last blog from Tokyo

Here is the Tokyo-ness that I will miss most:

The perfect t-shirt to match your hair.

5 x 5

My friend Jo tagged me with this, challenging me to think...

5 Musicians that I currently listen to
Jack Johnson
Talking Heads (that is now a 26-year habit)
Lyle Lovett
Juan Luis Guerra
Jamiroquai

5 Movies/DVDs That I Have Watched Recently
half of First Knight
half of Napoleon Dynamite
White/Blanc (all of it!)
The Chronicles of Narnia
and there are about a million movies I am looking forward to watching this summer...

5 TV Shows That I Tend to Watch
none, really, as we don't have proper television here
on DVD, I watch:
Desperate Housewives
Six Feet Under
Sex in the City
Poirot
Jeeves and Wooster

5 Restaurants I have Visited Recently
Las Chicas
Cafe Madu
Aux Bacchanales
Cicada
Los Platos

5 Foods That I Currently Enjoy Snacking On
chocolate
chocolate
chocolate
chocolate
chocolate

And if I have to tag anyone, I send this off to anyone who reads this blog - just leave a note in the comments, so I can read YOUR answers.

anticipatory nostalgia

I find myself wandering around Tokyo these days looking at things with new eyes. I wander through a neighborhood that I walk through several times a week, and notice the flowers and small corners, and think that this may be the last time I see that particular thing.

As I drive through a much-travelled interesection (when you only drive once or twice a month, and almost always to the same places, things become familiar), I'll look at a set of huge, ugly billboards and consider how it will be not to see that particular corner again.

I get off the subway in Shibuya and wonder if I will be back in the next few weeks, or if this is it for this particular spot.

Things that a year ago would have driven me completely batshit, I now see as quaint, charming, unique, Japanese.