It's been a while since I've posted something pretty just for the sake of posting something pretty. I used the photo above to illustrate the Book on Photography that Doesn't Suck in my Good Photographers, Bad Writers post last year.

I came across these flowers outside someone's home, on the way back from the Kyoto Keage Water-Treatment Plant last May, after I'd just about been blinded by the brilliant beauty of a bazillion azaleas.

Japan's Bullet Trains – shinkansen – are justifiably world famous for their speed and amazing punctuality. I've had occasion to ride them several times in the last month or so, once to visit a friend, and twice for concerts, so I thought I'd share a few images, mostly of the (rather unremarkable) view inside.

The model of train shown in these pictures a "Type 700", which is the most recent model, but old enough that Anthony already has a toy version (the solid yellow one seen in the Playrail Train Set post earlier this month). Even better, Anthony's is a [...]

While heading to the airport at the end of our trip to Amami (more Amami posts), I noticed this amazing "bridge ramp thingy" (I'm not really sure what to call it) while driving through the city of Naze, off in a direction we weren't heading.

This detailed map (courtesy of Google) shows that it makes two complete revolutions:

I've never quite seen anything like it. It's definitely on my list to check out next time we go to Amami.

This is the bird's-eye view of the scene shown in the Extremely Blue Light Display post from two weeks ago. The light display is on a hillside in Roppongi Hills (an area of Tokyo, Japan); the photo was taken from a pedestrian walkway that goes over a road fronting the display.

The two side sections were static, while the display in the center section flashed and undulated from time to time.

Fumie and I were in Tokyo two weeks ago for another concert by Kousuke Atari, having won in a drawing one of the 150 pairs of tickets for the [...]

I feel slightly less pathetic today because we finally got our Christmas tree put away. Also helping is that last week I finally got around to sending the "thank you" notes Anthony wrote for his presents.

In preparing for Anthony to write them, I wrote "Thank you / Love, Anthony" on a separate piece of paper, then suggested that after copying it, he fill the rest of the paper with whatever he wanted in order to express his thanks for the gifts, or his love, or whatever he wanted. When I returned, these are the notes he had written.

In [...]