Pieces of a random Jigsaw

It was just one of those weeks, in fact it was a little bit more than just one of those weeks by a few more draining days where everything became 'lumpy' and stuck together like you find in a spoiled soup and there was simply no space in-between in which to manoeuvre or take a break! I remember going to bed some nights and of being so tired I had no time to read or talk about the day with Hitomi, I was already in dreamland as my head nestled into my pillow. I remember some morning breakfast's where I was lucky that most everything ran on automatic and I distinctly recall the desk-top being vividly lit up with more work in my proverbial 'in tray' than I really should have taken and my cup empty more than it was ever full.
The Angels sat and wrote replying letters to Papa and thanking him for writing to them. They enclosed some photographs of themselves. When it comes to my thoughts about Tety as I watched them write and occasionally help them with words, I sometimes wonder if my kindness could be used against me someday soon. It is not my nature to shut him out as he did me. I will not have my angels see me as being vindictive, spiteful or even vengeful, at least not against their Father. I ask myself why I need reassurance from my angels that they are happy here with their two Mama's but I have no answer, it's another dark worry in life that I cannot or do not want to face. Holding close my treasures to my breast I'm secretly wondering if they'll be cruelly snatched away someday soon by hand uncaring and used to manipulation. Once they grow and go out on their own is a different story. Please let not the fates be so cruel.

Sayurichan came over for a session on Thursday. You may remember her from our traditional shoot that we had last April.
The very honorable Araki san visited our studio after seeing some of Hitomi's work displayed in a local exhibition gallery. Sayurichan was pleased to model for him, not every model has such a fantastic opportunity and we are very grateful indeed for his visit.

T.W. is back with us this week and we had a little fun at the studio.
She wore an amazing leopard print cat suit and I wore Hitomi's armed and dangerous black catsuit for the occasion. We also managed to try on my home made Kasumi-chan outfits. I had the original blue and T.W wore red.

T.W and I are working for 'Goo World' at an open air motor show this week so it was lovely having her come visit us again.

Terutaka and I went shopping together and this allowed me to say my thank you for his mathematical assistance to my daughter. It was my cunning little plan to buy him something nice that he really liked because had he known what I was about then he would not have come shopping with me. We were quite amazed at what we were reduced to when we found that the numerator and denominator had no common factors!
We went to eat in a little place we had known back when we both inhabited another life in a different world.

 

In a heart hidden beyond shadowed veils, dreams fall about me like autumn leaves. I have stood tall and I have crawled but now I beg you just cut me down so I can lie here on familiar ground. Please help me steady my knife and push! Plunge it deep for the stories I keep.
Then one day beyond more uncounted dawns when our children rule, what regrets may we have?
I held on to his hand with such a grip as if he alone kept me tethered to the ground. Yet strangely it seemed a forgotten land where we walked. My hand in his and we still touched the others heart.

I'll put an album up Monday or
Tuesday - time runs away from me with Olympic effort.

A fantastic four! It's just my thing, I'm not invisible and it's plain to see that she holds a torch for me, isn't it fantastic?



ADDITIONAL
I have uploaded two new albums entitled "say you" and 'twins'. link

Dweller in my eyes (VI)

Did we really make it so far?
Today, December 4, Hitomi and I celebrated six years together.
It's been a dream and it hasn't always been a straight path we followed. Mountains and rivers tried to bar our way but here we are safe and sound and together.
Admittedly I am usually the one to stay in bed on a Sunday morning but I got up and made some breakfast for us both and after eating we exchanged cards and a small gift and then we just laid on the bed with the newspapers. I know - what really exciting lives we lead! It's one of the drawbacks of being ordinary! With Dad still being here, we had an hour with him and Hiro and Rina and Yoshiro, who is over one year old now, in my brothers apartment sharing tea and sweet breads.

Hitomi had a call and then said that there was a problem at the studio and she had to run off. I asked if I should come and she shook her head saying it was nothing that she couldn't handle. About forty minutes later and half way through playing with Yoshiro, I got a call from her asking if I could come and help because it may take some time and since it is our special day, it would be nice if we could at least be together. I drove over there only to be greeted by Hitomi, Chizuru and T.W. just inside the reception where Hitomi gave me flowers. I'm fooled again!

We invited T.W and Chizuru over to share our joy. We drank to old friends and to new friends and they in their turn toasted our happy six years together and we drank more just for the pleasure of it.

Looking back at my old anniversary posts, this night over the last few years has always been a good one. Tonight was another wonderful night and another lovely marker as we measure the events in our lives but tonight I shared with them the facts that from this day forward this could be a really big changing point in our lives. The mood became sombre and serious and then I realized that this wasn't what effect I wanted from my words, I wanted feelings of hoping for the best, yes, but I wanted it in a bright and joyous way.

After we had eaten and we had relaxed for a while together, we threw on some loose clothes and played the dance karaoke software that T.W had given us last week. We started well enough with the simple introduction but eventually we just fell about laughing and started inventing our own choreography.

Sunday was our six wonderful years and we celebrated this milestone with our dearest friends with a look-back over our ups and downs and of course our being thankful that we made it this far. It seems that there really is an unbreakable bond between us. No matter what the world has done to us, we remain together. No matter the errors of judgment either of us have made, we are still together.
Tomorrow I believe that our continuing life together will start in earnest in a new and better way. Changes are coming, I feel it and suddenly as I write this I remember that soothsayer and what he told me! I am amazed, I really am! How could he have seen this?
Hitomi and I have just survived our biggest break up and the other things he told me are coming true too!

I have made sure that all my papers that I need to present to the courts are in order.
Dad and I will visit my lawyer in the morning and he will confirm our position and ensure our readiness for Tuesday, which is my moment of truth.
I believe in the future.

Studio Magic

The morning of anticipated trepidation wasn't so bad really. I don't want to associate any future meetings that I have with Hitomi with also having butterflies in my tummy! As I was making my way there I phoned T.W, just to find out what she knew and perhaps also for a little moral support in a nervous chatter kind of sense. T.W had been delayed and she'd already phoned Hitomi to apologize and she'd said that she would be heading straight for the outdoor location.
My taxi arrived at the studio in a fairly green but run down part of town and I was greeted by my friend Kuri and a couple of other girls who were sat outside the studio in a station wagon. I was chatting with them about the structure of the morning when Hitomi came out and greeted me. In fact I was hugged and kissed by her, not that I was unwilling for such a public display of 'friendliness' but I was taken aback a little. Smiling broadly, she introduced me to Chizuru, who I knew of but hadn't actually met before and to Akiko, who I had never met before. I was told that Akiko was also new to the game. Kuri we all know quite well. Akiko and Kuri wore tradition kimono and Chizuru wore a nice navy dress. We all greeted each other and exchanged business cards politely. I had thought to offer one to Hitomi but that would have been out of place and disrespectful. Hitomi asked if I needed anything before we were all going to drive off to pastures green. I didn't need anything except the bathroom and then it seemed we were all ready to go.

Kuri was excited about everything and eagerly told me that since her first steps as a photographer's model two months ago she had been given the opportunity to pose in front of a few more professional cameras. I congratulated her and welcomed her to the club. Hitomi laughed and said with trying to answer that in balanced way, a lot of photographers don't always like a new face because they prefer experience but on the opposite side of that thought is the fact that new models are on the lowest pay scale. Kuri laughed and said she didn't mind at all and that she just loved being a part of this new adventure even if it was harder work than she had first imagined. Everyone starts off somewhere!
I said that I wasn't getting paid at all and was doing it simply from love. A moment of silence ensued before I added that it was the love of being in front of the lens and also because I want Hitomi's new venture to succeed and so helping out was a pleasure.
As the perceived atmosphere inside of the car normalized once more I couldn't help but think that on the day of Kuri's first steps into a new world it was also the last day of my old world but I have to stop reflecting upon such ruminations.

The drive wasn't long and not too far away. We arrived to find the crews already arrived and setting up the outdoor sets for Kuri, Akiko and Chizuru.
I sat in the open station wagon sipping orange juice and noting that it was a real pleasure to watch Hitomi get in amongst them and organize everyone. There were two separate shoots that morning. Akiko and Kuri, the new girls, were together and Chi was out on her own. The hair and makeup team (which consisted of just two girls) quickly attended the girls with professional quickness while the photographers and their assistants set up angles and checked light settings with and without reflectors. Amid all this organized activity, T.W's taxi arrived. She quickly greeted and spoke with Hitomi and then seeing me in the car came over. I had the warmest of hugs and I felt that it's just little moments like these, full of human warmth and compassion that really mean something special.
Hitomi was leaving these girls to the crews here and was taking T.W and I back to the studio so she could photograph us for the studio portfolio. On impulse Hitomi asked if we'd do a quick shoot here in traditional. T.W had the kimono that Chi was going to use later but there wasn't one for me so Hitomi asked Kuri to quickly let me wear the one she had on. We changed behind the parked car where a couple of people decided to watch us rather than Chi and Akiko looking beautiful with their crews.
My makeup girl pulled my bun which I'd put up that morning (I'm almost a hair-stylist myself {laughs}) because it was the wrong style for the 'feel' and would not compliment the impression of the presentation.
We got ready quickly and Hitomi herself took a few informal shots of us.

After which we got changed, this time behind blankets held up by the make-up girls and then headed back to the studio where we parked and had a quick lunch in a small café opposite and then it was down to business. Hitomi gave us a quick tour and I must say that I was impressed. She had a small office at the front and a stock room and a utility room where she was going to collect costumes and textiles. She had a finish room with a small darkroom at the back for film processing and her computers and printers for digital processing in the front. The sets were amazing, it was almost a carbon copy of how she'd done it in our utilities room, only bigger with more space but then of course she'd emptied her old home studio of everything that she'd had and she'd put in there, simply transferring it across.
Hitomi then told us what she like for us to wear and which background set we'd use for her "twins" sets.
I have put a couple of samples in my flickr.
The whole afternoon was quite informal really because we all knew each other really well and there was no feel of pressure and I think that gave it an almost non-professional feel but that isn't how it happened at all. Hitomi really loves this new venture of hers and she was a professional throughout and put everything into it and got the best out of us.
If you think about listening to your favorite artiste or band on a CD from the recording studio and then listen to them live in concerts you will instantly know what I mean when I mention studio magic. A studio gives them their best sound production. Audio or visuals then, a studio brings out the best.

After the shoot, we all sat and had a drink while Hitomi showed us the results on her monitor in the finish room and I think we were overall quite pleased with most of the shots. T.W went off just before seven to meet her date and just before I left, Hitomi asked if I'd like to have dinner with her. I had no plans for the evening and so I instantly agreed. I know that even if I had have had plans I would probably have canceled them to spend a little time with her and prolong my torture of being with someone I want very much but can no longer have.
We didn't go to a restaurant as I had thought. Instead we took a taxi to her home.
We drove up to Urawa in Saitama city, northwest of her parents' home in Adachi. It was a very noisy area as we drove past some rather awful looking dilapidated tenement buildings. Sirens, alarms, trains, dogs barking and children playing and all of these had their volume set to high. Unfortunately the taxi stopped right outside one such run down building and I think my heart sank a little. Once inside, her new home was not as bad as I had perhaps imagined but it was very small with lots of her bags as yet unopened and all lined up and stacked along one wall. There would probably be very little room if she did open them. This is probably very close to the idea of living in a suitcase and she'd need to go out into the corridor if she wanted to open her vanity case! She had a small closet style bathroom, toilet, shower and small corner metal basin but no bath. An extremely small kitchen where I would not have the room to help her to prepare the meal even had she allowed me to do so and her lounge was also small with a sofa that opened as a bed and it had a small table with two stools underneath. Her clothes that were not in the bags were packed in to one small draw set and also in the TV stand. The air-conditioner above the window didn't work and she told me that there were rumors in the building that there may be heating in winter but that the other tenants hadn't felt it during the last winter. In my heart I felt quite sad that she's been 'reduced' to this but I can say nothing. If she wanted to return back home she'd be more than welcome and I'd be there with open arms.
We shared a simple meal of rice, vegetables and beef and talked about things in general and perhaps didn't talk about some things that had been mentioned the last time we lay on a futon together. She appeared quite interested in my hair school as I told her of my sudden interest in it that had been fueled by a discussion with my own hairdresser and I listened to her struggles and achievements with her new business.
A little later and after a couple of chilled beers she asked if I'd like to stay the night and very quickly but politely I'd said no.
'What the hell am I saying?' I thought to myself. Of course I wanted to stay, I wanted to stay so very much but a polite "no" just tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop it and I bit my tongue belatedly as a punishment for its crime. I think I said no because I didn't want her to think I was desperate for her attention. My soul yearns for her touch so I think I'm deceiving myself, oh hell I know I am.
Am I desperate? Oh yes, yes, yes a thousand times yes! I want her in my arms so very much.
'I love you so much and want you in every way' I wanted to say and then as I was walking down the stairs on my way out with her waving goodbye from her door, I wanted her to offer me the chance to stay just one more time, I may even have said yes. She didn't say anything and that silence drowned out the noise from the streets outside. I think I saw surprise and perhaps that was touched with a little sadness in my refusal but then again, it was probably what I wanted to see there more than what may have been there in actuality. Perhaps I showed her that I am a strong woman and determined and I can live my life as a single independent woman. I certainly hope so, because in order to do that I know damn well that I have missed out on a night of endless possibilities and sadly I note that the scent of desire wafts out of the window unrequited.

How can it be?
I can taste you now
How can I see
When you're everything

All the world in one grain of sand
And I've blown it
All my world in one grain of sand
And you own it *

Taxi's and discreet, possibly regretful tears headed towards Shibuya but there came a nod to myself about resolve. The trouble with being alone is that sometimes you have no one to talk to about the real deep feelings inside. That's not just me. It's all across our society. All the lonely people and even some people involved in relationships here who feel lonely need someone to reach out to and at times we just ache for an understanding ear and all too often we do not find them. On the way home I considered stopping off at a host bar or finding my China girl because I know they would listen to me pour my heart out but I didn't.

To quote Selina Kyle (from the movie Batman returns) "Hi honey, I'm home. Oh I forgot I live alone!"

*Lyrics from Black Cherry by Goldfrapp.

Jet

We drank coffee and ate pastries in the car driving home from the airport.
T.W had jetted home from working in the Kansai region and had quite an interest in seeing Hitomi's home studio. Hitomi quite proudly had told T.W all about it last time they worked together. She agreed when we said we'd pick her up that she could come over for dinner and a few drinks and view Hitomi's proud creation.
Of course Hitomi wanted to shoot her too.
T.W. said that perhaps this will be the first steps of Hitomi's professional life on the other side of the lens.
"What will you call this new venture?" she asked.
There was a strange silence as we all looked around at each other.
"We can call it Hitomi's studio." Hitomi offered rather unimaginatively.
We all laughed.
"Home studio is a good enough name for it", I said, "After all it is in my home."
I saw Hitomi's eyes on me in the rear-view.
"Our home" I corrected myself.
Relief descended on me as I saw her hard staring features soften and smile.
T.W who is very often observant chose not to pick up on my faux pas.
"Doesn't everything have a name? I mean if Shinjuku and Shibuya had no names there would be total confusion!"  T.W offered.
"The old religions said that there was a power in knowing a true name." Hitomi said.
"We have no power over T.W, she has no name and everyone we know calls her by those initials. I laughed.
It all became a little bit crazy as we played on what T.W could mean and even T.W herself proposed a few good ones. Imagine something like 'Trim waist', 'tender warmth', 'terribly wicked', 'typhoon wind' or even 'Tomomi's woman'. You can imagine some of the things we came up with!

So what is T.W's name you may wonder?
She is just T.W. It is how I write of her in my private journals and how I call her and how I refer to her. Everyone knows who I mean when I say T.W.
The topic continued as to why planes do not have names and boats do.

It's a fair point and I suppose planes are mass produced and a recent thing whereas boats were built by hand and given names as a token of an individual crafting and for the owners and crew to identify with it. Hitomi did remind us that some planes were named, the Spirit of St. Louis and the Enola Gay for example.
I think Identity is the key word here the same as we name a pet but we won't name a fish in a  large aquarium.

After a late lunch and a couple of drinks, Hitomi convinced T.W to pose for a shoot. Convince is hardly the right word. We tried to hold her back as she rushed into the studio eagerly wanting her pictures taken would be more accurate but you know I like to present my words in a more tranquil setting.
TW stayed over at our place and after an outdoor session in the morning and lunch - she made her way home.
She has another couple of pictures for her portfolio and slowly but surely my sweet Hitomi makes her name.

V for...

...Valerie Page and expressed with Roman flavor!
Light the Norse-fire's and stand back!
A half decade may seem hardly any time at all in the measure of some things but it is a landmark for us.
On Saturday, Hitomi and I celebrated our fifth anniversary of togetherness.
It's strange how... well actually it isn't! You go away for a little while and seven small hills grow into a mountain range that only a fevered liveliness around Mount Venus can roll back. I spent most of a rainy Friday catching up on life with e-mails and phone calls of both a professional and personal nature. We had a large gathering for dinner on Friday night with Hitomi and I, Hiro and Rina and baby Yoshiro and our Father joining us.
Dad has been a devoted grandfather and is so proud of his first male grandchild that Rina has often to invent reasons to take him away from Grandfathers arms. Yoshiro is twelve weeks old now, the time seems to have rushed by and he grows so healthy and strong.

Saturday morning was the usual chaos as Miss dancing shoes couldn't find her dancing shoes and at some time during her great furniture re-arrangement, had boxed them and placed them in her wardrobe and had other shoe boxes neatly stacked on top. Perhaps chaos is her element since she always seems to find exactly what she needs if she's hunting through the laundry basket.
Finally she went off to dance and I spent the morning with dad and we had a small discussion about some of the things that have been on my mind. Dad may not speak from the same point of emotional intensity that I feel but he always speaks from a calm, loving and understanding position. He always makes me feel stronger when I am with him and he always manages to see things that I don't.
As for uncertain futures, Dad assures me that all futures and all pasts exist around us like places. Th past is accessible only with memory and the future that I desire must be traveled towards. That in itself is no guarantee that I'll get there because of the currents around me but it offers me the best chance.
I have to stop worrying about those far away places because in so doing, this limits me in my present space.

Hitomi had booked a table at the Keio Plaza Hotel. We were actually there last year for the fashion writer awards but this time it was personal. We arrived a little before seven fifteen and had a drink at the bar before asking for our table. The hotel restaurant was quite full and we ordered more drinks. Mizuki arrived and T.W texted Hitomi to ask for directions. We thought she was lost somewhere but the taxi had dropped her outside and she simply wanted let us know that she was jokingly navigating her way into the restaurant. Funny really because you have to go up a flight of stairs and then down again if you come in from the front doors.

Companionship and togetherness are the opposites of solitude and my friends and my lover mean a great deal to me. Mizuki has been my best friend from work ever since I joined and also knows Hitomi well to the point of being X-men together. T.W from the agency has become quite close really and is as much of a friend to Hitomi as she is to me. The companionship at the table helping Hitomi and I celebrate five years was a perfect blend. The food was perfect (Gochisosama deshita) and the happiness and laughter was very much needed and appreciated. I would thank Hitomi for her wonderful devotion to me for the last five years and to my wonderful friends who make me feel warm, loved and very content.

Such breathless length!

I sometimes wonder just where I have drawn my lines. Lines can be defined as a set of points obeying a linear relationship but the points I often cover are unlike the points of those lines. Mine, I hope, are not zero value and empty, null and void in any dimensional measurement system. My lines are probably not straight either (I know how they feel - laughs), but I have wondered just where I draw them.
I have had a lot to think about over the last few days and have lived in relative solitude.
Is this so unlike me?
I've been worried about a few things, things I have no intention of discussing in my blog, at least not yet. I guess they could be given headings of relationship, health (emotional and physical), future and a whole host of other almost inconsequential, frivolous and petty things that concern me. My self imposed solitude allowed me a unique concentration upon my areas of concern. Granted I would not have the benefit of friendly advice but without distraction I had to settle these things in my own head and heart first.

I took a guest room in a very small and local hotel but still far enough out of the way of the usual hustle and bustle. I had a small TV, solely for the sounds of human voices should I require it but I took no cell phone or computer. Hitomi knew where I was staying and she had asked rather embarrassingly, if I would be alone the whole time. I said she had nothing to fear on that point and I promised her that I would be totally alone. I asked for no calls through to reception unless it was an utter emergency. She kept to her word and I was alone, enjoying the seclusion and I had time to try and create order from the chaos within my mind. I only left that little room of mine for my bathroom or for meals and one little trip to a beautiful laundrette.

On Tuesday lunchtime we had a little Earthquake about 500 miles south of us and that had a few tall buildings dancing there in Shinjuku but thankfully there were no reports of any damage or injuries.
Thursday morning saw me sitting on my bed writing the last of my little scribbles and I thought that I'd go home on Friday morning. I felt much better and of course Saturday is Hitomi's and my anniversary. Five beautiful years. I was also thinking to go out and grab some food when I heard a knock at my door.
I opened it and my dad stood there.
I opened it and bid him enter. he did so and looked around the room. Shamefully I had nothing to offer him and so invited him to come out for some lunch with me.
He waved my suggestion away, saying he was OK and sat. I sat.
There was a silence while he looked around and then he gave me this really huge smile and stood with his arms wide open.
I rushed in and hugged him
He asked if I was OK now and as I thought about the question and searched inside myself, I really thought that just being there in his arms kind of did make everything OK again. I had had the time and composed myself and Dad's company dismissed the uncertainty of whether I should go back today or tomorrow in one foul swoop.

He waited while I packed and then again while I checked out. He drove us from Shinjuku back home where Hitomi greeted me with open arms and searching eyes. There was no such things as her observing formalities and in my father's presence, she hugged and kissed me. Dad was busy inspecting the rearrangement of furniture, or pretending to!

He is staying in the guest apartment until Tuesday.
Friday morning and it's raining bad. Tomorrow, our anniversary and Hitomi has organized a small foursome.
We will share time with Mizuki, from work, who has been a constant friend throughout my time with 'JJ' and who has been asking after me this last week from Hitomi. Hitomi has also invited T.W, who has been working with Hitomi on a few promotions recently.
Back in with five!

In car entertainment

I sent T.W a text to tell her that I was working at the same venue as her this week-end and would she like to travel down to Osaka with me. She replied that she was in Kyoto and would be traveling into Osaka from there.
I was on my own!
I kissed 'Miss Sleepy head' goodbye at 4:15a.m to go and meet the 5am train to Osaka.
Despite a nice cup of strong coffee and an interesting and in-depth glossy gossip magazine, I fell asleep on the train.
It was one of those strange sleepy dreams where I probably knew it was a dream at some level but in my dream I was acting out the last things on my mind before my eyes closed. It didn't seem like my eyes had been closed for very long before we arrived in Osaka. Almost two hours had passed seemingly within five closed eye minutes.
A taxi whisked me across the short distance to the Intex (international exhibition center) where I met up with some of the very nice and efficient promotional organizers and I also met Aoi, an old associate of mine who I have worked with previously at several fashion venues.
I got changed into my promotional outfit and then we met up with Yoshi, who had come over to check things out. Big sister is watching me!
"Try to look sexy" she says, as if I can look anything else (laughs) in such a small outfit.
"Look sleek, look slender and add curves and femininity to the product." She advised as she walked past the many exhibitors and the many more pretty girls with me to Axis stand.
"I'll make it all so enticing and desirable!" I winked.
All the free handouts, the pamphlets, the stickers and branded bags were in place as a I walked around. The big audio system on display in the car trunk on the stand with me looked like it could knock down the Biblical walls of Jericho. Watt!
T.W arrived late on the next stand over, bad girl she is! The public were already entering when she rushed over, smiling at me and looking around at her own stand.

Saturday was a long day! If I'm busy doing things the hours can pass quickly, sometimes too quickly but when I'm standing and slipping in between different poses and wearing a cheek straining smile for nearly twelve hours then the time passes extremely slowly! I watched T.W who is a natural and very professional and I imitated her a little but I also tried above all to be natural.
I am the axis of desirability! I am the product.
How natural can I be at such angles?
Everyone has a camera and as fantastic as the products are, everyone wants to capture the girls!
Choose the camera to look at and make sure the product is behind you and in frame. Pose!
I met the secretary to the head of advertising for Axis as she came in to visit. Yoshi actually told me she'd be visiting at some time during the day and so we were expecting her. She introduced herself and said that she was very pleased with the interest generated by the stands and the overall presentation. That was a delicious highlight of the day!
I'm sure she meant T.W and I (laughs) and the others!

After we closed on Saturday, we had a small room in a guest house rather than a room in expensive hotels and we had a roll out mattress instead of a bed but after a glorious hot bath after being on my feet all day, it was a taste of heaven. T.W and I had a meal together but didn't talk much. We spent most of that time on the phone, checking e-mails, voice messages and texts.
I slept soundly and woke at six for my shower only to find a problem with the water heater. One cold shower later and Momo with goose bumps loved the warmth generated by the friction of the towel.
One thing, no several things, that guest houses usually have over a hotel is a hot drinks area in the room, I can make hot tea or coffee whenever I choose unlike the three A.M call in a hotel that sometimes, if you are lucky, reaches a sleepy room service with several excuses. There was also an iron and if you don't realize how valuable that is then you don't frequent hotels! Mind you, I missed a well stocked mini bar in the corner.

We walked over to the center from the guest house to start all over again on Sunday morning. We met  Kamiko, a girl we had known at new faces, she was working the Yamaha stand which was some distance from us, but it feels good seeing familiar faces and feeling a part of the loop. Sunday's promotion seemed to pass a lot faster and the sugar fix of donuts at lunch time really worked! The doors were closed at six and by seven we were out of there. T.W was working the event on Monday too. We went back to the guest house, she to bath and relax and I to get my things and head for home.
We said goodbye and can't wait to meet again.

The work is easy when you look at it from the outside and even glamorous when you look at it from photographs but it hurts, it hurts in so many places! Your muscles soon remind you that you're used to sitting at a desk for some of the time and you are no longer sure if you are still wearing that smile that you've worn all day and there is nothing, I repeat, nothing more desirable that a hot shower. Nothing except perhaps than an ice cold beer and so I had one on the late train home.
Hitomi had a bubble bath ready when I walked through the door half an hour past midnight.
I couldn't eat a dinner and was glad of the noodles and soup on the train. She also eased some of the aches and pains in my muscles with her deft fingers. A hot bath, an ice cold beer and a delicious Hitomi feels like a cure for almost anything.

I've put a few images up and I just want you to know that behind the smiling images are a few aches and pains that only promotional event models and marathon runners truly understand.

Open Album here:
EDIT (Aug 2011; album removed)

The last dance

All good things come to an end.
Wednesday morning had us all out together after breakfast for the promotion shots and it was a bit disorganized to say the least. We lost a lot of light when it clouded over and we all sat around drinking water and talking under the shade of the beach edge trees and again the topic was all about boys and what some of the girls had got up to at the bar last night. Hitomi, T.W, me and a girl called Bunko didn't join the others at the bar, instead we'd gone out to a nice little Taiwanese restaurant and so we missed out on what some of the antics of other girls.

Are we interested?
Well yes we were since it passed the time.
Hurry up and wait!

We were supposed to start at 9am but with the cloud and getting other things ready the first shoot wasn't until 11am. After the whole group photos and video, the Director had a couple of us doing beach ball games at the sea edge. Out of shot guys were spaying us with water to simulate sea spray which was nice and cooling, unless it went in our eyes and added a little reflective sheen. Unfortunately it also allows sand to stick to our skin and I can quite understand why oysters find these foreign materials irritating enough to make it the basis of pearl creation.
Some sightseers gathered by the edge of our shoot location with their digital cams and their phone cams and were snapping away even when the girls were trying to change costumes beneath beach towels. The guys put up some stands and tied police tape across them to hopefully keep the tourists, sightseers and other on-lookers back to a reasonable distance. These people kept moving the stands forward so they too could approach closer. Click, click, click went their little cameras and we'd pull faces at them!
They finally called time at three thirty and by the time we'd packed up we still seemed to have sand everywhere. We left an hour later and drove slowly back to the hotel with a couple of hours to spare before dinner. After showering away the sweat and sand and getting ready for dinner the girls gathered in the foyer. TW, Hitomi and I went and collected some of the police tape from the van and came into the foyer from the balcony entrance and stood looking at the gang and then we'd slowly edge forward behind our tape as we did. The girls were in hysterics as we pretended to be as unruly as the curious tourists.

After dinner we changed for a few drinks at the bar, Hitomi and I were not going to miss out on the gossip again or a chance at sampling even more local drinks and foods.
It's been a good few days here and I have enjoyed immensely the chance to work with my sweetheart and I am also happy that we sorted out the silliness that stood between us. What we have together is too precious to be torn apart and lost to idle and empty words.

We'll be home soon.
On Thursday morning we drove up to the town of Hirara for a little indoor work and a working lunch and then finally we managed a couple of hours looking around before the coach took us back to the hotel in time for dinner.
For the hot evening we gathered by the pool and as Hitomi was imitating the director walking around the pool and telling the girls how to pose she didn't realize he was sat close by having a beer with some of his team. They ran out and grabbed poor Hitomi and threw her in the pool.
Now that was funny!

Take care everyone, we'll be home soon.

On the third day

Miss Adventure and her group drove off after breakfast for their small group session. T.W and I decided to walk to the end of the beach which was some five long and adventurous kilometers away. I believe we only covered two kilometers before we met an impenetrable barrier. Our adventure cut short by the almost hidden and cunningly attractive ice cream parlor.
What's life without its little distractions?
After trying a cool mint ice cream and enjoying it and T.W having her chocolate and vanilla we looked around a small souvenir shop where I managed to get one or two small items for family and friends back home. Then we noticed a bus outside the small shopping complex heading back to the Tokyu hotel resort. There was no set time he departed. He just waited until he had a decent number of paying passengers, how relaxed everything seems with a slow passage of time once you leave the time conscious cities. I think that's one of the things my Father and I both appreciate about his home in Otaru

I was enjoying an orange juice by the hotel pool when the morning group girls and Hitomi arrived back.
We sat for lunch and chose goya chanpuru which is a mix of tofu, melon and vegetables, pork and tuna. It's a local style dish and we found it a very filling and satisfying meal. We have very similar dishes back home of course but somehow the ambiance of this place adds a little something that's missing from when you choose this dish anywhere else in the world.

We sat by the pool for a while with our feet in the water while our lunches digested and then we decided to leave it all behind and just wander off to the beach together. Wednesday is the full group session day and its all day.

We had the afternoon on the beach just having fun together. It seems such a long time since we did that and to share such fun filled moments free of the routines of every day life is a treasure to be savored indeed.

We're heading back on Friday and so making the most of these times are quite important.






Vanilla Mood - Haku

The morning after the night before.

It was a bit too much I think. She'd flown down on the Sunday evening after working from an early Sunday morning and a heavy schedule for the two weeks previous without a day off and it was just too much! She'd booked off the weekend for Nana's birthday but she was needed at the last minute and so it all became a bit too much. Monday morning found her very fatigued and when she got out of bed she was quite sick. I was quite worried and asked for the hotel doctor to visit with her but he said it was a little stomach flu and gave her some medicine and prescribed rest.
I was moved to the morning group in her place and she was placed on the Tuesday morning group which gives her time to recover.

Ren, Rei, Cho and I went off with the crew to the southern end of the beach quite close to the golf course where I think the activities of bikini clad girls, reflectors, make up girls, cameras and crew may have distracted some from putting their balls in their holes. The Director was kind to them and after an hour on the beach we moved into the dune grass and then up onto the road for the last series of images. It was quite a relaxed session compared to some that I've been on with the holiday mood infused into everyone but everyone was very professional and gave good work. When things run smoothly and the Director is happy then that too passes down the line and into everyone else. No sneak-peek images of this one my sweeties except for what's under the umbrella. You'll just have to wait until we get nearer the publication date at the end of the year. I'll keep you all apprised.

We got back to the hotel for lunch around 13:00 to find the afternoon session girls getting ready and the Tuesday girls just amusing themselves by the pool. Hitomi was just sat inside the hotel lounge reading the newspapers and listening to the TV news, my poor little lamb still wasn't her self. I ate chicken, steamed vegetables and noodles for my lunch. I was ravenous after a long morning while Hitomi just opted for a bow of Okayu (rice porridge) and a melon bread to dip in.
After lunch we just went up to our room which luckily we had all to ourselves and took an afternoon nap.
By the evening after we woke up, I was very happy to see that she was feeling fine, fine enough to lock the door for a little while but thankfully we weren't disturbed.
After dinner, which I was happy to see her appetite back, we had a party on the hotels front balcony and I indulged in some of the local beers but she had lime flavored water to ensure that there would be no problems with her tummy for tomorrow.
As we were all dancing a small Chinese lion attacked Hitomi. It was all in fun of course and it had everyone laughing. T.W and I jumped on the lion to rescue her but in our rescue one of the poor lion dancers twisted his ankle thanks to our exuberance. Oops sorry!
A midnight swim (at 22:00) ended our evening when she decided it was time to sleep before her session on Tuesday.