So this was the best meal I had in DC and if any of you know me you can guess why that is. Dispite the fact that it cost me $20 and left me wanting more, I still loved every bite of it. I believe that after eating this it just made me more excited about my upcoming Japan trip where I will get to eat all the sushi I can afford. Of couse, In Japan I will also fill up on everything else since I love most other Japanese food. 
Visiting the National Arboream was definatly in the top five of things I did in DC. It is so much fun to see tropical plants and I wish that I will get the oprotunity to work on a project some day where I get to design whit these plants. I found this leaf glowing brightly from the sun on the side of the path and couldn't resist taking a picture of it. The play of light in any forest is always something that I find enjoyable and was particually cool in the "Jungle environment."
I found this bamboo at the National Arboream next to the Capitol building. I think that bamboo can become a big design element when it is large like this. Using typical Japanese tequines and cutting off the lower branches, the long, slender culms (aka. the yellow stems) can meke quite a statement. For bamboo this size, the culms can reach between 50-70 feet into the air which is huge considering that each one of those poles grew in only a few months...something that would take decades for a typical tree to do. Also, there is relatively little soil required for this bamboo to grow which is a benifit since normally a tree of comparable heigth takes far more soil. The ammound of soil required comes onto play in when designing a roof garden or anything comparable since man made structures have a maximum amount of weight that they can hold.
This is one of the many flags that Surround the Washingtion Monument. I was inspired to take this kind of picture from my old roomate Tim who I saw took a similar picture during our trip to Washingtion DC. It is very windy up near the washingtion Monument which seems to make the flags up there always waving. I took many artistic shots of the flags up there trying to catch a great shot of the flag, or sets of flaggs, waving in the wind. I really enjoy the outcome of this picture though with the sun captured behind the flag, illuminating it and making it shine brighter.
This I think is one of my favoriate pictures taken in DC. Like the Last image of the Rocks, this image is a macro shot that gives no indication of its context. However, when I look at this I can almost feel the everpresent pull of the chain on the rock and the forces of the rock pulling back. The weatherd appearence of the chain seemes to indicate how long this battle has been going on with no clear winner. I will leave the decision of the winner up to you guys since I can't find one myself.
So...after spending 5 days in Washingtion DC and taking over 2650 pictures...I decided to use this picture as the first one that I put up online. Despite the fact that this picture shows no context to the place it was taken and probably brings no thought of DC to mind, I still decided that this will be the first image to go up. This was taked in Dumbarton Oaks, a very beautiful private garden in DC that had a very interesting inlaid rock garden that was originally a tennis court. I don't have that much to say about this image so I will leave the rest of photo observations up to you guys to handle.
I have to go back and retake this picture using a tripod but I will let you guys see it just to get an idea of it. The actual length of the bridge is 2.5 inches long as a scale refrence. Also, from the front of the model to behind the cliff in the distance is just 12 inches. I made this model for my studio class as part of our planting design project. The concept of my design is based off of a trail system in a state park located somethere in southeastern Missouri.
This is my version of a food Blog. I like eating the food the most so I will give you all this. My stack is the center on with 17 plates. I definatly won this one since Reiko's Stack (left) only has 11. This was the last dinner I had in Japan and I think this was one of my favorite...(except for all the other dinners where I had tons of sushi and other stuff I like...but who's counting) This May I will try to go to another sushi-convayerbelt like and beat my previous record. It will be a compitition between Ethan and me and only fate will decide the winner...
