"refrections"

i just watched lost in translation for the first time since visiting tokyo. it was funny before, but parts are just downright hilarious now: when the director kept giving him instructions for the commercial and would talk forever, but the translator would only come up with a sentence. the serenity moments on tv (which you just couldn't appreciate otherwise). the doctor explaining, no doubt in great detail, about her toe, and all she can do is nod and smile... so apt.

but, actually, the part that struck me the most was all the time she spent sitting on the windowsill and staring at the city. because i did that. i'd have to say that maybe even half my visit was spent that way. the hie shrine was right outside my window, and i spent hours with my forehead pressed to the glass, watching and wondering. and the shots where you see all the high rises in every direction? still make me claustrophobic. i've never been around so many people or so much concrete in my entire life, it was completely overwhelming. and i want to go back. i found a wonderful picture that i forgot i had of fuji-san in the clouds so that it looks like it's floating... the little things that make life magical. it's definitely lonely and frightening and busy and confusing, yet it's also calm and clean and surreal -- and i think i really might do it again.