Continuing from yesterday's post about the Toganojaya Restaurant (とが乃茶屋) in the mountains of north-west Kyoto, after we finished our meal, we headed down to the river that the restaurant overlooks..

Having recently learned how to skip a rock across the water, Anthony tried to teach Mommy...

Continued here...

My most recent two posts, "Three Blades of Grass, and Friends" and "Table with a View", are about a restaurant we visited on Saturday, Toganojaya (とが乃茶屋), in the Takao area in the mountains of north-west Kyoto.

Seeing me take the shot above, the proprietor kindly opened up the big parasol (the red cone-looking thing to the right of center), and I tried to get a shot with it...

These bamboo-and-cloth parasols are not uncommon, but they're difficult to photograph well because digital cameras can't handle their deep color, especially with the huge dynamic range of bright sunlight and dark shadows. [...]

I've still been too busy for a proper writeup about the great spot we visited on Saturday, but here's one of the first pictures I took upon arrival.

The elegant flower arrangement I posted about that evening is on a small table just out of picture to the right.

Out of frame way below is a river.

Continued here...

We took a drive in the mountains north of Kyoto today, stopping by a roadside cafe that offered a simple, tasteful Japanese interior with stunning views overlooking a river, under a canopy of sun-splashed maple trees. The prices were reasonable and the food was good.

The vase above, about the size of a football, was on a small side table net to our table. (The simple elegance calls to mind my "Japanese Attention to Presentation" post from earlier this year.)

I'll post more about the restaurant soon, but I'm still not even unpacked after returning to Kyoto from The States [...]

My body is back in Japan after a month in Ohio visiting my folks with Anthony. Unlike my trip out, my luggage did arrive with me, though I seem to have lost my brain somewhere during the 22-hour trip.

We came through Tokyo Narita on Sunday evening. During the flight back out, I was surprised to notice how stratified the clouds were: as we ascended, we would pop through a layer of cloud to find clear air, but another layer above. I took the photo above while in the second such "sandwiched zone".

10 minutes later we were a mile [...]