Here are some more pictures from the first two stops during our essentially all-day drive at the start of our short but photographically-satisfying trip to Imabari City (Ehime Prefecture, Japan) at the start of the month. It was a trip which included an attraction so thrilling, the Towel Museum :-), that a single post couldn't contain its full measure of win: part 1, part 2.

Many of the photos on today's post are variations of pics seen on "On The Road to Imabari", which I had prepared in haste that first night from the hotel.

I couldn't decide which view [...]

I glanced out the window to notice some little kids playing with the fallen cherry-blossom petals, and ran to grab the camera...

Unfortunately, when I grabbed the camera, neglected to notice that I'd left it in a five-stop exposure-bracket mode, so only every fifth frame was reasonably exposed. (For non camera geeks, this is only slightly better than leaving the lens cap on, or forgetting to put in film.) At least I was able to recover something from most of them, because I shoot in raw format, not JPEG.

These trees along the river quickly started molting the day after [...]

Because I know everyone is so excited at the prospect of hearing even more about the Towel Museum, I'm following up right away to yesterday's "The Towel Museum in Imabari Japan, Part 1" with Part 2 today. Be forewarned, though, that today's post is more of a gluttony of Moominanalia mixed with unabashed "my kid is so cute!" self indulgence.

As I commented in Part I, the "Towel Museum" could well be called the "Moomin Museum" (Moomin being a Scandinavian cartoon character), and of course we caved in to Anthony's sudden and wholly expected desire for his very own pricey [...]

Lately, I've really been enjoying the Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5's ultra-thin depth of field in a macro setting to "creamify" flowers and such, leaving only very specific areas in sharp focus, with the rest melting away into a creamy mix of softness. The Voiglander's bokeh is spectacular. I posted something along these lines the other day in "On The Road to Imabari", and have several more examples from the last week that I'd like to post, but I'm afraid of overdoing it, so I'll parcel them out from time to time.

The king of this style of photography is Daniel Sroka [...]

Where would you go to find towel haiku and see these riveting presentations like "Magical Towels of the Pharaohs"? I know you're tempted to answer "The Towel Museum" in Imabari Japan, but alas, you'd be wrong. This post is a look at what you would find upon a visit to this oddly-specific destination, which we visited on the last day of our recent short trip to the city of Imabari, in Ehime Prefecture, Japan.

On the way to the museum proper, you are funneled through three floors of towel stores of various types...

You'd expect stores inside a "Museum" to [...]