This is the week that the youth of Japan return to school, and if they have already graduated it is the month when new recruits head off to their new jobs. Today in many ways felt like spring.  The morning air was dry and a bit on the cool side for my taste, but it was only a few beats away from a warmer afternoon.

The crossing guards were out in force today making sure that all the little ones made it safely to their classrooms.  They were stationed at busy intersections and crosswalks near schools.  They will soon be replaced by volunteer PTA moms.  For most it is the true beginning of the year.  A chance to make a new path.  A chance to become what they want.

As the day progresses so did the forcefulness of the gusty winds.  They have been steadily increasing in power that I felt if I had a bat cape I could have glided all the way home.

The earth’s cycles cannot be stopped.  The wind will blow the petals from the cherry blossoms, and the dandelions will become puffs balls of seeds scattered across Japan.

The sun was being chased away by the clouds. It would peek out for a moment lighting up all below, and the next moment it would disappear into a haze of shade.

I thought a great day to go out and pedal around the neighborhood.  A moving mediation came over me.  A rhythmic beat by beat meditation. Pedal pedal, I went, and every so often the neighborhood would force me to pause.  Take in the surroundings at a slower pace.

Between to states, being at rest and being in motion.  Up the bridge stretching over the road below, I decided to turn around.  Where did I come from?  I am so far away from home.  But, this has become my adopted home.  Looking over my neighborhood I thought about where I would go, and this quickly melted into the now.  A moment in the now.  Over the buildings wires, of where I pedal my physical body.

Home is never really that far away.  A brief pause will bring you forward to the now.  Pedal pedal pause, reflect, meditate.

I have committed myself to cycling as often as I can.  Lets just say it is about time for me to be more active as the years roll by. I been cycling pretty hard and fast with no time to take pictures, but today on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I grabbed my Ricoh as I headed out the door.

The river emptying into Tokyo Bay looked like chocolate milk after yesterdays downpour.  I stopped a few times for some clicks, but I didn’t take that much.  Hopefully more time will come up in August as I get the chance to roam around Tokyo a click away to my hearts content.

I had gathered my coat, scarf, and bag before stumbling out into the cold Chiba night.  It was only 6:30 but the haze of the early party swirled in my head.  The air felt so refreshing after inhaling other peoples smoke for the last 2 hours.  I walked the familiar streets back to the station, pausing a few times to see some lights that caught my eye.

The lights just come alive at night.  Even though at times so much light pours onto the streets that becomes a artificial fluorescent day.

I kind of like it a bit when the darkness comes so early, but I look forward to those long summer days that aren’t to far away.

Can you’ll all out there see this back alley.  Just there waiting.  A little slice of siding cake just ready to be put into it’s proper dimensions.

Ya’ll dig it?

They try and they try, but they can never stop art.  Art will always survive, even when it is just a faded, scrubbed image of what it initially was.

Another in the series You Can’t Stop Art.  This one was taken in the underpass at Yurakucho station.  Lovely old brick arches with little bars and eateries tucked into those arches.

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

Wether wer construct houses, design our yards, or let nature takes its course all play into the theme of geometrical wabi sabi.  How the world we live in relates to the world that surrounds us.  What stone is placed where according to the rules of some unseen design.

I love coming across these perfections in design.  They lie somewhere between haphazard and planned.  Wander around where you live or work and see how everything is in harmony or disharmony with all the other pieces.

I have been on a mission this summer to visit neighborhoods in Tokyo that I have never visited before.  I want to expand my urban view of my adoptive home.  Where are those interesting hoods?  So, after a bit of searching I set my sights on the old neighborhood of Minowa.

Minowa lies only a few stations from the bustle of Ueno, but it might as well have been on the other side of the Tokyo border.  There was an old covered mall left over from the Showa days.  Tight narrow alley ways lead away from the shopping mall.

Between the buildings coming down and the new ones going up laid a wonderland of geometric interactions with it’s inhabitants.

Wander

Wander

Click

Click

And it all fits nicely into a square.

Made a pilgrimage to the Monzennakacho area of Tokyo today.  I love it’s little backstreets filled with all sorts of drinking spots, houses butted up next to each other like books in a library, and a bit of old Tokyo charm.  Wandering the steamy asphalt covered streets, seeking out those images that just seem to be calling my name.

After visiting the heart of Tokyo today, I am thankful for being close to Tokyo Bay.  It might not be much of a difference, but being near the water does keep things a bit cooler.  Surrounded by all that concrete and steel juts breeds hot air.

Wandering around some of the backstreets of Ueno is always an interesting for me and my lens.  I am never quite sure what I am going to find.  Walls that have been completely taken over by pipping and meters, A beautiful Lotus pond full of blooming flowers.  All harmonizing in the summer heat.

Nothing but wind and rain today.

These are the other images taken on my bicycle ride through Kasai on Friday afternoon.  Lots of windows, shadows and angles.  All intensifying under the heat of the sun.  Keep hydrated, seek the shade and enjoy.

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.