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[COLUMN] In the Streets
Inspiration. For me, it comes at the most trivial moments. The other day, I was walking down Harajuku to buy my wife a birthday cake. At least on her special day, I wanted to get her the ice-cream cake she had told me about once, and I was headed for the cake shop. It was then that I felt something that I hadn’t felt in a while. The bustle of the streets, stylish people, happy conversation, an extra spring in everyone’s step. All I was doing was walking, but I felt myself overflowing with energy. It was like the streets were talking to me. Another time, I had attended a reception in Kiyosumi-shirakawa and was walking through Ueno-okachimachi station to change trains. When I got outside and started walking the streets, all of a sudden I felt my body surging with power. At a little after 7:30pm, the streets of Ueno were full of people going out, bustling, bristling with vitality. Yes, this is it, I thought to myself, recognizing the swelling sensation. There was nothing concrete to inspire me, yet the scene seemed to outline itself in bold. A smell, a sound, a landscape – I hope to keep my senses honed to appreciate the invisible nuances in such things. (Tokyo Office staff D.H.)