This sport might seem strange to a lot of people around the world, but it's an integral part of Japanese culture, and something that anyone interested in Japanese culture should definitely put on their schedule to see that next time they visit Japan.

Opus 27 from edo ray on Vimeo.

Sounds all too familiar, huh?

Alright, so it doesn't have much to do with Asia, but I found this funny. If you've ever watched CNN, especially during the coverage of the American elections coming up, you'll know how much they are relying on these cool maps. Check this guy out. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, just drag the slider up to around the 5:00 mark.



Enjoy!

Originally uploaded by Edoray on 24th September, 2008

One of the photo montages that I put together after a photo viewing, with this great harpist playing very beautiful classical music to accompany my photos of Balboa Park.

Following is her bio and web site:
Tasha Smith, harpist, has studied harp with Dorinne Yoder of Escondido and is currently studying with Elena Mashkovtseva. She has also studied violin, her teachers being Holly Christmas, Michael Tseitlin, and currently Hernan Constantino. She has studied violin for 13 years and harp for 7 years.

Tasha has played violin and harp for the San Diego Young Artists Symphony Orchestra and the San Diego Youth Symphony. She is presently the harpist for both the San Diego Youth Symphony and the Grossmont Symphony Orchestra and plays violin for the San Diego Youth Symphony Chamber Orchestra.

Tasha has won awards in both soloist and ensemble categories with both harp and violin. She was 3rd place winner in The BEEM Foundation Scholarship Competition as violin soloist in 1995. In 1998 and 1999 she was 1st place winner in the Chula Vista Women's Club Music Competition as harpist for harp/violin ensemble, and as harp soloist respectively. This year (2001) Tasha took first place in the string division for the Grossmont Community Concert Association Women's Instrumental Scholarship Auditions as harp soloist. As a result of winning the auditions, Tasha is this evening's featured concerto soloist with the Grossmont Symphony Orchestra.

Tasha selected to study at Grossmont College in order to prepare for further music studies at a conservatory or university school of music. She is also satisfying some general education requirements at Grossmont College to enable her to devote more time to music after she has transferred to a conservatory.

Tasha's present goals are to improve her performance skills and to learn as much music theory as possible in preparation for her university/conservatory auditions. Tasha's goals for the future are to perform as a harp soloist with orchestras around the world, have a place as harpist in a major symphony orchestra, and to teach both harp and violin both at a conservatory and privately. Tasha is pursuing her Sophomore year as a music major at Grossmont College.


http://harpbytashasmith.com/home.cfm - She speaks French and Spanish. She is the Principal Harpist of the Orchestra.of Baja California of Tijuana

She was a student of Isabelle Perrin -

http://harpbytashasmith.com/home.cfm

Originally uploaded by Edoray on 24th September, 2008

Put together a composite of a couple of photos shot during a viewing of my photos over the weekend. Amazing how well beautifully played music suits my photos of Balboa Park.

Enjoy!

A railing in Balboa Park with the last rays of the evening sun creating golden colors on the concrete. Photo created using 3 photos all taken 2 f-stops apart and then merged together in Photoshop for tonemapping.

Trying to squeeze the most out of my photos, I'm starting to work with HDR, but it's not an easy medium to work with. Just takes time I guess.

This all brings back strong memories for me.

A sad trend. I remember a Japanese told me once, that a Korean would committed suicide because of political issues, whereas a Japanese person would take their lives because of love. Sad.

I'm a big fan of Kitano. He's not for everyone, but if you like Quentin Tarantino, you'll very likely enjoy him. I found it interesting that he's being recognized in Russia, a country that usually makes for odd bedfellows with Japan.

Looks like a dire situation in Japan and other so-called 1st world countries, with the aging population dwindling the number of young people that can support the elderly. So the political machine in Japan is recommending raising the number of immigrants to their country. This is not something that the Japanese take lightly. Most have actively fought again immigration reform for years.

I wish our government would get serious about our health care, instead of just supporting the drug companies that make their fortunes by giving us little pills once we've already done the damage.

How's this for being Japanese. Two Japanese women who were kidnapped in Yemen, apologized to people in Japan for worrying them. Now that's Japanese.

In a Japan Times editorial The Japan Times we get a bleak picture of what's ahead economically.  Not a pretty picture, but one we all should heed.

Maybe they ought to just cancel this years coming Olympics ;) This has become such a mess.

Japan has always had a very strong policy concerning people coming in to the country, but it looks like they're cracking down even harder.

Another sad sign of our times, with our elderly population getting older.

Wow, how's this for a wake up call? We've got problems coming from our inability to control our populations and increase our productivity. If Japan is feeling this, can you imagine how other, less prosperous nations are doing? Of course, you could make the argument that the less developed nations will do better with less because they're more often faced with shortages. But we need to wake up before more people starve.

I found this tiny flower on a 5ft high shrub growing just outside the right-hand door to the Botanical Gardens in Balboa Park. The flowers are so small, that although they were covering the plant, no one stopped to look. A shame really.

Things just aren't what they used to be. Weren't the summer games always a cause for celebration in the past. Those days are over.

Some times you've just gotta shoot whatever pops up.

This BusinessWeek article may just mean a lot more than you think. The next huge market for the search engines is mobile and while Yahoo has always been the largest portal / email system in Japan, now it looks like Google is poised to take over the mobile market.

Leave it to Google to know where the opportunities are.

Caught this one while walking through the Botanical Gardens in Balboa Park the other day. The late afternoon sun was slicing down through the slatted roof, shining on the orchid, leaving the background dark. Couldn't resist. Surprisingly, a lot of people were walking past, without stopping to look. Wondered why they were there ;)

This gate has stood here since about the Columbus discovered America, but now it's ashes. Such a shame; it was a real national treasure. I'm glad that I had the chance to stand at the foot of it and think of all the history that passed through it. Very sad day for the world in general and Koreans in particular.

Endangered yes, but something about these kind of stories strikes a warm chord in my heart. I hope they exist and will prosper. But who really knows.

Endangered yes, but something about these kind of stories strikes a warm chord in my heart. I hope they exist and will prosper. But who really knows.

I love this stuff. Enjoy!

Japan's population continue flowing to urban areas+

Will it ever stop. I used to notice this while driving around Japan. The cities are huge and crowded and young, but as soon as you leave one, you enter a beautiful landscape of rice paddies and bamboo forests, with the only inhabitants being the grandparents of the young people in the cities. The young are all leaving their birthplaces for the high rise towers, while the small villages keep getting smaller as the older folks pass away.

You'd think that sooner or later, the trend will have to reverse, but who knows.