Nikon D200 @ 45 mm — 1/80 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tenacity
Bamboo shooting up through solid asphalt
The parking lot I use near Anthony's kindergarten used to be part of a temple garden that, apparently, contained some bamboo. We've noticed of late some bamboo shooting up through the asphalt, growing at an astonishing rate. (Well, at least, astonishing if you're not already familiar with how fast bamboo grows.)
The parking lot owner (who also owns the temple) doesn't care for it, so he hacked it off once when it popped up last year. You can see its remains to the left of the growing shoot above. I've been watching this one for the last couple of weeks, hoping that it doesn't get cut down.
Nikon D200 @ 17 mm — 1/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Two Weeks Ago
about four feet tall
Nikon D200 @ 34 mm — 1/350 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Today
left of center, about 19 feet tall
It grew about 15 feet in 16 days, which averages more than 11 inches a day. That's far less than the maximum of 2 inches per hour claimed on Wikipedia, but impressive nevertheless.
The one shoot above looks pathetic all by itself, especially with such an unphotogenic backdrop, but generally speaking, I love the look of bamboo, both when it's growing (e.g. like this or this), and the many ways its used after it's harvested, such as in fencing, security, flooring, wall construction, wall covering, of course, in the arts (such as ikebana and lanterns), and, well, just about everything.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
I spotted this snail on a small tiled “roof” on top of a short wall outside Giouji Temple in western Kyoto. He seemed quite photogenic, as did the wall. Gioujo temple has all kinds of pretty walls of various different constructions, although this external wall (seen in the left of this picture) is likely the least interesting.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 34 mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Snail, Old Nail, and Roof Tiles
Most of the old nails put in to secure the tiles were sticking out like this one. Perhaps the wood underneath got wet, expanded, and squeezed the nail out? It seemed quite odd to me.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 30 mm — 1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Awaiting The Whole “...Gets Hammered Down” Thing
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 34 mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Chugging Away
The temple itself is small and not very well known. I've heard that its fall foliage is excellent, but I remember it for its moss and its ferns.
Both moss and ferns tend to be below eye level, drawing one's gaze down, which is why I almost smacked face first into this snail hovering right at eye level....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Precarious
I'd love to know how that little guy got there. He's on a small branch hanging over the path, attached to a huge, long, sweeping branch that arcs way around, over, then down to the ground. The snail in question is a fuzzy blob on the leaves hanging over the path in the photo below, which doesn't show very well just how long the branch really is.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm — 1/45 sec, f/7.1, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Here's another little guy nearing the top of this stone lantern...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nearing the Pinnacle of the Day
Meanwhile, back at the front, the little trouper from the first photos has traveled about a foot in the last hour, has made a U-turn, and is heading back up toward the top of the roof...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/25 sec, f/6.3, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tooling Along at About 1 ft/hr
( Get your speed gun, that's a whopping 0.000189 mph )
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/750 sec, f/2.8, ISO 125 — map & image data — nearby photos
Watching Takeoff Preparations
( preparations to take off, unfortunately, without us )
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Practicing
for the expected loudness
The other day when Anthony and I did some local hiking that ended up at the back entrance to the Kiyomizu Temple, we got to watch a helicopter take off from the helipad at Shogunzuka, the top of one of Kyoto's “Eastern Mountains”.
Besides a helipad and hiking trails, Shogunzuka offers some nice views of Kyoto, but unless you're at the overlook, it feels like you're in the middle of nowhere...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Surrounded by Mountains
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Getting Impatient
This helipad is just a few minutes' drive from the Kyoto Westin Miyako Hotel, generally considered to be the best hotel in Kyoto. Until the government's Kyoto State Guest House was built a few years ago, U.S. presidents and other heads of state would stay here when they visited Kyoto. As I write up this post this evening, I expect that it's housing much of the overflow for the G8 summit tomorrow, although I expect that Condoleezza Rice gets to stay at the Guest House.
Anyway, because of this helipad's proximity to the hotel, I've heard that it gets a lot of use by visiting celebrities and others flush with cash. I chatted with the guy servicing the helicopter, who said that a round-trip from Kansai International Airport (exactly 50 miles away) would run about $5,000. Wow.
A friend once met Tom Cruise here (not long before Tom dove completely off the deep end of the crazy pool), but no such excitement for us: this helicopter was being hired by the electric company to inspect power lines, and they had stopped here to eat their boxed lunches. It's a Bell 206B3 JetRanger III registered as JA6192 (which I put for the search engines, because some people like finding pictures of aircraft they've seen).
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hands Prepared
just in case it starts up
Once it did start up, it turns out that it was not really very loud. I was rather surprised. I guess it's small. I told Anthony that he didn't need to cover his ears, but he was scared that it would be too loud, so kept his ears covered...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Now It's Real!
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1/90 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Watching The Blades Spin Up
from a safe distance
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1/125 sec, f/8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Exciting! Fun!
( but not really very loud )
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — 1/125 sec, f/10, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Thar She Goes
I had to stop down on the aperture to get a slow enough shutter speed to show some blade movement. Even at 1/250th of a second, the blades look essentially motionless. I was surprised at that as well.
They rotated to the left and moved out and up, and the pilot waved at Anthony, which I thought was a kind gesture. They then circled way around and disappeared...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1/125 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bye-Bye
A neighborhood restaurant featured in an earlier blog post suffered a fire yesterday when the cook took the wrong approach in cleaning the vent ducting above the stove. (Note to other cooks: using fire to burn away accumulated grime in vertical ducting works very well only if you consider the rest of the building to be “accumulated grime”.)
The fire explains why helicopters were hovering directly over our place for a while yesterday. (Hovering helicopters are apparently not good news in Japan. The last time helicopters were buzzing around, two weeks ago, it was due to a keeper at the nearby Kyoto Zoo having been mauled to death by a tiger when he apparently neglected to properly close a door before cleaning a cage. Yikes.)
The fire was yesterday afternoon, but I didn't hear about it until the evening when Fumie saw it on the news. So this morning, I stopped by after dropping Anthony off at school. Oddly, there were 20+ firemen milling about, mostly, according to the red bands on their sleeves, fire investigators.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fire Investigators
Just as I was arriving, the two fire trucks that were there started to leave, and although I have no experience with photojournalism, it doesn't take much thought to know that a big red fire truck can add interest to a photo of a fire-damaged building, so I took a shot as it pulled away...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 30 mm — 1/250 sec, f/10, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Obligatory Fire Truck
(I took lots of fire-truck pictures on my very first outing with my Nikon D200, two and a half years ago.)
One person suffered from smoke inhalation, but otherwise no one was hurt. I'm sure that the fire department arrived on the scene quickly, considering that there's a fire station less than 100 yards away!
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
View of the Fire Station
from the scene of the restaurant fire
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/1000 sec, f/4.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Kyoto Fire Department”
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1/125 sec, f/10, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/640 sec, f/4.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Fire Investigation”
This area, where the Biwako Canal turns north, has proved photogenicly fruitful for my blog, although usually for more pleasant reasons than today. Here are the photos that have appeared in earlier posts that were taken within 100 yards of the front of the restaurant (among those that have been geoencoded, that is), sorted, as accurately as the localized randomness of GPS receivers allow, in nearest-first order:
Putting five-year-old Anthony down for the night, we were lying in bed and chatting, and out of the blue he says...
| “ | When I get big, if you're not dead, I'll become a spaceship person and go up to the stars and check how much big they are, how much round, how much heavy.... ” |
I sort of chuckled at the “if you're not dead” part, but didn't comment. Since his great-grandmother died recently, and the ensuing funeral and such, we've had some matter-of-fact talks about death, and he seems to understand things well, and be at peace with the circle of life and his place in it.
I did, though, comment about how in this case it should be “how big” rather than “how much big”, etc., at which point he continued...
| “ | If you're still not dead, I'll come back and tell you how big the stars are. ” |
The conversation meandered on, eventually turning to death, then Heaven, and then God....
| “ | Did God make the stars? ” (I replied yes) |
| “ | Did God make space? ” (I replied yes) |
| “ | Did God make Himself? ” |
Wow, that's a great question, I told him, and then said that I didn't think so... that God always was.
| “ | How do you know? ” |
Well, I don't know, I just think so.
| “ | So who made God? ” |
It's hard to understand... God always was, with no beginning and no end....
| “ | Like numbers? ” |
Wow.