Winter Shots

It looks like I'm pretty much done posting things about my China adventures for now, but as I keep taking pictures and I like to share them with friends and family, etc, this page will stay semi active. I'm not really going to go on about my life, since its sort of boring, so email me if you want that kind of news.

Aaaaaannnnnyway....
I know its spring now (and I'll get to those pics by fall, I promise) but I did a lot of tromping around in the winter in both Michigan and Oregon and took plenty of photos.

So yeah.

Anyway, these first few were taken in Oregon right around Christmas. I was super jet lagged and got up at 6am everyday. Kira and I drove out to the beach to watch the sunrise....it was great.



These are at sunset in a wildlife area called Jackson Bottom. Its a wetlands preserve. Mama Rae likes it much there.


These two were in color originally but I like them better in b&w.






Some crazy ice!




Ducks and beaver in this pond. (Mom says nutria, I insist they were beaver. I INSIST)




After Christmas I left the land of Everything Great and returned to Michigan, the land of Some Things Decent, where I had left all my shit five months ago.

And it snowed all the time, of course.
All of these are from various walks around Ann Arbor and Ypsi in January and February.






The Beardy Man Gremlin has chopped up ice!


It examines its kill...


This is at the Peninsular Paper Company in Ypsilanti, an awesome, very abandoned building right on the edge of the river.




Later on, in an old graveyard near Corner Brewing Company, also in Ypsi.


These ice formations were underneath an ice shelf that had formed around a tree...I went a little hog wild with the photos...








Near the Arboretum...train coming.


And going...




We played lots of disc golf in the winter- it was actually really great, no humans, no poison ivy, no underbrush to lose your discs in...
All of these next pics were taken at Rolling Hills park...


Some cool old rusty machinery in the woods.




Obsessed with the shadows on the snow...






And as we left that day...a sunset of majestic proportions...


And in order not to overload you, Ill stop there. Beardy Man and I had some other epic adventures in the snow, but I'll put those up later. Right now, its springy and green out, I'm going to make blackberry pancakes tomorrow morning and I'm moving again in a few weeks...
more winter photos to follow, and maybe springy ones after that.

Peace and photosynthesis.

Japan Part III- Favs and Super Edits

Howdy kids.
The last of my Japan pics are taking more energy than I feel like devoting to them, so I'm not going to worry about them much now. But here's a short little post with some of my favorite pictures from that section of my Asian Adventures, including a few that I nearly photoshopped to death. Ive kept them aside because I felt they looked weird with all the more normal pics.

Also, I like birds.
(That's also a song by the Eels...which is now stuck in my head. Thanks, self)

This was taken on a walk around Miyakonojo while Quill was at work.
He tells me "well, you can't call me because you don't have a cell phone, and you can't ask anyone for directions because you don't speak Japanese, so if you get lost,..um...don't get lost."
Right. Thanks Quill.


Train tracks.


This is Lake Ikeda, taken on my last full day in Japan, right after Yuko, Quill and I climbed to the top of the volcano in the background.
Then we went to a bathhouse.
Then I died of relaxation.
Fun fact- Ikeda was the name of the Japanese teacher at Pacific University where I did my first two years of college. Its also the name of the lake monster that hypothetically lives here.


On my second to last day we went for a walk somewhere, where I found this bar preventing cars from driving over a pedestrian bridge. But it had these charming fat little birds on it. I was mildly obsessed.




We also went for a bike ride in the last couple of days- Ive always wanted to ride a bike with a basket and a bell, and finally got my wish, in Japan of all places.
Look out! Oversized white people with wheels coming through!


If you read my blog-a. I'm sorry, and b. you've seen this picture before, but its one of my favorites.


Ditto. This is on the coast by the temple in the cave.


Super edit self portrait. Its a little much, I know.


I love this picture. Its not staged at all either.


I posted the non textured, non colorized version of this earlier, but I kinda like it like this. I go back and forth. Life is a perpetual fence for me.


Crazy crows! Excessive amounts of editing! Deal with it!


Less editing, still like the pic. I Lurvs Burds.


And last but not least, is maybe one of my absolute favorites from the trip. Mostly I was really pleased with the editing, because this picture was super boring straight out of the camera.


Anyway, to all you that have been reading this nonsense, you're awesome. All five of you, at the most. I think I'm going to carry on posting pictures and things that I take on a regular basis, since I enjoy it, but Ill write less (like that's possible).

Japan was amazing, as you can probably deduce. I had planned to do another China post to wrap up, but I don't know if I'll get to it. Suffice to say it was one of the great trips of a lifetime-the food stands out in my mind as a particular highlight, and also the incredible general friendliness of the people. China and Japan are pleasantly not at all alike. If you ever get a chance to go check out that part of the world, do it. Or do it again, if you've already been. Eat crazy stuff off of carts. Smile at old women, take pictures of donkeys and bat your eyelashes if old Chinese men yell at you. Arguably, we only get to do this life stuff once, and you might as well have some adventure while you can.

As my good friend Kira says, go big or go home.

See you all soon...

Japan (Part II, long in coming)

Also known as 'why is Rae so lame that she takes two months to post anything new?'
The answer, dear friends, is that my Asian adventures have come to a close (for now) and I'm back in the states, where Ive spent the last two months sitting around on my butt, tromping around in the snow, eating things cooked with way too much butter, and watching Top Gear.
But I had a recent moment of inspiration where I realized-I can't abandon my blog! Ive been with it this long, and since I have lots of pictures left to share, Ive decided to continue to post the rest of those, and anything else interesting that happens.

So....when we last left off, I was in Japan, visiting my awesome friend Quill, and I had significantly more in my bank account than I do now. But never mind that...I think there may be more pictures in this post than ever before, so Ill shut up now.

Quill and I took a trip out to the coast one day. First, a quick trip to the grocery store, where I was utterly dazzled by the array of instant noodles. This is one of two aisles.



Mushroom mascots!




I don't think this was the same day, but whatevers...this DVD was called "Amazing Nuts!"


This is Quill in the massage-y chair. Later he got on the robot workout horse, but that picture looks a little obscene, and this is a family friendly site, so we wont share that.


View from the apartment in the evening. The big brown square is the town hall, where you can go up to the observatory and look around for a great view (which we did).


So on Thanksgiving Day we drove out to the coast, stopping at a waterfall (ooooooooh).


I love these trees...even now. Maybe more now than then, if its possible, since its cold and brown and dead here now.




This is officially My Favorite Beach Ever. The water is warm, the beach is covered in seashells, the sand is clean and the sun was shining.


Feet. Foot.


Someone else's feet!


Shells!




We left the beach and went out to a huge temple complex right on some cliffs by the sea.


All the wood was painted orange.


Rain chain, all oxidized, inside the main cave. It was real purty.


You can buy these little pieces of wood that are painted on one side and then you write wishes and prayers on the other side and hang them in the cave at the temple.


Right outside the cave with the main temple there are crazy rocks!
Its right on the sea.


And we finished the day with green tea ice cream and a lovely sunset.
Quill bought a fish cake or something, but we wont talk about that here.


As we were driving home, I took a picture of Quill.
He seems to always make this face when I take pictures like this-mildly terrified.

END OF THAT DAY.

The next day we went to climb a volcano.
And this was the road.
Good lord, I can die now.






Crazy gate. whoaaaaao...


Trail...seems fairly tame at first.


And then the trail just stopped and went straight up the side of the volcano, which had sheer sides covered in slippery rocky red pebbles. We struggled up it, me more so because I was wearing Converse All Stars, like a colossal idiot.


Somehow I managed to fail in uploading pictures and missed one of the volcano crater (which is off to the right in the picture), but I'll put that up next time. I thought this was it, but that far peak is actually where we were going.


Erosion due either to lava or weather or something- anyway, it exposed the bright red underlayer of earth.


Half way up the second peak.


The view from the top!
It kept changing as clouds blew over everything below us.




Good Lord...who let me loose in Photoshop with textures?!




On the way down...the edge of the crater again. The top peak is in the background, on the left.




Back to the real trail...my knees were dying at this point and I was starving.




Lunch Box! Nom nom noms...


Come to me delicious box of rice and mushrooms and potatoes and colorful fish cake and sauce...I will make you mine.

After lunch we saw WILD DEER! Whoooaaaaaa! They were WILD! Actually, they weren't, but that's a story for another time.

On our way home we stopped at the Kappa Gorge (definitely not what its really called) where the mythical water demons called kappa supposedly live. The trail goes through multiple tunnels, and was sort of blocked off...but we maneuvered that without much difficulty.


Quill has giant feet. And you know what they say about big feet...
Big Shoes.






Hark! Is that a kappa I spy, waiting to lure us to a watery death?!
Maybe....

Most likely I just have an over active imagination.


That was pretty much the end of that day. We drove home, and probably got dinner or something somewhere. I can't remember off the top of my head since I'm awful and its been a few months since my trip. I could check my journal, but I'm far too comfortable in this chair for that. But anyway, I'll do my best to get more pictures up for your viewing enjoyment soon, cause I like y'all a whole bunch.

I'll leave you, as I like to do, with one of my favorite photos from this bunch, the sun setting in the Kappa Gorge as we left for the day.

And tonight I'll dream of sushi.