Spring is coming...

The blooming fruit (but not yet cherry) trees and warmer days are refreshing after the grey, although mild, winter. This season invokes our strong urge to be outside, and so in our case, on the bikes; many others feel the pull of the outdoors as well, so we've been spending a lot of time catching up with our non-riding friends.

Last week we had a lunch party at a good friend's house in Fuji city (Tracy's taking the pic), and we all got caught up over some delightful chirashizushi (mixed rice and raw fish; seasonally appropriate because it's pink!):

















We went with another bunch to a wild live concert in Tokyo on the weekend, featuring go-go dancers:











and butoh dancers:























The main performance was by a group known as shibusashirazu orchestra, and it was great!

We also took a little time to visit a very nearby shrine in our neighborhood, where I tried another (un-tripod-assisted) HDR attempt:














This week is busy at work, and we'll both be travelling to the geographical boundaries of our company in the next days. The weekend will bring a large outdoor bbq party hosted by our company's president in appreciation of the approaching wave of cherry blossoms. Until then...

Long Ride

Yesterday was glorious Saturday, and we went for our first long ride in a while. Actually, after the pizza, wine and beer on Friday evening, we didn't have much of a choice:-) We rode the Rigs about 8 KM straight up the mountain, until we got to a rarely-used road along the ridge. The road, which we call "the fire road", runs in a hilly way from Gotemba to Mishima cities, and is about half-way up the mountain between Susono and Hakone.

We road along the rolling hills(happily coasting down, then grunting our way up, our legs achingly tired from single-speeding, enjoying the views and the silence, and occasionally stopping to take pictures, until we got to an intersection: left would have taken us further up all the way to the Hakone speedway. Right would bring us home. Though we have occasionnally opted to turn left, yesterday we turned right and coasted all the way back to our front door.

Our total mileage was only 20Km, but conquering the hills in one gear was satisfying just the same.

Moodle

While Brian's been busy working on HDR images, and learning the various software programs needed to merge the photos, I've been keeping myself entertained learning about Moodle.

Moodle is a free open-source CMS (Course Management System), an excellent tool in the field of education. Moodle allows teachers to upload assignments, and to grade students online. It also allows the teacher to create forums and to set up chats; to put quizes and surveys online...

I started hearing whispers about Moodle about three years ago at the annual JALT (Japan Association of Language Teachers) conference. Two years ago, the whispers had become louder; by last October, the whispers had grown into shouts, and I could no longer ignore the technology I was hearing about.

About a month ago, I downloaded Moodle, and then uploaded it to my server (this was not as simple as it sounds:-) I then had to configure a database (MySQL), which took a few days of frustration to figure out; but voila! I now have Moodle up and running on our Japan Rider site. You can see what it looks like by clicking here.

Warning! My Moodle is still in its nascence! I am just in the process of learning how to use Moodle efficiently. The Moodle Documentation itself says that a big mistake is for teachers to think that simply using Moodle will motivate the learners; Hmm... A good hammer doesn't make a better carpenter - how true! But a good teacher can use a good tool to help learners enjoy the course and perform better overall.

Other sources to look at:
http://www.moodle.org
http://docs.moodle.org

Shunbun no Hi!

Hi all!

While today was a normal Tuesday for many folks, today marks the beginning of spring in the 'old' Japanese calendar, and has earned National Holiday status. For some reason the eardrum-popping rockets that normally mark National Holidays in our neighborhood began at 6:30, rather that the usual 6 or 7 even. Hmmm.

Anyway, the sun had already woken us up, and we were on our way out to ride when those explosions surely woke everyone else for miles around. Why were those lazy folks sleeping in on the nicest day so far this year?

On the ride we visited the un-photogenic boars, that are caged for future stews. The boars are kept in a dark bamboo grove, and become agitated easily if we approach too closely, thereby preventing good shots. Once we got close enough to toss apple slices to them, but we didn't have any treats today. Maybe next time!

On the ride we stopped and I took a few shots to combine into an HDR... the results look to me like a diarama; the house looks like a tiny model and the trees seems fake. Not what I expected, but still kind of cool:























This was a different view of Mt. Fuji than the one familiar to us from our front door. Although I've snapped this one many times before, yesterday's weather allowed for a more spectacular version:
















The day started very clear, then in the afternoon, suddenly became dark, rained, thundered, hailed, and cleared, all in the span of an hour. This was just after the storm.

These were taken / assembled using my new camera, the Lumix dmc-lx1. This has a unique true 'wide' ratio of 16:9, as well as having full manual control and a Leica lens. I'm looking forward to playing with it more as spring rolls in!

Back on the Bike

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, today is a national holiday in Japan, and therefore a non-work day for me and Brian. We woke up early to a clear sky and crisp weather, and thought What a great day for a ride.

Since Brian's vein surgery in February, and my running, we hadn't ridden our Rigs for more than six weeks. Saturday was the first day back, and we took it easy. Sunday, we pushed a bit harder. And today, we rode for a couple of hours, up some steep hills and a little off roading.

It's good to be back, and the Rigs are much happier being ridden than being hung on the bike hooks!

Celebrating Spring

Tomorrow - the 21st of March - marks the spring equinox, a holiday here in Japan. And so, we've made it through Monday, and are rewarded with a day off on Tuesday. Luckily, my book order from Amazon Japan arrived today, so I won't be at a loss tomorrow. On the menu - perhaps Natsuo Kirino's Out...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

While St. Patrick's Day is fairly an unknown event over here, I know that the day will bring a lot of parties in cities in North America, and a few parades on Sunday, too.

I hope everyone has a great time again this year!

Chocolate Chip Cookies and Candlelight

I've got a few hours home alone tonight.

I'll be savouring a long, hot candlelit bath; a hot cup of tea with chocolate chip cookies, and my new issue of The Atlantic Monthly!

Let the games begin...

Race Day in Atami

OK. Well, Bernicky remembered that last weekend was my big, first race. I ran a short 5 km in the Atami Yurakusu Marathon, and I crossed the finish line. Ok - so I came in behind the 90 year old fitness freak...! It was a lot of fun - the rain held off (thought the wind didn't!), and Brian came with me for moral support - a good first race. And I've already signed up for a tougher, uphill 10 KM race in May.

Here I am, in the crowd of 5km runners, getting ready for the start:




Here I am walking with the crowd to the start line:


The great Pacific Ocean - the race went along the coast, along the road you can see that runs beside the sea:




Here is my certificate- 32 minutes and 47 seconds!

IE 7.0 Beta 2 Preview

A few weeks ago, I posted about the new Yahoo page that was being tested. It was nice, but I lost my testing privlege, it seems, when I updated my Internet Explorer to the new 7.0 Beta 2 Preview.

Here is a screen shot (click image for larger view):


It is supposed to have better security features than the current version and it has a very, very different look and feel. Notice the "tabs" along the top of the browsing window - this allows the user to have several sites open on different tabs, without having to open a new Explorer window. You can also search with the search engine of your choice by typing in the little search box in the upper right-hand corner. Navigating your favorites is also easier and faster - the favorites bar drops down when you click the star on the left-hand side. All these features will seem familiar to Firefox users, and I think will be welcome by Explorers, too.

You can download the upgrade in it's Beta version here:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ie7/default.msp

My favorite hotel in Tokyo!

While there are certainly other places to stay with more charm, or others that might be a little cheaper, the Route Inn in Gotanda is my long standing favorite. The Route Inn chain is unique among 'business hotels' as it has a 'sento', or public bath. Usually this feature requires a hotel of 'ryokan' grade, which is generally much pricier.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch a picture of the bath on the roof (too steamy!), but I managed to get a pic of the room:

















and the view from the window this morning:











These were also taken as sets of three different exposures with the Lumix Lz2, and merged to HDR, but without a tripod; I used the wastebasket and tissue box to steady the camera on the nightstand.

I took a hot bath last night upon checking in, and then enjoyed the bi-lingual TV news before sleeping. This morning, I bathed again (this time alone) before the 7am breakfast buffet. Pure bliss in the heart of Tokyo!

Getting back on track...

Whew! It's been one month since my shin surgery, and I have been 'taking it easy' during the recovery, to keep my blood pressure down. This has to be longest I've gone without riding, and definitely the longest without doing any kind of workout.

I worked in Tokyo yesterday, and then spent the night in my favorite 'business hotel' there so I could meet my surgeon early today. He seemed as tickled with the results as I am, and proclaimed that I am ready to resume any and all exercise, including biking and weight training. He explained that I had a rare type of varicosity, caused by multiple 'holes' in my lower leg, which is the cause of 20% of these cases. The other 80% are caused by backflow in the one Greater Saphenous Vein, which can be easily ligated at the groin; a much simpler procedure than what he performed on me.

To celebrate the coming of spring as well as my last non-active weekend, I tried again with some High Dynamic Range photography. This time, I used my Lumix fully-automatic LZ2. I was able to take an automatic-mode picture, then reduce and increase the EV by +2 AND -2 for the second and third exposures. This isn't as good as using a camera with manual controls, but I wanted to see if it was even possible. It is, but a limiting facor was bright white things, and since I chose snowy Mt. Fuji and three local waterfalls, I got poor results.

This shot of my friend Chris's bike against my truck, in front of our Landlady's house fared better, though:















To make this, I needed only my digicam, a tripod (ours cost about $9), and Adobe Photoshop 9.0, which is part of the Creative Suites 2 (CS2) package of software. I have read that another free program, Photomatix, gets similar results, but I haven't tried that yet.
More soon!

More High Dynamic Range

The weather cleared for a nice, though still chilly, Saturday. We went to a car wash early this morning to give the Pajero some TLC, but plenty of other people had the same idea. Car washing is an art form here, more than the job I see it as, and we didn't want to wait for the geeks with toothbrushes flossing their wheels. As we had driven halfway to Mishima, a visit to a newly-opened computer shop yhere seemed like a good idea, although neither of us really needed anything.

It turned into a whole day out, getting back just in time for a quick shot of Mt. Fuji at sunset... this was a set of three exposures taken with a Lumix FZ10, and then merged in Photoshop:





















If the weather holds tomorrow we'll go out to find some more exotic scenes (this is from our front door), maybe down to the ocean or to the river.

Thanks for visiting!

Yahoo Testing New Home Page

And I am, according to Yahoo, "among the lucky few who get to try it out".

Here is a screen shot of the new page (click on the image for a larger view):



I rather like the bubble-like design, and I like having the news in the center of the page, with tabs to choose "world news" and "video".

I'll have to surf around on Yahoo a bit more before I confirm my liking for it!