Japan HDR photography

A couple of days ago, I discovered Altus' HDR pictures on Flickr and was blown away by what I saw. A couple of must-sees: Hazy sunrise in Tokyo, Niseko Sunset, Country home in Japan, Hokkaido Winter Sunset. And there's more. I really want to try this out myself!

Update: PingMag has an article up about HDR photography - with Tokyo examples, of course.

Flickr Zen: katakana signage

Downloading video streams with GetASFStream

Ever wished you could actually save those streaming-only clips you find on news websites and the like? Then GetASFStream (Windows only) might be exactly what you need. This nice piece of Japanese freeware allows you to save a local copy of ASX, WVX, WAX, ASF, WMV and WMA streams - completely effortless. Just paste the video file's URL (which you find in the containing page's source) in GetASFStream's URL field and hit 実行. The rest is done for you.

MIT Visualizing Cultures site

Another site in the style of the earlier mentioned National Archives of Japan and NDL Gallery: MIT Visualizing Cultures, which consists of several "units," each highlighting another Japan related, historical event from the period 1850-1950.

The site is still a work in progress, but the parts that are finished are already worth a look.

Update 2006-04-29: from today's Chicago Tribune: "The Massachusetts Institute of Technology took down a history course Web page after Chinese students complained about a 19th Century wood-print image of Japanese soldiers beheading Chinese prisoners." That "history course Web page" is the site mentioned above...

Smatch Search

Smatch is a great Japanese real estate search engine. Great, because it has al features you can think of: extensive search criteria (including distance to the nearest station or bus stop), RSS feeds, an intuitive interface, maps integration, and a slick layout. Also: a curvy logo and, guess what, it's in beta.

Japanese Typography Flickr group

Hot on the heels of PingMag's recent features about Japanese typography (I, II), type guru Chris Palmieri has started a Flickr group documenting Japanese typographical artifacts found throughout Tokyo and Osaka. Only just begun, but already worth subscribing to.