DR KOH KHO KING

Our deepest condolence for those who are affected in the earthquake in Japan (11th March 2011, around 2.45pm Japanese time)

Having lived in Japan for 3 years…I love the country, and I somehow feel sorry when I heard about the news of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on 11th March 2011. More than 10k people are dead…many are missing and injured.

Japanese is a very organised society. No panicking around the city, people are still trying to recover from the disaster…we can only prayed that those who are still missing or trapped will be saved soon…and those who are injured or hurt both mentally and physically will be healed.

In Jesus name…amen.

Here are some photos that I have not posted before…

We drove from Hiroshima to Tokyo. Took nearly 12 hours, none stop…

We walked around in the city using MRT, as driving is inconvenient. Parking is a headache and expensive. We did drive to some places.

Saw this Christmas tree as according to my wife, and she said must take photo…

Tata…

MRT station…very much like Singapore, so not that difficult for those who have used MRT before.

Entrance…

Walking around in the street…

Megumi is fully protected. Autumn, quite cold already…

No tripod, no guli…so we use self-portrait most of the time. Sorry, Megumi not in the frame…

Sweet memory…

We went to grape farm two days ago…really good experience and the grapes are among the best you can get! Can’t even find in supermarket, best quality seedless grapes fresh from the trees!

平田観光農園　お電話：0824-69-2346　営業時間：10:00～17:00

http://www.marumero.com/

Megumi loves those grapes too. Read More

Last Saturday (07 June 2008), we went to Okayama, to the very famous rose garden there. It took about 1 1/2 hour drive from our house (Saijyo, Higashi Hiroshima), but the journey was very nice.

Entrance fee is JPY600 (RM20) for adult, Megumi is free. There are a lot of roses there…I can’t remember how many…but sure nice. My wife loves roses.

Here are some photos from the trip… Read More

Ok, now family photos…I promised you there will be more than just 3 photos…

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These are my photos…not family photos…but my photos…

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In the busiest shopping street in Osaka, Japan…when night fall…these people will just sit by the side and rest there…no, they are not begging for money…

Noisy version

Clean version

Which one do you prefer?

The filling in my tooth came out yesterday, so “immediately” I went to see a dentist. I remember there is a clinic in the apartment where I stay.

To cut the story short…I got the hole filled in less than 30 mins and the bill is only JPY1500 (using medical insurance booklet). Quite cheap…in fact, cheaper than Malaysia.

Pain? No pain. The dentist give me a dose to numb my gum and the teeth area, so the whole process has no pain at all. Very good job and I might go there again just to check up my other teeth.

This post is not a family post…but photography post of some of the scenes I captured during my family Sakura visit to Hiroshima city.

Below is the must visit place for those who visited Hiroshima. The ruptured building was previously the City Hall of Hiroshima before World War II. Atomic bomb exploded right on top of this building…this is the remaining and always serves as a remembrance for the young generations to come.

While adults are enjoying their chit-chatting under Sakura trees, childrens love to play bubbles around…

Yes…everybody just love to sit under Sakura trees and enjoy their meal. Some did BBQ there as well. Weather is nice, not hot and not too cold.

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Yeah…a pack in a big bowl like this is only RM6 in Japan now. Strawberries season now…so very cheap.

This is small types of strawberries, though cheap but they do taste good and sweet. Yummy!

Spring is here…and the strawberries season is here too!

Yeah, now is the strawberries season in Japan. Price of strawberries getting cheaper and cheaper, the pack below is around JPY300, which is around RM10. Pretty cheap and during other season, it can be around RM15 to RM20.

We plan to visit strawberries farm in May, when my in law family visit us later. It is a buffet style and each person costs JPY1000 to JPY1500 (around RM30-45), but the good thing about strawberries buffet is that you can eat and pick those very very big strawberries yourself, unlike the small/medium one above.

For strawberries, the bigger the sweeter! Yes, trust me.

This is a typical Japanese meal. My wife went to a Japanese cooking class…after hours of hard work…this is the results:

Japanese are very particular in food presentation. They like layers…not only in dressing but in food also. You can see many layers in their food.

Of course, it taste nice too.

Nikon Japan has just announced that AF-S Micro 60mm F2.8 G lens will be available on 14th March 2008.

This is one of my dream lens…but the price is kinda high at around RM2k (street price). Most probably still NOT going to get it…without VR some more…price too close to the AFS 105mm F2.8 Micro VR lens…

Yes…this might be the hottest news in the technology world recently. Toshiba has announced that they are officially quiting the HD-DVD format, leaving few others players behind.

In case you are wondering…this it the world for the next generation high storage DVD format, between HD DVD and Blu-Ray (Sony).

Toshiba’s HD DVD is backed by Paramount, Universal Pictures, Microsoft, Sanyo, and NEC.

Sony’s Blu-ray is backed by Disney, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Dell, Panasonic, and Philips.

In Japan, the TV news even conduct a very comprehensive war analysis between the two formats…but my memory not so good to remember all. In summary, Sony Blu-Ray seems to have more promising future, with HD DVD dying slowly. PlayStation 3 is definitely playing big help in promoting Blu-Ray format.

You can read CNN news on Toshiba quiting the HD DVD format at:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/02/19/toshiba.hdd/index.html

My brother in law asked about this shoe today…I thought it is kinda interesting and nice. Seems pretty cheap at ebay, less thanUS$100, while it is selling at over US$300 in Japan!

Descriptions

Nike celebrates Finish Line’s 25th Anniversary with an exclusive collection like no other. Inspired by athletic achivement and iconic moments of the last few decades, they’ve blended performance with style, unique materials and color together with stories that have shaped both companies times. Each shoe in this exclusive collection is about dreams becoming reality and athletes becoming heroes. Charles Barkley and his team dominated the court in Nike Air Force 180 shoes to become legends. Draped in red, white, blue and gold, this premium hoops shoe is about to conquer the court fo a second time.

Shipping from USA to Japan is a hefty US$40 charged by the ebay seller…more than 50% of the selling price…hmm…total will be around US$120…hmm…I don’t wear sport shoe actually. Need to think again…and again…and again…

Casio G-SHOCK’s 25th anniversary – MR-G Type MRG-8000G Ultra Limited Edition (200pcs)

Price? EUR 3220 (RM15k). Rolex definitely has a better resale value than this Casio watch…and once you wear (scratched) it…say bye bye to at least half the $$$ of what you originally paid. Ok, I know you do not intend to buy and sell later…you are rich…

Good news? Yes, this watch is available worldwide, not just in Japan. So you can ask your local Casio distributor now if you intended to get one. 200pcs worldwide…hmm…

Dream again…yeah…

In Chinese tradition, the day before Chinese New Year is a very important reunion for family members. Today, here in Japan my wife, Megumi and I have a good reunion here in our little home. Last year I was alone in Japan…

Chinese New Year 2008 – nien 30 on 6th Feb 2008.

My wife wake up early in the morning to prepare the food – big fest – for our little family.

Here’s some of the dishes…no, don’t ask me how to prepare…maybe Lydia can add that later…

While I was busy taking photos…my wife said…not yet lah…still got one…

(the soup in the middle…5 dishes one soup!)

Not forgetting my wife’s favorite…Coca-Cola…in “romantic” glass…

Finally…before we start enjoy our food (must pray and thank to God)…family photo first…

Notice our little ShaShinKi.com very own angpow? Megumi is hungry for it!

Happy Chinese New Year to all!

Just updated by bank book in Japan and noticed that Google has paid me! Yeah…money from the Adsense ads.

How much? Not much…only US$100+ and the conversion rate to JPY is very poor now (weak USD).

The good thing about Google in Japan is that you can have Google deposit the money directly to your bank account. No need to receive check, just update your Google account with a valid Japan bank account, Google will then deposit a small amount of money (in my case JPY120) and you will have to answer the question of the exact amount in your Google account later. This is to verify your bank account is really belongs to you…and yes, you get the FREE JPY120.

My earning from Google Adsense is actually very minor…the USD100+ was accumulated since more than 3 months ago…and only till early Jan I was able to hit over USD100, and Google paid me end of the month on 30th Jan 2008. Yes, you have to have over USD100 before you can withdraw the money.

No…don’t try to cheat and click on your own ads. This will result your account being suspended. As Google motto says…”Don’t be evil!”

Happy Chinese New Year too to all the Chinese and those who are celebrating the Spring in the world!

I took this photo when I first came to Japan in year 2005…Autumn of 2005. Still staying in the same apartment…9th floor and same view like 2 years ago…

I still like this photo…

Rolleiflex MiniDigi AF5.0

A new 5 megapixel mini digital Rolleiflex, for those who knows the difference!

Specifications

• Effective Image Size: 5MP （2304×2304 pixels)
• Lens: 4.9mmF2.8
• Focus Distance: 10cm to infinity
• Memory Storage: miniSD
• Monitor: TFT 1.1 inches
• Body Colour: Black and Red
• Battery: CR2
• Weight: 100 grams
• Origin: Japan

Pretty late now…2.02am in Japan…need to go to bed or else tomorrow (should be today) no energy to go to work (study).

Let me end tonight blog with “my girl and I”…

Goodnight…

My wife was very busy on 03 January 2008 since early morning.

In traditional Chinese culture, we eat “shou mian”, drumstick and red egg during birthday. Yes, my wife took the trouble to colour the eggs to red.

Then in the evening, my wife baked a birthday cake for me…

Early stage…

Icing dressing! Yes, must have icing else can’t call birthday cake…

Megumi also join “eye-sharing”. She touched the cake/icing actually “on purpose”.

Wordings…dedicated to…me lah…who else?!

See!

Finally, family photo!

Thank you, dear. Thank God for my lovely and caring wife, my dear megumi and my family back in Malaysia and my sister in UK. In Jesus name I thanked.

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Eh…forgot to mention…where is my birthday present? Yes, there is one. My wife asked me long ago…and I make it clear…yes, I want a Nikon D3.

Here come D3…made in Japan by my wife. One and only in the world…

(To ShaShinKi.com customer. Don’t worry, you will not receive the above D3 if you ordered one at ShaShinKi.com…I promised… )

Can receive email but can’t send out email using Outlook Express?

Can send email previously, no changes to the OE setting, suddenly can’t send email today?

What happened?

This is what happening to my computer at home since many months ago. I checked the setting of my OE, everything seems fine. I checked and reconfirmed my username and password, everything seems fine. I did not change anything before this happened. So what went wrong? I can receive email but can’t send out email using my own server/domain name!

I have setup another gmail account in my OE, I can send email and receive email no problem with this gmail account on my OE.

The problem is with my business email account – shop@shashinki.com. Yes, my own domain and my own server.

What is the problem? My problem?

No, it is not my problem. After many months…finally I got the idea last night of what could be the reason. I did some search on the internet and found some clues as well.

It is your ISP that suddenly changed their policy to BLOCK port 25 on all SMTP! I was using Yahoo! BB – broadband service in Japan.

Yes, nothing wrong with my PC or OE setting, but sudden change of my ISP to block port 25 on SMTP makes me unable to send email out through my own server.

Why the block of SMTP port 25?

Simple reason, to tackle spam. Many people send spam messages via their own computer to others, so ISP block port 25 (common port number used by most server by default) in order to reduce spams.

Solution?

Simple, change your server’s SMTP port to other than 25.

Not so simple if you do not have access to EXIM on your server. If you are on a shared server, or rent just a small space from others, then you most probably will not have access to EXIM setting.

If you have access to WHM (web host manager from CPANEL), then you can change or add extra port to SMTP easily! It is under Service Manager. Go to Exim on another port and add whatever number you want (eg. 100 or 2775 or 88) and checked the box to enable this option. Then in your OE, use this same port setting on your SMTP, and viola! You can now send email from your OE via your own email account and server!

For those who do not have access to WHM, contact your server provider and ask them about alternate SMTP port they are using. They should inform you the port number.

Hope this little info helps…

It is a nice sunset on Christmas day of 2007…during our first year here in Japan (2005), the winter was really cold and was told was the coldest winter in more than 10 years by locals here. Last year (2006) was a warm one as well, very little snow and melts very quickly.

This year is pretty “warm”…temperature is still above zero, not yet snow. This might be our last winter in Japan…I still hope and wish to see great snow…white snow that cover the floor and scene like in year 2005.

Christmas Sunset 2007

I took photo of Megumi after the shot above…Megumi’s photo is in the post below this one.

Born on the Christmas of 2005…ShaShinKi.com is two years old now.

With God’s blessing, we enter year 3 for ShaShinKi. With the growth of ShaShinKi, I hope my initial aim of glorify God’s name through ShaShinKi will never change. With more and more people know about ShaShinKi, I hope more can hear the Good News.

Some asked…how do you come up with the name of “ShaShinKi“? Lots of people spell the name wrongly initially…eg. shasinki, shashiki, shashaki…etc. So, what is ShaShinKi? ShaShinKiis actually a Japanese words, which is a combination of two words = ShaShin + Ki. ShaShin means photograph, Ki means machine. When combined, it means a machine that is able to take photograph, which means “camera”. Nowadays, most Japanese will not use the word ShaShinKianymore, rather just “kamera”. However, if you speak out the word “ShaShinKi” they will still understand you but with a weird look of course…

Happy Birthday, ShaShinKi!

Nikon FM2 Lapita Limited Edition, only 100 units made. Rarer than the Nikon year of the dog or year of the dragon or any titanium limited edition.

Special made under the request by a Japanese magazine (小学館) in year 1999, started on sale in year 2000. Only 100 units available before Nikon discontinued the FM2 model.

Very rare…comes with genuine cow leather in orange colour and with a strap with Lapita wording on it.

Below are the photos I saw in an auction website in Japan. No, I did not bid for it…I am not a collector…but it does look tempting. Final auctioned price is less than RM2k or US$570.

Canon EF Lens Work III

The Eyes of EOS

• Hardcopy
• Over 232 pages
• Printed in Japan
• Black hard cover with Red colour sleeve
• With almost all Canon lenses information inside
• Stunning photos accompany with each lens
• Optical Technology and Terminology
• MTF graphs for all the Canon Lenses

I used to sell this book at RM50 per copy in year 2004, over 100 books I have sold…long before I started up ShaShinKi.com business. This is such a great book that I wish Nikon has such a book for me to keep and collect. Canon Malaysia doesn’t sell this book, but give away during the promotion time (road show, introduction of products, events…etc.). Every Canon users or even Nikon users (I don’t own Canon system now but I still keep a copy myself) should own and get one of this book. There are PDF downloadable version available in the internet, but nothing beats the real hardcopy book which you can keep on your bookshelf, bring to your toilet, laying on your bed reading before you sleep (hope to catch a good dream?)…etc.

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Saw photos of a interesting lens today, Sony Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 24-70mm F/2.8 ZA SSM!

Sony DSLR has been of interesting mainly because it inherit the previous very high quality Minolta legendary glass, and of course not forgetting the partnership with Zeiss to specifically produce ZA series of lenses for Sony Alpha mount. Zeiss lenses in autofocus! Something like a dream comes true for many! German glass (Leica, Zeiss, Schneider…etc.) has always thought to be more superior than Japanese glass. How true is it I am not sure, but I sure am interested in this Zeiss if my pocket is deep enough.

Let’s see the two photos I saw in PhotoMalaysia forum (original source unknown):

A few things I found interesting in this lens.:

1. SSM

SSM in Sony means silent wave motor, which means the lens has built in motor, which is great! First in Zeiss!

2. 24mm

Yes! Latest zoom lens in this focal length in Canon and Nikon and now Zeiss has gone wider to 24mm! Great!

3. Full frame lens

Yes, this is a full frame lens. Very possible that Sony will come out with a full frame DSLR soon. Rumors that Nikon D3 full frame sensor is co-design with Sony, so very possible Sony will use the same 12.1MP full frame sensor in their full frame professional DSLR. Minolta has a 9 series professional SLR in their range, Sony will definitely utilize the technology and design from Minolta. My prediction is that we shall see full frame professional DSLR from Sony within year 2008 before Beijing Olympic.

4. Boxed

Yes…if you notice the box in the photo above, which means that the lens should already been in production or available to some! (if the photo is genuine).

5. F2.8 Aperture

Yes, F2.8 constant aperture. I just love fixed aperture lens, which immediately shout to you: PROFESSIONAL GRADE!

I must admit that the design and look of the lens is very sleek and clean. It looks simple, fat but clean. No busy badge or sticker here and there. I wonder how long will the lens extend from zoomed, it would be a dream lens if the length of the lens remain constant during zooming, which I hate in Nikon and Canon similar lenses.

If only Zeiss can make AF lenses for Nikon, that would be my dream lens to get!

It has been such a long time I didn’t join the International Women club for the Japanese food cooking class which held once a month in the guo min kan (national citizen hall). My “One-Pair” Japanese Language teacher, Nishi Gaki sensei called me up last Wednesday and invited me to the class on Friday. She is the chairman of the club for this year. Thinking of to “support” my sensei and of course cooking is one of my hobbies, I decided to go after “settled” Megumi with my da-lingu on the Friday morning.

And this round, we cooked the Japanese New Year Dishes. Read More