Brad Pitt lecturer in the University of Tokyo

I read that few days ago, Brad Pitt, American actor and freedom fighter, went to the University of Tokyo (東京大学), his second stop in Asia, to lecture about his personal involvements in the negotiations with the Pashtun people about the further advancment of their society, especially in the field of human raights issues. The Japanese students were very happy to hear the star talking about these pressing matters in such straight-forward rhetoric. Many felt that his lectures meant a sudden diversion from the cowboy style rhetoric of the previous Hollywood stars, who came as guest lecturers to the University of Tokyo. Xinhua reports, that this is merely the beginning of a new age Hollywood-lecturing-the-rest-of-the-world efforts iniciated by the Obama administration and that Pitt may soon drop by in China as well. [Photoshopped by me :P]

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The story of Miako from Ginza

I. MIAKO

Her name was Miako. She was a Japanese girl from Ginza, Tokyo. We met through a friend, a Canadian photographer. I, a photographer myself, was immediately struck by her uniquely sensual look. Her face, reminiscent of Monica Belucci, only Japanese, made me question my own idea of beauty.


II. FIRST ENCOUNTER

Her English was very poor, but luckily after my year in Tokyo, I learned enough Japanese to start a simple conversation with her. She was very shy when I introduced myself and asked her about her name. "Mi-a-ko", she said with a very girly voice. She was 23, she added. Her body was amazing. I've never fallen for slim girls before. But her figure was something new to me. The face and the body matched perfectly. Her long and stretched figure was the perfect reflexion of her angelic face. I just couldn't stop staring at her. My friend noticed it and the situation became pretty awkward. He nudged me and I came back to my senses. Maiko is a Japanese girl and there are certain ways of looking at a Japanese girl that are utterly unappropriate. I was ashamed of myself. I saw she blushed and while my friend appologized for me, she said 'nevermind', but nodded with her head nervously. She left very fast after this. My Canadian friend said: "Man, please, don't make my friend so shy. She's been through a lot. You really look a bit like her ex-boyfriend, the one who betrayed and hurt her." I was shocked. I didn't know about this. On the other hand, how could I? I was just myself. I lost myself in her. Should I appologize for that? I did to him. But I didn't mean it. All I had on my mind was Miako's gorgeous face.

III. SUNDAY IN GINZA

Two weeks later. It was a normal sunday in Ginza in September. I had no assignments for the weekend, so I decided to walk around on my own. I strolled down the main street slowly. As a stranger, I saw Ginza with different eyes. Literarly. I saw girls, dressed up like lolitas, emos or gyaru... It's not like I saw something like that for the first time, but every girl reminded me of Miako. I missed Miako. Because I thought about her all the time. I stopped for a moment, took a big look into all directions and there I saw it: The Nagasaki center. I decided to go to the Paulista to try that famous coffee of their's. Before I entered I noticed there's not many people. Maybe because of sunday and morning. A bad combination. So I strolled down the main aisle wondering where to sit. I looked left and right, walked few steps further and there she was, sitting behind a giant palm tree: Miako! I froze. It caught me off-guard. What should I do now? Should I greet her, sit beside her? Will I appear rude again? Or should I sit elsewhere or walk off? Will I offend her again? Suddenly she lifted up her head and smiled, 'cause she saw me. She said: "Malukko-san, purizu sit beside me." That made all my nervousness vanish in an instant. She said she came here few minutes ago. I ordered my latte and switched to Japanese. I told her again I was sorry to stare at her the first time we met and hoped she would forgive my impoliteness. She told me she was alright and actually felt flattered by my staring. Suddenly she asked me in English: "Malukko-san, do you tink I am pletty?" I seemed clearly unprepared for a moment, but then again I quickly came to say: "Miako-san, I think you are very pretty. You are the most beautiful girl I ever saw." She blushed and smiled and replied with a sweet voice: "Ah, you just flattel me. I donno if I am pletty. My eksu-boyfliend say I no plety. He took off wit othel gal. My healt is bloken. I must cly evely day." Her face expression went from happy to sad when she looked at me with her watery eyes. "Miako, please, look at me." Her tearful eyes resembled a crying manga girl. "Never again let anyone tell you something like that. You are gorgeous!" I replied. She looked at me with a big question mark. I asked her: "Do you understand 'gorgeous'? She shook her head. I said in Japanese: Senrei. She smiled brightly, but still tearing up. It was like sunshine and rain at same time. I took her hand and said: "You are happy now. Keep it that way." She replied: "Arrigato, Malukko-san. Ar-ri-ga-to" We kept quiet for a moment, I took a sip of my coffee and thought about how to make her smile again. I had a wonderful idea. I said to her: "Miako-san, would you go out with me tonight?" She immediately said yes. We exchanged phone numbers and started a conversation about Ginza. Where to go, what to do... she smiled. She told me many stories about how much fun she had in this or that place. I kept looking at her dreamy eyes while she went on talking. I imagined how I can lose myself in them from close. I wondered how it would feel to intertwine my fingers with hers, pull her close and kiss her. Gently and lengthly. I...
I found myself back in my apartment. It was afternoon. I wasn't tired, but I tried to rest. I wanted to lay on bed and continue dreaming. I still remembered Miako's smile when we parted one hour ago. And how she walked away with her sexy long and perfectly built legs. It was in that moment when I noticed that she wore a mini skirt and high heels. She walked so gracefully. Out of this world? Definitely. My head was full of nonsense. This girl was all I had on my mind these days. Virtually all of the time. I just let my imagination thrive, I was definitely losing all my maturity in one day. I changed from man to boy. And never before I felt this way. I was a bit embarrassed. But I thought to myself: What the heck. Who cares. I'm in love.
It was 7 o'clock. My cell phone kept ringing. Miako! I, drunk from all the daydreaming, previously fell asleep like a baby. So I had to come back to my senses. I picked up: "Moshi moshi?" She sounded nervous yet excited. We said we'll meet at the Mitsukoshi, at the main entrance, at 8 o'clock. I was nervous picking the right shirt and pants. I didn't want to be overdressed, but too casual was also a bad choice. I found a middle way and luckily on time. I hurried up, almost ran downstairs all excited. My heart was pounding like crazy. I couldn't believe I was having a date with such a beautiful girl.
I arrived first. After few minutes of waiting, I became more and more tense. And suddenly it struck me. I saw her approaching me from the distance. Boy, did she look sexy! She wore dark brown boots with high heels, black semi-transparent stockings, a short brown skirt matching the boots and an incredible silky carmine coloured blouse with a glittery collar. Her hair was falling over her shoulders with the tips touching her breasts. Amazingly seductive. On top of all that, she wore a perfect make-up. Her cherry-red lips still lingering in my mind. When she said 'hi' with her cute girly voice, I felt those lips will kill me. I survived.
So we decided right away to go to the cinema. I wouldn't mind if we just stood there near Mitsukoshi or if we went back to the café. Nothing mattered as long as I was with her. The main street in Ginza was crowded. While we were walking, I fooled around, kept making silly jokes or gave her compliments. She clearly enjoyed my company. And she knew I was falling for her. She clearly enjoyed that, too.
The movie was ok. I didn't pay so much attention. I enjoyed to be so close to her, to smell her fragrant perfume, see her silky skin from so close. Many times I closed my eyes and just breathed in slowly... Breathed out slowly...

IV. WE BREATHE

We breathe fast, in my room, kissing and more. I have her. She's mine. Our fingers intertwined. I won't let go, she can't let go. The night of my life. My consciousness is almost lost and repeatedly recovered. Her skin delights me, gives me the shivers. How did I make it? Now I lost myself in her eyes constantly, vigorously, endlessly. It felt like the night should never stop, because everything post this night would seem irrelevant.

V. LOST IN GINZA, LOST IN MIAKO

Two months later. Our love won't decline. We are immersed in Ginza. Ginza is the part that connects us. While I have my photo shoots, Miako started her model career. First for some teen magazines, later for Scawaii! and Woofin' Girl and some others. She became big. But she says she does that because I gave her confidence. She's doing that for herself. Sometimes I worry about all that, because now some people in Ginza stop us, snap photos of her, ask for her autograph. Of course they're polite, but what if there's suddenly someone who's not? I just hope I can protect her. She loves to be shot with my camera. She loves to pose for me. She wants to be dreamy and show me those sad eyes she had two months ago. She does that to please me. Or to shock me. She succeeds in both ways. She loves to wear my shirts and gaze out of the window while asking me to keep the moment with my camera. She says I am the one who can capture the real Miako. Her English improved. I even taught her some Slovene. She's cute when she tries and fails. There's so much more to her than her apparent looks. Her sexiness is deeper than what meets the eye. She said I am the one who went the deepest. I can touch her soul, she says. She wants to be with me forever, she repeats many times with her cute girly voice. She loves to put one arm around my neck, and with the other one seizing my chin and kissing me. She always smiles. We enjoy the walks in Ginza, we love to stroll down the Hibiya park. She loves to kiss me near the clock. Ginza is ours. We own it.

VI. OUR FAIRYTALE

Two years later. Miako loves me more than ever. Can this be a fairytale? All my friends have relationship problems. My Canadian friend divorced with his Japanese dream girl. But I am happy. I keep reading books with no happy ends. I keep wondering why it doesn't happen to me? Why am I still so deeply in love with Miako? Why I have no fear of losing this happiness like others did? It's Miako. She's the key and I am the lock. We are a perfect match. It's how we connect. We always do. Wheather I go to Osaka and she goes to Seoul. We are connected. Nobody comes before 'us'. I still make photos of her. They are deeper. Now I'm capturing her for eternity. For the sake of both. Last sunday we came accross the first photo I snapped of her. It was in September 2004. A sunday. We reminisced about the old times, about the first sunday we went out. We decided to repeat that day. We went to the Paulista, sat at the same desk and sipped coffee. We had a good laugh remembering our first conversation and her broken English. After dark, we went to Mitsukoshi. We decided that I go first, while she stayed at home getting dressed. I waited for her at 8 o'clock. She came 10 minutes late, but her amazing clothes made up for the waiting. It was like that same sunday she first blew me away. I felt the same goose bumps she gave me in that very moment. We went to the same cinema as that time... and we had tons of fun. When we returned to my apartment, I asked her to sit on my couch. I went to the kitchen, opened a bottle of Slovenian white wine, the one I kept for a special occasion. This was one. I gave a toast to our future, told her I love her and reached in my pocket. I took out a small box, she had a feeling what will follow. She started to shiver. I opened it up: a ring. I went down on my knees and said: "Miako, you are..." And asked a question. What do you think was her answer?

VII. 'YES!'

"Miako, my dear, in that sunday something amazing happened. You made me happy forever." (Miako, I looked at your dreamy eyes and knew the answer. And Miako, we don't need love expressed in words. That moment was real, Miako.) I will never forget your dreamy eyes and the seductive smile you gave me. It felt like whole Ginza stopped for a moment. We stopped. And we made it move again. "Now, Miako... this is how I see you, how I see myself, how I see us and our love. How do you see it, Miako?" She just smiled, grabbed my chin carefully, kissed me softly and replied with her cute girly voice: "Yes."

Our love is eternal.

[Photos: Erika Sato]

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Memories of Ashikawa 2001

It was in 2001. Kumiko and I were about to have the best 3 days of our life. When I look back, this is how I remember it: Kumiko was so kind to prearrange everything. She bought the train tickets, she called the onsen and asked wheather they had free rooms for two and if they were ok with a Westerner staying at their facility. The owner, later known as mr. Tomodo, was a very kind man and was very happy that we we're headed to his very far off village of Ashikawa (芦川). He didn't expect a guest from as far as Europe.

We met at the train station the next morning, waiting for the train from Tokyo via Maebashi to the beautiful mountain village of Ashikawa. It was quite cold, yet Kumiko was all perky and really behaved in a in way I haven't seen before. She hugged me right infront of all the people, even kissed me and couldn't hide her blush. She said she was so happy to go on this trip with me, her eyes were amazingly glowing. At that time it was very hard for us to be somewhere together and alone. Infront of her father, we always had to behave as if we were only friends. I couldn't offend the head of the family, so I had to restrict myself as much as I could. I knew he disapproved of me, because I wasn't Japanese. Why is it so hard to be with the person I love, I was wondering, while the beautiful Japanese mountains passed by. There was a time, when we argued because of this. Kumiko cried and I was angry, because she wouldn't even allow me to hold her hand infront of the father. The mother never said anything... She was very kind and pure-hearted like Kumiko, but she had no effect nor any will to change her husband's mind regarding me. I know she wanted us to be happy. Kumiko knew it, too.
That's how my mind kept slipping away while Kumiko was sleeping. Time passed by very fast. After few hours we've finally reached in Maebashi, the closest big city near Ashikawa. We knew our final stop was not far away. So I woke up Kumiko, who in the meanwhile rested her head on my shoulder. When she opened her cute eyes, she immediately smiled and kissed me. I felt so happy. With her Japanese kindness and dilligence, she always made me lose my heart again and again. It felt like I fall in love with her everytime she opens that radiant chestnut eyes of hers. It was electrifying.
She said with her sweet Japanese flavoured English: "Niko-kun, ale you happy?" I smiled, looked deep into her eyes and replied: "Yes, Kumiko, as happy as never before." Suddenly the train came to a halt: "Ashikawa station, please alight!" came out of the loudspeakers. I grabbed our luggage and we stepped out of the train. She took my hand, gave me that unforgetabbly joyful look and said: "Thele is de onsen, Niko-kun. Please hully, I want to enjoy wit you." So I sped up my pace and we reached there in less than ten minutes. The whole village was full of wooden Japanese-style houses. The nature was so beautiful. It was a mix of green and grey, including the sky. The gloomy and cold weather was a bit harsh, but that wouldn't stop us in any way. We were so determined to spend a beautiful weekend in this onsen, we forgot that everything else exists. Our world was only Ashikawa.
We scrolled back to reality when we reached the porch of mr. Tomodo's onsen. It was a small onsen, just big enough for the village, the few hundred people living there. Seldom tourists would come from as far as Tokyo, said Mr. Tomodo, who politely bowed and welcomed us. We bowed back and Kumiko spoke in very polite Japanese with him. After she signed the papers and payed the bill, mr. Tomodo brought us up to our room. He was a very reserved man of soft features, with a small moustache and a smile sometimes hard to notice. He walked very slow and kept asking about me, where I was from. He concluded he was very happy and honoured to have me as a guest and if we needed anything, he will be at our service day and night. I remembered Tokyo. People in Tokyo are polite, but mr. Tomodo was something else.
After he showed us the room, he quickly left and we threw down all the bags and hugged. We stayed that way for a minute at least, because Kumiko kept us stuck together with a big kiss. How can we make that kind of magic disappear? We had to! Beacuse we were eager to soak in the warm water of mr. Tomodo's onsen. So we changed clothes and walked off downstairs, turned left and there we saw it. A beautiful outside pool of water, literarly immersing itself into the valley below, into the purling river, the trees and rocks. It was magnificent. More so was Kumiko. Her white bikini was extremely sexy. It made her curvy body look voluptuous and made it even harder to restrain myself. When the water covered her body and messed up her hair, I (just for a moment) couldn't believe that there can be a woman as sexy and sensual as her. Luckily there was no other people around, so we had a lot of privacy. She wrapped her legs around my waist and kissed me, smiled and whispered in my ear: "I love you, Niko-kun. I want you to make me happy tonight."
Outside was night. All was dark. Inside the room was warm. Getting hotter and hotter. I remember clearly: Kumiko is all over me. We can't stop. She can't. I won't. What she was doing with me, no woman ever did to me before. All the prejudice of Japanese women... well, it was true! True and beyond that. Words cannot describe how she did it and what she did with me, but after a while we stopped counting and we were slowly losing our minds. We were like drugged. Literarly.
The next morning. Kumiko was sleeping with a smile on her face. Her hand touched me, her skin was so soft, it gave me goose bumps. It was 10 o'clock, the sun shone in very brightly and painted a pair of red cheeks on Kumiko's face. I spoke softly in her ear: "Wake up, baby. My Kumiko-chan, wake up..." She smiled again, my goose bumps increased. She whispered: "Arrigato!" I said:"Why?" "Fol yestelday, Niko-kun. You make me so happy. Arrigato!" I hugged her and told her, I will never forget yesterday's night. I went to put on some clothes, I turned around. There she was, so beautiful, sitting on bed. The bed which was our playground the night before. So I took my camera and snapped this memorable photo.
It is this photo I cherish the most, it is this moment that is forever engraved in my heart. The latter days in Ashikawa were also unforgettable, the latter months in Tokyo, as well. And even after her father managed to separate us, after all the tears, after all the broken and partly-mended hearts... We still love each other.
Everytime she calls me all in tears, broken and hopless, I tell her: "Kumiko, remember our weekend in Ashikawa few years ago. Remember how happy you were, sitting on that bed. Our bed. I will make you happy again. Be strong." That's the moment when her tears stop and she gets a grip of herself. But the only thing she manages to say is few softly spoken words with a shivering voice: "Niko-kun, I love you."

[Photos: Source]

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Sakura

These days when the cherry trees blossom, I really wish I was in Japan and see the famous sakura with my own eyes. It's so beautiful when I see the photos my friend sent to me. I really love japanese gardens and alleys of cherry trees. It must be a magical feeling to see these beautiful cherry blossoms. I do have a plan to go to Japan, but when can i make it? I will try hard to fulfil this wish this year, but everybody says Japan is expensive. Which is unfortunately true. And if I go later this year, there won't be sakura, but that doesn't bother me so much. I just hope I can soak in the culture and snap many many photos. Japan is so far from Europe, who knows how many chances will I have to see it in this life. Once would be just fine to me.

[Photo given by my Japanese friend Rie]

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