Late night shoppers hanging around Nanjing Rd way after all shops have closed.

The standard tourist to Shanghai makes a pilgrimage to the perennially packed Nanjing Road. The picture of thousands of shoppers compressed through the use of telephoto lens is all over brochures of Shanghai. I could copy those, and maybe I would in the future for my project, but I was more interested in what Nanjing Rd looked like late at night, when most of the shops have already closed.

In every major city there is always that one place where you will find more out-of-towners than locals, and this is where touts, conmen, and the general unlicensed street traders hang around. So naturally, I had my iPod on with sound isolating Shure headphones so I can ignore most of them coming up to me. I’m sure I will have to spend some time waiting so I packed a book with me so I can find a bench and read it until the crowd thins down.

In my small bag, 2 cameras. A Leica M6 fitted with a Summilux 50mm f1.4 ASPH, my favourite lens for night time shooting, and a second Leica M2 with Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.2 ASPH with Tom Abrahamsson’s Rapidwinder IXMOO. Both cameras are loaded with Fujifilm’s Neopan 1600. There are no meter on the Leica M2 so I was expecting quite a number of rejected shots.

And here are the results…

The standard shot of Nanjing Road, but this one close to 11pm. There are noticeably quite a number of people still wandering around, along with touts selling underwater goods.

This is a large tidbit shop. With the shutter closed, it is still possible to see the workers cleaning up and getting ready to return home.

This private proprietor is clearly a late night worker. He is the only person in the shop, perhaps indicating that the workers have already gone home long ago.

Now this booth is filled with customers. I did not figure out what it was selling, though my guess would be lottery tickets.

And just like everywhere else in Shanghai, all public places are places to lounge around. Even late at night on Nanjing Road, it is possible to see people just hanging about when all else have closed.

And this is the other guy, myself being the other, reading at a pedestrian mall late at night.

... And before long, the cleaning crew would be coming to give the place a scrubdown.

And more of the scrubcrew...

And soon it's time for everyone to pack up their stuff and say goodbye. This guy is shirtless as it was a hot night. Definitely a Shanghainese.

And some came to Nanjing Road prepared with their pyjamas.

Maybe they all plan to sleep over?

There are no shortage of public transportation to get back late at night. These 3 wheeled motorcycles are everywhere on the pedestrian street.

As are the most popular mode of transport apart from the metro...

Security van, not police, so this van has to be there to pick up the security guards after the night shift.

But night time belongs to the cleanup staff

Shanghai No. 1 Store, at the beginning of the pedestrian walkway.

The Meridien Hotel, on Nanjing Road

And before long, it is quite obvious that the crowds are starting to thin down dramatically closer to midnight.

And in some areas it is just traquil, something not found very often in Shanghai.

These maintenance crews were getting ready to replace billboard posters.

And the last image to end this series... Hope you enjoyed it.

*end*

Chuzenji-no-taki: Chuzenji waterfall

You could say Tochigi is my playground. I just love the place. Take a long slow train over to Tobu-Nikko station and there are many options. Most tourists would spend the whole day at the temple complex, Toshogu, Rinnoji and of course, snap photos of the stable with 3 monkeys. But the hidden gem of Nikko is the many hiking opportunities like Chuzenji to the northwest and Kirifuri area to the northeast.I’ve been to Senjogahara and Kirifuri before, and the links are embedded in the two names in this sentence.

Senjogahara Plateau

Senjogahara is in the northwest just further up from Chuzenji. Chuzenji is, of course, synonymous with a waterfall, not just a normal waterfall, but one that drops hundreds of meters. The lake that feeds the waterfall, Chuzenji lake, is relatively large, and on a plateau in the highlands. On a summer day, there are anglers spaced evenly along its banks. I don’t have proof, but it does look like you need to have permit to fish there and you are probably assigned slots. They do look spaced out a little too evenly to be random!

Fly Fisherman on Yukawa River

... And more fly fishing...

According to all the information I have, after all, I ‘ve been here twice already, Chuzenji lake used to be a lot larger than what we have today. At one end, where the Yukawa river joins the lake, the dried lake bed makes up Senjogahara plateau. It is basically marshland today, with a habitat of its own and generally wet ground. The good thing about the place is that the air is fresh, and there is a long plank walkway for hikers.

Tobu-Nikko Station

From Yutaki waterfall, walk towards Akanuma

Going up towards Yumoto Hot Springs, you will enter a forest area before reaching Yutaki waterfall. Along the way, especially in the forested area, there will normally be fly fishermen (permits required again) along the Yukawa river. This is normally a nice area for plants and insect macros. People walk around with bells attached to their bag, and I was told that this was for scaring away bears. I have never seen one in the two times I have been here.

Station at Akanuma. Exit here and get your 150Y bottle of tea at the machine!

All in all, this is a nice place to spend the day out of Tokyo. Take the train from Asakusa early in the morning, the slow train takes about three hours to get there, and best thing to do is to take the second train out (first is an express that cost more) at 6:30 in the morning and sleep there. When arriving at Tobu-Nikko station, jump on a bus that goes to Yumoto Springs and get off almost an hour later at Yudaki-iriguchi station and walk down towards Akanuma. Walking slow to enjoy the sights and nature, it should take 4-5 hours to get there. Then take the bus back towards Chuzenji and stop at the midway station to enjoy sights of the waterfall. Then back to Tobu-Nikko station and back to Tokyo and you’ll be really tired, and end the day with a nice bowl of soba!

Enjoy the photos. I’m sure I will be back to Senjogahara again in the future. I have heard that the marshes are starting to dry up. Next trip will hopefully be during winter.

Izumiyado Pond

Marshland...

... more marshland...

.... and more, but this time a little more trees...

... and ending with plenty of trees. This is close to Yudaki waterfall.

And here's a little close up shot with the amazing Leica Summilux 50mm ASPH lens...

...

Tourists at Chuzenji Waterfall viewing station

And on the way back to Tokyo... at Tobu Nikko Station

Gears: All pictures in this post shot with a Leica M6 Classic with Leica’s excellent Summilux 50mm f1.4 ASPH and with Kodak’s new Ektar 100 film. Scans are a little cool, and I blame my lack of calibration with vuescan before really scanning it.

*end of post*

Keelung Harbour

Wikipedia opens the article for Keelung as a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. Fine. That is not the reason I wanted to check out the town during the idle weekend in Taipei, but more because the town has nice rocky coastlines and most importantly food. More on that later. Being close enough from Taipei, it doesn’t require a long commute to get there, and from what I can see it looks like a different world altogether from the capital city. Do-able in a day, nice coastlines, and food. That seals it for me!

This is why I'm here...

... And this.

All great leap starts with a small step. Finding how to get to Keelung from Neihu is not that difficult. Its not fair, I know, but that starts by asking a secretary in the local office. After a few minutes the email came in and it is simple enough. Although it is possible to catch a train, the easiest solution would be to go over to the bus stop on the main road close to Miramar Neihu (look for the out of place giant ferris wheel) and catch a “Capital Star” bus (http://www.capital-bus.com.tw/). And if you have seen the buses in Taiwan, they are usually nice buses with ultra tacky colours, graphic designs and an interior only a pimp could love. Hope I don’t get that in the golden star!

Started off the day early, 6am and having soya milk and buns at a popular 24 hour local corner shop near Miramar. It is one of those place I never remember the name, nor do I care, but I can tell where it is on the map. For Taiwanese out there, maybe you know where it is when I tell you a couple years back some gangster got gunned down. Tofu? Get it?

Inside the Capital Star Keelung express

So back to the point. Capital star bus that goes to Keelung is easy enough to find. It stops at the first bus stop below the new elevated metro line just in front of the Miramar. Price to get all the way to the end at Keelung train station would be 41 NTD. That is also sometimes called “dirt cheap”. The frequency for this bus is frequent enough. Let’s say it seems to come often enough not to worry at all. This is a slightly better version of a public bus, not the tacky pimp-mobile. LEDs, LCDs, it has all the 3 letter acronyms!

Pilot boats at Keelung harbour

Keelung. Just like Hollywood!

Fast forward, the trip is basically leaving Taipei, go through a small mountain range, and end up in Keelung. Quick enough to be uneventful and unworthy of any transit photographs. The final stop is at the train station. And since it is still early in the morning, and a Starbucks is in sight, nothing better than a hot cup of coffee while waiting for the darn rain to stop. And the forecast today is not that great. Drizzle at best all day long. Armed with a hotel umbrella, it doesn’t matter. And so before I move on, the arsenal today is a move-light pack filled with a Ricoh GRD (all colour photos are coming from this little wonder) and a Leica M6 with a Leica 50mm f1.4 Summilux ASPH loaded with ERA 100 film. Shall I say the Summilux is the best 50mm out there? Maybe I should. But everyone already knows.

When you see plenty of yellow taxis like these, you know you're in Taiwan.

After the morning coffee, and a little finger to the weather which continues to drizzle, its time to walk around the train station looking for bus to get to the coast. There is a tourist center here that speaks reasonable english and helpful people manning the place. What would you expect from a tourist center, I mean. The plan was to see the rock formations at Heping island, but was told its closed. No reasons, maybe too early in the morning, or maybe because of the weather.

Location of bus stop, Start of today’s walking trip.

Nothing stops me, not the rain, not the closure of the original destination. Picked a route and jumped onto a local bus and before long got off at a stop which is not too far from the town, but still about 10km away. Far enough to walk back along the coast, which will be the adventure for the day.

Concrete breakwater

And now why would someone want to construct something in the sea?

The bus dropped us in the middle of what looked like nowhere, and it is time to track back. There are breakwaters everywhere and anglers fishing away in the stormy seas. The rain continues and the wind whips up large waves in the sea. Perfect time to catch a photo or two of the tempestuous seas while walking along highway 2 (Beining Rd) towards Keelung. I had my google maps on my E71 active at all time and it was possible to see that in front of me is a peninsular called coastal park called Ba Dou Zi. I’m sure it has an English name but I will follow whatever is on the map.

Fishing boats

Fishing boats...

... and more.

On there way there, I would pass a safe harbour filled with fishing boats. The gmap shows the location. The only thing strange about these fishing boats are the numerous lamps that seems to line the wires above the boat. Now, common sense would tell me that this would be useful for nighttime fishing for some marine creature that loves light. I’ve seen fishing documentaries on Discovery and I’m sure this is not for the Alaskan crabs! Doesn’t matter. Looks strange, so deserves a picture or two. There are some sailors hanging around the deck of some of the boats, and they are quite clearly Indonesians, given away by the language they speak.

Coastal park facilities

... just no one here...

... except for an anonymous someone that popped into my pictures once in a while (sorry bui!)

Am I the only one to see the sign asking us to just point at the bin?

And so on to the park. There are not that many people in this weather, just me and a colleague. Cliffs are all around us and after a while we realised it is not possible to walk around the to the other side of the peninsular and we had to turn around. But enough photos showing the strange what-nots at this peninsular.

Fish market at the seafood center

And of course, it is possible to go cheap and eat al-fresco

Time now to walk back to Keelung along the coast. The bus took a nice 30 minutes including all stops to get to where we got off, and it will take almost the whole day to walk back to the town. And so we continue back on highway 2 stopping over for lunch in a small local eatery, nothing much to remember. And before long, and by that I mean a few kilometers, stumbled upon a large seafood food. GPS locations are stored in my Nokia E71. This look like the type of place where you select your live fish and they cook for you in the restaurant nearby. The only issue is there are a lot of the same restaurants lining the place so when you have plenty, you have annoying touts. Since we had lunch before we got here, no food for us here. It is one of those place that you know is built for the tourist, bus loads of them.

One of the curios along the way: a portable temple.

One of the many workshops that repair lamps and stuffs used on the fleet of fishing boats.

Going off for the long walk back to Keelung we passed a university, and a generally sleepy town. It was a nice walk, on a rainy day. Along the way there were ancient French cemeteries and relics from the past, but I won’t go on and describe them all, I’m sure a search on the internet on Keelung would reveal more than what I will type here. That’s beside the point anyway. And before long, containers were in sight, signalling that the port is close. From the satellite photos I could see that there is a container port just before hitting the harbour proper. The harbour is at the end of an inlet, which probably how the port of Keelung is protected from the typhoons and storms.

Keelung container port

At the container port, two large ships were visible. First was a large submarine cable-laying ship with a Norwegian name, which I cannot now recall. It’s not that difficult to tell its purpose, the rear of the giant ship has 2 strange looking channel where the cables exit. The second ship is a large, huge, no… giant colossal passenger liner. Could see clearly it’s called the Diamond Princess.

Street in Keelung with the Diamond Princess in the distance

Diamond Princess: Doors closing portside

Steaming away into the distance

A quick on site googling tells me that it is one of the largest passenger ship around, owned by P&O liner. So, this is what people on cruises do. They land in foreign land, then they dressed up as tourists and go ransack the whole town. There is a little micro economy, nay, micro town set up around the ship landing site just to cater to their needs. So we stood there admiring the ship from outside, and just at the right time the door started to close, quite impressive really. And before long it was pushed sideways, and it was quite obvious there are side propulsion system on the ship. The impressive thing about this ship is the speed it was able to move. After getting pushed starboard side, it started disappearing away from sight. We stood there in awe. Like a local seeing a giant ship move for the first time, which is the case for me. It’s one of those moments, like seeing a plane take off and wondering how something that big was able to take off.

Miaokou Night Market

Food...

More food....

And yet more food...

And the grand finale.

Check on the watch, and its close to 6pm and that can only mean one thing. Taiwan, famous for one thing, and that’s food and no where better to try it than the night market. Obviously this was researched well before we were in Keelung, and Miaokou Night Market is where we wanted to go for dinner. The good thing about walking 10km is to be able to eat as much as we wanted without worrying about the side effects. The best way we thought to do this would be to try one small dish in every store. At the end of the night we stopped in at least 5 stalls, all different dishes. Well satisfied. And with the full stomach, it was time to take a short walk back to the train station, and taking a train back to Taipei, leaving the station at around 8pm.

This trip was well worth the day. Now that we are a little more ambitious, the next trip will involve more of the coast. An idea in my mind involves biking the coasts. But hopefully next time the weather would be a lot better than this weekend!

Cycling the coast just like this, but with a Colnago road bike.

*end of post*

Now, for the last year or so, I have been staying near Meguro JR whenever I visit Tokyo on business. And 2008 this was a little more than a third of the year! To be specific, the area around the hotel is also called Shironakedai (I believe, but it could be also Shirokane) and there is a Tokyo metro with the same name. Over time I have grown to know this area quite well.

I would say it is an upscale place, since there are all these embassies near by (Gotanda and Ebisu is one JR station away) and most people stay in houses. Sometimes from the JR station, I would take a long walk, around 30 minutes, to the hotel and since this is Tokyo, I sometimes take the small lanes at night just to see what it looked like. Most of the time it is serene, no one on the street, fresh air and there is this look to it that I wanted to capture on film. In the morning, I have found a few route through the hilly pathways and lanes here and this has turned into a routine for me whenever I stay in Tokyo.

Photoshoot Location

The pictures in this series are taken in the area labelled Kamiosaki in the map.

There is something about shooting a nocturnal scene in black and white. The human eye uses a more sensitive cones for seeing in the dark, and if I remember my biology well, that is why dark scenes usually look black and white to us, thus a night scene shot in b&w look more realistic, at least to the mind. Personally, the best setup for night photography – now this is very personal – is a rangefinder because the viewfinder is not depending on what lens you use, a fairly fast lens, f1.4 say, and I’m now reluctant to say you need a Noctilux f1 or f0.95 in order to shoot scenes with only street lamps for illumination. Next you need a fast film.

Experience shows that my equation consists ideally of a Leica M-series RF, 50mm f1.4 (for this series I used a Leica 50mm f1.4 Summilux ASPH with the Leica M6) and for film, Neopan 1600. This combination allows a regular sodium lamp lit scene to be shot around 1/60s and worst case 1/30s at f1.4, just nice for moving around without a tripod.

Anyway, won’t go on too long on this post. Enjoy the pictures.

*end of post*

Tsukiji Market in the early morning

It’s difficult to be sitting still. I spent most of my year in 2008 travelling, and all of a sudden, it has been Shanghai since the the trip to Tokyo for christmas 2008 till now. And it’s back to my favourite city this part of the world, Tokyo. This trip will be a multi-leg trip, with a weekend in the city before flying off to Taipei. Heard rumours before I came that Tsukiji fish market tuna auction section is now opened to tourists again. I’m sure it was closed because tourists were hindering the auction, but this I must see, being an addict of the red and fatty tuna sashimi.

Its Saturday today, and since the weather forecast is perfect for today only, plan is to visit the fish market first thing in the morning at 5am and once I covered Tsukiji, I plan to catch the first morning train to Nikko, another one of my regular destination.

Dividing up a giant tuna

According to the market’s online site, the visitor area for tuna auction is only opened between 0500 and 0630. The next next problem, other than waking up early enough, is the transportation. The Tokyo metro does not operate until 6am at least, and Tsukiji, being rather far away from Meguro JR, means that the only mode of transportation that can get me from the market that early in the morning is the taxi. Will cost me a little more than 3000 Yen just to do that.

Taxi definitely goes fast at this time in the morning, like all taxis in big cities when there are no traffic, I suppose. At 5 am I reached the market. The taxi dropped me at a location I’m not familiar with. There were a bunch of American tourists (not difficult to tell) but it looks quite obvious that no one knew where the auction really is. I know the general market where anyone can buy seafood, and on my Nokia E71′s GoogleMaps I was able to get a rough idea where I am. So I move on, and the market is already buzzing with people selling their stuff, My Leica M6 with Fuji Pro400 comes out and I take a few shots here and there, making use of the nice depth of field on the Leica Summilux 50mm f1.4 ASPH. At the same time, I followed a bunch of Japanese traders that look as thought they were going to buy giant tunas, but they started going to the first floor. Thinking that the auction area is up stairs (I know, didn’t make sense too, as they will have to haul the large tuna up the stairs!) I followed them and we came to a long alleyway on the second floor. After a minute or so, I decided it would be better to backtrack as I will not find it here.

A dealer at work in the general section of the market, 5am

There are no signs, but just a general loitering at the ground floor, and I came upon a couple of warehouse-looking area. There were some tuna visible, and some tourists tried to enter and this seems like a restricted area. However it is possible to peep and see some fresh giant tuna and many dealers going around inspecting the tuna. No gaijins here for sure.

This is one of the restricted auction section, clearly no outsider welcomed!

... And clearly the fish here are fresh!

And so the loitering continues, and finally a guy that looks like a tourist usher comes and tells everyone to go to a particular warehouse. When I got there was a sign that clearly says this is the tourist area. It is just a strip in the middle of the warehouse enough for 3 person standing side by side, and the system looks like they require everyone to move to the end and then come back, like a conveyor belt. Obviously no one does that, so soon there is a long traffic jam of tourists, fat, thin, tall, short. And the ocassional obnoxious tourist, including one I almost turned into negitoro for being an ass and a half. Anyway, to hell with him.

Mr usher for the tourist section

And in this section the tunas are all frozen

... and it this place it swarmed with people who look like experts in tuna.

Soon the auction begins. And there are some serious action going on here.

Eventually the sold tunas get tagged with a red mark before being carted away.

So, there there is an usher in white, making sure everyone moves so that the conveyor belt of tourists is moving all the time. Here the tunas are all frozen, laid out on the floor, and the tail of which are chipped into a chunk still attached to the fish. I observed the buyers coming to check the flesh in the exposed part. Not too sure what they are checking, guessing texture and the colour. Then at around 5:30am, the auction starts, and it’s a guy standing on a small stool, notebook in hand, and shouting out something. Handycams start rolling and tourists start giving their self commentaries. Anyway, this goes on until all the tunas are sold, and someone comes over and paint something red on the fish, and long story short, quickly it gets carted away by someone with a hook. Bet there are all these Tsukiji carts waiting outside. Rumour says that one of these fish could go for a million yen or so.

General section Tsukiji Market (if there is such a name)

After the auction, its time to just roam the market, using up my few rolls. After the Fuji Pro400 I had a few test rolls of Kodak Ektar 100, which seems to be quite good for red colour, which is the dominant colour here. And I just love how incandescent light behaves with colour negative film. The scene looks warmish, which keeps the mood intact.

Since it is not the first time for me at Tsukiji, I’m done with the place after a while and it is time, 7am, to go have some sashimi donburi in one of the obscure shops. I don’t intend to do a general review of the restaurants and stalls here, but I would say majority of the shops here go awesome sashimi. I don’t care about sushi, not in the morning anyway, nothing beats rice bowl with tuna sashimi and minced tuna to start the day.

Baby octopus for sale

Done with with the market,  done with breakfast and now time to hop onto the Tokyo metro. Next stop Asakusa Tobu line to catch the next train to the next destination on this busy Saturday!

Always a pleasure to end the post with a Mighty Car, a Tsukiji special!

*end of post*