a quick open letter from the land of vacation

[swan_tower]

Dear Dad,

Thankyouthankyouthankyou for teaching me how to do the whole f-stop adjustment thing. OMG. I'm finally able to take the kind of artsy, short depth of field pictures I've been trying to achieve since, oh, 1997 or thereabouts. And some of the results are AMAZING.


Love,
your now exceedingly trigger-happy photographer-daughter


(P.S. to everybody else: if you have to come to Japan during the summer, aim for Obon; the special events make up for the way you melt to death in the heat and humidity. If any of my shots from the light-up at Kiyomizu-dera come out, they alone will have been worth all the suffering.)

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I went to Japan in August once. I would only recommend it if the alternative is not going to Japan.

[kurayami-hime.livejournal.com]

You mean the most expensive travel month of the year coupled with a side of oh-kamis-why-is-it-so-humid-melty-death-hot?!? isn't your cup of tea?

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

…It's not more expensive than Golden Week or the new year, certainly? Just more crowded.

[kurayami-hime.livejournal.com]

Those are equally expensive times, they just don't last for a whole month. Overseas travel is definitely more expensive in August, but that's not much of an issues if you aren't starting here and trying to escape the melty-death-hot. So much sweaty yuck, now with energy saving measures!

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Mm, I suppose. The sad truth is that my usual travel arrangements are so cheap they're unaffected by the August price hikes (i.e. hostels, seishun 18 ticket).

Is the setsuden that severe in Kyuushuu? Here in Kansai it's mostly just JR that's doing it.

[kurayami-hime.livejournal.com]

It's not *that* bad here, though my school takes it very seriously. There's a box of uchiwa when you first walk into the stacks at the library along with various thermometers letting you know that it's 28-29 degrees in there. Given that we're on a different power grid entirely, it's really more for solidarity than anything else. I still feel guilty running the aircon though, so someone in marketing gets a gold star. I would probably complain less if I didn't a) go everywhere by bicycle and b) have a tendency to run late, making the "by bicycle" more of a "as fast as possible, by bicycle."

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

I prepaid for my apartment including utilities, which has been great. The last time I was here in the summer I spent a lot of time in the air conditioned manga museum.

My school has signs about turning the thermostat to 28º, though it never felt that warm in the buildings. That might just be a sign of how much hotter it is outside, though…