I'm very surprised to find that I prepared this article last year but didn't actually post it. It's the final followup to "Minh and Nghia Photoshoot Preview", its Part 2, and wigglegram.

We'd left off while at the Murin'an gardens, so we'll continue with a few more shots from there...

A photoshoot at the Nanzen Temple must include a visit to the old (but still functioning) aquaduct.

After this shot, I bade them farewell, and they continued on with their Kyoto sightseeing.

I recently went to an amazing art exhibition at the Takashimaya department store in Kyoto. It's now moved on from Kyoto, currently showing in Yokohama for a couple of weeks. Highly recommended for kids and adults alike. Fumie had brought Anthony earlier in the week, and loved it so much that they'd recommended it to me.

It's a selection of the prolific art by Tatsuya Tanaka, the guy behind the 2,500 works at Miniature Calendar, works which are amazing both for their simplicity (we all could have thought of that), and for their level of wit, which (in my case) [...]

I've remained friends with the family of one of Anthony's preschool classmates, and even though they haven't been in school together for nine years, we still keep in close touch. The other day I did a quick photoshoot of the family's two girls, Monet and May, who should now be about 15 and 13 years old, respectively.

I'm sort of rusty with the camera, so wasn't sure what to expect, but the moment I took the first photo, I knew that the girls would do all the work and I could just press the button; no photographer skill required when [...]

I recently made the short hike up Mt. Daimonji to the fire pits (which I first blogged about 11 years ago here), with Damien and Chris Rowthorn, the author of the Lonely Planet guides for Japan and Kyoto. Chris often uses Damien's and my photos on his Inside Kyoto site.

The view from where we were, the center of the "大", is lovely, but today it was ridiculously hazy...

The spec of orange just right of center is the main gate of the Heian Shrine. Compare the photo above to those seen on this post, and this one.

There are [...]

I'm finally getting around to write about my first ride in Okinawa a month ago, which came after my "ride" to Okinawa. I posted a few photos in a preview post, but I want to keep the full memory of the lovely day, so I'm writing this report.

Here's the ride we did:

There are no big mountains in the south of Okinawa where we were, but there are plenty of short/steep hills, including two that average 12% over 600m, this and this. These short, intense climbs are the kind that, when I'm in good shape, I can do very [...]