World-traveler Vaughn Hart was in Kyoto today, and we got together to enjoy some of the photographic delights of Kyoto. He's a user of one of my plugins and so had contacted me when he realized our paths might cross, but it turns out that he hadn't read my blog, so had no real idea about who I am or what it's like around here (and so had no specific ideas about what he preferred to see while here). So, I thought a random drive in the mountains might be nice, to see what we discover.

The susuki ("Japanese pampas [...]

I've still got lots of photos yet to go through from our trip to Toyama Prefecture (a few hours north of Kyoto) more than a year ago. At the time I noted that it was really snowy, but I need to tone the description down after the massive snowstorms in the US Midwest and East Coast this year.

Still, it was a lot of snow for us, and really pretty, with visits to historic and picturesque villages of Gokayama and Shirakawago.

It was snowing heavily in the afternoon of the third day of the trip, as it had been all [...]

As someone who wants to share something new on my blog every day, the recent lack of posting bothers me, but as I've noted recently, I'm working on a fun project (that I'll write about soon, but be warned that its geeky nature will make it uninteresting to most people, sorry).

So, to fill in a spot on my blog calendar, here are some pretty flowers I snapped shots of at my in-law's place on New Year's day, not long after the shrine visit from my "When You Tempt Fate, Sometimes You Lose" post. My wife's brother's wife's mother gave [...]

Wow, I can't believe how time has flown. I've had my nose to the grindstone with a new fun little project, and I come up for air to find that five days have passed since my last post. Doh!

Our first full day on Shoudoshima Island during a short end-of-the-year trip was decidedly cold and rainy. After breakfast at our great hotel, we made the windy, windy*  way to the more-populated opposite corner of the island, and the "Angel Road" spot where three small islands are connected to the main island only when the tide is low....

On our short trip to Shoudoshima Island at the end of the year, I took advantage of some post-sickness insomnia to try an impromptu moonrise shot from the balcony of our room. It was freezing outside (literally) and the wind was howling something fierce, but I was able to let the camera sit on the edge of a wall for a long exposure.

I'm pretty sure that the dotted lights on the horizon under the moon are on the Naruto Bridge connecting Awaji Island with Shikoku, 28 miles away.

That's Venus to the lower left of the moon.

This makes [...]