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.

The sun shone high in the sky.  The moisture has returned to where it came from.  The light brightened all the land as the streets glowed under it’s weight.  I was freed from my cold, and awoke with colors in the heart.

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.

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.

Step

Trod into that shade.  The shade that has the power to soothe a hot soul.

The shade that causes I to pause, and inhale deeply.

Shade

Glorious Shade

I am thankful for my family.

I am thankful for my Floridian roots.

I am thankful for the love that triumphs pain.

I am thankful every day that I can gain new insights.

I am thankful for the friends I have known and the friends that I will know.

There are all sorts of obstacles that are put in front of our paths on a daily basis.  Some of these walls are placed there by energies beyond our comprehension.  Others we place in our way by our own minds.  Neither of these barriers should stop us from reaching the other side.  There is always away over, around, or straight though the wall.  One must look at each one as a challenge and realize that the solution is simpler than we cold ever imagine.

So break though those walls.

If you have to venture straight though without pondering the solution.

They are only constructions of steel, concrete and wood.

I have been struggling to understand the Japanese obsession with the coming of the cherry blossoms for years.  People stare in amazement at the lovely pink and white blossoms that fill the heavens in late March to early April.

Some celebrate the coming of the blossoms to express their joy in Bacchus self abandonment.  Drinking themselves until they lay motionless under the trees they came out to enjoy.  Families gather for yearly portraits under the flowers.

Today as I was riding my bicycle thought the falling pink petals I was puzzled trying to come to a realization of why there is so much commotion of with the pink madness.  I remembered what I had asked my wife if she had ever seen cherry blossom trees out in the wild and she answered NO.  Therefore her and many others experience of the blossoms has been though the lens of an urban landscape.  I think this is the key to my satori.

That the cherry blossoms are a way for people to connect with their earthen roots.  Their roots that go back to when Japanese society was a purely agricultural society before they industrialized.  By standing in awe of the natural beauty of the flowers they can touch part of their spirit that has faded as Japan has stepped into the industrial age.

So, now I can stare up and see the urban concrete jungle of daily Tokyo intertwined with the branches cherry blossoms.  All merging into a beauty that only comes around for a couple of weeks each year.

The time that we spent on the Big Island was breathtaking in its simple and complex beauty.  I was reminded how much i missed watching the sky drop from the skies in my native Florida.  Each night we stared off into the distant horizon and watched the liquid fireball meld into that horizontal line.

Coming from my current urban home of Tokyo, a spark of nature was ignited in my soul.  That need to be out in the natural un-urban world.  Jump in the salty oceans, climb down a rocky path, feel the misty air, all of these soothe and energize the soul.

Go out any find your own Sunsets on the Big Island, where ever they shall be.

Is there such a thing as Urban Nature?