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!

The rain returned with destruction on it’s wings.  The rain fell hard like stones.  The wind whipped up the leaves and debris, and the Spiderellas came out as the rain lightened up.  It seems like whenever the storms hit the streets are covered with the Spiderellas.  It is much in the same way as in my home town of Miami that earthworms litter the the sidewalks after a a downpour.  Catch the Spiderellas as you can, for they will be gone in the bright sunlight.

There has been a distance of nine years since the Twin Towers in New York City came crashing to the ground, splitting the the American soul in two.  I journeyed to New York city in November of 2001 to attend the unveiling of my grandmothers headstone.  With camera in hand, I wandered the street, shooting, taking in the red white and the horror.  I saw the best and the worst of America on the island of Manhattan.

As the distance between the actual event and the memory of the event grow farther apart, how will America and the world remember it?  WIll it be one of hate and fear, or one of tolerance and compassion.  My fellow brothers and sisters of different faiths and cultures think about this day I pray that people choose to see what connects humanity together rather than what separates us.

Take this time to reflect on how we all must fit into this world.

Therefore, In my open letter to the city that calls me one of her own, don’t close your doors and your hearts.

I decided to do a docodemo walk yesterday.  Meaning I just picked a station that I had never been and just started walking.  My plan was to get lost.  I didn’t want to get totally lost but that is what happened.  I got off at Edogawabashi station, and started to make my way roughly back towards where I had journeyed from.  Somehow I ended up in Waseda, home of Waseda University.  Stopped off to rest my legs and get a bite to eat and choose to head back towards Kagurazaka, in order to stop over at a nice French cafe.  However, I soon got a Déjà vu feeling as i past by a cracked window that was covered with gel stickers.  I thought to myself, how this looks like the window I passed like 90 minutes ago, and I soon realized that it was.  it made me laugh out loud to come to the realization that I had walked in a huge circle.  This is why I don’t really have a good sense of direction in the city.  Looking forward to the next time that I get lost.

After over a month without a spec of rain, the skis opened up and it has been pouring all day long.  We decided to go try an Hawaiian transported breakfast place.  Maybe it wasn’t the best day for walking around Harajuku with a small umbrella, but it did feel good to not be roasting in the sun.

After making it all the way to Nippori station from wandering from Minowa I found this little origami crane tucked into an iron girder at the station.  It reminded me of the stillness that I often seek out in my life.  As the rushing madness of the city swirls by here a quiet crane sat amongst the dust and peeling paint.

Reflect

Think

Explore

Stillness