Paul Barr arrived in Kyoto last night for the fall-foliage season, and so today for our first outing we made a return trip to the aptly-named Ochiba Jinja (落葉神社), meaning "fallen-leaf shrine". This is my (our) second trip, the first having been documented two years ago in "Carpet of Yellow Deep in the Mountains of North-West Kyoto".

The first trip had been on a Dec 2, two weeks later in the season than our trip today, so most of the leaves that time had already fallen; this time most were still on the trees, and the color hadn't even fully [...]

A belated continuation of our recent visit to Naoshima Island and its artsy Benesse House hotel/museum two weeks ago.

While packing the car to go home, I came across a lone piece of tiny colorful vine that had somehow found its way to the sidewalk. Ever since I took this pic six years ago, I've been a fan of vines like this.

I loved the shape of this tiny island (Oozuchi Island) four miles distant (also seen here in my first post). According to Wikipedia, it's less than 30 acres (1/20th of a square mile), but rises to an elevation [...]

One of the main points of interest at the Kongorinji Temple (金剛輪寺) are the many jizou (地 蔵) statues. I give a more-detailed introduction in "Deep Sorrow at the Kongourinji Temple’s Path of Jizou" from two years ago when I wrote about this path after my first visit, but in short: these statues were placed by parents who lost a child, as a form of prayer that the child will find an easy path to heaven.

Each statue is unique, and has a hand-sewn bib, a colorful pinwheel, and the engraved name of a child.

Before you get to the [...]

A few more shots from the other day's visit to the Kongorinji Temple (金剛輪寺) in Shiga, an hour's drive from Kyoto.

I had brought my computer to do some processing on the road, and while I was trying some "artsy" processing of the photo above (or, at least, the original of what eventually became the photo above) because the original was dull and boring and just not working, I was about to give up and delete it when someone glanced over my shoulder and proclaimed how much she liked it, and why she liked it (the three colors and three [...]

Yesterday during my visit to Shiga Prefecture’s Kongorinji Temple (金剛輪寺), I came across some very delicate (very tiny) flowers among the moss, replete with tiny red berries that looked like apples.

Continued here...