Scanned aspen leaves

Here are some of the scanned leaves that I collected at the cabin. As you can clearly see, they change from green to yellow to red to brown. I love them. (Also, I took the time to upload these REALLY high res, so please please click on the photo to see it large!)

All the colors, arranged in order of how they change.
Looks like a flame, doesn't it?
Some of the leaves I collected.

Letting the cabin sleep for winter

I've posted on my blog a few times about the beautiful alpine property my family owns and the simple cabin that sits on it. Well prepare for more autumn photos, because my Grandma, Brandon and myself went up today close the cabin for the winter. This involves cleaning the outhouse (no running water!), taking the chimney inside (there isn't any heat either), and securing all the outdoor furniture under tarps.

Well every tenth year or so the aspen leaves up there don't only turn gold, they turn red, orange, yellow, brown, lime green and every color in between. There were many times when I picked up a leaf that was in the middle of turning from gold to red that looked like fire. Stunning stunning stunning.

I collected a bunch of leaves and brought them home to place on my scanner, but first, here are a few shots from the day:

Red turns to orange turns to gold all against a clear blue sky. On days like today, I wish I was a poet or songwriter, because I can't quite capture the beauty that I would like to in words.
Fallen leaves and aspens behind.
The forest floor is a kaleidoscope of color.
Our old ladder leaning up against the cabin had caught a little pocket of leaves. So pretty.
In the meadow the river was just barley running, and all the fallen aspen leaves were floating on top, lazily downstream.
It looks like my micro mode works well. Even caught a few small specks of moisture on the leaves in the foreground.
Next post, the leaves I brought home and placed on the scanner!

Autumn in Utah

Autumn has arrived and it is gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. E and I went on a little walk the other night and captured a few photos, here are my favorites:



The job hunt is going fine, slow but steady. There are plenty of things that are needed around the house, so I am enjoying my time home. I've never spent much time at home because I had a full time job before I graduated from college. I am liking the change. I fill my day with home improvement projects and crafts. One thing with being home more is I am thinking about being a mother more than ever. I hope E agrees that this is not a problem.

Today I'm going to seal our front porch, organize the storage room and continue to look for a job. I'm pretty good about keeping busy.

Reading

Here are the books I've been reading as of late:

Twilight- I mentioned on my blog a couple of times before how much I adore these books. They were great fun to read and really had me hooked. Five Stars.

New Moon - The second book in the Twilight series was just as good as the first, in my opinion, but that is because I really really like Jacob. Five Stars.

Eclipse - Third book in the series, again, fantastic! I love Jacob and Edward. God, both are so sexy! Five Stars.

Breaking Dawn - Fourth and final book in the Twilight saga. Fantastic. Loved it. Will read the entire series again! Sorry these are such brief reviews, I can't spoil anything for those of you who have not read it. Five stars.

In addition to my vampire love stories, I have been reading non fiction travel books. I love reading travel books.

Japan - I swear I read this book five times or more before, during and after our trip to Japan. I'm hooked on Eyewitness travel books, and the Japan one didn't disappoint. Five stars.

Alaska- I am always thinking about my next trip, and E and I have been playing around with an Alaska idea. We'd love to explore everything Alaska. The Eyewitness book is awesome, of course. Five stars.

Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Greatest Trips - I picked up this book the last time we were at Barnes and Noble, and it was a total splurge, but I LOVE it! I've looked at it again and again, and E and I decided to make a list in the front of all the things we've done so far, with of course, the goal to many many more. Five stars.

I guess I've liked the books I've been reading lately, they all received five stars.

A few more photos of Fushimi Inari Shrine

Although Fushimi Inari Shrine wasn't our favorite shrine or temple in Japan, it did make for some fantastic photo ops. I've heard from a few of my blog readers that they wanted to see some more of this facinating shrine. The hundreds of torii gates wind of the mountainside, finally reaching a shrine at the top. The shrine itself is not the reason people visit, instead, it is the gates themselves.

From the front the gates are solid orange, but if you turn around, there are black prayers on each gate. Photos without the black prayers are taken looking up the mountain, photos with the prayers are taken looking down the mountain.

Here are a few more of our favorites, all looking down the mountain. For one looking up (without the black prayers, I posted this photo last week)-

Bird flu, Japan thoughts and changes at home

I have Bird Flu. Actually, when I returned from Japan I got really really sick with a horrible cold, so bad that I could barley talk or think. It is amazing I did my Japan Temple post last week, I remember wanting to die the entire time. Because I had just come home from an Asian country, my family teased me that I must have Bird Flu. At least I'm starting to feel better, other than the persistent sore throat that wants to kill me.

The changes my life is going through at the moment are enormous. I am losing my job due to the bad economy. My company just can't afford to keep me any longer. We were once a 12 person shop, now they are going to be down to four. They are at the bare minimum. It is horrible to lose something I've loved so dearly for the last five years of my life. Five years, that's a long time! I've posted before about my unbelievable office, how much I love looking over the stunning Wasatch Mountains each day from my desk. I hope this will be an opportunity to further my career and not a major road bump.

I've also become quite close friends will each and every one of my co-workers. It is weird to think that I will no longer see these people every day, these people that I've spent more time with than even my family. I will especially miss my boss Steve, who has become a close friend and mentor.

But, alas, I can't stay negative for too long. Japan was so wonderful, and I've only posted little bits about our vacation. Also, my new house is to die for, I just love it. The more time I spend there the more I fall in love. Plus, it is autumn in Utah, the best season of all. The leaves in the canyons have started to change, reds and yellows and oranges. Plus, the sky is clear and blue, not a cloud in the sky.

So, I'll leave you with some really awesome signs we saw in Japan (remember to click the photo for a full sized view):

The first day in Japan I was totally overwhelmed because E needed to work, and I was going to go off on my own. This is what the train map looked like, ack! E taught me how to read it, and luckily I figured it out quickly.
I thought this was the cutest street sign for the firehouse. It was right in front of the fire station. Adorable.
There were these public awareness signs all over Tokyo trying to get people more aware of others, but the English translations and images were so funny! Half of them we didn't even understand. (This one reads "If you're going to read words during rush hour, we wish you'd also read between the lines.)
This was a sign at a temple telling us that the water was safe to drink and wash your hands. Yes, everyone uses the same cup...
Another public awareness sign (they were always printed in green). This one is hilarious!! You must click on it and study it. If anyone can tell me what the old movie projector and "a long time ago" has anything to do with it, you win!

Temples and shrines in Japan

E and I were so excited to go temple hopping in Japan, for some reason neither of us ever got tired of exploring temple after temple. Plus, both Buddhism and Shintoism were fascinating to learn about. Traditionally Shintos have shrines and Buddhists have temples, however both religions have been active in Japan for so long, lots of temples will have a Shinto area, and visa versa.

The first temple we went to is called Senso-ji in Tokyo. E had been to this temple on his previous trip and just loved it. This temple was laid out in the traditional Buddhist sense, the two main gates, the pagoda to the left, the incense burner, the main buildings and multiple sub temples. When seeing Senso-ji for the first time I didn't realize I would come to know this layout quite well. E and I spent a great deal of time at Senso-ji and took a great deal of photos, here are two favorites:
Huge lanterns at Senso-ji.
The next temples we visited were away from Tokyo altogether. Instead, we took a bullet train to the mountains and visited Nikko, an stunning area in the woods where the brightly colored temples have been standing for hundreds of years. To access the mountainous area you have to cross over the Daiya River. One way to cross it is to take the Shinkyo Bridge, which is a site to itself.

Here is the stunning Shinkyo Bridge (isn't the color of the water unreal?)
Once you arrive in the mountains you are surrounded by an entire complex of beautifully painted temples.
Many temples and shrines have areas where you can hang a prayer, and the monks will pray that all the prayers get answered. These prayers are written on little wooden planks and hung one after another.
Toshogu in Nikko had this building that was the library. Inside were the teachings of Buddha. Isn't the setting glorious?
The next temples we visited were in Kyoto Japan. We left Tokyo, caught another bullet train and were in Kyoto by lunch time. Kyoto has hundreds of temples and shrines, you can even stumble on them without realizing.The first day we were there E and I found three just by wandering the streets. These are small temples, but still beautiful.
All the lanterns come on as dusk arrives.
Also Kyoto has lots of large temples and shrines to offer. One of the ones I was most excited about was Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine in the Eastern hills of Kyoto. This shrine is very famous for its hundreds of orange tori gates leading up the mountain. E and I both loved it, wow wow wow.

Plus, this shrine was build for the rice gods, represented as a fox.
The next temples and shrines on our agenda were Kiyomizu Temple and Yasaka Shrine. Both have been in their current locations for over a thousand years. The current wooden structure that stands here was built without nails in 1633.
Here is one of the sub-temples that stands near Kiyomizu.
Down the hill from Kiyomizu-dera Temple is Yasaka Shrine. Isn't it awesome? And this is just the front gate. (And, for any of you that have read Memoirs of a Geisha, this is where Chiyo goes to donate the remaining money after the Chairman gives her a coin to buy shaved ice).
Yasaka Shrine detail.
E and I also visited a few Zen Temples. Zen Temples have a different feeling to them altogether. The purpose of a Zen Temple is meditation, so many of the rooms and halls are more simple than other Buddhist Temples. Often in Zen Temples there are courtyard gardens, and dry gardens to help the monks focus and therefore meditate.

E and I went to two Zen Temples, the first was Kennin-ji Temple in Gion Kyoto. This one we loved, it was so stunning and all the meditation rooms were open to sit in and meditate, if you wanted to. The courtyard gardens were really something.

E practices meditation at Kennin-ji.
Here is one of the courtyard gardens.
And another. The dry gardens are raked gravel mean to symbolize different things, this one was raked to symbolize the ocean.
The last temple we saw before leaving Kyoto was Nazen-ji Temple, another Buddhist Zen Temples. This temple complex was one of the largest we'd seen with 6 main buildings and they once had 49 sub-temples!

View over the temple complex in Kyoto.
Roof detail at Nazen-ji.
Another dry garden. We only saw dry gardens at Zen Temples, and really liked them.
Finally it was our last temple day, and E and I went to Kamakura, which is a seaside town not far from Tokyo full of Temples! We only saw four out of the dozens to see, but we loved each of them.
At the Enkaku-ji Temple there were hundreds of little carved Buddhas all lined up. We thought each was so beautiful and unique, no two were the same. In Japan, Buddha is not seen as the fat grinning man we see here in the states, instead, he is quite thin and is usually shown with his eyes closed in meditation.
Another neat thing about Enkaku-ji Temple was the fact that it was built up against a small cliff. This meat that some of the shrines and meditation rooms were actually build into the cliff!
Behind the Tokei-ji Temple in Kamakura there was a cemetery that led up the hill. Never in my life had I seen so much green. It was magical.
I think this photo of the two of us was taken at Enkaku-ji Temple, but is hard to remember, we visited so many!
Here is one of the main buildings of Kencho-ji, our last temple in Kamakura and my last temple of the trip.
It is so peaceful here.
I hope you enjoyed the temple hopping half as much as E and I did. More Japan posts to come!

Found!

I'm home. I just walked in. Oh what a long day. I didn't ever sleep on the airplane, instead I watched two movies and did something else... wrote in my journal!!!!! I got to the airport in Tokyo early and asked about lost and found, saying I left it on a flight into Tokyo a week before, and they had it, in all it's perfect glory!! Because I was too excited to recount my trip in my journal I didn't sleep on the very long plane flight.

A few Kyoto photos for you

Here is our room in they ryokan. Notice the tatami mats and the low table. The tea service is set out when we arrive!
That night we had dinner included. They brought up tons of food! We counted more than a dozen dishes on the table. Here is one, the shashimi plate. Notice the shrimp still has his head!
The dinner was fantastic, it was called shabu shabu meaning swish swish. We had had this before in Tokyo, so we knew we were in for a treat. Notice I'm in my yukata, a robe meant for relaxation. Most Japanese will change into the yukata when the arrive.
Here is one of the many temples we visited. I want to do an entire post on the temples and shrines of Japan, so this is just a preview.