A Week in Japan

As I mentioned earlier, we recently went to Japan for a little over a week to see my family. We had a lot of fun, especially at Tokyo Disneyland! Here are just some of the 450+ pictures I took over the week...


If you ask my son what was the best part about going to Japan, he'll probably tell you, "I rode the Mickey Bus!" And I will have to agree with him. This was just a bus that took you from the hotel to the monorail station, which, in turn took you to Disneyland, but it was the coolest, cutest bus I've ever been on. Even the interior was filled with hidden Mickeys, including red seats with 2 yellow buttons as well as hand rings (I don't know the proper way to call them, but the rings that hang overhead) with Mickey ears!


Of course, once you go inside the park, there are subtle (and not so subtle) Mickey references EVERYWHERE! We had this chicken sandwich on glove-shaped buns for lunch one day. My son also enjoyed some Mickey shaped chicken nuggets, but when my brother got a bright green "Mike Wazowski" (from Monster's Inc.) dessert, my son exclaimed, "Ewww...Yuck!" I guess somethings just should NOT be made into food :)


While Disneyland was a lot of fun, it also wore my son out. He fell asleep one night without even eating dinner, and woke up the next morning at 5AM with his stomach growling. He found it quite entertaining to watch himself eat and kept making "eyes" at himself!


After Disneyland, we went to Odaiba, a man-made island in Tokyo Bay where you can find the coolest and the newest technologies. Our hotel, which was geared towards business travelers, had Umbrella Vending Machines at the entrances.


Our hotel was across the street from Tokyo Big Sight, a huge building that's made up of 4 upside down pyramids. I went for a walk early in the morning and got a good use of my camera.


You can get around Odaiba in an elevated train called "Yurikamome." Each station was decorated with its particular classic Japanese pattern. This station had a Sakura or cherry blossom pattern on the windows. Yurikamome offers you great views of the strange and unique architectures rising up all over the island.


After Odaiba, we got on a bullet train and went to my parents' home near Nagoya. Unfortunately, at this point, my son developed a fever and we pretty much stayed put until it was time to head home. Ah, the ups and downs of traveling with a child! You always have to be ready to adapt your plans to his own schedule. But when I look back at all the pictures and see the smiles on my parents' and my son's faces, I know it was all worth it!

One Year

I'm sorry I haven't been here in a while, but I've been out of the country. We went back to Japan and visited Tokyo Disneyland! I have lots to tell you about that later, but first, I have to celebrate the one-year-anniversary of this blog!

Yup, today is my birthday, which means my blog is celebrating its birthday, too. I started this blog a year ago with the hope that it will help me "figure out who I really am instead of what other people want me to be." ... So, did it?

Well, I can't really answer that directly because my definition of "figuring out who I am" has changed during the past year. A year ago, I thought that finding out who I am meant knowing my strengths as well as my faults and being comfortable with it. For example, being able to say, "I'm not a good cook, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it."

I've stopped calling myself a bad cook in the past year, though, because I've come to realize that labels are just that. Labels. Whether I'm a good cook or a bad cook depends on who's tasting the food. I mean, think about it - even the best sushi chefs would've been looked upon as complete lunatics by the majority of the world just a few decades ago!

Now, when I try to define who I am, I think of the little baby who came into this world 31 years ago today. The human being in its purest form, with no artificial labels and all the potential to be absolutely anything. Deep down, I am still that person, and in that sense, who I am is no different than any other person living today. And every single one of us still have all the potential to be most anything we want to be.

All the rest is just what we like or dislike at the moment. I currently don't cook well because I don't enjoy cooking now. But if I ever decide that I want to be a better cook, I can always learn how. Same can be said about my photography. I enjoy taking photos right now, but I don't have to like it tomorrow. And just because I stop liking photography doesn't mean that I become any less "me".

Now that I think back, it's strange that I chose to call my business "SonoSono Studio". As I mentioned in my profile, I chose it because it helps remind me that "I am who I am." But in actuality, I didn't know the true meaning of that particular phrase at the time that I chose it. I like the name more than ever though, and I'm also glad that my given name Sono means "I am" in Italian.

So where does my blog come into all of this? Not in an obvious way. After all, I didn't mention any of these ideas on the blog during the past year. Yet, figuring out who I truly am was (is) a long and slow process, and tossing around and editing potential blog posts inside my head definitely made me test my idea of who I was.

So, even though I found most of my thought process too personal to reveal publicly on this blog, I guess I can still say that this blog was an essential part of figuring out who I am.

Thank you all for reading these ramblings during the past year, and I hope you'll continue to come back for more!

I ♥ B&W too!

Many of my 52 week challenge photos so far have been full of color, so this one might look like I'm doing something out of character. But the truth is, I'm a fan of black and white photography too. I just find them hard to do because color is such an important part of my life.

I do think black and white photography brings out a different level of beauty though, and had always wished that I could do it well. As I mentioned earlier, I was also having a hard time taking good photos of flowers, so I somehow managed to overcome 2 of my challenges in this one shot!

I don't know if this was just a fluke or me getting over the initial hump, but I know for certain that I'll keep trying to do more of these :)

You Know What They Say About Apples Falling...

A couple of years ago, I got this set of craft scissors because I'm a sucker for crafty things, and I'm a TOTAL sucker for crafty things that come in a rainbow of colors!

I don't scrap book, so I haven't used them for much - other than just cutting paper for the sake of cutting and marveling at the neat squiggly cuts that they create! I'll admit it, these scissors are in my possession for the sole purpose of making me happy. Just being able to look at them and play with them makes me happy!

Well, recently, I decided my son was old enough to handle scissors, so I handed him a pair and some paper destined for recycling.

Let me tell you, he is just as enamored with these scissors as I am! He has to play with them at least once a day, and he'll arrange and rearrange the scissors until he likes the color combo. Then he'll cut, and cut, and cut until the room looks like a parade went through and dumped a boatload of confetti.

Sure, clean-up time is a bit overwhelming, but he's pretty good about helping me pick up. Plus, I'll take confetti over endless hours of cars and trucks and trains any day!

Children's Day

Today, May 5th, is "Tango no Sekku" in Japan. It's the boy's equivalent of "Hina Matsuri" that I mentioned back in March.

Instead of dolls, we display a small battle helmet called Kabuto as well as Koi Nobori, which are wind socks shaped like Koi fish. I remember being petrified of them both when I was little! Kabuto, by its nature is meant to intimidate, and Koi Noboris can be quite large. They often have golden eyes with red streaks, and I always thought they looked angry.

Now that I look at them as an adult, though, I think they are quite elegant. My son's Kabuto has intricate floral details while maintaining to appear masculine. And Koi Noboris are quite majestic swimming in the blue sky.

Although it's not meant to be, fighting with my brother was also a May 5th "tradition" in our house! After WWII, the government decided to make May 5th a national holiday, and quite unfortunately, named it Children's Day. I always felt it was unfair that boys got the spotlight on "Children's" Day, while my brother always argued that girls already had their own day in March. I'm sure that same "tradition" played out throughout Japan again this year!

52 Week Challenge: Week 17

This week, I was determined not to scramble on Sunday to shoot a photo for my 52 week project. I pulled out my camera on Wednesday with an image in mind. The condition was perfect. It was a sunny day, so there were plenty of natural light, which I prefer to use. My son was taking a nap, so there were no distractions. Yet, in the end, I didn't like any of the photos that I took.

The one above, on the other hand, was taken on a whim. I had brought the camera upstairs to recharge the batteries and had forgotten all about it. I only saw it when I went back up to help my son go to bed. I picked it up and took a few pictures in very dim lighting (only 2 nightlights), and I didn't think much of it while I was taking it.

It was only when I started changing the orientation of the photo in Photoshop that I finally saw the archway. The gateway to heaven.

And I don't mean that in just the literal sense. When things suddenly click like that, I do feel like I got a chance to glimpse heaven. Because the joy you feel then is not tainted by any expectations. It is just a pure delight.

52 Week Challenge: Week 16

This is a perfect representation of what last week felt like. It just flew by in a blur!

The weird thing is that when I look at the individual things that I did last week, it's not that much different from any other week. But it feels like all those things happened 2-3 weeks ago, rather than within the past week. Strange!

Don't get me wrong, quite a few good things happened last week and I wouldn't change any of it, but I do feel a little off kilter... like I time traveled and skipped a few weeks without ever knowing it!