Here are some more shots from the outing up to Shogunzuka that I posted about last weekend....

Inside, a plaque describing the area...

Looking a bit toward the left...

While back at the park overlook....

But...

I've posted many times the view of Kyoto from the overlook at Shogunzuka, such as this photo from a post last year:

... or this photo from a post two weeks ago...

The location I took these shots from is officially part of the "Higashiyama Summit Park" ("Higashiyama" – Eastern Mountain – being the name of the short mountain it's at the top of), but the area is better known as "Shogunzuka", a man-made mound of some sort dating back to the 700s. It's now part of a temple's grounds, but I've always just come to the park's public overlook, [...]

Today is the middle of a three-day weekend, one that happens to fall just as the fall colors are really getting going, so Kyoto was absolutely packed to the gills with tourists. Fumie and I both felt much better from our colds today, so we decided to take the opportunity to get out of town.

We went for a drive in the same general direction as we did with Fumie's folks three weeks ago, into the mountains to the northwest of Kyoto. This time we had a specific destination, the Hiyoshi Dam (which, in case you've never heard of it, [...]

Continuing with more from my Visit to Kibune two weeks ago with Thomas Hertel, after we had dango at the restaurant with the old wooden gear, we were walking along the road and were beckoned by the tranquil sight of a tranquil site...

The photo above almost makes it look like some kind of miniature site, but the gate at left is plenty tall enough to walk under, and the bridge itself is about ten feet long.

Thomas posed for a picture, strictly as a size comparison...

If Thomas were to turn to the camera's left, he'd be looking up [...]

Well, I seem to have come down with a cold, and so I spent almost all day sleeping. Up now at midnight with just enough energy to stare blankly at the screen, so I'll just post a few pictures from yesterday to brighten my day (er, my night) before heading back to bed.

The entrance way to the small restaurant next to our place has a tree that we can see the top of from our livingroom window, and each year at about this time, it turns all kinds of fiery reds and oranges.

We just see the top, but [...]