Here is the first video of 2012! It features the first sunrise of 2012 seen here on top of Jyouyama. It’s also the very first video I captured of the year and also the very first video I edited on Final Cut Pro. Did I mention I finally bought myself a new laptop, a 15″ MacBook Pro, strictly for video editing?
I am still learning the quirks of it, but I hope to become proficient in it.
I had originally made this Christmas card for my (soon to be) sister-in-law, Tessa, for a card exchange. The cheesiness of the video was to reflect the old online cards from the late 90s: cheesy song, broken animation, choppy … well, everything.
Marc and I set up a tripod on the beach near Numazu, I dressed up in a Santa outfit and boom — a stop-motion experiment in the form of a Christmas card.
I changed the original card today and now present this card to everyone as a cheesy gift from me to you.
Marc and I, with a few of our friends, gathered together for “a rock painting day.” This event was exactly how it sounds like: we painted rocks. Marc thought it was clever to paint a Christmas tree on one rock. It easily toppled to its side, so Marc painted a “present” rock to stabilize it. Because we are too cheap, we adopted the two as our Christmas tree for this year. I painted some “bokeh” rocks to reflect the globular blur of lights from Christmas trees.
Marc works at the Numazu College of Technology, a prestigious local high school, and this weekend they held their annual school fair. School fairs is an event for students, made by students: all the entertainment and food are provided and lovingly made by the students in hopes of impressing each other and earning money for their club activities. It’s also a good way to promote their school to other prospective students.
We went to watch some of our students and this was the result of our visit:
Some of you may remember Jyouyama from the engagement video. The two of us returned to hike the mountain in a more leisurely fashion; we had invited two of our friends along and we brought along our cameras. Here are some of the textures of Jyouyama in the fall.
BONUS! VIDEO OF SPIDERS!
Note: Sorry for the current videos and their inconsistent sizes. I’m still learning and I hope to better improve the quality soon.
I love McDonalds. I do. May be it’s because I grew up with it as a treat to eat with my family, but I still have many positive opinions of McDonalds. That is not to say I eat there for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I enjoy going to the McDonalds in my neighbourhood almost every day to read a book: it’s more of a cafe. I sit down on their comfortable leather seats with a mocha and read. It’s cheaper than Starbucks and has a small separate area with mood lighting and jazz.
I know.
Not at all what you would expect from a McDonalds.
Anyway, September is “Moon-Viewing” season. Most people enjoy watching the full moon with rabbit-shaped sweets or mochi, but for me I go to McDonalds and try their September specialty, the “tsukimi” burger. More or less, it’s a hamburger with special sauce, bacon, and a full egg to resemble the full moon. Awesome.
I bought the Shadow of the Colossus the other day. Nothing really special. I just wanted to share this little tidbit to you.
One random day, Marc and I decided to drive along the coast of Izu towards Omezaki to search for a new beach. We found a random one that can only be accessed after rappelling down a slightly steep hill. It became one of my favorite beaches to go to this summer because of its isolated nature and crystal clear water. Oh, and it’s free. Completely free.
Footage was taken with Marc’s old Canon waterproof camera.
The first beach Marc and I went to this summer was Shoubuzawa Beach. Located a hop, skip and jump away from Shimoda, Shoubuzawa is out of the way and not well known to most except those who have an interest in diving. It’s also close to Izu Andy Land, a museum with white snapping turtles and elephant turtles, — one in particular is named Andy, I think. Rumor has it, turtle races are conducted there. I may check it out in the future.
Here’s a small video highlighting the awesome coast and the foliage in the ocean.
My now-fiancee documented it better on his blog here, but I edited the video he sneakily took of our engagement on top of Jyou-yama.