This year's cherry blossom season in Kyoto is turning out quite odd, or, at least it seem so to my limited experience. Last week, matching up how the blossoms were shaping up compared to how they were in the month-long cherry-blossom timelapse I posted last year, it seemed that this year was a couple of days ahead, and indeed, one of the trees outside my window is getting full of blossoms.

But I was out and about quite a bit today, and from what I could tell, most trees were nowhere near as far along. Some trees had no blossoms [...]

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I still have many pictures I want to share from our trip to the onsen at Kinosaki a couple of months ago. These pictures are from the evening (it was a one-night stay) after dressing in yukata to head out to an onsen for our evening bath.

Being Silly With Mommy Ninja Comedian?

Here's the onsen we went to, which was just a minute from our ryokan...

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I brought Anthony skating today, to Kyoto's Aquarena, a big swimming complex that turns one of the pools into a skating rink during the winter. Surprisingly enough, they had my size skates to rent (size 32; for reference, most stores sell shoes only up to size 28), so I could join him.

I think it was the first time I went skating in 20+ years, but it was Anthony's third time, having gone two other times during school-type events. Like many city services, skating is free for him until he starts first grade, so I was happy to get one [...]

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While visiting Zak the other day at his place in Otsu, I happened to step into the hallway outside his 15th-floor apartment just in time to notice that the tower crane at the construction site next door was about to be raised a notch. Having always wondered about the details of how these cranes worked, I left Zak with three highly-energetic preschool kids (one of mine and two of his) and stepped out into the calm to watch the crane.

These "self-climbing tower cranes" are popular in Japan. They can be broken down and their pieces can be transported by [...]

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So, finishing up from yesterday's post about our fun day on nearby Yabasekihantou Island, after the obstacle-course play area, Anthony headed over to a big rope-climbing thing...

I took the shot above thinking it'd make a great opening for a post, but I ended up liking the impact of the almost-hidden feet hanging out, so chose that one to open with instead.

When he came down, he ended up sitting on a rope with nothing under for quite a while, and he wasn't sure how to get down. So I told him to lean forward and grab the rope in [...]

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