I've been testing a new cycling computer, a Bryton Rider 450. I was shocked to find out some information about its satellite-positioning features that isn't covered in the manual, so I'm sharing that info here.

As a bit of background, folks often use the "GPS" as a generic term for "satellite positioning system", but in reality, GPS is the specific satellite positioning system built and deployed (and offered as a gift to the world) by the United States of America. It used to be the only one, but now there are several. Russia has its unrelated GLONASS system, the European [...]

Last night we a short but intense snow flurry that dropped about 2" of snow in 15 minutes, leaving the mountains this morning with a nice frosting.

The building seen above is at Shogunzuka, covered in "Inside the “New” Temple Building at Shogunzuka Overlooking Kyoto" and, more widely, a bit earlier in "New Views of Kyoto from Shogunzuka’s New Observation Deck".

A bit farther north, hikers were enjoying the clearing on Mt. Daimonji:

The clearing is where the fires are lit during the Daimonji Festival each August, as covered in "Daimonji: Kyoto’s Least-Photogenic Festival", and in its photographic rebuttal "Daimonji [...]

The previous post, "Another Visit to the Shugakuin Imperial Villa in Northeastern Kyoto", ended with the photo of an old tea house. To give a better sense of its common, simple architecture, here's wigglegram of the room:

Last month, as Kyoto's fall foliage season was just ramping up, I made my second (or third?) visit to one of the Japanese Emperor's estates in Kyoto, the Shugakuin Imperial Villa (修学院離宮).

The villa can be visited only by reservation, and the online reservation system is generally completely booked for the entire three months ahead that it has available. However, it's substantially easier for foreigners (non-Japanese citizens) to make a reservation in person at the Imperial Household Agency office in Kyoto; Kobe cycling friend Adrian took advantage of that, and kindly included me in his reservation.

I've posted about this [...]

Here's a wigglegram of Taiwan-based photographer Valerie Roche near the back entrance to the Eigenji Temple (永源寺) in Shiga Prefecture, from the outing earlier in the month touched on in "A Peek at Not-Yet-Peak Autumn Colors in Japan, To Pique Your Interest".

If the location seems familiar, it's perhaps because of a wigglegram of Paul Barr in the same place, two years ago, appearing in "The Back Entrance to Shiga’s Eigenji Temple".

It's such a photogenic temple in autumn, I have to show from that trip for a dozen more postgs, but sadly I got around to only "Rear Courtyard [...]