Afternoon shadows.

The last afternoon shadows of 2014.

Painterly clouds

Painterly clouds this afternoon; replaced by gray ones.

Post-rain sunset

Back in California, it rained like crazy yesterday and was overcast and rainy today, and now we're getting the sunsets that go with it.

Kamakura's Great Buddha

A few more pictures of the Great Buddha in Kamakura.  I saw lots of Buddhas in Bhutan, but they were all indoors.  This guys was outdoors and I think that made him more impressive.  There's something about seeing him next to a tree that really emphasizes the size.

Leaves

Here's some scans of leaves that I collected on my trip.  You can't feel the texture from a picture, but  they're still beautiful to look at.

More Kyoto pictures

More pictures from Kyoto!  Kyoto was amazing - the fall colors were in their full glory.  I went to Kinkaku-ji and the grounds were spectacular.

Home!

Well, I'm back now.  The flight was delayed by about 1/2 hour but otherwise uneventful.  My seatmate was pretty cool - she was on her way back from trekking in Bhutan, so we had stories to share.  I'll be putting up more photos as I go through them.

A museum, a palace, and some sake

Well the past few days have all been in Tokyo.  Wednesday I went to the National Museum.  They had a special exhibit on the National Treasures, but the line was over an hour long (they don't do timed tickets - you stand in line) so I passed on that and went to the general exhibit that looked at Japanese art over time starting with clay figurines from 2,000 b.c.  It was really interesting for me to compare this with western art, especially having just been to Paris a few months earlier.  Biggest differentiators:  There is no yellow ochre in Japan (gasp!); the shape of the brush; and the purpose (is it a pretty picture on the wall or is it the wall and you swap out walls depending on the occasion?).  There's lots of sepia-type colors and green and blue.  When you walk over to the archaeology exhibit and see all of the clay pots and jade you understand where those colors come from, although I'm not sure about the blue - since it's ink that could be crushed shells.

There were some cool samurai outfits from the Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo periods:

And of course from the O-Berry period:

And a rather impressive umbrella exhibit.  

Yes, they have banks of umbrella parking out front, because when it rains there, it means business!

Thursday was a nice sunny day, so I went to visit the Imperial Palace, or at least the gardens out front.  This was a continuation of my Fall Colors tour and the trees did not disappoint. They line the street and the river.

There's also this cool bridge by the palace that must be famous based on the number of people taking its picture.

The most notable thing about this area is that it's like a normal city: No massive screens complete with sound, just normal buildings.  Wow.

That afternoon I met with a friend and got to meet her 6-month old monkey.  He's into everything.  Not crawling yet, but he likes to try and stand and climb.

And then of course in the evening it was Thanksgiving dinner!  Not a holiday in Japan of course, but that doesn't stop me from getting together with friends and going out for dinner.

Good food, plenty of sake, and good times with my friends.  Today it's one last walk around Shibuya and the noise and lights, then it's back home.  It's been a wonderful trip - thanks Japan for showing me autumn colors!  And thanks to my friends for hanging out and celebrating Thanksgiving with me.

Tokyo shopping

Raining today, so indoor recess.  And the museums were closed.  So I was forced to go shopping.  I headed to Akihabara to see if I could find that hobby shop again. This was made doubly-difficult by the fact that I didn't remember the name of it, just that it was on the 5th floor or so and you could see "hobby shop" and something about trains in the window from the street. Adventure!  When you get to the Akihabara station there is a handy map showing every McDonald's and Family Mart, thus making it useless since there's a ton of those (it's like saying "it's near the Starbucks"). But it's one of those fascinating places to just wander.

I did manage to find it again (it's called Tam Tam) and did some shopping (found the people and the cars dad!).  I also did some spontaneous shopping at a department store when I saw the setup celebrating 100 years of Tokyo station - more train stuff.  And I of course took a train to get here.  And a few of the ginko trees were yellow, So lots of trains and a few more trees.  I also wandered an anime shop, but I like the one in Shibuya better - so I'll need to find that one again (more adventure!).

It's a fairly overwhelming place so after some train shopping I stopped at a quiet cafe for lunch.

The clouds were getting darker and darker so mid-afternoon I headed back to the hotel to drop off my goodies.  It's amazing how the trains can be jam-packed in one direction and basically empty in the other. I think a nice mellow evening is in order, and perhaps a museum tomorrow.  Which will require taking the train.

Hakone

I think we could safely say that Hakone is "nestled in the mountains."  It's surrounded by huge lumpy hills which right now are turning lovely colors.  Getting there of course requires an awesome bullet train, followed by another train, and then to get into the center of it all you take a bus through the mountains down to the lake.  This is the home of the famous floating torii, which you are legally required to take a picture of.

There's also a very nice walk along the lake.  Calm, basically flat, and really beautiful.

There are a couple of cruise ships that do tours along the lake but it was quite cool and windy, so I opted out of the boat and just went for the walk.  It was fabulous.  I found a little mom-and-pop cafe for lunch and had pizza.  Really.  I love pizza in Japan because the bread is so good.  I am eating way too much bread on this trip and I'm going to turn into bread real soon.  It was good. So there.

After lunch I did a little more sketching and walking along the lake and came across a group of sketchers all scribbling away at the hills.  I was tempted to hang out with them but I wanted to head back to the other side of the mountain to check out the town there, so it was back to the bus for the trip back over.  "Crowded" would be an understatement.  But that's Japan.  It was fine until we hit the traffic jam. I think this is a permanent thing since there's only one road - I mean they had a pre-recorded announcement recommending that you hop off and catch this other train instead.  Which I did.  So now I'm on train number... I think 4 for the day.  And this is a true switchback - it does a 3-point turn at a few points since it needs to get down this mountain.  Oh, and this was also packed.  Then you get to the train station and by now it's getting dark so you might as well head out so you take another train to Odawara, then you catch the shinkansen to Shinagawa (and they mean bullet train, which is hell when one goes by and the tracks squeek), Then it's the JR Yamamoto back to Shibuya.  You gotta love trains if you're going to hang out in Japan.

Kamakura

The morning started with an e-mail from mom telling me that there had been an earthquake in Japan.  I hadn't noticed. Then it was on to breakfast, and the folks at the next table had beer with theirs, yes at 7:30 in the morning.  Folks, I think that's a sign.  The breakfast was quite good - even without the beer - and then it was time to check out of hotel number 2 and go back to hotel number 1.  Shibuya is far more convenient train-wise and a little more exciting than Roppongi Hills.

Today was a trip to Kamakura.  It's about an hour by train and the station there is insanity - I think it's about half the size it needs to be in terms of people movement.  You need to swim across stream to get to the tourist center where the nice people have maps and knowledge, both of which are available in English.  I've been to Kamakura before, but had not seen the Great Daibutsu (Buddha).  So this time I went to check him out.  Wow - impressive.  I saw more than my fair share of Buddhas in Bhutan, but all but one were indoors.  This guy is outside and it suits him.  Very awesome.  Just follow the crowd to get there.

even his shoes are there:

Visiting this Buddha is a very different experience from Bhutan.  In Bhutan when you enter the shrine your shoes are off, your hat is off and they don't allow photography, and you certainly don't have people doing the same poses you would with Mickey Mouse.  It's a lot more solemn. This guy you can apparently go inside and climb up, which I did not do - too weird and too different from my Bhutan experience.  But he was quite the site from the outside.

There is of course a gift shop and the requisite drink vending machines, and more importantly green tea ice cream.  There were a few trees in that shrine area that were changing, but it was time to look for a bit of a hike.  That's not too hard to find, and I headed up a hill (Kamakura can be Indiana Jones hike-wise) and it was nice to be in the woods. I past a seriously-long line to enter a different shrine, and went up to the top of the hill where there are several more shrines (you really can't spit without hitting a shrine).  There was a nice quiet one at the top of the hill, not sure what it was about, but it was friendly.

There were little patches of color along the way.  Much of Kamakura is still green or just starting to turn, but there are some really beautiful spots.

And any time there are colorful trees there are packs of people enjoying them.  There are also a couple of nice view points down into the valley that are really spectacular even without full color, and I enjoyed those just as much.  Then it was back down down down (which is hell on your knees) and back through the town (it helps to have a good sense of direction when the roads are cow paths and don't have names) and back to the train station and back to Tokyo.

After those calming moments I went for a walk in Shibuya, and this time I did have a crepe (banana and chocolate).