Halloween

 

Well, today is Halloween, but I haven't been out scouting for appropriate Halloween scenes to photograph.  Six years ago I was in Savannah on Halloween and saw four dinosaurs walking past. 

Ritz Carlton Beach Resort

 Ritz Carlton has two major properties in Naples.  Ritz Carlton Tiburon is a glamorous golf community that hosts both PGA Champions tournaments (for professional men 50 years and older) and the LPGA. 

 

This is the other one, the original Ritz Carlton, a beach resort that is a short distance from Gulf of Mexico beaches.  The beach resort just recently re-opened after a multi-year renovation that began in 2021.  

The renovation was originally planned to be completed in 2022, but the hotel took a direct hit from Hurricane Ian and remained closed much longer.

The Inn on Pelican Bay

 The Inn on Pelican Bay is at the southern edge of Pelican Bay, a 2,330 acre Naples community with about 6,500 residences.  Pelican Bay was developed in the early 1970s in a joint venture between Westinghouse and the Barron Collier companies.

 The Inn opened in 1993.  It is a 100 room, six story boutique hotel that is ranked by several ranking firms as the #1 hotel in Naples and the #1 hotel in Florida.  It is a short walk to the beaches.  Waterside Shops -- a high end shopping center -- is across the street.  Pickleball courts are next door.

Rembrandt at Naples Art Institute

Naples Art Institute is hosting Masterpieces in Black and White, an exhibition of etchings from the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam. 

 

Rembrandt began as a painter and added etching to his skills when he was 20.  He was largely self-taught as an etcher.  Many of his works are extremely small.

Naples Art provides magnifying glasses so visitors can see the details on these small etchings.  This is a 1636 etching called Self Portrait with Saskia.  Saskia was his wife and one of his favorite subjects.

It is amazing to me that Rembrandt had the ability to control his stylus so well when working on etchings this small.

Rembrandt etched, sketched and painted himself repeatedly.  This one is from 1642, the same year he delivered his masterpiece, The Night Watch, to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.  It is also the year that Saskia died.

This is one of Rembrandt's larger etchings, A Scholar in His Study, from 1652.

Pizza

Is this how you envision a pizza joint in Southwest Florida?

Fort Myers Beach

 

The 7-Eleven store in Fort Myers Beach has bold murals on two sides.  The murals were painted this in April 2026 by local artist Martha Cantu.

Linked to Monday Murals.

Town Hall

 

The Town Hall of Fort Myers Beach is colorful, with low value first floor intended to let flood waters from tropical storms flow through without damaging the high value operations up above.

Colorful

 

Up in Fort Myers Beach, builders are rushing to complete new buildings to replace structures destroyed four years ago by Hurricane Ian.  This builder seems to believe that pastel colors will help him sell them.

Before and After

Hickory Boulevard is a long road running along the Gulf of Mexico on a skinny peninsula in Bonita Springs on the way to Fort Myers Beach.  Hurricane Ian really slammed it in 2022.  Many properties were badly damaged or destroyed.  Yesterday I decided to see how it is doing now.

I was surprised to see that some of the small older buildings have been repaired, but even more have been replaced by tall new multi-story buildings.. 

All of the new buildings have garages or tear-away structures on the first floor, so when future hurricanes land, the raging ocean will pass through lower levels designed to take the hits.  Living areas are up above.

And, given the high cost of acquiring waterfront land, tearing down the old structures and building new ones strong enough to withstand hurricanes and comply with ever-tightening building codes, the new ones are much bigger and more expensive than the ones they replaced.

Halloween

 

It seems like the Halloween skeletons get bigger every year.

Fall Foliage

I left Connecticut for Florida before peak foliage.  My daughter tells me that this is the best year for fall color in Connecticut in a long time.  Pictures from Naples start tomorrow.

 

Scarecrows

 In Connecticut for just a few days before heading south.  

Ridgefield always has a scarecrow contest in October.  This year's contest was very good, as usual.

Ridgefield Pride sponsored a Dolly Parton scarecrow.

An electrical company had a good female electrician.

The Ridgefield Thrift Shop put a used tux on a scarecrow.

I don't know who did this one, but I like it.

A Cub Scout pack scored with this one.

The Statue of Liberty was an appropriate subject for the Chamber of Commerce.

Many of the Main Street merchants urge folks to Buy Local, and farmers want us to Pick Local.

The school at a local Methodist Church put together an excellent scarecrow.

Kyoto Tower

Kyoto Tower is the tallest structure in Kyoto.  It is across the street from Kyoto's very impressive train station and shopping arcade.  It can't be missed.

 

Kyoto Tower is even more striking at night, when it is lit.

And on our last night in Japan the tower was blazing red!

Well, I am now back in the USA, so it is time to end my Japan posts.  A few final observations:

        • Japan is mountainous.  Flat areas available for cities are few, so they are densely settled and people and houses are packed tightly together.

        • Many Japanese people wear all black or black and white.   It is a very conformist culture. It appears that they do not want to stand out.

        • Everything is strikingly neat.  I didn’t see a pothole in our 12 days in Japan.  We could eat off the sparkling floors.  One day I was looking out the window of a bus and saw a single piece of plastic blowing on a sidewalk.  It stood out because it was the only (very small) piece of trash I had seen in Japan.

Golden Pavilion

 Kinkakuji -- or the "Golden Pavilion" --  is a Zen temple in northern Kyoto whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf. 

The temple was the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.  Under his will it became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death in 1408.

The Golden Pavilion has burned down and been rebuilt several times, most recently in 1950 when it was set on fire by a fanatic monk. The present structure was rebuilt in 1955.

Bamboo Forest, Thousand Torii and Thousand Buddhas

The Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is a delightful walking experience near Kyoto.  It is a pleasant uphill walk surrounded by very tall bamboo.  Like all Kyoto destinations, it can be very crowded.

Talk about crowded!  The Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine is better known as the "Thousand Torii."  Torii are those tall red-orange gates that define Japan.  At this location outside Kyoto more than a thousand torii are lined up for walks up a gentle hill.  The torii near the start are very tall and thick, like those shown above.  Further on, the torii are thinner.  The crowds were so dense I cut out about halfway through.

The temple of Emperor Go-Shirakawa was built in 1164 east of Kyoto.  The temple, Sanjūsangen-dō, holds 1,001 statues of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of compassion.   It is a very impressive sight.  Photographs are not permitted inside, so I bought a postcard and photographed it.  

Making Ceramics in Kanazawa

 

He is the 6th generation making ceramics in Kanazawa over a 150 year period at the Kutani Kosen Kiln.

Golden Leaf Painting in Kanazawa

 We visited the Hakukokan Gold Leaf Center, a museum celebrating the art and craft of gold leaf technology.  It holds a collection going back to the late 16th century.

We spent some time applying gold leaf to lacquerware plates under the guidance of this woman.

There was also a gift shop.  A couple of items might have gone home with me.