Here are some more snow-play photos from the other day's “Fun Day of Snow Play, Snowflake Photography, and Birds”, as my brother Alan and his family are also visiting my folks here in Ohio.

Titi is Anthony's cousin, and first made an appearance on my blog at about the same time she made an appearance in life, and then here, here, here, and here (probably among others).

I grabbed Mom for a photo as she was heading out somewhere...

Here's an interactive sequence of Alan diving onto the sled. The dive wasn't as epic as some that came later (such as the one leading this post), but the sequence here is nice, I think, so I'm showing this one.

Sweep the mouse side to side over the photo to seen the sequence...

For some reason, that blue sled didn't quite make it intact to the end of the day.

No one was immune, not even Mommy...

A big pile of gravel covered with snow looked to be a fun start to launch the sled...

But then he didn't balance his weight appropriately, and unintentionally started sledding backwards...

Having more coordination, balance, and sense than her dad, Titi had no such troubles...

But after watching her dad try to sled forward (again), but fail (again) and slide backwards (again), Titi thought it looked fun and wanted to try going backwards on purpose...

All and all, everyone had a great time playing in the snow.

Today was fun.

My brother Alan and his wife Natalie and their 4¾ year old Titi are also visiting my folks here in Ohio, and we had a fair amount of snow.

Titi's day started with feeding the birds with Grandma (as regularly happens here) for an hour. It was cold (14F / -10C), so when they came in from that it was time for some hot cocoa by the fire...

I had a nice reaction to the “Goldfinches in a Light Snow” post the other day, so I thought I'd try some more bird shots. I ended up being out there for only 10 minutes before other tasks called me away, but got a couple of nice shots...

Then it was time for some snow play, just like last year with Anthony.

Natalie noticed humongous snowflakes on her jacket... I'd never seen the beautiful patterns of a snowflake with the naked eye, but wow, I could sure see them today...

I couldn't believe that I could get snowflake shots with a normal lens (even my favorite macro). The results are not great as far as snowflake shots go (for example, these), but it's enough to make me wonder what I could do with a bit more preparation (and a platform not moving around when her daughter runs up).

I also thought I'd give a go at some snow-covered red berries, but the results are pretty boring.

My winter trip from Kyoto to where I grew up in Ohio was via Tokyo, and on the way to Tokyo from Kyoto we had a nice view of Mt. Fuji, and of course, one must take a photo. Unfortunately the pilot neglected to mention Fuji was just outside the window until we were almost completely past, so the photo ended up being through the window at a fairly strong angle. The result is ho-hum, but there it is.

As far as from-an-airplane-window photos go, I much prefer the shots in “View from the Window Seat” five years ago.

In Tokyo, I had quite a long walk for my transfer to the trans-Pacific flight, but I had plenty of time...

At the end of the tunnel was a tall atrium with escalators criss-crossing on the way up. It seemed photogenic at the time, but perhaps I needed a wider angle....

Oh well. I like the tunnel shot.

On the 13-hour transpacific flight I was blessed to sit next to an interesting conversationalist, but the ANA airplane had some kind of new butt-sliding seats that didn't actually recline. They are perhaps comfortable up to a certain height, but I'm well beyond whatever that height is, and the flight ended up being one of the most uncomfortable trans-Pacific flight's (of about 70 or 80) I've ever had.

A 1½ hour mechanical delay in getting out of Tokyo meant that I missed my connection in Chicago, but I was able to snag a flight within four or five hours... a much better situation than last year (written about in “Thank You Anonymous Hero at Chicago O’Hare’s Gate E2a”).

I got to my folks' place at 5pm. In bed by 6pm, and I slept until 7am. Jet lag, which is normally crushing, has been wonderfully minor.

Lots of goldfinches at the feeders at my folks' place in Ohio. During the summer they're brilliant yellow (as seen in “Goldfinches on a Feeder” a few years ago), but they're less vibrant during the winter.

I didn't bring many lenses on this trip... I would have liked the 70-200, but I made do with the Voigtländer 125mm and some cropping. Good birding pics are very difficult and I certainly don't have the skill, but these are fine for me.

The bush was just a staging ground for the feeders. They'd all cleared away when I stepped out, and were just now starting to return...

I popped down to South Carolina to visit my brother Alan and to join him in a road trip back up to Ohio, and on the flight last night I sat next to an off-duty pilot for US Airways who lives on a 250-acre farm in Ohio and commutes to his flight hub in Charlotte for work. We had a nice chat.

He knows nothing of Japan, and enjoys farming, so I thought I'd put a post of random “farming in Japan” photos for him. It's somewhat of a challenge to find appropriate (but still unpublished) shots among the 130,000 photos in my archive, but are some I could scrounge up at short notice.

Most of these shots come from events that have already been discussed on my blog... if you have interest, see the “nearby photos” link under each photo for more photos from the same area, and links to the associated article on my blog.

I've a lot of blog posts about rice farming; perhaps the best introduction is “Stages of the Rice Harvest”.

We came across this farming community nestled in the mountains an hour north of Kyoto by chance while on a drive on a drizzly/foggy summer day, but apparently it was popular with photographers because we saw this sign by the road:

And finally, one bonus (non-Japanese) shot...