You can if you try!

Yuka is no stranger to the artistic side of the lens having had her natural beauty grace the pages in some rather lovely beauty and fashion magazine spreads and she has also made the occasional appearance in the audio/visual media. The model world and its beautiful inhabitants seen through the lens of a camera is almost fish eye in its point of view, wrapping itself snugly and closely around the various small circles of friends and colleagues. It is an encirclement of keeping us all within its usually warm but sometimes stressful confines.

Yuka is also no stranger to being under my deft fingers as I combed through her luscious locks and added in her 'clip in' extensions or removed them and tied it up at the back. She very kindly stood in for me at the last moment last year for my hair care school assessments.
She sat for me today in the makeup chair while I did her hair before sitting out there for Hitomi in the studio. She is very professional and quietly focused in her work but once she steps down from that stage she is simply lovely, she's warm, talkative, friendly, funny and a really good person to know. She has a charming and an almost innocent presence and her amazing eyes that can seemingly switch from remote distance to present attentive in a split-second is awesome and that's a look that can be captured by the camera.
Yuka has a fine and natural glossy hair and it's really a pleasure to work with her chatting about life and work as I brushed in her 'clip in' extensions. I have often worn and still do occasionally, the clip in extensions and as an 'almost' professional hairdresser I have found 'Kanekalon' synthetic hair products to be very superior to most other brands that I've tried, the look and the feel of it is so good and the color range is quite extensive. Most of all it has a wonderful curl holding ability which makes for easier styling. In the past I have had permanent extensions woven in, especially when my hair was a lot shorter but I really feel that this can lead to hair loss through stress and breakages and so I wouldn't recommend them for long periods or that they be used often.
Yuka had four little sessions with Hitomi and again I've put some samples up in a little show showing how she can project her aura through the lens. After Yuka's fantastic session, we had a drink and a chat but I had to run and go collect the children from school and Hitomi was out on a night shoot to get some late summer evening mood shots.

The Angel's new school, which incidentally is my old school, is within a twenty minute walking distance from home and thankfully it is no longer a forty minute drive in the car as was their last school. Sumomo now thinks she is old enough to wait for or meet Riko and bring her home without Hitomi or I being with them. I remember that I came home alone when I was ten years old and I also brought Hiro home with me but things seemed so much simpler in those days. Somehow in giving that single step, that measure of independence to my own daughter had unnerved me and I was very reluctant to allow this. I said to Sumomo that I'd consider it which was more as a delaying tactic rather than I was actually considering her proposal. Hitomi and I chatted about it over coffee in the kitchen one day when they were not at home and she convinced me that it was the right thing to do and eventually I yielded. I cannot keep them as my 'babies' forever and I must allow them the ability to grow away from me and assume responsibility and a step of independence. Later I sat and told Sumomo that I trust her and she must not leave school without collecting Riko, as the older sister it is her responsibility to guide her younger sister.  I also advised her that she should phone me if there were any problems at all. Sumomo promised me this much and with reluctant reservation I took one step backwards and allowed my daughter her room to grow.

Sadly I could not find that peace in my heart and I was genuinely worried. There is only one major road to cross and that's right outside the school and there is a footbridge there so it is very safe.
On this first day of Sumomo taking responsibility I stood at a discreet distance by the footbridge and watched my children leave school together. They have some new friends at their new school and they were stood by the gates for a little while, talking with them but they did not look around or see me.
Then they came out, crossed over the bridge as we had done several times together and walked home with a small group of other children who must live close by to us and I followed them at a hopefully unnoticeable distance behind. There are many side alleys that they could of taken to shorten the route by several minutes but they remained on the major route around by the high school and they showed me that they could come home without me and seeing them do it eased my heart considerably.
I will no longer be worried. I am not sure if I was perhaps wrong to spy on them but I had to be sure in my heart that they could do it.
I went into the restaurant and spoke with Rina for a while and as we sat and chatted, Sumomo phoned me to say they had arrived home safely and that I shouldn't worry. I was extremely pleased with her consideration. I told her that I'd be home in thirty minutes so they should wash and change clothes and if they were hungry either go downstairs or warm up the soup and rice in the kitchen.
Rina and I went to Hiro's office to talk so if the children did come down they would not see me.
After around fifty minutes of chatting and no sign of them, I decided I'd go upstairs and see what they were up to.

They were both washed and changed and sat at the table in the kitchen eating nothing but celery sticks dipped in mayonnaise. Sumomo had incorrectly reasoned that if she had somehow made a mess in the kitchen they would have lost the privilege of coming home alone from school. I told her that this would not have been the case but if she ever unsure about something she was to ask me but in her uncertainty she had done the right thing. She didn't know where I was, they were in the apartment alone and she didn't feel right operating the rice cooker or heating the soup and vegetables on the hob.
So we decided to eat properly!
We washed the rice and put it in the cooker and warmed up the miso soup with extra wakame and green onion. We took some tofu and added some grated ginger and daikon radish for flavor and we grilled a couple of large sun dried mackerel. We reheated some vegetables and added some pickled turnip and picked plum to the rice and I involved them at every opportunity so they will feel comfortable in the kitchen. Finally and with large appetites we sat down together and enjoyed our meal as they told me all about the first day of coming home all by themselves.
I am proud of my little angels as they grow and become not so little.