New Camera & Flowers

I sold my old Sony DSC-H1 awhile ago, I wanted to get into a normal point and shoot. The H1 was a great camera and I used the conversion lenses all the time, but but tired of hauling it all around. So last week I picked up the new(ish) Canon Ixy 910IS (Powershot SD870 IS in the states, and Ixus 860 IS in Europe) as a replacement, something I can always have with me.

canon_sd870is_3q.jpg

I’m still playing around with the thing, but wanted to play around with taking some shots outside. So on the way home from work today I took a stroll around. It’s Sakura season here in Kyoto so there is no shortage of subjects. Here are two of my favorites from the set, you can also view the full set.

Monkey

A few days ago I had to do some running around Kameoka to get the application for my foreigner registration card taken care of, along with opening up a bank account and all this other crap I need to get my own place. Masa’s boss let me borrow his Honda Monkey for the afternoon to run around, and it made my life a million times easier. Those of you who have been in Japan likely know (or have seen) that most small scooters and bikes can pass cars that are stopped at a light, so when you’re in traffic you just fly past everyone. Anyways, onto the bike. Its a custom deal, that is actually quite expensive. The frame is from a Honda Ape, but the motor and drive train are from a Honda Monkey. The motor is the normal 50cc base, but has been bored to 80cc, giving this little thing a good amount of go. The suspension, wheels and such are all larger than normal and from some other larger bike. I’ve never actually ridden a bike before so getting used to the 4speed took some time, but once I got it down it was loads of fun. I am thinking of picking something similar up now, before a car, since during the summer months running around town in this will be more economical and faster. Onto a few pics.

picture-002.jpg

You can see the kick-ass looking oil cooler and super custom kickstand prop.

picture-004.jpg

A better shot of the Yoshimura carb:

picture-047.jpg

And I had never been to the touge we run other than at night, so I went up and down once on the bike. This is a shot from the “start”

picture-012.jpg

Later that night we hung out at the CircleK and talked with a buddy of Masa’s that had a nice S13. beat to hell, but just on the rear quarters….from Meihan 🙂 Car had full Origin stylish aero, D-max rear trunk wing and a older bottom ount TD06 tubo kit I never really had seen before.

picture-051.jpg

 

Still Alive

I got to Japan about a week ago, just have not been able to get to a pc until just yesterday. I picked up a new camera so I’ll sort thru some pics and get em up asap. In the meantime, here is an rip I did just before I left. I used to watch this clip hundreds of times back in the day.