Buggirl's Increasingly Strange Tokyo Tales...

It snowed yesterday in Tokyo. If pressed hard I will admit that snow and other aspects of winter can be beautiful…but this was different. Snow in Tokyo is a thing out of place，unnatural, as it whirls around the many shades of grey and dies a wet death against the concrete. Snow in Tokyo is the uninvited guest, the name you do not want to hear, the truth of things you cannot control. It is not colder than the Wisconsin winters I grew up with but you can feel it as it slices through your jackets, you skin, your many layers of protective tissue, and settles into your bones. The core of your body seems to shrink and you cannot crawl far enough inside yourself to stay warm. With me this is not a metaphor, as my fingers and toes, no matter how well wrapped, become painful to touch. The chill slips under windows, through doorways, through your every defense, and finds you. Even you lover’s breath feels cold against your shoulder blade as you try to slip into sleep.

( The inevitable, another illustration of how winter affects me. )