Gillie Salomon

I got a film camera from a fellow Filipino graduate student that I met here in Japan. He didn’ t use it anymore, so he wanted to give it another home. I took it as a sign to pick up my hobby again since I used to take photos everyday way back in high school. This photo is from a collection of photos taken in 2021. My friends and I were on our way to see the Van Gogh Exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. The venue had a reservation system with a designated date and time of entry so we took a taxi to make it in time. The tension was up as we silently cheered for the taxi to go faster. I glance by my window and saw two people walking peacefully. I felt the contrast between us. Us, pumped up, them, serene; the taxi, fast moving, the wind, free-flowing.

Gillie May Salomon, Sirena for short, is currently a graduate student in Japan. Living in Japan for 3 years now, she has visited more than half of the 47 prefectures. She takes great pleasure in discovering the many phases and faces of Japan. From the high technology automatic doors to the old cassette tapes that hold the key to passing the listening part of the JLPT, she finds Japan to be full of surprises. She enjoys the outdoors and has discovered a newfound pastime in Japan, snowboarding. As a student of international relations focusing on migration and social connections in the destination country, she finds solace in knowing that in the end, people are still good-natured.