Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 32mm — ¹/15 sec, f/10, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Little River in Kibune (in northern Kyoto, Japan)

We went for a short drive up to Kibune yesterday, a little area of restaurants and inns nestled in a long, narrow river valley that's been populated for at least 1,300 years. Although I bothered learning the name only yesterday, we've been up that way a number of times lately, with the first few pictures from this blossom & buds post from that area, also passing through on the trip with Kyoto's bridge to nowhere, and not even a month ago, snow and funky icicles.

The snow's all gone, of course, and soon their cherry blossoms will be as well, so now they're getting set up for the hot summer tourist season.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/80 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400, P.P. boost: +0.18EV — full exif
Getting Ready for Summer

The workers above are building a sun shade over the river, using only bamboo and twine (although it could be that they were cheating a bit and using wire that looked like twine.... I'm not sure.)

All the restaurants are by the river, since everything here is by the river. The river, the road, and all buildings.... everything is nestled into a strip of land at the bottom of a valley that's at most a hundred feet wide, and usually less. Where there are restaurants, they've terraced the river, and so during the summer, they build platforms on the terraces just inches above the water. The river acts like a natural air conditioner, and it's apparently really pleasant.

In the foreground of the picture below (which is a bit upstream from the construction pictured above), you can see the platform supports sticking out of the water, and in the background, they've started to assemble the platforms.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 32mm — ¹/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400, P.P. boost: +0.80EV — map & image data — nearby photos
River with platform supports

In the picture above, between the river and the road, is a narrow little wedge of a restaurant that we ate at (part of the ひろ文 complex there). The food was good and the prices were reasonable. I had kitsune udon.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400, P.P. boost: +0.89EV — map & image data — nearby photos
On the Street in Kibune

Prior to eating at that restaurant, we walked by and Fumie is checking it out. Some of their menu is shown in the squares on the wall. Coffee (hot or cold) is only 400 yen ($3.50), with the most expensive thing shown being 1,200 yen ($10) oyakodon, the first part of the clever name literally meaning “parent and child,” referring to the chicken and egg main ingredients.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/40 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Self Portrait

At one point along our short walk, I made a self portrait in one of the roadside mirrors ubiquitous in Japan (in the mountains, placed at strategic points along sharp bends), unfortunately catching one of the even more ubiquitous and universally ugly utility poles. In my reflection, the brown and pink growth on my shoulders is my son.

The picture at the top of this post is taken about a mile downstream, from a bridge where the road crosses over.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 32mm — ¹/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400, P.P. boost: +0.36EV — map & image data — nearby photos
Traditional Japanese Guardrail