Joanne and I went to Japan and China again! The itinerary is: three nights in Tokyo, three in Hong Kong, about a week in Zhuhai (with a one night trip to Guangzhou in between), and a night in Macao.
My friend Andrew and his wife made a special one hour trip to grab dinner with us in Ikebukuro.
We had pork skewers (yakiton), along with two of my other friends.
FIGURE 5 View in Ikebukuro. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F5.7, 1/16 s, ISO 800.
FIGURE 6 Pork skewers. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 35.0 mm, F4, 1/28 s, ISO 1250.
I then grabbed Joanne and one of my friends to see Uonami Fish Bar in Toshima city.
Apparently, this shop is a meme photo spot on Reddit and other social media sites.
Little did I know, a festival was going on with a huge amount of people!
Also, we had trouble navigating Ikebukuro station (we didn’t have cellular data since I left my phone with free data roaming at home in California), so going to the fish bar was a terrible ordeal that took an hour for what we thought was a mere one mile trip.
We were exhausted from the flight, and extremely grumpy as a result!
FIGURE 7 Uonami fish bar. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 35.0 mm, F4, 1/7 s, ISO 400.
Four of my friends and I went to Akihabara for sightseeing.
FIGURE 9 A small camera bazaar on the pavement. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F4, 1/36 s, ISO 100.
For lunch, we had Gyu Katsu Motomura.
It’s lightly fried steak which you then grill to your desired doneness.
It was very delicious — the beef was very tender and marbled, and the batter was very light.
FIGURE 10 Gyukatsu set. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF55mmF1.7 R WR, 55.0 mm, F5.7, 1/44 s, ISO 1250.
FIGURE 11 You grill the meat to your desired level. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF55mmF1.7 R WR, 55.0 mm, F4, 1/44 s, ISO 500.
FIGURE 12 Sofmap, known for its cool escalator tubes. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.3 mm, F5.7, 1/193 s, ISO 100.
FIGURE 13 Obligatory street view of Akihabara. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF55mmF1.7 R WR, 55.0 mm, F5.7, 1/481 s, ISO 100.
We got ice cream at Azabu Sabo and then went shopping for camera lenses!
We went to Yodobashi Camera as well as Lemon and 2nd Base by Sanpou Camera.
However, I didn’t find any good lenses to buy
FIGURE 14 Took the Ginza line back to Shibuya. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF55mmF1.7 R WR, 55.0 mm, F5.7, 1/44 s, ISO 2500.
FIGURE 15 Shibuya Crossing seen from the metro station. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF55mmF1.7 R WR, 55.0 mm, F1.7, 1/568 s, ISO 100.
I spotted a really cool Porsche 930 slantnose!
There are lots of cool cars in Shibuya.
I am not sure if this was an original slantnose — only 948 units were built in total.
Slantnoses were each built by hand by remodeling the front fenders and cost up to 60% more than the standard price at the time.
FIGURE 16 Porsche 930 slantnose. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 35.0 mm, F5.7, 1/396 s, ISO 800.
FIGURE 17 Porsche 930 slantnose. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 35.0 mm, F5.7, 1/352 s, ISO 800.
I took a shower and rested a bit at our hotel.
FIGURE 18 Our hotel. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F5.7, 1/182 s, ISO 100.
For dinner, we booked Tempura Yokota.
It’s situated right next to the similarly-named Ten Yokota, which is Michelin starred.
Tempura Yokota is supposed to be the (slightly) inferior of the two.
It was run by the dad of the guy who runs Ten Yokota, until 2021, when he was replaced by another one of his apprentices.
Just like Ten Yokota, this apprentice is also apparently much better than his master.
To save space, I’ll just post eight out of the 21 courses.
FIGURE 19 Shrimp. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/52 s, ISO 3200.
FIGURE 20 Green pepper. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/40 s, ISO 3200.
FIGURE 21 Ayu. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/58 s, ISO 3200.
FIGURE 22 Sashimi course. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/61 s, ISO 3200.
FIGURE 23 Cooked fish, and a snail. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/51 s, ISO 3200.
FIGURE 24 Maitake mushroom. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/54 s, ISO 3200.
FIGURE 25 Scallop with uni on top. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/48 s, ISO 3200.
FIGURE 26 Shrimp with caviar. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/47 s, ISO 3200.
FIGURE 27 Conger eel. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/35 s, ISO 3200.
We went to Unagi Toku.
It’s not as good as Unatetsu which we went to in December 2023, but still vastly better than almost any unagi in the US.
The unagi was very charred and smoky which is great.
FIGURE 35 Unagi Toku. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 35.0 mm, F4.9, 1/28 s, ISO 1000.
In the afternoon, I went to Map Camera Shinjuku to hunt for lenses.
However, I didn’t find any that I wanted.
I was looking for a fast 50mm or 35mm lens that would work reasonably on both my line scan camera and my Fuji GFX camera, but the Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.2 VM is discontinued and impossible to find, and the 50mm f/1.5 is out of stock until November.
Oh well.
Anyway, I met up with an online friend Jake, with whom we chatted about cameras and then went to take photos of trains!
FIGURE 36 Voigtländer lenses are cheap at Map Camera in Japan. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/187 s, ISO 2500.
We went to Shirubee for dinner.
It’s a very local Japanese restaurant where everyone there was Japanese, and the menu was handwritten in Japanese.
Fortunately, we can read a bit of Japanese.
We ordered a ton of food including the grilled mackerel and pacific saury
FIGURE 37 Grilled mackerel. Nothing A015 with , 4.7 mm, F1.9, 1/100 s, ISO 454.
FIGURE 38 Grilled pacific saury (sanma no shioyaki). It was circled in a big red circle on the handwritten menu so we knew it had to be good. Nothing A015 with , 4.7 mm, F1.9, 1/100 s, ISO 428.
FIGURE 39 Sashimi moriawase. Nothing A015 with , 4.7 mm, F1.9, 1/100 s, ISO 418.
We went to Komeraku which was right next to Unagi Toku from yesterday’s lunch.
We were too lazy to search for food based on reviews and despite its rather average rating on Tabelog (which we looked up after the fact), it was still delicious.
FIGURE 44 Ochazuke FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 35.0 mm, F6.5, 1/28 s, ISO 1250.
Then we took the train to the airport!
FIGURE 45 Keisei Skyliner to the airport. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F4, 1/662 s, ISO 400.
After breakfast, we went to Sim City in Mong Kok to hunt for camera lenses.
This was a terrible mistake since most shops only open at noon!
However, I did manage to find a Voigtländer Ultron 35mm f/1.7 which works surprisingly well on the Fuji GFX camera.
It cost me HKD 3500.
This lens would be very useful for taking line scan photos of trams.
FIGURE 52 Shelf full of Voigtländer lenses. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 60, 35.0 mm, (0/0), 1/10 s, ISO 3200.
FIGURE 53 The lens I bought, mounted on the line scan camera. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 12 s, ISO 100.
FIGURE 59 Watching the ferry depart as we just missed it upon arriving at the ferry terminal. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF55mmF1.7 R WR, 55.0 mm, F5.7, 1/609 s, ISO 100.
FIGURE 60 A cool ship seen from the ferry. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF55mmF1.7 R WR, 55.0 mm, F5.7, 1/750 s, ISO 100.
We went to the Hong Kong Palace Museum, which was recently built in 2022.
It’s very spacious and the exhibits are great.
The architecture of the museum is also quite nice.
Like many emperors of the late Qing Dynasty, I enjoyed looking at the very elaborate clocks.
FIGURE 61 The Hong Kong Palace Museum. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F5.7, 1/526 s, ISO 100.
FIGURE 62 A cool clock. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 35, 35.0 mm, (0/0), 1/52 s, ISO 2000.
FIGURE 63 Another cool clock. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 35, 35.0 mm, (0/0), 1/20 s, ISO 3200.
FIGURE 64 Breakwater. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 35.0 mm, F8, 1/405 s, ISO 100.
For dinner we took the bus to Shek Kee Wan Ton.
The owner looks very mean but is actually very nice once you start talking to her.
The restaurant is very old school and has many photos of celebrities on the wall.
FIGURE 65 Interior of the restaurant. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F4, 1/16 s, ISO 125.
FIGURE 66 Combination soup. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 35.0 mm, F4, 1/28 s, ISO 320.
FIGURE 67 Shek Kee Wan Ton on the right. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F4, 1/16 s, ISO 250.
After wontons we went back to the hotel.
FIGURE 68 Chungking Mansions. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F7.2, 1/17 s, ISO 100.
FIGURE 69 A stairwell in Tin Hau station. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F5.7, 1/16 s, ISO 500.
FIGURE 70 Extreme bamboo scaffolding on the Pak Lee Mansion! FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F5.7, 1/16 s, ISO 200.
For breakfast we went to Chung Kee Congee Shop.
Whereas Joanne got the porridge, I got the cheong fun. It was decent but not too amazing compared to the thin, wrinkly ones we later got in Zhuhai.
I guess they are more known for their porridge.
FIGURE 71 Cheong fun. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 35.0 mm, F4, 1/28 s, ISO 200.
In Kennedy Town, there is a well known meme photo spot at a basketball court.
You’re supposed to take a photo through a hole that someone dug in a chain link fence.
So we went there — here’s the resulting photo.
FIGURE 72 View of Kennedy Town from a basketball court. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/187 s, ISO 160.
I accidentally messed it up since I had leaves in the frame on the right side.
If you time it right, you can see a large variety of modes of transportation, including ships, trams, buses, cars, and so on.
FIGURE 73 Some high rise buildings. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/407 s, ISO 800.
FIGURE 74 Stonecutter’s bridge. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/307 s, ISO 100.
Then we got coffee with a whippet!!!
The whippet is a four month old female puppy belonging to a guy who is trying to set up an ecommerce business.
The puppy was imported from Australia and is very cute.
She can run very fast!
FIGURE 75 Whippet. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/187 s, ISO 200.
FIGURE 76 Whippet. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/187 s, ISO 250.
In the afternoon it was too hot so Joanne stayed in the hotel while I went exploring.
FIGURE 79 A pink tram. FUJIFILM GFX100S with 125, 125.0 mm, (0/0), 1/187 s, ISO 100.
My friend spaqin took me to see the Yick Cheong building, affectionately nicknamed the Monster Building.
He used to live there!
It has two atria, the first one which is more popular since it is colourful and enclosed by another building, and the second one which is a bit more drab.
But I actually prefer the second one.
FIGURE 80 Monster building atrium 1. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F8, 1/239 s, ISO 100.
FIGURE 81 Monster building atrium 2. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F8, 1/140 s, ISO 100.
FIGURE 82 Fire Services Headquarter Building. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F5.7, 1/66 s, ISO 100.
FIGURE 83 Kut Cheong Mansion. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F5.7, 1/284 s, ISO 100.
FIGURE 84 North Point Mansion. FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF20-35mmF4 R WR, 20.0 mm, F5.7, 1/568 s, ISO 100.
