Kumiko The Treasure Hunter

Kumiko: The Treasure Hunter Screenshot

Kumiko is a terribly endearing, tragic yet beautiful film about a lonely twenty-something Japanese girl who travels to Minnesota from her dead end office job in Tokyo to find the 'treasure' buried at the end of Fargo. The plotline is undoubtedly bizarre but directors Nathan & David Zellner pull it off through a combination of beautiful cinematography, acting and score coupled with a surprisingly hilarious script filled with plenty of language barrier awkward moments. My favourite of which is when the clueless local police officer drives Kumiko to a local Chinese restaurant in an attempt to communicate with her. Overall, a haunting film that has quickly become one of my favourites.

and so

And so I pray for you. Whenever this heart of mine misses you, I pray for you. Because that’s all I can do.

The Daily Grind

Walking along the Seine in the dead of winter, January 2015

The past week has been unbareably difficult for no reason whatsoever. If anything, things have been really great - objectively speaking - but I just can't shake of this feeling. Maybe its the grind of semester getting to me, and the monotony of daily life, which is strange because I'm generally a fan of routine. But in all times of despair, I have a tendency just to become really busy so I can't think about anything too indepthly.

Things that have been great include - my bike arrived this week and it is so pretty. It's from Tokyo so I have aptly named it Kumiko (after the Japanese film I'm about to see tonight), and it glides so perfectly. It's a mixte, so a half-step through which allows me to wear dresses and skirts, but still good for fast riding if need be. I've ridden to class three times already (its about a 24km return journey) and to the city to have dinner with friends twice (about a 16km return journey). It's already saved me so much on petrol and I can feel myself getting slowly better at it the more I ride. My riding routine has forced me to get up a little earlier (which is actually great) to have breakfast and coffee before I leave (which is a first). I'm looking into buying an aeropress, but for the moment my housemate's french press is producing quality coffee.

Also, I've been maintaining my boxing classes 2 - 3 times a week, and again I feel as though I can finally do the routine 100x better than my first week of classes. I started swimming as well but so far haven't felt the most comfortable in the classes I've been in, I might shop around a little bit with the pools in the area before settling on one. I also joined my universities competitive basketball team for the rest of the semester. And Swing Dancing! Which is the ultimate pick-me up, but probably not the most energetic out of all the things I could be doing, but it's great.

my beautiful laundrette

Wandering around Melbourne, November 2015

that no one loved him more and more

A Kyoto Cafe, July 2014

Blue

North Melbourne, November 2014

Viv looking super cool in her grey nikes and blue hair (but also unable to open her eyes). This was when I was in Melbourne after we'd had an amazing breakfast at this cool little place in North Melbourne called Auction Rooms.

Musée des Beaux Arts à Lyon

The Courtyard of the Musée des Beaux Arts at Lyon, February 2015

Starting to get irrationally stressed about not being able to complete my tute work for tomorrow because it's really hard, but also probably because I left it til 11pm the night before to do it, sigh.

Things that have happened recently

Around the 10th Arrondissemont Paris, January 2015

So I have been doing an unfortunate amount of my least favourite thing ever, that is sleeping in until 11am every morning. It leaves me feeling lethargic, unproductive and altogether like a very badly put together human being and not exactly ahead of all those neat little goals I thought I could achieve this semester. Other goals included catching the bus to uni everyday instead of driving - nope, that has occurred a grand total of once over a two week period, whoops. Some sort of daily exercise - a little bit, I mean as long as swing dancing counts then I think I have that one checked. Actually on that note, I attended a dance workshop this weekend which was super fun and got the groove side of things more down pact than before so hopefully I look slightly more elegant on the d-floor.

Other things that happened this week included seeing my favourite band (no, I don't say that about every band I ever see) First Aid Kit. They were so endearingly charming as they played their fantastic set which included a lovely encore of Emmylou complete with audience choir. I also watched Wild which was good, not great, but has since inspired me to take two months out of my schedule to walk the entire Bibbulmun Track. I just have to invest about two grand in equipment and then I'm ready to go. But seriously - it's something I would love to do, to gain some perspective and to force myself into my own head. Maybe this winter, time will tell.

Various Kyoto

Various Kyoto, July 2014

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Roaming around the Jardin des Tuileries in the dead of winter, January 2015

Back then I swore I was going to marry him someday, but I've realised some bigger dreams of mine.

Forgiveness

Marché aux puces de la Porte de Vanves, January 2015