Fabulous Tokyo Trip, Daily Drawing, and Back to Work on the Thriller

The first of your weekly roundup newsletters

Hello Dear Reader -

I know things got a little overwhelming at the start of 2025 - politics and climate disasters aside, the daily newsletters were perhaps a bit much. Email overwhelm is a real thing and the last thing I want to do is contribute to that particular problem.

That said, if you have been opening and reading the newsletters this year, you’ll know that my friend, editor, and co-author

Sarah Harvey

and I have embarked on a yearlong drawing challenge. We were a little worried that if we didn’t post our efforts every day we would fall off the drawing wagon and this time next year we’d be no further ahead with our artistic efforts.

What I didn’t realize was that I can post here in the app/online without having to send a daily email. So, accountability preserved without having you all suffer. That said, if you would like to keep up with the daily arty efforts/prompts/failures and successes, you can - just visit Substack and we should be right there in your feed. If you miss a post along the way, no worries - I’ll add links to the previous week’s posts in the weekly roundup.

With all that housekeeping out of the way, I thought I’d also provide a few highlights from our recent trip to Tokyo. We were lucky enough to be hosted by my brother and sister-in-law, locals who came up with a fabulous itinerary. Some will be familiar if you’ve been reading along since January 1, but most I’ve not had time to write about. Forgive the onslaught of photos… but some of you have been asking what we got up to on our trip… This series of albums should give you a taste of how we spent our time and welcomed in 2025!

Day 1

The very first photo I took was in the airport toilet. I had forgotten just how luxurious (heated, music-playing, butt-rinsing delights) Japanese toilets are. After leaving the cubicle, my brother drove us to our apartment in Harajuku. Even though we were bagged, he took us for a stroll through the neighbourhood where we admired the amazing displays of crepes. I can't believe that in the two weeks we were there we never managed to indulge in one of these treats!

Day 2

A visit to Meiji Jingu Shrine was an odd contrast to some time spent at a petting zoo café full of small animals later the same day.

Sampling street food and a visit to Shibuya (including a Shibuya Scramble crossing) wrapped up New Year's Eve.

Day 3

New Year's Day included visits to temples and shrines (along with millions of other people, more street foot, spotting the giant golden turd, and an accidental visit to Tokyo's oldest amusement park in Asaksua.

In case you were wondering what Fabio and I were doing standing stiffly in front of the temple in Asaksua wearing my parents’ clothes… we were recreating this photo of my Mom and Dad taken when they visited Peter many moons ago:

Day 4

From an early morning walk through the park (winter roses and dogs in pjs are among my favourite things), a fabulous immersive art exhibit inspired by traditional Japanese woodcut prints, and great food (our fist sushi meal in Japan), the day was full and exhausting.

Day 5

Ever been joined by actual pigs in a café? I know we did other things on Day 5, but this was a highlight...

Day 6

Our expedition to Enoshima included a visit to both the inside and the outside of a giant Buddha, temples, and shrines during the day...

The evening was glorious - a visit to the Enoshima temple, a sunset starring Mr. Fuji herself, and some pretty spectacular illuminated gardens seen from within and above... with terrific views beyond.

Day 7

A couple of shots of the BNB in Shibuya. We didn't spend much time there... and when we were there, we were mostly comatose, recovering from all our adventures..

On the 7th day we moved from our lovely apartment in Harajuku to a fun AirBNB in Shibuya, just a couple of minutes on foot from my brother’s apartment. By the time we moved, we were finally getting over jet lag but were feeling somewhat overstimulated and weary (I’m not uploading photos of EVERY thing we did… but you are probably getting the idea that Peter and Hitomi had done some great itinerary organizing in advance of our arrival). The first thing we did when we arrived at our new digs was have a nap.

How about I leave it there for now and then next week I’ll provide you with a few highlights from the next 7 days? Once some photos from our second week have been posted, the weekly updates will be more mundane. I’ll fill you in on what I’m reading, writing, studying, and how I’m keeping myself busy and entertained back at home in the Rocky Mountains.

Thank you for coming along on this journey! It’s great to have you here :)