The temperature is getting higher and higher day by day.  And with all the energy saving measures in place, businesses have been asked to cut 15% off their energy usage.  I agree with the need to cut energy in order to pitch in and help out, but at the same time it can be just about as hot indoors as it is outside.  The temp hit about 32 (90) the past couple days.  The businesses are all setting the A/C to 28 (83).  It helps a bit, but when you got a room packed with people the temp can be pretty bad.  One room I was in the other day, the indoor thermometer read 32 (90) with the A/C set to 28 (83).

By the time I get home in the early evening, I am thankful for the sun going down, and for a bit cooler air after cooking indoors.

Time to get your pom poms out and shake them around a little.  Get those colors flowing in this heat.  Something to get our mind off all the heat under our feet, and over our heads.

A few shots of mixing up the urban and the flowers I so love these days.  I love how they just merge together.  Sometimes it is the intention of the homeowner’s attempt to beautify the unbeautiful and others its just seems so random.  Flowers…. air conditioners, a few of my favorite things.

Seated in front of a hair salon in Nishi Kasai, were all these potted Aloe plants.  They were just there adding some green to their concrete surroundings.  Step inside, get a perm, pick a leaf of Aloe to soothe your burns, or dry skin.  All at the Lets Perm Salon.

The temperature was cool but the wall was hot out on the streets of Ichikawa.

Lots to be seen under and around the tracks at Tsudanuma station.  Just let yourself wander around and see what there is to be seen.

Back to my afternoon stomping grounds of Ichikawa.  I had missed her over the summer as I spent most of my time in Tokyo.  It still amazes me that I can walk the same streets and still find something I haven’t seen before, or see something in a way of seeing that I hadn’t noticed.  It is definitely a challenge for my sensability as a photographer.

Made a recent trip into the Ginza shopping district. I love wandering around those backstreets between Ginza and Shinbashi.  A mishmash of very exclusive shops selling hard to find items like handmade kimono slippers, to lots, and lots of bars.

The cubes, the rectangles,  the shapes that all squeeze into a square.  They are so lovely.  So organized.

These days I seem to be tipping my hat to the old masters with my obsession with shape and forms in my photographs.  The geometrical shapes are popping out at me from all sides of the road.  It is almost if i see the shapes first and then what they actually represent second.

I do not mind this obsession.  Only by working on the obsession can I figure out why I have become fixated on shapes.  The more I photograph and construct the images in this way, the closer I can begin to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together.

I hope I didn’t go off on too much of a tangent.

I have been thinking about this a lot these days.  That in ancient times the first fruits of the harvest were given over to the priest of the the temple to be offered.  We have lost touch with our roots and connection to the land.  When do we plant, when do we harvest has all been lost to those that live in the metropolises of today.

I struggle to find those connections being a city dweller myself.  I maintain a simple patio garden filled with fruit and spice plants.  I have re committed myself to tending my plants more closely this year as a way to keep some connection with the biorhythms of the earth.

Keep on finding that connection.  Take care of your garden.  You are the master of the fields if you choose to be.