CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

The final day in Japan was spent back in Tokyo, with a whistle stop tour of some of the sights we missed last week before we headed to Narita International Airport for the flight home. The modern buildings in Tokyo are amazing and I had to point my Fujinon 18mm f2 and 14mm f2.8 lenses upwards to capture the amazing skyline. First stop was the Tokyo Tower before taking the subway to the Shiodome SIO-SITE and the walking to Ginza, Tokyo's equivalent to Oxford Street in London or Champs-Elysse in Paris. I mages taken on a Fujifilm X-Pro1 +  14mm f2.8 or 18mm f2 lens ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't cost you anything to click on an advert but we get a small fee for every click thru from Google and this helps support this blog - thank you for helping -----------------------------...

Yesterday's FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji in Japan was cut short after only 16 laps behind the safety car and the cars sat on the grid for hours waiting in vain for the torrential rain to clear.  Unfortunately it didn't clear away and the result had to be declared in the interests of safety.   While it was disappointing for the fans, drivers and teams and meant a lot of work for me answering questions in the media centre, this was the only decision that could've been taken.  If racing had been allowed and there had been a serious accident on the track due to the conditions nobody would have forgiven themselves.  The real endurance winners are the thousands of Japanese fans who stayed in the grandstands in appaling conditions until the bitter end.  To thank them the pitlane was opened at the end of the day and the drivers signed autographs to say thank you to them. Anyway I managed to capture a few images on ...

We woke up yesterday morning to the iconic sight of Mount Fuji with a snow cap.  This is the first time we have all seen Fuji-San with snow at the summit and it had everyone grabbing their cameras for a picture. Perfectly this was one of the first shots I took on my new Fujifilm X-Pro1 - Fuji-San taken on my new Fuji!  I now have a Fuji X-Pro1 with 14mm f2.8, 18mm f2, 35mm f1.4 and 60mm f2.4 prime lenses to complement my Fuji X100. I will be doing an initial 'first impressions' test on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 shortly.  I mages taken on a Fujifilm X-Pro1 + 18mm f2 and 60mm f2.4 lens ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't cost you anything to click on an advert but we get a small fee for every click thru from Google and this helps support this blog - thank you for helping ----------------------...

We spent a few hours wandering around the shopping districts in Tokyo with it bright neon signs providing a multi coloured spectacle to the streets of the Japanese capital city. Earlier we'd seen the Toyko Tower, which looks like a modern take on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  Built in 1958, it is slightly more modern than the famous Parisien version, and is 333m high. After a few hours we took a taxi to the Hyatt Park Hotel and sat in the New York Bar on the 52nd floor with its spectacular panoramic views of Tokyo. Some more images of Tokyo at night - all images taken on a Fujifilm Finepix X100 + 23mm f2 or 19mm f2 lens (WCL X100 fitted) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't cost you anything to click on an advert but we get a small fee for every click thru from Googl...

Both sides of the 250 metre street from the Kaminari-Mon Gate to the entrance to the Sensoji Temple are lined with over 90 shops some dating from the Edo era when the Temple was built. The shops are a mix of traditional crafts, food outlets and tourist souvenirs, which, on the whole, are high quality. Nakamise is one of the oldest shopping centers in Japan. Since Shogun Tokugawa (Ieyasu) established Edo Shogunate, the population in Edo (the old capital city, now called Tokyo) grew as well as visitors to Sensoji Temple.   In 1688 - 1735, those neighbours who performed receiving and serving visitors in the Sensoji Temple were given special right to open their shops in the approach to the temple. This was said to be the beginning of Nakamise. For more information on the history of Nakamise  CLICK HERE ------------------------------------------------...

Sensoji is the oldest temple in Toyko and is said to have been built in 628.  It is famous for its main Kaminari-mon Gate, where a giant lantern hangs but unfortunately the gate was being painted when we arrived and the lattern had been removed.  However as we approached the temple down the Nakamise Shopping Street (more on this in the next blog) we saw the Hozomon Gate to the Temple which had three giant latterns in place.   Walking through the gate we were confronted with the main square in front of the temple.  People were gathering to cleanse themselves with incense or make a wish at the shrine. The walk up to the temple was quite busy and Japanese worshippers would stop at the entrance to make an offering before proceeding inside.  The monks were worshipping behind a screen and we were able to observe and take some pictures. The weather was starting to turn to rain as we left due to approaching Typhoon Wipha which was due to hit Japan tha...