the life of carter

So Janani and I went to Japan like 3 months ago. That’s a long time to take getting my pictures together, I know, I’m sorry. But hey, better late than never I guess.

We went to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kinosaki and Nara. We got to go to the World Expo in Osaka. I don’t have a lot of pictures of that here as I think I’ll do another post in a bit with our film pictures, which is mostly what we shot at Expo. Otherwise we spent most of our time at cafes from the 60s having coffee and toast sets for breakfast, buying more records than we’d really budgeted for, and seeing so many animals at the zoo and aquarium. So anyway, lets have a look.

Some funky guys from the Ueno Zoo

Turns out The Original Pancake House has a location in Shinjuku and it's loads better than any American one

Hmm

Enjoying the good lighting at the cute but oddly named coffee swamp in Shinjuku

A pigeon that lives near the coffee swamp

A bunch of signs and advertisements except they're very aesthetic because they're in Shinjuku

Some fun lights and signs and such in Shibuya

A konbini near our Tokyo hotel

A cicada. Often heard but rarely seen

A fun light show they do in the evenings at Expo

Some funky guys from the Osaka Aquarium. The whale shark is cool but the garden eels might be cooler

Osaka castle :)

Nara actually has some really cool architecture and fun shops and such, but everyone's really there for the deer. They're cool but honestly a little bit mean and entitled

A cute little side street in Nara

And that's all for now! Maybe I'll post some film pictures from the trip in another 3 months

For the last six months or so I’ve been volunteering at the Portland Japanese Garden a couple times a month. I’ve really enjoyed the still early mornings and the meditative garden work. Here’s a few pictures I’ve snapped during my time there.

The Natural Garden is my favorite area in the Japanese Gardens. These steps exiting the area had a lot of pretty azalias blooming throughout the spring months.

The Cultural Village is the entrance and central hub of the garden. Typically bustling during the day, it can be very serene in the early morning.

The pavillion gallery hosts many exhibitions through the year, along with an annual summer market. Here it lies unused between exhibitions.

The Moon Bridge makes for a great portrait photo spot, as it overlooks much of the garden's waters. I've spent countless hours pulling moss off the shrubs at its ends; it's tedious but meditative and rewarding work.

I also find trimming ferns to be very meditative. We trim off all the old growth in the spring to allow the fresh new fronds to breathe and shine.

I had the pleasure of spending this past Friday with my favorite person, here's a few of the highlights :)

Got some coffee at Bastion in the morning. Somebody made some cute little snow ducks out front :)

Saw somebody down the street from there trying to ski, not quite snowy enough for that apparently.

Janani got me some very pretty flowers that I did up in my favorite teapot-turned-vase.

We went to The 1905 in the evening to see Chance Hayden and Shelly Rudolph. They put on a good show and we got to enjoy some tasty mozzarella sticks, gellato and cannoli. Needless to say, my stomach felt a little funny after that, but I'd say it was still worth it.

Had to make a stop at the aquarium bar after that to say hi to all the fishes.

This cute clownfish couple was having a nice Valentine's Day too.

Hi everyone!

This is my cat, his name’s Otearai. I found him yelling outside my apartment around Thanksgiving last year. Janani and I brought him inside right away because he looked sad, cold and lonely out there.

He had fleas when we first found him, so he had to be quarantined to the bathroom so as to not give fleas to Janani’s cats. Since he spent the first few weeks of his time with us in the bathroom, we named him Otearai, which is Japanese for washroom. We call him Oto for short though.

We tried to track down his owner, and found a lot of very similar looking cats, but no perfect matches. Turns out lynx point Siamese cats are a lot more common than we realized though.

He’s getting along with the other cats better all the time. He’s very lively and energetic, but can be sweet and cuddly too. Sometimes we take him in the backpack for some company on coffee runs. All the baristas at our neighborhood cafe love him. I’d say he’s pretty happy to have found a home here.