The Tokyo Connection

Slow routine

2012-01-27T04:39:00.004+09:00

My current obsession lately, mainly during the short time I had to sit and eat infront of my PC, is to read the daily routines of various famous people, mostly writers, architects, scientists and the rest of the trust-fund babies, collated in a blog I found the other day.

It made me think of how much of a slack I am, not because I don't have a routine, but that I have a slow one. It just doesn't seem right that mine is also very flimsy, meaning, my routine, which is already slow, can break easily without notice mainly due to external distractions, or an impulsive deviation from my usual walk to school (like when I suddenly feel the urge to drop by a cafe, and actually do stop for at least half an hour).

Anyway, took some photos today, school-bound. Foster the people (below), was playing madly like small minions of mine, inside my ear.

It's sugary, comes out warm, and turns cold in less than five minutes. One practical thing to speed up a bit the slow routine. Total failure, though, unless I consume 4 more cans of these through out the night.

Rarely I use the station nearest my house. The route to school using this station takes me longer, thus slower. Nobody likes long, slow rides, right? Not always, but certainly I would not be talking about trains anymore. haha.

I had my bi-monthly session with the shrink today, and he was late. Probably, the guy before me gorged the earth with his meandering river of tears, that my shrink had to climb back to the surface and mop the floor. If I am not kidding you, then proceed with imagining the struggle of climbing back for your life, from a precipice that would drop you a thousand feet to raging salty waters of tears, only to reach the top to mop the floor. Seriously now.

My uni is soooo obsessed with buildings that are architecturally influenced by honey combs and structurally inspired by cheese cake. They are now building a new one, this time nearer my actual lab. I am wondering what sort of ~~superstition~~ imagination has come into the minds of the architects behind this? It comes with no serious thoughts that everytime I pass by here, I'm reminded of Tom and Jerry and that highly-coveted piece of cheese their funny lives revolve around to. I just hope they (the building and the artists behind it) impart the same level of happiness I feel to other by-passers. Otherwise, they'd fail big time in making people remember the bickering of the cat and the mouse, and the quintessential appearance of Tweety Bird from time to time.

Meanwhile, I would do anything for you, Mark said. Mark Foster, in particular.

3 winters ago

2012-01-23T05:24:00.004+09:00

Tokyo, lately, is as cold as the lips of a cat. The only thing that keeps me warm is the thought of Foster the People skitzo-dancing in my room.

Anyway, the long, cold walks back home at 3am keep on arresting me with memories of my first winter. I remember then, I wasn't at all complaining of the coldness, but rather was inanely amused of how cool it is not to smoke but still puff a lungful of blue, smoky air just everytime. After 3 years, all the amusing images of winter, even the magic of snow, have found a cold shoulder, so to speak.

I dug some old photos to serve this recent rememberance. I was living in Yokohama then, and school was a 2-hour commute. Holing up in my room was especially a guiltless need on very cold days.

Sometimes, a futon can draw the thin line between heaven and hell. Of course, I choose hell. haha.
But I swear I can do just about anything and everything without leaving my bed.

I remember how carefree those days felt, with the vibe of a new city constantly pumping a bizarre feeling of awe and wonder. And to think I spent most of my time inside my room!

The best thing about living on a third floor at the middle of nowhere is the fact that nowhere means only the man on the second floor can hear how I whacked the life out of that guitar. It took half a year worth of ~~noise~~ music before I received a formal complaint. :p

I find empty, colorful boxes very ornamental back then. Or anything with written Japanese on it for that matter. But three years worth of winter scalding has practically changed me into a zen-loving, minimalist schmuck like this. I just don't make sense sometimes. Like now. haha...

What hasn't changed really is how I ridicule my self with post-it notes of absurd reminders like how to make life beautiful, how I should work harder, or how I should at least finish my thesis. Sometimes, I just can't contain in unwritten silence what I'm supposed to be (not) doing. And I wasn't even naughty in grade school.

I have since changed to Adidas moisturiser, if you happen to ask. Apparently, the sensitivity of the skin on my face matches my heel's. But seriously, not a zit since the brand change even with -5 degrees centigrade and 0 precipitation weather. Mind that.

Winter has a way of consoling me by providing the nicest, sunny mornings.Most of the time, a cold, sleepless night is all worth waiting because of such a sunrise .

Though not all the time.

Found a monkey stunt I did after the first winter because I was extremely happy that the fear of going out and frost-biting myself has finally come to past, hallelujah.

During winter, I feel like a garage: damp, stale and eerie. After winter, I feel like a green lawn with colored balls rolling around, where kids throw banana peels in riot, and mothers lay red-white checkered picnic mats with skids of guava marmalade. Just like self-discipline, I can't seem to contain happiness. This is so not the way how to go down this slide even with marijuana.

Another proof of the uncontrollable happiness of surviving the first winter. Haha.

Keep warm, everyone.

Hometown glory

2012-01-17T04:17:00.000+09:00

There is only a certain sunrise that can perfectly match irony of your current melancholy.

Went home for the holidays, and for the first time since I started living on my own, I felt the immeasurable distance and the subtle cruelties of the bigger world out there. Perhaps I stayed too long in a warm place? The bigger boy in my wants to digress.

There was a December, when I swam at my hometown's beach at midnight, that I saw a million stars, and I knew at that moment that it took me too long, or I have gone too far only to be consumed by a seizure of the most beautiful paralysis, droned by the salty waters of this place I grew up in. Or maybe it was just the beer, and the small hiss of pot.

Now that I am back to winter, my feelings are scanty.And so are the reluctance of a life worth writing about, or photographed.

Below is a bay famous for sunsets.
It's almost embarrassing how my camera never saw any of the paradise I went to.

Happy New Year people of the world. I wish for all the best things in life that a year could do to each one!

Music by Adele, Hometown Glory.

The October that I did not exist

2011-11-14T11:09:00.001+09:00

It's funny how a month has passed unnoticed. Seriously, where was I last October?

I probably was there, though I belonged to the night, where sun-filled days were mere illusions.
There was also an illusion of the self, wanting to miss so many people, because a walk home at past 3 in the morning can be quite lonesome at times, especially with the growing smell of cold autumn creeping through the sleeves of a thin cardigan.

Where was I, really?

In those rare afternoons when the pill has stopped working, and the day was singing like Beatles, I played with kids a quarter century younger to see the difference of naivete and a scheming mind.

Other times, ending on a late dinner at the only open restaurant on my block at 1 am bananas in the morning.

There were ample times too, spent on the train, which I particularly love on rainy days.

The afternoons when the sun waited a bit for my rise, I walked around the neighborhood, thinking of everything and nothing at the same time.

Where was I last October? Perhaps too busy being obsessed with the comforting feeling that I was mostly alone and genuinely happy.

India Arie's Heart of the matter

Dear Tokyo,

2011-09-27T02:55:00.000+09:00

Like the fading smell of a perfume, you put all these beautiful emotions on my wrists,
everyday that I walk around these semi-autumnal days, where clouds are light,
the breeze with the tiniest hint of a passing summer, I realize that I already will miss you,
for the specific reasons that only my heart can identify in the longer days of the eventual break-up.

Bon Iver plays, For Emma.

The hot air balloons

2011-08-07T20:39:00.000+09:00

Often times, if I am using my imagination as a hot air balloon and making it land at any place I’d want, I’d usually choose a quaint, little Japanese neighborhood with roughly a few dozen houses, and where an old izakaya defines the nightlife, or an old local train station concludes the very heart beat of the whole town. There is always a backstory in my head, mostly romantic in nature, typifying the beautiful complexities of a rustic Japanese life, where years are measured by how saltier the sea breeze becomes each summer.

I am sure the little towns along the coastline of Miyage would have been the perfect airports of my hot air balloon. Seeing how these towns were washed out to ruins just make me realize that some place remains beautiful even if they were completely scathed to utter mess.

These photos were taken during a recent visit.

Opus from Haruka Nakamura's Arne

My imagination rode a thousand hot air balloons, slowly landing to a few backstories, as the bus wade through traffic back to Tokyo.

Summer 11

2011-07-09T15:26:00.000+09:00

I have not posted a single thing for the past months!
Anyway, turned a year older a couple of weeks ago, went out of town this week (but without the cam) and did lots of things that will keep my excitement rolling in the next months.

Some photos from a few weeks back. It's damn hot in Tokyo nowadays. I can't help but pant!

How to be alone

2011-05-17T07:21:00.000+09:00

"Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself,
perhaps all those sappy slogans from preschool
over to high school's groaning
were tokens for holding the lonely at bay.
'Cos if you're happy in your head
then solitude is blessed and alone is okay."

"If your heart is bleeding make the best of it
There is heat in freezing, be a testament."

When everything felt like a good old bluesy guitar riff

2011-05-11T02:23:00.002+09:00

If we're sitting in a cafe somewhere in Marseille and smoking French cigars, and you ask me what I did in Tokyo ten years ago, I'd tell you about these past weeks, when I did nothing but read and write and read, and how come the city was so unshaken with how tangible my thoughts were, and how I could almost touch all of them at one instance on my way home at 6 in the morning.

Beautiful secret

2011-04-18T00:34:00.000+09:00

My most beautiful secrets come to life whenever I walk and think about my future. It involves a shy smile, a soft sigh of optimism, and a tweak of eyebrows that tells a great amount of anticipation. That's my secret: I feel happy when I think of my future, of things I have yet to figure out doing.

Your secret by Jean-Sebastien Monzani

Another sunny day

2011-04-13T12:42:00.000+09:00

I nearly thought I would literally skip the sakura watching this year since I am mostly asleep in the day and working full time with my papers at night. But then this happened, and what a day.

I hope you all have a nice day. Tokyo and Japan in general is still reeling over the catastrophe of last month. So continue wishing everyone here good faith.

Playing is Belle and Sebastian's Another sunny day.

We all need saving, sometimes

2011-03-19T01:06:00.002+09:00

On that fateful Friday morning, I was south of Tokyo, in the seaside resort town of Atami, sitting by the balcony of the hotel we were renting, watching, almost crying at how simple yet arresting it was to be swallowed by a beautiful sunrise. It was one of those soft mornings, so soft in fact that I feel I'm dense and drowning to its sublimities whenever I remember.

I took a shot, three times, thinking I won't find the use of that memory someday but only in little photographs for this blog. Little did I know, with the turn of events later that afternoon, that that sunrise is the only memory I want to remain and remember out of the many unforgettable things that happened that Friday.

My heart goes out to Nihon. I can't help but cry a bit inside every time I see the raging waters surging quaint little towns up north. It kills me like a thousand heart break every time. It wrenches me but at the same time strengthens my love for this country even more, and in the hope that it would stand back stronger after all of this.

If you are following this blog, take a minute of silence, whisper a short prayer to your God, to whatever is bigger than you, and ask for relief over this country we all love. What Japan needs now is our comfort.

In a more practical level, if you cannot find anyway to give your donations, I encourage you to buy something made in Japan one of these days, even something as little as Japanese toys or t-shirts or manga magazine which are being sold in your country. It may not serve any direct purpose or may sound silly amids all of this, but in the long run, may take a little burden to the adverse effects of this disaster.

Thank you for your well wishes. I felt all of them across our oceans.

PS. We all need saving by Jon Mclaughlin was playing on my earphones while I took the photos of that sunrise. I know, it was heartbreakingly coincidental.

Better together

2011-03-03T20:20:00.001+09:00

Jack Johnson is making me feel swell, ya'll. Have a nice weekend.

Better Together, from the album In Between Dreams.

By the way, thank you Ms. HangSee Lee of Nylon Korea for a small feature of my blog. Got your package on a rainy morning. Nice! 감사합니다.

Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time - Jean Luis Borges

2011-02-25T01:22:00.001+09:00

Lately, Tokyo is beginning to get warm. I can't help but look at the sky all the time and be pensive of the coming change. Kinda reminds me of one of my favorite lines above, and a Train's song I was being mawkish about some years back when I was still a teenager.

Photos of my skies last week. There was a day when I thought my apartment will fall down to pieces because of the strong wind blowing over the city, but when I went out to check if there was a typhoon, the clouds were like balloons that little kids forgot to tighten and flew to the sky. I know I had to take a shot.

Graduation

2011-02-09T03:48:00.004+09:00

Two of my closest friends from the lab just finished grad school today. I feel that the past two years I have spent with them are entirely an era in itself, and that the coming graduation next month will take my life, in general, into a whole new spin. I feel a bit anxious for myself, but at the same time, I share the success that they now enjoy. I look forward to the new lives they will take on this coming spring, content at the the thought that they generously filled mine ever since Tokyo took me into her arms.
ありがとう!

The consolation of the days I have enjoyed much is that I cannot pick a single one that can summarize all the wonders of a thankful heart. But if I have to, it would be this one day when they drove me out of Tokyo to their hometown, because we were all clueless of what to do with me during the days of my depression. That proved to be one morning that I can remember now in full clarity a streak of carbon-blue in my sky.

These are the photos from the black car, towing along, wafting the growing smell of pine trees of Ibaraki at the break of autumn last year.

おめでとうございます Gunji-chan and Koma-chan! すばらしい~\(^_^)/

New Black Car by the July for Kings. (I remember the radio was on.)

January in my mind

2011-01-31T13:27:00.001+09:00

Some things I saw while walking around my area the other day. I miss walking, not that I can't but because it's become less frequent than before due to the freezing temperature. My walking buddy is also busy finishing school and would be leaving soon, so I'm kinda feelings sick walking alone.

Anyway, cheers for February! It snowed a little yesterday. I hope it will this month of the heart, just like! last! year!

Keep warm, folks!

Busy nights

2011-01-24T02:17:00.000+09:00

The past hours of the week has been purely a thing of the mind. Was in the zone of utter oblivion, I cannot think of anything less ordinary. Still a lot of things to decipher from the graphs, behavior of conjugate displacements I haven't found, I wish I can clearly articulate all these moments in technical innuendos.

Listening to Kissing the Lipless by The Shins for a thousand times I can carve the song in my skin.

The holidays

2011-01-06T02:56:00.000+09:00

What I like about the past winter break was how my day to day events were ran by impulse. There were a few days when I was simply over wrought by the things I like doing at the moment. You bet I was always in the zone.

For instance, I never resisted the lure of a simple walk. Thoughtless, zero-worry walk around the neighborhood. The only trouble I can think of was whether I can light my cigarette against any given day-breeze or not, or if my ipod will pick up my secret favorite songs when I turn on the shuffle. I took photos, of course, as random as the feelings of my moment.

Well, the other thing I like about the past winter break was the ridiculous, guiltless hours I spent snuggled inside my apartment, and thinking about 1960s, recording my funny guitar cover of a Black-eyed Peas song ten awful times, reducing my data points into a few hundreds from a few thousands, planning my future and ex-foliating my winter-dried face.

Most of all, those were the last days of the year, the rare ones, when I wasn't the usual bated breath and never really needed anyone for my little joys. The natural highs, I should say.

New year

2011-01-04T21:36:00.000+09:00

It is customary for people of this world to celebrate the welcoming of a year with a bang. Fireworks the loudest, people shout, scream, pant, holler at each other, jump to resist the roll. All noisy, rowdy, noisy, rowdy, noisy.

Well, I did all of those.

But for me, the real welcoming of the year started on the way home, at 6 in the morning.
The moon just slightly passed by over my apartment, the streets were quiet as ever, the winds of winter rousing the cold pavements, and there's a light thought on my mind of just how peaceful was the time. Aren't moments like these when we're alone and at terms with ourselves that make us, build us to be truly ready for the imminent changes of the arriving year?

Photos of the Yokohama skyline 2 minutes after midnight, and the moon over my apartment early morning of the first.

The coffee and the letter

2010-12-31T03:21:00.001+09:00

Wake up, Mike, 2011 is brewing. Drink your coffee, and don’t worry.

I will write you, will write about you, more often than the sparsely recorded life of a deranged man.

I will wake up with you in the morning, and we’ll light our palms red against the bursting sunshine of an 8 AM. I’ll make sure the bath is warm and that the toaster will toss warm pair of bread for breakfast. Buy your bicycle, because it is nice to start the day racing against rambunctious Japanese gradeschoolers on your way to school.

We’ll eat lunch in empty playgrounds, sitting on see-saws and listening to rousing mid-day breeze. If it's blue skies all over, we’ll throw a small picnic by that bench in the field so we can smoke at the same time. If you’re under the weather, there’s McDonalds and people-watching across the street. You see, there’s so much we can do before the day closes to half.

We can listen to jazz and solve math all afternoon together, just like the old times. I know you’re excited to go back to discovering Fabionacci sequences in soil, and betting your life on Mathlab. We’ll be geeks, and remain shall so amidst the languages we both don’t understand at all.

At the end of the day, we’ll do the market; I know seeing a huddle of yellow peppers is one of your guilty pleasures. We’ll visit every window of your favorite shops in Jiyugaoka, and wonder why there’s so many old, rich women in your neighborhood.

We’ll start the night with a tea, because we’re awesome like that. There are so many fabricated lives to watch from your favorite TV series. Believe me, there's always a new English tongue to rehearse.

On weekends, we’ll take the camera to the city, and shoot buildings and wonderful things in the sky. Or if you’re bored, we can always grab a coffee somewhere, read a book, or pretend we’re mysterious poets at the crack of rabid fame. And if you’re really really bored, let’s just get lazy with your guitar, sing slowly until we can see all pieces of dust settle inside your room.

We’ll be fine, Mike, I assure you because we are cool like that. So wake up now because a new year is brewing. I promise this will be a great one, because now I can see that your eyes are awake and they will remain wide open because I will be with you every minute that they are.

Credits: Seasons of love, because we'll measure the year with the heart this time.

Happy new year everyone.
All the love from Tokyo.

Hello, stranger.

2010-12-23T22:56:00.001+09:00

When does exactly a stranger stops becoming a stranger? Is it after a shared drink and few thoughtless conversations about ephemeral current events infront of an awkward bartender? Or after a candid mistake of smiling at a snotty baby in a crib which told the mom everything was not a mere coincidence? Or after the creaking sound of a rundown bed stopped by the consolation of a one night stand in a dingy motel room?

Credits: The Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice, from Closer, because the pedestrian with strangers are mad mental exercise for unhurried feelings of loneliness and exclusion.
Someone said before: "Everytime I go to Shibuya, I fall in love with a stanger." So this is Shibuya.

Norwegian Wood

2010-12-13T02:10:00.001+09:00

I first read Murakami's Norwegian Wood when I was still living in a boy's dormitory some years back. Tossing up endlessly on top of my bed for a few nights, I dreamt I was Toru Watanabe, back in the 1960s in his college dormitory in the restless Tokyo. In the afternoon, I would go out of my dorm's balcony while reading the book, and pretend I'm at Midori's own balcony, watching a building growing fire at some distance. To say I was hooked is an understatement because I even bought The Great Gatsby halfway of the Norwegian Wood, and started reading the two books in parallel just so I can fully breath what exactly is Toru was feeling at that time. I didn't finish The Great Gatsby though, because Norwegian Wood ended so damn frustrating I was depressed for several days after that all I could do was smoke and drink coffee infront of the main library in my old university whenever I was awake.

Now, Norwegian Wood is a movie. All I could think of is how to watch it. The problem is most movie theaters in Tokyo are in Japanese. I hope I could find one that has English subtitles at the end of the week. Cross your fingers Toru.

Norwegian Wood of The Beatles is playing. The photo I took a few months ago.

Say it, damn it.

2010-12-08T04:54:00.001+09:00

I'm currently watching a highly neurotic TV series, In Treatment, the American treatment of Hagai Levi's successful Israeli series BeTipul. What interests me is how people behaves differently from what their mouths say. Sometimes, that quarter of a foot distance between the heart and the tongue is a bit longer than necessary. We say hurtful things to people we love when all we want to say but don't actually say is "I love you". (God, shoot me, I'm so emo, haha.)

On the same line of thought, of equal interest are the things we don't say to cover the said distance. I think that the things we mum about are more hurtful than the things we do say. Or probably my level of paranoia is just more conscious than average?

Anyway, this post is for my dad, the man I never had said enough of what I needed to. He celebrated his birthday 2 weeks ago. If he was with us, he would have been 79.

John Mayer has a song, one of my favorites, and highly coincidental to my post. I used it to make this post highly emotional. So shoot me now.

More autumn photos for you.

Sweet November

2010-11-28T09:46:00.000+09:00

I'm saying goodbye to the sweetest month of my year while the Hot Action Cop is singing.

Baby, what is it with autumn that keeps me feel alive when everything else around me is falling off to shreds of yellow? This isn't the best season to recover from my year-long depression but yeah, I'm breaking slowly back to life.

Anyway, got a new shade of yellow in my room. Went to Ikea yesterday and bought a stand-alone lamp for less than 20 bucks. It shines 20 times greater than the lamp I bought online in Rakuten a year ago. So you guess I'm more than happy!

I love furniture shops! What I love about it the most is how I don't get this whole Andy Warhol feeling all over me while pushing my shopping cart. Is there anyone getting this same vibe or am I just being annoying?

The other thing that I love about furniture shops are the kids. I especially like those who are having tantrums inside the shopping carts=prams while they're towed away together with the towels, the yokes, the curtain rods, etc. because mum and dad are not done shopping yet. This one, I totally get. Makes me so hopeful about the future. lol.

Well I guess the Swedes got it right with the furniture. But it got me thinking how many Vietnamese are being paid below the minimum wages to deliver the perfect White Westinghouse photo. Only the babies kept me from overanalyzing things.

By the way, Ikea has the cheapest hotdogs in town. They got the pickles right, too.

Convent-bred boy

2010-11-25T07:20:00.000+09:00

When I was ten, I had 20 fingers.
It took awhile to cut them, but now I want to grow them back.

J.J.T, Johannes, Frédéric, Ludwig... wherever you are guys, let's have a smorgasbord one of these cold winter nights. Maybe my fingers can only hold a cigarette now, but damn, I miss my piano face.

Because the radio was on

2010-11-19T03:57:00.000+09:00

Anberlin - Retrace

One never goes home when one is not tired.
I did, I landed flat on my bed, and I swear to god I heard a Christmas carol.

Who would have thought that this was the last goodbye?

2010-10-26T11:34:00.000+09:00

I'm sorry. See you in spring.

Joyeux anniversaire

2010-10-19T03:37:00.002+09:00

Just how much we have grown older? Me with the meds, and you with "Paris je t'aime".

That 5PM when we were scaring the birds from the 4th floor, and how much hungry we were of the golden hours in the upper west side of the globe when we were 17, remember?

Happy birthday to you. All the love from Tokyo.

Music from Benton Paul, Paris

California is where I wanna be

2010-10-17T04:10:00.000+09:00

I went to a very quick trip out of Tokyo with friends.

Photos of each one.

California, Phantom Planet

ARE YOU READY FOR WINTER?

That Knot Unties?

2010-10-12T00:05:00.000+09:00

when you close your eyes
i can resist, i will not cry
and i will not try
to know why all things die

You see, I know a few of your favorite things

2010-09-20T01:06:00.000+09:00

Lately, there are so many things going on in my head I just wanna get over this month quickly.

On logical order of things, I'd be starting my doctoral course in a few days. I can't help but pant about it way before even it started. The only consoling thought is that I can start afresh and my head is bustling with ideas. The previous four months have just been so unmerciful to me. Thinking about mathematics and physics and mechanics every single day has, I think, taken its toll on the more moist part of my brain and has provokingly fettered my creativity until this blog has only seen a post per month. My camera has grown cobwebs, so to speak, and so did my artsy-fartsy-ness.

The past few weeks were spent on these issues, and how much I would need to reformat my say on things. I came to the conclusion that I am so unfortunate to be blessed with a fluid character but with a structured set of faculties. It came as no surprise, come to think of it, because 2 years ago, I was choosing between art school and soil mechanics. Now I wish numbers had colors.

I breath quite oddly because I think I was cursed. I was talking with an American friend a few weeks ago who told me I am making a fool of myself thinking I am working on my dream. But what is it to dream really? Is it to think of things you can actually achieve and have a good grip of and proceed further from that once they come true, or is it to think wishfully of things that you can only blindly find your way into and out?

I wish I have answers to toss around. But right now, I can only speak of things that're on my desk. Because who said you can't have multiple dreams in one lifetime, right?

The photos I took a few months back. Had some typography over there. That's all I can think of at the moment. Credits to Taking Back Sunday for the wonderful song.

Summer baby

2010-08-02T02:24:00.002+09:00

I'm a fan of summer, you see. I take that because I was born in summer, and the process that I consume my year begins with each arrival of this season.

Do you also feel that each summer is different? Well I do, and I could even remember what sets one from the other especially those when I was a kid. What I especially love is how long it seems to last. The deadpan laziness of a hot, 2 pm may seem pretty boring for an eight year old, but I enjoyed the lasting thought that during those particular hours, perhaps nobody can change the world, at least in my neighborhood, for the sheer intensity of the midday heat. The world stops, as they say, and it was comforting especially with a full blast electric fan fanning my small body couched infront of the television, watching the stocky old man of The Urban Peasant frying avocados. The highlight of the day, really, was the warm afternoon showers at 4pm. When my father wasn't at home, I would go out and dance with the thunder and chase the lightning. The feeling of a thousand droplets hitting every inch of my small, naked body was pure innocent delight. (Perhaps now, that would be obscene, don't you think?)

I'm a fan of summer, you see. Not only because I am a summer baby, but also because summer is the only season I can remember in full clarity.

In the photos is the sport of this year's summer.

House

2010-07-30T03:58:00.002+09:00

This is how busy I was. For about 7 weeks, my life was a circle of seclusion. I wake up at 3 in the afternoon, grab a late lunch, and stay inside coffee shops till they close. At around midnight, I'd find an open ramen shop, and eat a late dinner, bike home, and drop by a convenient store for a pack of cigarette. At 8 in the morning, I'd prepare myself some cereal, and eat breakfast before going to bed.

During those times, my only form of distraction were episodes of House M.D. Otherwise, I'm pounding on my computer, cracking my head open for the last ounce of words to fill my thesis.

A shot from exactly where I sit some 6 am in one of those days. Dreamy is Blur's Good Song.

Here comes a feelin you thought you'd forgotten...

2010-07-28T00:59:00.002+09:00

There's this funny feeling after you've done doing something. You want to do many other things, those which you couldn't make up for while you were busy doing those you've done doing. But now that you finally have all the time in the world, all you really really want is a well-stock fridge, and reruns of How I Met Your Mother.

I'm back, and I'll get to you one of these days.

Vampire Weekend's Horchata plays.

Summers

2010-06-26T05:18:00.003+09:00

I remember in vivid detail the first time my shaky hands held an SLR camera.

It was a few summers ago when I printed my first roll of films. I was shooting recklessly, like as if it was my first time, too, to see the world.

I remember it now because I'm dying to take photos again. It has been awhile since I last took my camera for a walk (just like a dog), or even aim it at everything or anything at all. I've been immensely busy finishing the manuscript for my master's degree. If there's only something that I can do.

Anyway, this summer, when all this uni stuff is done and delivered, I'd go back to taking photos, singing with my guitar, drinking beer on sidewalks, biking around the neighborhood, or scavenging Tokyo for Haruki Murakami's house. I can't wait to do all of these!

In the mean time, I'm dozing off, and maintaining this geeky mode until further notice.

PS. Photos from my first roll of films, some summers back.

I'm floating

2010-06-05T11:02:00.001+09:00

-I see you, you see me, The Magic Numbers

I swear to god I can melt you with my heart

2010-06-04T00:50:00.002+09:00

Who is your shy secret?

2010-05-17T23:11:00.002+09:00

Signs

2010-05-11T04:20:00.001+09:00

I see signs now all the time, that you're not dead, you're sleeping.

Signs, Bloc Party

Woah, this song.
Photos from a quick out-of-town trip last week.

You know concrete colored buildings all grow stale

2010-05-05T13:13:00.004+09:00

-Maria Mena, What's another day?

This song has all the right words, you know.
Morning shots of Tokyo some weeks ago.
Thanks everyone for your nice words!

The spring that was

2010-05-02T01:45:00.002+09:00

My life, for a bit, stopped before this spring. For reasons I'd keep to my faint heart, I ceased to join the blossoming of a new season. I had to realize many things for once, and before I knew it, the flowers have withered already. It seemed like I skipped spring this year, or spring skipped me.

It's 2 am now, and for the first time in months, I opened my window again today. There is a bitter after-taste in my mouth from the cigarette I just smoked, but the smell of my wooden floor that slowly feels the warmth of an incoming summer leaves a sweet tingling feeling that makes me happy.

Spring is but a season, and it is happening now in my room.

A Sunrise

2010-04-29T12:07:00.001+09:00

You, I wear all your beautiful words everyday. Arigato from what's left of my heart.

Tokyo is green nowadays. It has been awhile, I guess.
Let's traipse slowly, gently into spring.
I'll try. For sun rises everyday in this part of the world, too.

---

"I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was - I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost."
— Jack Kerouac (On the Road)

That I'm down doesn't mean you have to fall off, too

2010-03-18T21:24:00.000+09:00

That's why I have to be away for awhile. See you some beautiful day.

Who wants to go with me to listen to Haruka Nakamura?

2010-03-18T13:33:00.004+09:00

haruka nakamuraが主宰する楽団、kadan。彼らの1st Album 「CASA」のリリース記念特別公演を開催。kadanに加え、管と弦、パーカッション、ダンサーなどの特別編成で贈るこの日だけの演奏。さらにファッションブランドunrulyとのコラボレーションにおける、舞台そのものを作品として表現する初単独公演。

It's on Saturday. I wish the gods will permit me to go and enjoy it with friends.

How early do you wake up? Good morning y'all!

2010-03-17T06:30:00.006+09:00

Me? Before the garbage collector arrives, so that's around 6AM.

Then, I'll have my cup of coffee and cigarettes, slowly. My mind is sifting through the string of events I have to do for the day. There is a promise of greatness: on this day, the potential of the universe will show itself and that only my sense of presence needs to make it happen. A glorious sun is rising somewhere, ready to shine on another day spent in earnest search for the fountain of knowledge. Then I finish one stick.

I turn my water heater on. I go back beside the bed, once again, to pick my bath towel, about to shower. Chances are, I'd spare a minute or two, sitting by the edge of the bed, softly enjoying the thin sounds of early morning I can hear from the outside. Then, of course.

The next thing I know, it's half past 10. No shower happens, the glorious rising sun is a big, blinding light on top of my swollen head, and the promise of a great day crumbles before it even reaches noon. Haha... Story of my life, folks!

Anyway, the photos above were taken like 2 months ago, in that one rare day I was able to resist the temptation of the bed after 6AM. This is part of a series of stuff I see on my way to school.

Below is the seductress, the bed.

Heart break over load

2010-03-16T06:50:00.002+09:00

Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time.
-Borges

Why am I eternally heart broken? And why, you are not?

I'm about to come alive..

2010-03-15T00:30:00.001+09:00

Slowly now, I can feel you coming out of my skin. You, and all your beautiful motifs.
You inspire me to come back to life.

Train's I'm about to come alive

Photos from last's years spring.

I have a question (UPDATED)

2010-03-13T21:31:00.005+09:00

Is it wrong to take photos of strangers when they are not expecting it like the photo above?

Update: I took down the first (original) photo I took after I read the first 7 comments especially that from Hiki-san. I've always wondered about this privacy thing since from my point of view, candid shots of strangers are always private. First, they won't probably know about the photo. Also, my intentions of taking a photo are as candid as the photos itself.

Anyway, I decided otherwise, since I've always felt that I, myself, would feel offended if I see a candid shot of myself somewhere, not certainly because of privacy but because of vanity! haha... In such cases, I feel that I just lost all control over what I want people to see about me. (Which, come to think of it, can be a little about privacy). That's why I hate it when people suddenly tag me in Facebook!

And also, after reading what Hiki-san said, I suddenly had cold sweats with this image of mad parents storming my house. haha..

Now, I hope this new one is more acceptable.

Anyway, mentioning about a photo of me, I saw this one taken like 2 weeks ago.
I think I need a haircut.

The object of fantasy meant more to me than logic

2010-03-12T08:23:00.001+09:00

Yesterday, I got some results from my experiments. I've waited a looong time for this.
Now, a paper has to be written. Let the universe make a beautiful conspiracy.

I like it when I'm alone and doing experiments, and it's raining lightly outside.
I feel so alive.

Long weekend for me. You have a nice one. ^^

Sunshine

2010-03-09T20:48:00.007+09:00

I notice that I've been clamoring a lot for sunshine these days. Well, who doesn't, right?

Like today, it snowed again in Tokyo, and was it like a week ago when I thought spring was just around the corner?

Some highway photos when I went to Chiba some weeks ago.

I was hooked to this song by Matt Costa like 3 years ago, and now my head sings it indefinitely.

Thanks everyone for your nice comments. I'll pick them up when I ain't as busy as I am right now. ^^

First and only sunny day of the week

2010-03-07T02:59:00.007+09:00

So what more can you expect but lotsa kids outside, rolling on grasses and having the long awaited fun under the sun.

Rock my world

2010-03-06T23:58:00.012+09:00

The last days were spent inside a dimly lit hall listening to lectures coming from different parts of the world about this topic that recently hogged world headline after what happened to Haiti and Chile. My university hosted the joint conferences on 7th Conference on Urban Earthquake Engineering and 5th International Conference on Earthquake Engineering. The title of these conferences would say it all. What else can be more relevant these days?

I didn't have the luxury of free time to wander around and take photos other than the hall I was assigned to man. So here they are, poorly.

Ever since I came to Tokyo, I've had my share of earthquakes from time to time. As a matter of fact, on the day I arrived, I was jolted by a big one at 2 in the morning, a very moving way of welcoming me. The following week, I was at the fifth floor of my building and another big but abrupt one struck again.

For the fainthearted, perceivably experiencing an earthquake can be quite maddening. I do think that there's really no way of getting used to it even if it happens often like in Tokyo. Or maybe there's really no use in getting used to it. It's always shocking everytime, like falling in love or something. Haha...

Have you had your share of jolts?

The whiner has to go

2010-02-28T17:54:00.006+09:00

Strays Don't Sleep's For Blue Skies

^I miss this song^

I've been a little depressive these past days, due to an unhealthy combination of sleeplessness, boredom, self-imposed academic pressure, and loads of sad music. The Tokyo weather, which are indefinitely grey most hours of the day, are not helping me either.

I'm at this point where a sunshine, and endless blue skies are the only form of distraction that can pull me out. Last day of February, and I hope for balmy days ahead as I consign myself to writing my first technical paper.

My wish of salvation and relief to the people of Chile, one of my favorite countries in the world, for the current disaster they are facing. Next week, I will attend this and let's see what are the bubble thoughts of the experts. So much for anguish.

Photos are from my computer in the school, what're left after I cleaned my hard drive.

Meeting people makes me damn sad

2010-02-27T04:45:00.005+09:00

Sigur Rós' Untitled 01

Everytime I go out of Tokyo, even on a quick trip, I feel that when I come back, something has changed in a madly lonely way. Photos taken on a foggy Thursday morning.

:(

When you stumbled upon a great find, there's no sense of looking for more

2010-02-24T04:56:00.006+09:00

Random photos of an impending spring.

You are my heartache this lifetime

2010-02-22T05:43:00.012+09:00

No surprises by Radiohead

Would you believe me if I tell you that we've met before, in the past, before these present lives?

A prisoner's sunset

2010-02-20T15:16:00.004+09:00

I never went out of my house for three straight days, doing a little program for my last homework in Civil Engineering Analysis. My eyes were like this x-x infront of mounting excel files, and I fed myself with all possible variations of fried rice that I can cook. I smoke in the dark, too, which can be joyfully maddening when you're thinking of numbers. I also learned that my brain works consistently if I'm listening to jazz radio. (I'm geek like that).

Fortunately, during those times, there was really nothing outside to look forward to. Weather in Tokyo has been pretty grey and rainy, and even to buy a pack of cigarettes next block was the hardest thing.

Yesterday, I finished my program. It was the first time I went out, and it felt like it was my first time to see sunshine, too, like my rebirth or something.

Before I handed-out my results to my professor, I had to bask myself with the first sunset that I saw after what felt like a looooong time. Happy weekend everyone! This weekend feels like a real weekend for me.

Feb 10 Ear Candy: Kings of Leon

2010-02-19T17:11:00.006+09:00

Revelry by Kings of Leon

This whole month of February, ever since they won the Grammy's last month, I've been hooked to Kings of Leon. I think that their album, "Only by the night" is one of the best things that ever happened to rock music these recent years.

It's the first rock album that I can listen to the whole selection without feeling nauseated. ^^

The picture above is special. The other day, it snowed again in Tokyo at 6AM. Someone called me to tell me about the beautiful crystals parading the early morning skies. I was dreaming of revelry, really.

Ducks and Fishes

2010-02-16T11:59:00.006+09:00

On Valentines Day, I watched ducks and fishes with the neighborhood kids and oldies in a pond near my house.

♥♥♥ Belated happy hearts day everyone! I hope you had a good time that day.

I'm dreaming of a vacation

2010-02-14T01:01:00.008+09:00

Now that the school is almost over, I'm thinking of a vacation. A quick trip out of Tokyo would do me good one of these days.

Photos of Kyoto from last year.

Where is next?

----

By the way, I talked with Miss Hello Sandwich on the phone on her last day in Tokyo. I was meaning to see her, and I feel so sorry that her vacation fell on the most grueling week of my semester with all those exams and little experiments. Next time, a drink or two would be nice! I wish she enjoyed the light and sounds of Tokyo.

I wish for carefree days

2010-02-08T21:00:00.010+09:00

Ms. Natsumi tagged me the other week. So here it is. I'm telling 7 random things about myself under each random photos from the past 7 days that I was a bit away from my blog. Photos and text don't necessarily match.

1. I have a serious case of cramming. A bolt of lightning has to strike me to start on something.

2. I like minor chords. They make those lonely sounds. I like listening to madly sad songs.

3. I want to be a dad when I turn 30.

4. I'm seriously considering to go to art school after I get my PhD in Engineering (which I currently work on).

5. On average, I go down with flu and cold twice a year.

6. Contrary to popular belief, I am an extremely bashful person.

7. Sometimes, I feel that I give too much that at the end of the day, I feel hollow inside.

----

This week, just like how it was a year ago, is a bit of a mess. School feels like school, and I'll be doing little experiments grudgingly physical in nature.

Thank you everyone for dropping by the past days and leaving those nice comments. I just couldn't have the time to reply to everyone but I'm reading each of your comments and I feel glad.

Now, back to work. ^^

The morning after

2010-02-03T14:52:00.004+09:00

After the snowy night.

Snow!

2010-02-02T02:33:00.005+09:00

Rare snowy Tokyo night.

February now. What a way to start the month of the hearts.

Blue moon

2010-01-31T22:19:00.007+09:00

Blue moon over Tokyo last Saturday.

Blue moon as hearts.

Song by Elvis Presley.

If you got time, take a look at our Issue # 7. Have a good week ahead of you wherever you are!

Saturday's dinner

2010-01-31T01:56:00.002+09:00

Before

After

What a difference a weather can make

2010-01-30T02:36:00.003+09:00

Nothing can make me jump out of my bed than eternal, carbon-blue skies.

I have this thing going on every weekend. As soon as I get up on Saturday morning (or afternoon), I peer through the peephole of my front door and see a small part of the day. If blue strikes through the small hole, I take a quick shower and spend the rest of the day outside. Otherwise, I watch Six Feet Under reruns until it gets dark.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Cast your eyes down low

2010-01-29T03:53:00.009+09:00

I'm posting the out-takes of issue#6 of my collab project. The theme for this issue was anything below the eye contact.

I'm having a long weekend this time. I still don't know what I'm up to. Maybe will just lazy around the house and read.

By the way, the music in the player is The Breeze by Dr. Dog. Sounds like a vinyl record or something.

Consolations

2010-01-28T01:49:00.005+09:00

If there was any consolation these past days, it's the realization of how much I love my family! Of course, what happened was a bit too much to make me realize things. But then again, there are just some things you have to live with as they come along and to be able to learn love is actually the most that you can do.

So I guess I'm pretty fine now, though at some hours of the day I can't help not remembering memories.

I'm posting photos from last summer, from a random quick out-of-town trip in Tokyo's peripheries. These past days were just terribly cold that I miss summer more than ever. I also miss train rides, those times when the landscapes just blur outside the window like a roll of an unedited film.

Oh how I wish winter is more compassionate and less awful, especially for a boy like me who loves to drive around with a bike.

I take this chance to say my appreciation to everyone who left those notes in my previous post to cheer me up! You, guys, are my warmth this winter. Sorry for being depressing or depressive. I'll have more sunshine soon. Bliss.

96 winters in a summery life

2010-01-26T06:56:00.008+09:00

Yesterday, my grandmother passed away. I received the news in an empty park. How unfair and how unruly that cold tears are sent through a wireless phone call. Story of my life.

Thanks everyone for your very very nice comments. I'm reading them, and they are my sources of joy these days. I'll respond to all of them as soon as I finish my homeworks, and reel over this poignant heartache.

Jan 10 Ear Candy: Haruka Nakamura

2010-01-24T05:18:00.009+09:00

Thanks to Aron, who posted this song in his blog, I was hooked indefinitely to Nakamura-san's music. There was a time when I just looped this song the whole night, and I had the most vivid dreams! This is also the best companion when I usually go home from the school at 1 in the morning, and there's only me, Toru the bike, the empty dark alleys, and the silent traffic lights from every other block.

Arne, Haruka Nakamura from the album Grace (2008)

YG said Nakamura is like the Japanese Sigur Ros. Now I can't wait to go to one of his live performances (I'll definitely look for one).

Anyway, I'm posting some out-takes from my other blog from our issue #5.

Just when you thought it's over

2010-01-23T16:30:00.005+09:00

The past week was one hell of a ride. Just like the weather in Tokyo. The other day we hit 20 degrees celsius, the following day I was freezing my ass while riding Toru, my bicycle.

Finals week is around the corner, too. I hate this when I feel like a student. haha
I cannot wait for spring break. I cannot wait to clear all the to-dos on my table. It seems like I always cannot wait for something that I don't know.

Middle of a weekend and I'm having ennui. I'm having gas and all that is listless.

There's so many things to do and I cannot wait for something.

The past weeks in random photos.

Last Friday's dinner

2010-01-19T01:36:00.004+09:00

Sharing some photos from our little dinner over at Jay's house the other week.

Someone said that day was the coldest this winter in Tokyo so far . Deciding on nabe was certainly a good pick. Had fun! ^^

Out-takes, Week 03

2010-01-16T23:07:00.007+09:00

These past two nights were well spent with good friends, cooking and eating delicious dinners. Funny how appetite makes people slow down a bit and take things lightly. Nothing beats the company of good food and laughters, right?

January, so far, has been like no other. Half way of the month, and everything is falling to the right places as always. I wish for this to continue as I brave the colder days of the winter ahead.

Anyway, I'm posting some out-takes I took for week 03 of my other blog. The theme for this week was "passersby". Have fun everyone!

By the way, I met a cute girl today. haha...^^

Praying

2010-01-15T12:03:00.002+09:00

Friday

2010-01-15T08:34:00.005+09:00

It's the end of the week once again. I think I blogged too much this week.^^

This is what I like about Fridays, how you can make it slow, or stop, in a coffee shop, awaiting so expectantly for cozy thoughts of a weekend.

Or getting drunk, and become dreamy until the wee hours of the morning, and talk so much, and not worry about the slightest things in the world.

Sometimes, I can only remember the most poignant hours with such clarity when I am drunk.

Photos taken last week.

Sushi!

2010-01-14T08:12:00.006+09:00

The other day, I had sushi for dinner at some random revolving sushi shop near the university with YG. Nothing fancy, all you gotta do is stuff your tummy with as much sushi your fingers can point.

I forgot to list down the names! You bet I was busy stuffing everything in my mouth.

Beer, and the interiors.

YG (the way he wants to be mysteriousy called in this blog, haha), eating lotsa sushi!

I think I couldn't fit in back inside my jacket after the dinner. xox

This is the ending! Now I couldn't possibly think how we ate everything on those plates! 'Twas a sushi overload night. haha...

Rainy night

2010-01-12T23:32:00.003+09:00

Today, it was raining so lightly all over Tokyo the whole day. Days like this one, you just want to snuggle under the sheets and pretend your world is a four-cornered space.

Or, you can have coffee with a good friend, walk, smoke, talk and eat sushi!

My mouth and my stomach and I had fun today with revolving sushi plates (my first!). I will post the photos next time. Meanwhile, I enjoyed Tokyo in its comfortable darkness. I hope you do, too.

Random photos of the things I saw on the way to the sushi shop and on my way back home.

Wet pavements remind me of Dashboard Confessional's Hands Down.
Memories!, memories!, memories!
おやすみみんな

Cold day

2010-01-11T19:54:00.006+09:00

Yesterday, I went to Shibaura Institute of Technology in Toyosu, and took some math test and got paid and I was happy! And did a little shopping at Shibuya.

This Sunday was very cold, by the way. Now I terribly, terribly miss summer.

I'd take this chance to thank pomme, Hello Sandwich, and Make it Easy for noticing my little stuffs. You guys, made me feel warm this cold day. ありがとうございました!

Expanse

2010-01-10T09:14:00.003+09:00

Things I see when I smoke at the 5th floor of my building.

Have a nice one!

2010-01-08T11:18:00.002+09:00

This is what I'm planning to do this weekend.

To read and smell real books.

The little project of ours

2010-01-07T01:54:00.002+09:00

I have this small thing going on with my childhood friend, Des, who also happens to be an expat in a faraway kingdom. We are doing a photo blog together! We've been buying time for this little project of ours, and we never really had the confidence to materialize it. Somehow, the New Year got away with the pushing, and suddenly we became excited with the whole concept.

Anyway, on a weekly basis, we will post a random photo based on a theme we talk about: her take, my take. Yesterday, we posted something for our pilot week (week o1), and we hope to be regular as much as we can.

The Grader's Folio

we're dreaming of balmy days, poignant remembrances, and all feel good things this year. open, and be a part of a week that will be. we will remain in you, regularly.

Mike's

Des'

Random Holidays Photos

2010-01-05T01:28:00.007+09:00

Endings and beginnings

2009-12-31T15:30:00.016+09:00

2009 was a good year, one that I will not forget for a long time. I met some of the most awesome people and had the best times with them! I had my many 'firsts' and had many opportunities to see Tokyo in numerous lights: artsy, delicious, busy, blinding, and always sublime. I had many of those subtle, poignant episodes straight from Murakami's novels. There were times when I have muttered under my breath, "good Lord, this is a good time" and hid a genuine smile of joy. Not so bad for living one whole year away from home as an expat. Thank you, thank you everyone for putting up with me a year that's for the record!

Now, 2010 makes me feel excited. I have a strong hunch it will be a very interesting year for me and for the people who will be part of it. Some magic is about to happen, right? Keep your calm, and keep the good times rollin'!

I'll leave this year with things that constantly thrill me: buildings and skies! Happy New Year everyone. Regards from here.

...because there's nowehere to go but everywhere. Keep rolling under the stars, generally the Western stars

-Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Dec 09 Ear Candy: Ocean Eyes by Owl City

2009-12-27T05:11:00.013+09:00

One of the best finds this year is Owl City. I'd like to thank my childhood friend Des for telling me about this band several months before. Now, I am addicted to their album, 'Ocean Eyes'.

My holidays were spent full because of this. When I listen to Owl City, I feel like I am holing inside a big big cotton candy. Sweet and fun and airy.

The music video is magical, to say the least. If happiness was a room, it would be like this:

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T22:24:00.009+09:00

I'm drinking beer right now, and lazying after a hearty dinner which I prepared awhile ago. I just finished talking with the family back home. I'm waiting for Christmas, and Owl City is soft on the ear. Everyone and everything feels just right.

These are the moments you thank the Lord for. Merry Christmas everyone.

Happy Birthday, Crazy!

2009-12-16T21:45:00.011+09:00

Today is Wednesday and Crazy is celebrating her birthday. I promised her that I would take a photo of how my Wednesday would look like. So here it is, to Singapore!

Picture above is the train track passing through my university. This isn't exactly what captured my day, but I think today's weather is quite clear in this picture.

Today is a cloudy day. And very cold, too.

Me wants to snuggle back to my bed the whole day just like this,

but I got a TA job in the afternoon so I had to drag myself out.

So since this day was pretty lethargic, I decided to get lunch in a coffee shop.

That's half of my day, Crazy, on your birthday. May you have a nice dinner with friends and Nemo later.

Autumn in university

2009-12-10T20:02:00.011+09:00

It's officially autumn here, and the trees wear the shade of my favorite yellow. Too yellow in fact.

Less than 2 weeks and it's Christmas!

Good morning light

2009-12-07T19:32:00.009+09:00

For someone like me who never wakes up before noon, sunrise is a stranger. But today, I woke up very early, and what happened next in my room reminded me that mornings are always worth getting up to.

Blue skies greeted me on my porch. What a nice way to start a day.

I get this feeling that every blue skies is a deja vu in the making.

My first stop motion

2009-11-21T03:46:00.005+09:00

Today, I went to Shibuya. This isn't a good day at all.

But anyway, this is my first try doing the stop motion. I only got a few photos so I basically just looped them three times. Next time, I'll do something longer if I don't feel lazy.

This is such a bad day =(

Random stuff

2009-11-20T04:08:00.010+09:00

I had the camera with me in the school the other day so I decided to take some random photos of the microcosm I move around.

This photo shows what's going on at the architecture department. People here seems to be always busy. They're always up to something cool, and nice.

I like the architecture floor a lot. No one can guess the next cool things that they will post on their walls. It feels like walking through an art exhibition every time though. I wanted to take more photos, on a semi-regular basis of things like these, but I'm a little shy because the architecture people are cool, and I'm a wuss, and that I might look like someone who is trying to steal their artistic properties. (I'm not making sense). haha...

I went walking around Jiyugaoka with Jay. I like it when I walk and talk and smoke with a friend. Especially around this place. Jiyugaoka is the nearest hang out place from the university. There's coffee shops, second-hand bookstore with English mags and books, and pubs, and chic clothes shops, donuts bakery, etc. Name it, Jiyugaoka has it.

For instance, there's Muji, my favorite, though I rarely buy anything from there.

This is my favorite place to kill time in Jiyugaoka. I smoke and watch people here. This is also the place where I will drink beer when I'm down in the hole and cannot afford the pub. Oh life.

Route (Part one)

2009-11-12T23:49:00.015+09:00

Today, I decided to do something I've been meaning to do ever since. I've always wanted to take photos of the things I see on my way to school on a regular day. Well here it is now. But since I am such a shy boy, I only took photos when I see no one was on the street (I don't want some stranger to see what I'm doing and give some sneering look). I was with Toru, my bike, so it was a little difficult to take photos and maintain my balance at the same time.

This is my first installment. I hope to get the rest done during the coming winter break.

This big building is the first looming structure I see as I go out of my block and start biking along the creek. I see many clothesline and clothes hanging on the balconies every time, so most likely this is an apartment.

This is another apartment complex along the street I often use when I bike to school. This one is beside the creek. The bald trees here are sakura trees. During cold months, they look like wicked, thorny shadows. During spring however, many people say they bloom like crazy. I can't wait to drive my bicycle and pass by here everyday on spring.

The street I'm using is very narrow that every time there's another car passing from behind me, I quiver and have to stop. I hate gaunt spaces. They make me feel very uneasy. (That's also one reason why I never learned to drive a car. I'll just end up scratching it to the next one).

That's why I always take another route when I am not in a hurry, just like today. This one is parallel to the street above. However, this one is two times wider. The only thing that amuses me is how always empty this street is. Sometimes, I feel like I'm in a town of horror where streets are deserted because the people are either zombies or vampires.

I always look for this house with a nice lemon tree. That's because this is where I have to turn left. Or else I will get lost. Which I did several times. Funny how Tokyo's suburbs always look the same in any nook and cranny. Especially this neighborhood I'm cruising everyday.

This is after the house with a nice lemon tree. This part is a little confusing for me because after this street, the next block branches into 3 narrow streets. I sometimes still scratch my head which one to pick.

I cross one train track. This is the most challenging part to get through on my way to school. Lots of cars pass by here coming from an uphill. Sometimes, they swerve so fast that one has to be very careful, especially if it's a cab. To stop or not to stop? Sometimes, when I'm in a hurry, I don't care anymore.

That's the end of my house-to-school project. I hope I don't get lazy adding more details next time.

***Today, too, is the birthday of my father. He would have been 77. To paradise, happy birthday!

Nov 09 Ear Candy: Oasis

2009-11-10T23:24:00.010+09:00

I'm pretty hooked to Oasis these past days. It surprises me that Oasis has always been there since the 90s but I only started "discovering" their great songs lately. Of course, everyone knows 'Wonderwall' . Then there's 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out', which perfectly suited as OST of Butterfly Effect 1 when Ashton was walking to a new life towards the ending.

Listening to their other songs made me realized I had lots of prejudices towards Oasis, brought perhaps by the first two songs I knew from them. I've sinned to consider they were just another garage rock band: noisy, angsty-shit. But hell I was wrong! 'Let There be Love' for instance, is very subtle to the ears while "Half the World Away" is stripped-down unplug and raw. Just my kind of thing.

The best thing about Oasis is how they use the right words for their lyrics. Poets as musicians are rare. For me, they are the 90s Beatles. Too bad that I started liking them when they are not a group anymore. Nevertheless, their music rocks, and will surely outlive the band itself.

Here is one of the classic Oasis song that makes me feel swell:

You ain't never gonna burn my heart out...

I'm planning to get a poster of Oasis for my bedroom. I hope there's one in HMV or Tower Records.

Soils and experiments

2009-11-03T02:05:00.006+09:00

Today, I helped Gunji do his experiments. This day also happens to be his birthday! Omedetou gozaimasu! ♪♪♪

Since I got pictures of the experiments today, I'd take this time to introduce my lab. Let there be a geek! haha...

This is the experiment room. Dirty, cold, stinky.

But--- I love this place! Everything comes to life here first (before those numbers and words). I like clutching bolts and wrestling with wrenches, maneuvering the crane in four directions, hammering loosely fitted plates, dipping my fingers to sand, popping the bubbles of our clay mix, etcetera, being dirty, etcetera. Burgeoning muscles are bound to happen.

The centrifuge, the most important instrument in our lab. His name is Mark III, and I'm serious.

I can't wait to use this next year!

This is what a typical experiment in our lab would look like. The research area involves soil foundation and geotechnics. The photo shows the test set up for Gunji's experiment, *insert some technical explanation here blah blah blah*.

That's me at the end of the I-bar, doing my share of chores.

I'd be doing some research on shallow foundations, *insert some technical explanation here blah blah blah*. My only hope is that I don't fuck up.

Doing experiments in the lab is both physical and neurotic. But what gets into my nerves the most are the wires and electricity. I'm scared of them. haha. Bad history of electric shock when I was a kid (xox)

I'm tired now. I think we still have one set up for tomorrow. おやすみなさい!

What's the best thing in the world?

2009-10-26T23:56:00.003+09:00

Jason Anderson gives me chills.

The best thing in the world is to love someone and they love you back...

That's what he said, and I totally buy it.

Sleep and random ドラマ

2009-10-18T01:48:00.008+09:00

I think Hemingway was really really thinking hard when he said this: I love sleep. When I am awake, my life has a bigger tendency to fall apart. Or something like that.

But the smell of autumn just makes me yawn all the time.

So fuckyeahhemingway!

***

Lately, I've been thinking of my old place in Yokohama pretty often. I wonder how it feels to be there again and walk aimlessly in those familiar streets and bump to someone I know. It's been close to 2 months now since I moved and only now I get to realize the big change that took place. ドラマ!

***

I heard some good news today. But I don't know if I'd have to be happy or not.

***

I actually wanted to write but seems like I am not friends with words anymore. This is the longest time I haven't read a decent book, too. (Although I consume journals like rolls of tissue paper.) But book is still a book, especially if it is Marquez or Murakami. I should probably go to the library one of these days and find if they have something interesting in English.

Another ドラマ!

***

Someone is celebrating her birthday today. Shout out to that, across the Indian Ocean.

The toilet

2009-10-17T17:05:00.013+09:00

Sorry if you are eating. Haha.

Today, I woke up very late, instantly took my camera, smoke and took these photos in the toilet. It's 4PM but good morning everyone!

3 ways how to smoke and take a self portrait:

(1)

(2)

(3)

What I'm doing with my toilet is bad. But this is the only place where I can smoke inside my house. So I got no choice, my bath tub is my ash tray.

Oct 09 Ear Candy: The Weepies

2009-10-11T00:08:00.004+09:00

I had The Weepies' album Hideaway in my playlist since last month. But only since last week I started playing them on my player. I heard them first in Manila when Jam 88.3 started playing 'Hideaway' last year. Since then, I've always had this secret liking for this indie pop-folk band.

Anyway, it has been two months since I moved here in my new house and I found an apt song for me and all these shitty feelings of moving on and missing places and people and stuff.

I can't really say why everybody wishes they were somewhere else
But in the end, the only steps that matter are the ones you take all by yourself
-'Can't Go Back Now' by The Weepies

Well I guess I really can't go back now.(T0T)

Tokyo Tower

2009-09-21T23:17:00.013+09:00

This is the second part. The first part is here.

Tokyo Tower from afar looks so imposing. Like a huge candle on top of a cake!

More so when it's right infront of you. This time though, it feels a little overwhelming, like a big robot is staring right back at you, and you are a bubble gum with two wide eyes staring back.

We went to the viewing deck around 250 meters above and the view was spectacular. This time, the whole city was swallowing me with all the lights and the flickers. Everything feels surreal. Kinda reminds me of the mad Godzilla, though.

I have this thing with city lights and skycrapers since I was a kid. So being here and seeing Tokyo on the same eye level is like returning me back to those days when I'd dream of big cities and neon lights when I was ten.

They say that one can see the whole city from the tower's deck. Possibly, but it was too dark that time that I wanna go back on daylight.

Some views of the tower's neighborhood. Are you not scared of falling?

Tokyo Tower is celebrating its 50th this year. Interesting, interesting piece of creation.

Tokyo walkathon

2009-09-19T00:09:00.014+09:00

Yesterday, I walked all over Tokyo with Gunji. I cannot remember the paths we used. There was no specific route, and trains were not an option. There was only one destination. Just like "Amazing Race," you know. haha...

The weather was nice. Summer will always be my favorite season. Here are some of the stuffs we saw.

Cool graffitis

Somewhere in Gotanda

Somewhere in Shinagawa

After five hours of walking and feeling lost, the destination loomed from afar. Tokyo Tower.

Tired but happy. Tomorrow I will post the pictures from Tokyo Tower.

Sept 09 Ear Candy: Travis

2009-09-13T00:19:00.006+09:00

Travis, you make me feel good and lonely at the same time.
You remind me of gray afternoons, and the organic smell of the ground after it rained back when I was still a kid.

This is my favorite song, among their new ones. Very nice music video, too.

Closer by Travis:

By the way, Travis is from Glasgow. Why is Glasgow producing good musicians? Is it because of the milk or the whiskey?