Hmm, been too busy to take photos until today - unofficially, the start of my summer vacation. So I went into Tokyo for some shopping. The train took about an hour longer than usual because the recent rains have affected the track in some places, so it means Go Slow. 
I went down to Oyama yesterday and it rained heavily in the evening, apparently. Fortunately, when I was riding the bike back from the station it wasn't raining. I stopped and took this street scene, thinking it would fit the Lines challenge, but I don't think it would go over so well with the voters - certainly not compared to what the big guns will produce.
I thought I was only going have to teach only two lessons today, but my offsider Yui was away sick so I had to take her two classes as well. I had been hoping to do a whole lot of photo editing, which is why I took my computer in to school. In the end, I only got three done, including this bee. Through the viewfinder, I saw it create that droplet.
One of the sixth grade classes has a travel agency's calendar in the wall. The May picture was of Disneyworld in Florida with Mickey Mouse climbing the fake mountain (Matterhorn?). I thought it was very amusing. The June photo was of Mt Kilimanjaro, and they had cut out Mickey and stuck him in the picture. Very amusing. Last week I noticed that they hadn't changed it over to July yet, but today, there he was, floating over some part of Hawai.i. So I went and got my camera from the air-conditioned staff room and took a photo of it - but, as expected, the lens fogged up because of the change of temperature - hot and muggy classroom.
And then sunset just after 7pm. This is after a rainy day of hot and muggy weather - and FOG. It seems strange to have fog in summer, but there it is. It was especially evident in the morning in the town where I work.
I've been as busy as this little big guy, so photographing and posting every day is not really possible. I took him on Thursday. The deputy principle at one of my schools is a very keen gardener, so the entrance is always festooned with flowers.
One of the dragonfly photos I took yesterday - a 100% crop; that is, no resizing, just cropped off edges to make the long side near 640pixels. I still haven't had time to do any deep and meaningful editing.
I went out with my camera at recess time to take some photos of the red flower - hibiscus? - and some kids put this dragonfly on it; it was rather docile after having been handled. Later I got some really good macro shots of an un-kidhandled dragonfly - will post later here and/or on dpc.
I was reading one of the dpc threads about contrast masking, so I experimented with this photo, which is recent. Well, levels masking. The background was blurry green, but I made it much darker.
Would have been better for Glass, but then the busy background might have counted against.
Whoops! I haven't used my camera for a couple of days, and the weather is kind of dreary, not at all good for the kind of Shadow challenge picture I want to try. We had a family dinner at the regular expensiveish sushi restaurant last night, in the private room. Outside, there are five or six swallows' nests under the eaves of the restaurant; young swallowettes (swallowings?) are learning to fly.
SontokuSo here's one of the statues of Kinjiro Ninomiya, also known as Sontoku, which I mentioned on May 27 in "In the company of Naked Men and Children". Often depicted reading a book while carrying a bundle of firewood - remember to be diligent, frugal and virtuous.
I noticed this streetlight during a second grade lesson we had in the craft room, so I went back with my camera during the break. I hadn't taken any pictures during the weekend ;-)
As I was leaving school, a snake was discovered outside the teachers' entrance, so naturally I got my camera out. I only got two shots as I thought that was enough. The boys were excited but were told to go away. Of course, it's harmless, and armless.
I read about the special dpchallenge, so after leaving school I stopped off at the yellow bridge because the sky was dramatic .... however, it wasn't dramatic in theright place exactly.
We went to the Romantic Village onsen today; it's not very far away and we've been to Romantic Village before, but not the onsen. It was raining slightly but it was nice sitting in the outdoor hotpool. There was at least one girl in the men's section; she must have been 3rd or 4th grade. Apparently, there was a boy in the women's section too.
I went into the gym (of the new school) to try out some architectural photos, and a teacher was in there with four students teaching them road rules. There were roads marked out in tape. It just seemed strange to see bicycles being ridden in a gym...
I think they're second graders; I don't know them so well.
I'd been looking forward to going to the famous Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa. It's one of Tokyo's Big Three festivals. I've been three times - but the last time was 15 years ago. However, it was raining here in the morning and Mi-chan didn't feel well, so I stayed home. A small bit I saw of it on the TV news showed it was sunny in Tokyo - but hot, and this sort of weather brought thunderstorms and heavy rain to that area in the afternoon.
It seems to be a cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis. they're usually all white but get the coloured feathers in breeding season/spring. I saw the group of them a few weeks ago, but then didn't see them - I thought they must have migrated on. But there they were today, in rice paddies on the other side of the road where I don't usually look. I thought it was worth stopping and trying to get a few photos of them - even though I knew they'd not stick around if I approached. But I was lucky, as this fellow had just caught a frog - I got two shots before he flew off. Of course, it's a crop of a much larger photo. It was raining very sparsely st the time.
This fellow was down on the creek, hanging on the grass stalk. When I first saw it, I thought it was an immature dragonfly, perhaps just emerged, because it didn't move at all. But it really is some kind of kagerou, of which there are 10 species in Japan, with 109 different kinds. It's a dayfly or ephemera. It has two long thin tails, and may live only 2 or 3 days as an adult, or even only half a day.
I stopped to take some photos of the irises next to a rice paddy. However, it was a bit breezy for any good macro work, but I got a couple of pics of bees. The irises (this kind, at least) really make the bees work for their pollen; they have to enter and go down the chute (the yellow stripes) to get to the pollen. When they've finished, they have to go backwards to get out.
In a fit of m***ess, I decided to change the Template of this blog. Of course, that means losing any formatting such as that for the the <--- dpc links, now at left. Oh, well, 'tis done now.
I haven't done much photo editing in the last couple of days, so here's another view of the Kirifuri Falls - a wide angle shot, obviously.
It being Children's Day, what better way to spend it than to go to the coin laundry and wash your sneakers in the sneaker-washing washing machine.
Another one from Wednesday, which was a public holiday. Today is another public holiday (Children's Day), so this is Golden Week in Japan - most people are on vacation.
We went up to Nikko today, and actually went on the Shinkyo, the Sacred vermillion bridge, which has been open for walking on (a;beit a special platform over the bridge surface) since the renovations finished last year. The open season was supposed to finish in April, but has been extended for a few more months. However, all the pictures I took were 15 to 35 minutes before the dpchallenge rollover, so would be ineligible. ............
I also took some photos of the Kirifuri waterfalls, which were more visible than last time we saw them because the trees aren't in full foliage yet.
Finally, we went further up the mountain to a Japan Post Office affiliated hotel to go to the onsen (spa bath). Not a natural one, because it was on the sixth floor/roof. I also went into the sauna, which had a 12 minute clock. I'd never seen a 12 minute clock before.
