Poetry

Buddha along the path to Ryōan-ji (Temple of the Peaceful Dragon), Kyoto, 03 March 2007. After checking in at the hotel, we ended up with only three hours to see whatever we could in Kyoto. We hurriedly chose Ryōan-ji and Kinkaku-ji, two landmark temples in the northern part of Kyoto that are within walking distance of each other. Ryōan-ji is famous for its Zen rock garden. I took several photos of the garden, but didn't feel they captured the feel of the place. This stone Buddha came out okay, though. For information on the temple and garden, see Wikipedia entry for Ryoan-ji.

Shinkansen leaving Kobe station, 03 March 2007. While we were waiting for the next train to Kyoto, this one pulled up at the platform opposite us. My friends took pictures of each other with the motionless train in the background, laughing at my failure to react to such an obvious photo op¾my camera was still in its case with the battery out when its imminent departure was announced over the loudspeaker, and it was already leaving by the time I got my act together. I managed to snap this just a couple of seconds before it disappeared. Under the circumstances, it turned out better than I thought it would. For extensive info on the railways of Japan, check out the Wikipedia entry for Shinkansen.

Path, Ryōan-ji temple grounds, Kyoto. At this point, we were on our way out, so I was tempted to call this "The Path from Enlightenment."

Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion), Kyoto. Many images of this famous temple can be found on the web. My photo isn't too bad compared with what I've seen. I'd say it must be impossible to take a bad picture of this highly photogenic landmark (see, e.g., images stored at the Wikipedia entry for Kinkaku-ji).

Zen rock garden, Ryōan-ji, Kyoto. After attempting about a dozen shots of the rock garden, I realized I didn't have the right skills, or ways of seeing, to capture anything essential about it, at least not on that day¾so I gave up and started paying attention to the people there instead. This is the only photo I took at the rock garden that I liked. Of course it's really just the background for this shot.