budget.

Oh, Mark just gave me reindeer droppings. So it seems I still get feed crap over here as well ;)

I'm working on the review of the hotels. Everyone has input. So probably tomorrow. After we go to Arashiyama, Kinkakuji, Daikakuji, Roanji and the Teramachi.

Kyoto again

2008-05-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

We're back in Kyoto. It was a short day today. We caught the 11 am train (had to sit in unassigned seating). Arrived here around 1:30 and checked into the hotel.

On a side note. I should probably write up the pros and cons of each hotel.

We decided to go to Kiyumizu dera to get everyone acquainted with the bus system. It worked well and it was pretty crowded there. The light was better for photography but between the gray cast to the sky and high contrast, scenics are pretty blown out.

This was the only shot really worth a damn.

Tomorrow will be here in town hitting familiar places for all of us except Becky.

I'll add some photos before bed. See you all tomorrow.

Karma

2008-05-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Today we left Toyama for Kanazawa. We caught an early train and left our bags at the hotel. We decided to head for the Castle and the Kenrokuen. We did take our umbrellas since it had clouded over during the night.

Along the way we turned into the Omi-cho market.

We saw more different kinds of fish there than I expected. Including one that was about 5' long with a 2' head. Weird looking sucker. Looked like a huge pipe fish. Jo said that it's the most fish she's seen since she was on Fishermans wharf in San Francisco. I saw at least 20 different fish and more than 10 different molluscs for sale. It really was a pretty neat place. Becky complained that our hotel didn't have a stove :) I can't blame her because I was thinking the same thing.

The first thing we noticed about the Kenrokuen was that it was crowded. Since it is one of the final days of a holiday weekend we shouldn't have been surprised. We decided to take an hour and a half and wander separately through the garden and get lunch after.

The garden is as beautiful as ever. It's rated as one of the top 3 in Japan. Personally I rate it in the top 10. I can easily think of half a dozen that are better. Himeji Kokoen, Okayama kokoen, Nomura Samurai house, Heian jingu, well, you get the point. Still, even with the crowd it was worth going to.

After lunch near the bridge at the entrance, we headed over to the castle. Everything was open today. We wandered through the gate and over to the reconstructed gate and wall. We went all through there. They did a fantastic job of the reconstruction. What really impressed me was the way that they managed to fit modern necessities into the old plans.

While talking to one of the Docents I asked about an large area of construction. it seems that they are slowly reconstructing portions of the old complex from the original plans. This time it is the second gate (I think that's what it was called). She said it would be done in 2 years.

Now comes the explanation of the title. When we were finally ready to leave for the Ashigaru house, it started to rain.

I guess some of you may not know the story. Last time we were in Japan. A group of us came to Kanazawa for a day trip out of Kyoto. The closer we got to Kanazawa the heavier it rained. It was clear when we left Kyoto. So once at the station most of us opted to buy umbrellas from a stand Erik found. Except for Mark. He decided to spend the last of his cash on hard cider.

Needless to say we were a bit hard on him. But we did let him share...mostly. At one point we separated and agreed to meet outside the castle. Marks group wandered about a bit. Then it happened. A nice lady took pity on our bedraggled compatriot and graciously gave him her umbrella. It was a pretty blue with pink flowers. You can imagine what happened after that. I'll cut the story a bit short and say that Mark tried to abandon the umbrella in Hiroshima. Didn't work. It followed him to the states where it reside until this trip. Karma demanded that he return the umbrella to a lady in need, in Kanazawa, in the rain.

Funny thing was, no one at the castle wanted it :) Mark couldn't get anyone to take it.

Finally we headed out to Ashigaru house. And lo and behold, Jo needed an umbrella. So Mark lent her the umbrella to get where we where going.

(On a side note, Ashigaru house had both buildings open this time. It still amazes me that they're so small)

Finally we headed back through the city to the hotel. As we reached the station we looked behind us to see Jo holding the umbrella...turned inside out. A swirling gust had caught the umbrella and turned it inside out. Completely destroying it.

Karma. Has an odd sense of humor ;)

Lastly for dinner tonight. Mark, Becky and I went out and had sushi at a local restaurant. It was as good as Sushi Ota. May even have been better. Mark found a new dish. Raw squid.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. Tomorrow is back to Kyoto for the rest of our stay. See you then.

Takayama still...

2008-05-04T05:47:00.000-07:00

Earlier I spoke about our bit of miss timing this morning. It ended up being pretty cool. We couldn't take the express train so we hopped the local. Jo and Mark got a real blast from it. It was their first time :) It ended up being crowded. Took about 2 hours to get there with 1 change.

Once there we decided to grab a quick lunch so we headed across the street to a curry shop. We walked in and I noticed that it was a bit different from everywhere else we'd eaten so far. It seems there are restaurants where you walk in, buy a ticket, give it to the waitress, and then get what you paid for.

Kinda like the old automats (for you old timers out there).

I'd heard about them from some of the Japanese students at the dojo. This was my first time seeing one.

After lunch we planned on going to the Hida Folk village and the Tea ceremony museum. Long story short, we only made the Folk village. We ended up spending about 3 hours there and I think we could have easily spent all day.

Hida village is a cluster of 12 farmhouses from the Hida region. All of them were brought here to save the cultural value of the properties. It seems that once electricity became common, lots of folks left for the cities. At the same time, entire villages where being submerged under reservoirs. So, in an effort to preserve the fast vanishing houses, the village was formed. About 35 buildings where moved here from various areas. The oldest ones are from the 1600's.

When I come back I think I'll be spending a lot more time here :)

I think it's time for a bit of a personal update. Everyone is doing well. Other than missing fresh veggies that is. Both Mark and I are nursing injuries from the Butokusai. Somehow I ended up with 2 high ankle sprains and both knees where tortured on the first day because I forgot my kneepads (hardwood floors everywhere). All the walking and moving around really slowed down the healing process. But the swelling has resided and both Mark and I are moving easier.

Oh, before I forget. Becky wasn't with us today. She was out playing with her cousins :)

Thats it for now. tomorrow - Kanazawa.

P.S. Looks like rain tomorrow. Maybe Mark can fulfill his karma from the last trip :)

P.P.S. I've started to add photos to the old posts. Check them out :)

Suprise

2008-05-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I've got an hour to kill so I figured I might as well post again. It seems that the last morning express train from here left at 8 and the next local train leaves at 10:20.

So, when I last left you we were in Takayama. The trip here required us to take the Shinkansen to Nagoya and to then catch a local express. The local train runs next to a river gorge (the name escapes me) and is very scenic.

Yesterday we spent the whole day wandering the town. We hit the morning markets, Takayama Jinya, The City Museum, Yoshijima Heritage house, Sakurayama Nikko Hall, and the Festival Floats hall.

As we went back and forth we wandered through the Sanmachi and Shimoninomachi Preservation areas. Imagine, if you will, streets as they were 200 years ago. The only real difference was the cars and the blacktop roads (instead of dirt).

I wish we could have gotten rooms here over the weekend. But since it's Golden week, and Takayama is a resort town, we were forced to Toyama. Still, we're going back in a bit :)

That's it for now. I'm going to try to get some photos uploaded before we have to leave.

To continue....

2008-05-02T02:34:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Takayama today. But I'll get to that shortly :)

First we need to go back to the dinner on day 3. We met at the Westin Miyako at 6 for dinner and the Official opening for the Butokusai (the name for the whole event). The opening ceremony was rather brief at about a half hour. several dignitaries spoke. They included Sosai, the current President of DNBK Hombu, the Deputy Governor of Kyoto Prefecture, and the Mayor of Kyoto.

After the opening we sat down for dinner. The banquet consisted of 12 courses. I don't think we even managed to finish off the roast beef. There was really that much food. And it was a fantastic meal.

So on to day 5:

Today was the Rensei Taikai. A bit of explanation for the non-Budoka. A Taikai is a competition. However, it is more of a friendly exhibition that a competition. Awards are more like most enthusiastic and best spirit rather than first, second, and third. The demonstrations that we saw today were a lot more varied. Yesterdays were from the Ryus main style. Today they did secondary arts and subsets of their main curriculum. The demos included things such as Sojutsu (long spear) and Naginata (polearm). Since it was just International participants it was over a bit quicker. But it was still an incredible experience.

After the Taikai and the presentation of awards, (We got several individual and the team award for Iai) we had a final banquet. This time it was held at the ANA Hotel. The food was as good as the Westin Miyako. There were 9 courses this time. Then there was the presentation of even more awards. And the kicker was that every participant in the Butokusai received a handmade doll. They're really nice. And unfortunately a bit of trouble to cart around Japan for 2 weeks. But I'll manage :)

I do want to complement the volunteers. The folks who did all the work to put this together and make it happen did an utterly fantastic job. I can't praise them enough for the job they did. Way to go guys. Domo arigato gozaimashita.

Shin-Fuji:

The 1st of May is our first day of vacation. Mark and I traveled from Kyoto to Tokyo where we met Jolinda and Becky. Boy am I glad Becky and I had cells. It made it a lot easier to find each other in the station. After the ladies said goodbye to Beckys cousins we took the Shinkansen to Shin-Fuji. We got to the station and walked to our Hotel.

The place we stayed was a no frills business hotel called Amus. It really was no frills. But I gotta admit, it had an internet connection and a view of Mt Fuji from our window. So all in all it was a pretty decent place. And at $80 a night for 2 it was really cheap :)

Once we checked in we decided to go to Odawara and see if we could get to Mt Fuji. Not a chance. So we went to see Odawara castle and park and we wandered around and got dinner after. I even found a special present I was looking for. After that we went back to the hotel.

The one really cool thing was that we got to see Mt Fuji.

That'll be it for this post. I'll post on the trip here to Takayama in a bit. But I think I should do some photo sorting first :)

Time for another post.

2008-05-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

Back to Kyoto :)

Day 4:

The day started out with a trip to Heian shrine for the opening and blessing.

I figured that the participants would stand in the outer courtyard while the Sensei who where part of the ceremony would be inside the shrine. I was wrong. When we got there, we all filed into the inner courtyard where seating had been arranged. We then were privileged to be part of the ceremony and to be blessed by the priest. This is a pretty big deal. The only ones other than the priests and attendants who are allowed there are worshipers for special ceremonies.

After that came Enbu. I could take all day to write up the highlights. But I'll be brief here. It started with us taking our place in the Butokuden. Sosai (the Prince, and yes I do mean Royal family) started out the ceremony and was followed by a couple of other short speeches. Then came the opening performances to chase away then Demons.

At this point we exited the hall as a group (just JKI) and reentered in the back. We were the first group to participate in the Taikai. It was a great honor to be the first. I couldn't see it, but I was told we did extremely well.

From there we went back to our seats and sat quietly while the rest of the 600 participants performed as well. Guys, It was incredible. The level of most of the groups was astounding. We saw Iai, Aikido, Karate, Judo, Juijutsu, Aikijutsu, Jodo and more. I can't even begin to name all of the styles, much less their Ryu. It was humbling as well. I saw Budo that puts mine to shame. I now have an idea how little I really know about budo, and how far I'll always have to go.

We continued from around 9am until around 3:30 with a short break for lunch. After we closed for the day we scurried back to the hotel for a quick change and went to our second dinner. It was much more casual than Last nights.

Oh, I see I forgot about to tell you about that. I'll correct that tonight :)

Dinner was a 7 course meal served as a single dish to be passed around. Kind of like a Chinese restaurant, but a bit more formal. The menus from all of the banquets blurs a bit so I can't remember the menu. But I do remember that they all were excellent.

Well, that's it for now. I'll post again tonight after we get to Takayama. Oh,before I forget. We have a view of Mt Fuji from our hotel window here in Shin-Fuji. It's shrouded by clouds at the top today, but we got to see it yesterday through the light haze.

See you all tonight.

Finally...

2008-05-01T05:35:00.000-07:00

Hi-tech again. I'm not fixing the last post. I was in the middle of typing, on a Japanese keyboard, on a pay computer, when my time ran out. That was a bit frustrating. I'm in a country where the electronics are 5-7 years ahead of ours and my hotel has 2 pay computers in the lobby. And that's it. There was also no easy access to a WiFi spot. However that looks to change now that we're on the road. I'll add pictures as I get them edited and posted on Flickr.

BTW, it's good to hear from you all :)

So where should I start. Ah, back in Fushimi-Inari shrine. If you saw memoirs of a Geisha. There was a scene where the lead actress is running through a series of Tori (or gates). That is what the paths in the shrine where like. It was pretty awesome.

That evening we met those who made it in. As always there was a problem. It seems that Lori's bag was mistakenly grabbed by another passenger. She finally got it back and everyone arrived safe. Dinner was at an Okonomiyaki bar in a subsurface mall. Good food and a good start to the week.

Day 1 of the 3rd World Butokusai:

It consisted of major organizing and set up for Enbu and Taikai. Mostly learning where when and what to do to make things flow well. All that practice really paid off in the end. The best part was that we got to practice in the Butokuden (really cool). To put it in perspective a bit. Every Grandmaster of our style since Oe Masamichi has either trained or taught there. The Emperor of Japan has been there. The place is steeped in history. The floor is so worn that the grain from the pine boards stands out and is polished smooth. It was incredible.

After the training day ended we went to dinner W/Carl Sensei and Shima Sensei at a Yakitori place and talked about the history of the DNBK and the Butokuden.

Day 2:

We started the morning by lining up by school. This was to become a common ritual for us :)
For most of the morning we had open floor practice. Unfortunately for me I had forgotten both my obi and knee pads. The lack of kneepads means that my knees are in pretty bad shape at the moment.
After lunch we set up mats. Imagine 600+ Budoka each grabbing a 3'x5'x4" mat and laying it out in a HUGE training hall. It was an interesting exercise in chaos theory and team building. All together it took about 12 minutes.
As a surprise we were given our first certification test in a side hall at the start of the afternoon training session. This was also a practice for our Enbu in the Butokuden.

I think I need to clarify something here. The place we were at is the Kyoto Budo center. We did our practice in the main Budo hall. Basically a huge Gym floor. The Butokuden is a large wooden structure just outside the training hall. General practice and such is not allowed in the Butokuden. Kind of like playing football in a Cathedral. Other training facilities include a Sumo stable and a Kyudo area. The whole center is also a part of Heian shrine.

That evening Mark, Lori, Karen and I went to a Hiroshimayaki place in a side alley near the Teramatchi shopping district. Very good food. And there was a lot of it.

Day 3:

This was our seminar day. Erik, Mark, Ron, Brandon and I took Hoki Ryu with Kumai Sensei. He spoke only Italian and Japanese. It was still a really good class. I don't know how much I'll retain. Since the afternoon was for Judo and Jiujutsu some of us went to Heian shrine in our monsuki.

While we were gone there was an accident. One of the French participants was doing Jiujutsu and had a series of 3 heart attacks. Luckily one of the Senseis was an EMT. They worked on the gent for nearly 30 minutes. We later found out that he was clinically dead for about 20 minutes. The last night we were informed that he had woken up and was able to write. Good news :)

For dinner a bunch of us went to the Teramatchi and wandered around until we found a place. The highlight of the evening was the Colonel in an Ebi hat!

Well, it's late and I still have photos to screen. I'll post more tomorrow.

Lack of tech...

2008-04-25T02:45:00.000-07:00

Weel, the Fujita　HOTEL has a positive lack of net connection. So I`ll update photos if I find a Intenet cafe somewhere.

So, yesterday. Scott and I had a free day so we decided to go to Motomoyama Mausoleum and to Fushima-Inari shrine.

It was raining when we left to go to the local train.
Once we got to Motomoyama we started to walk toward the site. As we got closer we entered a wood. The trip through the rain and mist shrouded forest was quite a treat. We passed few people. Eventually we arrived at the site. There were 2 main buildings and a small garden around it. It was obvious from the lack of care that only the buildings were being cared for. A shame, it was a nice place.

Our next stop was Fus

Flickr

2008-04-23T06:34:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Finally

2008-04-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to Kyoto. Tired, hungry but here. This will be a short post.

This has been one long trip so far. Caught a cold over the weekend. I drugged up to fly. Did ok considering I got about 3 hours of sleep Monday night.

First stop was the train station to get to Kyoto. We took the Haruka in. Lovely ride. Kind of a blur :)

Once we checked in we went to the station for dinner.

I kinda tired so I'll finish now

Well...

2008-04-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm doing something I said I'd never do :)

Still, I think that this will be interesting if not kinda fun. Since I'm not a writer, I'll do my level best to at least be coherent and concise. If I ramble just ignore me.

On to what to expect and why I'm doing this. I created this site to chronicle my upcoming trip to Japan. I'll be traveling there for about 3 weeks. The first week will be attending the Third World Butoku Sai of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai. The following 2 weeks will be traveling around the central part of Honshu. Each day I plan to post items of interest along with photos.

It'll be a week or 2 until my first post from the road. So stay tuned :)