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inspiration My San Francisco Chronicles reflection

Captivating Cards

Yesterday after work, I was over in Japantown looking at some advertisements, which then led me to the Kinokuniya Card Store, which then led me to these cards here: when I first saw the card on the right, I felt spellbound by it. The picture doesn’t do it much justice; the colors make the scene seem so much more surreal. I stood there in the store, staring at the card for a good 2-3 minutes until I snapped out of the trance.

I wasn’t going to buy the card, but then I found myself admiring the card on the left, designed by local San Franciscan artist Tomoko Maruyama. I first stumbled upon her work via Facebook and had since been trying to hunt down her cute, light designs in the city. Lo and behold, most of her work is featured in Japantown, so now I know. I picked up the Tomoko Maruyama card and then, thinking a bit, I went back and picked up the other card.

I’ve used the Tomoko Maruyama card already for a friend, but the other card, I think I shall keep. Strangely, it has a power over me; after buying the card, I felt a real sudden urge to just write. I decided to write a letter to an old friend after that, scribbling furiously into another card I had bought at the shop. After finishing the letter, I still wanted to write a lot more–how did such a simple card give me so much inspiration? Unfortunately, I had to suppress my urges to write more since I had to attend my Korean language class; after class, I didn’t feel that spark anymore.

I had the card displayed on my desk right now; perhaps I have found my muse for this next month.