... For what gives value to travel is fear. It breaks down a kind of inner structure we have. One can no longer cheat—hide behind the hours spent at the office or at the plant (those hours we protest so loudly, which protect us so well from the pain of being alone). I have always wanted to write novels in which my heroes would say: “What would I do without the office?” or again: “My wife has died, but fortunately I have all these orders to fill for tomorrow.” Travel robs us of such refuge. Far from our own people, our own language, stripped of all our props (one doesn’t know the fare on the streetcars, or anything else), we are completely on the surface of ourselves. But also, soul-sick, we restore to every being and every object its miraculous value. A woman dancing without a thought in her head, a bottle on a table, glimpsed behind a curtain: each image becomes a symbol. The whole of life seems reflected in it, insofar as it summarizes our own life at the moment. When we are aware of every gift, the contradictory intoxications we can enjoy (including that of lucidity) are indescribable.
-Albert Camus

Asakusa

Kuramae

Sendai Station

Sendai station

Sendai

good indian restaurant, milk festival, Mediatheque arts centre(just missed the show of old Japanese photos and prints-damn-saw a bit though), view from the 31st floor of the AER building-where I could see the airport, seaport and beyond all looking repaired from the tsunami/quake damage . But I have been told with much gravity that my family drive past large areas of heavy devastation and ruin every day.

Sendai