Paul Hartrick dot com

The Moon, Clouds and Cupping

-Paul — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:52:00 +0000

Snapshots from my life in Tokyo…

It’s not that often you get a crystal clear night in Tokyo, let alone a clear night with a full moon… Shot with my 50D, 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM from my roof balcony overlooking Shinjuku.

During a recent trip to Matsue in Shimane prefecture I took these photos from the plane window. I was captivated by the cloud shapes sticking up through the sky… Also shot with my 50D, 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM…

And finally the aftermath of my cupping experience. Recently I’ve been getting some SFW massage treatment and as they were advertising a 40% discount on the 1 hour cupping/massage course I decided it was time to tick the cupping box on my list. This was taken they day after… yes it hurts when they remove the cups… no I didn’t feel any different afterwards… yes I think it is a scam… pffff… whatever… Shot with my 50D, 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM and my new remote timer switch…

iMatchsticks

-Paul — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:25:37 +0000

For those of you looking for the solutions to “iMatchsticks” for the iPhone well here they are…All the solutions including the bonus levels are provided. I know this is a spoiler page so if you don’t want the solutions don’t scroll down.

imatchsticks level 1 solution

imatchsticks level 2 solution

imatchsticks bonus level 1 solution

imatchsticks level 3 solution

imatchsticks level 4 solution

imatchsticks bonus level 2 solution

imatchsticks level 5 solution

imatchsticks level 6 solution

imatchsticks bonus level 3 solution

imatchsticks level 7 solution

imatchsticks level 8 solution

imatchsticks bonus level 4 solution

imatchsticks level 9 solution

imatchsticks level 10 solution

imatchsticks bonus level 5 solution

Horanenya 2009

-Paul — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:05:54 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I traveled down to Matsue for the 2009 Horanenya festival. The Horanenya festival is one of three famous boat festivals in Japan. It is held only once every twelve years so I took advantage of this time…

The story is that the spirit of a “Kitsune” fox god is transported between two shrines by boat and Kabuki actors dance while the rowers chant “Horanenya!” (a plea to the gods for a good harvest).

If you missed it don’t worry you can catch it again in the year 2021…

Click here for more photos

Baby Baby Baby

-Paul — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:13:19 +0000

I love it when you come across a video that makes you smile and can grab your attention throughout the whole video regardless of what is playing on TV in the background… I found this beauty this morning and decided to post it so I had a permanent link to it more than anything… It also has a nice soundtrack… Enjoy…

White Water Rafting in Minakami

-Paul — Sun, 03 May 2009 01:03:43 +0000

With the end of the Ski Season Japan and the ramp up of Summer activities I decided to give White Water Rafting a try while the snow is melting and the water is running fast enough to give more than the average adrenalin rush.

The location of choice was the Tone River in Minakami about 2 hours north of Tokyo. I decided to head up the night before as the train planning system told me it was a 3+ hour train ride to get to Minakami station…

For those who will travel to Minakami, catch the Shinkansen to Jomokogen station(上毛高原駅) and get a ride from the tour operators… 10 times more comfortable and twice as fast.. local knowledge very useful and was used on the trip back… dumbass train planning systems…

White Water Rafting in Manakimi(水上) is definitely a highly recommended activity… Local advice was to do it before July for maximum fun so I will be going back in June to do Canyoning and White Water Rafting again… For safety reasons I wasn’t able to use my Tachyon XC sports camera but the photos the tour company took were great and have posted a few of them below.

I’m not that hard to pick in the photos, the only foreigner and I also happened to muscle into front position of the boat.

Pre-Rafting training… The guide is from Peru…

Didn’t see this in the brochure….

Taking it a bit too serious…

Getting interesting…

Getting the adrenalin going now…

That’s a good idea… Bring the rafts together…!?

Relatively calm part of the river…

Hold on…

Now it’s getting fun…

All back in one piece…

I chose the fastest river run for maximum enjoyment which meant only 4 braves in the raft at the beginning and then we joined up with the other rafts about 20 minutes down the river and traveled for about another 40 minutes through various rapids and rocks… It all culminated in an optional 4 meter Rock dive that the tour guides were quick to point out was not covered by insurance, everyone did it and nobody got injured.

After the White Water Rafting there was a BBQ and a few beers to unwind and share the experience with the other people…

Finally my ride home…