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 The other day, we went for an impromptu drive up into the northern mountains, although phrasing it that way perhaps makes it sound sounds like more of an adventure than it is. Kyoto is in a valley surrounded on three sides by mountains. You can be in a populated area of the city that gets virtually no snow for years, but a fifteen-minute drive puts you into what seems to be the middle of nowhere, where snows are measured by the meter. Of course, there's not much snow left anymore, particularly after such a mild winter, but we were pleasantly [...] 
View full post » A few minutes after putting up the previous post (Kyoto City Half Marathon) and writing how it was turning out to be a beautiful day, I was surprised to see that it was gloomy outside, with big fluffy hunks of snow drifting down. Kyoto generally doesn't get much snow, despite the most-snow-in-60-years winter last year (which I wrote about a'plenty at the time: one, two, three, four, five). We've had almost no snow this year, except a light dusting while we were away on our New Year's trip, and another later in January. It's been so mild this year that [...]
Hahaha, it's not really such a dire moment in the photo above.... Today is the Kyoto City Half Marathon, which starts and ends near my place, so I walked out to take a look at the start. The picture above shows the front of the pack 30 seconds after the start of the race, passing under the main gate of the Heian Shrine. (The part of the shrine that can be seen in the far background -- the roof of the entry building -- is very familiar to me, having spent hours looking at it while doing some Photoshop work [...] 
View full post » Anthony takes a preschool "Jumping Gymnastics" class once a week, which is really little more than somewhat structured running around and burning off some energy. The kids have fun, and learn some great lessons (it's good to stretch, good to try your best, good to take turns, etc.). Classes start with a bow and a short discussion as each kid introduces himself and answers the question of the day (such as "what's your favorite food?"), and then some running, stretching, and something special for the day (balance beam, jumprope, etc.). Today's special thing is the Japanese equivalent [...] 
View full post » The preschools in this part of Kyoto had a Momma Volleyball tournament yesterday, and I went along to try my hand at some sports photography. It's really really difficult to photograph volleyball well. I knew it would be difficult, but it turned out to be difficult on so many more levels than I had imagined, and I came away with 6 gigabytes of mostly throwaways. I hope to write about it more in the future, but until I find the time, just a few shots that came out okay. I really love the pose of the spiker in the [...] 
View full post » |