In my previous post on our trip to Miyajima near Hiroshima, Japan, I showed the Itsukushima Shrine's main gate at low tide. This time I have a few pictures of the shrine itself at low tide.
The shrine is mostly over piers above water (high tide) or mud (low tide), and I should start of by noting that it's much more picturesque when over water (as in the shot at the start of my first post from the trip). To me, today's pictures are more “interesting” than “pretty,” and are probably neither to anyone else, but it's my blog so here they are.
(IMAGE: Shrine [...]
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(IMAGE: Autumn Hits Kyoto) ( processed with some freaky over-sharpening in Adobe Lightroom )
Anthony and I went out today to try the remote control car he got from Grandma and Grandpa for his birthday last week, our schedule or the weather conspiring to prevent us until today.
We headed to the rear of the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (in the same area as the “Hanami and Lunch” picture on this post) and gave it a try. I happened to have my point-n-shoot with me, so snapped a couple of pictures...
(IMAGE: Remote (out of) Control)
(IMAGE: It's Fun!)
I'd not charged the battery in [...]
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(IMAGE: Another Taste of Autumn) Kyoto, Japan
After yesterday's first taste of autumn while being stuck with nothing better than a point-n-shoot, I thought I'd head back to the same area today with some better equipment. I brought my Nikon D200, Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VR zoom, a Nikon TC-17EII 1.7× teleconverter (my first outing with it), and my monopod. And Anthony.
What I neglected to bring was enough time, light, or skill.
I got there just before the last direct rays of light disappeared, and without the dynamic clouds of yesterday, there were no visual fireworks in the sky, so the whole point of being there sort [...]
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Returning this evening from a most pleasant day visiting friends in Osaka, I noticed this couple sit behind me on the train.
(IMAGE: “Gosurori” Couple on a Train)


Their style would be called ゴスロリ (gosurori — “Gothic Lolita”).
I asked whether they dressed like this on a daily basis, to which she responded that yes shd did, although today was just a bit extra special (perhaps referring to her fabric crown, but I can't be sure). I asked why today was special, to which they conferred a bit on how to express it, finally saying that they were going to a “tea [...]
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As I mentioned yesterday, I went to Osaka to visit some friends. We met at Osaka Castle Park (a lovely place that I'll write about another time) and enjoyed the afternoon together.
I had my camera with me, of course, and took the opportunity to try my hand at some impromptu family portraits.....
(IMAGE: Yoko and Kevin) and Kana (10) and Nao (8)
I've known Kevin for the better part of 20 years, and he attended my wedding 10 years ago. We don't get to meet very often because he lives up toward Tokyo, so I was happy that a business trip brought him down my way.

(IMAGE: Chestnut)
We took a nice drive this afternoon on the Hiei Parkway in the mountains to the north-east of Kyoto, to see the foliage. We hoped that up in the mountains it would have progressed a bit more than it has so far in the city, but it turns out to still be pretty much at the beginning.
At one point we paused at a moss-covered clearing that was somewhat littered with chestnuts. At least I thought it was moss at the time, but looking at the picture makes me think that they were super tiny little ferns. Maybe that's what moss is?
There [...]
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(IMAGE: What am I?)
This was a situation where the shallow depth of field was way, way too shallow
This one should be easy, but if not, check the “full exif & map” link for a hint.
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As I posted the other day, I met some friends in Osaka Castle Park with my camera in tow. The combined kids (ages 2, 6, 8, and 10) had no shortage of fun, including a brief spell with paper airplanes that started out innocently enough, but eventually turned dangerous.
Here, they start out making the planes....
(IMAGE: Kana-chan as Lead Builder)
(IMAGE: Daddy Helps Out)
(IMAGE: Ready for Launch)
Kana-chan (10 years old, in blue) had also made an elaborate origami target. It's lying on the ground well in front of my camera position, and is what they're aiming at....
[...]
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As you might have noticed in my posts about the paper airplanes and impromptu portraits in Osaka Castle Park, it's a place with a lot of carved granite. A lot.
As the name “Osaka Castle Park” might imply to the astute reader, it's a park in Osaka Japan that contains a castle. Despite having lived not very far away on and off for the better part of 20 years, my visit last weekend was my first. I'd never been very interested in seeing it because it's not very old – it was built about 20 years ago, as the current Wikipedia entry on Osaka Castle [...]
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Besides a lot of rock at Osaka Castle Park, one is also prone to find a lot of people taking pictures. For reasons I can't explain, I often find myself taking pictures of people taking pictures, although I've only posted the results a few times (here, here, and here).
I'll add to that list today....
(IMAGE: Nao)
Even though Nao is not looking at my camera, he still seems to have that “presence” I mentioned on the impromptu portraits post.
(IMAGE: His is Bigger than Mine)
I have the same Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 he seems to be using, but my Nikon D200 is dwarfed by what [...]
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I had an unexpectedly interesting day, photography-wise. In the morning there was a rare ceremony to close down a Shinto shrine, and then I got an invite to meet an old friend at Nijo Castle, a wonderful World Heritage Site about two miles away that I've driven by a hundred times, but until today had never visited.
I'm sure that photos from both events will be filling my blog for a month, but for the moment, a desktop background from each....
(IMAGE: Wishes for Good Health) Desktop Backgrounds
The shrine being closed down was a very small one (about the size of a single parking space) [...]
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I seem to be buried under a photographic avalanche of my own making. I thought that today I'd get started with the bonanza of interesting and/or pretty pictures that I hinted at yesterday, but instead, today I took two more shots that I want to share.
While waiting for the fall colors to come into full swing, there are the occasional early flashes of color that entertain. My office window affords a nice view of the neighbor's front garden, with one such “early flash of color” tree. It was overcast and rainy today, with occasional short bursts of sun sprinkled throughout, and during one such sprinkle I finally [...]
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I really hate where I live. Not only Kyoto in general, but in particular, the specific area of Kyoto where I live.
This morning I walked to the nearby convenience store for some bread, and I was assaulted by beautiful scenes of inner-city fall foliage. Not only did they positively scream at me, they punched me in the face, demanding that I photograph them. Geez, all I wanted was some bread, and I get this!? I don't have time for this. What a crappy place to live.
(IMAGE: Machiya on Jingu-Michi, Kyoto Japan)
( Desktop Background Images )

Jingu-Michi (“Shrine Street”, which dead-ends at the front [...]
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As I introduced the other day, a small Shinto shrine about a hundred yards from my place here in Kyoto shut down because its main benefactor had passed away, so they had a ceremony to ask the shrine's spirit(s) to return to whence they came. Apparently, such ceremonies are exceedingly rare.
Some shrines like the nearby Heian Shrine are huge multi-acre affairs, but most are much smaller. There are literally thousands of shrines in Kyoto, with the median size probably about the size of the one that shut down: about the area of a single parking space.
(IMAGE: Shinto Priest)with the altar and offerings in the [...]
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The main building of Kyoto Station, built 10 years ago, is not possible to adequately describe. It's a marvel of human engineering and visual slight of hand. I've been there many times (the first being not long after its grand opening, the day after my wedding), but I still always find something about it that surprises and delights me. Considering that in all the times I've been there, I've only really seen a total of about 10% of the place, so I've still got a lot to look forward to.
In a future post I will attempt to instil an appreciation for just how amazing and [...]
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My head is swimming due to a cold I came down with yesterday, so to brighten things up a bit, here's a touch of color from the same outing here in Kyoto, Japan that produced the fall-foliage desktop backgrounds I posted the other day.
(IMAGE: Autumn at the Nanzen Temple)
Zooming back a bit....

You can see these same trees in the “Placing Incense” photo my summer “More From Nanzenji” post.
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The outing that produced the Bonanza of Fall-Foliage Desktop Backgrounds and the Touch of Color from the Nanzen Temple posts was an outing to an event at a local preschool, which we attended with the family of one of Anthony's classmates, Monet (who was featured in the latter half of this post).
The preschool had fun stuff for kids, of course, so it was a hit with all...
(IMAGE: Top of a Climby Thing)
(IMAGE: Peek-a-Boo)With Monet's two-year-old sister, May
Lots of events and activities were prepared for the kids. Here, Anthony puts on the eyes of an animal face he's making....
(IMAGE: The [...]
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Last week was not a good week for me. The cold I got Monday evening was the least of my problems, because earlier that same afternoon, something happened to my back that left me, for the most part, unable to walk for several days. Whatever it was, it was unlike any condition I could find discussed on the Internet (it's not related to a pinched nerve, slipped disk, etc.). As one might expect from a sudden and severe back pain, the pain was utterly excruciating.
I was mostly okay so long as I didn't move, so that bode well for sitting at my desk and getting [...]
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Despite the beauty of Kyoto and Japan that I try to showcase in the photos I normally post, most of the populated ares of Japan are wall-to-wall unmitigated monochromatic urban blight. Concrete, utility poles, warehouses, convenience stores, congested traffic, anonymous nondescript office buildings.... just lots and lots of visually-neutered components pasted together with horrific amounts of mind-numbing blah.
The drive down to Hirakata (to see a doctor about my ouchy back, as I mentioned yesterday) is through this metropolitan monotony most of the way. As such, the drive is in no way pleasant, but it does offer one point that I find interesting: the ongoing construction of [...]
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Ram Kulkarni
I was thrilled to get a call yesterday from my best friend, Ramchandra Kulkarni, whom I had not seen in years (perhaps since he was Best Man at my wedding 10 years ago!?). He happened to be in Tokyo for a few days, so I zipped up on a shinkansen (bullet train) to visit with him during a few hours he carved out of his schedule.
Ram and I both entered the University of New Hampshire at the same time, for a Masters in Computer Science. For the duration, we studied along side each-other in Kingsbury Hall, and lived on the same floor [...]
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