train; tokyo station; later that night

I didn’t get any pictures right after getting off the plane; if you’ve ever gotten off a big international flight, it was exactly like that. If you’ve never had the experience, imagine a bunch of boring hallways, where you go and hand over some forms to bored officials, and they look at you sternly and then stamp your passport. The only real difference this time was the lettering on the signs was half in a new language (most signs are in English and Japanese).

We met Nicholas after we got out of customs and picked up our hotspot gadget (which is why I have internet here hurtling through the countryside on this train). Then we made our way to the train station, picked up our rail passes, and waited. We had some beers while waiting on the train to toast our arrival. The party was together.

I tried to get photos out of the train window, but nothing worked. I think it was probably a combination of being up far too long on too little sleep, and the fact that the trains here are really fast. I ended up with a couple I don’t hate, anyway.

Then we had to walk from the station to our hotel. It took us a good 15 minutes just to find our way out of the station, and then we wandered back in to a different part, got lost again, then finally mad our way out to the surface and to the road we needed. During all of that, I was juggling luggage and camera, and managed to lose the new viewfinder for my 15mm. of course I didn’t bring the old one as a backup, so I’ll have to pick up another one of those when I’m back in the states.

So, after getting to the hotel, showering, and getting some yakitori for dinner, I went looking for the thing, retracing my steps, but didn’t find it. Oh, and the last photo: that’s the view out our first night’s hotel window. Now the train, and Kyoto is up next. Woot!

lax; clouds over the pacific; landfall

I don’t know why people complain about LAX; we may have been in a newer terminal, but it seemed pretty nice relative to some airports I’ve been in (looking at you, Guadalajara). Even versus SFO the only thing I can complain about is the wait time in the food court was pretty long.

so, because of reasons that I can’t begin to understand, we had to go to our gate in LA to get our tickets for the LAX->NRT leg. Once we got there, the printer for one of the gate agents broke, and they were dealing with that. Even with that considerable pressure, they were doing a great job, and got us all set in plenty of time. I must say the Singapore Airlines flight we were on was fantastic. We had an exit row, but also the cabin crew were friendly and helpful in a way that seems pretty rare these days.

The trip so far has been a lot of time in transit. We’re currently on a train to Kyoto, traveling at speeds in excess of R17 (and if you get that reference, I’ll bet you know where your towel is, too). Next post, as soon as I get the photos edited, is a bunch of walking around Tokyo.

obsessed

I started this post two days ago, and then forgot about it. Been working on a million things at once trying to get ready for Japan in 10! Days! Everything I’m working on now is bonus material, not required for the main quest.

Anyway, if it seems like street shooting is taking the place of the other stuff I do, it’s only because I’m obsessed with the Leica and I’m shooting everything every day. Just a ton of work, some of which is even good enough to show people. This is also trip preparation: practicing for taking pictures in Tokyo.

10! Days!

gorgeous sky

The first photo was taken 9 minutes before the second two. I think I like the third one best. There’s something nice about the context provided by all those wires. Anyway. This post is just some pretty pictures. Hope your weekend is going well. I ran errands all day, put together a casserole to bake for brunch, and have been working on my welding technique this evening. Took a bunch of photos out of the edit that I don’t like now. I suppose that’s the danger of waiting a month. There’s a likelihood I just won’t care about a certain photo or even set of them when the time comes to post.

Anyway, there’s today in the bag.