I made the 10-minute scooter ride this morning to Kyoto's Yamashina Ward, to explore what I thought was a mountain road that I discovered yesterday with Google Earth. Sadly, it turns out that the road is not open to the public. Still, I came away with a few nice shots from the mountain-village area just prior to the gate.

This is all very close to the concrete jungle that is Kyoto... perhaps half a mile (it's two miles from my place), but as I've mentioned so many times (especially here), once you get into the mountains, you feel like the [...]

The last time I posted a picture of a burnt wall, it was due to an unfortunate fire that destroyed a nearby restaurant. This time is a bit different.

The quietly famous Murin'an Garden (無鄰菴) near my house in Kyoto has outside walls that are quite varied and interesting. Some of them, such as those shown above, are wood whose top surface has been burnt to charcoal. Looking at a view showing the wall in situ you can see that the burning is clearly purposeful..

While it's clear that the wood has been burnt intentionally, the reason is not clear. [...]

Wow, my third post of the day. I didn't intend to take any pictures today, but with Anthony's style choices in the morning, and the stunningly orange sunset in the evening, I've had no choice.

On top of that, I went a bit early to pick up Anthony from school, and stopped in to the grounds of the old imperial palace (Kyoto Gosho) to check on the fall foliage there. I think it's safe to say that the opening act is on stage, but the headliners are still in the dressing room.

The "opening act" are some of the trees [...]

This evening we had perhaps the most stunning sunset I have ever seen.

Sadly, I saw it from the photographically-unappealing vantage of the fifth-floor walkway in my condo, but at least I got to see it. When I first caught a glimpse, I literally sprinted for the elevator, and the photo above is the first I snapped when I got up there.

(By the way, that's Kyoto Tower in the lower left, seen previously on my blog here, here, here, and here)

Some sunsets have a mesmerizing mix of reds, oranges, yellows, and a deep blue from the sky. Not [...]

After a cold snap over the last couple of weeks, the weather in Kyoto has really turned nice, with temperatures in the upper 70s and clear skies. My cold is starting to get better, and being outside just a bit in the glorious weather felt wonderful.

We're still six weeks away from the peak foliage season in Kyoto, so I thought today I'd continue from the Kyoto Fall Foliage Preview with a few shots taken around my place last December 2nd...

That last one is certainly least, but I like the layered colors.

Lots more Kyoto Foliage Fireworks from years [...]