Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
Blind stop two in Nikko: Kegon Falls. This we also couldn’t see, not because it was twisted into some mystical shape but rather because it was covered in fog. The fog would lift and for a few moments we could see the surrounding snow-laden mountains, but before we could catch even a glimpse of the…
I have trouble seeing. I don’t mean I need to wear glasses–although I do. What I’m talking about is seeing stuff in stuff. I never knew what people were talking about when they referred to some Man in the Moon. I thought I saw a face one time but haven’t seen it since. Then there…
I find myself unable to shake a certain melancholy that descended with the new year. February’s freezing rain gave way to March’s glowering, shifting sky and a damp, whipping wind. This wind blew me down to the river, hands full of chipboard that used to be bread. It inspired a seasonal haiku:dull unending gloomunwanted and…
Japanese girls always have these beautiful, compact purses. So I’ll be on the train, checking out cute shoes and bags as usual, when some girl with a tiny purse will pull out a Victorian-style hand mirror and examine her bangs. Where did that come from? Or it starts raining and suddenly all these purses open…
I love curtains. Until yesterday, I didn’t have any; only a stylish shower curtain covered one window. That’s because–while curtains more than anything say ‘a grown-up lives here’–I am intimidated by all the parts, pieces and work that goes into each ‘window treatment.’ Also I think the name ‘window treatment’ is dumb. Seriously, poles, hooks,…
I live near Sakuragaoka Station–that means Hill of Cherry Blossoms. Further along the Odakyu line toward Tokyo is my station’s sister, Umegaoka–Hill of Plum Blossoms. Surprise! Umegaoka is just five minutes from Hanegi Park, one Tokyo’s top parks for viewing plum blossoms. I stalked this beautiful couple like a paparazzo for a few minutes until,…
What does that mean!? Well, it’s tonight’s weather report and made me laugh, but it means the winds are changing! This weekend, Passport Diaries passed the 20,000 blog-views point in less than two years! Or actually, in just over a year, because I added the counter after about six months of blogging! Please help me…
