I took some pictures today! I decided that every time I wrote I would have at least one picture. Today I was lucky and took a lot of beautiful photographs!



Today I had a great day. ^ ^ It started out pretty crappy, but progressed into something pretty awesome.

The sun came out today, but I didn't mind it. It was a lazy sun, so it left me be. Ah, today was so beautiful.

At about 3pm I went out to a nearby cafe in a town north of me called Tanagura. (The real name is actually Tanakura, but because the people in Tohoku (that is, northern Japan) tend to change k's into g's, it became Tanagura by default.) The cafe is called Bond Cafe. It is situated against a hill with a heavy treeline. It is a very unassuming building on the outside, but beautiful within. I wish I took a picture of the outside... but here is my food!


This is my lovely iced tea! And look, you can see a bit of the cool interior. This place is quite expensive. ^ ^ It seems all cafe's are around here. This drink was ¥550... without alcohol mind you. It was a triple tea blend, and I can say, it was pretty much worth the money. (Considering a plain cola was ¥420 @_@)


I had a "fresh sandwich". Ahhh, avocado, hisashiburi~ (long time no see~). After not having toasted bread in forever, it was a glorious taste.


I just HAD to have dessert for some reason, so enter sponge cake. It was very fuwa fuwa, or fluffy.

After I ate, I went on a bike ride around the location of the cafe. Luckily there was a wonderful bike trail available.


Bike trails are so nice because you can ride freely without worrying about cars. Japanese roads are tiny so it becomes pretty nerve racking.

The trail followed a river. It made me sort of sad to see all kinds of trash on the banks. I can only hope that it ended up there through bad weather, and not human contamination.


After I went this way, then I went that way. The trail was really long I found out! I would like to ride it all someday soon.


The trail was flanked by brilliant yellow flowers and white reeds blown by the wind.


And by small two-man trains, that like the Cat Bus, dashed across fields and besides mountains.


It was such a beautiful day. I wish I could give it up to you, wrap it up in a package and let you feel its warm glow, its deep darkness. Pictures don't do the feeling a day brings justice. And even now, it is slipping from my grasp.

When I was little, I loved sitting outside and staring at the sky streaked with clouds. The wind would blow through my hair, caressing my face, as warm smells rose from the earth. It was spectacular, but at the same time overwhelmingly sad. Like the wind through my hair, the day was slipping through my fingers, and with the dusk the dazzling feelings of the day would succumb to time, fading into dissonance. I wanted to take the day and wrap it up, and hold it by my heart forever. It was to be called the "Book of Days".

Photos alone cannot give you a day. A day is many things. It images, and music, and breathing, and thinking, and running, and playing, and laughing, and crying. How can you truly let someone experience a day with you? You can only try your best in all things, but pictures alone cannot do that.

Words. Words don't mean much anymore, do they? We rely to heavily on what we see, and then we are deceived by their apparent meaning. And words themselves, how are they used? They are tossed aside in meaningless strings of sentences filled with futile wishes of disillusioned meaning.

I am sad to see the mistreatment of words and of language. Words are like music to me. They fill my heart with joy, traveling over them in peaks and falls, sentences lingering on the breath of the dawn. Somehow, some way, language came to be. It is truly a miracle. It is how we furthered our communication with one another. Without words, where would we be now?

I did not mean to tread on such tedious lineages. I have long since abandoned the words I used to love for fear, I too, would not give them justice. But I can hold back no longer. I cannot deny their passage any more. Thus, I will create a "Book of Days".

My my, look how gloomy I have made this all. ^ ^ It is so important to me I tend to be overly dramatic. I have decided I will take a picture that epitomizes the day, and then write something to go along with it. But I must write it in the moment. This is most important. I first thought it was just my way of excusing any failure, that if I did not like something, it was because I wrote it on the spot. But that kind of thinking is useless. If the energy is there, it will shine through.

I also want to pick a song--only if I find the right one. I love music, and I think it is the purest form of expression. I am very jealous that I can only listen and cannot play. But I can give life to it through words, and vice versa. Art is marvelous that way.

Sometimes I feel scared, that one day surely outshines another, and then that continues on until there is no reason left to write. But every day you are alive is a day to celebrate. And every story is worth telling.

I took this picture today, and I was going to break my rule once and write something to accompany it, but I decided against it. It just cannot work that way. I have a title for it only.