Precisely. I live near Yosemite National Park, and it would be an absolute disaster if there were enough hotels, campgrounds, and amenities to meet the demand. The demand FAR exceeds its capacity for tourists, but it would destroy the very reason for that demand if that actually happened.

So what did they do? Set rules for the number of tourists allowed in the park per day, and stuck to it.

Time After Time is underrated. Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell. McDowell, playing H.G. Wells, invents the Time Machine, and then Jack the Ripper uses it to go to the future. H.G. Wells follows him to stop him, and he meets Steenburgen in “modern” times (the then-current 1980’s.)

Fun movie - a sci-fi thriller, I guess you’d call it. Still one of my favorites, too.

Ok, I’ll bite. Where did you grow up that you have never seen snow?

Very nice!

Heh - I think this is just an old drainage ditch. I imagine post war it was mostly a sewer…. ;)

Thank you!

And if you wanted to teach Korean in another country, would you rather teach in Syria, an African country, or the US or Europe?

I’m sorry you feel that way. Cultural exchange programs such as the JET programme in Japan, and whatever equivalent there is in Korea are wonderful programs which promote and encourage understanding amongst nations. And the world can certainly use more understanding instead of less. I appreciate the perspective, though.

When were you there last? I hadn’t been since 1990. A lot has changed, of course. But, it’s still a great place to visit.

Yes, we chose Spring deliberately, for the weather. While it did rain a bit in Hirado (southern Japan), it was lovely everywhere else we visited. The timing for Kyoto was really good - just before peak cherry blossom blooms, by just a week or two. So while it was a little crowded, it was nothing like full bloom tourist crowds!

I highly recommend it. It is remarkably easier these days, with Google maps for transportation. Public transit is amazing there. I’m fortunate that since my mother is Japanese, language isn’t much of a barrier for me, but I saw tons of folks using Google translate just fine. And the dollar is strong against the yen right now, so it’s a great time to go there!

Because Korea is more developed, I would imagine. And Syria has state department advisories as a dangerous location for Americans to travel. Teaching English is a good way to travel abroad and not have it cost a lot, since they have guaranteed employment in their host country.

The program my daughter is on does all of the hard work in finding a place to live, arranging a vehicle, work visa, all of those complications for a young person living abroad.

Thank you.

The iPhone does have a pretty good night mode, but this wasn’t shot in that mode, as there was plenty of ambient light.

I think this one was in wide angle. I do always shoot in RAW, though, so I can post process in Lightroom. The iPhone does do a lot of color processing on-camera, which I don’t usually like, hence my preference for RAW photos to tweak later.

I debated quite a bit before deciding not to bring my “good” camera. But, as they say, the best camera in the world is the one you have with you when you see something interesting…

Kyoto was great. If you’re not familiar, and aren’t sure what to see, I highly recommend a tour guide. They can show you what you want. Kyoto has a famous geisha district “Goin” which has a fascinating history, if you enjoy cultural history. A food tour would have been great there, as well - but we did that for the Izakaya area in Tokyo earlier that week…

Freedom from the more toxic elements of commercial social media! Honestly, I’ve been using Mastodon a lot more lately, and now with Lemmy, things are starting to feel more like the beginning of my online use back in the early 1990’s, when communicating directly with folks with shared interests weren’t tied to ads, algorithms pushing outragement=engagement, and influencers. It’s a real sigh of relief. Happy to be here.