For over a year and a half now I have been linking with and going on monthly trips all over Jamaica with a local photography group I met via Flickr. I’ve posted updates from my adventures on the trip in the past on my photoblog and three of the four videos on my Youtube channel are from some of the trips I’ve been on. I have learned so much from friends that attend these monthly linkups which range from hobby photographers taking the opportunity to travel to areas of Jamaica they haven’t been, to professional photographers who make all or a big chunk of their income from photography. With photography exploits being realigned I have decided to make more photography related posts here, hopefully they will be well received.
A Rasta guide, 2 tourists and a dog in a boat named “Di Evil Tings” o_O
About Black River Jamaica
The Black River is the second longest river in Jamaica at a length of 53.4km. Its name refers to the darkness of the river bed caused by thick layers of decomposing vegetation. The Lower Morass consists of shallow estuaries, marshland and mangrove swamps providing a rich ecological environment for a broad range of fish, birds and other creatures including crocodiles, lobsters, mangrove snappers, snook and mullet. Here the river is joined by the YS river making the Lower Morass the largest (14,085 acres) swamp environment in the Caribbean. The area surrounding where the river meets the Caribbean Sea is a town that shares the name Black River which was established in the early 1600s. read more…
It has been less that a month since a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti and devastating the capital city of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. An estimated 200,000 people were killed in the main tremor and dozens of powerful aftershocks. The Presidential palace, Parliament and many other important structures were destroyed, along with countless homes and businesses. Jamaica is one of Haiti’s closest neighbors and locally there has been a huge outpouring of aid, assistance and support.
Local telecommunications firm Digicel has been spearheading efforts to assist the people of Haiti. Personally I have donated money and a couple cases of water via the government office I work for that went towards helping with Haiti cope with the devastation. The tear jerking video embedded above was done to raise money to provide further assistance to the people of Haiti, the music track is available for download on iTunes for 99 cents and all proceeds go to the Digicel Haiti Relief Fund, no matter where you are in the world please consider purchasing it as every dollar counts. read more…
My love for Japanese trains has been slowly growing over the years. With such a sophisticated railway network one of the main things I’m looking forward to when I get to Japan is taking the train for the first time. I took the subway in New York when I was there in mid 2008 and I still have my metrocard as a keepsake. I’m imagining a train ride in Japan to be 10 times the fun and the Yamanote line is easily my favorite line.
I was lucky enough to have a couple keychains mailed to me from Japan by a friend which play the departing melody for a couple stations on the Yamanote line when pressed. I got the melodies for 5 of the stations: Ikebukuro, Harajuku, Shibuya, Akihabara and of course Tokyo station. Pictures of each can be seen below as well as a recordings I made of each of the melodies for each station. Email and RSS readers please click here to listen to the melodies embedded below each picture and vote in the poll below. read more…
It’s funny how life changes but often you end up right back where you started. The circle has always been a favourite shape of mine because of it’s prominence in space but who thought that two years after launching spinoff blogs for my photography and video gaming exploits They’d end up returning home to Jamaipanese.com.
It’s not only as it relates to blogging, gaming and photography, I’ve been retuning and analyzing how I spend my time lately as I try to make the most of my time and focus on certain major goals. I’ve been reaping a lot of success in that regard with just one month of 2010 gone but if only I could remember that proverb that talks about spreading yourself too thin or focusing on too many things but in the end not getting anything done or doing none of them well. read more…
Believe it or not it’s been 4 full years since I started blogging at Jamaipanese.com, it’s hard for me to believe but it’s true as in the blink of an idea my geek repository has now become an integral part of my life. Blogging continues to be loads of fun and my posts especially over the last year has been a joy to write. The blog has grown by leaps and bounds in the last year and I continue to meet awesome people who share my interests in Japan, technology, video games, anime and more almost everyday.
Swinging from branches is fun, you should try it, ……seriously, you should.
A Year filled with Milestones
Looking back on my 3rd anniversary post and some of the goals I set for myself I am glad I was able to achieve most of them. The most important of which was to kick off my plans for visiting Japan which was detailed through Operation Visit Japan. In case you missed out on some of my posts or you are new to the blog please check out the archives for a monthly list of my posts. Some of my favorites over the past year include – Full Scale Gundam in Tokyo Complete, Japan an Illustrated History, My awesome Yoko Littner Figure, All Hail the Ginyu Force, 5 Amazing Japanese Robots and of course the January 2010 report for Operation Visit Japan and the new All Hail Japan podcast project aimed at fellow Japan enthusiasts. read more…
Long before all my various flings and marriages to anime girls like Teresa, Yoko and Balsa there was only one virtual girl in my life and her name was Samus Aran. I had a Samus fansite even before this blog and up to this day I doubt I have spent as much time on one single game as I have done with Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo.
Fast forward to the present past the Metroid Prime trilogy for the Gamecube and Wii and you have my most anticipated game of the year. No it’s not Final Fantasy XIII, no it’s not Bioshock 2 not even the upcoming Call of Duty, my most anticipated video game of 2010 is certainly Metroid Other M and I am barely holding back the geekgasms thinking about how awesome this game should be when it gets released for the Nintendo Wii later this year. read more…
A few years ago I had the idea to add a podcast for this blog that would be an extension of the topics covered on this blog, but the idea fell through after recording the first episode as I thought at the time that such a show probably wouldn’t work and quite frankly I had no idea what I was doing and it sucked. Fast forward to now and I have revisited the podcast idea and for the past month has been playing with the idea of creating a podcast. With the help of fellow Japan enthusiast Buddy Lindsey from DumbOtaku.com we have created what we hope will be the most awesome podcast in the world, and it’s name is All Hail Japan!
But just what is All Hail Japan about? The All Hail Japan podcast is a monthly audio show started in January 2010 that focuses entirely on Japan and related topics. Japan is a very interesting topic idea as it allows the show to select from a large cross section of topics such as anime, history, news, music, manga, dramas, technology, science, video games, J-blogging, food, drink, culture and anything related to or influenced by Japan. read more…
Operation Visit Japan was announced earlier this month but was in the planning stage for over a year. Since announcing the plan there were a few last minute details that needed to polished and I can now provide the first monthly report that will keep my readers, family, supporters and friends up to date as I save towards visiting Japan in mid 2011.
Opening new bank Accounts, beating back credit card debt, resisting the urge to buy a smartphone or a PS3, school fee payments, getting rid of unnecessary expenses and putting into play new money management activities are some of what I have been doing over the past 3 or so months to lay the foundation for Operation Visit Japan. read more…
While attending high school I was a huge car fanatic and was knowledgeable about most popular cars whether it be from North America Europe or Japan. I spent so much money on car magazines and spent hours in heated argumentative discussions with my schoolmates. While reading about cars online a few months ago I came across the Lexus LFA a exotic sports coupe to be produced by Lexus. Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation.
Only 500 Lexus LFAs will be produced and split between Japan, North America and Europe so if exclusivity is what you are going for and your have $400, 000 that is lying around being a pain int he ass, punish it by exchanging it for a brand new Lexus LFA which will be released in 2011. Check out the video below. read more…
Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Japanese Culture and Calendar Exhibition 2010. This is the almost identical event I attended last year but this year instead of selling the Calendars for Charity attendees were invited to participate in various games, activities and quizzes in order to win a 2010 Japanese Calendar.
The event was held at the Soverign Centre in Liguanea
I was accompanied by my now nendoroid loving girlfriend and at the end of the event we won 3 calendars. One for successfully completing an origami challenge, one for attaching the eyes, nose and mouth to a face made out of cardboard while being blindfolded called Fuku Warai and the final one I won by successively explaining what a Geisha is and what she does, not without nervously plugging the url to my blog of course after being asked about myself and why I am interested in Japan by the very energetic and friendly presenter. read more…
