文書は英語ですが、写真は共通
(though I'm taking a break from blogging for a while)
Archive for the 'Japan' CategoryPosts relating to Japan and things Japanese Despite the beauty of Kyoto and Japan that I try to showcase in the photos I normally post, most of the populated ares of Japan are wall-to-wall unmitigated monochromatic urban blight. Concrete, utility poles, warehouses, convenience stores, congested traffic, anonymous nondescript office buildings.... just lots and lots of visually-neutered components pasted together with horrific amounts of mind-numbing blah. The drive down to Hirakata (to see a doctor about my ouchy back, as I mentioned yesterday) is through this metropolitan monotony most of the way. As such, the drive is in no way pleasant, but it does offer one point that [...] 
View full post » Last week was not a good week for me. The cold I got Monday evening was the least of my problems, because earlier that same afternoon, something happened to my back that left me, for the most part, unable to walk for several days. Whatever it was, it was unlike any condition I could find discussed on the Internet (it's not related to a pinched nerve, slipped disk, etc.). As one might expect from a sudden and severe back pain, the pain was utterly excruciating. I was mostly okay so long as I didn't move, so that bode well for [...]
On the way back from the Eikando-Temple event that yielded the Bonanza of Fall-Foliage Desktop Backgrounds (among others), we came via a street here in Kyoto that I've traveled often, and whose views I've always admired. Yet, it was the first time that I noticed that one of the walls lining the road along the way was covered in weathered, "flattened" bamboo. I'd never seen such a thing. The bamboo had apparently been scored lengthwise many times over its entire circumference, then flattened to make a flat veneer. Without ever having heard of such a thing, one can imagine that [...] 
View full post » My head is swimming due to a cold I came down with yesterday, so to brighten things up a bit, here's a touch of color from the same outing here in Kyoto, Japan that produced the fall-foliage desktop backgrounds I posted the other day. Zooming back a bit.... You can see these same trees in the "Placing Incense" photo my summer "More From Nanzenji" post. 
View full post » Today was one of those "I hate where I live" days (in Kyoto, Japan) that I seem to be having a lot lately. A simple visit with some friends to the "Fall-colors Festival" at the preschool of one of their friends turned into a veritable feast of indulgent photographic delights. The fall colors have been creeping up for the last couple of weeks, as I've shown in a few posts (here, here, here, and here), but it's definitely not yet even near peak. Still, there are some wonderful spots of color, and many of them are at the Eikando Temple [...] 
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