At a small dinner gathering today with some friends from Anthony's preschool, I was shocked to see little May, the younger sister of one of Anthony's classmates, deftly use chopsticks as if she'd been doing so all her life.
Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 640 — map & image data
Two-year-old using chopsticks
I was pleased as could be when Anthony could use chopsticks when he was three, but this little girl just turned two earlier this month. She just grabbed her daddy's chopsticks (adult-sized, no less) and went to town on a wiener without the slightest hint of difficulty. I grabbed my camera, asked her to show me, and I got the picture above.
The kids just turned two. Truly amazing.
I had my new Sigma 30mm f/1.4 that arrived the other day, after having been on order since my first copy had focus issues. I tested this one in the store, and while it's much better than the first one (or the 2nd one that came and went in the interim), it just doesn't seem sharp wide open. But to use it wide open is why I got it, and sharp or not, I don't think I could have gotten these low-light shots even with my f/2.8 Nikkor 17-55.
On the way home I got a few nice shots of the just-starting cherry blossoms, at night, in a quaint section of Gion. I'll post a few of those tomorrow....
Cleaning up around the house today, I came across the menu for a pizza chain. I thought I'd share some of the entries, which are quite typical of pizza in Japan.
They have three “series” of pizza: the Italiana Series boasts “cheese stacked to the top of your ears,” the Quarter Series has pizzas with four different combination of toppings (one combo per quarter pizza), and the Long Seller Series are the traditional standbys.
In this post, I'll feature one from each series...
Quarter Italiana
The first pizza in the Italiana Series has four combos like a Quarter-Series pizza, and hence is called the Quarter Italiana.
Quarter Italiana
The Quarter Italiana has:
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It comes with tomato sauce, and has the footnote “please sprinkle with olive oil before eating.”
New Bomber
I have no idea why this Quarter Series pizza is called “New Bomber”, but here it is:
New Bomber
New Bomber contains:
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It comes with your choice of curry sauce or mayonnaise sauce
Negimotchi
This Long-Seller pizza's name means “scallion mochi”. Mochi is a sticky, chewy rice product sort of like a cross between gum and cookie dough, but tastes like rice.
Negimotchi
Negimotchi contains:
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It comes with teriyaki sauce, and has two footnotes:
- “Please sprinkle seaweed and cayenne pepper before eating”
- “While eating, take care not to get mochi stuck in your throat”
Continuing with my cherry-blossom pics from last year, here are more from my trip to Daigo Temple last April.
Last year's cherry-blossom season was pretty bad in the sense that the trees didn't all bloom in unison, but each at their own straggly pace. In the picture below, you can see that many of the trees on the right side have yet to bloom.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 200mm — 1/50 sec, f/11, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Outside the Daigo Temple
The area around Daigo Temple was very crowded, yet oddly nice nevertheless. This is in contrast to the ugliness some areas become during cherry-blossom season (the subject of one of my very first blog posts). At Daigo, the crowds were quiet, not smoking and not drinking, and as such, everyone could enjoy.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 200mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Still Waiting
The trees in the background above are waiting to bloom...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 65mm — 1/250 sec, f/5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
An outer wall of the temple
(I wonder how old it is....)
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 44mm — 1/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Common Sight
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 55mm — 1/40 sec, f/10, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Now that's a camera!
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 44mm — 1/50 sec, f/14, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Leading to Daigo's Main Gate
Again in the last picture, you can see many trees that hadn't yet bloomed.
I hope this year will be better. The blossoms starting appearing on the trees outside my window a few days ago, but there are still only a few. The trees lining the canal haven't started to bloom at all, at least not that I've noticed.
A week from now, it should be most excellent.
Going through some old pictures, I came across this one from a year ago January, when Anthony was three years three months old. When he wakes up and first ventures out of his room, he brings the “friends” he slept with. He brings them to the couch in the livingroom, and in this case, I caught him enroute.
This time he's got Papa George (in blue striped jammies), Shimajiro (yellow tiger), Stubby (big bear behind Shimajiro), George (sticking out from under Stubby), and his bear-face pillow. There's also likely another George in there somewhere.
(Sorry for the low quality of the image; this was just two days after I got my D200 (my first SLR in 20+ years), so I was a bit rusty on how to use it. I'd also tried a flash shot, but it didn't come out much better.)
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/80 sec, f/4.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bridge to Nowhere
On the drive into the mountains the other day, we were on a twisty mountain road and came across the surreal sight of a bridge leading directly into the rocky face of a mountain.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Yup, absolutely Nowhere
Taking this bridge would mean a really short trip.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
This Would be a Short Trip
Of course, it's a work in progress. A tunnel will certainly follow, thereby cutting off a long and dangerous segment of the current road....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
View From the Current Road
I expected the road to become dangerous, but what followed the Bridge to Nowhere was actually fairly pleasant, and not narrow nor at all dangerous. A shockingly short 1/3rd mile (500m) later, we came across its counterpart, the Bridge From Nowhere....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/90 sec, f/5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bridge From Nowhere
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — 1/100 sec, f/5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
As Short a Trip as Before
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
View From the Current Road
I can't fathom why these bridges were built. Even if I had free rein to spend other people's money in any way I wanted (that is, if I were a politician), I could find so many thousands of better things to waste money on than this.
Take a look at this map (via Google) that shows that the second bridge has been there long enough to actually appear on the map, indeed, coming from nowhere.
This shows that they're building two bridges and boring a 90m (100 yard) tunnel through solid rock, all to turn a pleasant, scenic 500m (0.3 mile) section of road into a 300m (0.2 mile) drive. Where is the sense in this?
If the tiny section of road being bypassed were somehow a bottleneck or dangerous, I could understand, but it's quite tame by any standard, and downright pleasant in comparison to other sections of road nearby, which are indeed narrow/windy/dangerous.
It just makes absolutely no sense. Welcome to Japan.
Continued 5½ years later, here...