Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/320 sec, f/4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
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Small Path at the Nanzen Temple

I'd like to share a few more shots from yesterday's impromptu visit to Nanzenji (南禅寺 the Nanzen Temple, Kyoto Japan). The path above seems to lead to some part of the temple complex, but I've never seen anyone on it. I like the view, and think it might make a nice desktop background, so have provided links to both widescreen and standard-format versions.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 86mm — ¹/640 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Placing Incense

If incense smoke wafts over your head, you'll become smarter..... or so it is said.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/350 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 180mm — ¹/320 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sharing at Full Tilt

After the “Looking for Goodies” shot from yesterday's post, Anthony came running to me with the candy he'd procured. I wasn't able to keep him in focus, but I liked the shot above nevertheless. When he arrived, he gave me one, and when I thanked him for sharing, he said that no, he was just showing me — the other one was for Mommy.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tenjuan from Nanzenji

I liked how the roof of the building (which is 天授庵, a temple called Tenjuan) stuck out of the trees, with part of the roof of the main gate of the Nanzen Temple in the foreground.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640, P.P. boost: +0.71EV — map & image data — nearby photos
Bird watching

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — ¹/350 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
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Lush, Mossy (sort of) Lawn

Above is another shot I think might make a nice desktop background, so I've provided those links as well. It's of the same area as a shot of a lady cleaning the lawn from several years ago, but in much different light and from a different direction.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tough Terrain

A close-up of the mossy lawn, which shows that it's not really moss. I don't know what it is.

You may have to look at the large version (click on image) to understand the caption, but as a hint, it's similar to the first photo of my Funky Flowers at the Kyoto Botanical Gardens post.

Fumie and I had a ningen dokku (人間ドック) medical checkup today. It's like an elaborate physical, including X-rays, electrocardiographs, etc. The low point for me was a camera down the throat to check the lining of the stomach (high-resolution video coming soon! :-)). Fumie had an MRI as well, which she also didn't care for.

The “ningen” in the title means “human,” but I couldn't find anyone who knew the stand-alone meaning or origin of “dokku.” Looking it up now, I see that it's from the English “dock,” and thus the imagery of a full checkup like this is comparable to bringing a ship into drydock.

Most salaried workers get one form or another of this kind of checkup every few years at their company's expense, but we decided to get them on our own ($1,200 for the pair) because it seems like a good idea to have a checkup from time to time.

One test was related to the lungs' capacity to hold air: how much air you can breath out. I don't know that I'd ever done one of these tests, but I recall my dad talking about having done them when he taught elementary education at Kent. He used a simple version of the test (blowing air into an overturned, underwater beaker) as something that could be used to demonstrate various scientific principles to elementary kids.

Having grown up on a farm as a child and having been a runner as an adult, my barrel-chested dad has a fairly substantial lung capacity. I don't know that he ever told his students the results of his personal test, but he always had them try it themselves (because, after all, in college just as in primary school, interactive classes are more fun). Football players and marathon runners alike could never eclipse his volume. If I recall one story properly, a petite woman did eclipse his volume once, such that Dad thought she must have made a mistake in doing the test. Doing it again confirmed that she simply had amazing lung capacity. I think she was a volleyball player, for what that's worth.

In any case, today after I did the test, the doctor looking at the readouts started chuckling and shaking his head in a “well, whaddya know!” kind of way. I asked him what my lung capacity was, and he said “7.43 liters.” Well, despite my having heard my Dad's lung capacity stories, I didn't recall any numbers so I don't know whether 7.43 liters is large or small, but when he asked “do you really do that much sports?” I got an idea. As he looked back to check more readings, he sort of muttered half to himself and half to me “I've never even seen 7 liters....”.

So, clearly, I have another bullet point for my resume. Somewhere between “wrote Mastering Regular Expressions” and “8-year software architect for the Yahoo! Finance web site,” I'll have to add “Has a commanding 7.43-liter lung capacity.”

🙂

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Special Time Together

This morning we took a short bike ride to Kyoto's Nanzen Temple (南禅寺), one of the more famous temples in Japan. I was there just the other day with some friends, and it's been featured in my blog before (such as this Photography of Katsunori Shimada, a few shots from a visit two years ago, and another shot or two by Shimada-san). It's one of those things that's so close that we sort of take it for granted, so most photography I do there still awaits processing. But I liked today images especially, so they jump to the head of the line.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Playing a Game with Mommy

Anthony was a bit fussy at times, so Fumie made up a simple paper-rock-scissors game by which the winner of each round advances some number of steps. In the shot above, Mommy's gotten far out in front of him. By the shot below, he's caught up, and it looks like his scissors is about to beat Fumie's rock.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 105mm — ¹/90 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Clash of the Titans

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
It Seems More Fun When I Win

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/350 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Being Silly

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/800 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Approaching V_r
(that means “takeoff speed”)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 90mm — ¹/800 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pure Joy

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/320 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
I'm Here!

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 95mm — ¹/500 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking for Goodies

The first image shown in this post came at about this point. It's a lovely, warm image, so I wanted to open with it.

Just to give a bit of perspective of where they're sitting, here's a view from a bit further back, with them in the lower center:

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Entrance Gate of the Nanzen Temple

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/640 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
View West from the Furano Wine House

During our trip to Hokkaido a month ago, we twice ate lunch at the Furano Wine House (富良野ワインハウス), a pleasant restaurant at the top of a small monadnock that offers commanding views in three directions. Even though the top of the hill is only 50 meters above the surrounding plane, the views make it feel like it's much higher.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 35mm — ¹/30 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Leaving the Restaurant is an Occasion to Climb

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 22mm — ¹/3200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
View From the Small Park Next to the Restaurant

There's a tiny park next to the restaurant that's thoroughly enjoyable for a four year old, including steep banks to climb along with the normal attractions of a park (place to run, bugs, spider webs, etc).

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, — map & image data — nearby photos
Climbing a Short Hill

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Watching Anthony Climb

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 50mm — ¹/640 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, — map & image data — nearby photos
Surveying His Achievement

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 130mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fumie and George Enjoy the Views

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 135mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fumie and George Take a Rest

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100, — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony Checks Out the Views

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm / cropped — ¹/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hill and Wine House
As seen from our hotel two and a half miles away

As part of Aunt Jeannette's visit to Kyoto, Anthony and I tagged along on one of her tour days, which brought me to the Kiyomizu Temple (清水寺) for the first time in many years. I really have no excuse for not visiting sooner, since it's just a mile away.

These days, this temple seems to be known among foreign tourists mostly because it's included among some company's “new seven wonders of the world” profit campaign. Both the campaign and this temple's inclusion in such a list seem like a total crock to me, but the temple is wonderful nevertheless.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — ¹/640 sec, f/8, ISO 250, — map & image data — nearby photos
Lotsa' Steps To Somewhere

There are dozens of buildings in the temple complex, the one above being some minor outlying building or something.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 48mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250, — map & image data — nearby photos
Bamboo and Twine Fence
(With the help of a few screws)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
More Steps

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/350 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nice View From the Main Temple

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 23mm — ¹/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nice View of the Main Temple

Looking back from further on in back toward the main temple, you can see how it's propped up on the mountain side.

The big white building in the background is, I think, the recently-completed cover for the main hall of the Hongan Temple, 1.9 miles (3km) away. It's absolutely huge, being 100 meters deep, by 75 meters wide, by really really tall.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/250 sec, f/4, ISO 250, — map & image data — nearby photos
B&W Gargoyle

Well, since water's not passing through the face, I guess “gargoyle” is not technically accurate, but I don't know what else to call it. The gutter downspout was somewhat orangeish, but otherwise this roof was almost completely devoid of color, so I thought to give it a black and white rendition.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 35mm — ¹/160 sec, f/4, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony and Aunt Jeannette

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 22mm — ¹/320 sec, f/4, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony Playing “I'm Gunna' Get You”

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Checking Out the Incense

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 52mm — ¹/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Checking Out the Fountain

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — ¹/60 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Using Water from the Fountain
(Apparently in the proper way, mimicking what someone else just did)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 35mm — ¹/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Kyoto Tower in the Background

I don't know the people doing the stereotypical Japanese “peace” photo pose, but I thought this view nicely gave a sense of the temple's location to Greater Kyoto, with Kyoto Tower and JR Kyoto Station about 1.6 miles (2.5km) west-south-west.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640, — map & image data — nearby photos
Small Portion of the Parking Lot
Which can hold 51 full-length tourist busses, in addition to numerous cars and the mini busses like those in the foreground here.