This quiet season of transition

I have grown through the years, and I’m proud of (or more like at peace with) the journey that’s uniquely mine. There are a few real regrets; so many lessons learned along the way. I am still very much a work in progress, but I’m grateful and relieved that you will be entering my life at […]

Almost

Sometimes it feels like I’m so close to stumbling upon something. I just don’t know what exactly.

When it hits you

You were wandering around those narrow alleys in downtown Kyoto. You were alone. It was early Sunday night and you just came from hiking to the summit of Fushimi Inari Taisha with Nakatsuka-san. You already polished off an early dinner, a comforting bowl of kitsune udon, and had allotted the rest of the evening to […]

What I’m loving now: Vivian Maier’s shots

I only found out about Vivian Maier from this book I scored from the Big Bad Wolf book sale a few months ago. A (lucky) real estate broker unknowingly stumbled upon boxes of negatives and undeveloped film rolls in a flea market. These belonged to Vivian Maier, the Rolleiflex-toting nanny who died just two years […]

An Ode to Uji (& green edible things)

My favorite place in Kyoto is an unassuming little town called Uji. I first found out about it from a former colleague, a Japanese who grew up in Wakayama. She said it I might be interested to go there if I was fond of green tea. In Uji you’ll find real matcha in pure tea form, […]

on dreary pavements

Field Trip: A Tokyo University

Last November, I visited my former JFM colleague Flori at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies where she’s now teaching. In between our catching up over cafeteria lunch and afternoon coffee and pastries, she gave me a tour around her uni.