Japanese people can't fucking park.

Behold, on our entry into the grocery store:



Now, on our EXIT from the same grocery store, 10 minutes later:



I would like to point out that neither car had a handicapped tag. I laugh at those who think that Japanese people follow the rules!

So, V and I took the train up and over to Nagasaki on Friday, since today was a holiday in Japan (Coming of Age Day.) Here are some pictures, these are more "touristy" than I usually take, but I only brought the Olympus point and shoot, so that's to be expected.

Initial reaction: Nagasaki is a cool, somewhat small place with a limited amount of things to do. Once you've exhausted the tourist-stuff, it's 'eh'. I had fun, but probably won't go back.

The biggest draw for Nagasaki is actually for Japanese people, and that's because it has a strong foreign influence, both Dutch and Chinese....so there are lots of Western-style buildings and other things like that, which are strange and interesting for Nihonjin, but for me, they're just like most cities I've grown up in, and it's not SO much like home that it helps with homesickness.

It was awesome to have a weekend with just V to wander around and relax :)

Anyway, here are the pictures:

Nagasaki, Japan

Well, it's still India, but this is a matte painting I created in Photoshop using one of my (unposted) Varanasi picts as a plate. Quite pleased with the results, although there is obviously still lots of room for improvement. I think I may try a rural painting next...

Varanasi In My Mind

We did what any self-respecting tourist would do - spent the last of our local money shopping :)

Udaipur Shopping 01-04-08

We caught a 5:00pm flight back to Delhi, and crashed the night at the same hotel we stayed at when we first arrived. By this time, my stomach was starting to get *very* unhappy with me...

Saturday morning, I was in full-blown "Oh God, what have you done to me?" mode, so I chose not to take my camera when we hired a cab and went out to the mall for our last half-day. It was nice to walk around someplace that didn't smell of open sewers and unwashed bodies. Much like Indonesia, the malls have armed guards, and undesirables don't get in.

Our flight back to Korea went without a hitch, excepting my 1 dash to the bathroom. In Seoul, we spent half of our 10 hour layover passed out in the lounge, and the other half wandering the airport. Made it home about 8:00pm on Sunday night, and I must say, I have never been happier to see my apartment in Nobeoka.

It was an amazing trip, but I don't feel the need to return to India again. Nepal? Maybe...trekking sounds fun :)

We took a 90km drive out of Udaipur to visit a huge Jain temple up in the mountains. Just the drive itself was awesome, but the temple was very impressive. Unlike Hindu temples, Jain temples are fairly plain on the outside. They save their intricate carvings for inside the temples.

Jain Temple 01-03-08

Udaipur was the nicest place we went to in India. It was smaller, with a local population of only about 500,000, and somewhat more well off. Because of the lakes, it has a bountiful supply of water, and people here were much more laid back, and much less nasty, than the rest of India.

We had a bit of trouble leaving our hotel in Jaipur, as they tried to charge us $170 for a dinner we didn't eat, but it got taken care of, and we made it down to Udaipur on the only on-time flight we had the entire trip :)

In Udaipur, we saw another nice Hindu temple, plus the royal palace of the Maharana's. After lunch, we visited a small botanical-style garden, and the folk museum, where we saw a traditional Indian puppet show.

Since we had about 3 hours of sleep the night before, that was a full day's workout!

Udaipur 01-02-08

Ok, by this time I was starting to feel a bit jaded about forts, but the Amber Fort, just outside of Jaipur (in the town of Amber, go figure) was AWESOME.

Jaipur is known as the "Pink City", because it's first ruler loved the red rocks of Agra, but couldn't afford to build his city with rocks from so far away...so he just had the whole thing painted. I would call it more of a terracotta color, but the Brits seemed to think it was pink, and thus the name. Other highlights of Jaipur include an amazing old astronomy observatory, a pretty nice museum, and the Wind Palace, which we only did a drive-by, but it seemed nice.

Jaipur 01-01-08

Take his picture?

Anyway, after Agra, we did another all-day drive out to Jaipur, and these are the picts from along the way. We stopped briefly at a fort built by King Achbar, where we experienced our most obnoxious guide of the trip. The other highlight of the drive was waiting for an hour at ground zero for a water protest that could have turned into a riot at any minute. It didn't, but things were a bit...tense. Rajastan is suffering from a pretty bad drought, and the people are demanding the government give them water...which I think happened, so the locals removed the roadblocks they had placed on the highway, and we continued.

Didn't really do anything for New Years Eve, in fact, we just got room service at the hotel and watched a bad Jennifer Aniston movie. For the 2nd year in a row, I fell asleep before midnight....guess I'm getting old :)

The Road to Jaipur 12-31-07

Ok, What tour of India would be complete without the Taj Mahal, or "Crown Palace"?

Actually, I was underwhelmed, at least photographically speaking. Maybe it's because it may be the most shot building in the world,and thus there's a lot to live up to, or maybe the hype kinda turned me off...It was impressive, but I found myself saying, "Yeah, yeah, it's the Taj Mahal, so what?" Don't get me wrong, it's DAMN impressive, but it didn't trip my twinky to shoot it.

Other stops in Agra included the Red Fort, and what we called the "Baby Taj", which was another mausoleum built just before the Taj by the aunt of the women buried under the Taj. It was actually used as the blueprint to start the Taj, and was much more intimate and fun to shoot ;) Just goes to show, bigger isn't everything.

Agra 12-30-07

That's how they bill it in the tour anyway. Orchha is an old town about an hour outside of Jannsi, four hours from Khajuraho. It's got a number of palaces and temples, and shows an interesting mix of Hindu and Islamic building styles.

Orchha 12-29-07

Well, ok the Eastern Khajuraho Temples...there are two sets, the Hindu temples, which are considered to be good examples of the less-ostentatious temples built later in the period, and the Jain temples. Jainism is another offshoot of Hinduism, started around the same time as Buddhism, but it never really left the sub-continent. I don't know much about it except they are all vegetarians, and that one sect doesn't wear clothes.

These picts are from both groups of temples, as well as from our 4 hour drive to the next stop, Orchha.

Khajuraho 12-29-07

Khajuraho is famous for its "erotic temples", with carvings of all sorts of sexy-type things...although the builders had a sense of humor about it, and you should look at the figures around the ones having sex...particularly the ones around the guy fucking a horse (not kidding).

These temples were beautiful, and the park they were in was equally nice. Unfortunately, there's not a lot else to Khajuraho, but hey, our whirlwind tour continued.

WARNING: Sexually depicted acts in statues. Do not click if such things offend you...although, if they do, what the hell are you doing reading *my* journal?
Khajuraho Western Temples 12-28-07

The morning of the 6th day, we woke pre-dawn and took a boat ride on the Ganges River. For those who don't know, that's the holiest river in India. The dead are supposed to be cremated on it's shore, and their ashes cast into the water.

Varanasi is one of the dirtiest, most shit-hole looking cities I have ever seen, and I've been to Cambodia....I will say though, it's a *cool* kind of dirty shit-hole. I would actually have liked more time here, but alas, we arrived late in the afternoon, did this dawn boat ride, and then flew out again @ 11:00am.

Varanasi 12-28-07

Just some picts from our hotel, "The Yak and Yeti".

Nepal, 12_27_07

Or Day 4 of our overall trip...first stop, the big Tibetan Buddhist temple celebrating a famous monk's trip to Kathmandu. Next, a trip to Nepal's version of the Ganges river, where they burn the dead and bathe in the river. Finally, a trip to another suburb, this one famous for its religious people and old-style buildings.

Nepal, 12-26-07

Christmas Day, Kathmandu, Nepal. The day started out quite foggy and overcast, but it warmed up (as things are wont to do in Nepal) by about 10:30am. We explored an old suburb-town of Kathmandu, famous for it's wood carvings. In the afternoon we went shopping, but I only took my film camera for that, so you'll have to wait until I get those picts developed.

Nepal - 12/25/07

In the drunktank....

Or, in my case, in Kathmandu, Nepal. This was definitely the highlight of our trip. We found Nepal much more pleasant than India, and I would definitely be up for a return trip (trekking!)

Kathmandu has seen explosive growth in the last 15 years, going from 1 million to 2.5 million people. The infrastructure can't handle it, and the city is now a victim of it's own success. Water is scarce and polluted. The smog is *bad* (although not as a bad as Delhi....) Even so, it had a sense of friendliness and a laid back attitude that was sorely missing from all of India.

Kathmandu, 12/24/07

Ok, here are picts from our first day in India, in Delhi. This was the day that my shoes were stolen at the Gandhi Memorial Park. Our guide was Ms. Dixit, pronounced "Dick-Shit". Mass-amusement ensued.

Delhi, India, 12-23-07

And another one.
( Cut so I can put multiple pictures together. )

Here's my first attempt at integrating my 3D work with my photography.

Steampunk Nobeoka