To Japan with Shazni

One of my photographer friend, Shazni had a solo journey last winter to the land of the "Land of the Rising Sun". Not the first time that he travelled solo, but as far as I knew this was the first time that he published photographs from such trips.

This time around the photos came in a nice little package. He published a book called "A Little Bit of Japan". And I got it delivered to my apartment this afternoon.

I got it personally autographed. It may be worth millions in the future!Plus a postcard from JapanIt was better than expected in terms of content and quality. The curation was smooth and the photos flowed from one page to the next. It was not the thickest of book but for a first effort, it made you wonder what he would come up next. I think he could do with having a show of his prints in a gallery in the future. I certainly am looking forward to that.

How do get hold of one. At the moment, you would have to contact him directly through this link. Email him on shaznizainal@gmail.com if you want to get hold of him.

Jiro Found His Sushi?

I heard about this documentary for quite some time, but never actually got around to have a look at it. On New Year's Day, while recovering from the on call the evening before, I rented the documentary on my Apple TV. They were doing 99c rental at the time.

Fascinating insight into the commitment of these sushi chefs looking for perfection. Jiro must be approaching 90 today and he hosted Barack Obama and Prime Minister Abe in April 2014 at his modest restaurant - which only sat 10. Such was the regard held for him - not to mention the Three-Star Michelin award that he had.

After watching this, I appreciate the art a lot more. Now I remembered why the sushi bars in Kyoto were small and homely. With not too many items on the menu.

My Two Sen

I couldn't count how many times I had to restart my heart last night while watching the Thomas Cup Finals. So close, yet so far.

I had a couple of observations post-match.

Firstly, it was great fun and at the end of the match, one name stuck to my mind. And it wasn't Liew Daren.

Park Joo-Bong.

The great South Korean doubles specialist had been the Japanese Badminton head coach for a number of years and had revolutionised the game there, turning it into a super-power.

How Malaysia could do with somebody like him, plus the almost alien concept of political non-interference of course.

Don't get me wrong, we did well, and one thing we could take out of the loss was the fact we got some up and coming doubles players post Koo Kien Keat. The lack of singles player coming through the ranks was still a major headache. And it had been so for many years.

The second major observation I had was the unity sports brought to the nation. I wonder what ISMA's thoughts were when they saw throngs of Malays singing the name of Lee Chong Wei and Liee Daren during the match last night? How could we give so much face to these pendatangs? I meant the whole squad of it ....

Malaysians thrive in adversity and when it came to national event - the MH370 tragedy brought to mind - we glued together and rallied on as a family. Shame that it took these to unite the nation while certain parties kept using the racial card to gain political mileage. I bet they would be doing a police report against RTM for showing the match live after pleading the rights from ASTRO. Sigh!

Kyoto Station Slideshow

More on the Kyoto trip here.

Kyoto Evening Walk Slideshow

More on the Kyoto trip here.