So, unlike yesterday's gloom and rain, today was clear and sunny. The cherry blossoms are not yet near full, and they don't seem to be particularly good this year anyway (we had an extended cold snap just as they were starting to blossom, which seems to have messed them up in varying ways), but nevertheless, I took the tripod and headed out for the last evening of the local cherry-blossom lightup.

Last year I took shots from closer to my place, but this year I wanted to try the long view, from where the canal bends, so I made the [...]

This year's cherry blossom season in Kyoto is turning out quite odd, or, at least it seem so to my limited experience. Last week, matching up how the blossoms were shaping up compared to how they were in the month-long cherry-blossom timelapse I posted last year, it seemed that this year was a couple of days ahead, and indeed, one of the trees outside my window is getting full of blossoms.

But I was out and about quite a bit today, and from what I could tell, most trees were nowhere near as far along. Some trees had no blossoms [...]

An important component of Japanese culture is "presentation", but it can quickly takes a backseat when inconvenient, such as how much of Japan's natural beauty has been disfigured by utility poles, wires, and street signs. (Examples on my blog over the years include: this - this - this - this - this - this.)

So, it's especially nice when presentation is not only remembered, but really done well. The shot above was the after-meal coffee and cake that came with the $10 lunch we had at an out-of-the-way cafe during our trip to Okinawa last weekend.

For $10, we got [...]

Okay, so yesterday's post about Japan's Cherry-Blossom Season Off to an Early Start was somewhat misleading. I normally write about things in Kyoto where I live, but Fumie and I took a short trip (just two nights) to Okinawa, a string of Japanese islands in the East China Sea, well beyond Amami (which we've visited twice, and I've blogged about many times), about half way between the Japanese mainland and Taiwan.

We returned yesterday, and I posted some cherry-blossoms that we discovered while exploring Okinawa. To be fair, though, I have to note that the locals told us they expected [...]

The last time I posted a picture of a burnt wall, it was due to an unfortunate fire that destroyed a nearby restaurant. This time is a bit different.

The quietly famous Murin'an Garden (無鄰菴) near my house in Kyoto has outside walls that are quite varied and interesting. Some of them, such as those shown above, are wood whose top surface has been burnt to charcoal. Looking at a view showing the wall in situ you can see that the burning is clearly purposeful..

While it's clear that the wood has been burnt intentionally, the reason is not clear. [...]