s t a y

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snow green

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take, take, take

amuse.



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cogito, ergo sum

I think, therefore I am.

There is no blue existing...unless you see it.


Canon IXY DIGITAL10

k a r m a

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leaves & sky & light & shade, on the trunk

You cannot see the forest from the trees.

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Favorite song...

January 20th

I have already put a photo with the same motif as this one.The motif is "returning to where I was."

I was born in New York 27 years ago and living there for about four years. While my family and I were living in N.Y., we visited Washington D.C. twice and went to most of the touristy places in D.C. Last year, I was staying Alexandria, Virginia, which is placed right across the Potomac River from the capital of the United States.

It was three weeks before I get back to Japan this time, when I came back to Lincoln Memorial in Memorial Parks. Just as I'd expected, there was nothing changed at all. Well, I didn't remember even I'd visited there more than 20 years ago, so it was just my imagination from the picture. I knew there were still the same seams which my mom once stepped on with her boots, there were the same columns which we all leaned against, and there was the exactly same statued man sitting in the back. His name is Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.

From Lincoln Memorial, the Capital and Washington Monument

I probably saw the same view that I must have seen when I was a little child, and I dare to say now there is an another guy who seems to see the similar scene as I did--- the incoming 44th President Barack Obama. He is delivering his historic first-African American inaugural speech at Capital Building, a mile straight far from Lincoln Memorial, tomorrow. However, his view is going to have to be much more special than mine, because he should always keeps in his mind the other man who also stood and spoke to the nation at Lincoln Memorial in 1963.

When Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from Lincoln Memorial , African American people still had a hard time with segregation. It's hard to believe but the speech was given just 45 years ago from now. I remember, when Barack Obama was elected, there were many pictures of the African American elderly crying on newspapers. They might have seen or heard King's speech for real. Having an African American president surely is the biggest winning in the American civil rights movement which King led before he was assassinated.

Barack Obama's historic Inauguration is being held just one day after the annual celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. This drives me to think of a mysterious fatality of these two great people.

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"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning
of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and
the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood."

INFLUENCE

to have an effect on others

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p l u m - f l o w e r

Spring is knocking on your door.

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The Japanesque

A Shrine In A Mall

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Silver Linings

"Every cloud has a silver lining."


晴れない雲は無いんだ と思った。

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Haughty Birdie

THINKS.


えらそうな小鳥さんよ

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Icy Tree

桜じゃないのね。

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Blurrealism

You never know....




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An Impression

DOOR:I'm a vendor machine, too!

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I don't know there are any certain ways in English to say what I'm thinking of right now. You know, a beginning part is always very important... and so is an ending, I feel. We Japanese have a word which means like "choose right time for the end." If Super Man got pretty old and he never stopped fighting evils although he was much weaker than before, he couldn't be called as a hero.

I'm not a hero of course...but I'm looking for a right timing of quitting photography. Oh, wait, I'm not supposed to say it in such a special expression, I know. Mine is not even photography, just a hobby. I still love it and I'm sure to continue taking pictures anyway, but not try to make them special...maybe. ...I'm not making any sense, am I? Ok maybe it's time to stop thinking.

Movie -Memoirs of a Geisha-

You should know the word of "geisha."

I suppose it is one of the most popular words which are used to describe Japanese culture by foreign people. Actually, I have been wondering that the meaning of geisha could be taken in a wrong way as if they were just dancers in kimonos even can be like prostitutes, and also feeling strange every time I see "geisha girls" kind of words. However, I cannot explain what a real geisha is, how they live, and who can be one of them. All I know is they are private professionals in traditional dance and their real lives are way beyond my imaginations. Geisha in Japanese means a person of arts: they only sell their talents as arts, never their womanhood. This is pretty much what the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha"(known as "Sayuri"in Japan) is all about. I had borrowed this DVD from my sister and I saw it today.

Two little sisters were teared apart because they were sold to different houses of geisha by their father. ( I thought the situation was similar to "Color Purple", a movie I'd seen before, and it turned out both movies has the same director - Steven Spielberg. ) Obviously, they are too young to be geisha. They serve in the house much like slaves and are trained in dance and discipline in their entire girl life. Of course the movie should be dramatized a lot, but it still touches me. Geisha don't be allowed to have their own lives, even real siblings, and they always have to be symbols of honor.

The leading actress, Ziyi Zhang, was amazing, especially in the scene of her dancing under snow. She seems to have closed sadness inside all the time she acts Sayuri, also beauty and mysteriousness. I'm afraid I have no idea who else can act up Sayuri besides her. Sure Japan has a lot of great actors but only few could lead the world wide show business...the fact that an another woman in the movies who I guessed to be a lesser known Japanese great actress was Chinese lady made me realize it.

Yet, it is enjoyable enough to hear some untranslated or sounds-strange Japanese, and see many Japanese actors (and a sumo wrestler) in Hollywood movie. They might want to polish their English pronunciation a little bit more...I guess. haha. Oh, I know I have no say whatsoever in it.

yu ki so ra

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微睡 -madoromi-

Zzz...

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Big ? (question)

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Have you made your annual plan of 2009 yet?
I have...a few.

I'm going to start studying Portuguese from April.
I'm going to travel abroad.
I'm going to find a job.
I'm going to get high scores on English exams.
Oh, I'm going back to America!!

Last but not least, I will make these plans TBA : To Be Arranged.

Mom's Youth

My sister and I found a box contained old pictures
of our mother at grandparents' house.
It was like her small secret...

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神社

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Snowy New Year's Day

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

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"Walk This Way"