We took a drive in the mountains north of Kyoto today, stopping by a roadside cafe that offered a simple, tasteful Japanese interior with stunning views overlooking a river, under a canopy of sun-splashed maple trees. The prices were reasonable and the food was good.

The vase above, about the size of a football, was on a small side table net to our table. (The simple elegance calls to mind my "Japanese Attention to Presentation" post from earlier this year.)

I'll post more about the restaurant soon, but I'm still not even unpacked after returning to Kyoto from The States [...]

I occasionally post desktop-background-sized versions of pictures that I think might be good for that use, and so my blog's desktop-background photostream and category of desktop-background posts are full of them. I don't actually use many of them myself, though... I think I'm too lazy to bother changing them.

For the last year and a half I've used "Destination Unknown" (a mountain stairway), and for the year prior to that I used "The Color of Kyoto" (funky pastel-effect fall foliage), and for the half year before that "Daigo Temple Cherry Blossoms". But I switched recently (like I said, first time [...]

The best part of any travel for Anthony, it seems, is getting to swim in a pool, and after the busy second day of our trip to Ishigaki Island in the far south of Japan, Anthony finally got his visit to the pool. I played with him at first, but as the sunset approached, I grabbed the camera...

Metering somewhat for the bright sun left the rest of the frame underexposed, which allowed what little color there was in the sky to be exaggerated.

Meanwhile, with the setting sun, Anthony got cold and retreated to warmer climes...

The sun got [...]

Our second sunset on Ishigaki, much less interesting than the first, but soothing and calming after a long day seeing the sights, playing on the beach (Part I, Part II), and climbing short mountains.

Continued here...

Well, thought I'd be releasing a new plugin for Adobe Lightroom today, but ran into a roadblock that killed it at the end. Sigh. So, I've decided to take the evening off from plugin development and get back to my story of our recent trip to Ishigaki Island. It's part of Okinawa Prefecture, but is 400 miles further south-west from the main Okinawa island, just shy of Taiwan.

It was a short but photogenic trip. Today's story picks up in the afternoon of Day 2, with Day 2's morning already posted, as well as a mid-day trip to a secluded [...]