Konnichiwa! (Good afternoon.) Satori and I had a lovely “Japanese day” today with our week of reading A Pair of Red Clogs. I shot so many photos today I will have to only choose a couple to prepare for the blog tonight. It was one long day and we’ve yet to watch Idol! First up we hit the Denver Botanic Gardens and for those of you who know me, I love to shoot photos here. 
We now have a membership as of last fall so we can come whenever we want.
Normally I don’t shoot pictures at mid-day (bad for photography) and the gardens in winter isn’t the most beautiful time, but I was captivated anyway. Here’s the reason we came today, to see the Japanese Garden which photographs well any time of year and any time of day.
Some day I would like to participate in the tea ceremony here.
As Satori and I watched the Koi fish swimming in the pond, I couldn’t believe how vivid their orange reflective bodies shown against the deep blue pond water.
As we explored the gardens, we discovered this pebble path we’d never seen before. I dropped to the ground and told Satori to take a stroll. I shot it at f/3.5, wish I would’ve tried a smaller aperture, like f/11 to capture all the rock detail.
What captured my eye first here was the golden grass, it looked so surreal! Almost like a painter took a brush and went to town with soft wispy strokes of gold. Then set against the Colorado blue sky, it was breathtaking.
Inside the pavilion in the hot and humid tropical garden, I took this pink flower shot wide open to make for some interesting bokeh circles of light in the background.
Satori had such a great time she could barely stand to leave.
For dinner we had Japanese meal at Benihana, for the coolness factor of getting our meal chopped up in front of us. We both used chopsticks of course!
