It is high time for the political campaigning.  At every station those politricksters are out pressing the flesh with their bleached white gloves.  The posters have been and are being hung across the entire country of Japan.  They all become visual media to be remixed with my lens.

Colors, lines, fragments take on expressions that challenge there sincereness in which those politicians are portraying themselves.  But we all know better, don’t we?

Take what you see, and flip it like a giant flap jack.

Flip it baby, flip it!

After being stuck on the Tozai Line for about an hour I had to approach my destination on foot, in a sheets of mist.  The skies were so gray and full of moisture.  The density of the air was like that of my hometown of Miami.  So thick that one can take bites out of the air so satisfy your thirst.

Images just popped out at me left and right.  I took many more pictures this morning that I ever would have if I hadn’t had been stuck on the train.

So when you get those lemons go out and make the best you can.  For me that is to take pictures.  For you out there, figure it out and make it part of your daily habit.

The humidity pushed pretty close to 100% today.  The only saving grace was that the actual temperature was not that high, but it did feel like being smacked in the face when I walked out the door.

Everything took on a soft glow today.  I speculate that the water molecules in the air refract more light than on a dry day.  The hues were bright, as perspiration slid down my arm.

Those lost treasures that have been waiting though all weather. Hoping to be picked up and reunited with their owners again.

So stay cool.  Keep the water cool and the beer ice cold as we head into the wet season.

After a nice day of rest I ventured around my local station to get some food, and grab some shots.  The night life was just beginning.

The colors are so saturated, and lively.  The beer was ice cold.  The air conditioners are cranked to high.  Just another night in Kasai.

A snap election has been ordered here in Japan after the new prime minister Kan took over a few weeks ago.  The election will take place on July, 11th 2010.  Only two weeks of campaigning are allowed.  At least that saves our ears from the endless loudspeakers that roam the neighborhoods asking us to vote for their politrickster.  Another good point is that there is a lot less money wasted on the campaigning than the pornographic amounts wasted back in the states.

The best thing for me as a photographer are the political posters.  I just love to have fun with them.  They are up all over the place and are put up on specially erected boards that each party has an assigned space.  I love to get in there with my lens and abstract, pervert the already perverted message that the politicians are trying to portray.

They have no real power.  Only the illusion of real power because “we the people” have given in to them.  The people are not ready for real change, because real change will mean heartaches.  Therefore in the meantime, as the humidity and the heat rise so does the foul stench of politics.  In return I will strive to take such ugliness and turn it into an expression.

Don’t give in to the politricksters illusions.  Go out and fight the real fight.

Stepping back and letting the surroundings soak it up in the lens.  Then there are the times I want to step forward and get so close that nothing else is to be seen.  The combination of the two is a perfect expression for me.

So, sit back and enjoy.  Step forward and look deeply. How ever you choose to look, let those visions fill your vision.

If you haven’t noticed already I’m really into the color blue.  There has been an attraction to this color ever since I was a little child.  There is a relaxing element to that oceanic color.  It just soothes my scattered brain.  The color washes over my eye like those beautiful waves on the Big Island.  Ahhh blue…. in all its shades, tones and emotions.

Rain and rained it did today.  It poured so hard that I couldn’t see out my window.  I do like the rain, as long as I am not caught in the middle of it.  I saw a common species that inhabits the streets of Tokyo after a big storm.  I have named this species the “Spiderella.”  They can be found by the side of the road, sprawled out soaking up the sun after the rain stops.

I have been searching out the lost and found objects for about 9 years or so.  So many object lost and so many of these object found.  All have been gently placed with the intention of them being found by their owner.  Just another two keys that have been lost.  What do they unlock?  Will they ever slide into that lock agin?  Only the most high knows.

In between the daily rains of recent day I have been thinking of this verse from Isaiah 2:4.  I am sure most of you out there know it.

“and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Then this item tossed aside on the edge of a pedestrian overpass I found a toy gun that has been tossed away.  Even though it is a toy gun, these so called toys breed violence into the games that children play.  It will be a beautiful tomorrow when there shall be no more metals and plastics used for destruction.

I await that day.

We all await that day.

They are all out there laying in plain sight.  The basic shapes that make up the world around us.  The squares, rectangles, triangles, lines ovals, circles.  They are all there.  They are sometimes perfect, and other times they are beautifully imperfect.  I will continue to search out these shapes.  I see them now when I close my eyes.

I think I have discovered a new theme over the last couple of weeks of shooting.  I have become fascinated with the geometrical shapes that are created in the simple abodes of the urban landscape.  The windows and doors, and fences and how they all interact to create a world of formally arranged intersections and balances.

I will continue to explore these ideas, and discover why they have become so important to me.

Stay positive and explore the geometry that surrounds us all.

That rain is falling, the blue orbs of energy are flowing.  The thin door and the mailboxes keep on rusting.  The island to nowhere just is sitting there.   Holding that umbrella high and waving to a loved one on a train platform.

The whole world just seemed to take a pause to pull out heir collective umbrella and in vain try to keep dry.

“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Jonah 1:17

Poor Jonah spent three nights inside the great fish.  What amount of faith it must have taken to survive that ordeal.  Keep up the good spirits.  Do the good works.  Strive to survive in this crazy world.

It poured.  It came down so hard that it was hard to see that far ahead today.  It reminded me of what a good friend and I used to say.  That in order to truly perceive, one had to see with your ears, smell with your eyes, taste with your fingers and hear with your nose.  All the senses must be used in ways they are not used to in order to benefit from the whole picture.

Think about it.  Can you hear a potato?  Can you touch a blue sky?  Can you smell blue?

Mix it up, jumble it up, use your senses in ways they have never been used before.