seriously, there are babies everywhere

Another summer highlights album... please no comments about my ovaries, uterus, or biological clock.

photo reel

I'm posting highlights of the photos I'm taking over the summer on this web album:

It's summer again... already and finally

The winter seemed like it was going to last for.ev.er.

Growing up in Southern California, I dreamed of leaves changing in the fall and snowy Christmases in winter and bird-chirping spring days. "The weather is so boring here," I'd always complain. This winter is what the kids like to call "karma, bitch." It lasted forever, was miserable and cold and rainy, and seemed neverending. There was snow in April, April!

chigasaki fireworks on the beach

Now the heat is on in Tokyo and it is not kidding around. It seems like it must be record temps every day and guess what... I'm loving it! Yeah it's hot and I have to do laundry like 5 times a week, but I've figured out that as much as I love leaves that change color and snow, I like that stuff in small doses (like other people's kids). I even realized that this may need to be something I factor in as I look for grad schools. I can't imagine trying to be productive and smart and thinking about my electricity bill because I've been blasting the heat to 30 degrees Celsius so I can walk around in shorts and a tank top like it's a California winter. I know, I'm weak. What can I say?

long tail boat and coral beach at long beach, thailand

Last summer, I was enthralled and infatuated with the house my friends and I shared in Chigasaki (I wrote about it here). This summer, there's been no such regular escape from city life. But there has been a relaxing and productive weekend getaway to Okinawa, a fantastic trip to Thailand, and some great days at Chigasaki beach, including fireworks this weekend. Yesterday, I got a surprise last minute invite to Summer Sonic, where Mr. Stevie Wonder helped soothe my winter blues and helped me enjoy the heavy humid Tokyo summer heat.

a fierce pedicure and beautiful beaches in okinawa

marianne and me at summer sonice (that's a tribe called quest in the background)

And then the sun broke through...

I started working on this post in March in Paris for the photoblog I contribute to, but that blog is in a very deep and severe coma, so I'm gonna post this here instead. I love this photo.

toy sail boats near the Louvre

Paris was slated to have a big windstorm because of the storm going across the north, but, luckily it wasn't too bad in the city. There was a lot of rain and wind in the morning, but in the afternoon, the sun broke through as I was walking back to my hotel. I was coming from the Left Bank (rive gauche) and decided to walk through the Tuileries Garden (next to the Louvre). Despite the light rain that was falling and the "breeze" (my umbrella was not happy), there was still a fair number of people out enjoying a walk on a Sunday.

It's days like this that I've really missed since leaving Paris. As I walked under the mini Arc de Triomphe at the entrance near the great Pyramid in the Louvre's courtyard, I heaved a BIG sigh of relief. It felt good to be in a place that felt both familiar and new. I used to walk through here or take the bus all the time. I love the anachronism of Paris, it gives me a little high each time I experience it and it's one of the things I miss the most about living there. Somehow the city's age and history makes it grand and quaint, overwhelming and cozy at the same time; there's always something new among the old. The juxtapositions mean I never get tired of looking around and exploring.

Paris, je t'aime...?

scene from a bus

It's been a while since my last post, but how can I not be inspired to write something when in Paris? I've been in France for just over 12 hours and in Paris for well under (there was some drama at the airport... hence, I didn't get to my hotel until about 9:15).

Way back before I got here (you know, 13 hours ago), I thought I'd be crying with love tears as I walked around Paris, drinking in the ambiance and the warmth that comes with people who aren't stoic and who talk to strangers. One of the first things I noticed when I got on the bus was that there were waaaaaaaay fewer people listening to iPods (and the like) than one sees in Tokyo (including moi... haven't had an urge to listen to the iPod since I got here). People were making noise in real life and listening to the noise that other people were making. It felt less and more isolating at the same time. Because Paris is just such a smaller city than Tokyo is, people/friends/colleagues/schoolmates travel around together much more often than happens in Tokyo. It's not abnormal to have a group of people all going together to the same place via the same route. So, there are people laughing and chatting and arguing all around. Iin a way, it made me feel like a part of the scene--hey, I'm sitting on that bus, too... or at the next table in the cafe, or on the other end of the park bench. But, on the other hand, it also seems to accentuate how much you (I) am sitting all by your (my) lonesome.

Maybe it's just jet lag... or the pee smell everywhere (was it always this strong?)... but I'm not crying the love tears. I guess this is just how you feel sometimes when you go "home," and I definitely feel like Paris is one of my homes--nothing to get too excited about, but all the same, still a comfort to be here and nice to be around the familiar. Even though I lived here for less time than I've spent in Tokyo, I definitely feel more able to be integrated here... for better or for worse (it's definitely sink or swim here).

view from my room

The good thing is that I'm getting a chance to reconnect with people and with places. I've gone shopping already (Gap was having a jeans sale) and will be looking for shoes that I don't need to buy in the tranny store, and I've already got a recommendation for a place to get my hair cut in Florence. The challenge is definitely still here (as with any "foreign" living experience), but somehow it just seems slightly more (and also less... hi there mixed signals!) manageable here. But when the day starts out with a cute old dog presenting its belly for a good rub and scratch in the quaint little hotel lobby, life can't be all bad.

official greeter at hotel

Hot stuff!!

Last week, I rolled in a 1961 Rolls. Check it out, baby!

Sakura season!!

I just put a bunch of pictures up on the photoblog I'm a part of - Global Themes. Go over there to see photos I took yesterday and today of all the sakura that have exploded all over Tokyo since the weekend!

More recent click, click, clicks

I noticed recently that I never leave home without my camera. I don't know when this started, but here's some stuff I've snapped while out and about recently.