And I thought I was a maniac with my cell phone camera...

Deciding that I needed to test out my new digital camera, I took advantage of today being flea market day at Touji as an excuse to go to Kyoto. It is, after all, a remarkably photogenic city.

I intended to start out around 7am, but what with one thing and another, I got a late start. I arrived at Touji about 8:20, already drenched in sweat from the heat.

The picture on the right shows an example of one of the vendor stalls. The flea market sells everything from kimono to pottery to handicrafts to food...it can really be overwhelming. I intentionally took a relatively small amount of money because I knew I would spend whatever I brought. Even when I reached the point where I knew I couldn't buy any more, it was really hard to see all the things available on the way out. I had to pass up an absolutely gorgeous silver obi with butterflies lavishly embroidered all over it...

<ahem> Anyway, my prize purchase of the day was a kimono with a pattern of books(!) scattered all over it. Is this totally made for me, or what?

After the flea market, I got the feeling that I hadn't taken enough pictures yet, so I decided to try going somewhere I had never been before. I wound up visiting Kyoto Studio Park, a place that is made up to look like various cities at famous times in Japan's history, such as the Edo and Meiji periods. It is used for filming historical dramas and movies.


( Pictures of bygone times )

In all, I took about 80 pictures, though some of them were simply flowers I passed as I was walking around. I even managed to get shots of two butterflies on the flowers...

By the time I got home, I was exhausted from the heat and the walking. I'm definitely going to take it easy tomorrow.