The Sens?-ji in the Asakusa district in Tokyo never fails to captivate me with every visit.

The walk through Nakamise-d?ri starts with the Kaminarimon gate. Beyond the gate lies a row of shops selling tourist stuff, senbei, mochi, cakes, rice cakes, samurai wooden swords, replica katanas, kawaii stuff for handphones . There are about 89 shops for you to look through and unleash your moolah. I recommend the refresh grilled senbei wrapped in seaweed for 150¥!!

The street can be quite crowded during the weekends. Walking from one end to the other on a crowded day could take like 20minutes >.<

The Sens?-ji display of reddish orange lacquer gives a certain feel to it. We missed this last year as the whole place was under renovation.

Inside the compound

Closer

The whole building is just awesome!

Big red lanterns are characteristic to Asakusa!

The pagoda beside it

Loved how much effort they put in to light up the pagoda. It like the pagoda is glowing.

Every aspect with max details!

A great spot for night photography! Too bad I forgot to bring my external flash for this trip. Otherwise, it’s a great place to do a nice camwhore shot ^^

Location:Asakusa, Japan

Waiting to go in!! So exciting!!!

Chad, Yan and me. Gonna be fun ^^

A short break from work to HK for my graduation from my degree course and, hopefully, to witness the brutal power of a hurricane. Well, the hurricane wasn’t planned as plan of the trip. An unexpected natural event that occurred seemed to have pulled my attention away from the intended graduation objective. Being in sunny island for too long, the only extreme natural incidents worth mentioning would be hot, humid, hazy or lots of rain and thunderstorm.

An hurricane/ cyclonic level event would be totally way out of the scale =D

Due to the ingenious idea of capitalism, I was unable to get an internet connection in my 3-star hotel room unless i paid an arm or a leg, everyday. When compared to a shabbier and cheaper backpacker lodge where conditions are adequate for a good night rest, FREE WIFI is available to the everyone without lifting a finger. Lack of updates for the next few days as my only internet source would be tapping into wifi connections on the streets.

Chill and enjoy the mango desserts =)

While processing more of the Tokyo Spring 2010 photos recently, I became more aware of my style of composition or the objects I take. Me shall highlight a few here. I’m more for shooting horizontal photos. Those vertical compositions are quite narrow for me to be comfortable with. But I have to start somewhere eh?

The one above is one of my classic travel shots. Just sitting on the ground somewhere, just me and the good pair of walking shoes that had travelled with me for almost every trip overseas. Let’s call this the “Walking the World”

Something like that!

Next up, landscape shots. Essential for travel photography, best taken with wide angle lens. Since I haven’t got my hands on one yet. The 24mm of the lens I’m using would do this job fine. Landscape shots tells how magnificent or awesome a place is. I play around with the colours of the photo to give a certain feel that portrays the story of this place. B+W ones have their own appeal. But I mix them around depending on the feel, or it is too gloomy to get a good ambience.

The one-thirds composition is greatly used here for scenery shots.

Shooting structures or places of interest! It’s basically why you are travelling to that place. Hence, let the camera spam! So the same thing for me here, I was trying out some effects to give increase that special feeling of each place. More time is spend on this area to create the correct balance and not to over exaggerate things.

People are what makes up the cities. Most of the time, I travel to big cities. A big major change from my old ODAC days where it’s jungles, animals and bugs and mud and mosses for company. Busy cities are great subjects for cultural diversity. Lots of pictures to take. But, most of the time, I’m quite reluctant to take frontal photos of people. Still working on how to approach people to take their photos. So taking them from the distance now.

Or from the back.

The friends you travel with makes it all even more wonderful! That depends on how playful your group is lol!

From friends, to YOU! Cam whoring with DLSRs is > cam whoring with cameraphones!

Another craze is food photography! It’s customary to take a shot of what you have in front of you when you’re overseas. Well, I know that some are quite offended with this action. Some restaurants don’t allow it. Just be aware of this! Otherwise, it’s great advertisement for the restaurants! They might give you a discount if you blog about them ^^

Get your swimsuit on! We’re going swimming with Mickey Mouse at DisneySea! Japan has this huge area called the Tokyo Disney Resort. Comprising of 2 Disney theme parks and loads of fun, the whole area has hotels to cater for local and foreign tourists from all over the world. One of the few places you must go when you go to Tokyo!

The classic (free) breakfast to start the day with. We woke up early to make sure we got to the Disney Resort early to skip the queue.

Made a transfer at Tokyo Station. This is the only station that has passageways with very low lying ceilings. Gotta be careful your head when walking around here. Things can be quite hectic around here. We’re headed for Maihama Station via the JR Keio line to get to the Resort.

We’re here! Maihama station has a large shopping mall, a few hotels associated with the Disney Resort and 2 the Disney theme parks, Disneyland and DisneySea.

The whole Disney Resort looks damn huge! We should have a look at the Disneyland another time. DisneySea is on the left.

We have to take the Resort rail to get to DisneySea. It goes one round around the resort and has Mickey Mouse handles! The one in HK has figurines on display. This has more space that’s all.

Lots of hotels to stay at if you’re feeling rich. Get a 2 day Disney pass and spend one day at each park. They have got hotel packages tied in. So if you’re interested, check out the Disney Resort Center at Maihama, outside of the shopping mall.

One of the few biggest parking lots of buses I ever seen.

Yes, we gotta queue for everything in Japan

Got our tickets! That’s a 5800yen for one park/per day. You can get the 2 day pass at a cheaper price!

This was at the entrance. The globe on a water fountain. Check out my HK Disneyland trip to see the difference between the 2 places.

Who’s that running around??

The whole place is fill with details!!!

They have their own volcano and lake!

The volcano spews fire! RUN!!!

First stop! Getting a fast pass for this so we can come back about 4pm. This is a thrilling ride through the darkness with lots of monsters underneath the volcano, with a steep drop at the end. And that’s why, we screamed louder than the girls behind us XD

In the world of 20000 leagues under the sea, details are every where. BGM playing is very suited for the environment we are in. Even the toilets are decorated to fit the theme. Submarines floating around every where. We are all ready for a dive!

This is the The Tower of Eternal Queue that leads to the rides below.

This is the queue for the hotdogs.

This water blowhole splits out water every few minutes

This reminds me of the caverns in FF XIII

And we are teleported into Arabia!

The smell of curry in the air makes me so hungry!

details details!

A boat to ship the Seven seas!

We tried to get a fast pass for another ride, we got this instead.

Fire on water! interesting!

Looks fun!

But lunch first! We’re hangry!

More tribal pyramids. This one from Indiana Jones.

Pss.. Look carefully for something pervy

Queue Queue Queue!

Back in Arabia. Can’t get enough of the curry smell and the BGM.

That’s a 2 level curousel in there!

kids running around. Made me compare my childhood and their childhood. XD

Kawaii girls all dolled up. I think they come in a set =) It’s normal to see most of them wearing the Mickey Mouse headbands and stuff! So cute!

The curry restaurant, Casbah

Walking around the themed streets

Getting dizzy in the Carousel.

In Atlantis to chill off and say ‘hi’ to Ariel. This was taken under the sea.

The whale ate a shop selling lots of tourist trap stuff

This whole area is AWESOME!

This was Ariel’s musical show. Awesome with all the arial displays and props! Has a magical feeling to it

If you like spinning teacups, have a go at it. I don’t like spinning things

Triton looking cool with his dolphins.

Futuristic looking harbour

With lots of kawaii girls

Magellan’s Castle on the other side of the harbour

It’s our turn to ride! Woot~!

The ride was worth all the time and blood shed!

*giggle giggle*

A ride to go around the whole park and take in the fun!

This is a really nice place to have dinner with your someone special, or a group of friends =)

Tourist traps screaming “Buy me!”

It’s getting darker

They have hotels inside the park!

More tourist trap shops

Samurai Mickey can cut off your head

A little cam whoring after shopping

a little bit more…

more!!

The night is still young!

People all gathering around waiting for a good space for the show later

He’s lost.

You can buy everything at McDuck’s!

Especially the softest bear you even had, well, according to Chad.

Aren’t they adorable? BUY BUY BUY!!!

The Tower of Darkness. Crazy ride. They elevate you, drop you a little in the dark . Then they open the window to let you get a feel of how high you are. About 0.5 seconds later, they drop you about 6 floors straight down. AHHHH~!!!!

AHHHHHH!!

They have a volcano, lake and a few towns. A steamer cruise isn’t too much to ask for!

Dinner at this Japanese restaurant. Awesome service! Everyone gets their food together. Get their food introduced to them. Cool!

I had teriyaki chicken

Scallops were good!

We eat a lot >.<

They show is starting!

The lights around the lake dims to the show. The BraviSEAmo show is sponsored by NTT Docomo. Started with Mickey in a boat going around the lake, waving his wand squirting a display of water fountains everywhere. All the lights, water, music swirls to a fine display for the evening. But it’s not over! They set the lake on fire, and emerges a huge phoenix in the middle of it.

Fire among the umbrellas

One of the best shows I ever watched!

Sorry about the heads. Holding a 5D Mark 2 on one hand while protecting it with the umbrella in the other hand is a major feat already >.<

You NEED to be there to feel the magic!

Tried camwhoring in the rain with the shaky hands. Epic fail.

A kind soul helped us with a group photo. No flash = blur for shaky hands >.<

Next it's back to the reality for a good night of rest.

See more of the DisneySea gallery over here!