Earlier in the year I wrote a few posts about a restaurant/cafe with large private grounds called Sunainosato (寿長生の郷) in Shiga prefecture, about an hour's drive from Kyoto. The expansive grounds are open to the public, and are quite pretty.

A photo of an actual jump did appear on the previous post in this series, and I like it a lot even though his head's cut off.

Also, this was about the time that I got the photo featured in "Anthony Growing Up: the Tipping Point"

After lunch it was time to explore more of the grounds...

As I wrote in yesterday's post about the doggy funeral, we had lunch at a great cafe. In the southern part of Shiga Prefecture, perhaps an hour's drive from Kyoto, is a private business called Sunainosato (寿長生の郷), which consists of a restaurant, a cafe, and a confectionery, all on 50 acres of wonderfully wooded land in the countryside.

The grounds are open as if it were a public park, and they're very nice.

The little drop-off shelter near the parking lot illustrates the simple, understated class of the entire site.

From there, one enters a small orchard that has more [...]

We have finally had some short-sleeve weather to go along with the cherry blossoms... no snow for a week, though it was cold enough to snow just three days ago. I had an errand near the Kiyamachi area of eastern Kyoto, an urban hip night-life concrete jungle where I shot much of "Impossible Photography: No Light, No Tripod, No Hope. D700 and a 50mm f/1.2" a year and a half ago. It has a small river lined by cherry blossoms, so I brought along the camera.

I've a great sequence of shots of the two girls launching small blizzards of [...]

It's been an absolutely horrible cherry-blossom season in Kyoto, with constant cold and rain (and snow!). Today was still cold and windy, but at least it was finally sunny, so the tourists were out in force.

Most had cameras...

Some people had better equipment than others. The overall winner was clearly this group:

It is, of course, the same movie shoot that I posted about the other day, for the film 「マザーウォーター」 ("Mother Water", whatever that means), which has been filming in Kyoto for the last week. (At least that was the plan before the horrible weather.) I thought [...]

Considering the wild, freaky presentations I've been posting recently, I thought I'd lead off today with something quiet and simple.

I had stepped out earlier this evening to check out a movie shoot going on near my place, and snapped the shot above on the spur of the moment. It was well after sunset, so the sky was a deep, rich blue, and the main gate of the Heian Shrine a deep, rich orange, and the reflections in the water a mix of rich colors (blue from the sky, green from the street lights). All and all it was "rich", [...]