Traveling Shiga City And Kyoto Japan

I finally have internet again. I've been behind on my posting and the last 4 days I haven't had stable enough / no internet at all to be able to upload any photos. Today I'm finally back in civilization can now continue posting. 

I've been shooting all my photography this trip with the Sony A7r mirrorless camera and Canon lenses or my Zeiss 35mm F2.8 lens. One thing I've noticed now that I have a relatively small camera, is how many people are still shooting on massive DSLRs. It cracks me up when I see someone with a $7,000 Canon 1Dx to shoot a cherry blossom in front of a shrine. 

The only thing I could think of is they must be a pro sports photographer that is just traveling Japan and feels like shooting flowers. I'll do a full post on this later.

On to my shoots. These would be from day 7 of my 37 days in Japan. And I actually used Color Efex Pro to process most of these. For a change.

Sakura Of Shiga City

We got lucky this trip and timed our visit with the full bloom of the Sakura (cherry blossoms) perfectly. The good part about going to Japan this time of year is the view is unreal, everywhere you look it seems like your in a dream. No joke. The only bad part about it is the Sakuras drive a lot of tourism. So many of the cool sites are packed with people. But even with all the people, it's worth the sight.

A Trip To Mii Temple

We visited another well known temple in Shiga Japan near Lake Biwa. The Cherry Blossoms were exploding with life around us. 

Cherry Blossoms And A Pagoda

These blossoms were in perfect bloom in front of this Pagoda.

I probably have a few better takes of it, but for the sake of time I picked one and went with it. 

Overlooking Lake Biwa

Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan. This view only shows a very small portion of it.

When I first saw it I thought I was looking out into the ocean.

Oumi Wagyu Sukiyaki

A food worth mention in Shiga City is their Oumi Wagyu Sukiyaki.

You cook your meat and veggies or mushrooms on a portable stove  and dip it into raw egg. It was pretty amazing. One of the best foods I had this trip so far.

And one of the cool things about the egg in Japan, is you can eat it raw because they don't torture their chickens with antibiotics, steroids and cramped cages like we do in the US. So the food you're getting comes from relatively healthy animals.

Back To Kyoto

The Kyoto Tower was kind of our landmark of knowing how close we were to our apartment. We never had a chance to go to the top though. Would have been fun.

The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion

I've shot here before with the Canon 5Dmkii and got a much nicer image here. This time the weather was crap so I just did a really quick shot and processed it with Color Efex Pro real fast. I literally only shot 5 shots of this thing. It's a really cool building in Kyoto with really nice history. Definitely worth the visit.

You can learn more about Color Efex Pro here.

That's all I have time for today. Tomorrow I'll probably sum up a few days into one to get caught back up.

I've got a few more Kyoto shots, some Nara, and Fukuoka coming up.