Tom & Nana: The Shinjuku Reloaded

Sodium filaments and wet concrete.

Automated gates and suited men.

Box cars bottom of the food-chain.

Empty plaza.

Crowded back-street.

Shinjuku waits to reload.

Monday Music

Dedicated to the England football team. Enjoy.

Tom & Nana: The Life of Rye

Amongst the quiet cobbles.

Lying in the green ground.

Blowing in the breeze.

Is a beautiful symmetry.

A quaintness.

A classicism.

A quirkiness.

Coming together.

Lighting the streets.

And while the Church cat wanders.

Life in Rye carries on.

Tom & Nana: Umbrellas

Decorum add-on.

Pragmatic must-have.

A shelter for you and me.

A fantastic thing.

The humble umbrella.

Tom's Notes—Truant English

Skiveing off Monday Music and regular posts thesedays... I have two words for you: World Cup.

Our national team has been following my lead. The eleven players on the pitch in England's opening two games have looked like husks of their club selves. "Phoning it in" barely suffices to describe their performances. The media, the people, the fans all ask why, why, why?

I'm one of those people who isn't really bothered why. It makes no difference this way or that. Sport is about winning—that's the only relevant point (and there's not much talking to be done about it). So there's really only one thing to be said about the game that will start in about 2 hrs: We have to win.

I've no idea how to do it, which players to pick to do it, the tactics involved, etc. That's all secondary. It could be eleven men from division 4 for all I care—they must win. Enough talk, enough analysis. Time for pure, concentrated, silent conviction. We must win.

If we don't, "Together" will return to its usual punctual self. Promise!

Tom & Nana: Enoshima Memories

Provincial kids and small stations.

No major waves.

Off the beaten track perhaps.

But popular enough.

Townies try to settle in.

Locals just watch the tide.

Tom & Nana: Tokyo Tower

The mighty spire.

Great man-made in the mist.

Trees cower under it.

Concrete flocks to it.

Industrial trinket.

Toyko's majestic metal.

Tom & Nana: Transport UK

Buses rush and taxis trundle.

Travelers walk the track.

Black cabs, mini-vans, whooshing traffic.

All aboard, bikes and all.

Pedaled carriages in the slow lane.

Clip-clops in the green.

Tom & Nana: Cafe UK

A stall at the station.

A nook in Soho.

A chain-brand in Brighton.

A great one in Covent Garden

Expensive sips in Sloane Square.

Hipster store round 'circus way.

A cup.

And an expresso in Portobello.

Tom & Nana: Shimokitazawa

Bohemian bicyclists.

Half good furniture shops.

And their shoppers.

Take a step.

To Shimokitazawa.