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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Fushimi Inari shrine

Shrine located n Fushimi-ku, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines.

Merchants and manufactures worship Inari for wealth. Donated torii (orange gates) lining foopaths are part of the scenic view.

Foxes, regarded as the messengers, are found in Inari shrines.

This was definitively one my favorite spots to visit. I think that we walked nearly 4 km inside this orange torii. Shrine is easily accessible from

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto, Japan

Golden Pavilion Temple was originally build in 1397 to serve as a retirement villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. It was his son who converted the building into a Zen temple.

The Golden Pavilion is a three story building. The top two stories of the pavilion are covered with pure gold leaf. The pavilion functions as a shariden, housing relics of teh Buddha (Buddha’s ashes).

In 1950, the pavilion was burned down by a monk, who them attempted suicide on the hill behind the building. He

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Ryoan-ji famous garden

The temple of the Peaceful Dragon is a Zen temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. The temple is one of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

To many, the temple’s name is synonymous with the temple’s famous dry landscape rock garden, thought to have been build in the late 1400s. The garden consists of raked gravel and fifteen moss-covered boulders, which are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle only fourteen of the boulders are visible.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Sakura

Sakura is the Japanese name for cherry trees and their blossoms. Sakura is indigenous to many Asian states including: Japan, China, India and Korea. Japan has a wide variety of sakura.

In Japan, cherry trees were planted and cultivated for their beauty, for the adornment of the grounds of the nobility of Kyoto, at least as early as 794.

Every year the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the public track the sakura zensen (cherry blossom front) as it moves northward up the archipelago with the

November 2008

Wheeler Peak 13161 ft = 4011 m

Wheeler Peak is the highest mountain in New Mexico. Located in the Sangre De Cristo range.

It is not known who made the first ascent of Wheeler, probably the Indians of the Taos Pueblo. But, it is named US Army Major George M. Wheeler who surveyed much of New Mexico in the late 1870s. For years, the Truchas Peaks, located south of Wheeler, were considered the New Mexico highpoint. In 1948, a survey was conducted by Harold D. Walker which confirmed Wheeler Peak is the highest point in the