Kokura Wasshoi Summer Festival 2012 (第２５回わっしょい百万夏祭り) - Part 2

5th August 2012

Initially, I planned to go to Kokura on 4th August only because the activities that day seems more interesting. However, it was way better than I expected, so I decided to go for the second day celebrations too. On that day, I went to Kokura at the afternoon, since it was still early, I went to Riverwalk Kitakyushu りバーウォーク北九州, a multi purpose complex with beautiful curvy shaped building. It is a shopping area too. One can view Kokura Castle 小倉城 from the upper level at Riverwalk. 

View of Kokura Castle 小倉城 from Riverwalk

After all the shopping, me and my colleague went to the Komoji Dori 小文字通り for Sunday Parade サンデーパレード. It was around the same with 4th August Welcome Parade. Nevertheless, it was fun too.

Sunday Parade サンデーパレード

Kokura Wasshoi Summer Festival 2012 (第２５回わっしょい百万夏祭り) - Part 1

4th August 2012

My colleague told me about this Summer Festival in Kokura, after reading about it, I decided to go with him. We took normal JR train from Nakatsu to Kokura, it took around 1 hour. Once reached the Kokura Station 小倉駅, there were performances related to this festival. The dances were very energetic, fun and with some Japanese traditional moves. I like the one with children, very cute! After that, we left the train station and went to the designated area. There were more performances. It was very happening with all the people and stalls selling all sorts of things. 

The afternoon performances (わっしょいＹＯＳＡＫＯＩ北九州２０１２)

The afternoon performances in Komoji Dori (わっしょいＹＯＳＡＫＯＩ北九州２０１２)

♥ Google+ Photo Editing Tool

Frankly speaking, the reason I uploaded my photos to Google+ was this blog. I needed a space to store all the pictures because the space in my Picasa was full. However, now there is another reason for me to use the Google+ , I just found out that there is a photo editing tool in Google+. I felt that it was quite a decent photo editing tool. I am not the kind of person with high expectation on the photo editing software. As long as it does the job, I am fine with it. Plus, I do not possess high skill in using all the software. "Easy" and "free" are very important for me.

Photo uploaded to Google+ Album → Click on the "Edit Photo"

There are 4 portions, namely "Basic Edits", "Effects", "Decorate" and "Test".

For "Basic edits", it consists of "AutoFix", "Crop", "Rotate", "Exposure", "Colours", "Sharpen" and "Resize". Well, it is definitely more than Facebook, the only photo editing tool on Facebook is "rotate". I did not use all these functions though.

The Photo Editing Page

The one I love is the "Effects", there are a lot to choose from, I like the "Daguerreotype", "Polaroid* Plus", "Black and White", "Lomo-ish" and "1960s". For the "1960s", one can choose to make the corners of the photo round. So convenient compared to Facebook, have to edit before upload. 

The photo was edited under the "Effects" → I use the "Daguerreotype" and  click "save"

While for the "Decorate", one can insert "Doodle", "Fake beards", "Crowns & Tiaras", "Masks", etc. It was fun to play with and very user friendly. While for "Text", to add text of course, there are more than 40 text fonts to choose from, pretty good selection. 

Ah, all my friends are in Facebook, so for the moment, only the photos for the blog will be edited in Google+, while the other photos will be edited traditionally for Facebook.

Well, I knew that all of these can be done with the iPhone apps or Android apps, but I am still a computer kind of gal. I want big screen, keyboard and a mouse. Hahahah!

Heatstroke - Summer 2012

Read news about JR bullet train delayed caused by driver suffering from heatstroke and more than 20000 people taken to hospital for heatstroke. It was so unbelievable to me. I mean, Malaysia is a tropical country, but I had never heard of anyone hospitalised due to heatstroke. But, it was big in Japan! (^_^;)

There were advertisements in TV on how to stay cool, malls and supermarkets stock a lot of 'cool biz' products, even my company website has a notice on "how to avoid heatstroke". 

For me, the ways to avoid heatstroke are

1. wear loose clothing
2. stay indoors when it is not working day
3. if I have to go out, I will go out after 6pm
4. drink water (plenty of it!)

2 weeks ago, I went to a summer festival in Kokura 小倉わっしょう百万夏祭り. There were a lot of people and I saw some government officials handout something to the public. So, I went over there (busybody!!) to see what was that.

officials raising banners to remind people to prevent heatstroke

Vending Machines in Japan 日本の自動販売機

One of the very common sights in Japan is the vending machines. You can find it everywhere and anywhere, even in the middle of a jungle or mountain. Within walking distance from my apartment, there are 3 vending machines. All drinks. My apartment area is residential area (low density type), so initially I thought that it was too much, however, it is not too much! I actually saw people coming out from their house and bought a bottled drink or can, finished it, threw the bottle/can into recycle bin and went back to their house! I was so surprised! The drinks from the vending machine are not cheap, it starts from 100 yen to 160 yen (depends on the brand or type). The same bottle in a supermarket will cost from 65 yen to 120 yen only. I will only buy from vending machine when I was travelling or outstation.

vending machine 自動販売機