Some really nice swords from the 12th-14th century were on display at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park.
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What Determines Pay?
22 hours ago
Samurai Swords
Plum Blossoms
The spring blooming of the cherry blossoms in Japan is supposedly one of the most beautiful sights in nature. Never being in Japan at the right time, this is something I've never seen. However, a few weeks before the cherry trees blossom, the plum blossoms bloom. It's still a little early, but I did get to see some while I was in Tokyo. Here are a few shots of the plum blossoms.
In front of the Tokyo National Museum...
In Ueno Park...
When I went to see the plum blossoms in the park, there were many people in the park as per usual, but not many people there to specifically see the plum blossoms. Everyone was walking by them like the were just trees that are normally there (like in my second shot). I watched for a while before starting to shoot. Then I was the only person standing directly underneath the trees taking photographing them up close. I could feel people starting to watch me, and then pull out whatever camera they had - cell phones, pocket cameras, etc. By the time I finished, there were dozens of people mimicking me (imagine crowds of people under the trees in the second shot, where I was when taking the macro photos above). Yeah, I'm a trend setter. :-) Maybe it's because everyone else felt like they were missing out on something when they saw me, but really I think it's because I noticed something interesting before them. Go me.
View of Tokyo
Back in NYC. It was a pretty long flight, but that was to be expected. I have to work tomorrow. It's amazing how soon you can go from working in Tokyo to working in NYC. The building I work in in Tokyo is called Izumi Garden Tower, probably because the entire outside of the building is constructed from transparent green glass. At sunset, the view of Tokyo from my building is pretty amazing. Here are a couple shots.
Here is a picture of Izumi Garden Tower late at night.
Why do I have this picture, you ask? Because on my last day, I wanted to walk to the Tokyo Tower. I hadn't gone all trip and I really like looking at the tower's architecture. On the way back, I got lost and IGT was my only landmark. So I started walking towards it and eventually found this view. It also started to rain pretty heavily that night, and I didn't have an umbrella, which is probably why I have this cold now. Anyway, here are some pictures of the tower.
I like this one a lot. I took it from underneath one of the legs. You can see the top of the tower through the beams if you look carefully. It's probably easier to see on the larger version (click).
Japanese Cutie
Yes, I admit it. I met a girl here in Japan...and she's REALLY cute! Her mom was the photographer at a rock show I went to in Yoyogi Park. I got front row seats, but mostly because it was cold and rainy, and I was practically the only person there. But enough about me. All I can say is this little girl has skills!!
She was amazing at taking pretend pictures when her mommy would take real ones.
She is the best person I've seen at hopping in a long time!
She also could have been a professional stretcher!
Harajuku
Harajuku is where cosplay kids go to hang out. Definitely a must-see if you're in Tokyo. Here are a few pictures.
And this is for Rob...
Tokyo Arrival Pictures
As promised, here are some departure from NYC and arrival in Tokyo pictures.
Just Me and Time
The Eggman who took me to Tokyo
Air Pepsi!
It's Alive!
I thought it was a great portrait, so I had to take it.
One more shot of this bad bay and we're off!
Finally made it to my apartment in Tokyo! 
But my real destination is the best ramen place in the WORLD. I've been craving this place for months. It doesn't look like much from the outside (nor the inside, either) and the only make one thing, but it's damn good.
Back In Tokyo
I'm back in Tokyo now. I am pretty tired, but no where near as tired as last time. I'm not sure as to why. I didn't sleep on the plane that much, but I'm doing pretty well here. Maybe I'll even make it to 10pm if I'm lucky. Getting to the apartment was a piece of cake, unlike last time where I had no idea where I was going. I even managed to squeeze in a quick dinner at my favorite ramen place right outside my apartment after unpacking and showering. I have taken some pictures since my departure this morning, but I'm not convinced they are good enough to post online. I'll have to sort through them at sometime. I hope I can do a little bit while I'm here, but most likely it will get done after I return back to the states in 2 weeks. I'll try to write pretty much every day and maybe post some pictures, but we'll see how busy I am once work starts. Well, here's to being back in Tokyo!
105th & 5th Ave
There's a part of Central Park which is only open from sunrise to sunset. Since it's detached from the rest of the park and is located near the northeast tip of the park, its usually quieter than the rest of the park. Sometimes it's used for outdoor events such as weddings, but is never restricted (as far as I know) from the public. 
I started coming here a few years, and when I started to get interested in photography, I started taking pictures here. It's interesting to see how my photography has progressed from the images taken at this location. Here is a shot of a fountain (which happens to be my favorite fountain in the whole city) in this part of the park in the Spring of 2007.
This is supposed to be a portrait of the fountain, and admittedly not a very good one. The background is in sharp focus. Now, I might not have been able to blur it since the aperture of a compact, which is all I had at that time, is tiny, but it's not something I had thought about either. I also feel the image is overexposed. Notice how the colors of the flowers in the background seem to be all washed out. What I do like about this picture is that she seems to be dancing around the fountain - I captured the full body including the dress swinging around her, but again, this wasn't intentional and didn't think about it at the time of the shot. The water droplets on her fingertips and arm are also nice, but again I didn't really notice them at the time, otherwise I probably would have taken a macro shot of them.
I returned to the park last week with Rob, Lily, and my SLR, and unintentionally took this picture of the same fountain.
It was only looking back at my old photos that I realized I wanted to compare this portrait with the one from 2007 to see if I've improved at all. I think this is a much better portrait but still has many issues. The background is blurred to bring attention to my subject. This was intentional at the time I took the picture and not an artifact of automatic settings. The background also has better exposure and is darker than the subject's face, yet again drawing your eyes to the signal of the joy she is supposed to be having. I think I would have preferred more of her body (i.e. the dress whipping around her) and of course the water droplets are always nice, but the fountain isn't on in the winter. Maybe in a few months I'll find myself with another improved portrait of this statue.
Here are some other shots I took while in this part of the park. I should mention it was a bright, crisp, chilly day out with little humidity, which provided the opportunity to give my new polarizing filter a test run.
I really like this last picture more than any other I took that day, but admittedly, it's not one of mine. Rob took this shot, and after looking at it, I think it's brilliant. Take a moment to click on the picture and see it in its full size. This compressed image makes it look blurry. He used a couple techniques, whether aware of it or not. 1) Leading lines - notice the parallel fence and the path leading in from the lower left hand corner. They lead the viewer's eye into the center of the picture and keep your eyes from wandering to the side. 2) Vanishing point - the sides of the path seem to converge as it travels further away. 3) Pathways - yes this might be obvious after taking the spot but because we are used to walking on pathways, our eye usually follows them, and this one happens to be well composed in the shot. 4) Misdirection - what we really want to look at is the white mansion through the trees in the background, but our eye has to cross parallel leading lines (the path and fence) and look through the tangled tree branches to do this, making it more rewarding when we see the mansion rising above the park. Nice work!
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