Getting known by the neighbourood

It's been 2 months since I started the Momiji Project and 2 months since I started taking pictures of "my" momiji tree.

At the beginning people did not notice me but my big camera and my big tripod that I carried all the way down by bike on my shoulders. People at the bus stop would not look at me that much but at my lenses and would listen to the sound of the zip of the bags I use to carry everything with me, following my movements with curiosity and maybe wondering "what is she doing?". Then they would all look at the place I was starting to photograph and then they would talk to each other, maybe about it and then look at it again and sometimes take pictures of it too.

Later on I started being approached by the old men living in the neighbourhood accompanied by their silent wives, who would ask me things about me, my name, my country, what I'm doing here in Japan, what I'm studying, are you working? how old are you? what's your parents' job? ah you live here? why? and is the picture good? is it good light now? eh? is it good? ooooh you use japanese camera, good good good. Japanese ichiban (the best)....

People were starting talking about me, in that place, everyday, every morning at the same time (almost, hey). Taking pictures in the same spot. What's so interesting in there?

THe momiji tree. Its colors, from shades of green to full red and then nothing again.

But you have to wait this year, miss. It's been too hot for too long. The leaves are dying and maybe the red color will come out at the end of november.

I'll wait. I'll wait.

It's a project of patience. I'm learning to be patient. I've always been eager and greedy. I need to learn to wait, and how to wait.
Wait for the time passing, for opportunities rising and falling, for friends and love to leave me and come again to me, or actually I shouldn't learn how to wait but how to observe the flow of things and minutes and movements and people and and and...