Notes From the Farm Vol. 5

There isn't much news from the farm today, other than that it was ungodly hot here today. That, and the only thing that offers me much respite from the heat, namely the straw hat I'm sporting in one of the pictures from a previous entry, is fast becoming the bane of my watermelon picking existence. I'm not used to wearing hats with that big a radius, and I find that I'm always smacking my head into things (the side of the truck, the boxes we load melons into, the cart that we put melons into before we put them in the truck) and knocking the head off my head violently. It's getting to the point where I may forgo the hat and just roll the dice with heat stroke. We've only got two more days here of hard labor anyway.

We had a good few days in Tokyo, and got back last night. I've been researching cameras a lot over the last few weeks. This blog has really gotten me into photography, and I've been toying with the idea of investing in a digital SLR camera for a few months. I did some shopping around back home in Kanazawa, but figured I could get a better price in Tokyo, so I held off until I had a chance to check things out there. I was able to save about $100, and ended up grabbing a Canon Rebel Xti. I'd more or less settled on this camera a little while ago as it's a top of the line entry D-SLR (there's an oxymoron for you), and it seems to fit my needs pretty well. I'm not a very technically proficient photographer, but I'm hoping to learn more in that regard, and this will be a nice camera for me to grow into. In the mean time, it will give me a lot more capability than my trusty Canon Powershot point and shoot, which will by no means be relegated to the dust bin.



I had my first chance to use the new camera extensively this evening when Chieko, her mother, her mothers friend and I went check out a mega fireworks display in neighboring Nagaoka City. Thanks to her mom's friend, we scored some premium seats atop a building on the riverfront, where the pyrotechnics were centered. I was pretty impressed by the display, which lasted well over an hour.

I took way to many pictures, but I was tinkering around and trying to figure out how to use the new piece. I ended up getting some cool shots, along with an inkling of how to use the camera in its manual mode. However, blogger is acting up and I could only seem to upload one picture from the night. That's OK though; we all know what fireworks look like. Hopefully though there will be some markedly improved pics on this blog from here on out.



It was a zoo getting home from the fireworks; a sweaty ride on a very crowded train. I've just had a quick shower and it's going on 1 in the morning here. Four more hours and we'll be back out in the field. Better get some sleep, which won't take long at this point. It's been a bit of a long day.