(IMAGE: Wisteria at the Sandai Shrine) Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan
The day I got back from camping, Fumie happened to hear from a taxi driver about a small out-of-the-way shrine not too far away that had a nice bloom of wisteria (or fuji – 藤 – in Japanese), so yesterday afternoon we made the 45 minute drive to Sandai Temple in Kusatsu to check it out.

I guess wisteria is normally a climbing plant, but here they have them dangling from horizontal trellises. They were mostly purple/lavender, but there were some light pink ones as well.
There were a lot of big bumblebees among the [...]
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(IMAGE: Last Stragglers)
Since we still don't have any cherry blossoms yet, at least in my part of Kyoto (although the first ones should start popping out soon), I'll finish up with the pics from yesterday's trip to see what remains of the plum blossoms at the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine.
Yesterday's pictures were from the free areas of the shrine. It costs 600 yen (about six bucks) to visit the gardens, although that includes a bit of plum tea and some crackers. The garden has two parts, a lower part split by a little stream, and an upper plum orchard.
(IMAGE: Lower Garden Walk) I imagine [...]
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(IMAGE: Plum Blossom Desktop Background)
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After Easter mass, we made the 15-minute drive over to Kitano Tenmangu, a Shinto shrine in north-west Kyoto that dates from 947, famous for its pink and white plum blossoms. It was my first visit.
(IMAGE: Most Trees Were Like This)
We didn't realize just how past their prime the plum blossoms were: the trees were mostly bare. I see now that they have their plum-blossom festival in late February, so we're a month late to the party.
Still, there were a few bunches of blossoms here and there, in deep pink, bleached white, and [...]
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, f/6.3, ISO 250 — full exif & map (IMAGE: Lightup at the Kiyomizu Temple)
I went out again to the Kyoto Higashiyama “Hanatoro” Lightup event last night. The word “Hanatoro” is made from the characters for “flower”, “lantern”, and “road”. The event had plenty of them all.
I used a tripod for all my shots, with shutter speeds ranging from half a second up to 30 seconds.
, f/7.1, ISO 200 — full exif & map (IMAGE: Lightup at Maruyama Park)
The cherry tree above is perhaps the most famous in Kyoto, although here its branches are still bare. In a couple of weeks it will be [...]
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(IMAGE: Ropes of Paper Cranes)
A preface to today's post: I have two monitors, one that's really good (a mid-level Eizo LCD), and one that's on the high end of normal (a Dell LCD). The intense colors of the cranes make today's pictures look amazing on the Eizo, but they're utterly bland and pedestrian on the more consumer-oriented monitor. Oh well.
(IMAGE: Entrance Gate, Tanigumisan Kegonji Temple) Ibigun, Gifu Prefecture, Japan
As I mentioned the other day, we recently made a trip to the Tanigumisan Kegonji Temple several hours away in Gifu. In the picture above, you can see Anthony standing under the gate, just to the [...]
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I feel absolutely overwhelmed with stuff I want to write about and share.
I was hoping to finally get around to posting about some interesting things from last week's trip to Kanazawa. I'd already done one post with a few pics from Kenrokuen Gardens, but there's so much more, including the interesting “Modern Art (Japanese Style)” train station, and a pool you can go into without getting wet...
(IMAGE: Kanazawa Station)
(IMAGE: Inside-Out Pool)
However, those plans got interrupted because Saturday was the graduation ceremony at Anthony's preschool, which created its own subject matter that awaits posting. I did do the one already, but I could [...]
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Continuing with the Snowy Gardens of the Heian Shrine series (earlier parts: Part I, Part II) from last Sunday's snowy morning walk in Kyoto, we had just arrived at the garden's covered bridge when it started to snow again.
(IMAGE: Entrance to the Bridge)
(IMAGE: View over the Water) just as the snow was starting
(IMAGE: View over the Water) a few minutes later
(IMAGE: Checking Out the Snowflakes)
(IMAGE: Photographing the Snowflakes)
(IMAGE: Protecting Mommy from the Snowflakes)
Quite coincidentally, a few days before I took these pictures, I happened to have posted some pictures of the gardens from last summer, including one of [...]
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(IMAGE: Couple 'a Rocks)
Continuing in a series about Sunday's snow in Kyoto, and the Heian Shrine, following after yesterday's Snowy Gardens of the Heian Shrine, Part I, we move over toward the north-east gardens....
(IMAGE: Fringe of Color)
(IMAGE: Snowy Roof)
(IMAGE: Stepping Stones)
The stepping stones seen above are apparently a big draw, but they didn't seem particularly interesting to me on this day. I was more interested in how the lattice roof (as mentioned yesterday) made for an area that looked like a little porch area for enjoying the gardens.
(IMAGE: Covered Bridge)
(IMAGE: Stone Lantern)
(IMAGE: Ducks)
The shot of [...]
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(IMAGE: Still Water is Meant to be Poked)
I'm still sick, so today's post is a simple continuation of yesterday's snowy visit to the Heian Shrine, today focusing mostly on the gardens, except for this next picture:
(IMAGE: Arriving at the Heian Shrine)
You can see how little snow there was, compared to the amazing shots last week.
The rest of the pictures are from inside the gardens, which costs 600 yen (US $6) to enter per adult. Anthony got in free. We were the first to enter, the two photographers behind us immediately ran to the far gardens, while we took a [...]
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(IMAGE: Gardens at the Heian Shrine This Morning) Kyoto, Japan
With a forecast for snow all night, I was disappointed to wake up to find less accumulation than we had the other day (Amazing Snow at the Heian Shrine), which itself wasn't really all that much. In fact, it was sunny out. Still, we all went for a walk, and despite no prognosis for good photography, I brought along the camera and tried to make the best of it.
It was clear that it was going to be an unphotogenic time when we arrived at the bridge featured in yesterday's Snowy Bridge [...]
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(IMAGE: This Morning)
Today was one of those “Why I Hate Living in Kyoto” days.
We awoke to a touch of fresh snow this morning, so Anthony and I headed out to play in it for an hour before he had to go to school. His play involved knocking snow off of anything that held it, and mine involved a Nikon D200 and a 17-55 f/2.8 zoom.
I took 249 pictures, of which 228 avoided the cutting room floor (including the iffy crow and snow shot I posted earlier). Of those that survived, there must be about 50 that are – to me – just stunning.

(IMAGE: Hot Stuff)
You may recall (from my shrine-closing ceremony post last fall) photos of a Shinto rite of hope and good fortune of some sort, involving the burning of small sticks that had people's names and ages on them. As the sticks burned, the wishes and hopes of the person rose with the smoke (to the gods, I guess).
As I hinted with the Hot Stuff post the other day, this rite was done as part of the Setsubun events at the Heian Shrine.
(IMAGE: Bundle of Sticks) 50 sticks per
At the shrine-closing ceremony, perhaps 60 sticks were burnt. At the Heian Shrine this past [...]
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(IMAGE: Mean, Nasty Demons)
The Heian Shrine (a huge shrine in eastern Kyoto) had Setsubun events today (Wikipedia on “Setsubun”). The main event associated with Setsubun is mamemaki – 豆撒き, literally “bean scattering” – which involves throwing dried beans at demons while yelling “demons out! Good fortune in!”
As you might expect of any event that involves the throwing of beans, kids love it.
(IMAGE: Nasty Demon Threatens Docile Camera-Toting Population)
Kids love it unless they think the demons are real...
(IMAGE: Hiding Behind Mommy)
(IMAGE: Mr. Whitehair-and-Orangepants Heads Away)
(IMAGE: Cautiously Emerging, Still Wary)
The demons eventually headed up toward the main building [...]
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Today was one of those “I hate where I live” days (in Kyoto, Japan) that I seem to be having a lot lately. A simple visit with some friends to the “Fall-colors Festival” at the preschool of one of their friends turned into a veritable feast of indulgent photographic delights.
The fall colors have been creeping up for the last couple of weeks, as I've shown in a few posts (here, here, here, and here), but it's definitely not yet even near peak. Still, there are some wonderful spots of color, and many of them are at the Eikando Temple (where, according to [...]
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