calm

Rue Tornefort at Quartier Latin.
There is very calm neighborhoodjust near the lively and busy rue mouffetard.

through the window

Between Gare d'austerlitz and Quai de Rappee on line 5. My favorite subway line to ride at night to see outside, the seine river.That's the moment to make me notice, once again,Paris is beautiful. (I'm sorry for the blurriness...Lack of my skill plus capability limit of my compact digital camera Fujifilm FinePix...)

ferris wheel at place de la concorde

Ferris wheel at place de la concorde. You MUST try it. Very thrilling but after 2nd round (it goes 3-4rounds, depends on the mood of worker....french eh?:) finally you can open your eyes and enjoy the view.

lost cat

Poster for lost cat named "Mikado". Funny, I never seen any single cat on the street.

one of the best

Au Levain du Marais, one of the best boulangeries in Paris. One baguette for dinner. Luckily it was fresh. I wonder who can bring the whole, entire, complete, perfect, one baguestte to home. Me? No, of course no :)

modern in ancien

Very sunny Saturday in Paris. Everything was bright, even too bright. You know how we can't see anything but white at the piste under the sun. The same thing was happening to all these gray toned buildings. For me, this isn't a great condition to take a photos. Anyway, surrounded by all monotoned same looking buildings, there are some modern designs such as this "ministere de la culture et de la communication" , no choice but catch my eyes by one second. In Tokyo, like I wrote a little bit before, as for a total city view, it is a mess of every styles as you can imagine. European, Western, Asian, old, new, high, low, big and small...everything. But here, everything is "organized". I know some Frenches think Tokyo is more interesting than Paris. I think this is one of the reasons why these people find Tokyo is more variety. And I also think that is one of the reasons why so many people find that Paris is beautiful...

red tents besides le canal st martine

Yesterday's night after the concert, we went to have a dinner at "le cambodge" which serves amazing Cambodian cuisines with reasonable price. When we were heading to the restraunt, we realized the view of the canal st martine is different from our own memories. Both of us knew what is happening there by news but seeing that on TV and being there and "feeling" that atmosphere doesn't have a same impact on our minds. I was surprised and shocked. How it is changed. I remember, very hot summer day, I was there for picnic, lots of people sitting along the canal, having some beers, snacks, fruits, lovely trees. But now, instead of all pretty things, there are red tents which is a demonstration by "Enfants de Don Quichotte" for SDF (People living on the street).This is like I saw a dream in summer and now a real world.
My teacher was astonished when I told her a lot of "SDF" do exist in Japan. She'd never imagined that in such a "rich" country, she said.
There is always a reality beside a dream like a pretty canal and red tents.