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In my previous post, about fun on our trip to Blumeの丘, I recounted how fun the go-carts were, but that the real fun had only begun. The real fun was a short hill covered with some slippery surface down which you could toboggan.

Toboggans could be rented at $3 for 20 minutes. We rented two for an hour, and had great fun.

Each trip down the short hill took about 10 seconds.

We mixed and matched in every permutation....

I tried a number of runs where I went down backwards ahead of Anthony, facing him with the camera as he [...]

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The outing that I mentioned yesterday (that produced the car at sunset advertisement-esque shot) was an hour's drive away, to the German-themed Blumeの丘, a name with German and Japan components that translates in English to "flower hill". It's a park full of flowers, farms, restaurants, shops, and entertainment, that was pleasant, although as far as I could tell, the German theme extended only so far as the font used for signs, and the music played throughout the mini town mall.

We didn't really know what to expect, and were pleasantly surprised to find an enjoyable day. We went with the [...]

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Kyoto's fall foliage season starts very late compared to the rest of the world. Last year's first fall-colors post wasn't until November 3rd, while 2006's was even later (and less colorful). In browsing my blog's full list of posts, or my fall-colors category, you'll find that late November / early December are when Kyoto's fall colors reach their peak.

Two things tell me fall is coming (besides the calendar). One is that it has started to cool a bit. This morning, the temperature dipped below 70°F. The other is my server logs, which have suddenly become full of people looking [...]

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My lingering cold finally unlingered enough today that I could venture out for a bit: Anthony for a bike ride, and me to give my new Nikon D700 a spin. Other than the 20-minute night-time outing that resulted in the Impossible Photography post and its followup, I hadn't been outside with the D700 since the day I got it (the day I returned to Kyoto from summer travels).

I grabbed my biggest zoom (Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VR and a 1.7× Extender), and put the camera into "Auto ISO" mode such that it'll kick up the sensitivity as needed to keep [...]

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