This Month's Photographer

When she isn't taking pictures for her blog (it's in Japanese but that shouldn't stop you - it's mostly visual anyway), Rie Tanimoto works in Osaka as an accountant for an advertising agency. In what spare time she has left she also teaches Japanese to (hopeless) gaijin like me. Hopeless because our coffee shop lessons would start in Japanese (when questions remained, "What did you do yesterday?" simple) and then I'd quickly cheat and switch to English. Cause she was just that interesting. And I was just that bad a student.

At the risk of embarrasing her I'll also mention that she is one of the most sincerely optimistic and happy people I've ever known. No matter what life throws her, she has the great fortune and fortitude to maintain a remarkably positive disposition, and I admire her immensely for that. And for her ability to drink beer and eat nabe with Ai and I.

She has permitted me to name her photo "The Dog Days of Summer." If you think Toronto is hot and humid in July, multiply that by about a thousand and you get Osaka in August.