On my way up to the ski area for Anthony's first ski experience, I stopped by the Shirohige Shrine on the shores of Lake Biwa (Japan's largest lake, about a third larger than Lake Tahoe). It was somewhat dark with a cloud mostly in front of the sun, with nice streamers of light emanating from the edge of the cloud, but overexposing the frame gives this interesting result.

I have no idea why the shrine is named Shirohige, which means "white beard". (UPDATE: it's apparently related to how a white beard indicates longevity, and perhaps wiseness)

Okay, I looked it [...]

I'd planned to write up a bit about the fun of spot metering, but have run out of time for today.... it seems that I'm extra busy lately. I did take a moment yesterday to run up to Shogunzuka in hopes of catching a nice sunset. It was pretty dull, but through the magic (or mistake, depending on your point of view) of spot metering, some of the photos of it came out okay. [UPDATE: here's the post on spot metering]

I tend to like this kind of silhouette shot at this location, as the nearby photos link shows, including: [...]

Today's been particularly busy, email-wise, after yesterday's post, but I'd like to at least post something today. Here are a bunch more bamboo-related pics from my recent western-Kyoto mountain drive....

I'm guessing that the CDs were to scare off crows or cats... I've seen them used for that before. Not sure why either would bother a bamboo grove, so maybe I'm off base.

I took a ride out to the mountains in the south-west of Kyoto, where I'd not been before. Here's a summary...

I'd headed toward a road that looked like it wound up to the top of a mountain that should provide a commanding vista, but it turns out that the road has been closed to public traffic for the last 10 years. The road-closed gate was a perfect spot to dump your trash, apparently, because there was plenty all around. Sigh.

I had another mountain road in mind, but had to dip back into civilization to get to it...

(It [...]

Anthony had a school event near the Kitano Tenmangu shrine three miles away toward the north-west of town, so I took the opportunity to stop in with the camera for a few minutes. The shrine is famous for its collection of plum trees that blossom in pure whites and deep, vivid pinks, both due to its breadth (50 varieties) and scale (2,000 trees).

The shrine dates from 947, although their February 25th Plum Blossom Festival dates back only to 1109. This year will be the 900th anniversary.

Today's visit was my second. I wrote about my first trip in two [...]