Looking through photos I took in Japan four years ago I find it impossible to believe that it has been that long since traveling there. I had to recount the years a few times on my fingers just to triple check but its true. This could be because my life has sped by exponentially faster and faster as big shifts swing with a wider circumference as I get older. The weight of that spin and its billowing momentum makes me wonder if there is any way to stop a year from going by without it feeling like an abrupt cut in a film with a lazy caption reading “one year later”.
Or, lets look at this in a more optimistic light. Maybe the reason looking through these photos I feel as though it were just yesterday because the trip left that much of an impact on me. After a lifetime of curiosity I had finally made it to Japan, maybe just for a short time, sure, but I do remember it fondly. The movement of Kyoto, the taste of each thing we ate, the color of the walls and the feeling of dodging raindrops with a large plastic umbrella bought at a 7-11. Memories from this trip have been surprisingly sticky in my mind, especially when digging around through photos taken while there. My heart lights up a bit as memories start to flood in, holding loosely onto one another in a wave of “oh yeah, I remember that!” moments.
The photograph here felt like a good place to start in sharing some of these visual memories with anyone stopping by. I have a few cropped already and will continue to share and dig through them until I feel like I have run out of interesting things to post from the trip. The photo here today taken at a temple in Kyoto feels apt somehow as I start to notice my own hopes, prayers, and dreams start to neatly pile up around me. Tonight, sitting here in silence on any one random winter night, I find myself again considering an ongoing theme in my personal thoughts going into this year about time and its passing and find connections and metaphors everywhere I turn.
Or, lets look at this in a more, “hey, John, I’m just here for the wallpapers, wheres the link?” Oh, right. Ahem, links below, stop back by soon, lets see what momentum I can get going in 2018 shall we?
