写真の上をマウスで左右にゆっくり動かすといろいろな撮影効果を楽しむことができます。
for most everyone else in Kyoto
at the Shodensanso Villa (松殿山荘)
(with a little bonus there at the end)
(You can't tell in the wigglegram, but she was looking at a wonderful garden out in the bright sunlight.)
The peak of Kyoto's fall-foliage season is upon us, and today was likely the most crowded day the city has seen all year, if not all decade. It's the middle of a three-day weekend, and every hotel room is taken. (I know two people who wanted to visit Kyoto but couldn't get a hotel; one stayed 30km away in Osaka, and the other at our house.) The streets across the city were parking lots and the crowds were oppressive.
But not for me and some friends, who visited the Shodensanso Villa (松殿山荘茶道会 ) south-east of Kyoto just over the border into Uji City. It's not normally open to the public, but twice a year they allow a limited number of folks to visit, and Damien (seen at the end of the wigglegram above) hooked us up with reservations.
At most a scant 100 people total could visit over the course of the five-hour opening, but I didn't notice anywhere near that many folks.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Oppressive Crowd
this guy stood in my way for 10, possibly 15 seconds!
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Packed Hallway
but they were staff, there to serve me tea
This place was spectacular. I'm sure I used that adjective for another villa that's appeared on my blog, the Seifuso Villa (seen both inside and out), but this place, built a generation later (circa 1927) is even more amazing, by far.
I returned home with a camera memory card filled with delights, but unfortunately on the same roads that everyone else was stuck on. (To quote the phrase, I wasn't “stuck” in traffic; I was traffic). It took me 20 minutes to get 98% of the way home, and another 20 to make the last quarter mile.