Japan

Back in May, I was fortunate enough to cross off one more country off my bucket list: Japan.  I went with my Fiancé and 2 of my very good friends: Kris and Trang.  

We were only going to be there for a week and we needed to cram as much as possible in that 1 week.  

We met once or twice before our trip and would FaceTime each other and made a Google docs to help us plan our trip.  All in all, it was a jam-packed week.  Below is where we actually went, day by day, and you'll see HOW MUCH of Japan we got to see.  

BTW, if you ever plan a trip to Japan, a must on the list is the Japan Rail Pass.  Totally worth the $347 it costs.  

Kamakura, Tokyo (ALL OVER: Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinigawa, Shinjuku, Ginza, etc), Nagano, Yudanaka (to see the Hot Spring Macaques!), Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and back to Tokyo.  I feel like I'm missing a lot of places.  Anyhow.  That's the gist of it!  

My good friend, Kristoffer Clark, is an amazing and talented videographer, and he captured our trip and made a music video.  Click HERE to check it out.  It was an amazing experience.  The Japanese sure know how to treats tourists.  They were so friendly and helpful and humble.  And, have also ruined food experience for me.  I can no longer eat anything without comparing it to Japan.  They take so much care and pride to what they feed you.  

(pictures top to bottom: Osaka (after eating Blow Fish), Osaka castle, and Kyoto to see the Thousand Shrines - which I matched too...)

Scavenger Hunt 4-28-12

Today was an interesting day.  Ricky had reminded me that I needed to get my haircut before we leave for Japan in 2 weeks.  I quickly got ready and headed over to my usual salon and remembered that I didn't make an appointment and was crossing my fingers that they'd have an opening.  Alas, no, there was no opening and she didn't have one the following week either.  Sooo, being the brave soul I am, I decided to just drive around and find a place that accepted walk-ins.  Completely forgot my phone too, so I couldn't even Yelp a place. Dangit! Anyhow, I found a place and got my cut [ which I'm super happy about :) ]

I came home, and noticed a note on the door.  I had to blur out the text, it has email addresses on there I didn't want public! 

Close-up of the Clue #1: 

I go inside, and look for an Apple =)

Ricky decided to plop down a large sum of money on a new 55" 3D internet TV...  so I KNEW the next clue had to be on that thing!  Lo and behold, clue #3 placed on the back =)

We were invited to The Nerdist launch party, and in their swag bag was a box for each of us, Otter Pops!  I so hoped that was the answer, and I was right!

FYI: Clue #4 says "I really wish my fruit didn't taste like battery acid"

When we originally moved to our house, we were SO EXCITED to have an orange tree in our backyard, until we tried the fruit and it was so bitter we spat it back out.  Unfortunately, we found out our tree is a Bitter Orange tree which is used to make marmalades and jam, so yeah, battery acid fruit. 

My dog, Bowie, has a fear of getting baths.  He constantly cleans himself every day so that he will never have to take baths.  It works most of the time, I only have to bathe him once every month or even longer, so I ran to our shower, and this is the clue I found next:

This is actually an inside joke that's not really appropriate to say on here! Hahaha! So I'm just going to post the next clue:

I SUCK AT VIDEO GAMES! My left & right hand can't coordinate w/one another, so I only like shooting games that are on rails so I don't have to move and I can sniper rifle them and shoot the head off, which had me running to the living room again and pull our PS move controller.  

Clue #8 had me go on a website and find it's "Case".  Which was this box in the closet, that had this note inside: 

When I turned around, Ricky was already on one knee with the ring open.  What a super cute and quirky way to propose.  =) I love you Ricky Zhang!  

7D + Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens

So I'm going to Japan in 1 month.  SO EXCITED!  And I'm going with my one friend, Kris, and his girlfriend who always captures every moment on a trip.  Our last trip to New York was crazy fun, you can click on this link to see our NYC video.  He did an amazing job!  

So, we bought a new DSLR to bring with us on the trip, and now he's even MORE excited.  Our video is going to be no short of amazing, it's going to be spectacular!  =)

I needed a lens, and went on Amazon and found the Sigma 30mm.  I googled SO MANY images of quality and videos for this lens, and its the closest thing to 50mm on a crop body.  The pictures come out beautiful, so I'm really excited to use it for Japan. Here are some random shots we took with the 7D and the Sig. 

Bowie saying Hi.  This is actually rare to see, because my dog is super afraid of the camera.

Ricky finding out that changing our aperture made a better depth of field... 

The ISO was too high on this, but I kinda like the blinding effect.  That's me by the way.  "HI" from Jamba Juice!