Japan: Solamachi at Skytree Tower 2012-09-13 「日本語も」

(Insert inappropriate joke here.)

After hanging around Asakusa for awhile and taking in the sights, Yuka and I walked to Solamachi!

浅草を遊びましたのあとでスカイツリーいてきました！

Japan: おたんじょうび おめでとう； Happy Birthday, day 1

a normal shopping scene en route to Solamachi

     Birthday's are a weird thing; it's the anniversary of coming into this life, this reality we share...each candle we earn is our tally for essentially beating the odds; another year without getting hit by a bus, developing a fatal illness, tripping in front of a train, getting trampled by a rogue cow...these things happen every day (well, maybe not the cow attacks)... Another year of life is a victory, yet many people bitterly remark, "another year closer to death!"...which is true, of course. Every year is another step away from childhood and closer to being elderly, with all the problems that come along with it; but the way I see it, we could all die tomorrow; a comet could smash into the planet, obliterating life as we know it..so why dwell on the inevitability of mortality during what should otherwise be a celebration of survival?