My daughter and I just wrapped up our semi-annual Tokyo trip—a tradition we’ve kept since she was 15. This year, we both had new cameras to test: my first Leica (a D-Lux 8) and her new Canon Powershot.

We hit our usual spots—Omotesando, Ginza, Shibuya plus Shinjuku this time—and loved our stay at The New Otani Hotel The Main near the Imperial Palace. But what we love most is simply walking the city. Even with so many changes, we felt at home.

We ate a lot of amazing food and got some memorable photos. These trips remind me how lucky I am to have this time together and how important it is to pause and appreciate it.

The first couple of shots of my daughter and me are from her Canon Powershot; the rest are from my new Leica D-Lux 8.

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Life in Pursuit

The tagline for a cool-looking ad in the Tokyo airport for a modern luggage company—you know, the kind with cool silver and brass aluminum designs. I love the tagline. The luggage wasn’t too bad either. :)

Stay curious.✌️

This place used to be a record store back in the day. Time hasn’t been kind to it—chaos and decay everywhere—but when the morning light hits just right, it's interesting.

📷 Shot with my Ricoh GR III

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I've been spending way too much time playing with blog platforms over the past few years. Between tweaking themes and even coding Hugo and Astro sites from scratch, I realized something - I was having lots of fun learning, but I wasn't actually blogging. 

Recently I realized, I already have the perfect solution since 2021: my barely-used Posthaven blog. It's simple, it works, and best of all, they promise to keep your content online forever (even if you stop paying). That last bit matters to me since blogs are often personal documentation that outlives the writer.

So I'm switching to Posthaven and dropping all the fancy stuff. While, Hugo and Astro blogs and Notion-driven blogs are great, I don't need all that. I'm also letting go of my perfectionist content standards - I’m not running a business, it's just me sharing my journey. If someone finds it useful, that's awesome.

Sometimes the best solution is the simplest one.

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Japan English No. 1 - Only the seen world isn’t true

I love how Japan uses English phrases. Usually they’re funny, but sometimes they’re interesting. 

I put this photo and question into ChatGPT.

Prompt via voice input: “I live in Japan and the Japanese are famous for having sayings on shirts or clothing or different things that don’t make a lot of sense but this one today might be one of my favorite and it might actually have some meaning behind it. What do you think? The shirt said only the scene world isn’t true what do you think about this? Is it just a crazy bad English saying or do you think there’s something to it?”

Response: “What we perceive is just the surface—reality often lies in the unseen, the intangible, and the imagined. Truth lives not only in what is visible but in the stories we tell, the dreams we chase, and the mysteries we ponder.”

My take: AI BS or something to think about? 

Maybe a little of both. :)

📷 Photo taken with my iPhone 15 Pro Max, main 24mm camera cropped.

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