Long goodbye

the beautiful Rainbow Bridge

I have always had a difficult time moving on from lost loves, and Japan is proving to be a love I just cannot simply let go of.


I said goodbye to Japan and everything I loved about the country exactly one year ago today. And while that might seem like more than enough time to recover from a personal loss, I still, unfortunately, still feel that longing to be back, to be walking the streets of Tokyo, to be sitting quietly inside one of its trains. The Welsh have a word for this: hiraeth, "a homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that never was."

"...that never was"---isn't that sad? But I digress.

This post is about Odaiba. It's a popular weekend destination for Tokyo residents because of the parks, the malls and Gundam, and for one year, I called it "home."

Hiraeth.

action from the annual Tokyo Drift

Lovers in Odaiba

Hanabi!

Odaiba's guardian

one snowy night

Pikachu. With abs.