Japan, retrospectively
Well. Japan.
It was full of leafy green things and I took lots photographs of lichen, maple leaves and random plants. Rather than fill an entry with images you can find in any botanic book or Japanese tour guide I thought I'd share just a few highlights:
First and foremost: Opening and Closing windows!*
The window is intransitively closed....
I transitively open the window!!
Whee!!
I spent a good five minutes sitting there opening and closing the window, grinning like a loon. My room-mate was very patient about it all.
This was at a Ryokan in Tsumago village. We began our trip spending three days in Kyoto then travelled to Magome. From there we hiked to Tsumago and on another four days on the Nakasendo trail. Then a few days in Tokyo and then home again.
Beautiful beautiful big ceramic bowls for noodles we had in a small Kyoto restaurant. Next trip I'm going to get extra baggage allowance and go wild on paper and ceramics.
*Blame my Japanese class last year for the novelty I got from this simple thing - We spent a lot of time talking about doors - open, closed, being opened, remaining closed and being opened/closed by someone.