Amami Superman Photography

A Place to Share My Photos

May 6, 2010

Sakibaru Beach

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/200 sec, f/9.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Coral Bits

We had kind of a busy Golden Week this year. My wife's older brother got married on the 3rd so we had plenty of family and friends over to visit. We had plans since the beginning of this year for what we wanted to do for Golden Week, but my brother-in-law and his wife decided kind of suddenly that they wanted to get married before she turned 30 and our plans went out the window. Oh well, hopefully no one will get married next year during Golden Week.

These photos were taken on Saturday. We took a drive up around the northern part of the island. I have particularly fond memories of this beach. My wife first took me here just before we got married. She carries a photo of me taken here at this beach.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Fine


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/160 sec, f/9.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Pestering


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/80 sec, f/9.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Dainty

The first photo was fixed up a little. It was a bright sunny day, but it was also pretty hazy. The sky had no color so I used a filter inside of Lightroom and gave it some. The photo of the hermit crab is also cropped just a bit.

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May 5, 2010

Mochitsuki Taikai

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/80 sec, f/2.2 ,ISO 400 -- EXIF
Kine & Usu
(mallets & mortar)

At the end of Jade's second grade year, all three second grade classes at her school came together to have a sort of recreation day. We played dodge ball and then made mochi. Mochitsuki means mochi making or mochi pounding. Taikai just means a large gathering but it can also mean competition.

Mochi is a pounded, putty-like rice. Some will call it rice cakes, but I personally don't think it's anything like cake. Mochi is eaten year round but you see it the most during the New Year. They us it for their traditional decorations as well as their traditional dishes during New Years. There are several ways you can eat mochi, but this is how it is made.

First the mallets and mortar are soaked in water for a few hours. This is done so the rice won't stick as much to them. If you didn't wet things down like this, there would be a terrible mess when the pounding started.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/640 sec, f/1.4 ,ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Smooshing

I believe the rice used is a bit special, I'm not too sure, but it's cooked like any other rice would be. When put into the mortar, you start out by smooshing it around. Once it starts to form a ball, then you let the pounding begin.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, f/1.4 ,ISO 800 -- EXIF
Working as a Team

When making mochi, you need at least two people to do it. One that pounds the mochi, and one that flips the mochi over and wets it.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/250 sec, f/1.4 ,ISO 800 -- EXIF
Taking Turns


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/1.4 ,ISO 800 -- EXIF
Support


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/1000 sec, f/1.4 ,ISO 800 -- EXIF
Rolling the Mochi into Balls

Once the mochi is pounded into a nice putty like substance, you then roll it into small balls and cover the balls with some sort of flour type substance. I'm not quite sure what the flour like stuff is, I forgot to ask anyone.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/1.4 ,ISO 500 -- EXIF
Fun for Everyone


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/640 sec, f/1.4 ,ISO 800 -- EXIF
Mmmm, Mochi...


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/1250 sec, f/1.4 ,ISO 800 -- EXIF
Shot From Above

The yellow powder is soy bean flour with sugar mixed in. That with a little shoyu (soy sauce), and it's a pretty delicious snack.

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May 4, 2010

Panorama at Tomori Beach

Posted by Amami Superman

Panoramic View of Tomori Beach

Click here for enlarged photo
**WARNING**
This enlarged photo is larger than my regular enlarged photos. It may take some time to appear depending on your internet connection.

I patched these photos together in Photoshop CS3 using photomerge. I thought it turned out well. I had to do some retouching manually to fix some distortions but nothing too serious. These photos were taken in the later half of March. We were having some pretty nice weather so I took the family to the beach. I brought some shovels and buckets to see if we could make some big sand castles. So if you look just center right of the photo, you can see Jade and Hikari sitting there by a big mound of sand. We had some fun and these are just a few of the shots I took from this day.

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May 3, 2010

Some Bad Puns

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 44mm, 1/40 sec, f/5.3, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Putting Our Heads Together
"I know we can get ourselves out of this..."


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 40mm, 1/40 sec, f/5.3, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
No Guts, No Glory


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
"Congratulations! You've made the cut."

Well, I hope these photos didn't gross you out too much. I couldn't help myself with the bad puns. I had a few photos of a road race they had last year but I never got around to posting them. I was thinking of using some bad puns for those too like, "Man who runs in front of cars gets tired. (tyred for you non-Americans lol)" And, "Man who runs behind cars gets exhausted."

So these photos were taken at a fish festival they had last week on Thursday. I'm still going through those photos as well as some older ones I took last month. Sorting through them and choosing the ones I want to use for posts is pretty tedious, but I think I'll have a bunch to share over the next couple of weeks (if I can manage to find the time to make posts).

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May 2, 2010

Skateboard Competition

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 105mm, 1/640 sec, f/4.8, ISO 100 -- EXIF
1.

On the 18th of last month they held a skateboarding competition here in Amami. Most of all the skaters from around the island showed up and we had quite a big turn out. My daughter Jade wanted to enter into the competition despite the fact she knew the other skaters out leveled her, but she thought it would be fun so we let her.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
2.

There are different types of skateboarding competitions and this one was basically just street. All the photos I've shown here are photos of different people warming up and just screwing around.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 82mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
3.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 110mm, 1/500 sec, f/4.8, ISO 100 -- EXIF
4.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 110mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
5.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 92mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
6.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
7.

The guy in the above photo is one of my good friends. Most of the people you see in these photos are good friends of mine, but I think I've photographed this guy, Kotaro, more than anyone else. The board he is on was recently purchased the night before I believe. As you can see, this competition was held down at the ports. They have these large curbs that line the edge of the port painted yellow and black. There is just barely enough room for a skateboard to fit through the gaps between these curbs if it went through just perfectly. Unfortunately, Kotaro's board when zipping out from under him before the competition started and took a dive. It was some pretty rotten luck for him.

I couldn't resisted the urge to help the guy out. I looked down into the water and wondered how deep it could be. Since it is the port, I figured it had to be at least 10 meters deep for the big boats to dock there. I decided to run home and grab my snorkeling gear and a lure rod. When I got back, I tied on some sinkers and dropped the fishing line into the water to get an idea of how deep it was. It was low tide and after pulling the line back up, I judged it was 7 or 8 meters deep. I decided it was worth a try and I strapped on my flippers and mask and jumped over the edge. As soon as I jumped over, everyone came to cheer me on. After taking a few deep breaths, I headed down. I got within about 2 meters of the bottom and looked around but couldn't see the board anywhere. There water here in Amami is very clear and just floating on the top, I could see the bottom pretty clearly. I figured it wouldn't be that hard to spot, but after diving down several times and having no luck spotting it, I decided to call it and told Kotaro I was sorry, but I couldn't find it. I gave my camera to my wife to hold and she took a shot of me at one of my attempts to dive down and try to spot the board. Here is the photo she took.

After giving up the search, I then had to swim all the way down and around the port to a boat launch where I could get out. Now before I jumped in, I looked for a place to get out and I felt the boat launch wasn't that far away, but even with flippers, it was much further to swim than I had anticipated. Before jumping in, my daughter Jade was afraid for me. Standing on the pier, you really couldn't see the bottom that clearly and that just kind of freaked her out. My wife was telling me she was about ready to bust out in tears when I jumped off the edge. I got a laugh out of that.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
8.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 135mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
9.

So after my long swim down the port to get out, I was soaking wet and didn't want to handle my camera and these are the only photos I was able to take. It was a fun little experience. I just wish I could have found the board and saved the day. That would have been really cool.

Here is an older post from last year when Jade came to skate with the others here at this port.


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May 1, 2010

Barbecue at Its Best

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Barbecued Hamburgers, YUM!

In all my years living in Japan, I've never barbecued hamburgers. I love having barbecues but I've always strayed away from making hamburgers for the simple fact that ground hamburger in Japan isn't 100% beef. Usually when you go to the supermarket here, you'll find ground hamburger which is usually made up of 40% ground pork and 60% ground beef. If you've every barbecued any kind of a pork cut, you know it gives off a lot of grease which usually turns into a bonfire. Because I always use an open grill and wood charcoal, I was afraid I would just ruin the hamburgers if I tried.

They recently opened a new supermarket here in Amami called Taiyo. They have a few other older Taiyo supermarkets here, but this one dwarfs them all. It's almost as big as an American size supermarket which is rather big for here on the island. Anyway, their opening day they had huge sales and everything was cheap. We decided to go despite crowds we knew were going to be there and we actually bought quite a bit of food for pretty cheap. One of the things we bought there was a very large pack of ground hamburger. My wife also got a recent shipment in for her import shop and we had some real American style barbecue sauce. I thought it was time to try and barbecue some hamburgers.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
And Now a Word from Our Sponsors...


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Real Wood Charcoal


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Chowing Down


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Two Thumbs Up


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Time for Some Brats


Nikon D6o, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
That Just Looks Delicious!


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Pickles and Mustard
That's how Jade likes hers.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
"That is one good hotdog..."


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
"My mouth doesn't go that big!"

So those are some of the photos I took of my first try at barbecuing hamburgers. To my surprise, they didn't cause a bonfire and turned out better then I could have imagined. They were excellent. These photos were taken on the 31st of March so it was over a month ago I took these. Since then I've hosted a few more barbecues for some friends and family and I grilled up some hamburgers for them and they loved them. My wife also sells bags of marshmallows in her shop and we actually roasted marshmallows for dessert. Most Japanese have never had that experience and they all had a blast.

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Apr 30, 2010

Cotton Candy

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 -- EXIF

It's been a very busy month for me. I was asked at the beginning of March if I would be an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT), for the Uken Village here in Amami. I talked it over with my wife and we decided it would be a good thing if I tried it out. The new school year here in Japan starts in April so I started teaching after the first week the students started school. There are 5 different schools that I visit twice a month. The furthest away takes an hour and a half to drive to. I was apprehensive about taking the job at first just because of the distance I would have to travel some days, but after my first month, I'm glad to say it's all worth it. I enjoy teaching kids English. Another plus side to this is it's a good way to promote my own businesses. Living on a small island is all about who you know, so getting out there and meeting new people always helps out. My wife's mother's side of the family is also from Uken Village so when I told my students and the people I work with who I'm married to and what family I'm apart of, they accepted me with open arms.

We are now just starting what the Japanese call "Golden Week". Golden Week is a bunch of holidays starting at the end of April and goes on into May. If you get timing right, you can have a whole week or more off for vacation like we have this year. So today is my second day of Golden Week. I've been so busy with my own work and my new teaching job, I just haven't had time to focus on my blog. I've taken loads of photos, but I just don't have the time to go through them. So today I'm taking the time to go through them and try to make a quick post to let you all know I'm doing fantastic and I'm still here.

As I said, I've taken loads of photos in the past couple of weeks. I have so many, I just decided to choose one photo to share with you today so I can get back to going through the rest.

Yesterday they had an event called osakana matsuri, which basically means, "fish festival". They had loads of different booths that you could buy different sea food from, cooked and uncooked. They also had different events for the children and even a cotton candy booth for them. This is one of the random shots I took that I decided to share with you. This photo has been cropped a bit and I've also adjusted some of the variable settings inside of Lightroom 2, but nothing too drastic. Hopefully I'll be able to get through most of my photos today and make some new posts for you all. From just this fish festival event, I took over 500 photos. I didn't realize I took so many. I also have a lot of photos of barbecues and of days we went to the beach. I'll do my best to sort through them all today.

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