馬刺し

Ohisashiburi (It's been a long time, hasn't it?)!

Things have been unrelentingly busy here, but I have time today to share a little of what we have seen and done recently.

During a recent business trip to Tokyo, we visited a few fantastic camera shops in Shinjuku, and Tracy bought a used Nikkor 50mm prime (F1.4!) lens. It works on her D50 perfectly, but on my D40x only the light metering (and not the autofocus) works. Nevertheless, the D40 has been wearing that lens for a few weekends, waiting for some sunshine to really test it out.

Before that chance, though, I drove past a butcher shop in Gotemba, and I witnessed their newly-arriving hoofed delights under cloudy skies. Too bad they whisked the carcasses from the truck into the shop before I could safely pull over and run back for authentic snapshots. Luckily, the side of the shop had some cheerful billboards extolling the process of bringing raw horsemeat to your table...







Basashi (raw horse sashimi) is much more delicious than it looks, I swear! The local eatery that carried this delicacy has sadly gone out of business, but we'll post again if we find another...

Today, finally, the sun came out and warmed the day up to very comfortable temperatures under cloudless skies, so we left early for a drive. The changing of the autumn leaves already passed, but the susuki-grass remained for a seasonal golden touch.

This is Tracy's view with her Nikon 18-200:


And my view (with her 50mm and a polarizing filter):

We'll both be 'on the road' for the next few days on business, but hope to catch up again soon!