PACKING THE LONERGANS OFF TO CHICAGO

Not much to report today aside from noting that Saturday proved yet another bright, early Spring day.  Sean, Ted and Lee took advantage of the weather this morning to head off to Shinjuku to visit Times Square (actually made up of Takashimaya [Lee's favorite department store], Tokyu Hands [a do-it-yourself haven of everything imaginable for the crafts person] and Kinokuniya [a huge and comprehensive bookstore - yes, they still exist on this side of the Pacific!])


While the younger guys went off to explore the department store and Tokyu Hands, Lee managed to track down the last of the three books he had hoped to find while "in-country", a collection of artwork by the manga and anime artist Otomo Katsuhiro.  Otomo was the artist behind AKIRA, one of the first Japanese anime and manga to capture Lee's attention back at the time he took Evan to Japan (where together they saw the anime on the very day it opened in Japanese movie theaters).  Interestingly a "live action" version is currently in the works and the original versions (manga and anime) are both gaining a large measure of repeat media and fan attention as a result.  How cool it is to be back on the cutting edge of Japanese popular culture!

While searching through the various sections of Kinokunia, Lee also came across several other interesting volumes dealing with history, art and pop culture.  Remembering that he has formally retired and no longer needs to keep abreast of the latest scholarship gave him the backbone, however, to resist adding still more weight to his return luggage.  There were those two small volumes reproducing traditional hand-scrolls featuring yokai (spirits, ghosts and goblins), though, that may be too hard not to pick up if his yen account still has funds available at departure time...

In the early afternoon, Lee accompanied Sean and Ted to the train station in Ueno, saw to it that they caught the right airport express, then waved them off for Narita and their home-bound flights.  

Thereafter, he joined the enormous crowds nearby wandering through Ueno Park, viewing the sakura cherry blossoms in all their luminous glory, a sight he had never before had the pleasure of witnessing.

Later he checked himself into the Grand Arc Hanzomon (where he had stayed his first night in town two weeks ago) once again, "home" for the next three days.  This time around, even the view from his hotel room incorporates several rows of cherry trees in bloom -- the city is alive with clouds of color everywhere one looks!

Perhaps, after a good night's sleep, he'll get out and photograph a few of them ...