The first thing I noticed upon arrival during our visit to the Kamo no Shirabe cafe in Shiga last month were the flowers that separated the parking spaces from the walkway. It had been sprinkling, so they were photogenicly wet, and they were so vividly colored that they seemed to glow in the overcast light.

I got fooled again by a syrphid fly (AKA hoverfly), a fly beneficial to gardens (it eats pest insects) whose primary means of defense is to look like a bee or a wasp. It was just about a year ago that I first learned of [...]

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As I posted about the other day, a local restaurant suffered a fire two weeks ago. It appears that they tried to renovate, but driving by today we noticed that they've resorted to somewhat more drastic measures...

The sign says, in elegant prose whose lilt can't really be translated, something along the lines of...

The sign looks like it says a lot more than that, but the extra is all the flowery honorifics sprinkled throughout.

Posted next to it was the demolition company's work permit, and a statement that the building had no asbestos. Of course, I'd never seen nor [...]

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Anthony was really stoked on Friday afternoon when we all went shopping, and he ended up with new shoes. These had shiny leather... gleaming whites... cool blue... that all added up to shoes that he felt made him run faster. He was tickled pink.

He was excited to show them to Gen when we went to his place on Saturday, and to show them to Fumie's mom on Sunday, and, well, to anyone and everyone we met.

So today, he comes back from kindergarten, and here's what was left near the door...

You couldn't help but laugh (unless you cried, [...]

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Yesterday's post – Water Play at Gen's House – reminded me of two years ago while we were in Cupertino for the summer (before selling our house).

Anthony was three and a half years old at the time. Having a yard with hoses, there was lots of water play, especially because it was such a hot summer that year...

My favorite shots where of him playing in the lawn sprinklers that I posted at the time, but I'm so enamored with the series that I'll post a few more today...

One shot was way overexposed such that it came out [...]

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