Thank you, Betram. Yes, I'm not too fond of flash at the best of times, although I'll try bounce flash once in a while. Doesn't work very well with Fuji Superia, though, I agree. Wonder why that should be?
These scans are damn good !! Proves what you can do with a Fuji frontier lab. I should show these pics my local mini lab. Fuji 800 still great to convert. Learned lately it does not like flash at all , looks terrible then.
You're right about the angle not being good, Keith, but I do believe it may still have been the best. A lower angle puts a whole row of nondescript but distracting Japanese houses into the background. And with 800 ISO it's hard to put them sufficiently out of focus... I'm close to this spot every Sunday, and will probably try again. Cute statue.