Side dish of memories

Do you remember when?
Our memories are not like the computer memories and as we are fallible and attach emotions to them, we can perhaps distort the memory, although not always in a bad way.
"Enjoying the moment" is perhaps something we do with a pleasurable experience but reliving it in our memories is often a pleasurable sensation too. I think that perhaps the lyrics of my favorite songs might even describe the memories of the author.

Mem'ries,
Like the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were

But it's nice to share memories. I think it's our ability to remember that separates us from the 'learned behavior' of other creatures. Of course we don't live there, in our past, Our memories of the past have the good and the bad, we cannot hide that from ourselves, so as we share our memories, those we share with can celebrate our achievements and also learn from our failures. Hitomi & I, as any couple would, share and describe a moment of our pasts, what happened, how we felt, and in this manner, we learn so much about each other. Of course if presented with the same event today we might not do exactly the same thing, as I said, memory is not always a 'learned behavior', but we can learn that repeated actions do not always equal repeated outcomes.
There are many ways to describe ourselves, to give ourselves and our lives some meaning.
But I believe that it is our memories and our selves in other peoples memories that give our life form and shape, and define purpose and context.

We cannot know tomorrow.
Now is gone in the instant you have read this line.
It becomes the past and it becomes a memory.

So 'our selves' are in our memories and in the memory of others. In my head I carry my own little collection of hopes and dreams and loves and fears and regrets, good and bad. I hold the dark and the light, the good and the bad, success and disappointment.
This is what sets us apart and what makes us human.
I better remember that!

There are moments when everything seems right, like destiny plays a role and creates circumstances that make the usual walls and barriers to plans fall down. I have an 'in-between times' where I can take a day off in the week and this coincides with Hitomi having no venue or no audition or no dance or no lesson....

Two empty appointment calendars, so what do you think we do?

We share the day together.
We had the morning shopping with Aya, who was interested in everything about our dinner two weeks ago with Terutaka, that is until we went into this amazing little shop and all we think of now is bargain city, wow! Everyone knows 'Harajuku', it's the place where the fashion scene and cos-play kids show their wicked styles. The bridge where they all hang out is at the 'Meiji Jingu shrine' end of the street, which is called Omotesando. This street is very wide and lined with trees and some of the best stores you could hope to find, like Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada. But when you explore all the little alleys that branch away from the main streets then you can find all manner of little gems. As we explored we found one was selling some very authentic looking woodcut artwork and I'll go back there again, but this one store we found was full of clothes and hats and shoes and bags and everything in the store had just one single price. A price tag of ¥390 (approximately US$4.00) and the three of us were like children in a free candy store.
The car was full and trying to squeeze ourselves in there with our purchases made me think I should have kept my old big Volvo, Tee hee!
We took Aya home because she has appointments in the afternoon and couldn't join us for food because we spent far too long in that one store. After we say bye to her, the two of us went to eat Okinawan food in Ai-Ai, a nice little restaurant in another little side road.
Some of the best little treasures in life are often tucked away in little nooks and crannies.