Magic of Light and Shade

This year again, I went to see my old friends from university at the gallery in Daikanyama.
There one of them holds a photo exhibition every year.
Her exhibition gives us a good excuse  to get together once a year in Tokyo.

Photography is an art of light and I believe a professional photographer is an artist who stops time and captures  the moments we often overlook in our daily lives.

This year her pictures showed  impressive collaboration of light and shade. She looked at the scenery through window glass in the cities of NY and NJ, where she  lived more than 20 years. We saw natural layers of reflections in her pictures, which created a magical world of her own.

We were all fascinated with her pictures as we always are. Afterwards,  we enjoyed dinner and a lively chat with a couple of bottles of wine. That was the perfect ending.

Newly renovated Tokyo Station

This past October 1, Tokyo Station was open after the five-year renovation work.
The original station building was built in 1914 as an icon for a strong image of Tokyo as the capital of Japan. I read some book that the building took after greatly from Victorian Gothic Style by Tatsuno Kingo, the designer of the original building.
Unfortunately it was destroyed by air raid in WWII. After the war, the building was renovated but someway it was not just as the same as it used to be due to some construction regulations.
But it came back this time with an original design and somehow much powerful construction against earthquake.
Now the new Tokyo Station is not only a place for people to take trains but also a huge site of city with various purposes for people, such as to pass by and enjoy the museum, the undergroud shopping arcades and to stay and dine at Station Hotel.
I took this video from the 7th floor of the facing building across the road. 

Tokyo Station City

Reunion

Friendship is one of  the incredible miracles in our life.  No matter how long or how far we are apart,  the same experiences and concerns that we shared in those days never made our friendship fade away.  This turns to be more than happiness when we finally meet again face to face across time and space.

Last weekend all this happened to me . For the first time in 30 years.  This is about the Rotary students who shared two months  during the summer at college in the US, where the Rotary International provided us with the orientation before we left for each applied university in the US.

My close friend, Suchada stopped by Tokyo over the weekend on her way back to LA from BK. We spent two days together. We felt for two days as if we were all riding on a merry-go-round.

Yes finally we made it.  The instant we saw each other at the hotel lobby,   we didn't feel we were apart for such a long time.  Ahead of the fancy dinner with two boys, now gentlemen, in the evening,  three girls enjoyed the afternoon chatting to fill in each 30 years' interval.  And the dinner was just lavish enough to make it up for our 30 years. Our talk seemed endless before we knew we stayed too long at the restaurant.   We talked and laughed a lot. The food was awesome and the service was great.

Now 17 Rotary classmates are united in Facebook group page.  In this reunion with Suchada,  wherever we go,  at every visiting spot,  she and I were busy "check-in" in Facebook with each iPhones to update our photos and messages to the rest of our friends.  It was just fun because every time we checked in,  our friends of all different places on the earth  gave us "likes" instantly.   We giggled at the results.  We owed Facebook so much.  There will be another reunions in the near future in Japan, or somewhere else in this world.  No matter where it comes up,  we will share our exciting moments together.  And one day, we are hoping , all of us will get together at one place like we once used to do.   How thrilling !  This was a great weekend.


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Gilrs Get Together

Three of ex-high school classmates got together in Tokyo and walked, walked and walked and gosh we talked, talked and talked.

Two of us left Nagoya Station at7:20 am and got to Tokyo at 8:40 and met our friend in Tokyo.






Sorry, it was too late when we realized that we didn't take any pictures before we started our lunch. We were so busy talking and eating.









This casual restaurant named "Canal Cafe" is really comfortable on such a warm fall day. You can see the open cafe in the far distance at your right hand as well. It is right in the middle of Tokyo downtown along the river.









It's so fortunate that we could make this trip possible. Our husbands are happy to see us having fun, we believe! Our railway company is so kind to provide us a very very reasonable round tickets fare unless we don't care about the set schedule of trains departure on both ways. It's just the half fare of the regular tickets. Amazing!
But this ticket is just available for men and women over ------oops, if you please excuse us, over XX years old.

I know men aren't so excited about this ticket just like my husband. But for women, hurray! it's such a treat. You'll get a free tea time coupone at one of the fancy hotel cafe as well.
The home bound train left 6:20pm and got home 8:00pm. "I'm home!" I met my husband before 8:30!

Perfect! Why not we should take advantage of this trip ! We'll come back again!

Animal celebrities on Ginza Street, Tokyo

I ran into two fabulous sites when I was walking down the street of Ginza, Tokyo.
The cat was sitting on a narrow street sign board and taking a nap ignoring all the human crowds with their cameras and videos. In fact, there should be two more cats who often appear on this stage. They got so famous once they made their debut　on the blog world.


Another star is this white poodle. Isn't she gorgeous! And look at how she looks so elegant just as her lady owner behind her. That day was the national holiday and the main Ginza street was open to the pedestrians only.

I love vending machines!

You will see several kinds of vending machines along the streets or at any stations----almost any place. Well sometimes I feel annoying to see colorful vending machines even at very classical, historical sites in towns. Yet, we're counting on these machines. Vending machines for drinking are most popular and you'll be stunned to hear some new machines can speak when you insert coins and get your drink saying "Thank you"or"Come back again" or even" Take it easy". It's really funny.
See this video of three minutes on this topic.

And one of the main railway companies, which covers Tokyo area has recently set their high tech beverages vending machine at Shinagawa Station. This machines has a big display screen and when a customer steps close to it, it automatically shows a display of selling products in bottles and cans. What's more in surprise, it recommends a product judging from a customer's face, gender, age with its built-in face recognition camera! All you have to do is insert coins and touch the image you want.
Amazing! I love to "meet" this high tech vending machine and to get my drink hopefully sometime next month when I go to see my friends in Tokyo. Can't wait to see what kind of beverage this robot like machine will recommend to me.
The first day when this machine was set, many twitters uploaded pictures of this first machine which turned out be the focus of passers-by.

Bon Bon Chocolat

Amazing! These colorful chocolate are the ones I picked up from the shop in Tokyo Midtown. Fingersize bars called Bon Bon Chocolat have 17 varieties of tastes and every color tells its flavor and taste. The round ones are named Chocoron which are chocolate-glazed macarons. I'm glad that I brought home some boxes of these unique chocolate since they only have their shops in Tokyo and Paris. (Why not in Nagoya?) Anyway it's just a little excitement!
The name of this pattisserie is Sadaharu Aoki.