Blazing 28 debut

I bought the Ricoh GXR 28mm f2.5 today. Finally! Ever since it was announced in March, I had been very curious about this lens. After I bought the GXR in September for my Pakistan trip, I was even more eager to try it out – while the 24-72mm zoom unit gave me a taste of the wonderful features of the GXR, from the many customisable settings to the advanced shooting options, I was never entirely convinced of its image quality at ISO 400 and above. (As a side note, I believe the pictures ST used for my Pakistan article were shot at ISO100 or 200)

I got to try out the 28mm unit when I visited Japan in October, at Ricoh’s Ringcube showroom in Ginza, Tokyo, and I was quite impressed. It was a pre-production model, however.

Last month, the lens was finally released in Japan, and two weeks later, it has arrived in Singapore. I was so excited to hear that my neighbourhood camera store (MS Color at Ang Mo Kio Hub) had it in stock, and I rushed down to the store after I attended a function Wednesday night. Alas, it turned out that I had used up the available funds in my current account because I’d spent a pretty penny on a pair of sunglasses earlier in the day, and I couldn’t pay up! So I paid a S$100 deposit and went there during my lunch time today and snapped it up.

When I slid the unit into my GXR and turned it on, I could immediately feel its tremendous quality. What has impressed me about the 28mm:

1. Impressive ISO performance all the way to ISO 3200. Thanks to the large APS-C sized sensor. It easily trumps my 3-year-old Nikon D40X, even though the sensor size is the same.
2. Very sharp lens. I was very impressed when I looked at the LCD of the Panasonic GF1 in Japan. With the 28mm on the GXR, I have nothing left to envy.
3. Fast AF. Ok it wouldn’t be fair to compare to my Nikon lenses on this, but for a compact camera, the 28mm is very fast and responsive. Definitely good enough for most shooting conditions, except for action/sports.

What could have been better:

1. An even faster lens, say f2? (I think f1.4 might be a bit too much to as for in a compact camera)
2. 43mm filter size instead? Why on earth does the 24-72mm unit use a 43mm filter while the 50mm and 28mm use 40.5mm?
3. A gold ring instead of a red one? Ok that’s just the Nikonian in me. Haha.

The lens was put to use on the very same day, as I attended a long-awaited gathering of my primary school class. It wasn’t exactly a snapfest, as 1) I was late and 2) I think I was better off trying to catch up with the rest. But I got a few good shots, and I think I can expect plenty more for the lens.

More to come!

Eating dinner while everyone else was finishing dessert… Hehe.

Haw Par Hoppin’ (Part 2)

As mentioned in Part 1, there are many downright grotesque statues in Haw Par Villa, many of which I do not quite understand the relevance to the overall theme of the place. There was one particular exhibit that got me quite fascinated.

A rat in a suit drags a rabbit onto the wedding bed, as another rat-like creature, who appears to be the wheeler dealer who arranged the marriage, chats on the phone, perhaps to seal his next deal?

“Hello Mr Dog, do you want to order a rabbit too?”

And we have a deer drinking tea served by a tortoise.

It appears humans don’t quite have a place here, except to help hold the flower vase.

What do you make out of that?

Unfortunately, it was too dark to take any pictures inside the Ten Courts of Hell exhibit, as it was indoors. But here’s a preview of what’s inside:

A beheaded corrupt official greets you on the way in.

I noticed the poor state of affairs at the park. The exhibits are generally in various states of disrepair, with paint peeling off and spider webs everywhere.

As I was walking about I spoke to a Malay lady, who told me that she showing her extended family from Malaysia around the place. She said she lived nearby and come by often when she was younger, but it was so different then. Back then, the statues were very well-maintained, and the paint was always fresh and colourful. And people were not allowed to touch the statues. (She pointed that out as the kids crawled up the platform and chased each other around the statues in one exhibit.)

Leftover lanterns at the canteen. I wonder from when?

The shops and the canteen are now closed as well, but I was relieved to see vending machines in operation as I was dying of thirst after walking about since early morning. Another surprise – the toilets were actually quite well-maintained, with proper lighting. (I definitely can’t say the same for some coffeeshops elsewhere.)

I think I’m grateful that the current owners of Haw Par Villa are still keeping it alive. No doubt they are minimising all costs of maintenance, but hey, there aren’t many places of interest in Singapore that have free admission. May the place remain open for years to come – it’s truly a place that is unlike any theme park I have ever heard of or been to.

See you again!

Haw Par Hoppin’ (Part 1)

There are not many places of interest in Singapore. Whenever I'm overseas, and people ask me about Singapore, I find it hard to hype it up as a tourist destination. We have great food, lots of shopping malls and clean streets, but that is rather generic. We have historical attractions such as temples and mosques, but nothing as grand and old as what you would find in our neighbouring countries, which have longer histories. We have modern attractions like a world-class zoo and two mega-casinos, but they probably only cater to a select audience.

 

(But as a place to live, I would still say Singapore's better than almost all the countries I have been to.)

 

Anyway, there is one particular place of interest here that is still open but more or less forgotten. Haw Par Villa. I'd heard much about it as a kid, esp. about the infamous “18 levels of hell” exhibit, but its heydays are longer over. That they don't even charge for entrance now probably tells you the state it is in.

 

Weclome to Haw Par Villa!

 

Well so I was free on a Sunday, since Joanne’s working, and I decided to finally visit the place, after sitting on the idea for months. It was the perfect opportunity to break out my Nikon F6 for some film photography – I think it was the camera’s first outing since January. Just brought along the manual 28mm for some wide angle, and the 60mm macro for everything else.

 

Completed in 1937 at a whopping S$1 million – a lot  of money at that time – by tycoon Aw Boon Haw for his brother Aw Boon Par, Haw Par Villa has quite a colourful history. You may not have heard of them, but their family created the now famous Tiger Balm ointment, sold in many countries around the world. This was probably why Haw Par Villa was also known as the Tiger Balm Gardens. For a more detailed walkthrough of the villa’s history, do take a quick read here.

 

According to the explanatory sign, the brothers used to drive this around town. Way too cool.

 

The many statues in the park are mainly based on Chinese mythology. These include the scenes from literary classic Journey to the West, the aforementioned Ten Courts of Hell, and the Eight Immortals. There are also many statues of Chinese deities and of Buddha.

 

Buddhist monk Tripitaka/Xuanzhang, one of the main characters of Journey to the West, being seduced by demons in one of the classic scenes in the epic story.

Guanyin and Buddha.

Tea time for the gods.

Yet, there are also many other statues that seem to appear out of sync with the Chinese mythology theme. There are sumo wrestlers, lots of strange animals and even a Statue of Liberty. In addition, many statues are downright grotesque, and can easily freak out a timid kid, I think! I would loathe to be out here alone at night.

 

The Pig, from Journey to the West.

A really crabby lady.

Yep.

More to come in the next post…

My favourite shop in Tokyo

As an exchange student in Japan, I was not really into fashion and in general, didn't want to spend too much money on clothes. In most cases, my spending on clothing was due to necessity — to survive the cold in winter because coming from tropical Singapore, I didn't have any thick clothing. Most of my money, which came from the JASSO scholarship, was spent on travelling — in my year in Japan, I visited all of Japan's main islands: Honshu (of course, since that's where Tokyo is), Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku (which most Japanese I know have never visited themselves). I don't think many other exchange students travelled so much within Japan as I did! My little badge of honour.

Anyway, I was thus naturally attracted to the budget clothing stores, and the biggest one in Japan was and still is Uniqlo. Now with a presence in the US, Europe and many countries in Asia, including Singapore, it is one of the most successful Japanese companies in recent years.

But besides the usual stores, Uniqlo had a special branch called Uniqlo UT.  Located in Harajuku, it has a distinctive industrial design, with wall lines with LED displays and rows and rows of Uniqlo UT T-shirts in transparent cyclindrical containers. I believe it is the only one in the world. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and the bright lighting and futuristic design was always a refreshing change from other stores in the vincity. I'd bought a few T-shirts in UT Harajuku during my year in Japan, and admittedly not always out of necessity but purely because I like some designs and the shopping experience there so much.

Back in Tokyo again, this time for vacation with Joanne, we were in Omotesando this afternoon and I decided to check out the store again. And I was surprised to see a series based on the new Evangelion movies! For the uninitiated, Evangelion, which appeared first as a 26-episode anime series, is just about the biggest anime ever. And the picture on the stickers on the T-shirt containers was a silhouette of lead character Rei Ayanami against a full moon. I knew I had to buy one of the shirts.

Rei Ayanami, one of the most famous anime characters ever. 

The current flavour of the month is Ghost in the Shell, another famous anime from the 1990s.

Joanne, who had visited Harajuku in her previous Japan trip two years ago but didn't know about the UT shop, quite liked the place too. She is not a fan of T-shirts however. Pity. She almost bought a jacket though!

 

Almost like a uniform! 

Got to love the industrial design. I learned that there are now 4 floors, when there were only 3 a couple of years ago.

The mirrors on the 2nd storey are still there, as I remembered them.

In the end I bought an Evangelion shirt and one based on the Ricoh GR Digital camera. The latter is part of a series on famous Japanese companies. The GRD is apparently a cult favourite camera in Japan, and Ricoh is still a very well respected name in digital imaging here. 

I'll be back again! (Maybe not during this trip though.)

More to come...

Japan Revisited

I really missed Tokyo and Japan!

Mitsubishi's iMIEV, the first mass produced Electric Vehicle in the world

Visitors at Asakusa temple taking in the incense smoke, which is said to give good luck.

It's great to sit down at a cafe in town and while away the time drinking coffee and people-watching.

Wind power generator in Yokohama.

Mind boggling variety.

Nagoya castle

For lonely males on week-long work trips

My camera of choice (for now)

A return to Tokyo probably wouldn't be complete without meeting some of the people with whom I was there with. I suppose I was lucky that Xianna has just started work in Tokyo, after spending a year on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) programme. And Manuel, my mate from school during my Waseda days happened to be back in Tokyo for a brief two weeks for work. 

Xianna

Manuel

There wasn't much time to look around during this trip though. I didn't even have time to complete my souvenir shopping!

I'm actually back in Tokyo as I write this... I arrived here on holiday just yesterday afternoon, this time with Joanne. Good two weeks ahead... :)