Kyoto's fall foliage season starts very late compared to the rest of the world. Last year's first fall-colors post wasn't until November 3rd, while 2006's was even later (and less colorful). In browsing my blog's full list of posts, or my fall-colors category, you'll find that late November / early December are when Kyoto's fall colors reach their peak.

Two things tell me fall is coming (besides the calendar). One is that it has started to cool a bit. This morning, the temperature dipped below 70°F. The other is my server logs, which have suddenly become full of people looking [...]

I haven't done much since returning to Japan a week ago. Tired from the trip... overwhelmed with work (that I don't even get paid for)... and spending an inordinate time at the doctor for some acute back problems. It's been a long week.

But I was feeling okay last night, so after Mass in downtown Kyoto, I thought I'd give my new Nikon D700's legendary low-light performance a spin, combining it with the fastest lens that I could get my hands on (that is, one that lets in the most light), the same Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 that I borrowed from [...]

45 minutes before our arrival at Kansai International on our 13+ hour fight to Japan, my GPS unit told me that we were passing by Mt. Fuji. It was supposed to be 30 miles away, straight out the window on the right-hand side of the plane (port? starboard? I dunno, I speak English and use "right" and "left". I also use "get off the plane" rather than "deplane").

We were flying at seven and a half miles up (about 40,000 ft), and so if the weather had cooperated, the view of a 30-mile-away Mt. Fuji would have been a glorious. [...]

Prior to last week's visit to Vancouver and Whistler, I'd been enjoying the dynamic clouds during my trip to Ohio for the summer. (I posted some sorta' pretty cloud pictures here, here, and here.)

I'm back in Ohio now for another week or so, but the weather has been cold and drizzly, so I'm not getting any of the wonderful cloudscapes we had before. Still, I have plenty of pictures from before the Canada trip. The ones on this post are from a 10-minute walk with the camera down by the lake, one afternoon three weeks ago...

I love [...]

The clouds, these two weeks while I've been in Ohio, have been wonderful. The weather has been dynamic – clear one moment, thunderstorms the next – and so there have been many types of clouds, mostly really beautiful.

On a typical afternoon, with a deep, clear blue sky hosting towering puffballs of richly detailed cumulus clouds, I marvel at the beauty. Kyoto is normally fairly humid and hazy, so even when it has puffy clouds, they're not set against a deep blue background. Ohio's clouds are better, for sure, but even the locals are commenting at how wonderful the clouds [...]