Of BBQ and Turkish Delights

This is the funniest and saddest bbq I had ever attended. Funniest because the coals just simply would not burn and saddest because the coals just simply would not BURN!! It was so embarrassing to see other groups that came after us already eating their delicious bbq-ed meat while we were still trying our damnest to get the fire going! We bought three types of fire starters, all of which did work (they were fire starters after all and the fires did start) but the the charcoals just would not burn!


"Eh, Ton, can work ah this time?"

We ended up grilling the meat over the fire (while the fire starters were still burning). We were there at Kamogawa river around 5 pm and we were still there trying to get the fire going until 7pm! We were a sad bunch. Another group of people that came at the same time as us were already happily eating and by 7, some of them were leaving, while we have not even eaten yet!


A girl and her reflection

In the end, after the fire died for the last time, we packed up the uncooked meat and vegies and headed back to Ton's apartment to cook our dinner. We did had a little bit of grilled meat with satay sauce which was delicious. Thank you Ton and Mai! And back at the apartment, we had our full dinner!

I will not be updating my blog since I will be off to Turkey until the 17th of September. So will see you guys when I get back.

To Ton, Mai, Gan, Puay, Patrick, Shin and Chan....we will try again next time!

Fancy a grilled cob?

Taken while we were eating at this restaurant in Kumamoto, Kyushu.

We came out smelling like grilled meat, charcoal and smoke. But the food was good.

Sleeping beauties

Sleeping whooper swans at Lake Kussharo, Akan National Park, Hokkaido.

Smithsonian Magazine 3rd Annual Photo Contest

For the 3rd year running, the Smithsonian Magazine is inviting all amateur photographers to submit their best photos for a chance to win the Grand Prize which is a 4 day Grand Canyon adventure plus of course having the prestige and recognition that your photo was chosen by Smithsonian. Don't worry, no need to hastily submit your photos just yet as the closing date is January 2006. Plenty of time to get that picture.

You have the chance to submit up to 5 pictures, one in each of the five categories: Americana, The Natural World, Altered Images, Travel and People. As you will see in the winning pictures, they do not necessarily have to be breath taking but rather the message behind the pictures is the one that counts.

So, what are you guys waiting for?

For more info, visit the Smithsonian Magazine site

Kyushu Part 3 Nagasaki

We were in Nagasaki in the beginning for our conference. Then we left for Saga prefecture and Sasebo city. We came back to Nagasaki in order to take the bus to the airport for our flight home. While we were attending the conference, we stayed in a hotel in Chinatown area. I don't know why I did not take any pics of Chinatown though. I just realised that.


Sunset at Iojima island. Brightness and contrast adjusted.

Before we visited Nagasaki town proper on the last leg of our journey, we headed over to Iojima resort island. We took a ferry there from Nagasaki port to the Iojima. It is a small island with a small town but is famous for its resort hotels and beautiful beaches (I don't know how beautiful it is cause we had no time to see the beach).


Waiting for the ferry

We drove from Sasebo back to Nagasaki and immediately bought the tickets to Iojima island. While we were waiting for the ferry, we ate at a restaurant at the harbour. Picture taken at the restaurant.


Sunset near the Iojima lighthouse

The resort was wonderful, something like a 4 to 5 star hotel back home in Malaysia. And the price was extremely reasonable for our one night stay! We stayed in individual chalets overlooking the beaches. The resort is the first thing you would see when you board off the ferry. White and red tiled buildings, spread across a wide area. It has a nice onsen/spa, with an outdoor onsen overlooking the sea as well. Swimming pool, basketball court, children play area, tennis courts, golf area.....


Our dinner at the hotel's restaurant

Then there was this series of fantastic rooms for you to relax, decorated with different materials from wood to bamboos etc. Each had a balcony where you can enjoy the sea breeze and view. Best used after the onsen....you can even sleep in there.


Iojima Okinoshima Tenshudo Church

There are a few places to see while at Iojima. One of which is this church which is lighted up at night. Sort of gives it an eerie feeling.


Sunset on a hazy evening

Another place is the lighthouse area. A nice place transformed for visitors to walk, relax and enjoy the scenery. The area is best for sunset viewing. All the pictures above are taken around that area. Very relaxing, very calm and peaceful. Hazy though.


Basak and Ismail

And romantic as well...hehe


Shiori and Hashimoto-san

They were feeling lonely and decided to follow Basak and Ismail!
We had a nice time over at Iojima. Since it was autumn then, there was no way we could go swimming at the beaches since it was cold! So we had to skip that part. The next day we took the ferry back to Nagasaki. We only had a few hours to kill before taking our airport bus. So we had to decide where to go. It was between the atomic museum and memorial or the Glover Garden. In the end we chose the Glover Garden.


Glover House, Nagasaki

Glover Garden consists of mansions belonging to Western merchants who settled down in Nagasaki after Japan finally ended its seclusion period and who contributed heavily towards the modernisation and economy of Japan. The most famous of which belonged to Thomas Glover, a Scottish merchant. The others are the Alt House and Ringer House, both are examples of early stone architecture in Japan. Glover Garden is designated an important cultural asset and is an open air museum. Glover house is the oldest Western style house in Japan. You can tour inside the houses. Glover House for example had funitures, ornaments etc arranged according to the period. Others had photos, documents pertaining to the owners of the houses.


Glover House

Did you know that the famous Italian opera, Puccini's Madame Butterly, supposedly originated from here? The house is believed to be the setting for the opera. However, there are many stories floating around about the true Madame Butterfly. One is that Thomas Glover married a samurai's daughter who was widely believed to be the inspiration for Madame Butterfly because of the butterfly prints on her kimono. (Source: Times Online) There is a statue of her near the house.

Another story was that one of the Glover brothers had an affair with a Japanese woman who worked as an entertainer in a teahouse under the name Cho-san (Miss Butterfly). She became pregnant, he dumps her and she gave birth to a boy who was later adopted by Thomas Glover and Tsuru. Both the opera and this story are marked with tragedies. (Source: Playbillarts)

Fact or fiction? Which is the real story? No one knows.


View of Nagasaki harbour from the Mitsubishi Dock House, Glover Garden.

Thomas Glover was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, the first non-Japanese to receive it due to his contributions towards modernising Japan. He introduced modern shipping and mining techniques and constructed a Western style shipyard, which later on, would be owned by Mitsubishi. He was also the owner of the Takashima Coal Mine. Mr Glover introduced the first railway locomotive and was instrumental in importing weapons and warships from the West. In short, he was, in those days, a very powerful businessman. He had close ties to the samurai clans, one of which whose son rose to become Japan's first prime minister Hirobumi Ito, whom Mr Glover had helped sent to Britain for studies. Mitsubishi eventually took over his business but retained him as a consultant. Because of the Mitsubishi shipyard which was greatly involved in the war effort during World War II, Nagasaki was the target of the plutonium bomb, Fat Man. They missed the target and the bomb exploded one mile off, if not, the situation would have been much worse than Hiroshima.

Nagasaki was not the first choice but Kyoto was. However, Kyoto was objected because it was a cultural city and the heart and soul of Japan. It was feared that by destroying it, it would turn the citizens of Japan against the Americans after the war.


Nagasaki harbour view.

Glover Garden has an excellent view of the harbour. Especially at night I think, when everything is lighted up. Beautiful. You can also go around dressed up in old western costumes, for a fee of course and have a photographer take your pics. We saw a couple doing that. Also, it is a favourite of tourists, about 2 million or more visit this place each year.


Oura Church

Probably the most famous catholic church in Japan, it is the oldest one in the country. Situated along the way to Glover Garden. This church was built in 1865 as a memorial to 26 christian martyrs who died under Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1597. Designated as a National Treasure. Bad picture of the church....no tripod!

Kyushu Part 2 - Sasebo city

Sasebo city, night view

Okay, after the short disruption in the guise of the fireworks post, I am continuing with the Kyushu topic. We went to Sasebo city, a port city which is the second biggest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, well, after Nagasaki of course. The city houses the naval port for the US Navy and also the Japanese Self Defense force.


Kujuku Shima aka 99 Islands, sunset

One of the famous places in Sasebo is the Kujuku Shima, literally translated as the 99 Islands. Named so not because the place has 99 islands but the term "99" signifies a large quantity of things in Japanese.


My friend watching the sunset, another view of the islands

The Kujuku Shima actually has more than 99 islands. It has a total of 170 to 208 islands, depending on which website you read. The Kujuku Shima is part of the Saikai National Park. The coastline stretches up to 25 km long. We were up on a hilltop when I took the sunset and night picture. It was slightly hazy that day, as you can see in the picture. But the sunset was beautiful, so calm and peaceful. Met a couple of enthusiatic photographers there too, a group of probably retired men who showed us the pictures they took of Kujuku Shima. Really gorgeous photos. One man was also giving us tips on how to take good pictures!


Cruise along 99 Islands in the morning

We went on a cruise tour the next morning of the 99 Islands. I wished that the pirate ship was our boat but ours wasn't that interesting. Ceh. This boat was there on the port when we docked after the cruise and was later packed with kids.


Kids, all cramming for the *best spot*

The cruise was fun. I think it was about one hour long. Love the wind. It was a sunny day, actually too sunny at some point to take good pictures.


Kujuku Shima tour

Don't let this picture fool you. It wasn't that dark. I underexposed to get that nice sunlight relection on the water.



Okay, who agrees with me that this island looks like a lion? Sitting down?



Submarine island....anyone want to hop on?



Kujuku Islands are largely unhabited. You can do lots of water sports here like kayaking, yatching, swimming, camping, fishing etc.


Saikai Bridge

After the tour of the 99 Islands, we went to another famous spot here in Sasebo city, Sakai Bridge. The Hario straits underneath the bridge has "one of the three strongest" current in Japan. You can see whirlpools all around the bridge caused by the currents. Also, you have an excellent view of the surrounding area from this bridge. There is another bridge very nearby, this one is red, the other is blue. Saikai bridge is also famous because it was the first toll bridge in Japan. Spring is suppose to be beautiful here because of the cherry blossoms.



For dinner the previous night we went to this sashimi restaurant where we had delicious, what else, sashimi. The above is the poor unfortunate squid who landed on our table and eventually into our tummies. The poor thing was distress I think cause it was flashing colours throughout its skin. Yeah, cruel I know. The tentacles were still moving. It was cut while still alive and served immediately.

We also went to the fish market in the morning but unfortunately we were late and ended up only seeing some stalls. One had this delivery service which extends even up to Kyoto I think. So you just pick up the phone and say "1kg of prawns" and they will do the rest.

Pyrotechnics, Hanabi 花火, Fireworks Display

I had to cut into the Kyushu topic to post this one up. Every summer in Japan, there will be fireworks display across the country. I managed to see two of them, one in Osaka and the other in Biwa Lake. Long post....so get ready.

By the way, did you know that one of the world's biggest fireworks display annually is here in Osaka, Japan sponsored by the Church of Perfect Liberty? Yeah, the church pays for all the fireworks.....all 120 000 of them! The ones I saw in Osaka and Biwa Lake is only 20 000 and 10 000 respectively. The Tondabayashi fireworks sponsored by the Church of Perfect Liberty is held every year to celebrate their Kyoso-sai or Founders' Day. Highlights include the 1 kilometers long, 50 meters high Niagara falls fireworks and the grand finale where 7000 fireworks are released at the same time.

Japan is highly known for its pyrotechnics. Every country's preparation of the fireworks, including the launching is different and there are certain fireworks which you can identify its origin based on the structures.

Osaka Hanabi


Nightview of Osaka city

It was estimated that around 1 million people showed up for the fireworks display. Those early birds sat on the river banks, where they were treated to a full view of the display and the rest had to be contented with watching on the streets below.


Peony fireworks

We managed to squeeze ourselves to the top of the banks. Got a good view there too.


Combination of a few fireworks

I had no tripod, so I had to rely on my hands. Since we were quite close, it was bright enough for me to take some shots without the blurness associated with shakiness.


Probably the Brocade

I took using the continuous shot mode, which is why I ended up with over 200 pics out of which only a handful turned out fine.


Fountain fireworks

It was really loud. But awesome man. Especially this one of the fountain. Raining gold dust on you.



Picture is a bit crooked. Probably cause I was so excited!



This one reminds me of jelly fishes.



Doesn't this look like some galazxy far far away? Oh, and when it was time to get home.....traffic jam!


Biwa Lake Hanabi


Sunset at Biwa Lake

The day started off by raining here in Kyoto. But it stopped enough for us to board the train to Otsu.


Sunset

We brought along food to eat while we waited for the fireworks to start. Yummy spring rolls and loads of junk food. It started to rain again while we were eating, so we ended up with our mouth full, spoon in one hand and the umbrella in another.



She was so cute in her little yukata.



It started off a bit weirdly. A few shells were released and we weren't sure if they were just testing or it had started. And when suddenly, bam!


The Fountain

I have always love this particular fireworks. Took a tripod with me this time but since I am not used to taking fireworks pics, I spent half my time fiddling with the camera!



We were sitting quite far this time around. So we did not get a good view and the smoke blocked our view of the fireworks. Pictures of some of the fireworks on display.

















I have to single this one below out. I love this one, it was in the shape of the pheonix. Lovely huh?





Now all the following pictures were of the fireworks towards the end.





And the finale:



A bit bright but I like this picture. And then of course when it was time to go home....traffic jam again!