The rain just keeps on falling and falling.  The earth is soaked to breaking point, yet there is a bright path of color.  Another last bit of glory from the never ending summer.  The luscious colors of nature mix and match with the urban surroundings.

love = beauty

beauty = love

color is love ! ! !

I guess with the silencing of the cicadas and seeing this one on my way home today signals the end to a summer that seem to have none.

We have seem to have skipped an autumn season in Japan.  The weather so abruptly turned cold, winds and rainy that I caught a cold.  I haven’t been able to shoot for the last couple of days, because all I want to do is sleep to regain my strength.

Two random, yet connected images.

This is not the glossy image of Shibuya that is splashed across glossy magazines.  This is the Shibuya that I know.  The dirty backstreets, where one can get lost in the variety of vices offered up if you have the yen to pay for it.

All this poor guy wants in the whole entire world is to be like his older brothers.  He tries and he tries, yet somehow deep in his heart he knows that he will never quite fit in.  Its, “Ok, little cone” I say.  You don’t have to be like them.  All you have to do is to shine one and just be yourself.

The sun was roasting at a high of 36 yesterday as I wondered back to my home.  We are promised that it was the last day of hot weather as this morning I awoke to cooling rain splattering on my window.

I had the time, so I chose another way home from the station.  I wanted to see what there was to be seen as the mercury still read 30 degrees at 4 in the afternoon.  All these souls living in such proximity to one another.  Literally the people live stacked on top of one another.  Japan, and Tokyo in particular, is a vertical society where the souls are layered like Lego blocks in perfected geometry.

I was fortunate to be able to link up with my mate Paul who is visiting from Australia who is here visiting Japan.  It was great to chat tech, photography and just plain catch up with each other.  We walked over to Shinbashi station and said our goodbyes till the next time.

I took the opportunity to wander around in the humid afternoon sun.  There are some crazy backstreets with pubs the size of closets along side massive electronic stores.  It was a good end to a great day.  Good friends, good weather (at least is wasn’t raining), and lots of photographs.  A few of my favorite things.

Photography and cinematography books always talk about shooting in the magic hour.  That time when the sun is setting and the light takes on a magic golden glow.  This is all true, except for the fact that the time is more like only 15 minutes of golden light.  I love it when my walk home coincides with that golden light.  The ordinarily beautiful bathes in that liquid gold.

Around 1 o’clock in the morning I hard an unstoppable urge to go out on to my patio and look up at the night sky.  I wanted to look up into the dark skies and mediate on all those who are also looking up at the velvet skies.  How many of us are out there looking into the heavens.  Are these the same skies that my ancestors saw why traveling the deserts?

Go out and look up.  Think about the countless humans who have also looked up into these seemingly changeless skies.

Look, Seek, Search and Find

As the sun sets this Friday night it is a time to reflect on the previous doing of the year.  It is a time to reason with the self and struggle how to make one’s self a better self.

The stone ages, wears, but the marks, and gouges remain.

Think about time, the ages, the amount of time that it takes a rough hewn stone to smooth like a river pebble.  Maybe, hopefully we can come closer to who we must be.

Love is the greatest gift.

Give and Receive it!