Let's peel back these layers!

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juliannlaw Here is a closeup of the endpapers in my debut picture book, THE WORKD’S LONGEST SOCK. I work digitally in Adobe Photoshop but the program doesn’t do it all for me! I knit all the pixels by hand! Haha! I do have things I do to help me work quickly and efficiently, though, like using layers. Here you get to see me take off those layers one by one till we are back at nothing but a background. The World's Longest Sock is now available on  Amazon ,  Barnes and Noble ,  Target , or wherever you  buy books !

Japan - Part 3



Believe it or not, I tried to just pick my favorite pictures to post! So, I'll finish up the set with a slideshow. Japan was so beautiful, so picturesque, so full of contrasts and visual irony. I loved it. I hope that comes through in these pictures.

First you'll see some shrines and temples in the park of Nara, which has famous free-roaming deer. They're believed to be messengers of the gods. . . they're like fearless squirrels in Central Park only more abundant. . . almost as abundant as the school kids which roam in packs of thousands. Some of them would liked to try their English out on us. I just got comments like, "Hi! How are you? Where you from?" Mike got comments like, "Handsome" and "Nice body!" No joke.

Weird side note, this one day we spent in Nara and Kyoto we saw the largest wooden building in the world ( the Todai-ji Temple, that housed this huge bronze Buddha), the oldest wooden building in the world (a five story pagoda at Kofuku-ji Temple the birthplace of Zen Buddhism in Japan) and the longest wooden building in the world (Sanjusangen-do Temple) it holds a thousand and one almost identical statues of the many armed Kannon, goddess of mercy. It's so long they've always held archery termiments in the back hallway!)

You'll also see the beautiful Mount Koya where we stayed overnight in a Buddhist monastery (The Ekoin Temple) which was one of the coolest places I've ever been in my life. The town and the temples were ethereal and mystical and just "achingly beautiful" as Ms. Frommer put it. There was a pathway lined with hundreds of thousands of moss-covered, stone burial markers and ancestral monuments leading to one of the temples that we walked along at dusk as the lanterns were lit. Surreal. Our monastery was clean and perfect and traditional Japanese, with futons rolled out on the tatami matts to sleep on after our vegetarian dinner was brought in on perfectly arranged trays into our room. What an experience.

Then you'll also see shots around Tokyo, the cleanest big city I've ever been in, hands down. You'll notice I was fascinated by the people and snuck as many candid shots as I could, especially in Harajuku, one of the fashion capitols with a style all its own. . . or as many styles as people.

Credits to Mike (aka Hubby) for all the Tokyo night-time shots, that was his favorite part. Good job, Hubs, you got some good ones.

Comments

missy said…
WOWSERS! Great pics once again! I'm amazed at how much you guys did and saw on your trip! A few questions though... Octopus Ball? Roaming deer? Crazy hair?
I feel like I have a good idea of what Japan is like... you did a great job of that!
Kristine said…
i am in LOVE with your pictures. amazing! they are so pretty i want them framed in my house.
Anonymous said…
I've been wanting to visit Japan ever since my husband's aunt and uncle moved there a few months ago. Your wonderful photos have clinched it for me! I can't say I'm one who usually enjoys other people's vacation photos, but yours were really something else!
Seattle Jon said…
Hey Julianne, it's Jon Anderton. Amy sent me the link to your blog, hope you don't mind. I agree, Japan is a wonderful, amazing place. I feel extremely blessed to have been able to serve my mission there. Hope you are doing well. It was fun to see picture of you and Jon.

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