Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo

My apologies for the radio silence; I'd intended to post earlier, but discovered too late that I didn't have a RAW editor on the little netbook I'd brought traveling, so I couldn't post any pictures. I carefully remembered to shoot some shots as RAW and jpg today, so I could post a couple on the run, and here we are.

I hate to boast, but... we're having an AMAZING time. We're staying in Shinjuku at the moment, and were wandering around this morning, ending up in a teahouse while we took the scenic route to the station (it turned out to be the very scenic route, and we missed the station entirely, but oh well!).



The other highlight of the day was finding a cat cafe in Shim-Tanazawa. My long suffering partner, M, let me drag him in for an hour of cat observation and iced coffee. Some of the fluffiest, most contented cats I've seen lounged around decoratively, or killed cat toys while the locals watched or chatted - to the accompaniment of much delighted squealing.



It's all so much fun! I think I now speak about 20 words of Japanese, from my original 10, so I've even doubled my vocabulary. We're definitely coming back.

PhotoChallenge 3

Cat in leaves.

It's been an eventful few weeks, for my photography at least. Firstly, I managed to leave my camera on the bus. Yes, I realise I'm an idiot. Trust me, I really do realise it. It didn't manage to turn back up, despite checking at Wynyard Station (where I left it), and with the depot. If anyone sees a lost Canon 400D wandering around, send it back home, please?

So I bought a replacement over Christmas; a very shiny new Canon 40D, which I'm still learning to use. We got back from family celebrations in Perth, all ready to get processing... and my computer died.

Apple have informed me that as my desktop is five years old, it's a 'vintage' model and they're not allowed to repair it, or even offer advice. A friend has chipped in with some helpful suggestions, so hopefully between us we can get it back up and running. For the moment, my little laptop is valiantly trying to run Lightroom for me, brave little camper that it is.

Hopefully nothing else 'interesting' happens before the next challenge!

Sleep 1

The cutest bundle.

This is the kitten, Murky, asleep. She's come a long way from the day we found her (here); she's over a year old now, and almost full grown. She's acting far more grown up, too - she's even learned not to randomly pounce the other cat (well, not as often). She still spends a lot of time killing leaves or random socks, and she still chases her own tail on occasion, too, and even catches it at times.

As you can tell from the shed fur, she spends a lot of time sleeping on that cushion. And she sleeps hard.

Home 3

Kitten, pensive

Despite the boxes and the disarray, some things still say home. Some of them are intangible. Others are very tangible, and very, very cute.

By the way, that thoughtful look usually means she's debating whether or not to kill something.

Motion 6

Harbinger in the breeze

It was a hot day today. Bing was upset by all the strangers who came through looking at our auction-bound house, but swaying curtain and the breeze calmed her down.

Texture 6

The Harbinger of Destruction, being fluffy.

Round 4

Harbinger (aka Bing) kindly consented to guest star today as 'Roundcat'. See how round she is!

Green 4

Green bag, green groceries, recycling bin... and optional kitten.