So it's been a while. Almost seven months, actually. Where does the time go? It's strange how I look at those April pictures and think "My, how things have changed since then." It feels like time moves faster than it did when I was younger, but at the same time its as though more things happen in shorter periods now than they did back in the day. Could Time be trying to compensate for itself?

Enough philosophical chitchat, though. I'm extremely indignant about Imeem getting shut down by myspace. Now all my old links to current favorites are dead, replaced by a hideously orange ipod ad. Thankfully, that big friendly giant, Youtube, is still around and they have a lovely embedding feature that I've put to use. I do miss the blue-greens of Imeem, though. Alas.

This is a song by a group called Passion Pit. All I can say is, have a listen. I promise you won't regret it.

Anyway, so for the past three months I've been in Tokyo! Finally arrived after years of dreaming~ It's been amazing and of course I've taken more pictures than necessary and racked up 1750-plus pictures so far. Eight more months to go! Yeah~

Never fear, I've decided to choose only my top 11 favorite photos---a surprisingly easy task considering..or maybe that just means I took a lot of bad pictures. I tweaked the brightness and intensified the colors for the first seven, but I couldn't bring myself to edit the last three, which were taken during my program's weekend trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima earlier this month.



09.24.2009 A shot that epitomizes my host family's personality. My host dad painted that wall blue, that's his electric guitar and bear head mask, the thin guitar is my three-year-old host sister's, and the dog loves me. He's sleeping next to me as I type, in fact. I will miss them dearly come February.



09.28.2009 I like getting off a bus stop early so I can cross this bridge, especially on nights like this. Not to mention I'm really happy my host family lives right on the Sumida River. I love water; maybe that explains why I've always stayed somewhere on the Pacific Ocean.



09.30.2009 Taken in a cave in Hasedera Temple during my program's trip to Kamakura. Nothing brilliant or inspiring to say. I just really like this picture.



09.30.2009 You can't come to Tokyo and not take at least one shot of one of the crazy crosswalks in Shibuya or Harajuku. My choice was the one in front of the big screen over Starbucks outside of Shibuya Station, partly because it reminds me of that lovely film "Lost In Translation", but mostly because it shows how dynamic this city can be. Also notice that EVERYONE has an umbrella. Umbrella wars galor that day. As it was only drizzling, the inner Seattleite in me felt more than slightly appalled.



10.01.2009 After my first trip to Asakusa, I came home a bit late and felt the urge to get a good nighttime shot from the top floor of my apartment building. The apartment across from mine looked like a promising subject, so I tried snapping a few quick shots and this was one result. It reminds me a lot of city life and, having lived in relatively large cities for the past three years, that's probably why I like it despite its blandness.



10.18.2009 One fine October day, I went on my own to the Nezu Museum in Omotesando, and was happy to discover it's possible to experience the full beauty of fall leaves without leaving the city. Another thing I love about Tokyo is that I can go to places like museums on my own, but I can just as easily hang out with some friends for an afternoon at a cafe or at places like Harajuku and Shinjuku. Oh, and I love my canon's focus feature. That was one of the reasons why I bought it despite having a perfectly good (albeit lacking a focus feature) nikon.



11.07.2009 Near Hibiya Park in Ginza. Old Tokyo---need I say more? Those movie posters were legit! Faded, sixties film posters, checkboard tablecloths, dark, eclectic, and right under the train tracks. I was transported for thirty seconds before I reemerged into the glamor and glitz of the Ginza district.



11.28.2009 The only food picture I couldn't resist posting. Never, ever eat at a restaurant at Asakusa unless you're looking to get scammed. This baby was about 5 USD. Even for real milk tea (not the bottled kind, although that stuff is bomb too), that is just ridiculous. I should have added more milk and sugar just to be sure I got the bang for my buck. Thankfully, though, it delicious. And it was kind of cool to drink out of that cup. I felt very British and Jane Austen-like.



12.05.2009 The sunset on our first day in Hiroshima earlier this month. One thing I missed in Seattle were those clouds that actually held shape. Japan, like Hawaii, has those, and I can't even begin to say how much I love these kinds of clouds. They make the perfect sunset, the kind of that make me think of home. And with the mountains and the water that surround this city, I really did feel like I was back home.



12.06.2009 More clouds, haha. I just had to pick this picture because it still trips me out how much the sky over Hiroshima and Miyajima resembles Hawaii. Really, I could gaze at this kind of sky for hours and never get bored.



12.06.2009 This is the view we got from the top of the mountain on Miyajima. When I showed this to my host mom, I had to explain that this was the ocean, sunlight, and clouds, and she didn't believe me at first. Seeing this with my own two eyes was almost overwhelmingly beautiful. The way the rays of sunlight danced on the water in shades of violet and gold, broken up by the hazy shapes of distant islands, is something I won't ever forget.


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Until next time~