I went out again to the Kyoto Higashiyama "Hanatoro" Lightup event last night. The word "Hanatoro" is made from the characters for "flower", "lantern", and "road". The event had plenty of them all.

I used a tripod for all my shots, with shutter speeds ranging from half a second up to 30 seconds.

The cherry tree above is perhaps the most famous in Kyoto, although here its branches are still bare. In a couple of weeks it will be breathtaking, although sadly, you won't be able to enjoy it then unless you like loud, drunk, smoking hordes.

The big five-story [...]

Earlier I posted a few preview pics of late-blooming "bundle-of-tissues" blossoms, and of plum blossoms, so today I'm posting a few pics of Kyoto's run-of-the-mill "cherry blossom" blossoms.

These first three pictures were taken a year ago by hooking up a bunch of extension tubes between the camera and my big Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 zoom. I didn't yet have my good tripod, so this big, heavy combination on my previous (tiny, flimsy) tripod made for a comical view.

The three pictures above are fairly so-so – nothing special – but I've included them here to delay you a bit so [...]

Zak sent me an article about some planned large-scale redevelopment around Kyoto Station, which reminds me that I've still not followed up on my earlier post about the area: The Most-Excellent Architecture of Kyoto Station.

When I snapped the picture above, I was standing in the huge atrium that is the shell around which Kyoto Station was designed. Beyond the glass oval thing in the center are the ticket gates, beyond which are the trains. Above the ticket gates is a glass-enclosed walkway connecting one area of the station with some restaurants and a hotel.

I really like the glass [...]

As I mentioned earlier, we made a short trip to Kanazawa the other day. Among the area's attractions are the Kenrokuen Gardens one of the so-called "three famous gardens" in Japan. It dates back to the 1600s, although its present state was formed later, in the mid 1800s.

It's famous for its beauty in the snow, and according to pictures I've seen it's pretty amazing in the spring, summer, and fall as well. Early march – with no snow and no flowers – is perhaps not the best time to visit, but we enjoyed it nevertheless.

Throughout the gardens, as [...]

Bamboo floor of the outside walkway at the tea house of the Murin'an gardens, taken last summer when my friends KFC and Verena visited Kyoto.

The next two are stones on the beach of Honohoshi Cove on Amami Ooshima, of the Amami island group in the far south of Japan, about where the East China Sea becomes the Pacific Ocean. The curved stones make a surprisingly calming sound as the waves wash up and down them.

The final one today is also from our trip to the Amami island group, a beach on the southern tip of Kakeroma-jima [...]