Post-fall colors

Okay, so it’s a little late for a “fall leaves” post.  But they’re still out in Japan, AND I caught some on … memory card these past two weekends.  Thanks to some zoom and crop, you’d never know I wasn’t surrounded by a bunch of dead sticks otherwise.  Actually, there really was plenty of scenery to drink in; it’s just hard to capture a bunch of colorful trees in a meaningful way in a photo.  For me, at least. 

I’d have to somehow grab the crispness of the air (which adds a certain snap to the colors), the wet smell of leaves that haven’t quite started decaying yet, and a pinch of ifi’mthiscoldnowwhataboutnextmonth? fear.  Camera wasn’t up to it.  Photographer either. 

A bunch of these were taken in Tokyo, at the Ebisu nature preserve (who knew?) which my friend described as a big carbon dioxide sink for the freeway that surrounds half of it. 

The other bunch came from a one day trip to Kyoto (bounded by two yakou bus rides – a post of their own).  Kyoto is really THE place to see fall foliage, but I hadn’t been able to make it down to visit my surrogate family until last weekend.