Japan

Like many of you, Japan has been on my mind the last few days. I may come from a country that has very painful history with Japan, but Japan will always have a special place in my heart. It is where I experienced and learned so many things, made friends, including Mr. Lilacmoon... It pains me to see all the unbelievable pictures and videos that made it to the internet. I think I will have to force myself to step away from the computer.

But before I do, I'd like to urge you to help in any way you can. You can donate to Red Cross through iTunes, Google, etc.

For shoppers who want more creative ways to help:
Weiden + Kennedy's Help Japan posters (via sfgirlbybay)
Yokomono's lavender sachets (via unruly things)
Rare Device's online shop
Hilda Grahnat's Help Japan Shop
Hello Sandwich's Gift Wrapping Zine PDF
I'm sure there are so many more out there.

頑張れ日本！
(The above pictures were taken in Osaka, Fukuoka and Kyoto in 2008. My trip to Japan later this month will have to wait..)

Portland -Part 2-

More pictures from the Ace Hotel in Portland..

Inside the elevator. Quite true, unless you are me.



If you do walk up the stairs, you'll see that every floor is clearly marked..


This is what you'll be treated with if you walk up all the way.


Wall art by Evan B. Harris.

Portland -Part 1-

How was your 4th of July weekend?
I didn't do anything special, just spent some time catching up with things :) Like finally processing the roll of film from my trip to Portland. As you'll see, I stayed at Ace Hotel..









Too bad it rained constantly while I was there, so a lot of my shots are from indoors at the hotel. The wide angle of Klasse W really helped! Other than chilling at the hotel, I really didn't do much else.. This was not my first trip to Portland, so I skipped all the tourist attractions and just relaxed as much as I could. I took walks in the rain, window shopped a lot, and ate good food.. Oh, and TV! I don't have a TV at home, so it was quite a treat to watch TV in the hotel room. Silly me, I know. ^_^

Film Shots from Klasse W

Eggs + Asparagus sandwich at Local Mission Eatery


Café au Lait and Tres Leches Cake at Tartine Bakery


Open faced deviled egg sandwich and Brussel sprouts chips at Marlowe


Various homey Japanese dishes at Kappou Gomi


Pani Puri at Dosa

I finally got around to scanning the latest 35mm rolls I shot with Fujifilm Klasse W. If you know me from Flickr, you might remember that this Klasse W is the newest member of my camera family. As you can see, I ended up taking lots of pictures of yummy foods at my favorite restaurants. ^^ After shooting 4 rolls with it, I have to say, the camera is really fun to carry around. Light, compact and sexy to boot. The wide angle came in handy while taking these pictures at local restaurants, too. I just had to make sure to use the smaller rectangular guide in the viewfinder, not the whole viewfinder, for the close-up shots. I'm no photography expert, so I can't say much about the image quality but the lens does seem to be quite contrasty. And I think the camera handled low-light situations better than I expected.

Um, I'm getting hungry. How about you?