Geiko (Geisha)

Originally uploaded by mindfieldz

I was recently looking over my most popular Flickr photographs, and I came accross this one, shown to the right.

I visited Japan in May 2008, and one of the biggest highlights was seeing a real geisha in Kyoto (not to be confused with normal Japanese women in nice kimono’s). Lonely Planet, and Rough Guide don’t really give you an indication of where to find geisha, only that they’re “in Gion”.

After some frantic goggling, in a ryokan in Kyoto, I eventually found hints tucked away in a photography blog. Matching against a Japanese google maps, I convinced my wife to follow me to a side street in Gion.

Success! I’d managed to find the Ichiriki-tei Teahouse, the most prestigious teahouse in Gion.

[flickr style="border: 1px solid #5A5A5A"]set:72157615254849529[/flickr]

So, if you want to get awesome photos of geisha, follow the instructions below.

1. Get yourself to Gion, in Kyoto.
2. Locate the Ichiriki-tei Teahouse, this can be found just off the main street in Gion. On google maps, it’s the C-shaped grey building.
3. Wait until about 5:30pm-7:30pm local time. Don’t get too close to the entrance of the teahouse, else someone will come out and ask you to move away from the entrance. Taxi’s and other vehicles pull up to the etrance, so be careful if you are attached to a camera lens.
4. You will know if you are in the right place at the right time, as a fairly large crowd will gather.
5. Best place to position yourself is at the corner of the teahouse, looking down the alleyway behind the building. Geisha will come from all directions!

That’s it. In about an hour I saw 7 geisha, which is not bad considering it was a random tip-off from another blog (whose address I’ve long forgotten).

[Edit: Just realised that latest WordPress upgrade managed to remove the photos I'd posted.]

In terms of the kit used to get the shots above:

Canon EOS 400D
18-55mm f3.6-5.0 Tamron lens.
55-200mm f3.6-5.0 Tamron lens.
Mostly 1/60 to 1/200 shots, handheld.

Be prepared to do a lot of running with a camera.

I was home from work slightly later than usual today. Normally this is down to managers bursting in at the last minute demanding that I look into something, sometimes it’s due to me getting carried away in the moment and not realising the time. Today it was because there was an online assessment snafu.

It’s an event I knew about, it’s an event I’d planned for, it’s an event that I’d added to my calendar. It’s an event I completely forgot about because:

1. I added it to my, and my colleagues’, calendars a day late. Call this a moment of insanity if you will.
2. I forgot to set a reminder.

Anyway, at quarter-past-four, a rather anxious member of a department’s admin staff comes into the office, asking where I’ve been for the past fifteen minutes. Cue a hurried rush downstairs, to see the academic who fired off the original enquiry coming to the end of her introductory slides, and a room full of student’s at computers.

A silence descends on the room. Everyone in the room turns to look at me. No idea why. I’m here purely to see what’s going on. (more…)

So yeah. I lied. I’m not posting as often as I had promised.

There’s a good reason, seriously…

Anyway, I have made some tweaks to the site.

• The site now defaults to 75% width, up from 70%. I had aimed/hoped for 80-85%, but my header images aren’t wide enough, expect that to change at some point.
• My code boxes now word wrap, so you’ll be able to see my code in all it’s glory.

Not much, but a start. And some content.

Although I already have Left 4 Dead, my wife recently purchased a Roomba. Disappointed by the lack of dueling harnesses for sale on the internet, I decided to get one of the Rootooth Bluetooth serial modules, that allows PC control of the newer Roombas.

Although SparkFun says that they’re out of stock, it seems to be more of an ‘order on demand’ type of thing. I purchased a Rootooth on backorder, and had one posted to me within two weeks. For reference I chose the cheapskate AirMail option with no tracking, and the item turned up within about 3 weeks from my original order date. Although SparkFun had marked the box belot its actual cost, Customs had decided to open and hold it for a few days anyway.

The Rootooth itself. Don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t work out of the box. I discovered three things with mine:

1. You need a Bluetooth dongle that works on Widcomm or the Windows Bluetooth Stack (preferred). I initially tried it with a cheap Bluesoleil Bluetooth dongle, and it failed miserably – Vista refused to connect to the virtual serial port on the Rootooth, and XP would consistently drop the connection every few minutes.
   I eventually bought a Belkin Bluetooth dongle for £10, the F8T013UK. Although it has Widcomm drivers, you can get it running under the Windows stack by following some simple instructions.
2. The Rootooth has been upgraded to use a Firefly Bluetooth module. This version is rumoured to set an incorrect baud rate for the 5xx series of Roombas, despite using the SU,115K instruction. To fix, send the following commands to your Rootooth:
   $$$
   U,115K,N
   Your Rootooth should return back to normal mode (not command mode), and you’re ready to go.
3. There are few websites/forum posts giving information relating to the Roomba 5xx series, even fewer bits of code/software which work with them, and even fewer that work with both.
   I discovered that the 5xx series uses a different set of codes, and that one person had coded for the latest Rootooth/Roomba combination.

So, my Roomba now goes backwards and forwards, and I can monitor the sensors. Next stop, Roomba/Twitter and Roomba/Wiimote.

Just a quick, blatant, plug. Everyone should download and purchase Mount and Blade.