Eclipse Viewing in Japan

The first day I was in Kyoto, I was treated to an annular eclipse.  I had to travel from Europe to Japan to see it, but see it I did!  I was lucky because it wasn't cloudy.  So I hit the streets in the early morning with thousands of Japanese school children to see the eclipse.

Here's the image of the eclipse, as seen through the leaves of a tree.

I tried to take a picture by using my solar filter against my camera, but it didn't work out too well.  But hey, you can see the sun and the moon, very, very far away.

As totality approached, I saw the sky dim.  Was it coming cloud cover?  Actually, no, it was the moon, which I suppose reached the critical amount of solar coverage to actually substantially change the amount of brightness on the Earth.

Totality was pretty cool.  Through my solar glasses, I could see the moon, surrounded by the sun, in a lopsided glowing orange ring.  It only lasted a minute though, so no pictures, however, my parents, who lived in "the best city in the world to see the eclipse" got some awesome pictures.

A point to anyone who can explain why sometimes we see a total eclipse, and sometimes we see an annular eclipse.