Back from Japan!

Here is my favorite picture out of the near-thousands of photos that I snapped there.

It's a Camellia flower. The entire shrub was blooming with flowers, but a shy little half-blossomed bud with the star of the show. This was taken at the foot of the Kumano mountains, before the beginning of the 1,000-year old Kumano path, lined with 800-year old trees planted by old passerbys.