Okay, that's not really what the guy pointing was saying... or maybe it was, I dunno, I was 100 feet away.

Kyoto Tower, is, of course, the big bright spire left of center. Although it's not that pretty, it's tall and easy to see, so it's made cameo appearances in my blog several times, including from close up, from the same spot as today's pictures (Shogunuzkua), from far away, and from very far away.

I had a few spare minutes this evening, so I drove up to Shogunzuka (where Anthony and I watched a helicopter take off the other day). I half worried that it might be closed due to the G8 summit going on today in Kyoto. There's lots of hubbub, but not quite as much as when a US President visits, so Shogunzuka was fine.

Coming over the rise from the parking lot, I was struck by the silhouettes of those at the lookout spot, so set up my tripod to capture them.

I tried various approaches...

I took a bunch of shots, with exposures ranging from just under a second to 30 seconds. Each came out with its own character, due mostly to the movement (or non-movement) of those in the foreground. I liked a lot of them, but they'd quickly get repetitive, so I'll just share these few.

I tried a longer-exposure wide-angle shot to capture more of what it felt like to be there, but sadly, it doesn't pick up the deep dark blue that still existed in the sky, the cigarette smoke from the jerk who decided to stand next to me with his cancer stick, or the misquotes...