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I took my camera when I walked to lunch through a small area of eastern Kyoto yesterday. These are some of the shots I took along the way.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Kyoto Field Trip
I'm guessing these are high-school kids on a field trip to Kyoto.
small groups are roving all over

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lunch Break
at a construction site

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Uprite and Stowed Position
complex business end of a retractable crane

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not Quite
I was thinking to make this a desktop background, but the more I look at it,
the more I feel something is off balance

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
On Patrol
meter maids on the prowl

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ultra Fluffy

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rest Break

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Duckie!

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Some Temple or Other

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Nene-no-Michi”
Quaint “Ne-ne Street”

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dress Up
Ladies dress as geisha and hit the town

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Green-Tinged Cherry Blossoms
Pink splash over a greenish-white base
These are 御衣黄桜 (gyoikou sakura)

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fellow Photographer
She took photos of the blossoms while I admired her simple and elegant kimono

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Touristy
but quite pleasant when not crowded

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Neighborly Assistance

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo Op
while she hides an SLR behind her

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos

Both lunch and the walk back will be their own posts...

Continued here...

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The charity sale for the big North-East Japan Earthquake that I posted about last year will take place again this year. If you'll be in Kyoto on May 5th or 6th, perhaps stop by. Michael Lambe gives full details over on Deep Kyoto (日本語版).

Last year I donated several prints for the sale, but this year I'm thinking of something different. I recently had a large print of this Paul Barr piece framed for my office and I really like it, so I may ask Paul whether I can make another for the sale.

Proceeds benefit Kyoto-based charity International Disaster Relief Organization Japan (IDRO Japan).

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Poking around my Mac laptop, I came across

and found thousands and thousands of logs and crash-reports for various iPhone/iPad applications that have been accumulating over the years. You'd think that iTunes would clean this stuff up after a while. I deleted it all.

Elsewhere in ~/Library/Logs/ I found random cruft, some dating back three generations of laptops, to 2003.

I deleted it all. It felt satisfying.

Can anyone recommend a “keep things tidy” app, along the lines of Crap Cleaner, which I used to use when I had a Windows box?

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Burger
with a little LEGO minifig for scale

Last fall I discovered the largest hamburger I'd ever seen in real life, at the restaurant “Hagi” (萩) a couple of kilometers west of Kyoto Station. I went back today with Paul Barr (with whom I'd discovered it, as seen in this photo in front of the restaurant) and another friend to give the burger another try.

Three hamburger patties, egg, bacon, and Lord knows what else... it was big, but not nearly as big as I remembered it from before. I was a bit disappointed. Still, it towered over the plate... a plate so deep that the little minifig barely reached the lip.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
This is It
tasty, of course, but a bit anti-climactic

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Head and Shoulders
above other burgers

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/160 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Oh Stop
now you're just teasing!

This was their big “Mountain Burger”, I think it's called. Paul had the much smaller Avocado Burger, which I'll have to try next time. The coffee is very good, which also recommends the place.

Sadly, the owner has chosen to allow smoking, so one person can ruin it for everyone else, as happened today, so I'll be a lot less inclined to choose to visit. I wonder whether I can get a burger to go?

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 900 — map & full exif
Try This One
one of what must have been 1,000 wines

This evening I went to a large (for Kyoto) wine-tasting event at Kyoto Station, sponsored by Liquor Mountain (a sort of Trader Joe's of central Japan). I don't know anything about wine other than “tasty, not tasty, untried”, so today was able to bolster the ranks of the first two categories.

I went with Shimada-san, Paul Barr, and another friend, Luc...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1400 — map & full exif
Luc

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2200 — map & full exif
A Particular Taste
most every kind under the sun

It was interesting to be able to taste (and compare/contrast) so many different products. I learned that there was no correlation between price and whether I liked it. I kept notes on a few I really liked, so I'll have to head over to Liquor Mountain next week to pick some up....

I haven't really looked at the pictures yet, but most were like those above, so any followup post will likely be boring, but we'll see.

Continued here...