I was hoping to see the whole Ume no Kouen (Plum Flower Park) in Yoshi-no-Baigou, Ome, covered in pinks and whites. Alas, this was the scene that greeted me.

Boo!

But anyway, if the weather is great and my lethargy decides to take a break next Sunday, I *might* just go back there to finally shoot me some ume blossoms — probs more blossoms that I will ever handle, unlike the one below:

***

On to other things:

* Torah Bright got the gold in the Women’s Halfpipe competition in the OGs. It was brilliant! Too bad neither 2006 Gold Medalist Hannah Teter nor 2002 Gold Medalist Kelly Clark could top her technical stunts. They, however, shared the podium with her as Teter got the silver, and Clark (who was so amusing with her karaoke~ing before her runs) got the bronze.

* Shaun White is awesome. ‘Nuff said.

* The Storm will have an exhibition game with Phoenix on May 2 at Key Arena. Can’t wait!

I just realized it’s only a matter of — OH MY GOD — 2 days before Christmas and what the heck we still have work til the 26th (yes, they don’t celebrate Christmas here, but whatever, we’ve known that since the beginning of time so let’s move on, get it over and done with)!

So anyway, here’s my version of the Grinchy Kilcher for 2009. I managed to add some sort of festiveness (if there is even such a word) by donning on my favorite hat (of the moment) — Meemax’s gift jester hat from Veeeeeghuzzzz.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS, EVERYALL!

From last year:

There is melancholy in change.
But change is necessary and inevitable.

Whatever.

‘Nuff said.

At dahil adik na ko sa animoto:

Flickr set can be found → here.

PS: Salamatz kay Meemerz sa pagpapahiram ng kanyang animoto account.

Not the basketball kind, unfortunately (but speaking of that — GO STORM!).

A week ago, I finally managed to drag myself out of my room and walk around the neighborhood. My supposed trip to Yodobashi to check out a cheap lens was in vain but I managed to snap these photos with my trusty 50mm f1.8 and my new-old D80.

During the recent Golden Week while Toio was here, we found ourselves dragging our butts to Harajuku. Apparently everyone else thought the same thing. And so we found ourselves stuck between people even before we got out of the Harajuku station. Here’s a shot of the throng just after we squeezed ourselves out:

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

Title: Departures aka Okuribito
Genre: Drama
Director: Takita Yōjirō

Okuribito (Departures) follows the story of failed orchestra cellist Kobayashi Daigo who is forced to give up his 18-million JPY cello and move back to his hometown in Yamagata-ken. His wife Mika moves with him to the countryside to start their lives anew. While searching for a new job, he spots a newspaper ad from a “NK Agency” that says “Assisting Departures”. Mistaking this for a travel agency, Daigo goes for the job interview and finds out that the job is not really for a tour-guide type but instead is for assisting the “departed” (a.k.a. dead, gone, deceased, someone who will be pushing up daisies in the next collective amount of time). This is where the title of the film comes in — okuribito is roughly translated as the “departed’s assistant”.

Anyhoo, everyone around him, including his wife, hates this new job and the idea of handling corpses all day. Okay, we all get the Ick Factor there. But somehow, each and every death that Daigo handles for his job helps him discover how important life really and why people do what they do even if they will end up dead anyway.

What I liked about this movie

– Drama and humor seamlessly integrated in the movie. Each and every sequence is wonderfully transitioned into the next one. Awesome.

– Ironies of 運命 (fate) and destiny and all that jazz. Lots of symbolism here and there. I particularly like the part where it came full circle — from Daigo taking care of several dead people in front of those dead people’s families, he ends up taking care of his newly-deceased estranged father.

– Awesome pacing. I didn’t get bored. Must help, though, that I can sort of understand what they were saying and was not entirely reliant on the subs.

– Great soundtrack. Tsk :)

– It’s a soul-cleansing experience. ‘Nuff said.