Memoirs of Aleisha

Salaryman (man in suit):

Short Panda:

Tall Panda:

Someone from The Flintstones??:

Don’t know what this dude is meant to be:

Where’s Wally! (Super cool. And he wasn’t the only Wally. I saw a few people dressed as Wally). I am impressed they wore jeans as well! Must be some serious chafing.

Eggplant:

Tiger suit (and a spectator giving out chocolates. I happened to be standing next to the woman, so lots of runners were swooping in):

Another costume:

Beer head:

A banana:

Santa Claus:

And the perennial favourite: Jesus Christ!
Even more hardcore than ever. This year he was half naked!

Carrying a cross:

And he was BARE FOOTED! For the whole marathon. And carrying a cross. And wearing nothing but a nappy (in 5 degrees celcius!)

Jesus, on the way back:

Jesus has run in the marathon for the last few years. I’m not sure if it’s the same dude.
Here is Jesus back in 2011. A lot less hardcore back then. Fully clothed and had shoes.

From Tokyo Marathon 2011

This Gladiator dude gave JC a run for his money in the costume department:

That can’t be comfortable:

Saw Gladiator again about 6km later. Bet he’s regretting the costume now.

I mean, wearing a costume is one thing, but having a prop is another – a cross, a shield etc.

A toy dog on a leash, say what?!

A handbag:

More costumes:

For the love of god, how you can run 42km in a frog costume:

A deflated Michael Jackson. That ain’t no moonwalk!

Love the couple/pair costumes! Ketchup and mustard!

A freaky clown:

A different Where’s Wally dude. Again, in jeans! It made me wonder if a whole group of Where’s Wally all started together at the start line, but then all went off at their own pace once the race started.

I saw one Japanese dude who had a sign on him that said “konkatsu-chuu”. It means looking for a girlfriend/wife! Can’t remember if the sign had his number on it or not. But a great way to tell the world you’re single AND available!

Saw sooo many more costumes! But hard to capture them all. I’ve decided that if I have the pleasure (or pain) of getting in, I am totally going to wear a costume. And boy, do I have a doozy of a costume planned!!!

Some more pics of Tokyo Marathon 2013:

Spectators line the streets:

Runners in action:

Drink station:

Towards Sky Tree:

Running back into Ginza:

The sweeper bus:

Pounding the pavement:

Congrats to everyone who finished, especially those who wore costumes! You provide great entertainment and inspiration to us spectators.

Rikugien Light-up

December 3, 2012November 24, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

On Saturday night, I went to Rikugien (Rikugi Japanese garden). For a limited time, the garden is open at night time where they light up the garden and you can view the autumn colours. Although, I gotta say it’s pretty much winter now. It was about 5 degrees out! Brrr cold. The garden is pretty big and there were heaps of people there all with their cameras and tripods. Cold and crowded. And dark too. A good chance to practise some night photography. I took a lot of bad photos. Haven’t quite got the hang of low-lighting/night photography yet. A lot of slightly blurry photos. Also my hands were too cold to really care to fiddle with the settings too much. My hands were practically frozen. It would actually be quite nice to go back there during the daylight. I think the garden would be quite beautiful where you can properly see the autumn colours. Here are some of my photos of the garden illumination.

From Rikugien

Bamboo trees:

From Rikugien

Leaves on the ground:

From Rikugien

Shadows on the wall:

From Rikugien

I like the lighting in this next shot:

From Rikugien

The garden island in the middle of the pond is the piece de resistance of Rikugien.

From Rikugien

Still water reflection:

From Rikugien

Interesting branches:

From Rikugien

Figures in the dark:

From Rikugien

Light and mist:

From Rikugien

Entry into Rikugien is 300yen. The night entry light-up is on until December 9. Closest station: Komagome station (3min walk from JR South exit).

Sky Aquarium

September 20, 2011November 26, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

I recently went to the Art Aquarium in Nihonbashi, but yesterday (a public holiday) I went and checked out the Sky Aquarium which comes to town every summer (or at least it has done so over the last few years anyway). The Sky Aquarium is put on by the same guy as the other exhibition. It’s more a proper aquarium rather than an art exhibit. The Sky Aquarium is on level 52 of the Mori Tower building at Roppongi Hills. I liked the Art Aquarium better, but this was still really cool to see, and a great way to spend a hot humid afternoon. The first part of the exhibit was the Aquarium Theatre which was a large fish tank with changing slide projections and lights – a landscape of the four seasons. Spring:

Autumn:

Winter:

And then there was a series of various fish tanks will all sorts of fish.

This was some crazy sea slug:

Some cool fish effects on my camera – which were accidental. I couldn’t get the right settings on my SLR…but they turned out cool anyway.

These were some teeny tiny fishlets:

More fish in tanks. Don’t disturb. They’re in school!

Fish close-up. Nose dive!

The third part of the aquarium was the Oasis Planet which was the jellyfish area.

There were four cylinder open tanks with jellyfish. I was surprised they didn’t have lids on them. You could totally put your hand in them!

Jellyfish galore! Don’t get too close. They’re such spineless creatures!

These were some polka-dot jellyfish:

The centrepiece was a giant glass globe with fish inside.

The whole perimeter of the room was also outfitted with a shallow open fishtank.

This tank housed oopa loopas. I have no idea what these are. They’re a cross between a fish, a frog and a lizard. These were just bizarre. The first time I had ever seen them. I have no idea what they are called in English – but in Japanese they are ‘oopa loopa’.

I did an image search for them in Japanese, so you can get more of an idea of what they look like here. They’re a bit creepy. The Sky Aquarium is on until September 25th – open day and night. Entry is excellent value! 2000yen gives you access to the Sky Aquarium AND the Sky view observatory of the Mori Tower AND entry into the Mori Art Museum (MAM). Got to see a really great exhibition on there, after doing the aquarium. It was super impressive – all about architecture and the ‘Metabolism’ movement. It was superbly translated as well. It’s on until next year and worth checking out. So futuristic and creative, especially for a 60s movement.

Art Aquarium Part II

September 14, 2011November 26, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

I always knew there was something fishy about aquariums. Suspicions confirmed. Here are some more photos of more fish from the super cool Art Aquarium Exhibition. These pics were taken on my pocket digital camera, after the SLR camera battery died. I love this pic! “Watcha looking at?”

The lighting was pretty spectacular, as were the showcase diamond fish tanks:

The giant fishbowl was perhaps a little too crowded for all the goldfish. Talk about too many sardines in a can.

Pretty spectacular stuff.

Definitely need some chips to go with all this fish!

The third part of the gallery was some more interesting aquariums and light features. There was a kaleidoscope aquarium. You could look through these prisms and watch the fish swim by.

Now, these look like ordinary lamps, right. They were actually lamp fish tanks and there were fish swimming inside them!

This was a lamp aquarium…except I didn’t capture any fish in it.

The whole point of the Goldfish Art was to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Bridge in Nihonbashi (where the exhibit was on at). Nihonbashi is an area of Tokyo famous for its bridge. Apparently, goldfish have played an important part in Japanese history and culture since the Edo period, as depicted in various artworks through history. The exhibition was dubbed the “Kingyo’s Coolness” (Kingyo is Japanese for ‘goldfish’). Here were some Edo-style paintings which were displayed showing how golfish have appeared in Japanese art.

The last part of the exhibition, was also another highlight. They had a Japanese folding glass screen – but inside it were more goldfish swimming around. It was a fish tank folding screen. Again the lights changed colours and they had some cool silhouette projector screen happening, so the images on the screen would keep changing as the goldfish swam about. Really, really clever. The artist had a great vision with this exhibit.

Up close, it was a fish tank!

Over the next couple of photos, you can see the background silhouette change…

Took a nice side angle shot.

Was a really great exhibition to see to celebrate 100years of Nihonbashi.

The Art Aquarium has sadly finished. It only ran for a few weeks. It was at the Mitsui Hall on Level 4 of the Coredo Building in Nihonbashi, opposite the Mitsukoshi department store. Opposite this building:

The artist behind this exhibition is Hidetomo Kimura. He has several exhibitions which are ‘Aqua’ themed and based around goldfish. He specialises in Art Aquarium. There is also currently another exhibition on in Tokyo called “Sky Aquarium” – an aquarium that has been temporarily installed on level 52 of the Mori Hills Tower – it’s on until Sep 25. It has come to town every summer over the last four years. I’ll probably go check that one out at some point in the next couple of weeks. You can check out info about the artist and his exhibition info in English here.

Aquarium Art: Part I (as seen through the SLR camera)

September 12, 2011November 26, 2016memoirsofaleisha1 Comment

Last night I caught up with Jeff. I had invited him to come see this really cool art installation/exhibition thing that I had wanted to check out. Today is the last day of the exhibition, so I had wanted to go see it over the weekend before it ended. Ahh, yes, art is fleeting. We met up last night in Nihonbashi where the exhibit was on at. The exhibition was so darn cool. Way cool. I’ll be blogging about it over three posts – taken over three different cameras. I took way too many photos! Today’s Part I are photos taken on the SLR. About a third of the way into the night, my battery died on the SLR. I hadn’t recharged it, so I had to use my iPhone camera and the pocket digital camera for the remainder of the night. So we finally arrived at the Coredo building in Nihonbashi at around 8.30pm-ish. The Coredo building:

The building houses some really nice restaurants. It’s got some great design features in this building. Here were some of the walls and stuff.

Super cool and stylish. So the exhibition I had wanted to check out was a thing called “Art Aquarium” which featured around goldfish. Lots and lots of goldfish. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It was part goldfish aquarium, part art gallery, part nightclub, and part lounge/bar. If you go at night time – they turn it into a lounge/bar where you can drink beer and sparkling wine as you peruse the “exhibit”. I was not expecting a live DJ, strobe lights and thumping music – but there they were. But it was so super cool! We saw fish tanks of goldfish.

It was dark inside except for some strobe lighting, and the lights within the fish tanks. The lights changed all the time throughout the whole exhibit, so you’d get all different colours reflecting from the fish.

Taking good camera shots was somewhat challenging. You had to work with the glass tanks, the water, the moving fish and the changing lighting conditions – all in the dark!

The exhibition centered purely around different species of goldfish…some of which are cross-bred to produce some fishy-looking goldfish. I found myself having to wait it out by each tank to wait for the lighting to change. Managed to capture a couple of good ones though.

This was a freaky looking fish with a red bulge attached to the head. I don’t know much about fish…except for the fact that they taste good beer-battered with chips! Sorry Nemo!

Lots of fish!

This was a bizarre-looking goldfish with some beady eyes!

Same fish, but different lighting. The lights would change every few seconds.

Another fish under changing lights:

The first part of the exhibition was a series of small fish tanks built into and protruding from a wall.

The Art Aquarium got even cooler as we made our way into the second part of the gallery. This was my favourite part and we spent sooo much time in here. It was like snapshot central in here. Everyone had cameras of all shapes and sizes. We were like goldfish paparrazzi. I kid you not! It opened out into a bar area with a live DJ, and giant diamond-shaped fish tanks!

So cool. I love water and fish and aquariums. This was just so much fun! It was really mesmerizing. And the music was pumping too. Such a cool vibe.

Everyone was going nuts with cameras! Jeff managed to capture a photo of a dude who was taking photos with his iPad. Hilarious! Taking photos on an iPad has got to be cumbersome. I always wondered if iPad owners ever actually used the camera feature on it!

And the lights kept changing colours!

There was a glass mirror panel, so I took a photo of the reflection:

It had a real bar vibe, with drinks being served and people just chilling out listening to the music and watching the fish do their thing.

I loved the shape of the fish tanks, as if they were also real massive diamonds being showcased! There were two diamond fishtanks – one housed small goldfish and the other had bigger goldfish.

I like this next shot of a girl gazing at the goldfish:

The whole atmosphere was super cool!

And then my favourite and the main showpiece was a giant fish bowl water fountain feature.

I’m going to end it there for today. My SLR camera battery died at this point, and we were only halfway through the exhibit. I’ll continue on with the next installment taken on my other cameras later on in the week. Art Aquarium – super cool! A most excellent way to spend a Sunday night. I’ll post more info about it later on in the week. Entry: 1000yen. Totally worth it! Today (Monday Sep 12) is the last day it’s on. Get ye on down to Nihonbashi! It’s open until 11pm tonight.

Shinbashi by night: Shades of grey

September 5, 2011November 26, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Yesterday, I did another high tea…but that will be a post for later on this week. Too many photos to sort through at the moment. But after leaving the hotel last night, I walked through the Shinbashi area on my own and did a mini photowalk through the area. It was around 7.30pm and I took some cool dramatic night shots. The weather was kinda crazy over the weekend. We got the fringes of a typhoon so we would get bursts of strong rain and wind, and then fine again. The clouds were pretty cool on this night. The nightsky, clouds and a lot of the tall buildings provided an opportune moment to work on some night shots with the SLR. Lots of shades of grey and night lights. It’s nice change from the macro close-up colourful food photos that will follow later on this week. Here are a fistful of photos of Shinbashi by night. A pair of escalators:

There are some really interesting skyrise buildings in the Shinbashi district.

I really like the next photo that I took:

I wish I could have made the ‘red light’ of the cones pop more in this next photo:

Building cluster:

Looking up:

This next shot is cool. It’s kinda futuristic looking. Tokyo is a city of neon and bright lights, but in Shinbashi, I was able to portray a darker, edgier side to the city.

I like the composition of this next shot, but I have digitally edited the exposure and contrast of this photo.

This was another cool building in Shinbashi….but again, I have edited the next couple of photos, but still the composition is interesting.

This last shot is one of my favourite photos of the night. My symmetry was just a tad unbalanced, and not as perfect as I would have liked it. Again composition was good but I have digitally enhanced the exposure and highlights. As I walked up the stairs and onto the train platform there was a man facing one way and a woman facing the other way – both waiting for their trains. It was kinda cool. It’s a shame the woman has a little less presence in comparison to the man. But it captures so many things. Two people. Opposite directions. Waiting. On their way somewhere.