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.