Umbrella in the Snow

This is another picture I took a while ago. I suppose I should get out and take new photos. I promise I will soon. I love this picture. The girl is standing there with her umbrella in the snow looking directly at me. She's aware of me taking her photograph. I can't tell if she's upset about it or happy. She's just frozen there in the moment. That old train car behind her is gone now. I feels like it wasn't that long ago when I used to take a drum or my saxophone to this spot and jam with whoever had gathered there. It was a regular thing for us to play on weekend nights in front of the statue of the loyal dog waited for its master to return, until he himself had passed away. One of the most beautiful things about our jam sessions was the homeless men who used to attend. They loved coming around and jamming with us. Despite the fact they were homeless they would take what little money they had and go to the convenient store to buy as many beers as they could and share them with us. They looked happy to be there. We were happy to to have the moment to share our rhythms. Many good things in the big city don't last. The police shut the sessions down after a few months. I guess they felt we had had enough weekends. Maybe it was because the group was getting too big. What started out as just a few people began to rapidly grow into a Friday night carnival of dancers, musicians, jugglers, and various unique performers.

I can't remember if the old train car was there at that time. It served as a resting place and a kind of museum for tourists who had came to Shibuya. I loved that old car. It gave the place a bit of style and made it interesting, much more so than the glass and steel box that sells T-shirts, calendars, or whatever useless trinkets it sells. I wonder where the girl in this picture is. I wonder who she is. Had she seen one of our jam sessions? Does she know that she is standing with her umbrella in the snow.