Up this morning on our current mini trip in time to watch the sunrise.

(For definitions of "in time" meaning "less than an hour too late".)

We're on a short three-day Golden Week trip, visiting Awaji Island. We'll probably visit the Awaji Flower Review tomorrow, as we did once last year.

I mentioned the other day in my post about some drama on Mt. Daimonji that I'd hiked with Anthony. Here are some shots from the first part of the hike.

Unlike the last time we did this three years ago, when I had to carry him most of the way, this time he could handle himself, so I was free to bring my new big lens, and decided to give my little-used monopod a try as well.

To be continued...

I was shocked today when out of the blue Anthony said that he wanted to climb Mt. Daimonji, a rather short bump of a mountain on the east side of Kyoto noted for the big “大" on its side, visible from most everywhere in Kyoto, and coincidentally appearing on my blog just the other day (but described in more detail in my "Daimonji's Hidoko Fire Pits" post from several years ago).

Anthony had hiked this mountain three years ago (where in this case "hiked" meant "was carried by daddy" for much of it) and had shown no interest since until [...]

A great blue heron was sitting on a fence by the canal this morning when I walked Anthony to his bus stop, and thinking it was Aotan the Heron that I posted about a few years ago, I fetched my camera to do a followup post.

After comparing pictures from before, I don't think it's the same bird. He was equally unfazed by me, though. Perhaps it's the same one as in my "Great Wet Heron" post? There are a lot of herons around.

It's a popular area for jogging, with one lap around the block being about a 410m [...]