Anime & memories

I (Daniel) chanced upon an animated movie titled "秒速5センチメートル" (English:"5 centimeters per second"). It is a coming of age love story about a boy in three different stages of his life. What struck me wasn't the storyline (although it was quite sad and moving), but the realism of the artwork and how accurately it portrayed life in a typical Japanese suburb and city. Watch the music video featuring clips from the movie below. You may be able to catch a bit of the plot here:



What happened after watching that show was a stream of memories flooding in from our time in Japan. I couldn't help but think back on the everyday scenes that were a part of us for 2 years: apartment buildings along narrow alleyways, roads lined with electric poles, sakura trees in full bloom, train station platforms, railway barrier crossings etc. These are cerebral picture postcards etched in our minds, and that movie triggered a landslide of them. We suddenly miss Japan...heaps.