Kaori Photo

New Phoneographs!

2011-12-19T04:49:00.000-08:00

www.kaoriphoto.blog.com

Trip to Beijing Tomorrow!

2011-12-18T21:04:00.000-08:00

This winter break, I got the opportunity to visit Beijing (Peking), China! I will be leaving tomorrow afternoon with my Canon and my family. There are so many sights to see with so little time! It'll be a 4 day trip, and back in Tokyo just in time for Christmas Eve. I made a list of places I would like to see... feel free to add to this list!

1. Beijing Watercube Waterpark
2. Chenzhuang Village
3. The Forbidden City (Imperial Palace)

Locations surrounding The Forbidden City
4. Beijing's Central Axis and Tian'anmen Square
5. Tian'anmen - The Gate of Heavenly Peace
6. Monument to the People's Heroes
7. The Great Hall of the People
8. Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall
9. The Palace Museum
10. Temple of Heaven
11. Dashanzi Art District
12. Great Wall - between Jinshanling and Simatai
13. Zhoukoudian (The Cave of Peking Man)
14. Marco Polo Bridge (Lugouqiao)
15. The Ruins of the Yuanmingyuan (The Garden of Perfection and Light)
16. The Drum Tower and the Bell Tower
17. Panjiayuan Antique Market

Things to do:
18. Eat at a Hot Pot restaurant: Dong Lai Shun
19. Grabbing a drink at a rooftop bar overlooking the Forbidden City (Emperor Hotel)
20. Ride a tandem bike around Houhai Lake
21. Walk an unrestored section of the Great Wall

Things to document:
22. Pollution in Beijing - "Before hosting the 2008 Olympics, Beijing imposed drivinglimits, suspended work at construction sites and moved factoriesout of the city to clean up the capital’s air. Economic growth,averaging 10 percent a year, and a population of 19.6 millionpeople expanding at a 3.8 percent clip is making air-qualityimprovements harder to sustain." bloomberg.com

I can't wait to explore the Chinese Culture, as it is one of the world's oldest and most complex cultures! Areas to explore: religion, social values, architecture, cuisine

:)

Phlog Launch!

2011-12-18T05:23:00.000-08:00

Phonetography!
Phlog Launch!

Check it out!

www.kaoriphoto.blog.com

Back in Tokyo!

2011-12-17T06:37:00.001-08:00

I'm finally back in Tokyo! Home sweet home. It's been over a year since I was last in Tokyo. My ability to speak Japanese dropped significantly due to the lack of exposure to the language... I have to work on my Japanese. That's it! My new year resolution will be to improve on my Japanese so I don't pause in between sentences when I'm talking to others! It gets so awkward! Then I have to defend myself by explaining why I can't speak the language very well, but the problem is... I have issues trying to explain that to them! Gotta brush up on ze language. Going to keep it nice and short tonight.

Check out my phonetography blog: www.kaoriphoto.blog.com !!

I will attempt to update that blog daily.

Happy Holidays,
K

Nike Women's Marathon 2011

2011-10-19T11:33:00.001-07:00

Occupy Wall Street Protest

2011-10-19T11:20:00.001-07:00

"Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. #OWS is fighting back against the corrosive power major banks and unaccountable multinational corporations wield against democracy, and the role of Wall Street in creating the economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in nearly a century. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and around the world, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of a dangerous neoliberal economic agenda that is stealing our future. " OWS

phonetograph.

2011-04-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

BlackBerry Torch 9800
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Campus
3/30/2011

Winter Break 2010

2010-12-23T15:35:00.000-08:00

What's up with the weather lately? Sigh. I was supposed to ESCAPE from the bad weather in CA. It follow me here in Hawaii! I guess it isn't that bad here than it is there... but still!

By Joe Johnston | SLO Tribune.

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New Albums:

Hawaii 2010

Kenji & Liane | Wedding Photos (email me for album access)

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Featured Photos:

Hawaii 2010

Kenji & Liane | Wedding Photos

Website

2010-11-15T14:36:00.001-08:00

Website under construction....

working on it...

W.O.W. (CPSLO Week of Welcome)

2010-09-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

W.O.W. Week of Welcome, Cal Poly SLO.

Best/biggest freshmen orientation program in the nation.

Close to 600(?) students from Cal Poly volunteered to train during the spring quarter of last year to be orientation leaders for a week. This week, we spent 5 days with approximately 3,500 Cal Poly freshmen welcoming them to Cal Poly and the San Luis Obispo community. The week consisted of playing W.O.W. games, social awareness presentations, respect presentations, hiking, kayaking, bon fires, hypnotist shows and much more. The orientation leaders are paired with another leader to lead a group of 10-15 freshmen. Together, they plan activities for the 'wowies' (the freshmen) for 5 days. Each day must be planned from 8am to midnight, and some days to 1am. These late night activities prevent late night partying, which is what W.O.W. is trying to teach the incoming freshmen, to have FUN without having to drink or take drugs.

I planned my week with my fellow triathlete friend, Cole Harrington. He and I met through CP Triathlon Team, and have been great friends since. Our W.O.W. group # was 9. Our theme was... Group Nine, Bust a Rhyme. Cole and I had the best week of our lives, regardless with the average 4 hour sleep/day, stressful week planning, it was definitely worth all the hard work. I LOVE MY WOWIES! YOU GUYS WERE THE BEST!

I have posted photos on my website, of my W.O.W. group. Feel free to browse.

CLICK TO VIEW ALBUM

Photoshoot

2010-09-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

Did a photo-shoot for a friend the other day at Laguna Lake in San Luis Obispo, CA.

One of many to be posted on the website. The rest will be posted in a couple of days!

So it begins...

2010-09-10T10:43:00.001-07:00

Day 1 of 365. Starts NOW.

9/10/2010.
Ziggy Polan. New addition to the Elana & Jason family. :)

Starting Over

2010-09-09T12:25:00.001-07:00

My first attempt of the 365 project was a failure. I plan on starting all over again from day 1 tomorrow. All 6 of the images from the previous 365 project will be moved to my Misc. album (site). Now that I am finally settled into my new place in SLO... I hope I can keep this project up.

365 Day Project... attempt #2...
Day 1 - 9/10/2010

365

2010-09-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to post my photos for my 365 day project because I've been in the middle of moving in to my new house in SLO. Today, I will post all of the images of the days I've fallen behind on.

Happy Labor Day

Happy Birthday to my friend Sara! :)

first two days of the 365 day project.

2010-08-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

So far so good.

Day 1: photograph of plastic McDonald's food, my mom desperately wanted.
Day 2: ...elttobretaw


1/365

2/365

365

2010-08-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

Hola!

As of yesterday, 8/27/2010, I started a 365 day art project. My challenge is to make art everyday, whether it be graphic design, photography or sculpture. One piece of art work per day. I will post my work on my website (kfunahashi.smugmug.com - soon to be kaoriphotography.com). Tomorrow will be day 2!

Keep you guys updated!

Website

2010-08-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Hope everyone is enjoying the last couple of weeks of summer! Some have already gone back to school! Hope you had a fantastic summer and good luck in your classes.

I have been working hard to set up my photography website on smugmug.

http://kfunahashi.smugmug.com

Understanding CSS and HTML to fully customize my site is really a pain in the ass. I still have a long way to go, but I'm working on it! It's a work in progress for sure. On the website, I will be posting my photography biweekly/weekly. You can also purchase my photos, but I have not worked on the pricing yet. It may be a month or two from now until people will be able to purchase prints from me through this website. I will keep you posted on any updates/changes I make on the site!

I have a twitter account so follow me @kfunahashi . (I'll try my best to tweet frequently...ha)

Out.

二子玉川花火大会 [Futakotamagawa Fireworks Festival]

2010-08-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

Photos of the Futakotamagawa Fireworks on 8/21/2010.
Enjoy. :)

Kyoto

2010-07-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

before and after the edit.

Kyoto. Garden near the Shinto shrine.

Kyoto, Nara and Hiroshima

2010-07-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

Just got home from a trip to Kyoto, Nara and Hiroshima. Exhausted from all the walking and the scorching heat.
Took over 2,000 pictures in 4 days. It'll take some time to go through all 2,000+ of them.
Will blog & post pictures from my trip later this week!

香保里

girls night out

2010-07-14T18:35:00.003-07:00

Last night, I met up with a friend at Futakotamagawa eki and had dinner to catch up, since I haven't seen her in 7 months! After dinner, met up with a couple of my other friends in Shibuya, and went to Luxor. It's a hookah bar with apparently amazing looking food and drinks! They closed the kitchen before we even got there... fail. We'll have to go some other time. It was nice to see my friends again from Tokyo :) Can't wait to see what we have in store for the rest of the summer :)

香保里

C O V E R S | J E R O ... ENKA!?

2010-07-13T17:14:00.004-07:00

I want you to listen to this guy... JERO. http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/-/Artist/A021548.html & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tLuMA-s2RA&feature=related

Never would have guessed he was an ENKA artist, solely based on how he dresses. My first reaction was "WTF... WOW...this guy is legit" ha ha. Perfect Japanese accent. I don't know a whole lot about enka music, but I'd say he's amongst the best Japanese Enka artists. After doing some research on this guy, apparently his grandma is Japanese and it was her dream to become an Enka artist. She taught Jero how to sing, and now he is a famous Japanese Enka artist. I think Jero is very true to himself based on how he dresses. I cannot see him wearing a kimono, and if he did, I think some may view him as a gimmick.

Tokyo Sky Tree

2010-07-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

[ http://www.tokyo-skytree.jp/english/ ]

Tokyo is known for their Tokyo Tower. Next year, they will be known for their brand new 634meter tall tower called the Tokyo Sky Tree. It will be located in the Narihirabashi/Oshiage area in Tokyo. It will be one of the world's tallest by Spring 2012. I might go check it out while I'm still here in Tokyo. Post more about it when I go see it with my own eyes :)

おはよう！

2010-07-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

おはよう world!

Woke up without an alarm, without any drilling or lawn mowing nonsense! Yes! Didn't even have to use the AC last night. Never thought I would wear sweats and a sweatshirt this summer... considering the excruciating heat and the humidity! It was overcast and rainy for most of yesterday, with a light cool breeze. Wish we could get that breeze everyday! all day! I guess we can't have everything work the way we want it. Ha.

Was supposed to wake up around 2/3am to go to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market with a few friends... but they're closed today! Lame! We'll go another time for sure.

Yesterday, I got a new prepaid phone! For temporary use. If you want my new #/phone email address, message me and I'll give it to you! Apparently all outgoing calls cost money, but incoming calls are free! No wonder people here text all the time! I rarely see anyone talking on the phone. Ha ha! It's all text text text. I text all the time anyway, so it's not a huge deal for me. Ha ha. When you buy a phone, usually the chargers come WITH the phone... correct? Not here! We have to buy the chargers separately. Strange?

Got a new gym membership at Konami Sports. It's a decent gym! It has a pool, weights and equipment like any other gym. Every time I go, there are about 5 people there, so you practically get the gym to yourself. :) People here probably have their own gym in their house. You see gym equipment being advertised on TV all the time! Quite convincing too... but I would never... haha.

Forgot how polite Japanese people are. I went to the convenient store yesterday, and every time someone makes a purchase, they take a step back from the register and they do a formal bow to thank the customer. Even a random passerby on the streets bow their head, maybe not as formal as the guys at the convenient store, but it's their way of saying hello... and I love it!

I heard a sound out on my street last night. It was like someone was hitting two wooden bricks together. Sounded as if someone was walking around the whole neighborhood. Apparently this man walks around the whole town weekly, to pray that we never have fires in the neighborhood. That's nice :)

That's about all for today.
Ready to tackle the day!

香保里

World Cup 2010

2010-07-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hello world!
This morning, I woke up at 3am to watch the World Cup Final game against Spain and Netherlands. The game was centered on the damn referee! Howard Webb! He was way too card happy... bit too excessive on his carding. The first half of the game wasn't as exciting as I expected it to be, but it got better as the game went on. Spain scored in over time at 110min I think? It was a game worth waking up at 3am for, that's for sure!

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Below is a map I put together which shows where I went/will be going this summer!

[click to enlarge]

Have a nice day!
香保里

Summer 2010 [part II]

2010-07-11T03:52:00.000-07:00

School got out on the 12th of June, and all of the freshmen students were getting packed up to go back home to their families. I on the other hand did not go home just yet. However I did pack. I was forced to pack up my apartment by the housing department... because my contract was up. My parents live in Tokyo, Japan so I don't have a house in CA to go home to anymore. So, I stayed with my friend Kayla and her brother until the 28th of June. I got to spend time with her and her two dogs for some time. Marley and Bubba, they were such sweet hearts! Couple days before I got kicked out of the apartments, I dog sat Helya's dog from the OC. He was a little shit, peed in my apartment... but how could I get mad at him? He was just too cute. Oh Ollie. Anyway, Kayla and I went on a couple runs and a bike rides together, though we wished we could have done more of that despite all of the FOOD her brother cooked us! (Gourmet food almost every night! delicious!) We planned on biking to Santa Barbara from San Luis Obispo at the end of June, but that obviously didn't happen. We were hoping to be in better biking shape... but we hope to do it at the end of August/beginning of September!

Few days before I left for SLO for the summer, I moved in to my new house! I will be living there with five other lovely girls for a year! Two of them, which are on my triathlon team. It's a six-bedroom house with three bathrooms, one kitchen upstairs, one kitchen downstairs, spacious living room, dining room, patio that overlooks SLO (magnificent view!), backyard with two orange trees and a lemon tree. It's pretty much the best house in SLO. Yep. Ha! I'm all moved in and can't wait to come back to it at the end of summer!

June 17, I drove down to LA to celebrate my friend Mike’s 20^th birthday (6/18)! I can’t remember how many movies we went to see… maybe it was only two but it seemed like we watched way more! Ha ha. Had a great time catching up with the Camps! For dinner, we went to benihanas, and it was the same night where they had the Lakers vs. Celtics game (NBA Finals)! At the restaurant, there was one TV where people gather around to watch the game during dinner. Lakers won! Yes! It was a close game for sure. I can’t remember the exact score but I think there was a 3 point difference? Anyway, my drive down to LA to celebrate Mikes birthday was definitely worth it and would do it again next year! :) Happy Birthday Mike!

June 28, I moved out of Kayla’s house and drove down to LA again to stay with my friend Sara for one night (just down the street from my old PV house). That night, Sara, Megan, Stephanie, Ali, Basen, Ryan and I went to BJ's for dinner to catch up. We then went to Ali's house and had a kickback and spent the night there. That was a really good night. It’s been about a year since we all hung out together like that. Woke up early that morning to drive to LAX (thanks Sara for driving me there! Also thanks for taking care of my car!) to meet my mom and catch a flight to Chicago.

My aunts, uncles and cousins met in Chicago for a small family reunion. Spent a couple nights in Chi Town and drove to Ohio to surprise my Grandma for her 80th birthday! Almost my entire moms side of the family was there to celebrate! It was fantastic! It's been about ten years since our last family reunion. It was nice to see how everyone changed in ten years! We all surprised Grandma by driving up to the house and my Aunt had her wait outside to time it right. The expression on my grandma’s face was priceless! It was a 4-day party! Lots and lots of great homemade food... and delicious CAKE! We ended with a bang on the Fourth of July with fireworks :)

Many had to take off and go home, however, my cousins and I decided to stay an extra day and make it a 5-day party. We spent the day at Cedar Point amusement park! Very hot but very fun! Sorry 6 Flags, but Cedar was a lot more fun than you. :) It's been a while since the last time I got to spend some time with my cousins... so that was nice.

Party day 6? Drive back to Chicago! Woo hoo...! Long. Libby drove the first half, and I drove the second half. Traffic was terrible going into Chicago... we had to take a detour through some neighborhood. A neighborhood where if you see a cop, they are most likely not out looking to give driving tickets...

Next day, my mom and I caught a flight to Tokyo. It was finally time to go home. 12 Hours on a plane. Since I'm 20 now, I could order a drink! So I ordered a glass of Pinot wine to go with my dinner.

We arrive in Tokyo. A massive heat wave struck me when I got off the plane. Unpleasant... but I knew I had to suck it up for a month and a half. Nothing I could do about it. Oh well. So we catch the bus from the airport to a nearby train station where my dad came to pick us up to go home.

July 10, I am finally home! Hooray! I was excited to see my dog and she was excited to see me (I'm sure...) :D My room was just how I left it… sort of. New piece of furniture! A fat bookcase in my room… where did that come from? Oh well, it’s nice. Noticed my guitar sitting in the corner… waiting to be played. I haven’t touched my guitar in ages. I figured I’ll try to teach myself how to play again. As I started playing, I had difficulty playing a few notes because of my left ring finger is injured. It was a strange feeling… I suppose I have to deal with not playing with that finger. I’ll find an alternative way. As I was practicing, I realized that If I had not taken guitar lessons in elementary school, I probably wouldn’t know where to begin with playing this instrument. I still have a lot of work to do though… hopefully I’ll master one song by the end of summer!

Jet lagged. Way tired during the day, and full of energy at night! I need to fix this. Stat.

2 days later, we decide to go on vacation to はこね. It's near by Mt.Fuji so it is a lot cooler than it is where I live in Tokyo. My parents have a home stay called Point Vacation in はこね, and it has a couple dog runs where my dog can run around freely. I haven't seen her so happy in a long time. Wish I could let my dog run around the neighborhood... ha. That'll be the day.

Next day, it was time to check out of the homestay, and head home. It was a short vacation. I'm okay with that... I need to go back home and work out in the gym. The food is just too good here! As we departed from Point Vacation home stay, we decided to take the Sky Line route [left image] to go home. You’re supposed to be able to see Mt. Fuji at the top of the hill, but unfortunately it was foggy, and we could not see anything past 100ft. After driving for about ten minutes, you reach the top of the hill, and at the top of the hill you approach a curb where the bumps on the road make a melody from the vibrations. According to my dad, the melody is from a song called yu-yake koyake. Not sure if I’ve heard it before. It was brilliant!

[right image] Took a picture of this rock that says the height of how high we are on the mountain. It’s supposed to be an outlook for Mt.Fuji… but it was too foggy to see.

On our way home, we stopped by a soba restaurant called Sagami. We have eaten there once before. We were seated at the same table we sat at the last time we went. I ordered a cold zaru soba with tempura ontop. On the side was a mini tonkatsu don. Delicious! Just how I remembered it! :) I should have taken a picture of my meal, but I forgot my camera! Shame on me.

At this point, I’m desperate for a work out… We drove to the city to Konami Sports gym. Checked out their gym, got the membership! I’m ready to go! Funny story behind getting this membership. This made me realize I really need to brush up on my Japanese! They had to go get a translator for me! The translator was o k a y, but very difficult to understand so he wasn't much help. That’s all right; I’ll just have to deal with sign language. Ha! Whatever, working out is a universal language. I’ll get by. Must get in shape for the Santa Barbara ride! :)

Not the Machida-shi announcement again… They installed an intercom system for the whole town. They once woke me up in the middle of the night, maybe 2am to let the town know an old man was missing from his house, please call # if you find him. This time, the announcement was, “today is [insert holiday name here b/c I can’t understand what they said] holiday. Please recycle responsibly”. Japan and their recycling... I forgot they do that here! They’re really strict about it. I accidently put my water bottle in the “paper trash” and got yelled at by my parents. The US really needs to get on top of that STAT. This is probably why we’re having so many problems. Back in the states, we could careless… but we really should. Maybe I’ll start doing what we do here in Japan.

What else will I be doing this summer? Not exactly sure… I do have to do some work for Ian’s Central Coast IT, work on Helya and Kayla’s graduation portrait books, and Paul’s Cat Eye Production logo. Must prep for WOW! Week of Welcome at Cal Poly! It’s the largest college freshmen orientation program in the nation! So I’ll have to CO-mmunicate with my co, Cole! I will have to almost get organized with the 5/10/15k Jacob and I are hosting next year on Valentines Day. I have a lot more time to work on these since I didn’t get the Internship with Canon. They denied me because I would only be here for a month and a half. Dang it. If only I stayed here for a little longer… Oh well. I’ll just keep looking. Besides work, I plan on hanging out with my friends here in Japan. Friends who I grew up with and went to school with in Elementary School and Middle School. Can’t wait to see them again!

I’ll update you about the rest of my summer later on. Thanks for reading :) Hope you’re enjoying your summer! What are YOU doing this summer? Answer with a comment below! :)

Enjoy!

香保里

Kaori

Summer 2010

2010-07-11T03:08:00.000-07:00

1. SLO, CA
2. LA, CA

3. CHICAGO, IL

4. AKRON, OH

5. CHICAGO, IL

6. TOKYO, JAPAN [now]

7. LA, CA

8. SLO, CA

pictures & blog later! :)

Short. Very short.

2010-02-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

Hi,

Don't have a lot of time.
Haven't blogged in a while.
Should get in the habit of blogging every night.
School is good, classes are good, tri team is good, life is good.
Better go now.
Lets see how long it'll take me to post the next blog....

Bye.

California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo

2009-09-28T01:28:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post something....to show that i'm still alive.
been pretty bad at this blogging thing since I got here.
Life is good here.
Never thought I'd say "I love school"... i love it. :]
its 1:30... Should probably stop typing before it gets way out of CONTROLLL.

Peace.

Rio de Janeiro

2009-08-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

The Funahashi's (minus the mister and the sister) are in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Visiting family.
Staying in their apartment on the beach. Can't get any better than that.
Fantastic view of the beach, can people watch all day long. (ha)

Went on a run today for the first time in weeks! I could only run for 2 miles... kinda sad...and pathetic.
I plan on running everyday I am here. Whether it be along the bike path or on the beach itself.

Might go hang gliding this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow.
Scared...but STOKED!

Will post pictures later.

Out.

Hair

2009-08-22T02:01:00.001-07:00

Got my hair cut today!

That's all in store for today.

out.

you've got to be kidding me...

2009-08-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

woken up by the most irritating thing ever.... LEAF BLOWERS!
damn you leaf blower...

Cerro Vista

2009-08-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

Hello! Found out my college housing today! 3 roommates! Allison, Krista and Rachel!
Cerro Vista apartments!
Hollister building :)

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here's a lil somethin' for my roomies.

fan
rice cooker
hot water dispenser
toaster
tv
lava lamp!
stool
dart board.
pots pans
coffee maker
blender
silverware
who wants a printer?

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(*** my rents are moving out of the country so I can take pretty much everything... fyi.)