Gondolas, originally uploaded by courtney johnston.

Oklahoma.

I realized something recently. I spent my first 20 years in Oklahoma and only took pictures of people and places that made me happy.

It never occurred to me to take pictures of the forsaken details that I would really miss, like the clouds. Those clouds make putting up with a puddle jumper worth it.

JR Hiroshima Station, originally uploaded by courtney johnston.

While in Japan I fell in love with the rubber stamps posted in the train stations and at important tourist sites and temples.

It became an obsession, finding the stamps or waiting for the hordes of school children to clear out so I could have a chance of stamping my little blank book.

I’ll only have a week in Tokyo this year, but I’m really looking forward to finding new stamps or ones I just could never find in the labyrinth train stations.

Flickr Photo set: Japan Stamps, 2008

Todai-ji Temple, along with having sacred deer running free on the grounds, houses the world’s largest Vairocana Buddha (also Japan’s largest bronze Buddha) in the world’s largest wooden building.

And having been built in 752 AD it is also the oldest building I’ve ever visited. That kind of age is almost incomprehensible to me.

Since there’s nothing to compare against in this picture, the Great Buddha is just over 49 feet tall and weighs over 500 tons.

Instead of a complete relocation this is more my vacation home.

I’d like a home that I can update at my leisure with pictures and thoughts of our journeys, large and small.