Fujian

I recently got a new lens for my Sony Nex camera. It’s a Fujian CCTV 35mm lens. It’s a super cheap lens from China. Just about 3000 yen. Which is crazy when you’re talking about lenses.

It’s completely manual for focus and aperture. The build is very simple, solid, and doesn’t feel like a cheap lens. The interesting thing about it is it can give an extreme depth of field effect. Kind of like those toy type camera effects that are popular recently (like Instagram and such). It came with a few macro rings to add to it as well, and they work pretty good. All and all a good purchase. I can’t wait to use it more. Anyways here’s some quick  photos I snapped in the yard.

Tokyo Tower

Here’s a photo I took of the Tokyo Tower from the top of the Mori Art Centre in Roppongi. I was there to see the Dragon Quest 25th anniversary museum (which is coming in a future post). This was a nice side benefit of going there.

Fireworks

I went to the Alps festival in Kakuda this weekend. They have really good fireworks for a small town festival. I wanted to try taking some photos of the fireworks. I had mixed result, but it was the first time (damn my shaky hands). Next time will be better for sure. I did however take a couple of strange photos that I kind of liked so here they are.

Lanterns

What’s this…and actual post!? I’m sure you all thought that I completely forgot about this poor old blog. Well I didn’t! I just haven’t been doing anything interesting lately (mostly just working). However now I’m on a small summer vacation, and I decided it was time to hit some of the local festivals. So went took a short drive to Marumori to see the lantern festival again. It really is quite beautiful to see. I just wish there was fewer people there so it would be more peaceful. Anyways check out this nice photos taken with my NEX.

It’s much easier to take nice nighttime photos with the NEX. Much easier than with my G10.

Fuji

When we went to Thailand I managed to get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji from the air. It was pretty cool!

Koh Samet

Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. I’ve been pretty sick for almost the past month with a cold, and didn’t feel up to it. Anyways here’s the last of the Thailand photos. They are of Koh Samet, which is a resort island. We were lucky enough (thanks to the generosity of my brother) to stay a the gorgeous five-star resort Paradee. It was truly amazing! It was a private beach only for guests (which meant it was quiet and peaceful). Most of the time there was only five or six people on it at any given time. I went snorkeling for the first time and saw lots of tropical fish, giant clams, and coral. Here’s the photos.

Our villa and the hotel.

The other side of the island which is open to the public is what you would call more rustic. It’s also a hell of a lot busier.

The little statue below was on of many outside of the police station in Koh Samet. It seemed to be a thing there. I saw other places that had them, including a doctor’s office.

Wat Pho

Here’s more photos from my trip to Thailand. They are all of the Wat Pho temple, where there is a gigantic Buddha laying down and chilling out. He’s not the only one though, there must be hundreds of golden Buddhas at this temple.

As usual click on the photos to get a better and less fuzzy look at the pictures (I find WordPress makes the pictures look a tad blurry when they resize it to fit the page).

Bangkok

For golden week the wife and I took a trip to Thailand. We were visiting my brother who lives there. It was a fantastic time! I think Thailand is super cool, and the food is definitely better and cheaper than Japan (I find Japanese food to be a tad bit boring). Anyways here’s some photos I took in Bangkok. More to come in the future.

More From Watari

My wife and the in-laws took another drive to Watari today. I just stayed home, so I gave my camera to the wife and told her to take some photos. It’s pretty crazy the destruction.

Starry Starry Night

Right after the earthquake we had no power for quite a few days. It was really boring at night. We had nothing to do but listen to the radio, which was super boring. I decided to take advantage of the darkness available due to not a single light working in town, and try taking some photos of the stars. The picture below was the most striking one that I took. It’s a bit blurry, but I still like it.

It’s simple incredible how many stars you can see when there’s no lights to block them out. Pretty amazing!