WYLTLM '76

 hi, can't sleep

 

 

1976 demo of one of my favorite prince songs

JAPAN JUNE 2025

 honestly forgot about this until my credit card got charged for the domain last week.

 

anyways might as well put it to use. here is a selection of stills from footage i took on my camcorder during my first trip to japan (as well as out of the US). it was a lot of fun, i went with my girlfriend and some of my best friends. i truly can't wait to go back. nothing is in order so i'll provide context on the photos where i can.

 

 

we took a long walk from our airbnb in hatagaya to shop around shimokitazawa for the day. it was really hot and humid but we ended up walking down this path about half way through.

i was pleasantly surprised at the amount of padres stuff i saw during the trip, especially because the dodgers and padres faced off in two series while i was there. i figured i'd see more blue, but i was very happy not to. the cornrows are crazy though.

it was also pride while we were there, very cool and exciting to see people parading through tokyo, they looked very happy, that made me happy.

 

 

i was pretty excited to visit a tower records and it didn't disappoint. i didn't walk away with too much by way of music, but i was able to scoop a "saturday night" by zhane record for about $30 USD (i'd been looking on eBay to no avail), as well as some merch for myself and my parents. definitely want to check out more record stores whenever i go back.

 

a lot of walking was done. a lot.

shinkansen to kyoto. need one of these in the states desperately.

a shrine in kyoto, we didn't really check it out, one of our bus stops just happened to be outside of it. crazy to think how old this thing probably is.

 

also on our long walk to shimokitazawa. we happened upon this park (called komaba park) which had a western style mansion and a traditional eastern style home. we didn't spend any time looking at the houses as we were just passing through, but the park itself was beautiful, the tree cover was much needed after walking in the hot sun for awhile.

arashiyama monkey park. it was really fun, quite the walk. worth it for our experience, but mileage may vary. we were lucky enough to catch the feeding time where all the monkeys congregated and ate peanuts that the workers tossed out, it was interesting, but also kinda strange.

i pointed the camera at her every opportunity i could (which was often).

arashiyama and the katsura river. the trees were so pretty and lush.

hot dog from paddlers coffee. hot dogs seem kinda popular in japan.

i didn't end up going to the deer park in nara (my friends did), but we caught a glimpse of a few deer on the way down the hill from the monkey park. how cute.

lots of toyota comforts and toyota crowns as taxis. they look so cool, i'd love to drive this daily.

shibuya scramble on a warm, rainy night. wasn't as busy as it normally got, but still a bit crowded.

these covered scooter things are so funny to me, not sure why. i wanna drive one though, seems fun.

the osaka kaiyukan aquarium. i am not well versed in aquariums or aquatic animals (though i do love sharks), but this was quite fun. it was a bit of a mission to get to, especially since we were only in osaka for the day and we were bouncing around, but seeing the whale shark and other animals in that big tank was really cool.

 

all in all, it really was such a cool trip. we were there for about 2 and a half weeks and i don't at all feel like it was enough time, i can't wait to go back. thanks for reading this if you got this far. cheers!