Project YummyTe | The Shinkansen Experience

Shinkansent! HAHA. Shin-Osaka to Tokyo in ~3 hours time. :)

Trains are the most convenient way of travelling in Japan. For foreigners with the JR Pass, it is very easy to reserve seats for the Shinkansen train, just go to the JR Office inside the train station, and the Japanese staffs will be happy to reserve seats for you. JR Pass covers only JR Trains, including Local Trains and Shinkansen. However, if you plan to ride the Mizuho and Nozomi Shinkansen trains, you need to pay a fee on top of your JR Pass.

For more information on JR Pass, visit: Japan Guide on JR Pass

Shin-Osaka Train Station, 6:00AM GMT +9

Nice idea of putting information in the service desk. :)

Reserve seatings, too early in the morning to be filled up. :)

We encountered heavy snow on the way to Tokyo. I think this was Nagoya. :)

Heavy snow covering the tracks

White tracks. :)

Roads covered with snow in Nagoya

Snow stopped! Clear tracks. :)

Fuji-san! Too bad the cloud is on the way. :)

Videographer filming the "Hayai" Shinkansen. :)

Project YummyTe | Day 1

Philippine Airport, particularly NAIA 3, is starting to look like an international airport.

Waiting area filled with restaurants and people

International bound check-in counters.

Aisle of Cebu Pacific flight bound for Osaka

Took us ~4 hours flight from Manila to Osaka (KIX, Kansai International Airport)

Whohoo! At last, land of the rising sun, though, it is already late at night. :P

Exchanged our coupon first for an actual JR Pass. :)

Then, another ~70 min train ride to Osaka. :|

Arrived Osaka Station around midnight,
the only food service that is open, Fastfood. :|

Originally, we were to ride a night train (Sunrise Seto) going to Tokyo, but because foreigners can't book a train ride outside of Japan, we need a place to stay for just a few hours. Our Shinkansen ride bound for Tokyo is 6:30AM, and since hotels are fully booked that night, we just stayed inside a Media Cafe. 

The name of the shop is Popeye Media Cafe.

Popeye Media Cafe Entrance

Media Cafe in Japan are simply computer shops, but way better than of the computer shops we have in Philippines. They have a group area where you could stay. In addition, they have a neat comfort room, a shower area, cosmetic area, and other amenities just like a hotel. 

We rented the space for 5 hours, costing us JPY 1,800, around PHP 900.

Couple computer rental

PHP 900 each is a good money to spend the 5 hours,
unless we wanted to chill in the freezing winter weather. :))

They even have this so called "Cosmetic Area."

Manga galore! If only these are in English @@

Normal Computer Rentals

Magazines, anyone?

They even have Anime DVDs, free to watch.
*Sigh* but Anime is in pure Japanese, no English subs. :(

Slam Dunk Magazine, is this an autographed version?

Went outside the shop, streets are clean, probably it's midnight. :))

Even our gadget ran out of juice, luckily, I brought my extension.

Getting some sleep for our Shinkansen Ride later in the morning.

NEXT: Tokyo! ^_^

If you're interested in the place, here are some reference "print-screened" from Google Maps & Google Street View. 

Popeye Media Cafe is  a 4~5 min walk, right across Shin-Osaka Station.

What's on the Catwalk?

Have you ever experienced walking on a catwalk? 

That eerie feeling when a lot of people are looking at you? HAHA..

Well, we also have those in our workplace. 

Factory Catwalk
A place where factory workers showcase their safety equipment. HAHA.

Office Catwalk
Office personnel showcase their daily fashion.  :)

Sunrise

Finally, woke up early to catch-up with my work. HAHA.

Managed to squeeze in a sunrise shot from our house. 

Sunrise overlooking Manila City Hall | Taken around 6:10AM

Have a great day ahead!

Lumix GX1-X Test Shots

I was able to find some time to goof-off and play with my Lumix GX1-X.

Here are some of my test shots. ^_^

I just love the CMOS Sensor, pictures are clearer than my LX-5.

Also, noise is less during higher ISO. 

Panny's X Lens Cap | Lovin' the Red X Font. :)

Tea Rock Cafe Banawe | Chicken Chops

Tea Rock Cafe Banawe | Beef Noodle Soup

The newly renovated Gloria Maris, Greenhills

Greenhills parking lot around 10PM | No Entry

Greenhills Nightscape

The Digital Age

It's been a while since I have blogged (started with multiply, mostly rants from school. HAHA..)

Well, here I am again, but this time, I promise to put up pictures everytime I blog to make interesting.

First stop, The Digital Age. 

The Digital Age: My DSLR & CSCs
Nikon CoolPix P5100 | Canon 500D | Panasonic LX-5 | Panasonic GX1

I grew up loving pictures, started Analogue Photography way back when I was a kid (will dig up some pictures for reference) and Digital Photography in the mid 2000s as Digital Cameras were very expensive at those times. My first digicam was Brica (but i cannot find it anymore) then came my Nikon Coolpix P5100 (which is now broken, CCD sensor was ugh, busted!@#$%). My passion grew and started invested on the biggies, which was Canon 500D. However, I realized that there were some times that the biggies cannot be brought like those tiny occasions, so I opted for another compact again as my Nikon was being used by my family. I chose the LX-5 as I wanted to try Panny line of cameras. It was a great enthusiast camera, however, it was very difficult during Night Shots (due to it's CCD Sensor), especially on the Portrait  and Wide Angles even with an external flash installed (pictures are grainy when using ISO 800 and up). So, after 3 long years, I got another camera from the Panny line, this time, a Lumix GX1, a Micro Four-Thirds CSC. Hopefully this time, this camera will satisfy my compact photography. ^_^

Lovin' the new Panasonic Lumix GX1
Funny, the naming convention for Canon's camera is G1X. HAHA..