Tokyo | Ginkgo Avenue (aka Icho Namiki)

Ginkgo Avenue is probably one of the spots in Tokyo where you will have the autumn scenary of your life. The four rows of ginkgo trees are there since a little more than a century. These gorgeous trees stretch out for 300 meters on both sides of the road and create a certain dose of autumn drama.

"This leaf from a tree in the East,
Has been given to my garden.
It reveals a certain secret,
Which pleases me and thoughtful people.

Is it a living being,
Which has separated in itself?
Or are these two, who chose
To be recognized as one?

Answering this kind of question,
Haven't I found the proper meaning,
Don't you feel in my songs,
That I'm one and double?"
              --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ginkgo Biloba
                 September 15, 1815

Lyon | Le Bal des Ardents

Le Bal des Ardents is a bookstore in Lyon, with probably one of the most alluring entrance that you may have ever seen. The entrance is designed with books making an arc all around the gate which might give you the impression that you're entering to a secret pavilion where you can find any book you were looking for. It always inspires me to snap a photo of the entrance before diving into this little heaven.

Tokyo | Imperial East Garden

On the south of the Kitanomaru Park resides the Emperor of Japan. For security reasons, you can't enter his private garden (of course), but you can tour the canal and enter the East Garden. The garden seems so surreal and experimental that you might hear Ludwig van Beethoven playing Moonlight Sonata somewhere in your head, or see Tilda Swinton popping up and disappearing behind one of those trees wearing the costume she wore in The Limits of Control as The Blonde...Such things could happen here and you wouldn't even find them strange!

"I cross autumn fields
In my dew-laden robes
On my return home.

Flowers woefully withered,
Evening has yet to arrive."
                                 --Sōgi