Wandering Nagoya in the rain last week.

Hello,

Our daughter started preschool on a daily basis in April right after we got back from the UK. That means I'll be spending two mornings a week wandering around central Nagoya.

Therefore, I've decided to turn it into a project. Every Tuesday and Friday, I'll explore the city and capture it through photographs. I won't have control over the lighting or schedule, and Nagoya, to be honest, isn't the easiest city to photograph even under the best circumstances. But these limitations should push me to see things differently. Plus, compared to the quiet Kisoji or Nakasendō, there will definitely be more people going about their daily lives.

While in the UK, I began to think about the future more than ever before. As some of you may know, my dad's health is declining, and the next time I go back, he won't be the same person. I wrote about spending time with him on my website here. I wanted to meet friends, go hiking, and do much more on that trip but decided to put spending time with my dad (and family) at the top of the list.

Time with him made me realize it's time to get things done. I'll be in my fifties in less than two years, which is both liberating and scary.

Liberating because it frees you up to worry less about trivial things (like what other people/society thinks of you) and scary because, well, you start to see the end of the road. Hopefully a long way off but still a lot closer than it was twenty years ago.

Thinking about this led me to do two things almost simultaneously upon returning: I finally bought a digital Leica camera, something I've always wanted to do after picking up an M6 back in 2012, and also purchased tickets for the whole family to attend a music festival next weekend.

A new camera and tickets to a festival may not sound like much, but they are things that have been chirping away in the back of my mind for years now. Traversing the Minami Alps is another one. Going on a road trip across Western Australia another. Every year I promise myself I'll do it, and every year I fail to act. Enough is enough.

I must be approaching that age where the limitations of time, health, and future opportunities really make themselves apparent.

Is this a long-winded way of saying that I might be going through an early (mini) midlife crisis (?)

I guess so.

Sean.

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