Pre-Rain Tulips - Tokina Macro lens

We're glad that we went for a great ride yesterday and took advantage of the great weather. Today it is chilly, bleak and rainy. But it's also just the right time of season for gardeners and their tulips; here are some flower photos from my neighbor's garden:

(All taken with a 100mm Tokina Macro lens, Nikon D50 body)

Sakura Zensen and pics from the Kogen

Sakura zensen (桜前線）is the term used to describe the progression of the blossoming Cherry Blossoms across Japan. Japan is a long and narrow country, going from North to South, so the Cherry Blossoms (sakura) bloom at different times in different regions.

Here, they are nearly at full bloom, and up in Gotemba (a few hundred meters above here), they are still beginning to bloom too, and will probably be open this week.

O-hanami (お花見）-honourable flower viewing is the direct translation - is when people gather for great picnics under the Cherry trees to appreciate the blossoms, drink beer, wine and nihonshu, and generally appreciate the subtle and brief beauty of the cherry blossoms.

We were a bit early for the season at the Gotemba Kogen, but others were also out to begin their O-hanami and we enjoyed sitting under the just-budding trees just the same:

A Campy Weekend

Brian's stomach had recovered from whatever malicious invader had laid him low for the full day on Friday, and we had a really good (sunny, warm, peaceful) weekend of camping.

We didn't stray too far from home. Typical of our camping trips, we looked at some maps, found some very small, very local roads that wound into the mountains and near rivers. We decided to investigate one of these "roads" to nowhere, and ended up camping by a river in the general area of Otsuki. Oddly, we found ourselves not too far off of highway 20, but didn't encounter a soul. Oh...we did meet one hiker while we ourselves were hiking...

The photo opportunities were limited, but here are a few shots:

Camping is best done with beer!


Some Japanese cedars, responsible for all the kafunsho (hay fever) in Japan:


Although the road no longer existed ( we had to rock-hop (and very-broken-bridge hop) across the river, and hike up a non-paved single track), we found a bit of a "car graveyard". This is a close-up of an old Toyota:


On the drive home, although the day was a bit hazy, I couldn't resist a few shots of Mt. Fuji. This is taken from the Fuji-go-Ko toll road:

The Best Laid Plans

Thursday, March 20th, was Shunbun-no-hi, a national holiday to recognize the Spring Equinox. It's a wonderful idea to celebrate the coming of spring - and to make it into a 4-day weekend and take advantage of the good weather, we took Friday off as well. Our intention was to go camping for a few days, relax in the mountains, do some hiking and read books.

Thursday, however, was dreary and pouring rain. This was ok, since we'd really intended to use the day to get ready for our first camping trip of the season. We did a camping inventory, did some shopping for stuff we needed, and got the car packed up and ready for a pre-dawn departure.

Until...The Stomach Flu. I'd suffering a brief, 15 hour bout of it last week, and was fairly well recovered by midday. However, this was now Brian's turn and he suffered about three-times more than I had! So Friday was spent recuperating for Brian, and just mostly chilling out for me (oh, and cooking and getting tons of laundry done!).

Today is Saturday, and it is simply gorgeous weather. Brian is well on the mend, so we're heading out shortly for at least one night in the woods.

10 Tips to Cure Your Short Attention Span

A quick search in Google for "short attention span" turns up a lot of information on ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) in children and how to treat it. But what about we adults?There's not much information or help at all if you are an adult merely suffering a temporary (or semi-permanent!) bout of "short attention spanness", which I'll dub SAS. Since I'm a frequent sufferer of the above mentioned SAS, I thought I'd write a little about how I combat it.

Here are 10 things I do. I'm not sure whether these will work for you or not, but they seem to help inject some stability and focus when my mind is feeling particularly fractured:

1. Kill all unnecessary external stimuli. This means turn off the TV. TV is fun, it's good to relax after over-focusing on stuff, and since it requires little focus, it might seem like just what you need. However, lack of focus (SAS) is a sign that you are suffering from too much external stimuli - and TV the enemy!
   
2. Stare at a wall for five minutes in silence. I'm serious - it's called "meditating". I tend to stare at my ceiling, which has an intricate pattern of lines, and I simply try, over and over, to count those lines. Though for meditation gurus, you're really supposed to think about nothing at all. Zip. Zero. Nada. Nothing...for we mere mortals, that's tough. So I count the lines in the pattern, and eventually try to pay attention to what sounds I can hear - a car passing by outside, the refrigerator fan, etc...Then I concentrate on how the air feels on my skin. This clears my mind of all the other thoughts and pressures imposing on me.
3. Take a hot (hot!) bath, complete with scented bath salts by candlelight . This is a precursor and/or substitute for number 4. Allows a brief escape, and simply being "locked" in a small room with limited stimuli is a good thing.
   
4. Aromatherapy. That's just a fancy word for "burn some incense". I also dim the lights, play some of my favourite New Age music (generally aiming for some vintage Loreena McKennitt) and stare into darkness.
5. Exercise. If possible, out of doors, where you can walk, run or ride and feel like you don't ever have to stop. This frees the minds and relaxes the body.
6. Drink some St. John's Wort herbal tea, or take the tablets. St. John's Wort helps stabilize one's moods in general and is helpful in alleviating the symptoms of SAS.
   
7. Do some puzzles. Something not too tough - some sudoku, easy crosswords or logic puzzles. Challenging enough to keep you interested, but not so challenging as to make you lose interest! Just a temporary fix, but still helpful and keeps your mind sharp!
   
8. Create a To-Do list. Too practical, true. And it seems counter-intuitive - you already have too much to do, right? But writing it down will free your brain so it doesn't have to keep coming back to the thought "Oh, I've still got to..." right when you're in the middle of something else. The paper and pen method, in a nice little agenda, works better for me than any of the numerous online to-do lists（Ta-Da Lists, Remember the Milk).
9. Avoid alcohol, at least til the SAS passes.
10. If all else fails, pull a Garbo (you know, "I vant to be alone"...). Go into seclusion, and while there, employ all of the above.
    

PS:As this post has taken several hours to complete, due to SAS and frequent side-trips to Digg and List Universe, please take this advice at your own risk!

There's Something in the Air

Weekends always seem too short, and it's true that we can never get enough of a good thing. This weekend the weather was fantastic – sunny with highs of 18 (Celsius) or so. Naturally, we took advantage of this and went out for a couple of bike rides, including a really long, rigorous ride along the Fireroad before descending to the Gotemba Kogen where we sat outside and indulged in a cold pint of beer.

Spring, it seems is really almost here – but with this fine weather also comes a not-so-pleasant visitor or two. It is in this season that the pollen from the Japanese Cedar trees can be seen moving in giant clouds from the trees every time the wind blows. The yellow powder dances in the air before coating cars with a fine dust.

Which brings me to visitor number two: is it really pollen, or Gobi sands from China? We are currently infected with both as the spring winds carry large amounts of dust from the Gobi across to Korea and Japan. Some fear that the sand is toxic as well, and China has not helped matters by stating that information regarding the Gobi desert is “a national secret”.

Either way – Brian and I breathed in enough foreign bodies to make us both sniffly and congested today. However – with a glorious four-day weekend on the horizon, I do not think this will prevent us getting out to take advantage of spring!

Just stuff

This week has passed by quickly – I was on the road for the first few days, which always makes the time slip by. Now it's already Friday, and I've got plans to go out for dinner and drinks in Shizuoka city with a couple of girl friends. We've got reservations at a small Mexican restaurant called El Pollito, which is the best (a.k.a. Only!) Mexican food in town.

Not as healthy as running a race, but good fun just the same.

The rest of the weekend Brian might be able to catch up with a few old friends, and I also hope we get in at least one good ride and a cold beer at the Kogen.

Atami Yurakusu Marathon - 5km

Two years ago, I ran in my first-ever organized race event - the Atami Yurakusu Marathon. I ran 5km that time, at 32 minutes, 47 seconds (I blogged about it at the time - here). It is a great "first race" - the view is spectacular and the terrain flat (there are not many runs or rides or anything in Japan that do not involve steep climbs!).

This year, I ran that same race again. Truthfully, I'd intended to sign up for the 12k, but got careless with the online form and clicked the "sign up" button for the 5 by mistake. But 5km was good for me, and I got to run with a friend for whom this was also a first race. We ran together and came in at 34 minutes and 27 seconds. Not too shabby, really.



Four other friends ran this race, but in the 12km so I was able to get a few photos of them. In this one, they are at the start line, getting ready for take-off:


Pav, the woman on far right, came in at 58 minutes and something; Joe, doing the 'thumbs up' next to Pav came in at 1 hour and 1 second (a brutal victory perhaps!).


I also took pics of people I didn't know:


Gotta love some of the "sports" wear!


It was, all in all, a really good Sunday!

Izumi Restaurant and other things

The week went by quickly, and the weekend is already well under-way.

This morning we went for our first decent bike ride in a while; it wasn't an epic ride, but it was a pretty good workout and these days an hour on the bike in the sunshine is better than nothing at all!

This evening we decided to go out for dinner to a restaurant that a friend told us about. It was a buffet restaurant, he said, and much like the Kogen, but with really good sushi. The name of the restaurant is Izumi on Gourmet Dori in Numazu; it's not so far from here and very accessible by car and we'd been meaning to go for a while. So tonight we finally said, "let's go".

I have to say - when someone recommends a restaurant, make sure that he or she has similar tastes to you! While Izumi was ok, it was nothing like the Kogen, the food was mediocre and the atmosphere non-existent. It was a bit like a "truck stop" diner, with the small addition of many small children milling about the open food counter.

The waitresses/service people were, however, delightful, and if the restaurant were more in line with our own gustatory or atmospheric preferences, we would go back.

On another note - I am running in a short 5km race tomorrow...it won't exactly burn off the calories consumed today, but should be a good bit of fun just the same!

Camera Shopping - Lumix TZ3

A friend asked for our advice and help in purchasing a digital camera. I think it is even his first camera - digital or otherwise. I had him give me a few specifics - what size he wanted, what kind of photos he imagined himself taking, where he would take them, etc...After some research, I at first recommended the Panasonic Lumix TZ5 (reviewed here at DP Review). This looks like a great camera - and I'm not just saying that because I'm a Lumix fan!

However - I'd never recommend that someone buy a camera without getting a real feel for it. Different cameras fit different hands ...well, differently. A camera that I think is small may be too big for some people; and when I hold a tiny camera comfortably, someone with large hands may not. Also, are the controls suitable? For a first camera, you really want to make sure that you are not intimidated by the complexity of the camera, but yet that there is enough room to grow into.

And so, we took our camera-hunting friend to a large shop with a good selection of compact digital cameras on display. After playing with a few models, such as the Nikon Coolpix, and the Canon Power Shot A650, along with a few others, it was determined that the camera he was most comfortable with was....a Lumix TZ3!

In fact, after further research, and seeing that the impending release of the TZ4 and 5 had resulted in significantly reduced prices for the TZ3, that's the camera he that he decided to buy. You can read a thorough review here. It has 7 megapixels, 10x optical zoom, fits in his beefy hand and also in his pocket. Though lacking manual controls (so you can't set the shutter speed or aperture yourself), there are plenty of "Scene" modes, such as snow, parties, portraits, sports, food...(trust me, the "food" option is valuable here!).

We ordered the camera online at http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/emedama/guide.html

I'm sure the budding photographer will be happy with his purchase!

Dual Monitors

Inspired by Tracy's dual monitor setup, I added one myself... while mine was an easier situation (using XP instead of Ubuntu, for starters!) the benefits are obvious: Productivity has doubled!

Bullet trains

While Tracy and I ride the shinkansen (bullet trains) frequently on business, last week we left that pleasure to our colleagues and drove home from our staff meeting. While a much slower proposition, we took the scenic route stopping along the Oi River to appreciate the speed of the trains from the ground. Here is one crossing the river at 250+kph headed to Shizuoka... too bad I can't describe the sound and shock wave!