Hi.
Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
September / Back to Project 366 (2016) / November
The University District Farmers Market holds an apple tasting each year, and it's usually quite popular. The overall winner this year was the Pirus (which was quite sweet).
Several years ago we got some oak logs and tried to inoculate them so they would grow shiitake mushrooms. We had assumed it didn't work and were just going to leave the logs as a decorative border, but noticed that there were mushrooms this fall.
The University of Washington is good at having a variety of plants which hold interest throughout the year, such as these bright red berries.
The leaves are starting to turn, including these oak leaves on campus.
There's a house not too far away which always has toy ducks arranged in some sort of scene. Since it's back-to-school season, the current display is a bunch of classrooms. These particular ones are language classes for Spanish, French, and English. In the background you can also see a school bus.
There was a structure fire a day or two ago not far from our house. It wasn't huge, but it still smells like smoke.
This etched glass is part of a larger piece in the UW Tower, The Journey by Paul Marioni. It's been there for a long time, but the label describing it is a piece of paper taped to the side, as if it were only supposed to be there for a short while.
I made our dining room table almost twenty years ago. The bottom is the outer part of solid maple while the top part is maple veneer. To make a better transition between the two, I did a cherry inlay.
The Seattle Art Museum has a new exhibit about the designs of Yves Saint Laurent, so we went to a preview today. This is probably his most recognized dress, and was displayed in a way to draw attention.
With the leaves turning, there are lots of opportunities to look at trees in a different light. This one is near PACCAR hall, and I used it earlier this year, but that one was its shadow.
This sculpture by Jonathan Borofsky is one of the more famous sculptures in the city. There are several parodies around the city including one place that has the man drinking coffee.
Even though we're in autumn, there's still plenty of color around. There's a large planting of various alyssums not far from work, with various colors.
We're expecting a lot of train and wind tonight, with even more to come this weekend. Many stores are putting umbrella displays very close to the front door.
This large tree between Clark Hall and the Communications building was massively pruned this week. Not sure if the plan is to completely remove it, but the whole area is blocked to pedestrians. In a way, it's good timing, since we were expecting a large windstorm last night, and a larger one tomorrow.
I made a coat rack out of cherry a while ago. It was my first attempt at bent lamination, where you use several thin strips of wood, bend them over a form, and glue them together. You can also see the plugs covering the screws holding the S curves to the central post.
We've tried for several years to grow autumn crocus so we can harvest saffron. This is the first time they've actually come up, although the squirrels seem to like them. Hopefully at least some will survive.
On our way to Japan, we flew out of Seattle Tacoma Airport. We always stop by the food court for at least a snack if not also lunch, and I like to look up at the fish hanging from the ceiling.
We landed in Tokyo and took the subway into town. These trains have a lot of handholds, and in addition to just ads along the walls, they hang down from the ceiling, too.
This is the oldest temple in Tokyo, founded in the 7th century. There's a huge marketplace between the two large gates in front of the temple.
The Tsukiji market is huge. This vendor was in the wholesale section, and I liked the variety of items as well as how they were arranged.
We took a train ride to Nikko to view a couple of the shrines. The Toshogu shrine covers a lot of area and has several gates, towers, towers, shrines, and other buildings. One of them has this carving over the entrance.
While wandering through Nippori, we went into the Nezu Shrine which is know for this long series of bright orange torii.
The Meiji Jingu Shrine is dedicated to Emperor and Empress Meiji. It's got this relatively plain torii at the south, as well as others like it closer to the shrine itself.
We left Tokyo for Hakone today, and after taking the Shinkansen and a local train, we started walking to our hotel. It started out very scenic, then turned into an uphill slope.
While waiting for a train in the Hakone area, this group of people crossed over to the other side to wait for the train going towards Gora. They looked happy to be in each others' company.
While we were walking along Lake Ashi, we caught a glimpse of Mt. Fuji in the distance. As large as it looks here, we're seeing nowhere near all of the mountain. The torii on the right is part of the Hanoke-jinja Shrine.
Kiyomizu temple has a drinking fountain where you have to reach out for the water streaming down. There must have been well over a hundred people waiting in line to do it, including many kids who were there on a field trip.
We went to Gion Corner where they demonstrate a few of the Japanese arts, including a Kyomai, a Kyoto-style dance. It was performed by a Maiko named Umekana. A Maiko is a Geisha-in-training, and there are several things in this photos which shows her status; the more elaborate hair ornamentation, the red in the eyebrows, the gap of real skin between her face paint and her hair (because only Geisha wear wigs), and the long sleeves of her kimono.
One of the temples we visited today was Kinkaku Temple which is known for this golden temple. When we first arrived, it was overcast, but there was a span of a few seconds where the sun came out a bit, giving the temple a nice glow.
The Fushimi Inari Temple is known for its seemingly endless torii going all around Mt. Inari. At one point there are two sets of torii.
We went to Kasuga-taisha, a shrine in Nara. It's known for its thousands of lanterns, all of which get lit during the festivals of Setsubun Mantoro and Obon Mantoro.
September / Back to Project 366 (2016) / November
