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 in Kyoto to find only a light dusting of snow.

There wasn't much traffic at 8am Sunday morning, so I could stand in the middle of the street and look through the legs of the Main Gate of the Heian Shrine, down to the shrine's main entrance (the one seen in this Photoshop and New Year's Cards post). Luckily, an ugly delivery truck was parked right where it would spruce up this otherwise boring shot:

Anthony and I had headed out a few minutes before Mommy, so when Anthony saw her coming, he ran back to greet her. (The sun was coming and going behind clouds, so the lighting was ever changing, and was more wintery-gloomy in this shot.)

Growing up in the snow of Ohio, I am used to seeing snow plastered on signs by snow plows, but I'm not used to seeing it stick to vertical surfaces on its own, so it was odd to see this morning that pretty much all west-facing surfaces had a layer of snow.

We went into the shrine area, and this time we could go into the gardens; we were first in line, followed by a professional photographer, and another guy with an SLR.

The photos from the gardens will likely occupy my next dozen or so posts, so for today I'll share just the one seen at the top of this post, and this shot that Anthony took of me on one of the paths between gardens...

Having recently lost my nice winter hat, I was forced to use earmuffs and a floppy summer hat, which pushed my normally high dorkiness factor through the roof. Thus, you'll appreciate that unlike the photo leading this post, the one of me is not available as a desktop background.

While we were in the gardens, it started snowing again. Back on the street, here's another view of the main entrance...

We couldn't stop but lick our lips at the sight of this Baikal delivery truck:

Baikal is a high-end sweets and cake shop, so we could easily imagine what delicious joys the truck was full of. The driver was parked at the side of the road, enjoying something hot from a thermos, taking in the snowy view of the shrine entrance seen above.

Back at the “Snowy Bridge”, we saw this lady taking advantage of a lull in traffic to set up a shot of the shrine gate in the middle of the crosswalk.

The photographer in me could only commiserate, and I quickly jumped to get a picture of her taking a picture...

Returning to the warmth of home, my camera lens immediately fogged up and I couldn't see a thing through it, but I think this picture nevertheless captures the essence of a cold, tired boy returning from playing in the snow.

I felt wonderful while I was out there, but half an hour after returning, I started feeling a cold coming on quickly, and so the rest of the day has been unfun. It doesn't take too much energy to sit like a couch potato in front of the computer, and hence, we have this post.

Continued here...