A leisurely walk past the Kyoto Imperial Palace (京都御所) inside the Kyoto Gyoen.

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Mt Fuji from Shinkansen

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Kamogawa

Another photo I took of the Kamogawa river area with Sakura here. This was a really nice afternoon walk with good weather and great atmosphere on the river bank.

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A few really nice sakura trees here with branches reaching down to the water below

As the Sakura season is finishing for another year, I took some shots on the weekend taking advantage of the good weather.

Sakura with blue skies

Couples enjoying the banks of the Kamogawa River with Sakura

Kamogawa

A touch of HDR with the Sakura on the riverbanks

Where did you enjoy the Sakura this year?

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Even a Temple needs to get its mail delivered

Thought it was interesting to see the postman rush down on his bike through the Temple to deliver the mail.

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Kyoto Lunch

I have been in Kyoto and was enjoying some very nice food both at lunch and dinner time. One of my favorite restaurants here is called Mumokuteki. The food is all organic, looks delicious and is very tasty.

雑穀米 Zakkoku rice

Zakkokumai or Zakkoku rice (雑穀米）means “mixed grain rice”. The mix I am eating has a reddish color. It may contain akamai (red rice) or maybe kuromai (black rice) in it.

Delicious

Miso Soup

It is probably best not to rest your chopsticks across the bowl, called watashi-bashi 渡し箸, unless you are signaling you have had enough and maybe didn’t like the meal. I certainly haven’t finished the meal in this photo, but just wanted to show off the nice grain of wood on the chopsticks.

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Sakura mochi

I had some tea and Sakuramochi while in Kyoto. Sakuramochi is a type of wagashi, Japanese sweets, made from red bean paste and wrapped in a sakura leaf. Th leaves are normally dry preserved from the previous season. The Kansai sakuramochi is made differently to that in Kanto. Can you tell the difference?

Hojicha

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Nice to be out in the fresh air walking down the banks of the Kamogawa river in Kyoto

The bridges of Kamogawa

Looking out from one of the many bridges out to the mountains in the distance

The pathways are great for running and walking. Very peaceful

Getting down close to the waters edge

The water didn't look too deep, but it was moving quite fast

Lots of people were crossing here as well

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Wonderful colors in rich kimono material for your iPad

I visited Kyoto recently and dropped in on Kyokaori Company where they have been very creative and turned some kimono obi’s into brilliantly colorful and unique iPad Cases. Imagine turning up to a meeting with your iPad dressed in a kimono. You would be sure to attract a lot of attention.

Whilst there are plenty of reds, I really liked the contrast of the black coming through.

One of the more subtle patterns

This photo was from an article carried in the Japan Times a few weeks ago, which discussed the concept and also shows a photo of Tomita-san, from Kyokaori Co.

Japan Times article about Kimono iPad Case

So many great designs mixed in with rich colors. How do you choose?

The stock for these iPad cases is currently limited as the material is made from the Obi of Maiko, apprentice geisha. As you might guess the patterns for males are almost sold out since the Obi of Maiko are worn by females. Most of the patterns for the cases are typical classical Japanese such as Chrysanthemum (菊)、bamboo (たけ)、cherry blossom (さくら)　and　butterflies (蝶), which are all worn by females.

This black based pattern looks good too

Bright reds for the girls maybe

What do you think of the green and lavendar colors on the right with a background of black?

These are premium products for those who want to dress their iPad up. Prices start at just under 10,000 Yen (roughly US$85), and go up to around 20,000 Yen (roughly US$170) for some of the more expensive kimono material. The cloth is very durable and strong. Apart from just having a good looking and unusual iPad case, you will also have a part of Japanese traditional culture which has a unique history of its own passed down from the Maiko wearer of the Kimono prior to it becoming an iPad case. Unique indeed.

Shipping overseas can be arranged for whatever the extra is for postage to your area.

One of the great display Kimonos I was taking a closer look at. This would be wonderful to wear to a formal occasion !!

Taking a look at some more display Kimonos

The Kyokaori Office in Kyoto

Further Information
If you are interested I will be helping Kyokaori Co. to promote the cases and help spread the word about great Japanese innovation in the textile industry, particularly from Kyoto. They have some great ideas in addition to the Kimono iPad Case and are a source for blending traditional Japan with the modern world.

Sizes of cases are available to fit various the various iPad models. Cases for iPad3 will be organized very shortly.

You can drop me a line at blog@shibuya246.com if you want more information or leave a comment on this post.

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Standing on the top of the mountain

I have been away for the last 5 days and have some photos to catch up shortly. Can you guess where I have been?

What river might this be?

Arcades

Time for some tea

I am very excited to be telling you more about these colors. Can you guess what this is for?

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Dogo Onsen was about 10 minutes walk away and as I went out dressed in yukata to head towards the baths, I was given a small carry basket (bucket?) with a towel in it. The tag on the basket says “funaya” ふなや for Funaya Hotel. Some others in the street also had this baskets with their own hotel names on it.

Funaya Hotel basket

The main entrance to the hotel

Getting ready for the evening session at the first floor restaurant

Very nice traditional lobby area and gift shop beyond that

The architecture was a mix of old and modern, with some beautiful greenery surrounding the hotel

The crossover between old and new buildings

Cute little display

A chance to buy some local produce タルト

Coffee shop area overlooking the gardens

A little bit of rain starting to fall

The special exhibition space, showing some of the history of the hotel

Pictures of the Prince making a visit

The Emperor and Prince in the photos here on the wall from a previous visit

Interesting architecture on these arches, very nicely done.

Old style telephone box

You can see the Dogo Onsen photos here.

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Shibuya Hikarie

It was a beautiful day again today in Tokyo, with blue skies and higher temperatures. Winter did not seem that cold this year, but today felt like it was definitely coming to an end.

Out in shibuya, I wanted to take some pictures of the sky, so decided to catch the new Hikarie building at Shibuya station in the frame. Well, the building is so big, it took most of the frame actually.

These are HDR images made from a single RAW file. The camera is saving the raw files at about 12MB per image alongside the in camera JPEG converted image which is about 4MB. When it hits the web the pixels are reduced down from about 4000×3000 pixels to 960×620 pixels, which helps cut the image size a bit. Compression also with that brings it further down to about 200-300K per image.

I darkened the top picture a bit with Picasa before uploading it. I often get asked about whether I use Photoshop, but despite trying many times I haven’t been able to get it to work for me.

Shibuya Hikarie with blue skies

My main tool is Picasa for resizing images and exporting them to web friendly compressions. For HDR I also use PhotoMatix, sometimes from 5 or 7 images, sometimes, like today, just from the 1 RAW file.

If you want to see how to make great HDR photos, I recomend Trey Ratcliffe’s site at StuckInCustoms

The Hikarie name got hikaried a bit by the sun

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