Random crap.
Last month, our daughter Ulan visited Kyoto for her 3rd year JHS school trip and had a great time. It was her first time away from her parents, so it was a big deal. It made me want to look at photos of Kyoto the last time I ever visited there. When Mayu and I had been married for less than two months, we visited Kyoto in May 2001. I cannot remember where this photo was taken in Kyoto, but I just thought that this is a cute glance over the shoulder picture.
I was going through a box of photos and found this picture of two right wing terrorists massacring some aluminum cans. This was over two decades ago! I believe this was autumn 2002, after we had moved back from Japan that August. My uncle Gary took us to his favorite spot called Yellow Jacket off of the Black Canyon Highway and Mayu got to shoot my .22 rifle. I still had some hair then. I think we had a picnic and it was a fun day. The only ones who didn’t enjoy themselves that day were the aluminum cans.
Here is Mayu with Uncle Gary. She enjoyed shooting that day.
The neat thing about Yellow Jacket is that the soil has washed away underneath the tree roots, so the trees just stand up from out of the ground. It’s pretty wild. Here is Mayu sitting underneath one of the trees.
Today is my birthday. This morning I drove Mayu to her work. I was playing “Shine” by Slowdive on the stereo. When I stopped at a red light and looked back at her (she’s still too scared to sit in the front seat with me after she was hit by a car 4 years ago), I looked back at her and she smiled in a way that the age on her face seemed to disappear, and it felt like I was looking at Mayu from over 20 years ago, when we were newlyweds. It was like a time slip moment. I wish I could have frozen time then to sustain the moment. I love her now more these days than I have in many years. She wished me a happy birthday. I love you, Mayu.