This morning I discovered that one of my photos has been used in an online travel guide produced by Schmap:

They also have an embedded version of their guide:

A couple of weekends back we celebrated ‘Coming of Age Day’ here in Japan. During the day off, I visited Odawara — a somewhat faded tourist town near Tokyo.

As ever, I’ve uploaded a small collection of photos to the usual places:

• .Mac Gallery (Fast Computers)
• Flickr (Slow Computers)

Odawara Castle itself is a modern reproduction and hosts a small museum of Japanese artifacts. One particular display brought back a childhood fascination with pocket sundials, instilled after seeing a number in the London Science Museum:

Last weekend, a friend — Dede — invited me to the Tokyo 12th annual ‘Foreign Students’ Music Contest’ in which she was competing.

Performances ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime; the audience watched a Jackson-esq dance routine set to ‘Smooth Criminal’ followed closely by a performance of traditional Japanese Noh-style drumming.

I snapped a couple of the photos of Dede’s Indonesian group performing a SMAP number and was lucky enough to catch Dede in full swing with her ‘angklung‘:

After many trips and many photos, I’ve finally got around to sorting through my photos of my week in Australia:

• .Mac Gallery (Fast Computers)
• Flickr (Slow Computers)

As promised, I’ve now uploaded my photos from Tohoku. They’re a slightly surreal collection — these days I find the scenery of Japan familiar so seek out interest via. more obscure subject matter.

• .Mac Gallery (Fast Computers)
• Flickr (Slow Computers)

Mike is also continuing his posts describing his visit; this time, it’s the food!

N.B. Recently, I’ve taken to uploading my photos to both my .Mac Gallery and Flickr. This is due, in part, to Apple’s inability to produce a solution which will work successfully on any browser — if you’re having trouble viewing the .Mac Gallery, please try using Flickr.