(IMAGE: Kyoto Spring)Desktop Backgrounds
It's hot and humid in Kyoto now, so I'd like to try to cool off by returning to the quintessential pleasantness of Kyoto's spring.
The image above was made by applying the same Photoshop “Darken” blend-mode technique that I used to create the Color of Kyoto foliage desktop background last fall, but this time to a pair of pictures I took during a cherry-blossom outing in April.
Links below the picture are to desktop-sized images in both widescreen and standard versions.
Unlike the previous time where I used three pictures, I used only two this time. Also, instead of near/fall focus [...]
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Still looking to cool off, so this time I'm going back to the fall when the leaves had just started to turn color, to when Anthony and I went on a hike up to the top of Mt. Daimonji (大文字山) one of the short mountains overlooking eastern Kyoto, Japan. We did it with his school friend Kana, her two brothers, and her dad.
I'd done the same hike the previous year, but without a four year old, much less two.
Kana and Anthony have a wonderful chemistry, as has been seen on my blog before (as they get caught getting out of line, find a way to [...]
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It's been a year since I bought an Apple MacBook to replace my older Apple iBook. It has a trackpad that you can move a finger around to control a mouse, but I found out by accident this morning that by dragging two fingers on it, you can scroll.
It's amazing. You can scroll quickly with a flick of your fingers (or a flick of one finger while another rests elsewhere on the pad), or slowly move the page around as if you were shoving a paper around on a desk. The up/down scroll is really useful for web pages, but all four directions are nice [...]
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(IMAGE: Something Seems Irresistibility Funny)What could it be....?
So, picking up where I left off at the end of my post the other day about last fall's Daimonji Hike, we were at the top of the (short) mountain and sat down for lunch.
At one point, Anthony and Kana-chan sat quietly eating lunch....
(IMAGE: Sitting Quietly)
The functional part of the sentence above is “one point,” because at all other points they were being crazy and silly, as this pair are known for.
(IMAGE: Let's Laugh About Our Sandwiches!)

(IMAGE: Singing Something)
(IMAGE: Sizing Up the Opposition)
(IMAGE: I Can Make The Biggest [...]
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(IMAGE: Hazy View From the Top)Kyoto, looking west-south-west, from the top of Mt. Daimonji
Continuing with the story about last fall's hike up Kyoto's Mt. Daimonji and the ensuing silly lunch on top, here are some hazy views from the top. Kyoto is usually fairly hazy, so when it is nice and clear, I'm tempted to make the hike back up there for better pictures.
These two shots were taken at either end of my Nikkor 70-200/2.8 zoom's range, with the one below showing this area (mouseover here) in the one above.
Below, some notable sites include the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (seen earlier in [...]
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Here are a few more shots from Kyoto's Giouji Temple (祇王寺), to add to the other posts in the set (linked via the “related posts” box below).
(IMAGE: Small Stone Lantern)
(IMAGE: Bell-Shaped Flowers and Bamboo)(European Foxglove)
(IMAGE: Rope Gate)
(IMAGE: Tending the Moss)
(IMAGE: Small Cemetery)
(IMAGE: Do Not Enter)
I love how the “do not enter” gate uses a piece of bamboo set into notched pillars of granite. A classy touch.
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(IMAGE: Fern and Moss at the Giouji Temple)
Peter requested some fern pictures. I happen to have a few poorly-photographed fern pictures in my library, so here they are....
The next three fuzzy shots were taken in the dark shade under deep forest cover, handheld, while on a short hike in the hills with Anthony last May. I've got a monopod on order now, which hopefully should make this kind of situation easier to photograph, but in any case, here are the shots I did get:
(IMAGE: Delicate)

(IMAGE: Baby Fern)
The next picture is sad. I took it when we stopped in the [...]
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(IMAGE: Joe Being Gentle With His New Sister)as Anthony looks on
Australian/Japanese friends of mine, Peter and Tomoko, had their third child baptized at mass today. Mariko Theresa was 12 days old at the time, although she has aged an additional 4% in the half day since.

Their oldest, Joseph, is just three months older than Anthony, so they enjoy playing together. We normally have lunch together after mass, and often go to a playground together after that. Their second child is two-year-old Kyoko.
(IMAGE: Peter's Folks Became Godparents As Well)
(IMAGE: A Sleepy Kyoko Hugs Her Mommy)while Joe, in red, [...]
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(IMAGE: Mushrooms the Size of Dinner Plates)
After the baptism yesterday, Anthony and I got together with some other friends, and ended up going to Hieidaira (a small community nestled in the mountains, just over the border from Kyoto, in Otsu) to see some huge mushrooms.
(IMAGE: Greg and his Mommy Check Out the Big Mushrooms)
Nils Ferry's wife Yoshiko and three-year-old son Greg were with us. I've met Nils many times (such as when he took me to some temples in his area to see the autumn colors last fall), but had never had the pleasure of meeting his wife.
The mushrooms were big [...]
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(IMAGE: Wet Bird)
We've had several days of rain... it is the rainy season in Japan, after all... and this morning I noticed Aotan (a great blue heron living around here) sitting on a branch over the canal looking miserably wet. He was still there a half hour later, so I got out the camera (and the umbrella) for a picture.
I took a picture from a distance, then came to the closest point on shore. He was still quite a distance away (much further than the mere three feet that separated us the last time we met), so I was surprised when he immediately flew [...]
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Daimonji: Big “大” on the Mountain
Continuing with the ongoing set of posts on last fall's Mt. Daimonji hike, after having lunch at the top of the mountain, we headed down a bit to the Daimonji hidoko, the Daimonji fire pits.
The word “Daimonji” — 大文字 — literally means “big character,” both in the lower-case opposite sense of “upper-case,” and in the sense of “the Chinese character that conveys the meaning 'big'.”
“Daimonji” is also the name of the mountain in Eastern Kyoto that has a big 150-meter-wide daimonji, 大, on it.
“Daimonji” is also the name of the festival held every year in August, [...]
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Adding to yesterday's post about our trip to the fire pits on Mt. Daimonji, here are a few more of Anthony and Kana-chan.
(IMAGE: Okazaki and Beyond)
As I mentioned yesterday, the view felt much closer than from the summit. Oddly, being lower/closer made the feeling of height more impressive.
Some were inspired to flight...
(IMAGE: Anthony to Tower....)
(IMAGE: There's Always Time for Silliness)
The lower-right “leg” of the “大” (as seen when facing the mountain) is very, very long — about 140m of very narrow, tiny, steep steps — so the view from near its top, just below the center of [...]
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(IMAGE: Kyoto's Miyagawa-Cho)early on a Thursday afternoon
It was raining off and on (mostly on) yesterday, but I accepted a kind invitation from Nils Ferry to visit his in-law's house in Kyoto's Miyagawa-cho district. It's the main center of Kyoto's geisha world, although lesser known than the nearby Gion nightlife area, which is both more famous and generally more picturesque.
(Gion has been featured a few times in my blog, with long-exposure cherry blossoms, and some regular night cherry blossoms, and a few pictures in one of the posts about my Aunt Jeannette.)
Gion is the area where they often work, but Miyagawa-cho is the main area [...]
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(IMAGE: Priceless Matsutake Mushrooms — 松茸)
Matsutake mushrooms more commonlylook like this
A friend of ours is a professional chef of the highest order (such that we can't possibly afford to eat at his restaurant), and today he unexpectedly gave us an amazing gift: two huge matsutake mushrooms.
Unlike the wild (and possibly poisonous) mushrooms we saw the other day, matsutake mushrooms are a rare delicacy, perhaps along the line of truffles in the west. Normally, they're tiny little stubs like those shown at right, which would take a good dozen just to cover the bottom of the basket we received.
Yet, even those little [...]
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(IMAGE: Melon, Strawberry, and some Cookies)(Breakfast of Champions)
Lately, it seems we're on the receiving end of gifts of upscale edibles. On the heals of yesterday's matsutake mushrooms, today we enjoyed the cantaloupe we received from Nils' mom when I visited her house in Miyagawa-cho the other day.
(At least I think the English translation is “cantaloupe.” It has green flesh like a muskmelon, but a webbed outer rind like a cantaloupe.)
Fumie has a knack for pleasing presentations (such as these strawberries), and she didn't disappoint, preparing it nicely, adding a few strawberries for color, and some cookies around the plate for balance. Anthony had [...]
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(IMAGE: Kyoto From Shougun-zuka)(Kyoto Japan From “Shogun Hill”)
I woke up this morning to find an exceedingly pleasant day, partly sunny, with a mild breeze. It was very disappointing.
The forecast had been for typhoon #4 to blast right into us at about 9am, which would have made for quite a bit of excitement. Having grown up in Midwest America, I enjoy a good thunderstorm or the frenzied winds of an occasional typhoon. Sadly, it sped up and went way to the south, leaving its last rain in our area at around midnight. Sigh, we never get any fun.
Kyoto is normally hazy (often [...]
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Yesterday's post about the views from Shogun-zuka (将軍塚) overlooking Kyoto reminded me of when I was last there, with Anthony and some friends, KFC and Verena. Anthony didn't really care about the view, but he did find a butterfly....
(IMAGE: Checking Out a Butterfly)(on the post in front of his face)
(IMAGE: Hmmm, Will It Move?)
(IMAGE: Moving Closer, with Caution)
(IMAGE: Detailed Inspection)
(IMAGE: Finally Seeing Eye to Eye)
Later, KFC took a picture of the butterfly himself. That photo didn't make the cut to his web gallery, but a shot of me taking the pictures above did.
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Photo Copyright Michael J. Menichetti (IMAGE: Shrine to Anpanman in Usonoshima, Japan)
I was chatting by email with Micheal Menichetti, about some nice pictures of Kyoto he took several years ago, when he made particular mention of the shot above, a shrine for Anpanman.
Anpanman is an exceedingly popular cartoon character in Japan. “Anpan” is bread with sweet beans, and Anpan-man is a superhero who helps people and gives himself to the hungry to eat. Wikipedia currently has a rather extensive entry on Anpanman.
Anthony loves Anpanman, and we don't mind that he loves him. I'm sure his Anpanman stuff has appeared in my blog at various [...]
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Having just traveled 23.5 miles over 6,700 hours, or something like that, to arrive at my folks' place in Ohio, I'm a bit jetlagged, so I might not post too much until it wears off.
I will take a moment, though, to unveil a new page on my blog, a table-of-contents kind of of full list of posts page, showing all post titles on one page.
If you mouseover a post title, you'll see thumbnails for the images that appeared in that post. Clicking, of course, brings the post up.
(The image thumbnails are the same as those on the by-year index of photos [...]
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As I mentioned in my previous post, Anthony and I just arrived at my folks' place in Ohio for the summer. Besides just visiting family, it's good for his English. Fumie has things to attend to in Kyoto during the summer, but felt it's important enough for his English that she'll part with us for a month. One thing that makes it easier is that it's essentially free for us to call between Japan and America, thanks to the most excellent magic of our Vonage American phone number in Kyoto.
Anthony was very well behaved on the flights (Kansai to Cleveland, with a change of [...]
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(IMAGE: In the Midst of Irrational Exuberance)
Pretty much the first thing Anthony said the first morning we were here was that he wanted to play in the sand, remembering the sand pile and toys from when we were here last year.
When trying it for the first time this trip, he was so excited about everything that he even waved to the camera (something he's not normally prone to do).
Being quite a bit older now, he can interact with the play backhoe quite a bit more than before. It's a joy for him to play with and discover, and a joy for us to [...]
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(IMAGE: Being a Kid)
Living in the country has certain benefits for kids. Yesterday's post was about a toy backhoe. Today, Grandma had to drop something off at a friend's place, and since they had a few animals, Anthony and I tagged along. They had chickens, a bunny, a dog, a baby raccoon, three cats, and two horses.
(IMAGE: Checking out the Chickens)And one very lucky rooster
(IMAGE: Picking a Raspberry)
(IMAGE: Enjoying the Fruit of his Labor)
(IMAGE: Pretty Flowers)Hostas
(IMAGE: Farm Art)
(IMAGE: Hello Mr. Horse)(Anthony stands at a safe distance, with arms politely folded)
(IMAGE: Feeding Apples From a Safe [...]
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(IMAGE: Anthony on the PGA Tour)“PGA” being the Preschoolers' Golf Association
At $4.87 for the toy golf set, I couldn't pass it up, so Anthony tried a bit of golf today.
(IMAGE: 1-Yard Drive)
(IMAGE: Golf is Fun!)(at least with kid rules)
(IMAGE: Drive!)
(IMAGE: Perfect Form)(sort of)
(IMAGE: Self Caddying)
(IMAGE: Hole in 10)
(IMAGE: Proud)
Eventually, golf transitioned into baseball....
(IMAGE: Watch Out, Hank)and/or Barry
(IMAGE: Celebrating a Home Run)
(IMAGE: World Champ)
(IMAGE: One-Ball Juggling)
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(IMAGE: First Experiences with a Sit 'n Spin™)
In the process of turning Grandma and Grandpa's house into a disaster zone, Anthony finds the Sit 'n Spin™ that his Aunt Marci bought for her little Josh when they visit.
(IMAGE: Pausing to Give Instructions)
For whatever reason, amid his joy of discovering this fun toy, he stopped to instruct me to take pictures that we could send to Mommy (who remains in Kyoto for the summer).
(IMAGE: “Hi Mommy!”)
(IMAGE: Warp Speed)

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Anthony was wearing a sweater that I used to wear at about his age, but he didn't seem to feel the nostalgia as much as enjoy playing with his toy.
(IMAGE: “It's not a Plane, it's a Bird”)
(IMAGE: “I Can Adjust it Like This”)
(IMAGE: Fine Tuning)

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Just because I'm in America doesn't mean that photos from Kyoto's stop, because I've got gazoodles of them waiting in the wings. I'd earlier thought I'd be able to use this trip to catch up on my Kyoto photos, not realizing the family photo opportunities that awaited us here (playing with a toy backhoe, a visit to a farm, a round of kid golf, or even my son wearing a sweater I wore when I was five years old).
Today I dip into my archives to last month's visit to Kyoto's Giouji Temple (祇王寺), to follow up on the post about its wall architecture. Here's a tall wall [...]
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(IMAGE: Chasing Fireflies)
Anthony chased fireflies for the first time the other day. It was wonder and glee incarnate.
He'd been sitting on the veranda with Grandma feeding the birds when they saw the first one at late dusk. They went out onto the lawn, and each time Anthony noticed a firefly, he pointed and ran toward it with unconstrained excitement. Anthony would find that the firefly would go dark before he got there, only to see another one somewhere else, so in this manner he zigzagged, pointing and bursting with excitement, across the lawn.
I watched with considerable enchantment, eventually breaking myself away to fetch my [...]
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Anthony was sitting on my lap this evening, looking tired and rubbing his eyes, when I suggested that it would be a good time to go to bed because he looked tired. His response... “I'm not tired. Trust me, I'm not.  Trust me.”
That's an unexpected phrase for a four year old. He apparently learned “trust me” earlier in the evening when I used it while giving him some not-yucky-tasting medicine for a mild cough he's had. Like most kids, I guess, he has an innate fear of anything remotely medicinal. This fear is cultivated because the infant and kid medicines common in The States have sickenly [...]
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