{"id":314,"date":"2006-12-25T21:43:20","date_gmt":"2006-12-25T12:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-12-25\/314"},"modified":"2006-12-25T21:43:20","modified_gmt":"2006-12-25T12:43:20","slug":"our-christmas-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-12-25\/314","title":{"rendered":"Our Christmas Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

My Christmas present this year seems to be my health. Finally, yesterday\n(Christmas Eve), the cold I've had for the last two weeks or so started to\nabate. Perhaps it was the drugs<\/a>\nthat the doc gave me, or maybe it was just time, but I finally<\/span> felt good\nenough to at least do some shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n

Our Christmas Eve began, just like last year<\/a> and the year before<\/a>, with the mini\nfree concert at the Kyoto Hotel Okura<\/a>.\nThis time it was a Mr.<\/span> Wakata playing Christmas favorites on the pan\nflute.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 55mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>40 sec, f\/3.2, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n

Anthony had been hoping for horns like last year, so at times was a bit<\/span>\nrestless, but he showed genuine excitement on his face when he recognized\nthe start of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 55mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>10 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Three generations watching the Christmas concert<\/span><\/div>\n\n

When it was over, Fumie went to pick up our pre-ordered take-home\nChristmas meal, and Anthony stood in front of the hotel's huge Christmas\ntree making silly faces.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 38mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>45 sec, f\/3.5, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n

I had come separately, by bicycle, to get seats, so I left<\/span> for home\nwhile Fumie's mom waited with Anthony for Fumie. Before taking off on my\nbike, I thought<\/span> to take some pictures of the well-decorated little plaza\noutside the hotel, and to my surprised found that Fumie's mom and Anthony\nhad strolled out there as well.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 38mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>15 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 1250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n

I'm pretty proud of this next shot because it's an almost a two<\/span>-second\nexposure hand held<\/b> and it doesn't look too bad. The smudge\/blur to\nthe right of the tree's base, between it and the bench, is Anthony running\nlaps. Fumie's mom is less of a blur,<\/span> on the far left, with her head just\nbelow the green bundle of lights.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 17mm — 1.8 sec, f\/18, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n

The Hotel Okura makes really good food for takeout, and this year Fumie\nordered roast beef. The slow-cooked hunk of meat we got was the largest\nI've seen since a barbecue<\/span> hosted by my\nbrother<\/a> many years ago. It's extremely<\/span> expensive, but makes for a\nrelaxing<\/span> five-star meal at home.<\/p>\n\n

After eating, Fumie's mom brought small gifts for Anthony. Here, he's\nbeing excited with a toy<\/span> car from Fumie's dad (who is still in Malaysia<\/a> for work).<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>90 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 640 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n
<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 26mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>40 sec, f\/3.5, ISO 640 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

Then it was time for desert, a Christmas Cake from the hotel.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 34mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>40 sec, f\/5, ISO 640 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n

For whatever reason, the cake came with candles, so we decided to put\nthem in and sing “Happy Birthday” to baby Jesus. This shot is all fuzzy,\nbut shows Anthony's enjoyment better than any of the other shots I got.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 26mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>10 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 640 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n
<\/a><\/div>\n\n

That shot above is fuzzy because I didn't<\/span> hold the camera still during\nthe tenth-of-a-second exposure. The lens, Nikon's pro-level f\/2.8 17-55\nzoom, despite being pro is still only f\/2.8, which is two stops (four\ntimes) slower than the lens I had<\/span> for Anthony's birthday.\n\n<\/p>

Compare the shot above with the one at right, taken with an f\/1.4\nSigma 30mm during Anthony's birthday party.<\/p>\n\n
\n\n

Anyway, after Anthony went to bed, Daddy changed into Santa and wrapped\na bunch<\/span> of presents. (I wrapped<\/span> perhaps six presents, and found that there\nare at least 12 different ways to fold down the end of the package.) I then<\/span>\ncombined them with gifts received earlier from others, and spread them out\non the couch.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 35mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>5 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 1000 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>Santa Visited<\/span><\/div>\n\n

I also placed one present in front of the others, unwrapped. I told Anthony<\/span> that if Santa comes and leaves presents, he shouldn't touch them\nwhen he finds them, but if a present<\/span> is unwrapped, he can have it right\naway. So, I left one<\/span> that he could play with right away.<\/p>\n\n

Without a tree for the presents to be under, it all looks fairly lame to\nmy American eyes. We'll have to remedy that next year.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Christmas present this year seems to be my health. Finally, yesterday (Christmas Eve), the cold I've had for the last two weeks or so started to abate. Perhaps it was the drugs that the doc gave me, or maybe it was just time, but I finally felt good enough to at least do some shopping.<\/p>

Our Christmas Eve began, just like last year and the year before, with the mini free concert at the Kyoto Hotel Okura. This time it was a Mr. Wakata playing Christmas favorites on the pan flute.<\/p>

Anthony had been hoping for horns like [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}