The Nikon D70 Review - Tokyo, Japan
Managed to get a few days worth of overseas leave, a blessed opportunity to travel to Japan with my Dad, there for business, and of course - my camera to enjoy a few days of off over the national day holidays. Everything was rather last minute but at the end of the day, things worked rather ok and I'm very thankful to be able to visit a country that I thought I'd never go to until I was rich enough myself.
Indeed, while I left Singapore last Thursday with a heavy heart; I just took upon this chance to take some time out. Get some rest from my monotonous schedules of shift work as well as to cast off all the cares of this life temporarily and just enjoy what this beautiful country has to offer. Returned today, quite happy and refreshed somehow; smiling to myself that in life after all tough upslopes there is to climb, there's going to be a plateau for rest. And somehow, I actually appreciate this country a little more than when I left it a few days ago.
Somehow, I managed to slowly work out a digital workflow that has helped me to upload a good number of photographs from my trip to my photos page. I realise that it takes more time to individually rotate the pictures than it does to actually do a streamlined editing process in Adobe photoshop. But nevermind, I'll see what I can do to add individual comments to each picture on the gallery page.
Left Singapore after midnight and landed at Narita early in the morning. Narita airport's very beautiful. It has a viewing gallery that really puts Changi to shame, despite not being as large as Changi. From Narita it was a 2 hour bus ride to Tokyo where we were put up in the Grand Hyatt.
The Grand Hyatt is in an area in Tokyo referred to as "Roppongi". It is one of the wealthiest districts in the entire city. Here, porsches, ferraris, mercedes sports cars move around aplenty. Buildings are modern, well maintained and all the branded shops from 5th Avenue New York City look like they were transported here as well. Not to mention that the place is so clean, I would rate it even cleaner than Singapore in general. I'm really impressed with the place. But well, the photos say so much more than my words do.
I just spent my first day in Tokyo exploring and walking around the city. From the beautiful and wealthy district from Roppongi all the way to the old city of Tokyo, where the building are more run down, much older looking and buildings only go up to 2 storeys. Indeed, its really a case of past meets present, as the Japanese continually advanced in modernity whilst retaining their cultural heritages and traditions.
Later that night I wandered down via the Tokyo metro to Ginza. The heart of Tokyo. Its entertainment, eating and shopping district. Endless streets of shops and more shops. Major streets turn into smaller streets that are equally long and into tinier alleys. In the end, somehow, I found myself in a hole in the wall restaurant for dinner. I realise that its not just above ground, but below ground as well that this city lives and breathes. Ginza, I was told, has the most expensive land price in the world.
"140 000 US dollars for one square foot". Now that's UNreal estate. The land prices are so high and by principle of economics, everything else is expensive as well. A dinner at a run of the mill "roadside stall" can easily set a hungry NSman back by a hundred dollars, Singapore currency, that is. Come to think of it, one bowl of Japanese rice in a restaurant can buy one sack of Thai rice back here in Singapore. A few pieces of chicken can buy 3 whole chickens at a wet market in Singapore. And I have to say that all the beef I ate in Japan tasted great. And the service was very very excellent.
Even on this first night in Tokyo, where I ate at in a restaurant that was really no more than a hole in the wall of one of the building in Ginza. The service was EXCELLENT. Far better than I have ever received at any restaurant in Singapore. Obviously not being able to speak more than a pathetic few words of Japanese, it was very hard to even order anything beyond hand gestures as well as speaking broken English to whomever was serving me. For this first night, I was served by some high school girl dressed in a kimono. She was very beautiful (very!). And thank God she actually could speak some broken English. Slowly, and patiently I had every single item on the menu explained to me and translated to English. Where in Singapore can I find such patient service staff? Nowhere indeed.
One noticeable thing about the Japanese people is that they are very particular about the way their food looks. Hence notice all those plastic models of food outside Japanese restaurants in Singapore? Usually, their menus are very colorful too, with plenty of pictures. Sometimes I just need to point at this and that and they'll understand on the spot. But on certain occasions at the more "high class" restaurants, everything tends to be just written down simply in Japanese. Not to mention they have one separate menu for the DRINKS alone, then the Appetiser, the Main Course and then the Dessert. Quite western in presentation, but all the food is very traditional at heart.
My second day in Tokyo was spent exploring the outer districts. I walked so far that somehow I lost my way and ended up in the Japanese central business district. Somehow I walked and walked until tourist attractions became shops and shops gave way to train stations and suddenly it was all skyscrapers around. Oh yes, I remember sitting outside the Nikkei Stock Exchange just to rest my tired feet. To get back to the hotel, one must read through the maze that is the public metro system is, but usually there's going to be one friendly Japanese person or other who'll help me to buy my ticket and guide me along to my destination. Don't take a taxi in Tokyo unless necessary. A short trip will cost at least 30 to 40 bucks. And we complain about taxi fares being expensive in Singapore.
Later I managed to wander my way back to where I came from. That's how small(or big) Tokyo can be. One whole day used up to wander around the outskirts of the Tokyo landed me up in Ginza again and I saw IT! The legendary NIKON HOUSE in the heart of Ginza Shopping District! There are a three major junctions in Ginza, these are junctions by Japanese standards are considered to be huge and where traffic from all sides is stopped simultaneously such that pedestrians can cross the street diagonally. The Nikon House is location at one such junction. A stone's throw away from the Sony building and ironically at the top of the building with this Nikon outlet is one huge "CANON" advertisement billboard.
The schoolgirls somehow walked into the frame just as I was about the snap a picture of the Nikon House. As its summer now, its school holidays for all the students in Japan, so this was rather puzzling indeed. Oh yes, Japanese summer is no different from normal Singapore weather. Maybe just slightly less humid only. I was sweating all the time in Tokyo less I walked into an air conditioned building. It was burning hot, some parts hit 35 degrees or more.
Inside the Nikon House where rows upon rows of manual focus Nikon cameras. Like those from the 50s, 60s and 70s. All in very good to excellent condition. Some even mint and brand new. They still stock lenses that are no longer in production - like those very well built manual focus, manual zoom, manual aperture lenses that are made out of metal - and not plastic that it is today. In addition - no digital bodies in the entire shop. Everything was still pretty much film-based.
In the end, I "saved" some money by blowing apart my savings to buy up one of the legendary nikon lenses at a good discount from the price it is in Singapore. No doubt I'm switching to Canon next year. But for now, I'm happy to shoot with the 17-35mm f/2.8 lens rather than the cheapo kit lens that came with my D70. Besides, it suits me very well indeed, especially since I like to do portraits, shoot landscapes and architecture and this lens is absolutely perfect! Now I can't even buy a tripod. Sigh. Photography is such an expensive hobby indeed!
Later I just kept walking around Ginza, to one of the smaller alleyways. Everything's just so crowded and packed together. I had dinner at this run of the mill restaurant that was build UNDER the tracks of the Tokyo trains that run above ground level. It was literally, just another hole in the wall, but the food was great and once again, burned a hole into my pocket.
My 3rd day in Tokyo was spent on a bus tour to Lake Hakone (Har-Koh-Neh) about 100 miles out of tokyo. It was a wasted trip because the weather turned awful after I boarded the cruise ship on the lake. But at least I did manage to get one or two nice photographs just before the lighting conditions became unfavourable.
The only highlight of the day would be that the trip back from my bus ride so far out of Tokyo would be heraded by a return in the Shinkansen of Japanese bullet train. Believe me, these trains are FAST. They move so quickly that when one of the them goes through the train station, the entire platform just vibrates like nobody's business. I rode on the 3rd fastest train in Japan, averaging about 280 km per hour. About maybe 4 to 5 times faster than our MRT? I only remember that the train ran through Yokohama and then on the Tokyo. Bullet trains are a great way to avoid the notorious traffic Jams that plague Tokyo and the surrounding towns. Just near to Tokyo, the town of Shinjuku, famed for the latest fashion trends in Japanese teenagers sees an influx of more than 3 million people into the city a day heading for work!
Overall day 3 in Tokyo was a wasted one. So nevermind. Just saw a lake and that's about it all.
My fourth day in Tokyo was much more pleasant. The weather was sunny and I spent the day in Ginza once again. The place is so huge I can get lost in it. And I never get bored! I just turn into one alleyway and there's this whole stretch of shops that goes on as far as I can see. Turn into another road and its another huge stretch of shops all the way through. I never even had the time to walk into more than a handful of shops in all of Tokyo. Just walking along the streets of Ginza alone was enough to take up all the time for this day. As a testimony to how large Ginza really is, the Ginza metro station has 32 exits. And the entire sector of Ginza is covered by 3 to 4 metro stations.
On weekends, large stretches of road in Ginza are closed to traffic and the entire road becomes a huge pedestrian walking zone! I guess that just because it is summer and it is really too hot to be in the sun, most people chose to cram onto the sidewalks that are shadowed by the adjacent buildings. Companies do their promotions in the middle of the street and cafes set up chairs and tables in the centre of the road. Quite interesting. Think of a very large scale Lorong Mambong at Holland Village after the hours of darkness in the day time and it will be roughly like what Ginza is on the weekends.
Making an exception, I took a taxi from the hotel to Ginza and wow. It was equipped with a Global Positioning device as well as route planning software down to a remote control used by the taxi driver to check that the route that he was taking was free of jams else was the shortest route possible. Talk about efficiency and technology! The ride was really short, but it cost close to 40 singapore dollars. I won't complain anymore when I step into a cab in Singapore. In Japan, the starting rate is 10 bucks! And it jumps by 1.20 every 250 meters or so!
Somehow, I couldn't find a place to have lunch this day in Ginza. How impossible, since Ginza has the most number of restaurants in Tokyo. I remember very clearly walking opposite the HARRY WINSTON building and desceding this staircase into a tiny and cosy room. No, it was another hole in the wall, no larger than the size of the HDB living room where I ate lunch. Its not really the food that matters. In Tokyo, more or less the food's good everywhere you go to. Its the service that really counts. And I can say that its the service that really makes the place memorable.
And since the weather was really hot later on. I walked and finally found a place to drink ice blended coffee. Of course, when one is touring a country, one doesn't really think too much about prices, right? After I drank the coffee, almost tasted like an imitation of starbucks. It dawned upon me that the one cup of ice coffee cost 10 bucks! Oops! So that's what I was told about Ginza - "The place where you can drink the 10 dollar cup of coffee". Oh my goodness. After that was a really memorable dinner once again (how come I talk about the food so much?) and then back to the hotel. One thing I realise is that the Japanese people are very well attired. They still wear suits even in the baking hot weather and can still smile cheerfully when I ask them for directions.
My last day in Tokyo was spent in another bus tour to Nikko national park. It was a waste of time as the weather turned foul as well. Come to think of it, I spent more time playing with my camera in the national park than I did with the sight seeing. Sigh, that's what bad weather can really do the mood on a tour - spoil it totally. You can see how bo liao I was to go round shooting MOSS just to play around with the "depth of field" effect in photography. The moss in focus is razor-sharp and clear, but everything else in dispersed in a very nice and soft blur. The beauty of the SLR cameras indeed.
I love Japan very much. As much as this statement would have caused massive controversy 3 generations ago. I guess that as time moves on into the globalized future and economy, the histories and past's of countries don't really matter no more, do they? I'm very happy with my trip to Tokyo, despite 2 wasted days and for the fact that I did nothing more than to wander around Ginza for 3 days. Japan's a beautiful country. And what I really enjoy about the place is the level of service I receive. In fact, the service at restaurant where I ate my first dinner on my first night of Tokyo? I went back there on my last night of Tokyo as well. Unfortunately, the beautiful high school girl in a kimono was no longer there! (She was on off!) But nevermind, looks wise aside, I'm just very impressed with the whole country - its organisation, effeciency, social kindness, peacefulness, safety. Yet I leave the place with the tinge of sadness, knowing, at the end of the day, as a gaijin (foreigner), I will always be one to return back to our warm sunny shores of this 39 year old isle for reasons unknown to me.
Plasma TV, Newspapers and Loose Change.
Managed to get a few days worth of overseas leave, a blessed opportunity to travel to Japan with my Dad, there for business, and of course - my camera to enjoy a few days of off over the national day holidays. Everything was rather last minute but at the end of the day, things worked rather ok and I'm very thankful to be able to visit a country that I thought I'd never go to until I was rich enough myself.
Indeed, while I left Singapore last Thursday with a heavy heart; I just took upon this chance to take some time out. Get some rest from my monotonous schedules of shift work as well as to cast off all the cares of this life temporarily and just enjoy what this beautiful country has to offer. Returned today, quite happy and refreshed somehow; smiling to myself that in life after all tough upslopes there is to climb, there's going to be a plateau for rest. And somehow, I actually appreciate this country a little more than when I left it a few days ago.
Somehow, I managed to slowly work out a digital workflow that has helped me to upload a good number of photographs from my trip to my photos page. I realise that it takes more time to individually rotate the pictures than it does to actually do a streamlined editing process in Adobe photoshop. But nevermind, I'll see what I can do to add individual comments to each picture on the gallery page.
Left Singapore after midnight and landed at Narita early in the morning. Narita airport's very beautiful. It has a viewing gallery that really puts Changi to shame, despite not being as large as Changi. From Narita it was a 2 hour bus ride to Tokyo where we were put up in the Grand Hyatt.
The Grand Hyatt is in an area in Tokyo referred to as "Roppongi". It is one of the wealthiest districts in the entire city. Here, porsches, ferraris, mercedes sports cars move around aplenty. Buildings are modern, well maintained and all the branded shops from 5th Avenue New York City look like they were transported here as well. Not to mention that the place is so clean, I would rate it even cleaner than Singapore in general. I'm really impressed with the place. But well, the photos say so much more than my words do.
I just spent my first day in Tokyo exploring and walking around the city. From the beautiful and wealthy district from Roppongi all the way to the old city of Tokyo, where the building are more run down, much older looking and buildings only go up to 2 storeys. Indeed, its really a case of past meets present, as the Japanese continually advanced in modernity whilst retaining their cultural heritages and traditions.
Later that night I wandered down via the Tokyo metro to Ginza. The heart of Tokyo. Its entertainment, eating and shopping district. Endless streets of shops and more shops. Major streets turn into smaller streets that are equally long and into tinier alleys. In the end, somehow, I found myself in a hole in the wall restaurant for dinner. I realise that its not just above ground, but below ground as well that this city lives and breathes. Ginza, I was told, has the most expensive land price in the world.
"140 000 US dollars for one square foot". Now that's UNreal estate. The land prices are so high and by principle of economics, everything else is expensive as well. A dinner at a run of the mill "roadside stall" can easily set a hungry NSman back by a hundred dollars, Singapore currency, that is. Come to think of it, one bowl of Japanese rice in a restaurant can buy one sack of Thai rice back here in Singapore. A few pieces of chicken can buy 3 whole chickens at a wet market in Singapore. And I have to say that all the beef I ate in Japan tasted great. And the service was very very excellent.
Even on this first night in Tokyo, where I ate at in a restaurant that was really no more than a hole in the wall of one of the building in Ginza. The service was EXCELLENT. Far better than I have ever received at any restaurant in Singapore. Obviously not being able to speak more than a pathetic few words of Japanese, it was very hard to even order anything beyond hand gestures as well as speaking broken English to whomever was serving me. For this first night, I was served by some high school girl dressed in a kimono. She was very beautiful (very!). And thank God she actually could speak some broken English. Slowly, and patiently I had every single item on the menu explained to me and translated to English. Where in Singapore can I find such patient service staff? Nowhere indeed.
One noticeable thing about the Japanese people is that they are very particular about the way their food looks. Hence notice all those plastic models of food outside Japanese restaurants in Singapore? Usually, their menus are very colorful too, with plenty of pictures. Sometimes I just need to point at this and that and they'll understand on the spot. But on certain occasions at the more "high class" restaurants, everything tends to be just written down simply in Japanese. Not to mention they have one separate menu for the DRINKS alone, then the Appetiser, the Main Course and then the Dessert. Quite western in presentation, but all the food is very traditional at heart.
My second day in Tokyo was spent exploring the outer districts. I walked so far that somehow I lost my way and ended up in the Japanese central business district. Somehow I walked and walked until tourist attractions became shops and shops gave way to train stations and suddenly it was all skyscrapers around. Oh yes, I remember sitting outside the Nikkei Stock Exchange just to rest my tired feet. To get back to the hotel, one must read through the maze that is the public metro system is, but usually there's going to be one friendly Japanese person or other who'll help me to buy my ticket and guide me along to my destination. Don't take a taxi in Tokyo unless necessary. A short trip will cost at least 30 to 40 bucks. And we complain about taxi fares being expensive in Singapore.
Later I managed to wander my way back to where I came from. That's how small(or big) Tokyo can be. One whole day used up to wander around the outskirts of the Tokyo landed me up in Ginza again and I saw IT! The legendary NIKON HOUSE in the heart of Ginza Shopping District! There are a three major junctions in Ginza, these are junctions by Japanese standards are considered to be huge and where traffic from all sides is stopped simultaneously such that pedestrians can cross the street diagonally. The Nikon House is location at one such junction. A stone's throw away from the Sony building and ironically at the top of the building with this Nikon outlet is one huge "CANON" advertisement billboard.
The schoolgirls somehow walked into the frame just as I was about the snap a picture of the Nikon House. As its summer now, its school holidays for all the students in Japan, so this was rather puzzling indeed. Oh yes, Japanese summer is no different from normal Singapore weather. Maybe just slightly less humid only. I was sweating all the time in Tokyo less I walked into an air conditioned building. It was burning hot, some parts hit 35 degrees or more.
Inside the Nikon House where rows upon rows of manual focus Nikon cameras. Like those from the 50s, 60s and 70s. All in very good to excellent condition. Some even mint and brand new. They still stock lenses that are no longer in production - like those very well built manual focus, manual zoom, manual aperture lenses that are made out of metal - and not plastic that it is today. In addition - no digital bodies in the entire shop. Everything was still pretty much film-based.
In the end, I "saved" some money by blowing apart my savings to buy up one of the legendary nikon lenses at a good discount from the price it is in Singapore. No doubt I'm switching to Canon next year. But for now, I'm happy to shoot with the 17-35mm f/2.8 lens rather than the cheapo kit lens that came with my D70. Besides, it suits me very well indeed, especially since I like to do portraits, shoot landscapes and architecture and this lens is absolutely perfect! Now I can't even buy a tripod. Sigh. Photography is such an expensive hobby indeed!
Later I just kept walking around Ginza, to one of the smaller alleyways. Everything's just so crowded and packed together. I had dinner at this run of the mill restaurant that was build UNDER the tracks of the Tokyo trains that run above ground level. It was literally, just another hole in the wall, but the food was great and once again, burned a hole into my pocket.
My 3rd day in Tokyo was spent on a bus tour to Lake Hakone (Har-Koh-Neh) about 100 miles out of tokyo. It was a wasted trip because the weather turned awful after I boarded the cruise ship on the lake. But at least I did manage to get one or two nice photographs just before the lighting conditions became unfavourable.
The only highlight of the day would be that the trip back from my bus ride so far out of Tokyo would be heraded by a return in the Shinkansen of Japanese bullet train. Believe me, these trains are FAST. They move so quickly that when one of the them goes through the train station, the entire platform just vibrates like nobody's business. I rode on the 3rd fastest train in Japan, averaging about 280 km per hour. About maybe 4 to 5 times faster than our MRT? I only remember that the train ran through Yokohama and then on the Tokyo. Bullet trains are a great way to avoid the notorious traffic Jams that plague Tokyo and the surrounding towns. Just near to Tokyo, the town of Shinjuku, famed for the latest fashion trends in Japanese teenagers sees an influx of more than 3 million people into the city a day heading for work!
Overall day 3 in Tokyo was a wasted one. So nevermind. Just saw a lake and that's about it all.
My fourth day in Tokyo was much more pleasant. The weather was sunny and I spent the day in Ginza once again. The place is so huge I can get lost in it. And I never get bored! I just turn into one alleyway and there's this whole stretch of shops that goes on as far as I can see. Turn into another road and its another huge stretch of shops all the way through. I never even had the time to walk into more than a handful of shops in all of Tokyo. Just walking along the streets of Ginza alone was enough to take up all the time for this day. As a testimony to how large Ginza really is, the Ginza metro station has 32 exits. And the entire sector of Ginza is covered by 3 to 4 metro stations.
On weekends, large stretches of road in Ginza are closed to traffic and the entire road becomes a huge pedestrian walking zone! I guess that just because it is summer and it is really too hot to be in the sun, most people chose to cram onto the sidewalks that are shadowed by the adjacent buildings. Companies do their promotions in the middle of the street and cafes set up chairs and tables in the centre of the road. Quite interesting. Think of a very large scale Lorong Mambong at Holland Village after the hours of darkness in the day time and it will be roughly like what Ginza is on the weekends.
Making an exception, I took a taxi from the hotel to Ginza and wow. It was equipped with a Global Positioning device as well as route planning software down to a remote control used by the taxi driver to check that the route that he was taking was free of jams else was the shortest route possible. Talk about efficiency and technology! The ride was really short, but it cost close to 40 singapore dollars. I won't complain anymore when I step into a cab in Singapore. In Japan, the starting rate is 10 bucks! And it jumps by 1.20 every 250 meters or so!
Somehow, I couldn't find a place to have lunch this day in Ginza. How impossible, since Ginza has the most number of restaurants in Tokyo. I remember very clearly walking opposite the HARRY WINSTON building and desceding this staircase into a tiny and cosy room. No, it was another hole in the wall, no larger than the size of the HDB living room where I ate lunch. Its not really the food that matters. In Tokyo, more or less the food's good everywhere you go to. Its the service that really counts. And I can say that its the service that really makes the place memorable.
And since the weather was really hot later on. I walked and finally found a place to drink ice blended coffee. Of course, when one is touring a country, one doesn't really think too much about prices, right? After I drank the coffee, almost tasted like an imitation of starbucks. It dawned upon me that the one cup of ice coffee cost 10 bucks! Oops! So that's what I was told about Ginza - "The place where you can drink the 10 dollar cup of coffee". Oh my goodness. After that was a really memorable dinner once again (how come I talk about the food so much?) and then back to the hotel. One thing I realise is that the Japanese people are very well attired. They still wear suits even in the baking hot weather and can still smile cheerfully when I ask them for directions.
My last day in Tokyo was spent in another bus tour to Nikko national park. It was a waste of time as the weather turned foul as well. Come to think of it, I spent more time playing with my camera in the national park than I did with the sight seeing. Sigh, that's what bad weather can really do the mood on a tour - spoil it totally. You can see how bo liao I was to go round shooting MOSS just to play around with the "depth of field" effect in photography. The moss in focus is razor-sharp and clear, but everything else in dispersed in a very nice and soft blur. The beauty of the SLR cameras indeed.
I love Japan very much. As much as this statement would have caused massive controversy 3 generations ago. I guess that as time moves on into the globalized future and economy, the histories and past's of countries don't really matter no more, do they? I'm very happy with my trip to Tokyo, despite 2 wasted days and for the fact that I did nothing more than to wander around Ginza for 3 days. Japan's a beautiful country. And what I really enjoy about the place is the level of service I receive. In fact, the service at restaurant where I ate my first dinner on my first night of Tokyo? I went back there on my last night of Tokyo as well. Unfortunately, the beautiful high school girl in a kimono was no longer there! (She was on off!) But nevermind, looks wise aside, I'm just very impressed with the whole country - its organisation, effeciency, social kindness, peacefulness, safety. Yet I leave the place with the tinge of sadness, knowing, at the end of the day, as a gaijin (foreigner), I will always be one to return back to our warm sunny shores of this 39 year old isle for reasons unknown to me.
Plasma TV, Newspapers and Loose Change.
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