At the convenince store today, I noticed this way to get liquored up with a candy bar. The lower-corner says that it contains 1% alcohol, and that those driving a car should be careful. (No comments are directed toward those operating heavy machinery, though.)

In the interest of being thorough for this post, I purchased the little package for 150 yen and tried them. (I'll stop at nothing to be complete and accurate for my readers, you know.) They tasted like slighly crunchy, slighly orange-ish cherry cordials, but with only the most mild taste of brandy/alcohol.

Hopefully, the can of [...]

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Visiting the Kyoto Botanical Gardens in January with Anthony and Shimada-san, we noticed this somewhat funny sign over the entrance gate. The Japanese on it says "Entrance." The English translation of that Japanese is as standard as can be, so one wonders what events transpired to make them choose the English shown.

The botanical gardens was where Anthony had his first preschool field trip (almost a year ago now), and are where I photographed the funky flowers I posted a few months ago.

On the trip in January, we saw something (we presumed a plant of some sort) wrapped [...]

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My blog has been filled with nothing but cherry blossoms for the past week or so, because for the last week or so most cherry trees around here have been hitting their blossom peak. The timing of blooming, though, is certainly not coordinated among Japan's cherry trees.

According to Julia's Kitakami Photoblog, the blossoms aren't even close to making their appearance there. Kitakami is a town about 415 miles north-east of Kyoto, and can be quite a bit colder than here.

Even locally, the cherry-blossom season varies considerably. The other day we drove a bit north into the mountains, and [...]

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Yesterday evening, we had a mini picnic on the grounds of the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, under the cherry blossoms that overlook the Kyoto Biwako Canal. Fumie prepared a snack and Anthony brought the BBQ play set he got from his Uncle Marty and Aunt Marci (which I could swear I blogged about when he received it, but I can't find it, so must not have.... [UPDATE: I have now]

The picture above was taken around sundown, with the help of a tripod and a timer, but during the short noontime stroll I took when taking pictures of [...]

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We ran out of milk at lunch time, and in stepping out the front door on the way to the convenience store, for some reason the view struck me in a way I hadn't noticed before. So I got the milk, then went back to take a picture.

Living so close to it, the gate certainly has appeared plenty of times in photos on my blog, including:

Two views (snowy and sunny) of the main gate of the Heian Shrine Fire Department Parade, and my new D200 Camera The main gate of the Heian Shrine, from a different angle Weddings [...]
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