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Mt. Shosha, One Final Time!

There haven't been too many non-rainy days lately, so a couple weeks ago when there was a clear Sunday, I took advantage of it to climb Mt. Shosha one last time. I also needed more of an excuse to play with my new camera, too! Spending five hours on the mountain photographing everything definitely helped me to figure out more of my menu settings. It was a cloudy day, but occasionally the sun broke through.  First, some photos of Himeji spread out beneath Mt. Shosha! There are several points on the trail where you can get really great views of the city. Sometimes, on clear days, it's easy to spot the ocean; from some angles, you can even see Himeji Castle and Nagoyama Temple, though you'll need binoculars to get a clear view of them.  The ropeway cable cars come in two designs: Kuroda Kanbei, or Shiromaru-hime. Here's a photo of the latter, soaring over the city she represents!  Last year, I attempted to photograph all of the buddha statue...

Testing... Testing... New Camera!

That's right, I got myself a new camera yesterday. My first "proper" camera, if you will. I've more or less outgrown my little point-and-shoot, so thought it was time to upgrade to a DSLR. I've got about a month to get the hang of it before I leave for some of my big, final trips in Japan. So today, with the weather being dry, if not sunny, I made my way to Nagoyama Temple to experiment. Most of my photos came out pretty terribly, beyond what even Photoshop can save. Still, after a couple hours and a hundred-or-so photos, I can say that I'm starting to get a feel for how this kind of camera works. I'm slowly figuring out all of the technical terms on my camera's menu, and what situations work best for my two lenses. If the weather holds, I'll go test my camera out some more somewhere in Himeji next weekend. Until then, here are the better pictures of my first attempt at using a DSLR. Frustrations at my lack of skills aside, I actually had a lo...