Melissa

Happy birthday Melissa! This video is two weeks behind the cards and cake.
http://one.revver.com/watch/263844/flv/affiliate/87222

Info:
An original song about my amazingly talented little sister, written 4 years ago. Lyrics, music, instruments and singing written/played/recorded by me(LMG). Footage by me, Ryan and Melissa.

Lyrics:
Melissa the world has been turning with you 13 years now
As it spins and circles the sun so our hopes change direction
And they're overwhelming; blighting our senses and straining our thoughts
all these looming possibilities and all we are not

CHORUS:
And there's, too much fate to decide
there's so much (fate) that we just want to hide (ourselves)
And while detailing the sun we are blinded but we'll start again

Melissa I read all the poems you wrote
late last night
Nature whispered the deepest of life to you stretching your sight
to describe the trees and the air and all spirits that dance
Things that few men have ever seen and you've shared them with me

CHORUS x2
BRIDGE:
For fortune will find us we're leaving behind us
a 9-5 monster we'll hide from it and fight it
We enter with nothing but freedom to answer to;
exit with nothing but life on our backs x2

Melissa, the world has been turning with you
13 years now

Copyright LMG(b)

Footage taken in Japan:
Kamakura: Engakuji, Hasedera, Kenchoji, Tokeiji Tokyo Disney Land
2nd 1/2 taken in the U.S.A.

May Day!

So it's not May Day anymore. But in the name of May Day, the day on which Ryan pulled a ring out of his pocket and I said, "how'd ya' get that?!?" before he had the chance to ask the big question, we went out to Makuhari on a date ^_^

I got dressed up in some new/old clothes and our first stop was a lunch buffet at a restaraunt called Ninniku (meaning "garlic"). It's basically a healthy buffet of many types of salads, fish, rice buckwheat noodles and other goodies. For dessert they served specialty breads with yummy jam, fruit, different types of beans in a red bean sauce and some other food that tasted like doughnuts made from steamed bread as far as we could guess.
Yay! I was excited to wear my new hat and skirt; you can't see my skirt here, but it's a very exciting and lovely flowy plaid ^_^



To bad there are no food pictures. How unlike Ryan! There's just a shot of this teensy coffee cup that he really liked.



We also found a Chiba prefecture manhole cover in great condition! Most of the manhole covers haven't been painted in a long time and therefore the paint is faded and chipped, but this one was protected from the elements by a bridge.


We stopped to enjoy the kids attentively watching a man tie Pink Panther balloons. The same ballon guy is there pretty often and is always a hit.


But we had never seen this guy with a monkey before!


For the last part of our date we revisted a very nice little Japanese garden in Makuhari 見浜園　(Mihamaen). Since the garden is just a short train ride from Toke it's one of the first Japanese gardens we could afford to tour when we arrived here in August of 2004. It has a lot of sentimental value to us.