Japan, Dec 2010 – Assorted Pictures – Part 1

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I’m about sorting through the 2,609 pictures and about 3 hrs 20 minutes of HD video taken during the Japan trip, and selected a couple of other pictures I haven’t posted up here yet. They’re quite a few but they all evoke distinctive memories of our trip.

This first bunch were all taken in Kobe.

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Outside Sannomiya Station in Kobe. Ling was our map reader, transportation decision-maker, and itinerary expert, all rolled into one (I was just the Minister of Finance for this trip). We did get a little lost on occasion and having to retrack our footsteps, but more often than not, we were able to get to where we wanted to.
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Walking away from Sannomiya Station and towards Near Kitano-Cho in Kobe. Ling was fascinated with all types of flora in Japan, and we often stopped for her to take either videos or pictures of interesting plant life. She can spot these things easily, whereas I am more apt at spotting camera bargains.:)
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At Isuzu Bakery about halfway between Kitano-Cho and Sannomiya Station in Kobe. The Japanese eat a lot of pastries, like elsewhere in the world; and interestingly enough, their offerings aren't too different from what we get at home. Prices are more expensive though, with buns typically going for 150円 and north from there.
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Near Kanocho in Kobe. Most non-shopping mall business and dining establishments in Japan look fairly drab in the day time, but they all come to life and lit up like Christmas season when evening starts. I notice that Japanese are fond of snacks and finger foods. It's incredible how few of them still become overweight (unlike what I saw in the United States - shudder).
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Daimaru in Kobe. The main department stores that also we see in Singapore, e.g. Damiaru, Isetan and Takishimaya, are huge in comparison in Japan. They routinely occupy all floors of an entire 9 to 12 story building, and offer a huge range of products for sale. As remarked before though, we found merchanise relatively expensive in Japan. A couple of branded children school bags we saw at Daimaru for instance cost 65,000円 - or nearly SGD1000!
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Near Hare Department Store in Kobe. The period of our travel was still relatively early winter, so every late autumn bloomer we saw was a photographic opportunity for me that gave color to what was otherwise a pretty drab gray urban jungle that was typical of Japanese cities in winter. Ling pointed out though on several occasions that the leaves even for these bloomers were starting to dry out.
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Birds in Motion @ Harborland in Kobe. There were a flock of seagulls looking for food near a bunch of visitors. I was using the E-PL1, but fast-switched to the D300, turned to S mode, drove up shuttle speeds to 1/500s, continous-AF, burst mode and started snapping.:)
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One of the seagulls just about to snap up some food thrown up by a visitor.

3 thoughts on “Japan, Dec 2010 – Assorted Pictures – Part 1”

  3. I haven’t had time to down convert the HD videos into smaller sizes yet. There are a lot of files! But will try to start getting to them this weekend onwards.

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