Those who know me personally probably know that my wife is from Japan. She’s been in the US for 5 years now, and we were planning a trip back this summer. Unfortunately, her father passed away last week. This has necessitated an early trip. We’re just throwing together the details now, but looks like we’ll leave late next week. It’s going to be a bit of a different trip. We’ll just be there a week, fly in to Nagoya, drive to Mie-ken, which is a rural area up in the mountains, where her mom lives. No Tokyo like last time (I’ll miss Akihabara), no Kyoto like we planned. All the same, I think it’s going to be really cool. Up in the mountains, probably visit a few temples and shrines, otherwise just hanging out.
We’ll be bringing our daughter, Kristine, who just turned 4 in December. It will be interesting. She’s never flown. Crossing my fingers that doesn’t turn into a nightmare. Perhaps even scarier though, is the fact that I’ll be pretty much off the net for a good week. We can drive about a half hour to an internet cafe where I can pay money to check my email, but I think that’s about it. Oh well. It’s about time I spent more than 2-3 waking hours at a stretch unplugged. I’m going to catch up on a stack of books and bring my camera. I’m sure they’ll be more than enough photo ops.
So anyway, just a heads up to anyone out there who might need to be in touch with me over the the next few weeks. As of next Friday I’ll be off the grid.
Too bad you’re not stopping by in Tokyo, otherwise we could go to Akiba. Either way hope you can at least enjoy a hot Onsen while you’re here! Maybe you can even see Sakura.
Keith, sorry for your loss..
//Michael.
Keith – safe travels.
My sympathies to you and your wife on your loss. “Not being there” is really hard.
I wouldn’t worry about Kristine. The flight will be an adventure for her, and then it will be boring. Same as for you.
But rural Japan will be magic for her. As I hope it will be for you.
Warm thoughts…
Sorry to hear about your loss.
A tip about travelling with young children on long flights, if you’ve never flown with her before. Bring lots of simple activities like puzzle books, drawing materials and some simple toys that don’t have a million little bits that get lost in between the seats. A favourite DVD on a Ipod also helps. And don’t forget the super chewy lollies for the ear-aches on takeoff and descent – that’s often the worst bit for the kids.
Regards,
– Ian
Keith,
My sympathies to your family. I hope you have safe trip and may you find some joy in seeing Kristine meet and discover more of her family.
I’m sure we can all expect some photos of exotic places through your lens, if you find the time.
Take Care,
-Chuck
Sorry to hear that Keith, the flash world pays our respects to you and your wife.
By the way i can’t for your new book, but they only ordered one in the Borders bookstore in my area. I’m gonna fight for that sucker! Take good pictures in Japan!
Keith,
I spent a year living in Japan, (studying the architecture of Tadao Ando) and I loved every minute of it.
One of the most inspiring moments was walking through the bamboo forest surrounding the Katsura Villa.
The silence was broken only by the sound of the bamboo branches clacking against each other.
The other great find for me was meeting the sculptor Naomi Seki- you might find her work interesting from a (kinetic) perspective.
http://www.loughbooraparklands.com/seki_01.html
-Santiago
Hello,
I am brand new to Flash. I just got my associate in Multimedia, but was only taught basic skills in flash! I would love to learn more actionScript in order to , perhaps, one day, be finally able to write my own! I bought Flash MX most wanted effects and movies, and have tried some of your tutorials but it is not working!! I have spent my entire day to figure out the problem, but I am clueless…. This is the first tutorial I took from the book… any help would be more than welcome… Thank you so much,
Christele
xMax = 6;
yMax = 6;
xDist = 30;
yDist = 30;
xCenter = Stage.width/2;
yCenter = Stage.height/2;
for (y=0; y