Fish 27Nov

This is a fish restaurant in Shinbashi. The shop is run by an elderly couple. The husband sometimes catches his own fish. The uni (sea urchin, foreground) was fresh and excellent. One of the best I have eaten so far. It is from the northern territories in Japan, the four islands occupied by Russia. The otoro (fatty tuna) was also good but unexceptional. Defitnirely a place to go back to.

The fired fish is a unique fish called meh hikari (目光) or shiny eyes, as the eyes glow in the deep darkness. The fish is a deep sea fish found only in Fukushima prefecture. You can eat the whole fish, bones and head included. It is really delicious! In the background are mildly salted Ginko nuts or ギナン. Yummy.

Mocha Soft at 軽井沢 ミカド コーヒー

Mocha Soft Cream at Mikado Coffee at Karuizawa. Really nice, even in cold weather〓

Karuizawa and Mt Asama

Active Volcano at 軽井沢 長野県． A sight to behold..

It is consistently spewing hot gases the whole day, made clearer by the relatively cloudless sky.

Bright sun shiny day

A nice bright & clear autumn day today〓 Lunch at Arossa, NZ restaurant topped with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc〓

紅葉

autumn

三井の森

golfing at karuizawa today

Nikon Gear, again!

The Nikon gear I ordered from Australia through ebay finally arrived yesterday. It took a whole 4 weeks. According to the seller, delay was due to customs.

Anyway lucky everything was in order. Looking forward to shooting this weekend with the D300 and the super 70-200mm AFS lens!

Tomorrow and day after will be golfing days again. Took a day's leave tomorrow to go to Karuizawa, playing at the Mitsuinomori Country Club and Saku Resort. Temperature expected to be down to 6deg in that area !

Badd Girls

Visiting friend's birthday, so took him for dinner and later went to Badd Girls: Campus Cafe.

Most of the girls working here are part timers as they are mainly undergrads, or student learning make-up artistry, fashion or hair styling.

Upon request English speaking girls are available. If you're lucky some of them may take a liking to you and give you their phone numbers and email. Not Badd......

Nikon Gear!

Recently ordered the Nikon D300 body and AFS70-200mm lens from Australia. So since I have decided to go into a second Nikon based system, took the opportunity to buy a few stuff in Singapore, with the help of a fellow camera otaku. So eagerly waiting to use the new stuff, hopefully soon.

There has been much debate about the pros and cons of Full Frame vs Cropped Sensors. For me, cropped sensors provide the reach that would costs many thousands of dollars needed for full frame.

Cropped sensors also use the better quality image area of the lenses, and less subject to falloff (reduction in brightness around the edges) caused by light striking the sensor cones at an angle.

The smaller pixel but higher density of smaller sensors allow the same area of a photo to be at higher resolution than full frame.

Singapore Scenes

These photos were shot in RAW mode in Singapore last weekend with the Leica 14-50mm F2.8-3.5 mounted on the E-3. No post processing.


A night scene.

Suntec City roof line.

The Conrad Centennial Hotel.

Lumix G1

This is the promotion of the Lumix DMC G1 SLR camera at Bic Camera Yurakucho. It is the World’s First Full-time Live View Digital Interchangeable Lens Camera. It is based on the new Micro Four Thirds System standard that greatly reduces camera size and weight to further enhance the inherent advantages of the original Four ThirdsTM System standard for digital interchangeable lens cameras

Pan Pacific Hotel

Last weekend was at Singapore on the way back from Penang, Malaysia. Stayed at the Pac Pacific Hotel, Marina. Old but nicely renovated room of 41sqm. Only older hotels have such generous sized rooms.

This hotel features the once popular atrium concept, not unlike the former Concorde or Glass Hotel, which is now known as the Holiday Inn Atrium.


View of the colourful lobby from above.

Nice room of 41sqm, with LCD TV and full height glass windows.

The unique service provided by this hotel is the hospitality room provided to guests who have checked out. You can book a room on the 22nd floor to come back for freshening up before you leave the country. I would use this hotel again.