Multiple Exposures

Konichiwa everybody!

I have bought an analogue camera which can take multiple exposures! I wanted to try it out and see the results, so I bought a film and went to a park to see what I could do with this exciting function. Before I proceed, I will explain what multiple exposure is. If you have a single frame of film, you exposure it two or more times to get several pictures overlaying each other.

To show what I got out of this, here is the results:

(This is Annette's head in a lake)

(This is a shot of the same lake as above but with 

leaves from a tree in the water)

(This bridge was closed but I placed Annette on it 

anyways, as a ghost)

(This is two different shots of the same flower)

(And here Annette is on another closed bridge as a ghost)

I like the last photo a lot, as it really looks like Annette is on the bridge and that the bridge is made of large boulders. In reality, the large boulders are from the pathway that Annette stood on when I took the photo of her to place her on the bridge. I am sorry about the blue tint in the photos and the heavy contrast. I need to find another type of film to use. I will do some research on which films to use plus I have Caspar's knowledge, as he has been shooting film himself.

This technique is FUN and I have already plans on how to use this feature for some hopefully awesome portrait photos. Imagine Caspar as a ghost in front of a guitar shop or Annette as a ghost in an anime shop or me as a ghost in a camera shop or the three of our faces on top of each other - SUGOI! (=awesome/cool).

Expect more of this coming.

Until then, take care!

Esben.

Caspar's Live Performance and Camera Repair

Konichiwa everybody!

So, how many of you watched Caspar's live performance on stage at What The Dickens? To the unfortunate ones not able to see it, I will write a small review of the show intermingled with a recollection of the evening as a whole.

The show was a charity show against human trafficking. The lady that we met Friday, Ami, had arranged the concert and some of her musician friends also came to give their support with a live show. Ami, having recently come back from Bangkok where she had participated in some arrests of human traffickers, had had little time arranging the show and promoting it, so Annette and I helped her handing out flyers a couple of hours before the show.

We had come early to the pub, Annette and I, to support Caspar for his sound check. Being that early presented us with the opportunity to get to know the staff behind the bar and the other musicians (their band was called Moonshine and they were from San Francisco) that was there to play later in the evening. It was quite nice to actually have a longer talk with someone who knew the city and could talk English.

When Ami came, she recruited us for the promotion thing and we went out on the street to attract a crowd for the show. There were mostly Japanese people hanging around, so we had to try our best with a "Sumimasen, live music?". Sumimasen means 'excuse me'. Ami had prepared us before hand that Japanese are extremely shy when approached by foreigners or gaijins, so we mostly just got a shy look from people and very little response. It was easier to talk to other foreigners, of course, and we got a few interested.

When it was time for the show, we went back to the pub to listen to Caspar's playing. The music was quite good, but as they had only practiced for an hour, a lot of it was improvised. It was not a bad concert at all, there was just some confusion once in a while between songs.

While listening to the music, we talked a bit with the other musicians and it turned out that they were part of an organization (Ami called it a cult), where they knew a couple of Scandinavian people through. We were told that we should come for another concert they would be playing, so we could get in contact with some of the people they know. Maybe they could help us out.

I am not sure if they will be helping us out or trying to recruit us but it could be interesting to see. The concert is Friday, so I might go there.

So, anyways, back to Caspar's concert. It was very good, actually. And the mood was very good too. Annette and I helped a bit with sitting in the door to take the entrance fee during the night as well and we got to talk to more people that way, even though it was just brief chats.

In between concerts I went down on the street again to get more people inside, and I ended up trying to talk to a Japanese man. The outcome of it all was him misunderstanding me and me misunderstanding him, resulting in him giving me his can of ice coffee and me trying to humbly give it back. He promptly, but gently, refused to take it back and he left me to myself and my promotional duties. Puzzled by how I had acquired my unexpected bounty, I went back up to the pub and drank the ice coffee.

At the end of the night, I was given a free shot of extremely well tasting tequila, of which I have forgotten the name thoroughly, sadly. I also talked to another photographer about light trails and the wider focal ranges of canon lenses. Then, when the concerts were pretty much over, we headed home with the last subway train.

Monday afternoon all three of us went to Shinjuku, as I had found out about a Canon Repair Center situated there. So, merrily we went on our way and reached the Shinjuku station and with Google Maps directions we went out to the streets. Only problem we had was just that Google Maps was wrong, leading us the wrong way, and that the repair center was closed because of a national holiday. Great! So, we went to Ginza, another part of the town where Caspar and I hadn't been yet, and walked around until it started raining. Then we went home and had some food and did a bit of chatting with our respective loved ones before going to bed.

Today I got up early to go to Shinjuku again to hand in my camera. This time I was more successful and got it send in for a check-up. The camera repairs will run up in a total of 30.000 yen - if I am lucky. Every big camera (SLR or Digital SLR - DSLR) has an expected life span - an amount of actuations (clicks with the shutter) that the camera can survive before the motor, that does the movement, breaks. With my camera it is around 200.000 clicks. If that mark has been reached, the repair costs will run up in 90.000 yen! Having read about the problem on the net, I have found out that the shutter can break prematurely with my kind of camera and that it is a known malfunction. Hopefully that is what has happened to my camera, as I was told by the guy I bought it off that it had taken around 70.000 pictures, which is the same as a click with the shutter button. I have taken less that 10.000 pictures with it since I have had it, so there should be no problem.

I can pick up the camera again on the first of October, so there will be a lack of pictures posted on the blog, sadly. I made the decision to buy a very cheap old-school film-SLR, which can use all of my lenses, so I won't be completely without photos the next ten days. They will just be harder to upload as they will be analogue and I will need a scanner to get them digital.

Matta ne and take care!

Esben.

PS: I hope this wasn't too boring and dry without the photos.

Caspar Is Invited On Stage, Tokyo Game Show and Camera Failure

Konichiwa everybody!

Friday evening Caspar, Annette and I went to a pub called What The Dickens, a very nice and cozy Irish pub in the Ebizu area of the city. Here we listened to some live music and enjoyed some beers. While we were sitting at a table, a German/Japanese lady called Ami came over to us to promote her live act this evening (Sunday the 19th of September) and we fell into conversation with her.
After introducing ourselves, Caspar and her fell into conversation about music and one thing lead to the other and Caspar is going to play live on stage with her tonight! You can watch the concert live via following link: http://www.whatthedickens.jp/.
Go in there around 14:00-16:00 European time to watch it.

Yesterday we all went to the Tokyo Game Show. It is a convention for game, console and computer developers to promote and show off the newest in the world of gaming.
Caspar and I had only gotten one hour of sleep the night before, having been out all night Friday, so we were slightly damaged as we set out to find the convention. It was an hour of transport without the possibility of sitting down. The trains were filled with people going to the show. Not exactly prime conditions for a couple of hungover persons, but we made it, more or less. It helped a lot to get out of the train and getting some fresh air.
The area, where the convention hall was situated, was very nice. Green areas and water here and there. Very well kept and clean.
The convention hall was huge seen from afar, only to prove even larger when we came up close as there were two buildings of the same size.

(Caspar's awestruck face expression after seeing the convention hall)

(The convention hall)

(The convention hall again)

Also, when we came up close, we could kind of sense that the whole thing would become a queue nightmare. Already from the very outside, people were queuing up just for the security check even though it was still early.
When we finally made it through the security check, we were ready to get in and see all the different things. The only problem was just that queue hell wasn't over. There was a line going around THE WHOLE BUILDING. I may not have explained just how big the building was. If you took 5 football fields and put them together, you would have to multiply that with two to get the size of the place. This made the line very, very long. It didn't exactly help that it was about 30 degrees Celsius and that the humidity was very high too. After 30 minutes of standing in that line alone, having turned around two corners of the building, the line turned again to go through the building - or so we thought. The truth was that it was the entrance. We were finally done with the line! Outside, at least.

(Having made it through the security check)

(A picture of the line around the building)

(The line going through the building)

Inside it was a controlled mayhem of sounds and lights and an uncontrolled mayhem of people. It was a bit much after having been standing for at least 2 hours including transport, being in the state that I was, but we were finally inside!
Being inside, I quickly realized that I had expected something very different. There were queues everywhere and mostly you just got to stand in line for up to 45 minutes just to see a trailer or get a couple of minutes of playtime with a new or coming game. There was even a queue for the merchandise shop!
It was a disappointment as I had hoped for something a little less queue-ish. Caspar and I decided to go home after an hour and a half to take care of our damaged bodies and heads. All in all I was happy to have been there and seen it, as I would have been regretting not going.

(Lights! Sound! People!)

(Sonic the Hedgehog and Annette)

(I'm not sure what this is)

(Japanese people)

On our way out of the convention hall, we saw a lot of different cosplayers (people dressed up in costumes, looking like characters from anime and computer games). Wanting to take pictures of them, Caspar borrowed my camera but it ran out of batteries fast, so no pictures of them, sadly.

This morning, when l looked through the photos, I got a bad surprise. I noticed that the last couple of pictures in the camera had a large black line across it. Wondering what it might could be, I took of the lens and looked inside. One of the shutter curtains is stuck across the sensor! Noooooo! It is most likely the motor driving the shutter that has worn out. This means that I need to get it to a Canon Service Center to get it fixed. The irony of this is that the Canon Service Center is situated out near the convention hall where we were yesterday. One hour of transport each way.
The worst thing is almost that Caspar had noticed this yesterday but didn't tell me! We could have just went by the service center and had it repaired so it would work for tonight for the concert. Today it is closed, so I have to wait for tomorrow to go out there and get it repaired.

(An example of the malfunction of the camera)

Tonight, Annette and I will go hear Caspar play on stage. Maybe you will be able to see all of us in the live feed from the bar.

Until then, take care!

Esben.

Nice Melons And Then Some

Konichiwa everybody!

It has been a while since my last activity on this blog, because of a lot of wandering about in Tokyo and other activities of exploration. I also had no idea what to call this blog entry, so I chose the name you can see above. One could also have called it Interaction With Locals or Days Of Exploration, which actually sounds better, but I went with the bit more odd choice, as you can see.

Since the last blog entry, we experienced the first and only (until today - sort of) rainy day. It was puring down outside and all the drainage and sewage systems were overloaded. It was also quite warm at the same time, which made going out in rain suits a damp and sweaty experience. That day we mostly spent in the apartment, looking up this and that about Tokyo and living here.
In the evening we went out to get some fresh air and ended up in Uedo, which is a youthly area of the city. There we went around, looking for UFO-machines. This is a kind of hook, that you can move to a desired location, within a box filled with prizes, and then it goes down to grab something, which it hopefully holds on to while moving back over a slide, where the prize will be dropped into, providing the hook has a good enough hold of the prize. We had seen these before, when we went to Akihabara, a place pretty much designed for anime (Japanese cartoons) and manga (Japanese comics) nerds. Buildings with anime figures on several floors and arcade halls filled with these UFO-catchers as well as arcade games and slot machines.
Having seen how difficult it actually is to win something, we wanted to just see what strategies other people were using. After having seen what we deemed enough, we went home and started watching an anime called One Piece (a pirate show!) which is very, very entertaining. There is more than 400 episodes, each with a length of 20 minutes of effective storytelling and several movies, so enough Japanese humor for a long while. We also read up on UFO-catching strategies and decided to go try our luck some day.

That night I had some problems falling asleep and it turned out to be one of many, but I will come to that later. The next day we went to Shinjuku to get some shopping done. We mainly chose this area because we hadn't been there yet. I needed new shorts and I got to know that there was a big camera store in the area as well. Something I had been looking forward to see over here. We took the metro to the Shinjuku Station and started walking around. There were a lot of big malls and shopping centers but all of them were a teeny bit out of our price range. To see an example, have a look at the three melons below.

(Expensive melons: 10.000 yen, 8.000 yen and 5.000 yen)

I will let you calculate the price of them yourselves, as that will give you a bit of brain gymnastics, hopefully. When you have calculated the price, then have another look at the melons in large (that is done by clicking the actual image of the melons). They do have certain resemblances with very, very ordinary net melons, right? That is because THEY ARE! It is just ridiculous. 

Anyways, we went on our way to find more reasonably priced shops to do our shopping. We also went into the big camera store (Bic Camera) but everything in there was about 30% more expensive than in Denmark, which is a bit odd, as they advertise being a discount shop. That was a huge disappointment to me, as I had hoped to maybe get some good deals on lenses over here. Seems I will have to wait until I get back home, unless it is because of Tokyo being slightly more expensive with commodities than elsewhere in Japan. Luckily the food is cheap! Well, not those melons above, though. Crazy. 

So, we went on with our search for less expensive things. Below are some images, just to give you an idea of the neighborhood we were in.

 

We soon got ourselves into an area with a lot of arcade halls, meaning UFO-catchers. It didn't take long for any of us to decide that we wanted to try and win something. SO we went into one place and started looking for things we wanted to try our skills and luck with. Because of being very entertained by One Piece, the anime we started seeing, I wanted to try my luck with a figure of one of the characters from that show. It took 2500 yen to get it right, but I did it! As the only one of the three of us. I know it sounds ridiculous to spend that much on something that unimportant, but there is just something about those machines that makes it all worth it in the end. Below is a picture of me with the prize.

(As touristy as they get)

Now having tried and won, I wanted to push my luck even further and I spotted a teddy bear that I thought was worth a go. I had seen in one of the videos on how to win the prizes on youtube that if you spotted something really difficult to get (i.e. far from the slide where you were supposed to get it to) you could ask an employee of the place to put it in another spot. I did this and he actually put the teddy bear in a spot where it was almost impossible not to get into the slide. All I had to do was to push down on the bear's head and voilá - another prize for Esben! Having won again, my lust for the catchers had been satisfied, and we went out to get some dinner.

(The teddy bear I won!)

We wanted to go to Roppongi to check out the area, as we were going there the following day (Friday) to party with one of Annette's friends who is also living here. We had initially decided to try and find some food there, but then we came by a nice side alley with a lot of small restaurants in it and we decided to try and find something there.

(The side alley with restaurants)

We eventually found a place that served okonomiyaki, a kind of pancake with a lot of different fill - mainly seafood. It was a quite nice place, in the manner of being full of local people and having some strange, interesting smells coming from the kitchen. The okonomiyaki was small but excellent. Tasted a lot like an omelet with tuna in it, but somehow also of more. Hard to really describe.

(Inside the restaurant)

We then ventured out into the now dark city to find the station that had the right trains going to Roppongi. On the way there we saw a couple of strange, but awesome things. A pretty customized scooter and a giant Hello Kitty figure.

(The scooter)

(The Hello Kitty figure)

(A shot of a street in the night time)

After being amused by the few sights, we took the subway to Roppongi and found ourselves some Japanese people in a bar called Gas Panic. First, we went by a place called Tokyo Sports Bar, which is owned by a Welsh man who warned us against sake, where we had a beer before going to the other bar. It was all very fun and it got quite a bit more late than expected for Caspar and I. We took a taxi home and went to bed around 6 in the morning.

(A blurry picture of the Japanese people we found)

When Caspar and I woke up the next day, Annette had gone out shopping with her friend and Caspar and I decided to go out in our back yard to get rid of some of our hang-overs. We sat down at the same stones in the water as last time and Caspar started playing a bit of guitar. We were the only ones who were there, until a couple of young folks came and sat down with us. A Japanese guy and a Chinese girl. I had just been sitting and taken photos up until then, which you can see below.

(The Japanese and Chinese)

The two young folks were tourists and had traveled all around Japan in two months. We talked a little about Denmark and music and then they left. Caspar and I then walked around for a little while and he could strap his amplifier to his pants and walk while playing. It looked like this:

He got several compliments for his playing while we walked around the university grounds which was quite cool. We walked by a football arena in the middle of the university area and next to it was a dojo to practice katana fighting. It was very interesting to see the training in the dojo, but I didn't want to disturb the people by taking photos, so I took a few from the outside.

(I liked the colors in this one)

(The football field)

(Caspar at a random place, playing)

(The katana dojo)

(A practicing student)

After that, we went home to change for the night out. Sadly, I have no more pictures for the blog, so the rest will be plain ol' text, but as the days have been somewhat quiet, there is not much to tell about.

There was, of course, the evening of party, which was, for the most part, one long walk from place to place in Roppongi. Well, first of all we needed to locate Annette's friend, who were waiting at the Roppongi Hills gate. The only problem was that there were several of those, so we walked from metro station to metro station to find the one she was sitting at. Finally we found her and could start the evening of fun. The only problem was to find out where we wanted to go. 

We only knew of the Gas Panic and the Tokyo Sports Bar, so we chose to go to the Sports Bar first. There were not many people at that place, so we decided to go elsewhere. We then found out that most places has a cover charge (entry fee) of two to three thousand yen and that the drinks were about 1000 yen. 

Pondering a bit about our situation and the outrageous prices, we decided to head for a 7-Eleven to get some drinks from there (they are quite cheap here). After having had a refreshing beverage we decided to venture on.

The whole night just went by with walking from place to place and finding everything to be to expensive. I did, however, get to see the famous restaurant of the fight in Kill Bill Vol. 1 between Uma Thurman and the Crazy 88. That was quite interesting. 

When it got light and the subways started to go again, we decided to head home again after a long night of walking. It was quite a disappointment, but now we know how not to do it again.

The following day, Saturday, we slept long, and Caspar and I went down to Tokyo Dome around evening time to get some fresh air. We ended up going home to watch some more One Piece and having something to eat.

Sunday we went out to Harajuku, where a lot of Japanese people dress up in costumes, but we got out of the door a bit late, so all the costume wearing people had gone home. We then decided to see if we could walk home, but we gave up after an hour and a half, realizing we had only gotten as far as one stop on the subway.

That night I had difficulties sleeping because my brain kept thinking about home and my Lady D. It had been the same the night before. All in all I have had 5 hours of sleep the last two nights. It is strange how I feel home sick. I usually don't have this feeling when travelling, but I guess it is because of the long term form of this thing. As soon as I get more goals and an everyday life up and running, I am sure it will go away a bit again, but right now I do miss all of you back home.

I will try and get some sleep now. I am very tired and it is almost 3 am.

Until next time, take care!

Esben.

Thunder Dolphin! I'm An Alien!

Konichiwa everybody!

Today we all became aliens! It is not as spacey as it sounds, though. What it means is that we are now legally registered aliens of Japan. We got the alien registration process started today and we will have our cards in a little over two weeks. The card will allow us to open bank accounts over here as well as buying mobile phones. None of the companies over here sells just a SIM-card for my phone, so I will need to get a cheap one, so I have a number to submit for job possibilities.

First off, we had to find the place to get it done. We initially thought we had to go to the other end of Tokyo, but then realized we had a Civic Center right next to Tokyo Dome, which is about 10-15 minutes walk from where we live. That was a quite nice discovery. So, we went there after breakfast, went by a photo booth (we needed photos for the application form), and got the process started after filling out a few forms. Having submitted the forms, we were kindly asked to wait for half an hour. We then decided to do a little bit of exploring and took the elevator up to the top floor, as Caspar had read about an observation deck with panorama windows up there. As we stepped out of the elevator and around the corner, we did not get disappointed. The view was very good. Below are a couple of shots taken first from the walk and the photo booth and then from the scenery from the observation deck.

(Annette and Caspar with the Civic Center on the left side in the background)

(Me in the photo booth)

(A view down)

(A wider view down)

(And this is the amusement park which is at Tokyo Dome)

The last picture is of the amusement park called LaQua which is right next to the Tokyo Dome. Yesterday, Caspar and I decided to ride the roller coaster which is more obvious, if you see the image in large format by clicking on it. It is the best shot I have gotten of it, as it is hard to get it all in a shot. The price was a bit steep, being 1000 yen, but we had to try it. We wanted to do a video of the ride itself with the camera scavenged from ROSKILDE Festival - the one that also captured the video from the gaming arcade - but we were not allowed to bring it up in the ride, so no footage of that, sadly. We do, however have some evening footage from the inside of the place, which can be enjoyed below.

(An attempt to show the roller coaster)

(A fountain show with music and color)

After having enjoyed the view, we went down to the offices again and got our passports back along with a temporary alien registration to use until we get the real one. We then went on our way and began searching for food. This search lead us past a quite nice shop in our neighborhood. It had all the necessities of a small household. Chairs, adapters, plug-dividers, underpants, duct tape, and clothes pegs. All we will ever need, hopefully. Today, though, we only bought a chair (we now all have a chair to sit on!), clothes pegs and a plug-divider. The rest of the day we have spent trying out sitting on a chair all three at once - and it worked! Nobody got hurt. We had to rearrange our stuff to make room for the extra seat, so we didn't have to climb over stuff to get around the room, but that worked as well! We now have space to actually take steps around the room! Well, to be honest, it is a nice place and it is very close to most things, even though it is small. I am happy to have it and I am confident we have found something worth the money. In Tokyo it is expensive to have a place to live! And I have learned the numbers from 1-100 today! Ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyuu, juu, juu-ichi (11), ni-juu (20). I am proud of myself. I also know how to say sorry, thank you, my name is, I will enjoy this food, how much?, where is? and I can spell sake and wasabi in kanji. I will hopefully soon learn to make myself understood in everyday situations.

Well, that was it from me this time. Take care!

Esben.

Welcome To Our Back Yard

Hello again everybody!

Yesterday, Sunday, two of us were slightly struck by hangovers, all three of us decided to check out the Tokyo University grounds which we live right next to. We could see a few lakes on the map, which had our interest. The university grounds were very nice and green and when we came to the lake, we were nothing less than amazed. I will let the pictures explain what we have in our back yard.

The lake is full of koy and turtles and there were some kids with their parents. The kids fished for turtles. It's the first time I have ever seen that. There were also some stones in the water, where we decided to sit. Caspar had brought his guitar and amplifier, so he could play a little bit of music to accompany the activities of the turtle fishing kids. I just sat and listened to Caspar's music while taking pictures and looked at the kids attempt to catch turtles. They had actually caught one turtle but one of the kids tipped over the container where they were keeping it, so it escaped.

(The stones in the water)

(Caspar sitting and playing)

(A turtle fishing kid)

(A turtle being fished)

(Annette sitting to the left)

(Annette reading)

(I kind of liked the reflection in the lens)

It was a very relaxing but in the end the mosquitoes got too irritating and we decided to walk around and explore some more. We saw some young people with bows and arrows walking around and we found a practicing range were they were shooting for quite small targets and hitting them. It was a very different way of shooting as to what I have seen elsewhere. They start with the bow raised in extended arms over their head with the arrow on the string. They then take the ow down for shooting, but before shooting, they turn their head away from the target before looking back again and firing. I would have liked to know why they did it so, but I did not want to disturb at that time, so I guess I will have that as a project; finding out why they shoot as they do.

(Students with bows)

(A firing range with practicing archers)

(Annette pressing out the egg she is sitting on)

(The sun setting while we are walking around)

(A fountain!)

(A university administration building)

After a while of just walking around without finding much more, we went on our way home to start cooking. The very first meal we have cooked ourselves in Tokyo. On the way back I took some random photos of the street and a German package of meat.

So, that was it for this post. Until next time, take care!

Esben.