abroad we go and ho ho ho...

TEA!!!

This shall be a post on tea! Or at least, the excessively good times Ben and I had at San Francisco's Japanese Tea Garden, itself an excessively beautiful place.

Note that in the space/time continuum of our trip, this comes nowhere near where I left off... But as Mr. Ben is busy slaying evil bunnies on his compi, and is not inclined to give me the rest of the pics, I had to sabotage my own camera myself and work with what I got.
And this is what I got...




Can we go in???
Turns out we could not, at least not this day, because it took $10 cash (that we didn't have) to get two bums in! But, we were happy to come back another day, and monetarily support this lovely sliver of San Fran. Because...







Skadoosh!!! Coolness was great when we got there!!







This was one of *the coolest* parts of this uber cool place... the Japanese moon bridge! Only the very surefooted, brave, or Japanese should attempt to climb it...







but it was no match for me and Ben!! Yatta!!









View from the top. Sooo pretty!







This was an uber cool little pool-inside-the-rock thing... Spiffy. (that, and I was finally learning some of my camera's focus settings - yeay!)








Fish! Japaneseish colorful fish! (and, er, not for eating either... hopefully...)








I liked the other bridges too, they were made stepping stones placed just far enough to let water through, but also easily crossable by little legs, if necessary.








Hiragana. And no, I can't tell you what it means, other than the fact that the first simbol is a "no" sound... hmmm.








Everywhere bamboo with wooden fences....










A grievous reminder that not everyone is a friend to the gospel in Japan.








Ben wisely suggested that we stop and have... what else? Green tea!! By this time we were hungry enough that the buiskets and snacks provided, though... culturally enlivening..., were devouered hungrilly








at least for the most part...










But it was, by all accounts, a beautiful time, and one of my very favorite on the whole trip.