I had an unexpectedly interesting day, photography-wise. In the morning there was a rare ceremony to close down a Shinto shrine, and then I got an invite to meet an old friend at Nijo Castle, a wonderful World Heritage Site about two miles away that I've driven by a hundred times, but until today had never visited.

I'm sure that photos from both events will be filling my blog for a month, but for the moment, a desktop background from each....

The shrine being closed down was a very small one (about the size of a single parking space) about [...]

We took a nice drive this afternoon on the Hiei Parkway in the mountains to the north-east of Kyoto, to see the foliage. We hoped that up in the mountains it would have progressed a bit more than it has so far in the city, but it turns out to still be pretty much at the beginning.

At one point we paused at a moss-covered clearing that was somewhat littered with chestnuts. At least I thought it was moss at the time, but looking at the picture makes me think that they were super tiny little ferns. Maybe that's what [...]

More pictures from our short trip to Miyajima Island, Japan two weeks ago.

The view above, taken on the ferry ride over, doesn't show much detail, but does show the relative positions of a few landmarks, including the famous main gate of the Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社、宮島) almost a mile away, the smaller stone gate for the foot path to the shrine, and our hotel. (Mouseover the bold words in this paragraph to see the items highlighted in the photo.)

You can also see Mt. Misen in the center, which I posted about recently.

As you get a bit closer (and [...]

Finishing up my Kyoto fall-color preview featuring pictures from last year that didn't make the cut a the time, here are four final images to get one into the autumn mood. (Previous installments: Part I, Part II.)

I mentioned in my post about the Kousuke Atari concert in Miyajima that the shrine (Itsukushima Shrine) had a big, famous gate (as many shrines tend to have, including the one near me).

After the concert, we walked around a bit taking pictures (actually running into the singer at one point, but that's for a different post), and I liked this guy sitting at the edge of the water.

I didn't have much time before the concert, but snapped this next picture from in front of our hotel just before we walked over.

The little lines of white dots to [...]