I spent a wonderful day yesterday being introduced to some amazing temples in the Takao area, in the mountains of north-west Kyoto. The partially-cloudy day was punctuated at times with small cells of very light mist/rain, and this made for really dynamic light. Almost back home to eastern Kyoto in the late afternoon, the combination of everything resulted in an intense rainbow that I stopped to snap a few photos of to make a vertical panorama.

The rainbow aside, the light was really gorgeous, with both because the low angle of the sun made for a deeper orange (because the [...]

Other than tying my shoes and a necktie, I don't often come across a situation where I need to tie a knot, but when I do, I usually feel stupid trying to come up with something appropriate. The one exception is when I want to cinch something tight (a clothesline, a tent guy string) and keep it tight, because I happen to know how to tie the-most excellent tautline hitch.

But mostly I feel stupid when it comes to knots, and I'd like to not pass that on to nine-year-old Anthony, so I'd like to teach him (and myself) a [...]
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So, after yesterday's post of Anthony's surprisingly good photography at the Eikando Temple, here are some of my own.

Today I revisited for the first time a few of the temples that I first visited last spring (as seen in "An Amazing Day of Photography at Some Eastern-Kyoto Temples" and "Revisiting April's Eastern-Kyoto Temple Stroll, among others), spending most of the time wandering the sprawling grounds of the Imakumano Kannonji Temple (今熊野観音寺).

It was almost completely deserted except for light tourist traffic in the main area. Those who ventured 30 seconds beyond were treated to the most amazing single tree I've ever seen, the red one seen above. It was a dull, heavily-overcast day, and there were no electronic [...]

Here are a few more from my Yoshiminedera Temple visit the other day with Paul Barr. As I noted on the earlier post, the colors are less impressive this year than last year, but it's still the nicest temple in Kyoto for fall colors, I think, ahead even of the Eikando Temple, which has the benefit of being a convenient stroll from my house.

I've probably posted these kinds of temple-roof cross-sectional views a dozen times (most recently that I can recall, here, here, and] here), but I'm always drawn to them, and the setting sun shining directly on this [...]