I actually intended for these to be the first photos posted when I “relaunched” this blog. they were taken (what feels like) ages ago, with a Superhead camera I bought my first week in Tokyo back in August 2010. since I got them developed that Fall, they’ve alternated between being pinned on my wall and tucked away in the black Repetto shoebox I keep on my desk, in between unsent post cards and stacks of purikura. I wish I had gotten around to scanning them sooner, because during my numerous moves from various apartments, I’ve lost  about half of the pictures I took in those early days exploring my host-family’s neighbourhood in Nerima-ku.

it feels like such a long time ago, partially because in scanning these shots they got this grainy old texture (that I usually only see as an iPod app filter these days), and partially because I feel like so much has happened since then. just last week as I was flying home to Tokyo from spending winter vacation in Europe (my first Christmas with family in two years!) I realized it was actually my fifth return flight from Europe to Japan in two and a half years. now my trips have had their reasons, and I don’t feel like I need to justify them – but let’s be honest that a whole lot of going back and forth. and in between that there’s been so many experiences, so many new faces and I’m not sure how I’ve managed to squeeze it all in in such a short span of time, now that I think of it.

to say that I’ve changed, for better or for worse, would be a pretty obvious statement. I don’t see the city in the same way as I did in those first weeks and months after moving to Tokyo. I can tell from my own photos, comparing then with now, that I had a whole different level of curiosity – maybe not more curious than I am now, but I sought things out in a different way? obviously because everything was new and foreign, even the tiniest things were attractive to me. everything still is; I can’t count the times where I’ve been biking through the city and just marvel at how beautiful it is to me (and the amount of people who are confused by how I can find a city with this much concrete and steel and glass beautiful. oh my). it just feels different.

even though I’ve lost a lot of the photos from those days (particularly some of my favourites) I’m glad I have these left to remind me.